KCNA

North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations said efforts to set up a new panel to monitor sanctions against his country would end in failure, state media reported on Sunday.

Kim Song's comments come after Russia's veto in March which effectively ended official U.N. monitoring of sanctions imposed on the isolated country for its pursuit of banned nuclear and weapons programmes.

North Korea has tested a "super-large warhead" designed for a strategic cruise missile, state media said Saturday, the most recent test since U.N. sanctions monitoring against the nuclear-armed nation was upended last month by Russia.

North Korea said on Monday it had developed a new control system for a multiple rocket launcher that would lead to a "qualitative change" in its defence capabilities.

North Korea fired several cruise missiles on Sunday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state.

The launch comes just days after Pyongyang fired multiple cruise missiles toward the Yellow Sea, which it said was a first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles.

North Korea said Friday that it had tested an "underwater nuclear weapon system" in response to joint naval exercises by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo that involved a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has escalated tensions with South Korea, branding it as the nation's "main enemy" and issuing a stark warning of obliteration if provoked.

The news was announced today by North Korean state media, after Pyongyang announced that it will deploy stronger armed forces and new weapons along the border with South Korea.
During a visit to North Korea's Air Force Command on Air Force Day on Thursday, Kim presented guidelines for improving the military's combat capabilities, the KCNA news agency reported.

It is the first such case in the last few decades, reports Yonhap.
A total of 27,858 workers, peasants, intellectuals and officials were elected as new members of local provincial assemblies, cities and counties in Sunday's local elections, according to a Central Election Commission report published by North Korea's official KCNA news agency.

North Korea's ambassador made a rare appearance at the UN Security Council on Monday to defend his country's launch of a spy satellite, as leader Kim Jong Un studied images including of the White House and Pentagon.

Western powers, Japan and South Korea have said North Korea violated Security Council resolutions by launching the satellite last week.

North Korea has launched its first "tactical nuclear submarine" and assigned it to the fleet that patrols the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, Reuters and BTA reported, citing North Korean state media.