President Donald Trump said efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons programme would be "front and centre" of his two-day visit to South Korea and he projected optimism that the rising tensions could be calmed.

Ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye has denied any wrongdoing after being removed from office over a massive corruption scandal.

The confirmed death toll from South Korea’s ferry disaster rose past 50 yesterday as divers finally found a way inside the sunken vessel, quickly discovering more than a dozen bodies in what almost certainly is just the beginning of a massive and grim recovery effort.

THE United States says it is taking conflicting North Korean statements on its nuclear capability very seriously despite the South’s insistence that there was no real proof its neighbour had such weapons.