Sonu Sood

Kim reiterated Washington's willingness to help address the North's humanitarian concerns for its people in need, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic, speaking to reporters right after a meeting here with his South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk, Yonhap News Agency reported. He also called on Pyongyang to stop "provocations" and other destabilizing activities, and return to dialogue.

The US floated the idea of instituting the unofficial dialogue platform during the allies' regular defence talks in Seoul last month, sources have said, as Washington is pushing to rally its democratic allies to counter China's growing assertiveness, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Xi made the remarks in a reply to North Korean leader Kim's earlier letter to mark the 72nd Chinese National Day, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). In the reply, Xi said he has highly taken note of relations between North Korea and China, and expressed his willingness to raise bilateral ties to a "new level", Yonhap News Agency reported citing KCNA. North Korea and China have emphasised their close relations amid the paused nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, and an escalating rivalry between the two superpowers.

He made the remarks during a parliamentary audit session, as his Ministry vowed to deploy more missile detection assets and reinforce cooperation with the US to deal with the North's continued missile research activitiesm reports Yonhap News Agency. "But (the missile) should be paired with the launch platform. Thus, we think it is at an early stage," he added.

Her remarks on Wednesday came after after North Korea announced a successful test launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that some believe may be a "game changer", reports Yonhap News Agency. SLBMs are considered to reflect an increased threat to the US as they may require less distance to reach the mainland US.

A spokesperson for the North's foreign ministry expressed concerns over what it called "abnormal" reactions from the US and the UN Security Council as they convened an emergency meeting on its "rightful exercise of right to defence," Yonhap news reported, citing the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Tuesday, marking its eighth missile test so far this year, Yonhap news agency reported. "These launches also underscore the urgent need for dialogue and diplomacy. Our offer remains to meet anywhere, anytime without preconditions," the White House Press Secretary told a daily press briefing.

Kim's trip to Seoul will follow his meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Noh Kyu-duk and Takehiro Funakoshi, respectively, in Washington this week, reports Yonhap News Agency. "Special Representative Noh and I had an excellent meeting this afternoon in advance of tomorrow's (Tuesday) trilateral meeting with Japanese Director-General Funakoshi," the US diplomat told reporters after his meeting with Noh at the State Department on Monday.

The missile was launched eastward from a site in the vicinity of Sinpo, South Hamgyong province, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). It said the launch was detected at 10.17 a.m. but gave no other details, reports Yonhap News Agency. Pyongyang's continued saber-rattling tempered cautious optimism that has emerged since the reactivation of inter-Korean communication channels earlier this month.

"We've seen a sequence of events that many analysts have interpreted as increasingly provocative behaviour by North Korea," Biegun said on Friday while addressing a webinar co-hosted by George Washington University's Institute for Korean Studies and the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management, a state-run institute based in Sejong, South Korea.