President Joe Biden has approved a new national security memorandum that is meant to serve as a roadmap for the incoming Trump administration as it looks to counter growing cooperation among China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.

South Korea’s previous defense minister was stopped from attempting suicide while in detention over last week’s martial law declaration.

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning martial law declaration lasted just hours but has cast doubt on his ability to govern for the remaining 2 1/2 years of his term and whether he will abide by democratic principles.

South Korea has detected signs North Korea is preparing to destroy parts of inter-Korean roads no longer in use, as tensions soar between them over North Korea’s claim that South Korea flew drones over its territory.

The CIA is offering advice to people in North Korea, Iran and China who want to share information with intelligence officials — without getting caught.

Next year’s championship of the expanded Club World Cup will be played on July 13 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, site of the 2026 World Cup final.

North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un has supervised successful tests of two types of missiles as he ordered officials to bolster up his country’s military capabilities to repel U.S.-led threats.

A U.S. Army private who fled to North Korea just over a year ago will plead guilty to desertion and four other charges and take responsibility for his conduct.

In India and China, torrential rains have killed more than 250 people in the past week.

South Korea says North Korea has test-launched two ballistic missiles in a northeastern direction.

China’s premier has agreed to revive three-way cooperation with South Korea and Japan in the face of shared challenges but issued a veiled rebuke against the two countries’ expanding security cooperation with the United States.

The Japanese and South Korean leaders have raised sensitive topics like Taiwan, North Korea and the South China Sea as well as ways to boost cooperation, when they individually met China’s premier.

Leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will meet next week in Seoul for their first trilateral talks since 2019.

The U.N. atomic agency and outside experts say North Korea may have started operating a light-water reactor at its main nuclear complex in a possible attempt to establish a new facility to produce bomb fuels.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that hunger remains a chronic problem in Asia.

The top diplomats from South Korea, Japan and China have agreed to revive cooperation among the Asian neighbors and resume their leaders’ trilateral summit.

Fresh from a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has shifted his intense diplomacy on the Israel-Hamas war to Asia.

An Army private who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States last month has been detained by the U.S. military.

The U.N. nuclear chief says he asked to meet Iran’s president on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level meeting, His goal is to reverse Tehran’s ban on many of the agency’s inspectors.

The mother of a U.S. Army private who mysteriously sprinted across the border into North Korea last month says her son, Travis King, has “so many reasons to come home.

President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea have agreed to expand security and economic ties at a historic summit Friday at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David.

A day after a powerful tropical storm flooded dozens of homes and turned streets into muddy rivers, South Korea is throwing a huge K-Pop concert in Seoul for 40,000 Scouts whose global Jamboree was disrupted by the weather.

The highest-ranking U.S. military officer is praising Japan's moves to double its defense spending over the next five years.

The United States and its allies clashed with Russia and China over North Korea’s failed launch of a military spy satellite this week in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, which Moscow and Beijing refused to condemn.

Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies warned China and North Korea against building up their nuclear arsenals, pivoting to major northeast Asian crises ahead of the arrival later Saturday of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Top diplomats from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are vowing a tough stance on China’s increasing threats to Taiwan and on North Korea’s unchecked tests of long-range missiles.

China says it carried out a successful ground-based mid-course missile interception test.

Russian threats to nuke Ukraine.

A planned concert by Slovenia's popular band Laibach in Ukraine next month has been cancelled after the group angered Ukrainians, with remarks interpreted to suggest that Kyiv was involved in a proxy war on behalf of its Western patrons.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is calling for South Korea to provide direct military support to Ukraine, saying Kyiv is in urgent need of weapons to fight off the prolonged Russian invasion.

The top national security officials from the U.S. and Japan have unveiled plans to strengthen the alliance to help counter threats from North Korea and China.

North Korea is threatening to take "a resolute and decisive military step” against Japan while it slammed Tokyo’s adoption of a national security strategy as an attempt to turn the country into an aggressive military power.

North Korea says it fired a test satellite in an important final-stage test for the development of its first spy satellite.

Japan's strict self-defense-only postwar principle is being loosened.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is assuring Asian leaders “the United States is here to stay” as she pitches Washington as a reliable economic partner committed to the region and its prosperity.

Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in Bangkok appear likely to issue a statement condemning Russia's war on Ukraine.

The Biden administration is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information about a Singapore-based businessman already accused by the Justice Department of facilitating fuel shipments to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Officials from the United States and its Asian allies Japan and South Korea suspect North Korea is preparing for a nuclear test.

