North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, celebrates his latest missile test launch on Friday. Independent journalists were not given access. Credit:KCNA/AP The official Xinhua news agency said the joint exercises will take place between Peter the Great Bay, just outside of the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok, not far from the Russia-North Korea border, and into the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, to the north of Japan. The drills are the second part of China-Russian naval exercises this year, the first part of which took place in the Baltic in July. The report did not directly link the drills to current tensions over North Korea. North Korean diplomats will have a front-row seat in the UN General Assembly for Trump's speech on Tuesday morning, which will touch on the escalating crisis that has seen Trump and Pyongyang trade threats of military action. US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday the UN Security Council has run out of options on containing North Korea's nuclear program and the US may have to turn the matter over to the Pentagon.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. Credit:AP Earlier Trump tweeted that he and South Korean President Moon Jae-in discussed North Korea during their latest telephone conversation on Saturday. Asked about Trump's description of Kim, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said "Rocket Man" was "a new one and I think maybe for the president". But, he said, "That's where the rockets are coming from. Rockets, though, we ought to probably not laugh too much about because they do represent a great threat to all."

McMcaster said Kim is "going to have to give up his nuclear weapons because the president has said he's not going to tolerate this regime threatening the United States and our citizens with a nuclear weapon". Asked if that meant Trump would launch a military strike, McMaster said: "He's been very clear about that, that all options are on the table." Kim has threatened Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, and has fired missiles over Japan, a US ally. North Korea also recently tested its most powerful bomb. The UN Security Council has voted unanimously twice in recent weeks to tighten economic sanctions on North Korea. Trump, in a tweet, asserted that long lines for fuel were forming in North Korea, and he said that was "too bad".

Haley warned of a tougher US response to future North Korean provocations, and said she would be happy to turn the matter over to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis "because he has plenty of military options". Mattis said after Kim tested a hydrogen bomb earlier this month that the US would answer any threat from the North with a "massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming". Trump has threatened to rain "fire and fury" on North Korea if the North continued with its threats. Haley said that wasn't an empty threat from the president but she declined to describe the president's intentions. "If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behaviour, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed and we all know that and none of us want that," Haley said. Loading

"None of us want war. But we also have to look at the fact that you are dealing with someone who is being reckless, irresponsible and is continuing to give threats not only to the United States, but to all their allies, so something is going to have to be done." AP