the death toll from devastating floods in eastern south africa has risen. officials from the quasi-yooul yue natal province say 443 people lost their lives in flooding from one of the worst storm systems ever to hit the area. at least 63 people are still missing. officials say housing on steep slopes and bridges in low-lying areas are still at risk of further damage. south korea and the united states will conduct military exercises for the next nine days. seoul s joint chiefs of staff announced it on sunday. the defense command training will use computer simulation without actual military forces training in person. the joint chiefs said the decision to go virtual was made based on conditions such as covid-1 and maintenance of the combined defense posture. that s as the u.s. envoy for north korea arrives in seoul for
test. so that does play into pyongyang s favor. many experts and observers you speak to as well will say they believe a nuclear test, the seventh nuclear test for north korea, could be imminent, could be in the next few months. and we have seen satellite images showing there is activity at that testing site. rosemary? all right. paula hancocks joining us live from seoul. many thanks. it s a presence that isn t going unnoticed. coming up, the concerns over chinese warships being spotted outside contested islands near japan and taiwan. we re back with that in just a moment.
talks on pyongyang s missile launches. paula hancocks is there and joins us live with the details. good to see you, paula. so what will likely come out of those discussions on north korea s missile launches? reporter: well, rosemary, we know as you said the special envoy sung kim is here in seoul. he ll be meeting many officials over the next couple of days. and clearly there is plenty to talk about when you consider what pyongyang has been doing over recent months. january was a record month for a number of missile launches. just last week you had a significant anniversary in pyongyang with the 110th anniversary of the birth of the country s founder and kim jong un s grandfather, kim il sung. now, we have in recent weeks also had an intercontinental ballistic missile launch from north korea. so there s a definite increase in the amount of activity from north korea, the amount of launches, the amount of testing that has been going on.
and that is of concern. to seoul, to tokyo, to washington. and that will be one of the top topics when they are meeting. of course this is a very busy time of year as well on any particular year because of those u.s.-south korean military drills. even if they are computer simulations, they would still irritate pyongyang. and we have seen that in recent years. and experts are saying there will potentially be more testing given the fact that the timing and the environment is quite positive for testing for north korea. the world is looking elsewhere. the united states is focused on russia s invasion of ukraine. so potentially that could work in kim jong un s favor. the fact that any u.n. security council meeting is not going to be speaking in unison. russia and china are highly unlikely to be agreeing with the united states when pushing for more sanctions against north korea if they are continuing to
in an exclusive interview, a former senior military officer in north korea s intelligence agency has told the bbc doesn t believe kim jong un will ever give up the country s nuclear weapons. kim kuk song, who achieved the rank of colonel in north korea s powerful spy agencies, defected to seoul in 2014. police in britain are dropping a review of sexual assault allegations by an american woman, virginia giuffre, against prince andrew. london s metropolitan police say they have completed that review and no further action will be taken. the prince has consistently denied all allegations. fully vaccinated residents in australia s most populous state, new south wales, are enjoying new freedoms is lockdown begins to be lifted. people in greater sydney have been on stay at home orders for three and a half months, but some social distancing measures and limits on public gatherings remain.