South Korean activists balloon-launched anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea and threatened Tuesday to follow them with copies of Hollywood comedy "The Interview," despite the North's dire threats of retaliation.

The North has warned at least one activist that he would "pay for his crimes in blood" if copies of the movie about a CIA plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un made it across the border.

North Korea on Monday issued a fresh call for the United States to halt military exercises with South Korea if it wants Pyongyang to suspend nuclear weapons tests.

"I wish the U.S. government (will) study our proposal properly and provide answers to the proposal," Ri Yong-Ho, the North's chief nuclear negotiator, told reporters after two days of unofficial talks with former U.S. diplomats and security experts in Singapore.

North Korea is showing no signs of preparing for a new nuclear test, a U.S. think tank said Friday, citing recent satellite imagery.

South Korean military prosecutors sought the death penalty Friday for a young conscript over last year's deadly shooting spree that killed five at a guard post near the tense border with North Korea.

At a court martial in the eastern city of Wonju, the prosecution said the 22-year-old sergeant surnamed Lim deserves death because he showed no repentance for his "premeditated and cruel" crime targeting unarmed comrades, according to Yonhap news agency.

North Korea scored their first Asian Cup goal in 23 years on Wednesday but Saudi Arabia dashed hopes of an upset by storming back for a 4-1 win.

A second defeat in Group B left the North Koreans on the brink of elimination while breathing new life into a Saudi campaign that had been flagging after they were stunned 1-0 by China in their opening game at the weekend.

Days after deporting a Korean-American woman for praising North Korea, South Korean authorities on Wednesday arrested a fellow activist and former leftist politician on similar charges.

Both women fell foul of South Korea's strict National Security Law (NSL), enacted in 1948 to protect the fledgling state from infiltration by the communist North.

North Korea on Tuesday offered to hold direct talks with the United States on its proposal to suspend nuclear tests, and suggested dialogue could pave the way to changes on the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. State Department has rejected Pyongyang's offer to suspend nuclear tests in exchange for a temporary freeze on U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises but said it "remains opens to dialogue" with Pyongyang.

U.S. officials Tuesday warned they will boost pressure on North Korea with new economic penalties after the cyber-attack on Sony, but said Washington was open to engagement with the rogue state.

President Barack Obama slapped sanctions on North Korea early this month in retaliation for the hacking of Hollywood studio Sony Pictures' computer network.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said Monday she was willing to meet unconditionally with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, and urged Pyongyang to respond more "proactively" to Seoul's offer for dialogue.

Park, in her New Year's press conference, added she was willing to "meet just about anyone" to ease tension on the peninsula and seek eventual reunification. 

The United States on Saturday slammed an offer by North Korea to suspend future nuclear tests temporarily if Washington cancels military drills with the South as an "implicit threat."

Pyongyang was "inappropriately" linking routine military exercises between Washington and Seoul to the possibility of a nuclear test, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.