The leader of Tibet's exiled government on Thursday compared China to the regimes of North Korea and apartheid South Africa when it came to Beijing's iron-fisted control over Tibetans.

Speaking on a trip to Paris aimed at putting the spotlight back onto the Tibetan cause, Lobsang Sangay told AFP in an interview that the arrival of Xi Jinping as China's president had done nothing to ease the situation in the Himalayan region.

A senior South Korean official was forced to backpedal furiously Thursday after he revealed that Seoul was secretly planning for the possibility of "non-consensual" unification with North Korea.

Chung Chong-Wook, the vice chairman of the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation, said he had used the "wrong words" during a breakfast forum on Tuesday.

Russia on Wednesday said it was kicking off a "year of friendship" with totalitarian North Korea as ties with the West languish over Ukraine.

The foreign ministry in Moscow announced it had agreed to start a program of cultural exchanges with the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang aimed at taking ties between the one-time Cold War allies to a "new high level."

Recent satellite imagery shows no sign of North Korea preparing an imminent nuclear test, despite a rise in military tensions on the Korean peninsula, a U.S. think-tank said Wednesday.

North Korea has ramped up the volume on its bellicose rhetoric in recent weeks in response to the launch of annual South Korean-U.S. joint military exercises.

The U.S. ambassador to South Korea left hospital Tuesday following treatment for a knife attack, saying the incident was "scary" but would not change his "open and friendly" approach to the job.

Mark Lippert, 42, underwent surgery to treat deep gashes to his cheek and hand after he was slashed by a knife-wielding nationalist at a breakfast function in central Seoul last Thursday.

South Korean companies will be penalised if they yield to pressure from North Korea to raise the salaries of workers in their joint Kaesong joint industrial complex, Seoul officials said Tuesday.

Seoul has been seeking talks for several weeks since Pyongyang announced it planned to unilaterally raise the basic salary of the 53,000 North Korean workers employed across more than 100 South Korean firms operating in Kaesong.

North Korea apologized to Bangladesh on Monday after one of its diplomats was caught trying to smuggle 27 kilograms of gold into the south Asian country, a Dhaka official told Agence France-Presse.

Son Young Nam -- the first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka -- tried to sneak in the bullion, worth around $1.7 million, using diplomatic immunity on Friday.

South Korea on Monday vented its frustration with North Korea's refusal to engage in dialogue over the salaries of workers in their Kaesong joint industrial complex, and questioned Pyongyang's commitment to developing the zone.

Seoul has been seeking talks for several weeks since Pyongyang announced it planned to unilaterally raise the basic salary of the 53,000 North Korean workers employed across more than 100 South Korean firms operating in Kaesong.

South Korean police vowed Monday to press on with attempted murder charges against the man who injured U.S. ambassador Mark Lippert in a knife attack, despite the assailant's denial that he intended to kill.

Doctors said Lippert, 42, was recovering well from Thursday's assault by nationalist activist Kim Ki-Jong, which left the envoy requiring surgery to repair deep gashes to his face and hand.

North Korea hit out Sunday at accusations that it may be behind a shocking knife attack on the U.S. envoy to the South, branding the claims a "vicious" smear campaign by Seoul.

Kim Ki-Jong slashed Mark Lippert with a paring knife Thursday in an assault that left the U.S. envoy needing 80 stitches to a deep gash on his face.