North Korea news LIVE: Latest as US bombers fly over Korean Peninsula in show of power

Monday July 10

4am BST: South Korea’s navy has acquired a new submarine aimed at beefing up its underwater warfare capability against North Korea, a state arms procurement agency has said.

The submarine has been named Yu Gwan-sun and is the sixth in the nations Jang Bogo-Il Class fleet launched in 2008.

Choi Hee-kyung, a Defence Acquisition Programme Administration official, said:”The Yu Gwan-sun is the world’s top-class diesel-powered submarine capable of handling more than 300 underwater targets at the same time.

“Equipped with a fuel battery system, it can conduct underwater operations for 10 days or longer without surfacing above the water.”

Sunday July 9

8.30pm BST: Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven has demanded that Kim Jong-un urgently halts North Korea’s missile tests.

During a visit to Sweden by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Lofven described the tests as a “threat to global peace and security”.

10.40am BST: A group of US researchers believe North Korea could be gearing up for the biggest nuclear test it has ever carried out.

According to analysis from 38 North have noted “no new activity” at Pyongyang’s nuclear facility, but satellite imager has captured an “overall clean-up” at the site, suggesting it is being prepped for a test.

“There does appear to have been an overall clean-up of the facility, giving the impression of an unusually well-maintained site at a high state of readiness to host another underground nuclear test on short notice,” 38 north claimed on its website.

9.21am BST: Pyongyang’s recent spike in missile development is “based on old soviet” designs, an expert has claimed.

Michael Elleman, a weapons expert, noted that Kim Jong-un’s missile test in March bore similarities to Russian Cold War era missile engines.

“It would mean that North Korea had a wider procurement network in the former Soviet Union than we had thought,” Mr Elleman said. “My first question would be, ‘What else have they got?’”

9am BST: North Korea has called out the US for its Saturday joint-military drills with South Korea, calling them a “reckless military provocation”.

The hard words came from Kim Jong-un’s mouthpiece editorial Rodong Sinmun, where the paper said nuclear war is aching an extreme pitch.

Two US Airforce bomber jets were assisted by South Korean F-15s in live fire military exercise.

Saturday July 8

9pm BST: Video footage has emerged showing what seems to be the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un smoking next to the base of an untested, liquid-fueled rocket engine.

Kim casually puffs a cigarette as the missile is positioned onto the launch pad. North Korea’s fuelling practices of missiles has raised concern before, as liquid fuel is volatile and dangerous in even the most controlled settings.

In 1980, a US Titan II liquid-fuelled missile exploded in the silo due to a single socket falling out of place. Today the U.S. uses solid fuel for its rocket engines.

7pm BST: The US is planning to carry out a new test of its controversial THAAD missile defence system in the near future, officials have said.

The test, which had been planned months ago with now be particularly significant after tensions in the region escalated when North Korea launched a test intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4.

The United States has THAAD interceptors in Guam that are meant to help guard against a missile attack from a country such as North Korea.

6pm BST: Mr Trump told the Chinese president Xi Jinping that America would come out on top over the escalating crisis with North Korea. Mr Trump told his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit: “I appreciate the things that you have done relative to the very substantial problem that we all face in North Korea, a problem that something has to be done about.

“It may take longer than I’d like, it may take longer than you’d like. But there will be success in the end one way or the other.”

4.18pm BST: President Xi Jinping told Donald Trump that stronger relations between China and the US are good for stability in a complex world, Xinhua News Agency quoted Mr Xi.

3.31pm BST: Mr Trump said that is is going to take time reining in North Korea’s nuclear programme, but he was confident that Washington and Beijing could reach a problem solving conclusion.

The US president who has urged his Chinese counterpart to pressure the hermit state with economic leverage, said he appreciated what President Xi Jingping has done.

“I appreciate the things that you have done relative to the very substantial problem that we all face in North Korea, a problem that something has to be done about,” Mr Trump told Mr Xi.

“It may take longer than I’d like, it may take longer than you’d like,” he added. “But there will be success in the end one way or the other.”

2.29pm BST: Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe found the time at the G20 summit to discuss North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

“As I look at the current situation, particularly the security environment in the Asia Pacific region including North Korea, we believe that it has become increasingly severe,” Mr Abe told Mr Trump.

12.50pm BST: A North Korean defector has revealed to ABC News the daily struggles of life outside the borders of the hermit state.

The man who for the purposes of the interview went by the name of Lee Sang-jun, said he was a North Korean “nowhere man”.

“I couldn’t believe I’d arrived in this unbelievably perfect place where freedom and happiness were guaranteed,” he said.

“I didn’t quite understand what freedom meant so I did whatever I wanted.” 

9.27am BST: The US and South Korea carried out a live fire drill over the Korean peninsula with deadly supersonic jets and bombers.

A pair of B-1B Lancer strategic bombers were launched from a US airbase in Guam and joined Korean Koku Jieitai JASDF F-2 fighters over the East China Sea. 

The deadly planes conducted a simulated destruction of underground ballistic missile launchers, sending a clear message to North Korea.

5.45am BST: The US will test their state–of–the–art interceptor defence system against an intermediate–range ballistic missile amid heightened tensions with North Korea, reports reveal.

It will be the first operational test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system to defend against a simulated attack, following Kim Jong–un’s claim that Pyongyang has successfully developed a devastating missile.

The interceptor will be fired from Alaska and will take place “in the coming days”.

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North Korea has been continuing to test America’s patience since it began carrying out several missile tests earlier this year.

The US under Donald Trump’s administration has been mounting increased efforts to resolve the situation through trade sanctions with China’s help, but Mr Trump was adamant to send an “armada” of US warships to the region.

With Pyongyang continuing to flout United Nations’ resolutions and international condemnation, the state of affairs in the region is looking dire.

On Tuesday June 4, Kim Jong-un carried out his latest ICBM test which the hermit state claimed was capable of reaching mainland US.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has now warned that not many good options were left on the table if pressure measures fail to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

The world is now looking towards the US and China to find a peaceful resolution to the tension, before the verbal conflict escalates beyond repair.