A California man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after admitting to shipping weapons and ammunition to North Korea

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 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.

Huang Chung-wei was sentenced to 28 months in prison by the district court in the southern port city of Kaohsiung on Tuesday. Five others also received prison terms.

South Korea and the United States began their annual large-scale joint military exercise on Monday to better cope with threats by nuclear-armed North Korea.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said her country will never see South Korea as a partner for diplomacy, according to state media Wednesday, in her latest taunt of Seoul’s new liberal government’s efforts to

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who has been seeking to improve strained relations with Pyongyang, ordered on Monday his cabinet to prepare a partial step-by-step implementation of existing agreements with North Korea.

A Chinese national will spend nearly 10 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle weapons and sensitive U.S. technology to North Korea and accepting million-dollar bribes.

Chinese citizen Shenghua Wen received 8-year prison sentence for conspiracy to export military equipment to North Korea while acting as illegal foreign agent.