Reportedly, 3 million North Koreans died from a severe famine.
2000-
South Korea and North Korea began to work on opening up border liaisons. South Korea also granted amnesty to 3,500 North Korean prisoners.
2000-
North Korea claimed to be suffering their worst spring drought in it's history.
2001-
In August, Kim Jong-il got on a train and went to visit Russia for the first time in over a decade in order to begin talking about nuclear weapons again.
2002-
North Korea, Iran, and Iraq were labeled as the "axis of evil" by president of the U.S., George W Bush.
2003
North Korea withdraws from an agreement with South Korea which was created in 1992 which would keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
2005
For the first time, North Korea announced publicly that they built their weapons for "self defense."