North Korea fires 2 missiles into Sea of Japan, says Seoul

Kim has said extreme weather, the coronavirus pandemic and being cut off from Chinese trade could lead to another food crisis in North Korea.

The North Korean leader didn't rule out the possibility of entering into dialogue with Washington but said his country should be more prepared to have an adversarial relationship with the Joe Biden administration.

Pyongyang has told the World Health Organization that it has yet to find a single coronavirus infection. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to arrest people who refuse a vaccine.

The North Korean leader said failures during the pandemic and a "grave incident" had threatened the safety of the people. Elsewhere, Romania is selling off excess vaccines. Follow DW for the latest.

Heavy rain and flooding in provinces along North Korea's east coat have inundated wide swathes of farmland as the impoverished country organizes relief efforts.

North Korea appears to have restarted activities at its main plutonium-producing reactor in Yongbyon, the UN atomic agency, IAEA, has said in an annual report. The apparent resumption of operations comes as Pyongyang has been voicing threats to expand its nuclear arsenal amid continued tensions with the United States.

Analysts say cash-strapped Pyongyang is returning to its strategy of trying to obtain concessions from the international community by threatening nuclear proliferation.

North Korea escapee Hiroko Saito says she and 97,000 others were deceived into relocating to the North in the 1960s with promises of "paradise on Earth." Instead, she suffered starvation, repression and loss.

Pyongyang has said it would take action if a new Indo-Pacific alliance between the US, Australia and the UK had "even the smallest negative effect" on North Korea's security.

South Korea has said the North fired an unidentified projectile as Pyongyang's UN envoy defended the rogue country's right to test weapons. North Korea is currently under UN sanctions banning weapons tests.

North Korea's ambassador to the UN tells the General Assembly that "nobody can deny" the nuclear-armed country the right to test weapons. Kim Song's comments at the world body headquarters in New York come just moments after South Korea's military said the North had fired an "unidentified projectile" into the sea off its east coast.