North korea
Trump 'offered Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One'
Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump first engaged in a war of words and mutual threats, before an extraordinary diplomatic bromance that featured headline-grabbing...
Kim is looking to grab the attention of the incoming Biden administration, analysts say, with his country more isolated than ever after closing its borders to protect itself against the coronavirus pandemic.
Donald Trump's bizarre diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang veered from mutual insults and threats of war to "love letters" and the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.
Authorities held the rally on Monday at the start of an '80-Day Campaign', a mass mobilisation drive to boost the economy ahead of a ruling party congress in January.
On Saturday North Korea put a gargantuan new missile on show at a military parade.
Pyongyang closed its borders in January to try to protect itself from the disease and regularly said it had no cases.
Pyongyang is subject to a range of restrictions imposed since 2017 that limit its oil imports and ban exports of coal, fish and textiles.
Among activities during the period since its last report in August 2019, the IAEA said there were 'indications consistent with the production of enriched uranium' at the reported Yongbyon nuclear site.
The official KCNA news agency made no mention of any fatalities and Kim gave an upbeat assessment of the storm's aftermath as he inspected a farming region southwest of Pyongyang.
An enlarged meeting of the politburo of the Workers Party took place amid a pandemic that is putting additional pressure on the North Korean economy, battered by recent border closures and flood damage.
Kim Yo Jong is the leader’s only close relative with a public role in politics, recently spearheading a new, tougher campaign to put pressure on South Korea.
Heavy rain across the Korean peninsula has brought flooding to both North and South Korea in recent days, and concern is growing about damage to North Korean crops and its potential impact on food supplies.
North Korea was for the first time reporting a suspected coronavirus case, a person suspected of being infected with the novel coronavirus who returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border.
Kim said in her personal opinion, there is unlikely to be another summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump this year but “a surprise thing may still happen".
The nuclear-armed North closed its borders in late January as the virus spread in neighbouring China and imposed tough restrictions that put thousands of its people into isolation.
The anniversary comes as inter-Korean ties remain in a deep freeze following a rapid rapprochement in 2018 that brought three summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South's President Moon Jae-in.
The apparently conciliatory moves by Pyongyang are unusual, and come after analysts said it was seeking to manufacture a crisis on the peninsula in an effort to extract concessions.
Kim Yo Jong is one of her brother's most trusted advisers and among the most powerful women in the isolated regime.
This comes after Pyongyang threatened to take action if defector groups push ahead with their campaign to send propaganda leaflets into North Korea.