KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A high-level defector says he's certain North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was behind Kim Jong Nam's death.

Thae Yong Ho told reporters from Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV that it was unthinkable that Kim Jong Un would not have approved of the high-profile assassination of his half brother.

In the report broadcast Thursday from Seoul, Thae says "North Korea is a society ruled in terror. For a big decision like killing Kim Jong Nam, no one could make a decision like that except Kim Jong Un."

Thae was the former deputy head of the North Korean Embassy in London until last year, when he fled to SouthKorea, becoming the most senior diplomat to switch sides.

He added that he was "not afraid of terrifying threats (from North Korea). I have to be in public."

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A North Korean envoy has claimed it was a heart attack, not a lethal nerve agent, that killed Kim Jong Un's brother, the AP reports.

An autopsy carried out by Malaysian authorities showed that the highly toxic VX nerve agent was responsible for Kim Jong Nam's death.

But Ri Tong Il, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Nations, rejected the findings.

He said on Thursday that Kim Jong Nam was taking medication for heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure, and that a heart attack was probably the cause of death.

Kim Jong Nam was killed on February 13, after being assaulted at the Kuala Lumpur airport by two women who allegedly wiped the chemical VX on his face. Both women now claim they were duped into believing they were on a prank tv show and that they did not intend to kill him.

The North Korean envoy also referred to the victim as Kim Chol, the name on the victim's diplomatic passport, rather than Kim Jong Nam, although authorities in Malaysia have identified him as the estranged brother of North Korea's leader.

South Korean and US officials have said they believe North Korean agents assassinated Kim Jong Nam who was a North Korea exile living in Macau under Beijing's protection.

Ri Tong Il's comments come as a high-level defector of the North Korea regime said he's certain leader Kim Jong Un was behind Kim Jong Nam's death. "North Korea is a society ruled in terror. For a big decision like killing Kim Jong Nam, no one could make a decision like that except Kim Jong Un,"Thae Yong Ho said.

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The women accused of killing Kim Jong Un's brother Kim Jong-nam are still alive, for now.

Why they're still alive has been a great mystery for the past couple of days.

Indonesian suspect Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong are thought to have approached Kim at a Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13 and wiped the nerve gas VX onto his face.

The CCTV footage appears damning:

Kim sought medical help but died 20 minutes later on his way to the hospital.

The women have said they carried out the attack inadvertently, thinking it was a TV-show prank. They both face the death penalty in Malaysia if convicted of murder.

Several North Koreans who fled the country after Kim's death are wanted for questioning.

The accused women are lucky to be alive if they did indeed handle VX. A minute amount of the substance, banned under international law, can kill up to 500 people through skin exposure alone.

That raises some questions for which no one yet has any answers.

Does North Korea have a stockpile of chemical weapons, perhaps using the attack to notify the rest of the world about it?

If so, has it developed VZ to the point at which it can control its toxicity to kill just one person?

Or has North Korea had a supply for so long that its effectiveness is wearing thin?

Both of the accused immediately rushed to the airport bathroom, and at least one vomited afterward.

It's possible that the North Koreans who fled the country coated the women's hands with protective chemicals first. An antidote, atropine, can be administered after exposure, but there is also the question of how everyone else in the crowded airport avoided exposure.

The most logical answer so far comes from Vipin Narang at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He has suggested the attack required two people for one good reason — with the VX, he says, used in a "binary form."

Narang says one of the accused may have had a sulphur-containing liquid on her hands. The other then perhaps wielded a "complex but nontoxic compound called QL."

Combined, they create VX.

This is actually the form countries that still have stockpiles of VX — including Russia and the US — store it in, because it is so dangerous.

The two combine when the shells and bombs that deliver them explode.

As it tries to hold together relations with Malaysia, one of its only friends, North Korea would prefer the cause of death to be heart attack.

It claims accusations of assassination are a smear attempt and is still demanding Kim's body be returned before an autopsy can be carried out by Malaysian authorities.

SEE ALSO: One of the women suspected of assassinating Kim Jong Un's half-brother wore an LOL T-shirt

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KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia on Saturday expelled the North Korean ambassador to the country, declaring him "persona non grata" and asking the envoy to leave Malaysia within 48 hours.

