A 95-year-old former North Korean soldier who spent decades imprisoned in the South will continue his campaign to return to the North, an activist said Thursday, after South Korean troops stopped his symbolic border march this week.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said her country will never see South Korea as a partner for diplomacy

North Korea ruled out a role for South Korea in any regional diplomatic talks related to Pyongyang and warned of “countermeasures” against “the most hostile state” as it criticized the ongoing military cooperation between Seoul and Washington.

A California man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after admitting to shipping weapons and ammunition to North Korea that he said were to be used for a surprise attack on South Korea, authorities said Tuesday.

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 has 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.

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.