Russian president Vladimir Putin has won a fourth term in office with nearly 77% of the vote - his highest ever score - giving him a mandate to pursue his nationalist policies for another six years.

North Korea's foreign minister has arrived in Sweden for talks with his Swedish counterpart.

The Trump administration has escalated pressure on North Korea by slapping sanctions on scores of companies and ships accused of illicit trading with the pariah nation.

In an extraordinary show of unexpected unity, North and South Korea sat side by side yesterday under exploding fireworks that represented peace, not destruction, as the 2018 Winter Olympics opened on a Korean Peninsula riven by generations of anger,

“JAW-JAW is always better than war-war” — a reflection on the nature of conflict attributed to both Harold McMillan and Winston Churchill.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said the United States should be aware that his country's nuclear forces are now a reality, not a threat.

The United States Treasury Department has issued sanctions against two officials it describes as "key leaders of North Korea's unlawful weapons programs".

The regime said the countries who voted for the sanctions will 'pay a heavy price for what they have done'

The UN's political chief has said senior North Korea officials told him during his visit "that it was important to prevent war" over its rapidly advancing nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

US ambassador Nikki Haley said that North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that some observers believe could reach Washington and the entire east coast of the United States "brings us closer" to a war.

Diplomats from the United States, South Korea and Japan met in Seoul today to discuss policy responses to North Korea's accelerating efforts to expand its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea's deputy UN ambassador warned Monday that the situation on the Korean peninsula "has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment".

The Korean Peninsula may be the most dangerous place in the world with the threat swapping between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un ratcheting up tensions in the region. Brian Keane is chairperson of Seoul Gaels GAA club which lies 35 miles from the border with North Korea. He tells Colm O’Connor about life — and gaelic games — in the Far East in these tense times

President Donald Trump said on Friday that the centrepiece of his economic plan is a "giant, beautiful, massive, the biggest ever in our country, tax cut".

Latest: US President Donald Trump's insult, calling leader Kim Jong Un "rocket man", makes "our rocket's visit to the entire US mainland inevitable all the more", North Korea's foreign minister said.

The US military has flown bombers and stealth jets over the Korean Peninsula in drills with South Korean and Japanese warplanes, three days after North Korea fired a missile over Japan.

The Dalai Lama has called for a denuclearised world and warned force would not solve the North Korean crisis.

A Chinese invasion of North Korea or at least a forced regime change is not as unlikely as most people might think and could help ‘Make China Great Again’, writes Bill Emmott.

The US had claimed North Korea was showing restraint. With the weekend events, what reaction can the nuclear weapons provocateur expect? Christopher R Hill reports

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has inspected the loading of a hydrogen bomb into a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the country's state media has said.

North Korea has fired a possible missile over northern Japan.

Seoul will consider sending a special envoy to North Korea if Pyongyang stops its missile and nuclear tests, South Korea's president has said.

America's top military officer has told his counterparts in South Korea that the United States is ready to use the "full range" of its military capabilities to defend itself and its allies from any North Korean provocation.

Donald Trump has said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "will regret it fast" if he continues his threats to US territories and allies.

In addition to contending with international crises involving North Korea, IS, Russia, and Syria, the NSC, which advises the president, is riven by infighting says Daniel R DePetris.

North Korea has announced a detailed plan to launch a salvo of ballistic missiles towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, a major military hub and home to American bombers.

North Korea has spelled out its plan to launch a volley of ballistic missiles towards Guam, dismissing US president Donald Trump's threats of "fire and fury" as "a load of nonsense".

A pre-emptive, surgical strike against Kim Jong Un is risky, but his regime will soon have a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile, say Isabel Reynolds and Enda Curran.

Southeast Asia's top diplomats have criticised North Korea over its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests.

US President Donald Trump has insisted there is no chaos at the White House, even as his new chief of staff enters a West Wing battered by crisis.

North Korea has criticised a practice bombing run on the Korean peninsula by two US B-1B bombers as a dangerous move, raising the risk of nuclear war.

North Korea has test-launched a ballistic missile that landed in the Sea of Japan.

America's CIA director is making an unannounced visit to South Korea amid heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula.

Donald Trump has said he would like to see a diplomatic resolution to escalating tensions with North Korea, but fears "we could end up having a major, major conflict".

In its first 100 days, the Trump White House has done better than many expected in handling some crises and the strategic signals it projects to the world, says Peter Apps

North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons is an urgent national security threat and the US will exert pressure through diplomatic measures and tighter economic sanctions, the Trump administration has said.

North Korea's UN Mission has said the government will react to "a total war" with the United States with a nuclear strike.

North Korea's deputy United Nations ambassador has accused the United States of turning the Korean Peninsula into "the world's biggest hotspot" and creating "a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment".

Here's your morning news bulletin.

Although the US claims it is ready to ‘solve’ North Korea, the people there don’t seem to care much for the rhetoric, says Hyung-jin Kim.

Goldman Sachs has recommended its clients take a short position on French government bond futures maturing in June ahead of two-round presidential elections that begin later this month.

There has been little else but talk about North Korea’s weapons programme for almost quarter of a century. That may not be true for much longer, says Michael Mandelbaum

North Korea has fired four banned ballistic missiles that flew about 620 miles, three landing in Japan's exclusive economic zone, according to South Korean and Japanese officials.

The UN secretary-general has strongly condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch ahead of an urgent Security Council meeting, while President Donald Trump pledged to deal with Pyongyang "very strongly".