South Korea has proposed a meeting with North Korea to discuss a resumption of reunions of families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War, despite long-strained ties over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

Hundreds of flights have been grounded and more than 200 people evacuated in South Korea as Typhoon Hinnamnor approached the country’s southern region with heavy rains and winds of up to 105 miles per hour, the strongest storm in decades.

The United Nations chief is warning that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”.

A major U.N. meeting on the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is about to begin after a long delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Micronesia has likely become the final nation in the world with a population of more than 100,000 to experience an outbreak of COVID-19.

Nuclear Russia's pillaging of non-nuclear Ukraine is rattling what's already a destabilizing moment in nuclear nonproliferation efforts.

The number of coronavirus deaths globally dropped by about 21% in the past week while cases rose in most parts of the world, according to the World Health Organization.

President Joe Biden is off to South Korea and Japan on a six-day trip aimed at building rapport with the Asian nations’ leaders.

For many South Koreans, the former presidential palace in Seoul was a little-visited, heavily secured mountainside landmark.

The head of the World Health Organization says China’s extreme approach to containing the coronavirus is unsustainable because of the highly infectious nature of the omicron variant.

President Joe Biden will travel next month to South Korea and Japan to consult with allies on growing threats from China and North Korea.

The U.S. special envoy for North Korea says Washington and Seoul have agreed on the need for a strong response to North Korea's recent spate of missile tests, though they remain open to dialogue with the country.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and visiting U.S. lawmakers have reaffirmed their commitment to working together under a longstanding alliance at a time of heightened global tensions and threats from China and North Korea.

North Korea is marking a key state anniversary with calls for stronger loyalty to leader Kim Jong Un.

U.S. and Japanese warships are conducting a joint naval exercise in a rare location — in waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp. says a U.S. judge has allowed a probation period to end after the company was nearly destroyed in a clash with Washington over its dealings with Iran and North Korea.

The United Nations’ independent investigator on human rights in North Korea has called for the international community to provide 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the isolated authoritarian nation, which has recently showed signs of easing one of the world’s most restrictive pandemic border closures.

The United States and its allies clashed with Russia and China in the U.N. Security Council over the usefulness and impact of U.N. sanctions, currently imposed on countries from North Korea to Yemen and Congo as well the al-Qaida and Islamic State extremist groups and their affiliates and supporters.

South Korea’s top infectious disease expert is defending the move to expand the use of rapid testing despite accuracy concerns as the country broke its daily coronavirus record for the third straight day.

South Korean military officials say North Korea test-fired two suspected cruise missiles in its fifth round of weapons launches this month.

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have used their first formal meeting to discuss concerns about China’s growing military assertiveness.

Shares are mixed in Asia after China reported that its economy expanded at an 8.1% annual pace in 2021, though growth slowed to half that level in the last quarter.

World shares are mixed after China reported that its economy expanded at an 8.1% annual pace in 2021, though growth slowed to half that level in the last quarter.

South Korea and Japan say North Korea has fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into its eastern sea.

North Korea said Thursday it has successfully launched a hypersonic missile as part of efforts to modernize its strategic weapons systems, days after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to bolster his military forces despite pandemic-related difficulties.

Australia and South Korea have signed a $720 million defense deal as South Korean President Moon Jae-in became the first foreign leader to visit Australia since the pandemic began.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has expressed willingness to restore stalled communication lines with South Korea to promote peace in early October, while he shrugged off recent U.S. offers for dialogue.

The United States and Russia will hold the first round of strategic and arms control talks of the Biden administration next week in Switzerland.

North Korea has told the World Health Organization that it has tested 25,986 people for the coronavirus through April but still has yet to find a single infection.

The chairman of one of South Korea’s biggest dairy companies has resigned over a scandal in which his company was accused of deliberately spreading misinformation that its yogurt helps prevent coronavirus infections.

China’s U.N. ambassador is expressing hope President Joe Biden’s policy toward North Korea will give more importance to diplomacy and dialogue instead of “extreme pressure” to try to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear program and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The White House says President Joe Biden plans to veer from the approaches of his two most recent predecessors as he tries to stop North Korea’s nuclear program, rejecting both Donald Trump’s deeply personal effort to win over Kim Jong Un and Barack Obama’s more hands-off approach.

