Korea

A US soldier under disciplinary action has fled to North Korea across the border with South Korea, Reuters reported, citing US officials.

North Korea was silent about the highly unusual entry of an American soldier across the Koreas' heavily fortified border although it test-fired short-range missiles Wednesday in its latest weapons display.

In an apparent protest over a regular South Korea-US combined military exercise to begin this week, North Korea fired two "strategic cruise missiles" from a submarine in waters off its east coast over the weekend, state media said on Monday, reported Yonhap News Agency.

US President Joe Biden has said that the US is not discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea. His statement contradicted a statement by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, made at a time of rising tensions with North Korea, Reuters reported, citing BTA.

North Korea has passed a law declaring its readiness to launch preventive nuclear strikes, including in the face of conventional attacks, state media said on Sept. 9. 

The move effectively eliminates the possibility of denuclearisation talks, with leader Kim Jong Un saying the country's status as a nuclear state was now "irreversible".

Pope Francis has asked Pyongyang to invite him to North Korea, saying in a televised interview on Friday that he would not turn down a chance to visit and work for peace.

A potential papal visit to the isolated, nuclear-armed country was previously floated in 2018 when Seoul's former president Moon Jae-in embarked on a round of diplomacy with Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea fired two cruise missiles Wednesday, Seoul's defence ministry said, ending a month-long lull in Pyongyang's record-breaking spate of weapons tests this year.

"Early this morning, we detected that North Korea fired two cruise missiles into the West Sea from Onchon, South Pyongan province," a ministry official told AFP.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday offered "audacious" economic assistance to North Korea if it abandons its nuclear weapons program while avoiding harsh criticism of the North days after it threatened "deadly" retaliation over the COVID-19 outbreak it blames on the South.

President Joe Biden's special envoy for North Korea said Friday the United States is "preparing for all contingencies" in close coordination with its South Korean and Japanese allies as it monitors North Korean arrangements for a possible nuclear test explosion that outside officials say could be imminent.

China and Russia have vetoed a US attempt to impose new UN sanctions on North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting the organization's Security Council for the first time since the body began imposing sanctions on Pyongyang in 2006, Reuters reported.