North Korea's young first lady has been pictured sporting what appears to be a Christian Dior handbag, in stark contrast to widespread shortages elsewhere in the impoverished nation.

Ri Sol-Ju, the wife of leader Kim Jong-Un, was pictured accompanying him on a "field guidance trip" to an army unit.

South Korea's cabinet Tuesday endorsed a bill which sets up a special fund to cover the huge cost of potential reunification with North Korea.

The bill calls for dividing the existing Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund into two accounts -- one for promoting cross-border cooperation and the other for covering unification costs, said the unification ministry.

Floods which hit parts of North Korea in recent weeks killed 169 people and left 400 missing, the state news agency said Saturday, sharply updating earlier casualty figures.

It said the floods and torrential rain between late June and the end of July also made 212,200 people homeless and washed away or inundated 65,280 hectares (161,310 acres) of cropland.

Diplomats from several countries including Britain accompanied North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on his roller-coaster ride last week, the British embassy in the North's capital Pyongyang said Friday.

Photographs of the young Kim, smiling broadly as the amusement park ride began, were circulated by state media as part of an apparent campaign to build an image of a relaxed and informal leader.

U.N. staff visited storm-pounded counties in North Korea on Tuesday, after two days of heavy rain submerged buildings, cut off power, flooded rice paddies and forced people and their livestock to climb onto rooftops for safety.

The rain Sunday and Monday followed downpours earlier this month that killed nearly 90 people and left more than 60,000 homeless, officials said. The floods also come on the heels of a severe drought, fueling renewed food worries about a country that already struggles to feed its people.

North Korea on Sunday vowed tough action against the United States, accusing it of plotting to blow up statues of its founding leader in a bid to stir turmoil in the isolated communist state.

The warning comes just days after the North said it would "completely review" the nuclear issue, amid concerns that Pyongyang may be planning a third nuclear test following its failed rocket launch in April.

Flooding across impoverished North Korea this month has killed 88 people, left tens of thousands homeless and devastated swathes of farmland, state media said Saturday.

A week of floods "caused by typhoon and downpour... claimed big human and material losses", Pyongyang's official news agency said. The new death toll was a dramatic increase from the figure of eight reported Wednesday.

South Korea's foreign minister said Friday he would press China to conduct a thorough investigation into claims that a Seoul rights activist was physically abused while detained by Beijing.

"I will press for a thorough and strict re-investigation because our top priority is to protect our people," Kim Sung-Hwan told a parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

Wife of N. Korea's Kim is former singer: S. Korea media

The wife of North Korea's Kim Jong-Un is a former singer who caught the leader's eye while she was giving a performance, South Korean media said Thursday after Pyongyang disclosed the marriage.

North Korean state media Wednesday confirmed that its new leader Kim Jong-Un is married, ending weeks of speculation about the identity of a stylish young woman seen accompanying him at official events.

State television reported that Kim and his wife took part in a ceremony Wednesday marking completion of a Pyongyang amusement park.