Two women accused of murdering the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with a banned nerve agent pleaded not guilty at the start of a high-profile murder trial in a Malaysian court on Monday. Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, a Vietnamese, are charged with killing Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX, a chemical poison banned by the United Nations, at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13.

More than 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades discovered on board the freighter named the Jie Shun which the hermit kingdom had decorated with deceptive Cambodian colours. Despot leader Kim Jong-un’s cargo was stopped in its tracks when the US warned Cairo about the incoming ship. An investigation launched by the United Nations found that Pyongyang had made nice with Egyptian business executives who had ordered millions of dollars worth of North Korean weaponry.

Two women accused of fatally poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea’s ruler pleaded not guilty as their trial began Monday in Malaysia’s High Court, nearly eight months after the brazen airport assassination that sparked a diplomatic standoff. Siti Aisyah of Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam are suspected of smearing Kim Jong Nam’s face with the banned VX nerve agent on Feb. 13 at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur, killing him within about 20 minutes. The women say they thought they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.

North Korea's nuclear antics have rattled its alliance with China to the point that Beijing is allowing the previously unthinkable to be discussed: Is it time to prepare for the renegade regime's collapse? While China's official goal is to bring Washington and Pyongyang to the negotiating table, it is permitting once-taboo debate on contingencies in case war breaks out in the nation across its north-east border.

Last August, a secret message was passed from Washington to Cairo warning about a mysterious vessel steaming toward the Suez Canal. The bulk freighter named Jie Shun was flying Cambodian colors but had sailed from North Korea, the warning said, with a North Korean crew and an unknown cargo shrouded by heavy tarps.

A major Russian telecommunications company appears to have begun providing an Internet connection to North Korea. The new link supplements one from China and will provide back-up to Pyongyang at a time the US government is reportedly attacking its Internet infrastructure and pressuring China to end all business with North Korea. The connection, from TransTeleCom, began appearing in Internet routing databases at 09:08 UTC on Sunday, or around 17:38 Pyongyang time on Sunday evening.

North Korea's state news agency has called the US-led effort to impose sanctions over its weapons programme futile, vowing the country inevitably will become a "state nuclear force". The comments on Sunday came from the Korean Central News Agency's website Uriminzokkiri after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met for talks with China's top diplomats and President Xi Jinping in Beijing over the Korean nuclear crisis.

The US is in "direct contact" with North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said. Mr Tillerson said Washington was "probing" the possibility of talks with Pyongyang, "so stay tuned". "We have lines of communications to Pyongyang," he said during a trip to China. "We're not in a dark situation." North Korea and the US have engaged in heated rhetoric in recent months but it was not previously known they had lines of communication.

South Korean banks are drawing up plans to protect critical electronic data from a potential electromagnetic pulse attack by North Korea. The South's banks and other infrastructure, including nuclear power stations and government ministries, have been the target of successful North Korean hacking attacks in the past and there are growing concerns that the nation's financial institutions could be crippled by an EMP weapon, either in the form of a nuclear blast or a conventional electromagnetic pulse device.

North Korea claims that 4.7 million of its citizens have volunteered to join or re-enlist in the military since leader Kim Jong Un threatened to "tame” President Trump “with fire" last week, North Korean state media reported. Millions of young men and 1.22 million women said they wanted sign up to counter the U.S. since Friday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.

The secretive state claims the spike comes after Kim issued a highly unusual personal statement mocking Trump and threatening war with the US. His explosive comments were in response to Trump’s vow to “totally destroy” North Korea if forced to do so in his debut United Nations address. Ramping up his rhetoric against the US, the totalitarian leader said he is considering the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure” over the threat.

The South Korean soldier died of a mysterious gunshot wound to his head in the border county of Cheorwon, in Gangwon Province. The victim, 22, was returning to his platoon with about 20 soldiers and their commander when he was shot in the head. It is unclear where the bullet came from – and if it was fired from North Korea.

An American student who had been imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months died from lack of oxygen and blood to the brain, an Ohio coroner said on Wednesday. Otto Warmbier’s death on June 19 was due to an unknown injury that occurred more than a year before his death, Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said at a news conference.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has responded to President Donald Trump's speech on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly. During his speech, the U.S. President described Kim as a "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission," and said that if "forced to defend itself or its allies, [the U.S.] will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."

The parents of Otto Warmbier have shared horrific details of his condition when he arrived home from North Korea. Fred and Cindy Warmbier told Fox and Friends that the North Koreans were "terrorists" who had "systematically tortured" their son. The US student was jailed in Pyongyang in 2016 for stealing a hotel sign. He was released on medical grounds in June this year but arrived home seriously ill and died days later.

For more than 15 years, security and intelligence officials — including former CIA Director James Woolsey — have been raising the alarm bells about the vulnerability of the U.S. power grid to an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. Only now as tensions with North Korea quickly escalate — with the rogue nation refusing to back down from its nuclear testing and threats of such an onslaught — is the matter really generating attention.

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said North Korea must accept inspections of its nuclear facilities and declare it’s willing to give up its atomic weapons before the U.S. will negotiate with its government. National Security Council Director H.R. McMaster also said the Trump administration has gamed out “four to five” scenarios in which the North Korea nuclear threat is resolved. “Some are uglier than others,” he said in a speech hosted by the Institute for the Study of War.

Doctored pictures and video showing US aircraft bombarded by a Pukguksong missile have been released by North Korea. The images were from a state-owned propaganda site, DPRK Today and released hours after US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers, despatched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam flew close to North Korea’s east coast.

North Korea's foreign minister has accused US President Donald Trump of declaring war on his country. Ri Yong-ho told reporters in New York that North Korea reserved the right to shoot down US bombers. This applied even when they were not in North Korean airspace, the minister added. The world "should clearly remember" it was the US that first declared war, Mr Ri said.

Local residents have been evacuated as police investigate a suspicious package found outside North Korea’s embassy in Gunnersbury, west London. Police cordoned off roads, evacuated houses and reportedly carried out a controlled explosion at about 9.30pm. A number of ambulances also attended the scene.