The move comes nearly three weeks after Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was murdered at Kuala Lumpur's airport with a toxic nerve agent.

U.S. and South Korean officials have said he was killed by agents of the North Korean regime.

Kang Chol, North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia, said last month his country "cannot trust" Malaysia's handling of the probe, and also accused the country of "colluding with outside forces" in a veiled reference to bitter rival South Korea.

Malaysian foreign minister Anifah Haji Aman said in a statement on Saturday that Malaysia had demanded an apology from the ambassador for his comments, but none was forthcoming.

"Malaysia will react strongly against any insults made against it or any attempt to tarnish its reputation," Anifah said.

SEE ALSO: The nerve agent used to kill Kim Jong-nam is lethal to touch — but the suspects in his killing are alive

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North Korea launched a salvo of four missiles on Sunday night, potentially telegraphing a "saturation attack" intended to defeat US, South Korean, or Japanese missile defenses.

The missiles sputtered out, landing in the waters close to Japan's coast without doing any damage, and the US and South Korea quickly responded by agreeing to deploy one of the world's best missile defense systems, the Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense.

After a February 12 missile test, which demonstrated its own scarily improved capabilities, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said that the launch posed a "grave threat to our national security," but that the US was "capable of defending against a North Korean ballistic missile attack."

But experts have repeatedly told Business Insider that even the greatest missile defenses don't offer complete protection from North Korea's ballistic missiles, and as North Korea refuses to play by the West's rules, missile defense becomes increasingly irrelevant.

What North Korea demonstrated on Sunday was a salvo fire, which intends to overwhelm missile defenses with a volume of missiles. North Korea could launch hundreds of missiles from mobile launchers hidden across the country at any given moment. Some of them could be decoys. Some of them could be long-range missiles lofted higher away from earth to reenter the atmosphere at speeds no interceptor missile could hope to match.

North Korea's submarine could sail beyond the range of US and allied defenses and launch a nuke from the high seas. In short, missile defenses can be fooled, and North Korea showed on Sunday it doesn't intend to be outfoxed.

Even with the US's THAAD deployed and with constant monitoring, Kelsey Davenport, the director of nonproliferation at the Arms Control Association, told Business Insider that missile defense isn't a good enough response to North Korea's missile tests — diplomatic engagement is needed.

"The major issue with relying on the missile defense system is capacity," Ian Williams, associate director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider.

Davenport said: "Missile defense is not a surefire way to negate the threat posed by another country's nuclear-capable ballistic missiles."

The US has 25,000 troops deployed to South Korea and more than 50,000 in Japan. Seoul, South Korea's exposed capital city, is home to 10 million civilians. No missile defense system on the planet can guarantee the safety of every one of these people.

The US just doesn't "have enough interceptors to sit and play catch with everything that North Korea can throw," Williams said. "US and allied missile defenses could likely absorb a first wave, but there would need to be coordination with strike forces to start knocking out North Korea's missiles out before they could be launched."

The second major issue, according to Williams, is coverage. The US uses multiple layers of missile defense systems like Patriot missile-defense batteries and guided-missile destroyer ships, but they provide uneven coverage in the region.

Even Abel Romero
, the director of government relations
 at the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance,
 told Business Insider that missile defense is not "solely the answer" to stopping threats from North Korea. China and Russia have missiles that can reach the US in less than 30 minutes, defeat all existing missile defenses, and target up to 10 separate locations with individual warheads, but no one in the US looks to defend against such attacks, according to Romero.

"As of right now, I've never heard anyone come out and say we need to build a missile defense system to defend us from Russia and China," said Romero.

Instead, the US uses diplomacy and the doctrine of mutually assured destruction to coexist with Russia and China. As the nuclear missile threat grows from North Korea, the US must find a way to coexist with it — or to defeat it before it can stage an attack.

SEE ALSO: The US is considering a direct strike against North Korea — here’s how it would go down

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KUALA LUMPUR/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country on Tuesday, sparking tit-for-tat action by Malaysia, as police investigating the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur sought to question three men hiding in the North Korean embassy.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak accused North Korea of "effectively holding our citizens hostage" and held an emergency meeting of his National Security Council.

The moves underscored the dramatic deterioration in ties with one of North Korea's few friends outside China since the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13. 

