South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo has wrapped up his visit to Malaysia after attending a series of multilateral meetings led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a venue marked by three-way talks with the United States and Japan,

Top South Korean, U.S. and Japanese military officers are urging North Korea to cease all unlawful activities that threaten regional security, as the three nations fly advanced warplanes for a joint exercise in a show of force against the North.

Visit by General Dan Caine, top US military officer, comes amid growing calls in Washington for South Korea to shoulder more defence costs.

The fishermen’s boats had drifted into South Korean waters, officials said. The South’s new president has been trying to improve ties with North Korea.

South Korea on Wednesday repatriated six North Koreans across the maritime border in the East Sea, months after they drifted into southern waters and were rescued.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he wants the luxury resort on the eastern seacoast to become a "world destination," but the country has been reluctant to allow in foreign tourists.

A North Korean man crossed the DMZ on foot before midnight Thursday, asking South Korean troops for help in a rare defection through the fortified border.

South Korea returned on Wednesday six North Koreans who had become stranded at sea earlier this year after their vessels had drifted south, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Wednesday.