A prominent North Korean prison camp survivor said Tuesday he had contemplated suicide after Pyongyang broadcast what he insisted was a coerced TV interview with his father.

Shin Dong-Hyuk was born and spent his first 23 years in a prison camp where he says he was tortured and subjected to forced labour before escaping in 2005. 

China will not step in to save neighboring North Korea if the Pyongyang regime collapses or starts a war, a retired People's Liberation Army general said, possibly signalling waning patience in Beijing with its wayward, nuclear-armed ally.

"China is not a savior," Wang Hongguang, formerly deputy commander of the Nanjing military region, wrote in the Global Times newspaper, which is close to the Chinese Communist Party. 

South Korea said Tuesday it would allow a Christian group to construct a new Christmas tree-shaped tower near the border with North Korea -- a move certain to infuriate Pyongyang.

An existing tower was dismantled by the military earlier this year, triggering protests from church groups and anti-Pyongyang activists who accused the authorities of caving in to pressure from the North.

Condemned at the U.N. for rights abuses, North Korea hit back Friday, describing the United States as a human rights "tundra" where racial discrimination flourishes.

Citing the protests that erupted when a police officer was not charged in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, a foreign ministry spokesman heaped scorn on the notion of "rule of law" in the U.S.

North Korea revealed Thursday the official title of Kim Jong-Un's younger sister, who is widely tipped to become a close and influential aide to the young leader.

Kim Yo-Jong, believed to be 26, made her first public appearance during the funeral of her father and longtime ruler Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.

The death toll from an explosion in a Malaysian coal mine manned by foreign workers including North Koreans has risen to four, police said Wednesday, while around two dozen others were injured, some with serious burns.

The accident took place on Saturday in Selantik, in the interior of Malaysia's rugged Sarawak state, which is located on Borneo island.

South Korean lawmakers opened formal discussions Monday on long-stalled bills regarding human rights in North Korea, galvanized by the adoption of a landmark U.N. resolution condemning Pyongyang's rights abuses.

The bills submitted to the 23-member foreign affairs and unification committee have been pending since as long ago as 2005.

North Korea's top military body warned Sunday of "catastrophic consequences" for supporters of a U.N. resolution censuring its human rights record, as state media reported its leader presiding over a fresh military exercise.

A resolution urging the United Nations Security Council to refer the North's leadership to the International Criminal Court for possible charges of "crimes against humanity" passed by 111 to 19 with 55 abstentions at a U.N. General Assembly human rights committee last week.

Russia on Saturday accused the West of seeking regime change in Moscow, raising tensions over the conflict in Ukraine in the worst crisis in relations since the end of the Cold War.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke out against Western sanctions on Russia after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden hinted Friday at possible further measures over its "unacceptable" role in the former Soviet state.

South Korea staged a live-fire military drill Friday near its disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea, despite warnings from Pyongyang ahead of a sensitive anniversary.

The drill was held on two front-line islands -- one of which was shelled by North Korea on November 23, 2010, killing four people and briefly triggering fears of a full-scale conflict.