North Korea’s defense ministry condemned U.S. and South Korea’s “provocative” summertime exercises on Thursday, accusing the allies of “maximizing” military tensions on the peninsula after saying little about the drills in recent weeks.

State media devoted extensive coverage to agricultural workers moving into new houses, seeking to promote the yearslong efforts to improve living conditions for farmers as incentive for them to boost crop yields.

Pyongyang appointed an unknown official to serve as the country’s new ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, a central African state that appears to have been spared during