By Tomoko A Hosaka TOKYO - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, who is reportedly recovering from a stroke, began losing consciousness at work in April and could not properly govern as his health worsened, a major daily Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.

North Korean denuclearization talks, stalled for nine months, are to resume this week, a South Korean official said Tuesday. Kim Sook said the six-nation talks are to resume Thursday in Beijing, The New York Times reported. Participants are the United States, the Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.

SEOUL, South Korea - The United States wants to withdraw a third of its 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea by the end of next year, a Foreign Ministry official said Monday as the two countries discussed U.S. plans for repositioning soldiers along the Cold War's last frontier.

WASHINGTON - In a sign of the Iraq war's increasing strain on the U.S. Army, the Pentagon is considering an extraordinary shift of troops to Iraq from their garrisons in South Korea, where they have stood guard for decades against a feared invasion by forces of communist North Korea, officials say.