The United States and China sparred Wednesday on how to deal with North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test and ease rising tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

After meeting for more than four hours in Beijing in what they both termed "constructive" and "candid" discussions, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi nonetheless presented sharply opposing positions on the two issues at a news conference.

Kerry acknowledged that "our differences will continue to test us" but stressed that the world benefits when the United States and China are able to work together, including on the Iran nuclear deal and climate change.

On North Korea, Kerry said the United States wanted new U.N. Security Council action that would impose "significant new measures" to punish Pyongyang for its latest test earlier this month and boost pressure on it to return to disarmament talks.

"There's been a lot of talk about North Korea through these past years. Now we believe is the time for action that can bring North Korea back to the table," Kerry said.

Wang said China agreed on the need for a new resolution, but suggested that Beijing would not support new sanctions. "Sanctions are not an end in themselves," he said.

"The new resolution should not provoke new tension in the situation, still less destabilize the Korean peninsula," Wang said.

China is North Korea's most important ally, chief trading partner and a key source of economic assistance. While it condemned the latest test, Beijing has balked at imposing harsh sanctions that could destabilize the hard-line communist regime.

Kerry noted that sanctions had brought Iran to the nuclear negotiating table. "With all due respect," he said. "More significant and impactful sanctions were put in place against Iran, which did not have a nuclear weapon than against North Korea, which does."

"All nations, particularly those who seek a global leadership role, or have a global leadership role, have a responsibility to deal with this threat," he said, referring to China.

Kerry said the sides agreed both on the need for a strong new resolution on North Korea, but also to accelerate talks on what that would entail.

"It's good to agree on the goal. But it's not enough to agree on the goal, we believe we need to agree on the meaningful steps necessary to get to the achievement of the goal to the negotiations that result in denuclearization," Kerry said.

For his part, Wang also took umbrage at U.S. complaints that China is not doing as much as it can with the leverage it has on North Korea to stop the destabilizing behavior. He noted that China's position has been consistent in opposing North Korea's nuclear weapons program and supporting a diplomatic resolution to the matter.

"For many years China has been working hard to implement these," he said. "We have delivered on our obligation."

Wang said China's position is "clear cut" and "responsible."

"Our position will not be swayed by specific events or the temporary mood of the moment," he said. "We reject all groundless speculation or distortion of China's position."

Kerry, though, pressed ahead, saying that China is North Korea's main link to the outside world, and that it could do more to limit cross-border transactions that benefit North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his government.

Kim Jong Un's actions in testing the latest device was "reckless and dangerous," Kerry said, vowing that the U.S. would take whatever steps it needed to protect itself and its allies.

Kerry, who after meeting with Wang was set to see State Councilor Yang Jiechi and President Xi Jinping, also called on China to halt land reclamation and construction of airstrips in disputed areas of the South China Sea, steps that have alarmed its smaller neighbors.

"I stressed the importance of finding common ground among the claimants and avoiding the destabilizing cycle of mistrust or escalation," Kerry said.

Wang, though denied that China has was doing anything other than protecting its territorial sovereignty. And, he rejected accusations from the United States and others that China was not interested in peaceful resolutions to the disputes or militarizing the areas. "We cannot accept the allegation that China's words are not being matched by actions."

Kerry arrived in China from stops in Laos and Cambodia, where he called on the two members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to present a united front in dealing with increasing Chinese assertiveness over the South China Sea claims. His visits to Vientiane and Phnom Penh come ahead of a summit with the leaders of all 10 ASEAN nations that President Barack Obama will host next month in California.

China, which claims sovereignty of much of the territory in the South China Sea, rejects claims from countries like the Philippines and Vietnam and has bristled at U.S. warnings that its activities threaten the freedom of navigation in some of the world's busiest commercial shipping lanes. Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the strategically vital sea, through which around $5 trillion in world trade passes each year.

The U.S. says it takes no position on the claims but says developments in the South China Sea are a national security interest. It has urged that the disputes be settled peacefully and that a binding code of conduct be established for the area.

Tensions have been especially high since Beijing transformed seven disputed reefs into islands, where it is now constructing runways and facilities that rival claimants say can be used militarily. China has said it built the islands primarily to foster safe civilian sea travel and fishing.

In response, the U.S. sent a guided-missile destroyer close to one of the Chinese-built islands, called Subi Reef, in October in a challenge to Beijing's territorial claims, sparking warnings from China. U.S. officials vowed to continue maneuvers to protect freedom of navigation and overflight.

Recent developments, including China's movement of an oil rig into a zone disputed with Vietnam and warnings against Philippines overflight of what it claims to be its territory, have raised those levels of concern. China dismisses the warnings as unwarranted, but has harshly criticized a U.S.-Philippines defense pact that allows American forces, warships and planes to be based temporarily in local military camps. China says that will "escalate tensions and undermine peace and stability in the region," echoing language the United States uses to criticize China's actions.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile as soon as in a week, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported early on Thursday, citing an unnamed Japanese government official.

The official cited signs of possible preparations for a missile launch based on analysis of satellite imagery of the North's Tongchang-ri missile test site on its west coast.

The report came as U.N. Security Council members were discussing fresh sanctions against the North after it conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6. The North is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea last conducted a long-range rocket launch in late 2012, successfully putting an object into orbit in what experts believed to be part of its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The North is also seen to be working to miniaturise a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is some time away from perfecting the technology.

The Kyodo report gave no other details about the satellite imagery analyses.

