North Korea has sent secret agents to South Korea to try to assassinate its defense minister, who has vowed a stern response to attacks from the communist state, media reports said Wednesday.

The defense ministry said it could not confirm the reports but added that security for Kim Kwan-Jin has not been strengthened recently .

The North Korean minister who traveled to New York for talks last week said he was satisfied with the outcome and called for more discussions on resuming a stalled nuclear forum, a report said Wednesday.

First vice foreign minister Kim Kye-Gwan held talks in New York with U.S. officials led by the U.S. special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, last Thursday and Friday in the first high-level bilateral contact since 2009.

North Korea has launched a massive synchronized dance and gymnastics show meant to glorify its leaders and unify its people ahead of a crucial anniversary next year.

Organizers say up to 100,000 people will participate in the Arirang show. The performance comes as the North prepares for next year's centennial of the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.

North Korea said Monday it wanted an early resumption of six-party nuclear negotiations following "constructive" talks with the United States last week.

The North "remains unchanged in its stand to resume the six-party talks without preconditions at an early date" and comprehensively implement a September 2005 denuclearization deal, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

U.S. and North Korean negotiators on Friday held a second day of talks on the North's nuclear weapons program, officials said.

The U.S. special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, and the North's first vice foreign minister Kim Kye-Gwan held about 4.5 hours of talks at the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

South Korean troops searched Friday for land mines that may have been dislodged by landslides and flooding that have killed dozens of people.

Torrential downfalls since Tuesday have severely disrupted life in Seoul and its surrounding areas, submerging streets filled with idled cars, flooding subway stations and forcing businesses to shut. At least 50 people have been killed.

The United States tested North Korea's willingness to negotiate giving up its nuclear arsenal on Thursday in talks that a top North Korean official said had been "constructive".

"The atmosphere was good, the meeting was constructive and interesting. We exchanged views on general issues," North Korea's first vice foreign minister Kim Kye-Gwan said during a break on the first day of the talks in New York.

North Korea said Wednesday, ahead of landmark talks with the United States, that a U.S. missile defense shield will set off a new nuclear arms race.

The target of the shield is "the gaining of absolute nuclear superiority and global hegemony over the other nuclear power rivals," North Korea's U.N. ambassador Sin Son Ho told a U.N. debate on nuclear disarmament.

A senior North Korean diplomat left Tuesday for rare talks in the United States, a media report said, amid efforts to restart stalled negotiations on scrapping the North's nuclear programs.

First vice foreign minister Kim Kye-Gwan left Beijing Tuesday morning en route for New York, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a Seoul diplomatic source as saying.

South Korea's foreign minister Monday ruled out any quick and rapid progress in relations with North Korea despite unexpected talks last week between their nuclear envoys.

Kim Sung-Hwan said the talks between South Korean envoy Wi Sung-Lac and his counterpart Ri Yong-Ho in Indonesia on the sidelines of an Asian security forum "opened the gate" for ties.