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.

The Biden administration is to move Patriot anti-missile batteries from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan. The Pentagon refused to say where the technology is being relocated.

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.

South Korea's ministry of defence releases footage of a successful a submarine ballistic missile launch, making the country the seventh in the world with the advanced technology and raising the prospect of a regional arms race. The test, supervised by President Moon Jae-in, comes hours after nuclear-armed North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea, according to the South's military, and as China's foreign minister visited Seoul.

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.

Capable of traveling more than five times the speed of sound, a new generation of missile systems are being designed for speed, stealth and surprise. Russia is already working on developing its own weapons system.