By Roberta Rampton and Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula can still be achieved peacefully because of Washington's new engagement with China, U.S.

The docking of six North Korean ships at a port in northern China has raised questions over a Chinese ban on coal imports from the nuclear-armed state. The ships docked Thursday and Friday at a port in the city of Tangshan in northern Hebei province, near Beijing. All six North Korean ships were loaded with anthracite coal, according to a daily docking plan published on the port of Jintang's website. Unloading times of up to six hours were listed for the ships.

The U.S. Air Force dispatched a nuclear sniffer aircraft Thursday to the east of the Korean Peninsula amid the possibility of North Korea's imminent nuclear test, a government source said. "The WC-135 Constant Phoenix, a special-purpose U.S. plane, made an emergency sortie today over the East Sea," the source said, requesting anonymity.

The US military is considering shooting down North Korean missile tests as a show of strength to Pyongyang, two sources briefed on the planning have told the Guardian. Amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, the Pentagon is looking for ways short of war to pressure the country into denuclearization, particularly if Pyongyang goes forward with a sixth nuclear test.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday that President Trump is ready to take action against any threats North Korea might pose to the U.S. after the country attempted a missile launch that failed. In a clip released early from his interview on ABC's "This Week," McMaster, an Army officer, echoed his boss on U.S. military strategy, saying "we do not want to telegraph in any way how we'll respond."

Mike Pence has called North Korea's failed missile launch a "provocation" after landing in South Korea for a 10-day tour of Asia. The US Vice President arrived in the region a day after North Korea paraded missiles and military hardware, warning America of advancements in its nuclear and defence capabilities.

A North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" on its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said, hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was due in the South for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms program.

Air China is suspending flights between Beijing and the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. The suspension of service by the state-owned carrier will go into effect from Monday, according to Chinese state media. A representative for Air China said the airline was temporarily suspending flights due to weak sales. "We will schedule flights on this route based on passenger demand," the representative told CNN.

A top North Korean official is threatening a preemptive strike against the U.S. if his nation believes America is taking "reckless" military action. Vice Minister Han Song Ryol on Friday told The Associated Press that President Trump's tweets are part of a "vicious cycle" of escalated tensions in the region, adding that North Korea will continue to stockpile more nuclear warheads and improve on the country's nuclear program.

After much secrecy over a “big and important event” which foreign journalists were invited to cover, North Korea on Thursday (Apr 13) opened a new skyscraper-lined street in the capital, Pyongyang. The event was presided by leader Kim Jong Un and witnessed by thousands, including around 200 foreign journalists who were invited by the regime.

North Korea’s nuclear test site appears “primed and ready” to conduct a trial, according to a U.S. research institute that monitors the country.

Donald Trump has said North Korea is "looking for trouble" — and suggested the US would offer China a better trade deal if it helped solve the ongoing crisis with Pyongyang. "I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the US will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!" Mr Trump tweeted. In another tweet, he said: "North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them!"

Things are escalating quickly … all over the world. In addition to the powder keg in Syria – needlessly stoked by an ill-conceived American escalation last week – there is looming destabilization in Asia. According to Chosun, a Korean news agency, the People’s Republic of China has moved an estimated 150,000 troops to the border of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea) in order to prepare for “unforeseen circumstances.” Among such unforeseen circumstances? The possibility of “military action” by the United States.

As the US navy deployed a strike group towards the western Pacific Ocean, to provide a presence near the Korean peninsula, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said China agrees with the Trump administration that “action has to be taken” regarding North Korea. Tillerson told CBS’s Face the Nation, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, that when Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping met at Mar-a-Lago this week, they “had extensive discussions around the dangerous situation in North Korea”.

One of the highest-ranking members of the North Korean regime to defect has seemed to confirm the West's greatest fears — that the Kim regime would use nuclear weapons at the first sign of an imminent threat. In an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Thae Yong Ho, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain, said Kim Jong Un was "desperate in maintaining his rule by relying on his [development of] nuclear weapons and ICBM," referring to an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the US.

A December oil pipeline spill in western North Dakota might have been three times larger than first estimated and among the biggest in state history, a state environmental expert said Friday. About 530,000 gallons of oil is now believed to have spilled from the Belle Fourche Pipeline that was likely ruptured by a slumping hillside about 16 miles northwest of Belfield in Billings County, Health Department environmental scientist Bill Seuss said. The earlier estimate was about 176,000 gallons.

North Korea has a criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump he probably wasn’t expecting: He’s too much like Barack Obama. North Korea’s state media, which regularly vilified Obama in the strongest terms, had been slow to do the same with the Trump administration, possibly so that officials in Pyongyang could figure out what direction Trump will likely take and what new policies he may pursue. But his top diplomat’s recent trip to Asia, which featured some pretty tough talk, appears to have loosened their lips.

The US military said it detected a failed North Korean launch, which exploded within seconds.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "sent a very clear signal that our policy of strategic patience is over" with North Korea during his recent visit to China, a White House spokesman said on Monday. Spokesman Sean Spicer made the comment at a news briefing in reply to a question about Tillerson's reaction to an announcement by North Korea about its latest rocket-engine test on Sunday. Tillerson was in Beijing during his first visit to Asia for talks dominated by concern about Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

The possibility of a nuclear-armed Japan has again been raised by the Trump administration, after U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson appeared to say in an interview ahead of his visit to Beijing that, with “all options on the table” regarding the North Korean threat, “circumstances could evolve” in terms of Tokyo acquiring atomic weapons.