On Wednesday in Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on the need for a significant new U.N. Security resolution against the North but there were few signs of concrete progress.

U.S. Navy Admiral Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said on Wednesday before the Kyodo report was published that North Korea's actions underscored the importance of strengthening an alliance among Japan, South Korea and the United States.

He said he supported reviewing the possibility of converting a U.S. Aegis missile defense test site in Hawaii into a combat-ready facility to bolster U.S. defenses against ballistic missile attacks, an initiative first reported by Reuters last week.

Harris also told reporters after his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that it made sense to put a mobile missile defense system known as the Terminal High Area Defense in South Korea.

That decision must be made jointly by the United States and South Korea, he said.

North Korea said on Jan. 6 it exploded a hydrogen bomb, although the United States and other governments and experts voiced scepticism that it had made such a technological advance. 

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

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The US has seen increased activity around a North Korea site suggesting movement of components and propellant to be able to conduct a space launch in the near future, a US official told Reuters on Thursday.

"Our concern though is that they do a space-launch but really it's the same technology to develop ICBMs," the official said, referring to inter-continental ballistic missiles.

The official added such a launch could happen within a couple of weeks.

On Wednesday, Japan's Kyodo news agency cited an unnamed Japanese official saying that North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile as soon as in a week.

The official cited signs of possible preparations for a missile launch based on analysis of satellite imagery of the North's Tongchang-ri missile-test site on its west coast.

The report came as UN Security Council members were discussing fresh sanctions against North Korea after it conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6.

North Korea is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea last conducted a long-range rocket launch in late 2012, successfully putting an object into orbit in what experts believed to be part of its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The North is also seen to be working to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is some time away from perfecting the technology.

The Kyodo report gave no other details about the satellite-imagery analyses.

Meanwhile, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation to broaden sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, human rights record and cyber activities.

The committee passed the measure by unanimous voice vote and members said they expected it would be approved by the full Senate and, eventually, signed into law by President Barack Obama.

On Wednesday in Beijing, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on the need for a significant new UN Security resolution against the North, but there were few signs of concrete progress.

US Navy Admiral Harry Harris, commander of US Pacific Command, said on Wednesday before the Kyodo report was published that North Korea's actions underscored the importance of strengthening an alliance among Japan, South Korea, and the US.

He said he supported reviewing the possibility of converting a US Aegis missile-defense test site in Hawaii into a combat-ready facility to bolster US defenses against ballistic-missile attacks, an initiative first reported by Reuters last week.

Harris also told reporters after his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that it made sense to put a mobile missile-defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea.

The THAAD system's mobility and strategic battery-unit placement is designed to counter threats around the globe. In April 2013, the Pentagon deployed a THAAD battery to Guam in order to deter North Korean provocations and further defend the Pacific region.

The THAAD missile does not carry a warhead, instead designed to use pure kinetic energy to deliver "hit-to-kill" lethality to ballistic missiles inside or outside of the atmosphere.

That deployment decision must be made jointly by the US and South Korea, Harris said.

North Korea said on January 6 that it had exploded a hydrogen bomb, although the US, other governments, and experts voiced skepticism that it had made such a technological advance.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

SEE ALSO: This interactive infographic shows all of the world’s nukes

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NOW WATCH: A North Korean defector tells us how she escaped and survived

North Korean defector and author of "The Girl With Seven Names" Hyeonseo Lee tells us how dusty photos of the country's leaders can make you a traitor, and even get you sent to prison camp.

Produced by Jenner Deal. Camera by Will Wei.

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The White House said on Tuesday any satellite launch by North Korea would be viewed by the international community as another destabilizing provocation by that country.

"I feel confident in telling you that the international community would regard a step like that by the North Koreans as just another irresponsible provocation and a clear violation of their international obligations," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.

North Korea notified UN agencies on Tuesday that it plans to launch a satellite this month, which could advance the isolated country's development of long-range missile technology.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Russel said a launch, "using ballistic missile technology," would be an "egregious violation" of North Korea's international obligations.

"This argues even more strongly for action by the UN Security Council and the international community to impose real consequences for the destabilizing action that (North Korea) has taken and is taking," Russel said.

He said it showed the need "to raise the cost to the leaders through the imposition of tough additional sanctions and of course by ensuring the thorough and rigorous enforcement of the existing sanctions."

Russel said negotiations were "active" at the UN and that the United States and North Korea's main ally China "share the view that there needs to be consequences to North Korea for its defiance and for its threatening behaviors."

"Our diplomats are in deep discussion in New York about how to tighten sanctions, how to respond to violations," he said.

Asked about China's cautious response to US calls for stronger and more effective sanctions on Pyongyang and Beijing's stress on the need for dialogue, Russel said:

"Yet another violation by the DPRK of the UN Security Council resolution, coming on the heels of its nuclear test, would be an unmistakable slap in the face to those who argue that you just need to show patience and dialogue with the North Koreans, but not sanctions."

Meanwhile, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation to broaden sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, human rights record, and cyber activities.

The committee passed the measure by unanimous voice vote and members said they expected it would be approved by the full Senate and, eventually, signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Space launch or ballistic missile test?

The US has seen increased activity around a North Korea site suggesting movement of components and propellant to be able to conduct a space launch in the near future, a US official told Reuters in late January.

"Our concern though is that they do a space-launch but really it's the same technology to develop ICBMs," the official said, referring to inter-continental ballistic missiles.

The official added such a launch could happen within a couple of weeks.