The White House says President Joe Biden plans to veer from the approaches of his two most recent predecessors as he tries to stop North Korea’s nuclear program, rejecting both Donald Trump’s deeply personal effort to win over Kim Jong Un and Barack Obama’s more hands-off approach.

Chinese officials say 11 more people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in a southwestern city bordering Myanmar that is the scene of China’s current sole active outbreak.

India has reported a record daily surge in new coronavirus cases for the second time in four days, while New Delhi, Mumbai and dozens of other cities are imposing curfews to try to slow the soaring infections.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan has consulted with counterparts from Japan and South Korea as the Biden administration settles on its approach for dealing with North Korea.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)WASHINGTON – The Biden administration said Monday it's looking at “additional actions” that the United Nations might take to respond to North Korea’s recent missile tests. “We’re looking at additional actions that we might take,” Thomas-Greenfield said of the U.S. and others Security Council members. Last week, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea in a defiance of U.N. resolutions that ban such launches by North Korea. Some experts say North Korea’s missile launches, the first of their kind in a year, were aimed at applying pressure on the Biden administration. Past short-range missile launches by North Korea have typically drawn U.N. Security Council condemnations, but not fresh sanctions.

In this image taken from a video released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, a group of Russian diplomats push hand-pushed rail trolley with their children and suitcases to the border with Russia. A group of Russian diplomats and their family members returned to Russia from North Korea on a hand-pushed rail trolley on Thursday because of COVID-19 restrictions in the country, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a Facebook post. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)MOSCOW – A group of Russian diplomats and their family members returned to Russia from North Korea using a hand-pushed rail trolley on Thursday because the coronavirus pandemic has halted all passenger traffic between the countries, Russia's Foreign Ministry said. They then put their children and luggage onto a rail trolley and pushed it for more than a kilometer (more than half a mile) across the border into Russia. North Korea has claimed to be coronavirus-free, and sealed its borders and halted passenger traffic with other countries.

A traffic officer stand in attention along a main street of the Central District in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. The state media report Thursday on Kim's speech to the Workers’ Party congress the previous day didn't elaborate. South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in late November that Kim was worried about President-elect Joe Biden’s expected new approach on North Korea. State media didn’t provide much details on Kim’s economic review. Cheong said North Korea likely didn’t want foreign experts to learn its poor economic performance too easily.

World leaders spoke to President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday about cooperating on the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other issues, even as President Donald Trump's refusal to concede complicates the U.S. post-election transition. Kang Min-seok, Moon’s spokesperson, said the leaders also agreed to meet “possibly soon” after Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Trump has constantly complained about the cost of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea. Morrison said he and Biden during their call made clear their commitment to strengthening the bilateral alliance. __AP writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

People wearing face masks watch a TV screen during a news program reporting about the ceremony to mark the 75th founding anniversary of the North Korea's ruling Workers' party, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. A part of letters read on the top "A military parade to mark the 75th founding anniversary of the North Korea's ruling Workers' party." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2015, file photo, warheads are paraded during a military parade during celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of North Korea's Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea. For months, North Korea has been relatively uncombative, as leader Kim Jong Un grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, a string of natural disasters and the deepening economic pain from years of tough U.S.-led sanctions. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

TANZANIA – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday that the world is living “in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe,” fueled by growing distrust and tensions between the nuclear powers. The U.N. chief told a high-level meeting to commemorate the recent International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons that progress on ridding the world of nuclear weapons “has stalled and is at risk of backsliding." And he said strains between countries that possess nuclear weapons “have increased nuclear risks.”As examples, Guterres has expressed deep concern at the escalating disputes between the Trump administration and China. And North Korea boasts about its nuclear weapons. “Maintaining nuclear weapons, is clearly, a zero-sum situation, while total abolishment of such weapons, will ensure that humanity prevails,” Marsudi said.

Beyond criticizing China, Trump took aim at the very foundation of the United Nations by urging other leaders to put their own countries first, a message that echoed his “America First” campaign mantra. Speeches by U.S. presidents are normally a highlight of the annual General Assembly, a premier event on the global diplomatic calendar. “The United Nations must hold China accountable for their actions,” Trump said, without elaborating on what punishment he thought was warranted. The Republican president is running behind Biden in many polls, yet told the U.N. General Assembly that he'd be back next year. Few U.N. member states believe the U.S. has the legal standing to restore the sanctions because Trump withdrew from the agreement.