Malaysia says the assassins used VX nerve agent, a chemical listed by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction. 

Police have identified eight North Koreans wanted in connection with the murder, including two of the three believed to be hiding in the embassy - a senior North Korean diplomat and a state airline employee. 

The only people charged so far are a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman, accused of smearing the victim's face with VX. He died within 20 minutes.

North Korea's foreign ministry issued a temporary ban on Malaysians leaving the country, "until the incident that happened in Malaysia is properly solved," state-run Korea Central News Agency said. 

"In this period the diplomats and citizens of Malaysia may work and live normally under the same conditions and circumstances as before." 

Hostage-taking

Najib denounced the travel ban in a statement as an "abhorrent act" that was in "total disregard of all international law and diplomatic norms".

He said he had instructed the police "to prevent all North Korean citizens in Malaysia from leaving the country until we are assured of the safety and security of all Malaysians in North Korea".

Najib returned from Indonesia and held an emergency meeting of his National Security Council.

There was no statement after the meeting, but the prime minister addressed Malaysians' concerns on social media.

"I understand the feelings and concerns of the family and friends of Malaysians held in North Korea. We assure that we are doing everything we can to make sure they come back to the country safely."

Euan Graham, Director, International Security at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, called the latest events "a classic own goal of North Korea's making", triggered "by the most outrageous public murder than you can image, using a chemical weapon in a crowded international airport.

"You'd have to go back a long way for this kind of wholesale diplomatic meltdown."

The Malaysian murder and the four ballistic missiles North Korea test-launched on Monday "creates a more supportive climate for even tougher rounds of sanctions and coercive measures" against Pyongyang, Graham added.

Before the murder, North Korea could count Malaysia as one of its strongest friends. But Malaysia has since stopped visa-free travel and on Monday it expelled North Korea's ambassador for questioning the impartiality of the murder investigation.

Last week, Malaysia said it would investigate North Korea front companies after a Reuters report showed that Pyongyang's spy agency was running an arms network in the country.

No raid

There are 11 Malaysians in North Korea, according to a Malaysian foreign ministry official, including three embassy staff, six family members, and two others.

Hundreds of North Koreans are believed to be in Malaysia, most of them students and workers. The focus, however, was on its embassy staff.

"We are trying to physically identify all the embassy staff who are here," deputy home minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed told reporters outside the North Korean embassy.

He said staff would not be allowed to leave the embassy "until we are satisfied of their numbers and where they are".

By early afternoon, Malaysian police had removed tape and a police car blocking the North Korean embassy driveway.

Speaking at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, Malaysia's police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said police would not raid the embassy building to get the three North Koreans sought in connection with the murder.

"We will wait for them to come out," the police chief said. "We have got all the time."

Aside from those three suspects, police have said four other wanted North Koreans left Malaysia in the hours after the murder.

The only North Korean suspect to be apprehended was deported on Friday, released due to insufficient evidence.

U.S. officials and South Korean intelligence suspect North Korean agents were behind the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, who had been living in Macau under China's protection. He had spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic rule of North Korea.

North Korea has refused to accept the dead man is leader Kim Jong Un's half brother, and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack.

No next of kin have come forward to claim the body, but the Malaysian police chief said he was confident of obtaining DNA samples to formally identify the murdered man. 

(Additional reporting by A.AnanthaLakshmi and Liz Lee in KUALA LUMPUR and Jack Kim in SEOUL; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Bill Tarrant)

SEE ALSO: North Korea and Malaysia are trading blows over the death of Kim Jong Un's brother

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The son of Kim Jong-nam, the slain half-brother of North Korea's dictatorial ruler, has appeared to surface for the first time since his father's death, The New York Times reported.

In a YouTube clip published on March 7, Kim Han-sol identified himself as Kim Jong-nam's 21-year-old son. In the video, he said he and his family are now living in an undisclosed location out of fear for their safety.

"We hope this gets better soon," the man said at the end of the 40-second video, after showing what appeared to be a North Korean passport. 

Do Hee-youn, head of the Citizens' Coalition for the Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, which is based in Seoul, told the Times that the man was Han-sol.

