North Korea stops Malaysians from leaving as row escalates

North Korea is one of the world's poorest and most isolated countries, and yet it still has one of the most formidable – and dangerous – hacking networks on the planet. The Lazarus Group has targeted major international companies, stolen millions from banks and even shut down hospital departments. Investigative journalist Geoff White's forthcoming book "The Lazarus Heist" recounts how these networks emerged and the growing threat they pose today. He joined us for Perspective.

Career diplomat Choe Son Hui will represent North Korea on the international stage as Pyongyang pushes ahead with a series of sanctions-busting weapons tests and ignores US calls for talks.

North Korea reported the outbreak of an unidentified intestinal epidemic, while it already faces food shortages and coronavirus infections. The outbreak was in the isolated nation's key agricultural region.

North Korea fired what appeared to be multiple rocket launchers, South Korea's military said. It comes just days after the US deployed fighter jets to the South for joint military drills.

North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un said "nuclear war deterrence is also fully ready to mobilize" in the event of a war. He accused the United States of "gangster-like" behavior.

The country is experiencing chronic food-insecurity problems so severe that its leader, Kim Jong Un, last year drew a comparison to a famine in the 1990s that killed at least 200,000 and perhaps as many as 3m people. By the regime's own admission, this year's drought is the second-worst since records began in 1981.

The isolated country has been battling 4.7 million cases of "fever." However, only months after it first acknowledged a COVID-19 outbreak, it said the coronavirus crisis was nearly over.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un declared victory in the country's battle against COVID-19 on Wednesday, while the leader's sister revealed he too had suffered from fever, indicating for the first time that he was likely infected with the virus. Laila Shahrokhshahi reports.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has rejected South Korea's offer of economic assistance in exchange for denuclearization.

Should North Korea's missile launches be viewed as tests or diplomacy?

Each country fired two ground-to-air missiles in a show of strength after North Korea conducted its farthest-ever missile test, which caused evacuations in Japan.

North Korea's latest spate of missile launches has put its neighbours on edge. The barrage of weapons tests includes one that flew over Japan in the longest-ever recorded distance, capable of reaching the US territory of Guam.