President Donald Trump listens in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Washington. On some of the most troublesome national security challenges facing America — nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea — Trump has failed to make deals. The White House, for its part, casts Trump's recent flurry of foreign policy activity as evidence that long-sought initiatives are coming to fruition. “He’s not running on his foreign policy,” Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner told White House reporters last week. “If North Korea behaves true to form, then we should expect to see some sort of provocations -- maybe not before but after the election,” Cha said.

President Donald Trump listens in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Washington. On some of the most troublesome national security challenges facing America — nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea — Trump has failed to make deals. The White House, for its part, casts Trump's recent flurry of foreign policy activity as evidence that long-sought initiatives are coming to fruition. “He’s not running on his foreign policy,” Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner told White House reporters last week. “If North Korea behaves true to form, then we should expect to see some sort of provocations -- maybe not before but after the election,” Cha said.

SEOUL Hundreds of flights were canceled in South Korea while North Koreas leader expressed concern about a potential loss of lives and crops as the countries braced for a fast-approaching typhoon forecast as one of the strongest to hit their peninsula this year. South Koreas weather agency said the typhoon will start to affect the mainland at night before making landfall in western North Korea early Thursday. South Korean authorities were also shutting down public parks and evacuating hundreds of fishing boats and other vessels, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said that during a ruling party meeting on Tuesday, the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, called for thorough preparations to minimize casualties and damage from the typhoon. The storm comes weeks after torrential rains caused flooding and massive damage to homes and crops in North Korea, inflicting further pain to an economy ravaged by U.S.-led sanctions over the North's nuclear weapons and border closures amid the pandemic.

Later, another US official told the same network that the concerns about Kim’s health are credible but the severity is hard to assess. Earlier, Daily NK had cited anonymous sources saying Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving. AP's earlier story is below:The South Korean government on Tuesday was looking into reports saying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in fragile condition after surgery. But North Korea’s state media months later showed that Ri was alive and in possession of several new senior posts. South Korea’s spy agency said days later that he had a cyst removed from his ankle.

New US special representative to North Korea Steve Biegun speaks after being named by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department in Washington, DC, on August 23, 2018. WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Donald Trump has tapped Stephen Biegun, his North Korea envoy, as the next No. A senior State Department official said that Biegun will keep his North Korea portfolio even if he is confirmed for the deputy role. He was appointed to the role of US special representative for North Korea in August 2018 to lead efforts to negotiate "the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea." North Korea fired two "unidentified projectiles" into the waters between South Korea and Japan on Thursday afternoon, the South Korean government said in a statement.

The United States and North Korea plan to resume working-level talks next week, according to the US State Department. Meanwhile, North Korea is developing a large submarine. Distributed by LAKANA. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton criticizes the Trump administration over its approach to North Korea. The-CNN-Wire & 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

In response, the South Korean government has raised the animal disease alert to the highest level of "severe." African swine fever is an animal disease that has spread rapidly across Asia over the past few months, according to the World Organization for Animal Health. South Korea, which reported a GDP of $1.62 trillion in 2018, is home to more than 11.3 million pigs, according to Statistics Korea. "There are about 6,300 pig farms in the country," Kim said. The government would complete preliminary examinations of all pig farms "in the quickest time possible" to control the situation, he added.

(CNN) - North Korea launched two unidentified projectiles from South Pyongan Province toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on Tuesday morning, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement. "Our military is observing the situation and maintaining readiness," the JCS sad. In August, two projectiles were launched. A US official confirmed then that North Korea launched short-range ballistic missiles, and said that they appear to be similar to other recent launches. The previous four rounds of launches by North Korea were believed to be short-range missile tests, which would violate UN resolutions.

(CNN) - North Korea launched unidentified projectiles from South Hwanghae Province toward the waters off the Japanese coast twice on Tuesday morning, South Korea's Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) said in a statement. "The military is maintaining its readiness by monitoring related movements in preparation for further launches," the statement said. North Korea made two launches last week, a senior US official told CNN. The official last week said US military intelligence tracked a new launch from North Korea on Friday morning local time (Thursday in the United States). According to the initial assessment, the projectile appeared to be similar to the short range ballistic missiles fired earlier this week, the official said, referring to Wednesday's twin launches from North Korea's east coast.

President Trump meets with Kim Jong Un in the Korean Demilitarized Zone and takes 20 steps into North Korea, becoming first sitting U.S. president to do so.