“The entire mainland of the US is within the range of our nuclear weapons and the nuclear button is always on the desk of my office. They should accurately be aware that this is not a threat but a reality. … No matter how much America wants to attack us with their military might and nuclear power, they know that now we possess such great nuclear power and therefore they will not dare.” – Kim Jong-un, CNN, 1 January 2018.

In his annual New Year's address on Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the United States that his country's completed nuclear arsenal is now a button-push away. "The U.S. should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table," he said, according to the Associated Press translation, in a speech carried by state television. "The entire area of the U.S. mainland is within our nuclear strike range. ... The United States can never start a war against me and our country."

China has rejected President Donald Trump's accusations that it was illegally supplying oil to North Korea, criticizing Friday the Republican leader's evidence, and his demeanor. Trump launched the allegation Thursday via a tweet in which he claimed China had been "caught RED HANDED" shipping oil into North Korea, a violation of the strict United Nations Security Council sanctions punishing the reclusive, authoritarian state for its unwillingness to abandon an increasingly powerful ballistic and nuclear weapons program.

A North Korean nuclear scientist who had gone to China poisoned himself after he was forced home. The scientist killed himself in a state security cell while he awaited interrogation. Resources said that he was a researcher in the physics center of the State Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang. He belonged to a group of North Koreans who were detained in Shenyang city in China on Nov 4 and were sent back on Nov 17.

merican reconnaissance satellites have reportedly spotted Chinese ships suspected of selling oil to North Korean vessels about 30 times since October. South Korean officials told the Chosun Ilbo that the ships were allegedly trading in the West Sea between China and South Korea in a bid to bypass strict United Nations sanctions on oil exports to the pariah regime over its ongoing nuclear and weapons programme.

North Korea has accused Japan of warmongering in Asia as Tokyo hard-liners sought to reverse their country’s decades of pacifism to face their nuclear-armed foe. The official Korean Central News Agency published its most recent commentary Tuesday, condemning recent Japanese discussions of acquiring new, more powerful weapons in spite of the country’s traditional post–World War II commitment to maintaining a self-defense force rather than a traditional military.

A North Korean soldier who defected to the South was found to have antibodies to anthrax — triggering concerns that the rogue regime has weaponized the deadly bacteria, according to reports Tuesday. The man, who was either exposed to or vaccinated for anthrax, had developed immunity to the deadly disease before defecting, UPI reported, citing local Channel A.

The United States has announced sanctions on two North Korean officials behind their country’s ballistic missile program. The steps were the latest in a campaign aimed at forcing North Korea – which has defied years of multilateral and bilateral sanctions – to abandon a weapons program aimed at developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States.

U.S. reconnaissance satellites have spotted Chinese ships selling oil to North Korean vessels on the West Sea around 30 times since October. According to South Korean government sources, the satellites have pictured large Chinese and North Korean ships illegally trading in oil in a part of the West Sea closer to China than South Korea.

One of the North Korean soldiers who defected to the South in 2017 was found to have anthrax antibodies in his bloodstream.

North Korea has said it is a "pipe dream" for the United States to think it will give up its nuclear weapons. It also called the latest UN sanctions to target the country "an act of war" that violates its sovereignty. The UN Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions against North Korea on Friday in response to its latest launch of a ballistic missile that Pyongyang says can reach anywhere on the US mainland.

North Korea may have executed the official in charge of its nuclear test site facilities, in the second reported execution of a high-ranking party apparatchik in the space of a week.

North Korea has described the latest UN sanctions imposed on the country as an "act of war". A foreign ministry statement said the measures were tantamount to a total economic blockade, the official KCNA news agency reported. It added that strengthening North Korea's deterrence was the only way to frustrate the US. The UN Security Council imposed the new sanctions on Friday in response to Pyongyang's ballistic missile tests.

Peru's government has ordered the expulsion of two North Korean diplomats after declaring them persona non grata over Pyongyang's "continued violations" of UN Security Council resolutions with its nuclear programme. "The government of Peru has informed the North Korean embassy of its decision to declare First Secretary Pak Myong Chol and Third Secretary Ji Hyok persona non grata as officers of the aforementioned diplomatic mission in Lima," Peru's foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The tough measures imposed over North Korea's missile programme target petrol supplies.

South Korea's military has fired warning shots at North Korean guards searching for a soldier who defected. The North Korean soldier had walked across the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) shortly after 08:00 (23:00 GMT Wednesday). He had emerged from thick fog at a checkpoint, said the South's military.

North Korea has dismissed the official responsible for the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and executed him, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported, citing unconfirmed reports from an unidentified North Korean defector. Park In Young—the name's spelling may be subject to changes, depending on the translation and transcriptions—was the chief of North Korea’s Bureau 131, a division of the ruling party’s Central Committee charged with the supervision of military facilities such as the Punggye-ri underground nuclear test facility and the Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

The White House will blame North Korea for a May cyber attack that paralyzed businesses and government entities, sources told Reuters

The Australian Federal Police has charged a 59-year-old Sydney man for allegedly working as a black-market agent to sell missile components and coal for North Korea. Authorities said it was the first time a person in Australia had been charged with brokering sales and discussing the supply of weapons of mass destruction.

While attention in Asia has been distracted by the North Korean nuclear crisis in the past year, China has continued to install high-frequency radar and other facilities that can be used for military purposes on its man-made islands in the South China Sea, a U.S. think tank said on Thursday.