Late last month, Japan's Kyodo news agency cited an unnamed Japanese official saying that North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile as soon as in a week.

The official cited signs of possible preparations for a missile launch based on analysis of satellite imagery of the North's Tongchang-ri missile-test site on its west coast.

The report came as UN Security Council members were discussing fresh sanctions against North Korea after it conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6.

North Korea is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea last conducted a long-range rocket launch in late 2012, successfully putting an object into orbit in what experts believed to be part of its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The North is also seen to be working to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is some time away from perfecting the technology.

The Kyodo report gave no other details about the satellite-imagery analyses.

America's military response

US Navy Admiral Harry Harris, commander of US Pacific Command, said on Wednesday before the Kyodo report was published that North Korea's actions underscored the importance of strengthening an alliance among Japan, South Korea, and the US.

He said he supported reviewing the possibility of converting a US Aegis missile-defense test site in Hawaii into a combat-ready facility to bolster US defenses against ballistic-missile attacks, an initiative first reported by Reuters last week.

Harris also told reporters after his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that it made sense to put a mobile missile-defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea.

The THAAD system's mobility and strategic battery-unit placement is designed to counter threats around the globe. n April 2013, the Pentagon deployed a THAAD battery to Guam in order to deter North Korean provocations and further defend the Pacific region.

The THAAD missile does not carry a warhead, instead designed to use pure kinetic energy to deliver "hit-to-kill" lethality to ballistic missiles inside or outside of the atmosphere.

That deployment decision must be made jointly by the US and South Korea, Harris said.

North Korea said on January 6 that it had exploded a hydrogen bomb, although the US, other governments, and experts voiced skepticism that it had made such a technological advance.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

SEE ALSO: This interactive infographic shows all of the world’s nukes

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NOW WATCH: A North Korean defector tells us how she escaped and survived

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Defence Minister Gen Nakatani on Wednesday ordered ballistic missile defense units, including Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan and Patriot missile batteries onshore, to be ready to shoot down any North Korean rocket that threatened Japan.

Japan's decision to put its military on heightened alert comes after North Korea told the United Nations it plans to launch a satellite as early as next week, a move that could advance Pyongyang's long-range missile technology following its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6.

South Korea said earlier on Wednesday that the planned satellite launch was really a plan to launch a long-range missile and warned that the North will pay a "severe price" if it goes ahead. 

(Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Michael Perry)

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North Korea executed its army chief of staff, Ri Yong Gil, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday, which, if true, would be the latest in a series of executions, purges, and disappearances under the country's young leader.

The news comes amid heightened tension surrounding the isolated North Korea after its Sunday launch of a long-range rocket, about a month after it drew international condemnation for conducting its fourth nuclear test.

A source familiar with North Korean affairs also told Reuters that Ri had been executed. The source declined to be identified, given the sensitivity of the matter.

Ri, who was chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff, was executed this month for corruption and factional conspiracy, Yonhap and other South Korean media reported.

Yonhap did not identify its sources. The source who told Reuters the news declined to comment on how the information about the execution had been obtained.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service declined to comment, and it was not possible to independently verify the report.

The North rarely issues public announcement related to purges or executions of high-level officials.

A rare official confirmation of a high-profile execution came after Jang Song Thaek, leader Kim Jong Un's uncle and the man who was once considered the second-most-powerful figure in the country, was executed for corruption in 2013.

In May last year, the North executed its defense chief by antiaircraft gun at a firing range, the South's spy agency said in a report to members of parliament.

The North's military leadership has been in a state of perpetual reshuffle since Kim took power after the death of his father in 2011. He has changed his armed forces chief several times since then.

Some other high-ranking officials in the North have been absent from public view for extended periods, fueling speculation they may have been purged or removed, only to resurface.

Reporting by Jack Kim; editing by Tony Munroe and Robert Birsel.

SEE ALSO: This one graphic is all you need to see to realize North Korea is a real threat to the US

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NOW WATCH: Here’s how North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un became one of the world’s scariest dictators

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation on Friday broadening sanctions against North Korea, sending the measure to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Lawmakers said they wanted to make Washington's resolve clear to Pyongyang, but also to the United Nations and other governments - especially China, North Korea's lone major ally and main business partner.

The sanctions would target not just North Korea but also those who do business with it.

The vote was 408-2, following a 96-0 vote in the Senate on Wednesday.

Impatient with what they see as Obama's failure to respond to North Korean provocations, many of his fellow Democrats as well as the Republicans who control Congress have been clamoring for a clamp down since Pyongyang tested a nuclear device in January.

Pressure for congressional action further intensified after last weekend's satellite launch by North Korea.

Obama is not expected to veto the bill, given its huge support in Congress. Ben Rhodes, his deputy national security adviser, said the White House would review the measure but does not oppose Congress' efforts.

"I think this is an area where we and Congress are in the same space and agree on the need for increased sanctions," Rhodes said at an event at the Center for American Progress on Thursday.

The legislation would sanction anyone who engages in, facilitates or contributes to North Korea's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms-related materials, luxury goods, human rights abuses, activities undermining cyber security and the provision of materials for such activities.

Penalties include the seizure of assets, visa bans and denial of government contracts.

Unusually, the measure makes most of the sanctions mandatory, rather than giving the president the option to impose them. He can temporarily waive them by making the case that doing so would threaten national security.