Kim Jong-nam, who fell out of favor with the North Korean ruling family after getting caught entering Japan for a trip to Disneyland on a fake passport in 2001, was poisoned, authorities say, with a lethal nerve agent at a Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13. The killing has led to a diplomatic fallout between Malaysia and North Korea, as North Korea's state-run media lashed out at Malaysia's government for performing an autopsy and accused Malaysian police of trying to "politicize the transfer of the body."  

After Malaysian authorities identified North Korean officials as suspects alongside those thought to be hired as assassins, Malaysia expelled North Korea's ambassador from the country, which was one of the few in the world to have a visa-free system with North Korea. North Korea retailated by barring Malaysians currently in the country from leaving. 

Kim Han-sol is one of six children Kim Jong-nam fathered with several different women. He was reportedly placed under increased police protection while studying at an elite university in France in 2013.

SEE ALSO: Kim Jong Un's half brother was assassinated — here's what we know so far

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GENEVA (Reuters) - A veteran investigator urged the United Nations on Thursday to appoint an international legal expert to prepare judicial proceedings against North Korea's leadership for documented crimes against humanity.

His call came amid an international furor over the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and critic of his rule, in Malaysia last month.

A U.N. commission of inquiry, in a 2014 report issued after it conducted interviews and public hearings with defectors, cataloged massive violations in North Korea - including large prison camps, starvation and executions - that it said should be brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney-general who served on the U.N. commission of inquiry on North Korea, said the U.N. Human Rights Council must pursue North Korean accountability during its current session.

"There is a need for the Human Rights Council to appoint an independent special expert to oversee the judicial prosecutorial process which will lead up to an eventual mechanism of accountability," Marzuki told a panel held on the sidelines of the Geneva forum.

The landmark 2014 report, rejected by Pyongyang, said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might be personally responsible for crimes against humanity.

Evidence recorded over the past decade or more by U.N. investigators should be given to a new U.N. mechanism for prosecution, he said, adding: "Let us prevail in the end-game."

Experts hope an ad hoc tribunal on North Korea may be set up someday, as China would be expected to veto any move in the U.N. Security Council to refer its ally to the ICC.

The "assassination" of Kim Jong Nam ought to be a "wake-up call", Lee Jung-Hoon, South Korean ambassador for North Korean human rights, told the event.

"That is why I think this assassination is such a game-changer because a general audience is seeing for the first time live what kind of regime we are really dealing with," Lee said.

"If North Korea is able to do this to the older brother of Kim, to the uncle of Kim (Jang Song Thaek executed in 2013), and all the elite purging left and right, can you imagine what life might be like if you are a prisoner in a North Korean prison camp, with over 100,000 of them?" he said.

Australian Justice Michael Kirby, who chaired the 2014 inquiry, said witness statements would be used once a tribunal and prosecutor were appointed. "Accountability is the name of the game in human rights, otherwise it's all rhetoric."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Mark Heinrich)

SEE ALSO: Kim Jong Un's half brother was assassinated — here's what we know so far

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For all the storm and turmoil that have kept this president in a near-constant state of agitation, Donald Trump has not yet faced any crises (other than those of his own making) or made a single decision on foreign policy.

SEE ALSO: DONALD TRUMP: Here's how I'd handle that 'madman' in North Korea

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GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea boycotted a U.N. review of its human rights record on Monday, shunning calls to hold to account the Pyongyang leadership for crimes against humanity documented by the world body.

A 2014 U.N. report detailed the use of political prison camps, starvation and executions, saying security chiefs and possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un himself should face international justice.

The U.N. Human Rights Council held a two-hour session on abuses in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) amid rising tensions on the divided peninsula following its latest missile tests last week and two nuclear tests last year.

"We are not participating in any meeting on DPRK's human rights situation because it is politically motivated," Choe Myong Nam, Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told Reuters.

U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the DPRK Tomas Ojea Quintana said he regretted the decision but was still seeking engagement with North Korea.

Rising political and military tensions should not shield ongoing violations from international scrutiny, he said.

"Military tensions have brought human rights dialogue with the DPRK to a standstill," Ojea Quintana told the 47-member forum.

He also called for an independent investigation into the killing of Kim Jong Nam, estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, in Malaysia last month, saying there may be a need to "protect other persons from targeted killings".

Between 80,000 and 120,000 people are held in four known political prison camps in North Korea and hundreds of families in South Korea and Japan are looking for missing relatives believed abducted by North Korean agents, Ojea Quintana said.

