S Korea vows quick response to any attack from North

South Korea will retaliate quickly if the North stages any attack, warned the new president in Seoul, as tensions ratcheted higher on the Korean peninsula amid shrill rhetoric from Pyongyang and the US deployment of radar-evading fighter planes.

North Korea says the region is on the brink of a nuclear war in the wake of UN sanctions imposed for its February nuclear test and a series of joint US and South Korean military drills that have included a rare US show of aerial power.

The North appeared to move to addressing its pressing need for investment by appointing a reformer to the ceremonial prime minister’s job, although the move mostly cemented a power grab by the ruling Kim clan.