The House had backed the sanctions measure 418-2 in January, but the Senate included some new provisions, including cyber security measures, in its version, sending it back to the House.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Richard Cowan and Bill Trott)

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NOW WATCH: Meet THAAD: America’s answer to North Korean threats

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently ordered preparations for launching "terror" attacks on South Koreans, a top Seoul official said Thursday, as worries about the North grow after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.

In televised remarks, senior South Korean presidential official Kim Sung-woo said North Korea's spy agency has begun work to implement Kim Jong Un's order to "muster anti-South terror capabilities that can pose a direct threat to our lives and security."

He said the possibility of North Korean attacks "is increasing more than ever" and asked for quick passage of an anti-terror bill in parliament.

North Korea has a history of attacks on South Korea, such as the 2010 shelling on an island that killed four South Koreans and the 1987 bombing of a South Korean passenger plane that killed all 115 people on board.

But it is impossible to independently confirm claims about any such attack preparations. The South Korean presidential official did not say where the latest information came from.

Earlier Thursday, Seoul's National Intelligence Service briefed ruling Saenuri Party members on a similar assessment on North Korea's attack preparations, according to one of the party officials who attended the private meeting.

During the briefing, the NIS, citing studies on past North Korean provocations and other unspecified assessments, said the attacks could target anti-Pyongyang activists, defectors and government officials in South Korea, the party official said requesting anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to media publicly.

Attacks on subways, shopping malls and other public places could also happen, he said.

The official quoted the NIS as saying North Korea could launch poisoning attacks on the activists and defectors, or lure them to China where they would be kidnapped.

The Saenuri official refused to say whether the briefing discussed how the information was obtained. The NIS, which has a mixed record on predicting developments in North Korea, said it could not confirm its reported assessment.

The standoff with North Korea is not expected to ease soon, as Seoul and Washington are discussing deploying a sophisticated US missile defense system in South Korea that Pyongyang warns would be a source of regional tension.

The allies also say their annual springtime military drills will be the largest ever. South Korea's defense minister said Thursday that about 15,000 US troops will take part, double of the number Washington normally sends.

The North says the drills are preparation for a northward invasion.

Seoul defense officials also said that they began preliminary talks on Feb. 7 with the United States on deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, the same day North Korea conducted what it said was a satellite launch but is condemned by Seoul and Washington as a banned test of missile technology.

The talks are aimed at working out details for formal missile deployment talks, such as who'll represent each side, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.

The deployment is opposed by China and Russia too. Opponents say the system could help US radar spot missiles in other countries.

The United States on Wednesday flew four stealth F-22 fighter jets over South Korea and reaffirmed it maintains an "ironclad commitment" to the defense of its Asian ally. Last month, it sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to SouthKorea following the North's fourth nuclear test.

Foreign analysts say the North's rocket launch and nuclear test put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the US mainland.

SEE ALSO: This one graphic is all you need to see to realize North Korea is a real threat to the US

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NOW WATCH: Meet THAAD: America’s answer to North Korean threats

North Korea warned on Tuesday of harsh retaliation against South Korea and its ally the United States, which are preparing for annual joint military exercises next month amid heightened tensions following the North's nuclear test and rocket launch.

The North calls the annual exercises preparations for war and routinely vows to retaliate.

"All the powerful strategic and tactical strike means of our revolutionary armed forces will go into preemptive and just operation to beat back the enemy forces to the last man if there is a slight sign of their special operation forces and equipment moving to carry out the so-called 'beheading operation' and 'high-density strike,'" the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army said in a statement carried by state media.

It said its first target would be South Korea's presidential Blue House, while US military bases in Asia and on the US mainland would be its secondary targets.

About 28,500 US troops are based in South Korea.

Last week, South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned of tough measures against the North following its January nuclear test and its long-range rocket launch this month, saying Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons would speed the collapse of the regime.

South Korea and the United States say both actions were violations of UN Security Council resolutions, and are pushing for further sanctions.

Days after the rocket launch, South Korea suspended the operation of the Kaesong industrial zone just north of the border, which had been run jointly with the North for more than a decade.

Isolated North Korea and the rich, democratic South are still technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty. 

(Reporting by Tony Munroe and Ju-min Park; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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North Korea has further inflamed tensions with South Korea by calling its president Park Geun-Hye a “crazy old b———,” in an article published in a state-controlled newspaper.

According to AFP, an article printed in the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper also described Park as a “murderous devil.”

“This tailless crazy old b——— called Park Geun-Hye is heaping further misery on our people, already suffering from the tragedy of division,” the article read, according to AFP.

The article was published in response to Park recently describing Kim Jong Un’s control over the North as an “extreme reign of terror.”

Tensions on the Korean peninsula were raised last month when the North claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. Weeks later the totalitarian regime launched a satellite rocket, interpreted by the rest of the world as a test of a long-range missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

An industrial park that is jointly-run by North and South Korea was shut earlier this month following the satellite launch.

The park employed over 50,000 North Koreans and had been running since 2004.

South Korea claimed last week that Kim Jong Un had ordered preparations to begin for launching “terror” attacks on South Korean nationals.

In televised remarks, senior South Korean presidential official Kim Sung-Woo said North Korea's spy agency has begun work to implement Kim Jong Un's order to "muster anti-South terror capabilities that can pose a direct threat to our lives and security."

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NOW WATCH: Meet THAAD: America’s answer to North Korean threats

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States and China have agreed on a draft resolution that would expand U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea over its latest nuclear test and hope to put it to a vote in the coming days, council diplomats said on Wednesday. 

