North korea
South Korea offering large-scale aid package for North's nukes
The proposal comes days after the North threatened to "wipe out" Seoul authorities over a recent Covid-19 outbreak and less than a month after leader Kim Jong...
Kim's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, said the top leader himself had been ill during the outbreak, according to another KCNA report.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the allies launched the ground-to-ground Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile at targets in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in the early morning.
Touted as proof of the US "pivot" to Asia, Biden's first trip as president to the region looks set to be overshadowed by an increasingly belligerent North Korea bent on staging a new "provocation".
Leader Kim Jong Un has ordered nationwide lockdowns to try and slow the spread of the disease through the country's unvaccinated population, and deployed the military after what he has called a botched response to the outbreak.
More than a million people have been sickened by what Pyongyang is referring to as "fever", state media said, despite leader Kim ordering nationwide lockdowns in a bid to slow the spread of disease through the unvaccinated population.
The nuclear-armed country had never admitted to a case of COVID-19 and the government had imposed a rigid coronavirus blockade of its borders since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Pyongyang has conducted 14 weapons tests since January, including firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at full-range for the first time since 2017.
Despite biting sanctions, North Korea has doubled down on Kim's military modernisation drive, test-firing a slew of banned weapons this year while ignoring US offers of talks - as analysts warn of a likely resumption of nuclear tests.
Kim Yo Jong's warning, carried in state media, was her second angry retort in three days to comments made by South Korea's defence chief Suh Wook last week.
North Korea last Friday claimed to have successfully test-fired a Hwasong-17 missile - a long-range ICBM that analysts say may be capable of carrying multiple warheads - which it first unveiled at a military parade in 2020.
Pyongyang has launched nearly a dozen weapon tests this year in an unprecedented spree in defiance of UN sanctions and the latest is the most powerful one since 2017.
According to North Korea, the 26 February and 4 March tests were focused on developing a reconnaissance satellite, but the Pentagon said rigorous analysis concluded they were actually experimental precursors to a likely full-range ICBM launch.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile, Seoul said, resuming a weapons-testing blitz following a month of relative calm during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The Republican opposition, including its moderate fringe, have reproached Biden for ruling out preemptive sanctions against Moscow to discourage an attack on Ukraine.
Pyongyang has never test-fired this many missiles in a calendar month before and last week threatened to abandon a nearly five-year-long self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range and nuclear weapons, blaming US 'hostile' policy for forcing its hand.
Hypersonic missiles are listed among the "top priority" tasks for strategic weapons development in North Korea's five-year plan.
The early-morning launch came as the UN Security Council met in New York to discuss last week's test of what Pyongyang called a hypersonic missile, although Seoul has cast doubt on that claim.
The meeting was requested by the United States, France and the United Kingdom - three of the five permanent members on the Security Council - as well as Ireland and Albania, the sources said Thursday.