South Korea’s president said he will pursue a three-phase "denuclearization plan" to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, seeking to freeze Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs in the first stage.

A California man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after admitting to shipping weapons and ammunition to North Korea

North Korea has a covert military base near the Chinese border that poses a “potential nuclear threat” to the United States mainland, according to new research

The drills, which will kick off next week, are a "direct military provocation" against North Korea, Pyongyang said.

Since talks collapsed between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, in 2019, North Korea’s reckless drive for long-range nuclear capabilities has fueled tensions on the Korean Peninsula to new heights.

A Chinese national has been sentenced to eight years in prison for smuggling firearms and other military items to North Korea, the US justice department said. Shenghua Wen, 42, received around $2m (£1.5m) from North Korean officials to ship the items from California, according to a statement from the agency on Monday.

South Korea’s birth rate has dropped throughout much of the past decade, spelling trouble for the military as regional threats and global conflicts simmer.