The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said her country will never see South Korea as a partner for diplomacy

A Chinese national has been sentenced to eight years in prison for smuggling firearms and other military items to North Korea, the US justice department has said. Shenghua Wen, 42, received around $2m (£1.5m) from North Korean officials to ship the items from California, according to a statement from the agency on Monday.

The intercontinental ballistic missiles likely to be housed at the military base “pose a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States,” researchers said.