The delivery of oil and oil products to North Korea should not be reduced, Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang was cited as saying by RIA news agency on Wednesday, adding that a total end to deliveries would be interpreted by North Korea as an act of war. The U.N. and United States have introduced a wave of sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, including by seeking to reduce its access to crude oil and refined petroleum products.

The North blames "insulting" media coverage, in a blow to hopes of better ties over the Olympics.

The US has been quietly amassing firepower in the Pacific during a lull in tensions with North Korea, but recent developments on an under-the-radar nuclear weapon suggest preparation for a potential tactical nuclear strike. The US recently sent B-2 stealth bombers to Guam, where they joined B-1 and B-52s, the other bombers in the US's fleet.

The spy agency is briefing the president about military options on North Korea, which outside analysts warn could escalate to nuclear war.

The lead singer of Kim Jong Un's favorite girl band toured Seoul Monday to scout venues for North Korea's art troupe when they perform at next month's Winter Olympics. Heavy security followed Hyon Song Wol and six other North Koreans as they traversed the South Korean capital, followed at every step by huge media scrums.

A “miracle fibre” developed to clothe the people exposes the holes in state propaganda

Another ship bearing grim cargo has washed up on the shores of western Japan. Police discovered a wooden ship carrying the corpses of seven men on a beach in Ishikawa prefecture last week. Inside the boat they also found a badge with the likenesses of North Korean leaders Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, along with a cigarette box with Korean letters, officials said.

North Korea is finally responding to President Donald Trump's remarks earlier this month during which he tweeted his nuclear launch button was larger than Kim Jong-un's. "I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" Trump tweeted January 2. North Korea's official state-run media called Trump's nuclear button tweet the “spasm of a lunatic,” The Associated Press reports.

North Korea has found good material to attack U.S. President Donald Trump: Michael Wolff’s bombshell new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” The book paints Trump as a leader who doesn’t understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides. Trump and other White House aides have blasted it as inaccurate trash. But it was the top-selling book in the U.S. last week, and its numbers are likely to grow far higher

Cocooned by cameras, North Korea's negotiating team crossed the border Tuesday by foot, walking about 100 yards to a conference building for the first high-level talks with South Korea in two years. Seated across from one another at a long rectangular table, diplomats from both sides expressed the need to improve frosty ties.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in credited U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday for helping to spark the first inter-Korean talks in more than two years, and warned that Pyongyang would face stronger sanctions if provocations continued.

The Trump administration is debating a "bloody nose" attack on North Korea, recent reports say, with the president's inner circle split and apparently teetering between endorsing a strike and holding out hope for diplomacy. Both The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal have portrayed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis as trying to caution President Donald Trump against a strike, and the national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, as advocating it.

The rival Koreas moved toward easing their bitter animosity Tuesday during rare talks, with North Korea agreeing to take part in next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea. The countries also agreed to hold more discussions on reducing tension along their border and to reopen a military hotline.

Kim Jong Un's confidence in his country's nuclear arsenal may be behind his recent interest in talks. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ignored recent peace overtures from Seoul but he's due on Tuesday to hold a formal dialogue with his southern neighbor for the first time in more than two years. The sudden interest in talks may have something to do with Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal.

The US most likely has the tools and expertise to pull off a decisive, clean attack that would humiliate and batter North Korea.

In its relentless pursuit of nuclear strength, North Korea's first land target may have actually been itself. The Diplomat reported Wednesday that an intermediate range ballistic missile launched by the regime last spring accidentally hit the city of Tokchon, which has a population of more than 200,000.

Beyond a New Year’s declaration by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, that he would move to the mass production of nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles in 2018 lies a canny new strategy to initiate direct talks with South Korea in the hope of driving a wedge into its seven-decade alliance with the United States.

China's Communist Party adopted a secret plan in September to bolster the North Korean government with increased aid and military support, including new missiles, if Pyongyang halts further nuclear tests, according to an internal party document. The document, labeled "top secret" and dated Sept. 15—12 days after North Korea's latest underground nuclear blast—outlines China's plan for dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue.

The offer of talks next week comes after the North said it might send a delegation to the Olympic Games.