"We remain deeply concerned by ongoing widespread and gross human rights violations and abuses in the DPRK, including summary executions, enslavement, torture, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearances," said William Mozdzierz,

head of the U.S. delegation.

He added that the U.S. is open to improved relations if the DPRK was willing to meet its international obligations.

South Korea's envoy Lim Jung-taek voiced dismay that three years after the landmark U.N. report there was "no glimpse of hope" for ending "systematic, widespread and gross violations".

Ying Wang of China, North Korea's main ally, said Beijing was "against the politicization of human rights issues" while seeking dialogue and de-escalation on the peninsula.

Sara Hossain, a member of the Council's group of independent experts on accountability, said the U.N. should consider ways of prosecuting those responsible for human rights abuses in North Korea, possibly by creating an international tribunal.

"The groundwork for future criminal trials should be laid now," she said.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Julia Glover)

SEE ALSO: North Korea could be Trump's first real crisis

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SEOUL, South Korea — US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday it may be necessary to take preemptive military action against North Korea if the threat from its weapons program were to reach a level "that we believe requires action."

Tillerson outlined a tougher strategy to confront North Korea's nuclear threat after visiting the world's most heavily armed border near the tense buffer zone between rivals North Korea and South Korea.

Asked about the possibility of using military force against the North, Tillerson told a news conference in the South Korean capital, "all of the options are on the table."

He said the US did not want a military conflict, "but obviously if North Korea takes actions that threatens South Korean forces or our own forces, that would be met with (an) appropriate response."

"If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe requires action," he said, "that option is on the table."

But he said that by taking other steps, including sanctions, the US was hopeful that North Korea could be persuaded to take a different course before it reaches that point.

Past US administrations have considered military force because of North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile to deliver them, but rarely has that option been expressed so explicitly.

North Korea has accelerated its weapons development, violating multiple UN Security Council resolutions and appearing undeterred by tough international sanctions. The North conducted two nuclear test explosions and 24 ballistic-missile tests last year. Experts say it could have a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US within a few years.

Tillerson is midway through a three-nation swing through Northeast Asia, which began in Japan and will end in China. State Department officials have described it as a "listening tour" as the administration seeks a coherent North Korea policy, well-coordinated with its Asian partners.

Earlier Friday, Tillerson touched down by helicopter Friday at Camp Bonifas, the US-led UN base about 438 yards from the Demilitarized Zone, a Cold War vestige created after the Korean War ended in 1953. He then moved to the truce village of Panmunjom inside the DMZ, a cluster of blue huts where the Korean War armistice was signed.

Tillerson is the latest in a parade of senior US officials to have their photos taken at the border. But it's the first trip by the new Trump administration's senior diplomat.

The DMZ, which is both a tourist trap and a potential flashpoint, is guarded on both sides with land mines, razor-wire fence, tank traps, and hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops. More than a million mines are believed to be buried inside the DMZ. Land-mine explosions in 2015 that Seoul blamed on Pyongyang maimed two South Korean soldiers and led the rivals to threaten each other with attacks.

Hordes of tourists visit both sides, despite the lingering animosity. The Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, which means the Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war.

President Donald Trump is seen as seeking to examine all options — including military ones — for halting the North's weapons programs before Pyongyang becomes capable of developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the US mainland.

Central to the US review is China and its role in any bid to persuade Pyongyang to change course. China remains the North's most powerful ally.

While the US and its allies in Seoul and Tokyo implore Beijing to press its economic leverage over North Korea, the Chinese have emphasized their desire to relaunch diplomatic talks — a nonstarter for the US under current conditions.

The US and China also disagree over US deployment of a missile-defense system to South Korea. The US says it's a system focused on North Korea. China sees it as a threat to its own security.

Last week, North Korea launched four missiles into seas off Japan, in an apparent reaction to major annual military drills the US is conducting with South Korea. Pyongyang claims the drills are a rehearsal for invasion.

In Beijing, a North Korean diplomat said Thursday that Pyongyang must act in self-defense against the drills, which he said had brought the region to the brink of nuclear war. He said the drills were aimed at using atomic weapons for a preemptive strike against North Korea. Washington says the maneuvers are routine and defensive.

