Satellite images suggest North Korea may have doubled uranium enrichment capacity at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, a U.S. think-tank that tracks the North's nuclear weapons program said Thursday

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said the images showed the building housing the gas centrifuge plant at Yongbyon had been expanded to twice its original size over the past four months.

A team of U.N. experts will head to Panama next week to inspect a North Korean ship impounded last month after the discovery of Cuban missile parts in its cargo.

Luxembourg's U.N. ambassador Sylvie Lucas announced the move on Wednesday.

North Korea on Wednesday offered South Korea guarantees aimed at breaking deadlocked negotiations on reopening a joint industrial zone, and proposed a fresh round of talks next week.

As well as allowing South Korean firms full access to the Kaesong complex, which closed in April amid soaring military tensions, the North will guarantee the attendance of its workers and the safety of all South Koreans at the complex, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said in a statement.

A day after Japan unveiled its largest warship since World War II, North Korea warned on Wednesday that Tokyo was following a militarization program that had already crossed "the danger line".

A commentary by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) highlighted a Japanese Defense Ministry paper published last month that stressed the need to boost the strength and range of forces required to protect Japan's far-flung territories.

Cuba said Tuesday it was looking forward to closer cooperation with North Korea after "favorable" talks in Pyongyang.

The positive assessment of relations between the two communist-ruled states comes three weeks after the seizure in Panama of a North Korean cargo ship loaded with undeclared Cuban arms, including two MiG-21 fighter jets.

The U.N.'s World Food Program said Tuesday it had begun distributing 460 tonnes of maize to victims of major floods in North Korea that have killed more than 30 people.

The aid is aimed at addressing the "immediate food needs" of around 38,000 people living in areas of serious crop devastation, the WFP said in a statement.

South Korea on Sunday warned the North it was "reaching the limit" of its patience over stalled talks to revive a joint industrial complex once seen as a rare symbol of cooperation between the rivals.

Six rounds of cross-border meetings aimed at restarting the venture, a key source of hard currency for the North Korea's communist regime, produced little progress as each side squabbled over who would take responsibility for the shutdown.

North Korea has cut short summer military drills to mobilize troops for flood relief efforts after torrential rains left dozens killed and ravaged farmlands nationwide, a South Korean report said Sunday.

The North's military ordered troops based in the country's west and southeast regions to hold "minimum" summer exercises and to instead focus on post-floods reconstruction, Yonhap news agency said.

South Korea sent its "final" proposal Monday for talks with North Korea over the fate of a shuttered joint industrial zone, officials said.

The offer came after six recent rounds of talks aimed at reviving the Seoul-invested Kaesong complex -- suspended since April -- produced little progress.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday he hoped to hold his first summit with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye to mend frayed ties between the two countries.

Speaking at the end of a southeast Asian tour, Abe called for reconciliation after a year of diplomatic discord marked by a territorial dispute and visits by Japanese politicians to a controversial war shrine that angered South Korea, its former colony.