North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (centre) gives field guidance to various units in Samjiyon County in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang on Saturday. (KCNA/via Reuters)WASHINGTON: The US envoy for North Korea will travel to Japan and Thailand next week to discuss how to increase pressure on Pyongyang after its latest ballistic missile test, the US State Department said on Friday. Tensions have risen markedly in recent months over North Korea's development, in defiance of repeated rounds of UN sanctions, of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the US. Last week's missile test prompted a US warning that North Korea's leadership would be "utterly destroyed" if war were to break out. The Pentagon has mounted repeated shows of force after North Korean tests.

Source: Bangkok Post December 09, 2017 05:42 UTC