During last year's election campaign, Trump called into question US security alliances and called for Tokyo and Seoul to contribute more for their defense. Tillerson, however, stressed that cooperation with Japan and South Korea was "critical."

Japan and South Korea both host tens of thousands of US troops. Washington has been urging its two allies to step up security cooperation despite their historically strained relations.

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian police are expected to make a few more arrests, including an "important person", in connection with the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported on Sunday.

Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar declined to elaborate on details when speaking to the state media, adding that the arrests would be made at the appropriate time.

"I don't deny we are targeting new individuals including North Korean nationals involved in this murder and we will use all legal channels to apprehend them. Although I can't reveal who they are, we believe there is an 'important person' among them," he told state media.

The police chief did not respond immediately when contacted by Reuters for comment.

Malaysian police have previously identified eight North Koreans wanted for questioning in connection with the killing of Kim Jong Nam, some of them hiding in the North Korean embassy. A Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman have already been charged in the case.

Kim Jong Nam was killed on Feb. 13, when Malaysian police say two women smeared super toxic VX nerve agent on his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

On Thursday, police said Interpol issued a "red notice", the closest to an international arrest warrant, for four North Koreans wanted in connection with the murder.

(Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

SEE ALSO: Kim Jong Un's half brother was assassinated — here's what we know so far

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SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Monday North Korea's latest rocket-engine test showed "meaningful" advancement in engine function.

"Through this test, it is found that engine function has made meaningful progress but further analysis is needed for exact thrust and possible uses," Lee Jin-woo, deputy spokesman for the South Korean defense ministry, told a regular briefing.

North Korea had conducted a test of a new high-thrust engine at its rocket launch station and leader Kim Jong Un said the successful test marked "a new birth" of its rocket industry, the North's official media reported on Sunday.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; editing by Robert Birsel)

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TOKYO (AP) — North Korea said Monday it is not frightened by U.S. threats of possible pre-emptive military action to halt its nuclear and missile buildup.

A spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry slammed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's recent talk of tougher sanctions, more pressure, and possible military action, and said the North would not be deterred in its nuclear program.

"The nuclear force of (North Korea) is the treasured sword of justice and the most reliable war deterrence to defend the socialist motherland and the life of its people," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

Tillerson recently visited Japan, South Korea and China on trip that focused on North Korea's nuclear program. On Friday, he signaled a tougher strategy that left open the possibility of pre-emptive military action.

"Let me be very clear: The policy of strategic patience has ended," he said after visiting the heavily militarized border between the rival Koreas. "We are exploring a new range of diplomatic, security and economic measures. All options are on the table."

A day earlier, in Japan, Tillerson had described the past 20 years of U.S. policy toward North Korea as a failure and vowed a comprehensive policy review under U.S. President Donald Trump.

KCNA quoted the unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the U.S. should accept that North Korea is a nuclear-capable nation that "has the will and capability to fully respond to any war the U.S. would like to ignite."

"If the businessmen-turned U.S. authorities thought that they would frighten (North Korea), they would soon know that their method would not work," he said.

On Saturday, North Korea conducted a ground test of a new type of high-thrust rocket engine that leader Kim Jong Un called a revolutionary breakthrough for the country's space program, KCNA reported earlier.

North Korea has accelerated its weapons development, violating multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions without being deterred by sanctions. It conducted two nuclear test explosions and 24 ballistic missile tests last year. Experts say it could have a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland within a few years.

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Sen. John McCain of Arizona on Wednesday delivered scorching remarks against North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, while discussing his plan to limit the country's continued provocations.

"China is the only one that can control Kim Jong Un, this crazy fat kid that's running North Korea," said McCain, who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Greta van Susteren, McCain said of China: "They could stop North Korea's economy in a week."

"They haven't, because the Chinese have to understand there's a penalty ... imposed by us if they don't reign in an individual that can literally start a world war, and more importanty, perhaps in the short term, strike the United States of America."

Sharing both a border and storied history, China has had close relations with North Korea, perhaps moreso than any other country, and has taken the role of its "big brother." North Korea, which conducts about 90% of its trade with China due to restrictions imposed by other world powers, was recently banned from exporting coal, its primary export, to China — one week after it test-fired a missile in February.