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two council diplomats said Beijing and Washington reached a deal on the draft, which could go to the full 15-member council soon.

The two veto powers had been negotiating on a draft resolution for the past seven weeks following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6. 

"It's a substantive, long, full draft ... which I hope will be adopted in the coming days," a senior council diplomat said. "There were a significant number of blockage points between the two countries ... There is an agreement between those two countries."

The draft resolution is expected to call for the blacklisting of a number of individuals and entities, diplomats said. They were reluctant to provide further details.

North Korea's Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and its National Aerospace Development Agency or 'NADA', the body responsible for February's rocket launch, will be amongst the sanctioned entities, South Korea's Yonhap news reported.

The secretive General Reconnaissance Bureau, already sanctioned by the United States for its suspected role in the 2014 cyber attack on Sony Pictures, was also included in the blacklist, Yonhap said.

The council is scheduled to discuss the U.N. North Korea sanctions regime on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET (2000 GMT), the U.N. press office said.

China and the United States have had different views on how strong the response should be to North Korea since Pyongyang's nuclear test last month with Washington urging harsh punitive measures and Beijing emphasizing dialogue and milder U.N. steps that are confined to non-proliferation. 

Western diplomats told Reuters that restricting North Korean access to international ports was among the measures Washington was pushing Beijing to accept.

Washington also wanted to tighten restrictions on North Korean banks' access to the international financial system, the diplomats said.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 because of its multiple nuclear tests and rocket launches. In addition to a U.N. arms embargo, Pyongyang is banned from importing and exporting nuclear and missile technology and is not allowed to import luxury goods.

China and the United States signaled on Tuesday that they were near agreement on a draft sanctions resolution on North Korea.  

(Additional reporting by James Pearson; Editing by G Crosse, Alistair Bell and Michael Perry)

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The UN Security Council unanimously approves the toughest sanctions against North Korea in 20 years, the Associated Press reports.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said the new sanctions on Pyongyang go further than any U.N. sanctions regime in two decades and are aimed at cutting off funds for its nuclear and other banned weapons programs.

Under the sanctions, all cargo going to and from North Korea must be inspected and North Korean trade representatives in Syria, Iran and Vietnam are among 16 individuals added to a U.N. blacklist, along with 12 North Korean entities.

Previously states only had to inspect North Korean cargo shipments if they had reasonable grounds to believe they contained illicit goods.

"Virtually all of the DPRK's (North Korea) resources are channeled into its reckless and relentless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction," Power told the council after the vote, adding that the cargo inspection provisions are "hugely significant."

After nearly two months of bilateral negotiations that at one point involved US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, China agreed to support the unusually tough measures intended to persuade its close ally North Korea to abandon its atomic weapons program.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 because of its four nuclear tests and multiple rocket launches.

The sanctions came in response to its recent nuclear test and Feb. 7 rocket launch that Washington and its allies said used banned ballistic missile technology. Pyongyang said it was a peaceful satellite launch.

The list of explicitly banned luxury goods has been expanded to include luxury watches, aquatic recreational vehicles, snowmobiles worth more than $2,000, lead crystal items and recreational sports equipment.

The official North Korean news agency KCNA said on Monday the proposed sanctions were "a wanton infringement on (North Korea's) sovereignty and grave challenge to it."

The proposal closes a gap in the U.N. arms embargo on Pyongyang by banning all weapons imports and exports.

There is also an unprecedented ban on the transfer to North Korea of any item that could directly contribute to the operational capabilities of its armed forces, such as trucks that could be modified for military purposes.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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NOW WATCH: You are considered a traitor for having dusty photos of the leaders in North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his country's nuclear weapons made ready for use at a moment's notice, the country's official state news agency reported Friday.

Kim also said his country will ready its military so it is prepared to carry out pre-emptive attacks, calling the current situation very precarious, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The threats in the statement are part of the authoritarian nation's regular propaganda effort to show strength in the face of what it sees as an effort by its enemies South Korea and the United States to overthrow its leaders; it follows harsh U.N. sanctions over the North's recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch and comes ahead of joint U.S.-South Korean war games this month that the North claims are invasion preparations.

North Korea has threatened nuclear war in the past, but it is unclear just how advanced the country's nuclear program really is. Pyongyang is thought to have a handful of crude atomic bombs, but there is considerable outside debate about whether it is technologically able to shrink a warhead and mount it on a missile.

"The only way for defending the sovereignty of our nation and its right to existence under the present extreme situation is to bolster up nuclear force both in quality and quantity," the North's dispatch Friday said, paraphrasing Kim Jong Un. It said that Kim stressed "the need to get the nuclear warheads deployed for national defense always on standby so as to be fired any moment."

On Thursday, North Korea fired six short-range projectiles into the sea off its east coast, South Korean officials said, just hours after the U.N. Security Council approved the toughest sanctions on the North in two decades.

The firings also came shortly after South Korea's National Assembly passed its first legislation on human rights in North Korea.

The North Korean projectiles, fired from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan, flew about 100 to 150 kilometers (60 to 90 miles) before landing in the sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

North Korea routinely test-fires missiles and rockets, but often conducts weapons launches when angered at international condemnation.

Thursday's firings were seen as a "low-level" response to the U.N. sanctions, with North Korea unlikely to launch any major provocation until its landmark ruling Workers' Party convention in May, according to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

North Korean citizens in the capital, Pyongyang, interviewed by The Associated Press said Thursday they believe their country can fight off any sanctions.

