GETTY Kim Jong-un and South Korean soldiers

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North Korea has warned the US against a planned joint military exercise with South Korea.

Washington and Seoul have vowed to go ahead with the war games despite concerns.

Kim Jong-un has previously threatened to strike the US Pacific territory of Guam.

Monday August 21 9.30.pm: Warships collide in the Asian peninsula Some ten U.S. sailors were missing after a collision between a destroyer and a tanker near Singapore on Monday. The guided-missile destroyer John S. McCain and the tanker Alnic MC collided while the warship was heading to Singapore for a routine port call. The collision tore a hole in the warship's waterline, flooding compartments that included a crew sleeping area, the U.S. Navy said. "Initial reports indicate John S. McCain sustained damage to her port side aft," it said in a statement. "There are currently 10 sailors missing and five injured." Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson called an "operational pause" worldwide "to make sure that we are taking all appropriate immediate actions to ensure safe and effective operations around the world." He said it was "deeply worrisome," especially at a time of high tensions with North Korea. 8.30pm: US stocks flat amid tension with North Korea US stocks were mostly flat in early afternoon trading on Monday amid concerns over the recent turmoil in the White House and simmering tensions between the United States and North Korea. While the benchmark S&P 500 index is still up 13.6 percent since the election, it had fallen 2.1 percent in the last two weeks. That's the most since the fortnight before the election. Part of the recent decline was due to escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea. While that has eased slightly in the past few days, South Korean and U.S. forces began computer-simulated military exercises on Monday. 2.40pm: South Korea insists “no intent to heighten tension” with military drills The South Korean president Moon Jae-in has said that his country’s joint military exercise with the US is purely defensive in nature. "There is no intent at all to heighten military tension on the Korean peninsula as these drills are held annually and are of a defensive nature," he said. "North Korea should not exaggerate our efforts to keep peace nor should they engage in provocations that would worsen the situation, using (the exercise) as an excuse.” 1.20pm: US defector dead in North Korea The family of James Joseph Dresnok, the American soldier who defected to North Korea in 1962, had died. His two sons Ted and James Dresnok confirmed that their father suffered a fatal stroke in November last year and died loyal to the “great leader Kim Jong-un”. “Our father was in the arms of the republic and received only the love and care of the party until his passing at age 74,” Ted said in a video. The brothers were born in North Korea and spoke Korean. “Our father asked us to render devoted service to our great leader Kim Jong-un,” Ted continued.

9.30am: North Korea warns Australia war games are ‘suicide act’ North Korea has criticised Australia’s decision to take part in joint military drills with the US and South Korea, calling the move a “suicide act”. Pyongyang released a statement said that Australia should focus on maintaining peace in its own country instead of “blindly following the US”. "Australia followed the US to the Korean War, the Vietnamese War and the 'war on terrorism', but heavy loss of lives and assets were all that it got in return," the statement read. "Countries like Australia that join the military adventure against the DPRK, blindly following the US, will never avoid the counter-measures of justice by the DPRK."

GETTY South Korean troops during last year's Ulchi Freedom Guardian

Sunday August 20 9.30pm: Kim Jong Un's secret escape plan Should the North Korean dictator make good on his promise to attack the US, it is unlikely he will personally stick around to see the consequences. A former ambassador of the hermit state has revealed Kim has an escape plan for fleeing over the border to China in the event of a US military attack on North Korea. Details of the secret plan were given to MI5 and the CIA by Thae Yong-ho last year after his defection to the West. The former deputy North Korean ambassador to Britain, once a trusted member of Kim’s inner sanctum, said the dictator would direct his country’s military response from the safety of Chinese soil, close to the Yalu river which marks the border of the two countries. 4.00pm: Reduction in US troops for South Korea war games nothing to do with the North US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has confirmed that a reduction in the number of US troops taking part in this week’s joint exercise with South Korea has nothing to do with the ongoing tensions with Pyongyang. "The numbers are by design to achieve the exercise objectives and you always pick what you want to emphasise," he said. "Right now there is a heavy emphasis on command post operations, so the integration of all the different efforts.” Mr Mattis spoke while travelling to Jordan, where he will meet with Middle East leaders to discuss the fight against ISIS.

GETTY South Korea and the US carry out the war games every year

11.30am: North Korea ‘distracting’ Trump from problems at home North Korea is proving to be the “perfect distraction” for Donald Trump, a public affairs expert has said. As the US President faces growing criticism for failing to single out neo-Nazis for their part in the Charlottesville violence, Daniel Shaw said: “Who is Trump to be lecturing anybody abroad when all of the problems we are embroiled with right here in Virginia?” Speaking to RT, he added: “They [North Korea] want another war, it’s the perfect distraction for Trump after Charlottesville demonstrates just how divided, racist and full of white supremacy this country is." Mr Shaw also suggested that North Korea could influence other nations to launch their own nuclear programmes. “I think what North Korea has demonstrated now, for all of the US presidency before Trump, that yes they are going to continue to try out their weapons, they are not going to stand down, that oppressed countries can join the nuclear club as well and won’t go the way of Iraq or Libya.”

US Marines and Japanese troops take part in joint exercise – in pictures Wed, August 16, 2017 US marines and Japanese tanks are taking part in a military exercise on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido as tensions reach breaking point on the Korean peninsular Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 23 Soldiers from Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force take part in a field drill with US Marines during joint military exercises with in Eniwa, Hokkaido prefecture

10.00am: US-South Korea war games 'expression of hostility' against North Korea North Korea has warned that the US will be “pouring gasoline on fire” if it goes ahead with its planned joint military drill with South Korea this week. Some 17,5000 US troops are set to begin the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) tomorrow, an annual exercise which North Korea has described as “the most explicit expression of hostility against us”. “No one can guarantee that the exercise won't evolve into actual fighting," said an editorial in Pyongyang’s Rodong Sinum state newspaper. "The Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercises will be like pouring gasoline on fire and worsen the state of the peninsula.” Warning of an "uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war" on the peninsula, it added: "If the United States is lost in a fantasy that war on the peninsula is at somebody else's doorstep far away from them across the Pacific, it is far more mistaken than ever." The war games date back to 1976 and are largely compromised of computer simulations designed to strengthen joint decision making. There have been widespread calls for the drills to be delayed or cancelled in light of the current US-North Korea impasse. Relations between the two nuclear powers are at an all-time low after Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) last month, putting the continental US firmly in its crosshairs.

Donald Trump vowed to respond to any further threats with “fire and fury like the world has never seen”. In response, North Korea threatened to strike waters around the US Pacific territory of Guam. State media reports that Kim would "watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees” before launching any missiles. Despite the ongoing tensions, Seoul and Washington have said that the UFG will go ahead as planned.