McCain continued, saying Kim Jong Un is "not rational ... we're not dealing with even someone like Joseph Stalin, who had a certain rationality to his barbarity ... The first place I'd go is China, and say 'Look, you can shut down their economy ... it's in your interest to do so.'"

"If the Chinese refuse to do that, we have to consider all options, and not necessarily a world war, but Mr. Kim Jong Un needs to understand that there's a huge penalty to pay if he even tried it."

Watch McCain's remarks below:

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia says it has agreed to release the body of Kim Jong Nam to North Korea in exchange for the return of nine Malaysians held in the North's capital.

Relations between Malaysia and North Korea have been badly frayed by the murder of the North Korean leader's half brother at Kuala Lumpur's airport. Both countries withdrew their ambassadors and North Korea blocked nine Malaysians from leaving the country. Malaysia responded in kind, barring North Koreans from exiting its soil.

Following negotiations that he described as "very sensitive," Prime Minister Najib Razak said Thursday that North Korea had allowed the nine Malaysians to leave, and that Malaysia had agreed to release Kim's remains to North Korea. He didn't say if Kim's body had left Malaysia.

Kim was poisoned at the airport on Feb. 13 by two women using a banned nerve agent, according to Malaysian officials. North Korea, which is widely suspected to be behind the attack, has rejected the autopsy findings.

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LONDON — US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said North Korea was acting in a reckless manner and must be stopped.

"This is a threat of both rhetoric and growing capability, and we will be working with the international community to address this — we are doing so right now," Mattis said in reply to a question about the potential threat to the US from ballistic missiles.

"Right now it appears to be going in a very reckless manner in what its conduct is portraying for the future, and that's got to be stopped," Mattis said.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Phil Stewart; Writing by William James; editing by Stephen Addison)

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WASHINGTON — The US is prepared to respond to North Korean nuclear threats on its own if China fails to pressure Pyongyang, President Donald Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday.

"Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, We will. That is all I am telling you," he was quoted as telling the newspaper.

Trump will host Chinese President Xi Jinping this Thursday and Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the two leaders are expected to discuss North Korea, China's ambitions in the South China Sea, and trade.

"China has great influence over North Korea," he was quoted as saying in the paper. "And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won't."

Trump's deputy national security adviser, K.T. McFarland, said there was a "real possibility" North Korea could be capable of hitting the US with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Trump's first term, the newspaper reported.

Intelligence experts disagree with McFarland's assessment and say North Korea's ability to launch a nuclear missile is at least "years away."

(Reporting by Timothy Ahman and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in won the liberal Democratic Party primary vote on Monday, setting him on course to become the next president and perhaps take a softer line on North Korea.

Moon has been leading in opinion polls ahead of the May 9 election to succeed impeached Park Geun-hye, who was dismissed last month over a corruption scandal involving family-run conglomerates, or chaebol.

If elected, Moon, 64, is expected to soften South Korea's policy toward North Korea, possibly delay deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system that has enraged China and get tough on corporate criminals, including chaebol bosses.

"I will do everything I have to do to look after the failing standard of people's living, revive the economy and resurrect national security that's been riddled with holes," Moon told an enthusiastic party crowd in his acceptance speech.

In a major policy statement in March, Moon said there was no choice but to recognize Kim Jong Un as the leader of reclusive North Korea and deal with him.

North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North, heavily sanctioned for missile and nuclear tests in breach of UN Security Council resolutions, regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.

"We can’t deny that the ruler of the North Korean people is Kim Jong Un. We have no choice but to recognize Kim Jong Un as a counterpart, whether we put pressure and impose sanctions on North Korea or hold dialogue," Moon said.

Such an approach may clash with the United States where President Donald Trump has pressed China to do more to rein in the North, and said it may have to deal with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs on its own if needs be.

Moon has also vowed to end the practice of pardoning convicted corporate criminals and to break up the cozy relationship between big business and the government.

Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee is on trial on charges including bribery in return for favors to the conglomerate that has led to the arrest of ousted president Park.

Moon had the backing of 40 percent of the people in a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, a double digit advantage over Ahn Cheol-soo of the new centrist People's Party.

The two face little in the way of a significant challenge from conservatives, who have 14 percent combined public support according to the Gallup Poll, or the far left.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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