Japanese Chief Cabinet

North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, Reuters reported, citing a South Korean military statement. It is the latest of several weapons tests as South Korea and the United States hold their largest joint military exercises in years.

Tokyo (CNN)Landslides and flooding caused by torrential rain in Japan have killed 200 people in what has become one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit the country since the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

Japan is examining how to evacuate its roughly 60,000 citizens from South Korea in the event of a crisis that closes airports, with military ships being used as shuttles, a Japanese newspaper reported on Tuesday, cited by Reuters.

North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan's northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, deepening tension after Pyongyang's recent test of its most powerful nuclear bomb, reported Reuters. 

North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan's northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean on Sept. 15, South Korean and Japanese officials said, deepening tensions after Pyongyang's recent test of its most powerful nuclear bomb.

A North Korean state agency threatened on Thursday to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the United States to “ashes and darkness” for supporting a U.N. Security Council resolution and sanctions over its latest nuclear test.

An audio message purportedly from a Japanese journalist being held by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants said a Jordanian air force pilot also captured by the group would be killed unless an Iraqi female prisoner in Jordan was released on the Turkish border by sunset on Jan. 29.