Wednesday 27 January, 2021
The state is commemorating the 75th anniversary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party.
If confirmed, Jo Song Gil would be the highest-level North Korean official to defect since the 1990s.
South Korea denied the North’s accusation.
The official was shot dead on Tuesday by North Korean soldiers.
Pyongyang claims testing has shown the person is “suspected to be infected”.
A propaganda war is fuelling the escalating tensions between the two countries.
Tensions on the peninsula have heightened in recent weeks.
North Korea’s military has recently threatened to move back into zones that were demilitarised under inter-Korean peace agreements.
Defectors have sent leaflets to the North by balloon and bottle criticising Kim Jong Un over his weapons programmes and human rights abuses.
The fire exchange took place a day after North Korea reported its leader Kim Jong Un’s first public appearance in some 20 days.
The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim attended the ceremony Friday in Sunchon with other senior officials.
There has been speculation over Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary last week.
Speculation has been rife since the leader skipped the April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather.
CNN cited a US official saying that Washington was “monitoring intelligence” on the matter.
South Korea said that the missiles were fired towards the sea.
From TheJournal.ie
This comes as a hiatus in disarmament talks between the two nations drags on.
The lack of testing activity in past months had experts wondering whether the North was holding back its weapons displays.
The US was swift to respond, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging Kim to “take a different course”.
Kim spoke for seven hours during the ruling Workers’ Party meeting in Pyongyang.
Talks about denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula have been deadlocked since earlier this year.
Three bodies with heads, two heads without bodies and two bodies without heads were discovered.
Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea have been stalled since a February summit fell apart.
North Korea continues to pressure the Trump administration over an end-of-year deadline to salvage faltering nuclear negotiations.
This comes as Pyongyang said it had carried out a major new weapons test.
Pyongyang has carried out a number of launches at the same site where the latest test occurred.
The isolated state also called Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the “most stupid man ever known in history”.
It was not immediately clear what had provoked Pyongyang’s attack.
The game in Pyongyang finished 0-0.
The location and the animal are symbols associated with the Kim family’s dynastic rule.
North Korea and the United States are due to meet this weekend.
Washington and Pyongyang are set to resume long-stalled talks in the coming days.
Michael Palin writes about what it’s like to journey to the tightly-controlled North Korea – and the mistakes he makes while filming two huge statues of the Great Leaders in Pyongyang.
The US has said it is closely monitoring the situation.
North Korea blamed blamed South Korea and US military exercises.
Dave Connell’s side will now take on either Japan or Russia for a bronze medal on Friday.
Alek disappeared in June but was later freed and deported from North Korea.
Alek Sigley disappeared without a trace around 23 June.
The US president also said he would have no problem stepping over the border into North Korea if he meets the country’s leader.
Alek Sigley has not been heard from since Tuesday.
It was unclear what caused the explosion.