"No kind of sanctions will ever work on us, because we've lived under U.S. sanctions for more than half a century," said Pyongyang resident Song Hyo Il. "And in the future, we're going to build a powerful and prosperous country here, relying on our own development."

North Korean state media earlier warned that the imposition of new sanctions would be a "grave provocation" that shows "extreme" U.S. hostility against the country. It said the sanctions would not result in the country's collapse or prevent it from launching more rockets.

The U.N. sanctions include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to the North; and the expulsion of North Korean diplomats who engage in "illicit activities."

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China, North Korea's closest ally, hoped the U.N. sanctions would be implemented "comprehensively and seriously," while harm to ordinary North Korean citizens would be avoided.

At the United Nations, Russia's ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, asked about the North's firing of short-range projectiles, said, "It means that they're not drawing the proper conclusions yet."

Japan's U.N. ambassador, Motohide Yoshikawa, said, "That's their way of reacting to what we have decided."

"They may do something more," Yoshikawa said. "So we will see."

In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb. Last month, it put a satellite into orbit with a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others saw as a cover for a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

Just before the U.N. sanctions were unanimously adopted, South Korea's National Assembly passed a bill that would establish a center tasked with collecting, archiving and publishing information about human rights in North Korea. It is required to transfer that information to the Justice Ministry, a step parliamentary officials say would provide legal grounds to punish rights violators in North Korea when the two Koreas eventually reunify.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country has miniaturized nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles and ordered improvements in the power and precision of its arsenal, state media reported on Wednesday.

Kim has called for his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea and stand ready to use nuclear weapons, stepping up belligerent rhetoric after coming under new U.N. and bilateral sanctions for its nuclear and rocket tests.

U.S. and South Korean troops began large-scale military drills this week, which the North called "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

Kim's comments, released on Wednesday, were his first direct mention of the claim, made repeatedly in state media, to have successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead, which has been widely questioned and never independently verified.

"The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them," KCNA quoted Kim as saying as he inspected the work of nuclear scientists, adding "this can be called a true nuclear deterrent".

"He stressed the importance of building ever more powerful, precision and miniaturized nuclear weapons and their delivery means," KCNA said.

Kim also inspected the nuclear warhead designed for thermo-nuclear reaction, KCNA said, referring to a miniaturized hydrogen bomb that the country said it tested on Jan. 6.

Rodong Sinmun, official daily of the North's ruling party, carried pictures of Kim in what seemed to be a large hangar speaking to aides standing in front of a silver spherical object.

They also showed a large object similar to the KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) previously put on display at military parades, with Kim holding a half-smoked cigarette in one of the images.

South Korea's defense ministry said after the release of the images that it did not believe the Northhas successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead or deployed a functioning ICBM.

That assessment is in line with the views of South Korean and U.S. officials that the North has likely made some advances in trying to put a nuclear warhead on a missile, but that there is no proof it has mastered the technology.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking by telephone to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, described the situation on the Korean peninsula as "very tense" and called for all parties be remain calm and exercise restraint, China's foreign ministry said.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 claiming to have set off a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, which was disputed by many experts and the governments of South Korea and the United States. The blast detected from the test was simply too small to back up the claim, experts said at the time.

The U.N. Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the isolated state last week for the nuclear test. It launched a long-range rocket in February drawing international criticism and sanctions from its rival, South Korea.

South Korea on Tuesday announced further measures aimed at isolating the North by blacklisting individuals and entities that it said were linked to Pyongyang's weapons program.

China also stepped up pressure on the North by barring one of the 31 ships on its transport ministry's blacklist.

But a U.N. panel set up to monitor sanctions under an earlier Security Council resolution adopted in 2009 said in a report released on Tuesday that it had "serious questions about the efficacy of the current U.N. sanctions regime."

North Korea has been "effective in evading sanctions" by continuing to engage in banned trade, "facilitated by the low level of implementation of Security Council resolutions by Member States," the Panel of Experts said.

"The reasons are diverse, but include lack of political will, inadequate enabling legislation, lack of understanding of the resolutions and low prioritization," it said.

(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park and James Pearson in Seoul and Jessica Macy Yu in Beijing; Editing by Michael Perry and Nick Macfie)

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SEOUL — North Korea claimed Sunday that it could wipe out Manhattan by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile to the heart of New York, the latest in a string of brazen threats.

Although there are many reasons to believe that Kim Jong Un's regime is exaggerating its technical capabilities, the near-daily drumbeat of boasts and warnings from Pyongyang underlines North Korea's anger at efforts to thwart its ambitions.

"Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union," DPRK Today, a state-run outlet that uses the official acronym for North Korea, reported Sunday.

"If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an inter-continental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes," the report said, citing a nuclear scientist named Cho Hyong Il.

The website is a strange choice for issuing such a proclamation, given that it also carried reports about rabbit farming and domestically made school backpacks.

North Korea's newly developed hydrogen bomb "surpasses our imagination," Cho is quoted as saying, because it is many times as powerful as anything the Soviet Union had.

"The H-bomb developed by the Soviet Union in the past was able to smash windows of buildings 1,000 kms away and the heat was strong enough to cause third-degree burns 100 kms away," the report continued. (A thousand kilometers is about 625 miles; 100 kilometers, 62.5 miles)

Kim in January ordered North Korea's fourth nuclear test and claimed that it was a hydrogen bomb, not a simple atomic one. But most experts are skeptical of the claim, saying the seismic waves caused by the blast were similar to those caused by the North's three previous tests.

