Timeline: North Korea – key events since the end of the Korean war

A chronology of clashes between North and South Korea and Pyongyang and the US since 1953

27 July 1953

The war ends when North and South Korea sign a truce – but there is no formal peace treaty, meaning the two countries remain technically at war. The Korean war cost two million lives.

15 August 1974

There is an assassination attempt on the then-South Korean president, Park Chung-hee, by a North Korean agent in Seoul. Park survives, but the first lady is killed.

9 October 1983

North Korean agents target the venue of a visit by the South's president, Chun Doo Hwan, to Burma, killing more than 20 people including four South Korean cabinet ministers. The president escapes.

29 November 1987

North Korea blows up a South Korean civilian airliner, killing 115 people. The US decides to include the North on its list of countries that support terrorism.

15 June 1999

More than 80 North Korean sailors die in the first Yellow Sea clash since the end of the war.

January 2002

The then US president, George Bush, makes his "axis of evil" speech, which links North Korea with Iran and Iraq.

July 2006

North Korea test-fires medium and long-range missiles.

9 October 2006

An international outcry follows North Korea's first nuclear test, and the UN sets up a series of sanctions.

March-May 2008

North Korea test-fires short-range missiles.

July 2008

A soldier shoots a South Korean tourist dead in the Mount Kumgang special tourism area of North Korea.

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