SEOUL, April 4 (Yonhap) -- Adding to weeks-long bellicose rhetoric, North Korea's military announced Thursday that it would take a series of military actions against the United States. In a statement, the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said it would "take a series of strong, actual military countermeasures as the Supreme Command solemnly declared at home and abroad."

Specialist anti-North Korean websites and organisations run by defectors in South Korea said they were the victims of a coordinated cyber attack Tuesday. Free North Korea Radio, Daily NK and North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, all operated by defectors from North Korea, said their servers crashed simultaneously on Tuesday afternoon, paralysing their websites. The apparent intrusion followed last week's large-scale cyber attacks on South Korean broadcasters and banks, which was widely suspected to be the work of organised North Korean hackers.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Forget "Hail to the Chief". In North Korea, the army sing their leader's praises with a chorus of "We Will Defend General Kim Jong-un at the Cost of Our Lives", or the catchy accordion and tap-dance tune, "The Naval Port in the Evening". Kim, the third of his line to rule North Korea, praised musical instruments made by the North's 1.2 million-strong army on Sunday, state news agency KCNA reported.

By Terril Yue Jones BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States is optimistic China will take strong action against North Korea by increasing scrutiny of financial transactions with Pyongyang that could contravene fresh U.N. sanctions, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. David Cohen, the U.S. Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said he was confident Chinese banks and regulators would pay attention to the new U.N. Security Council resolution.