Tough talk and tension from North Korea
South Korean soldiers take part in an artillery drill as part of the annual joint military exercise "Foal Eagle" near the demilitarised zone which separates the two Koreas.
Tensions have been rising on the divided peninsular, and South Korea said on April 10 there was a "very high" probability that North Korea, engaged in weeks of threats of war, would test-launch a medium-range missile at any time as a show of strength.
A South Korean soldier patrols at a checkpoint on the Grand Unification Bridge, which leads to the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.
South Korean employees working at the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) change license plates authorised by North Korea to South Korean ones. On April 8 North Korea announced the suspension of activity at the joint industrial park, which it operates with South Korean companies.
A car transporting goods and South Korean employees from the Kaesong complex drives through a gate at the South's Customs, Immigration and Quarantine office.
Journalists wait for South Korean employees to return from the KIC after North Korea blocked access to the joint factory zone, a few days before its effective closure was announced. The move shut off one of the North's few sources of hard cash.
Representatives of companies operating at KIC take part in a news conference demanding access to the industrial complex be normalised.
Recent threats against South Korea and the United States appear to be aimed partly at boosting internal support for Kim Jong-un (left), the third in his family to lead the reclusive North Korea.
South Korean military vehicles travel during a drill as it snows in Hwacheon, about 20 km (12 miles) south of the demilitarised zone. The same day, North Korea intensified its threats of war, warning foreigners to evacuate South Korea to avoid being dragged into "thermonuclear war".
Soldiers of the U.S. Army's 23rd chemical battalion put on their gear as they give a demonstration of their equipment during a ceremony at Camp Stanley in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul. About 28,000 U.S. forces are permanently based in South Korea.
A U.S. Army Patriot missile air defence artillery battery is seen at U.S. Osan air base in Osan, south of Seoul.
North Korea's official Flickr and Twitter accounts were targeted by hackers on April 4. Some of the pictures in the Flickr account were replaced by a caricature of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un as "Pigsy" from the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West", seen in this photo illustration taken in Singapore.
A North Korean woman in Seoul, one of more than 20,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea, conducts a choir during a divine service held to pray for peace and reunification of the divided Korean Peninsula.
Portraits of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung (left) and his son and late leader Kim Jong-il hang on the wall of a mock North Korean classroom at a South Korean observation post, just south of the demilitarised zone. In the next few days, North Korea will observe the 20th anniversary of rule by Kim Jong-il, and the birthday of state founder Kim Il-Sung, occasions which could be pretexts for military displays.
A North Korean soldier uses a pair of binoculars to look out of an outpost along the banks of Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju.