Then in February, Kim oversaw the launch of what North Korea said was a rocket that put a satellite into orbit, a move that is widely considered part of a long-range ballistic-missile program.

North Korea has made advances in its intercontinental ballistic-missile program, and experts generally conclude that the United States' West Coast could be in reach but that there has been no suggestion that the North would be able to hit the East Coast.

Many experts are also skeptical of the "miniaturized warhead" that Kim showed off last week during a visit to a nuclear weapons plant.

But Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, warned against dismissing it too soon.

"It does not look like U.S. devices, to be sure, but it is hard to know if aspects of the model are truly implausible or simply that North Korean nuclear weapons look different than their Soviet and American cousins," Lewis wrote in an analysis for 38 North, a website devoted to North Korea. "The size, however, is consistent with my expectations for North Korea."

As international condemnation of the North's acts mounted, culminating this month in the toughest United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang yet, Kim's regime has become increasingly belligerent, firing missiles into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, and issuing a new threat or denunciation almost every day.

The sanctions coincide with annual spring drills between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, which Pyongyang considers a rehearsal for an invasion. The current exercises are viewed as particularly antagonistic because special forces are practicing "decapitation strikes" on regime leaders and the destruction of nuclear and missile sites.

On Friday, North Korea's state media reported that Kim ordered more nuclear tests, while the North's Korean People's Army warned in a statement Saturday that it would counter the drills by "liberat[ing] the whole of South Korea including Seoul . . . with an ultra-precision blitzkrieg strike of the Korean style."

South Korea's Defense Ministry urged Pyongyang to stop its threats and provocations.

"If the North continues to make provocations despite the stern warnings made by our military, it is inevitable for us to roll out a strict response that may lead to the destruction of the Pyongyang regime," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

(Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report.)

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A North Korean submarine has gone missing at sea and is presumed to have sunk, according to reports from the US and South Korea.

The vessel had reportedly been operating off the North Korean coast during the week when it disappeared.

A South Korean defence ministry said Seoul was investigating the reports. Pentagon officials declined to comment on the matter.

The US military had been observing the submarine off the North’s eastern coast, CNN said, citing three US officials familiar with the incident.

American spy satellites, aircraft and ships had been watching as the North Korean navy searched for the missing sub, the report said.

The US was unsure if the missing vessel is adrift or whether it has sunk, CNN reported, but officials believe it suffered a failure during an exercise.

The US Naval Institute (USNI) News said the submarine was presumed sunk.

“The speculation is that it sank,” an unidentified US official was quoted as telling USNI News.

“The North Koreans have not made an attempt to indicate there is something wrong or that they require help or some type of assistance.”

North Korea’s navy operates a fleet of 70 submarines, most of them being old diesel models capable of little more than coastal defence and limited offensive capabilities.

But they still pose a threat to South Korean vessels. In 2010 a South Korean corvette was reportedly torpedoed by a North Korean submarine near their sea border.

In August 2015 Seoul said said 70% of the North’s total submarine fleet – or around 50 vessels – had left their bases and disappeared from the South’s military radar, sparking alarm.

The incident comes as tensions were further heightened on the Korean peninsula by a fresh threat from Pyongyang.

The official KCNA news agency, citing a statement from military chiefs, warned of a “pre-emptive retaliatory strike at the enemy groups” involved in the joint US-South Korean drill.

Pyongyang added it planned to respond to the drills with an “operation to liberate the whole of South Korea including Seoul” with an “ultra-precision blitzkrieg”.

Responding to the statement, South Korea’s defence ministry urged Pyongyang to stop making threats or further provocations, according to Yonhap news agency.

With Agence France-Presse. This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

This article was written by Agencies and Staff from The Guardian and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

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NOW WATCH: You are considered a traitor for having dusty photos of the leaders in North Korea

The following post was originally published on June 14, 2015. We are republishing after news that North Korea lost one of its submarines at sea.

The admirals of the Soviet Union declared North Korea’s prize submarine to be obsolete back in 1961, and Western experts stubbornly point out its inability to sink enemy vessels.

But Kim Jong-un, the “Supreme Leader” of North Korea, offered navigation tips and issued stern battle orders during a proud tour of a Romeo class submarine of the People’s Navy.

Designed in the 1950s, the vessel was in production for the Soviet Union for only 48 months until being succeeded by nuclear-powered submarines 53 years ago.

Every other navy in the world then gave up on the Romeo, with its noisy and easily detectable diesel engine — apart, that is, from North Korea’s. The country has 20 Romeo class boats, comprising almost a third of its submarine fleet.

During his visit, Mr Kim mounted the vessel’s conning tower and went on a short voyage, during which the official news agency reported that the multi-talented leader “taught” the submarine’s captain a “good method of navigation”.

Mr Kim also urged his commanders to think “only” of “battles” and “spur combat preparations”.

Any captain of a Romeo class submarine might, however, view hostilities with trepidation.

The boats carry Yu-4 torpedoes, a Chinese-made weapon dating from the 1960s with a range of four miles.

The Los Angeles Class nuclear-powered attack submarines of the US Navy, meanwhile, carry Harpoon missiles that can sink a ship 150 miles away.

The North Korean vessel is a “basic” model with “virtually no anti-submarine performance”, says IHS Jane’s Fighting Ships.

This means the Romeo might try damaging a ship — provided it happens to be less than four miles away — but it would be helpless against an enemy submarine trying to send it to the bottom.

At least one North Korean submarine has gone to the bottom without any help from the country’s enemies.

A Romeo class boat sank in an apparent accident in 1985.

Of North Korea’s 20 submarines in this category, seven were supplied by China between 1973 and 1975 and the rest built in the country’s own shipyards between 1976 and 1995.

More than three decades after the Soviet Union had stopped making the vessel — and after it had been phased out by the navies of Syria, Algeria and China — North Korea was still producing its own version of the Romeo.

Mr Kim’s decision to pay a high profile visit seems at odds with the official doctrine of the so-called People’s Navy, which stresses the importance of camouflage and concealment.

So seriously were these tasks taken that 2004 was officially declared the “Year of Camouflage”.

On the 10th anniversary of that occasion, however, Mr Kim allowed photographs of the unlikely pride of his fleet to be released to the world.

Cdre Stephen Saunders, the editor of IHS Jane’s Fighting Ships, summed up: “The fact that the Dear Successor is spending time on what, in any other navy, would be an obsolete submarine tells its own story.”

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NOW WATCH: You are considered a traitor for having dusty photos of the leaders in North Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would soon conduct a nuclear warhead test and test launch ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Kim made the comments as he supervised a successful simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic missile that measured the "thermodynamic structural stability of newly-developed heat-resisting materials," KCNA said.

"Declaring that a nuclear warhead explosion test and a test-fire of several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads will be conducted in a short time to further enhance the reliance of nuclear attack capability, he (Kim) instructed the relevant section to make prearrangement for them to the last detail," the agency said.

The report comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula as South Korean and U.S. troops stage annual military exercises that Seoul has described as the largest ever. The North has issued belligerent statements almost daily, after coming under new United Nations sanctions.

The United Nations Security Council imposed a new resolution to tighten sanctions against the North after a nuclear test in January and the launch of a long-range rocket last month.

U.S. and South Korean experts have said the general consensus was that North Korea had not yet successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. More crucially, the consensus is that there have been no tests to prove it has mastered the re-entry technology needed to bring a payload back into the atmosphere.

Kim said last week that his country had indeed miniaturized a nuclear warhead, however.

The North, which has conducted four nuclear tests, also claims to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in January, but most experts said the blast was too small to back up the assertion.

The North also says the satellites it has launched into orbit are functioning successfully, although that has never been independently verified.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park; Editing by Tom Brown)

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The U.S. student sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by North Korea's supreme court was convicted for trying to steal a banner invoking former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, state media footage of the trial indicates.

The court sentenced the student, Otto Warmbier, on Wednesday for "crimes against the state," North Korean media reported.

The United States condemned the punishment as politically motivated and called on North Korea to pardon the University of Virginia student from Wyoming, Ohio, and release him on humanitarian grounds.

The sentencing came as North Korea is increasingly isolated and facing tough new U.N. resolutions following a nuclear test in January and a rocket launch last month. A White House spokesman said it was "increasingly clear" North Korea sought to use U.S. citizens as pawns to pursue a political agenda.

North Korean state media said Warmbier had tried to steal an item bearing a political slogan. A state media picture showed a banner, presented as evidence during his one-hour trial, appearing to bear a slogan extolling the country's late leader.

Although the name was censored in the photograph, it is likely the slogan read: "Let's arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong Il patriotism!"

The phrase "Kim Jong Il Patriotism" was used heavily to glorify the late leader after he died in 2011. The slogan has been described by his son and successor, Kim Jong Un, as the "crystallization of socialist patriotism".

Images and references to North Korea's leaders, who are treated with almost god-like status in propaganda, are sacrosanct.

Ordinary North Koreans are required to keep and carefully maintain portraits of former leaders Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung. A special large, bold typeface is used when their names are printed.

The court showed still CCTV images of Warmbier, 21, entering a staff-only part of the Yanggakdo International Hotel, which towers above the capital, Pyongyang, from an island in the middle of the Taedong River.

Warmbier was at the end of a five-day group tour when he was stopped at the airport and taken away, according to the tour operator that arranged the trip.

In a statement last month, Warmbier confessed to "severe crimes" against the state.

Footage and fingerprints 

Warmbier entered the restricted area of the hotel in the early hours of Jan. 1, according to a time stamp on a CCTV image used as part of witness testimony to identify Warmbier.

That witness was Warmbier's North Korean tour guide, identified as Mr Byon, sources who recognized him confirmed to Reuters after studying the footage.

The shirt and boots worn by Warmbier at the time along with his passport, mobile phone and an ID card were also given as evidence in the trial, the footage showed.

"When I got off work, there was nothing amiss," a second witness, apparently a hotel staff member, told the court.

"But when I returned, I thought someone had deliberately taken the slogan down, so I mobilized security to prevent damage to it and reported it to the authorities."

The court showed images on a flat screen showing efforts to match fingerprints from the banner with Warmbier's fingerprints.

Photos of the trial showed Warmbier marking copies of indictment and sentencing documents with red ink on his thumb.

As he was led from the court in handcuffs, Warmbier appeared to turn to Swedish ambassador to North Korea Torkel Stiernlöf, who was present at the trial, and ask him to "keep working" on his case, according to the footage.

The United States does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea and is represented in consular matters there by the Swedish embassy.

North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners and has used jailed Americans in the past to extract high-profile visits from the United States to secure their release. 

(Editing by Tony Munroe, Robert Birsel)

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