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North Korea unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads and vowed to produce more weapons-grade nuclear material to expand the country's arsenal, state media KCNA said on Tuesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea for military drills.

KCNA released photos of the warheads, dubbed Hwasan-31s, as leader Kim Jong Un visited the Nuclear Weapons Institute, where he inspected new tactical nuclear weapons and technology for mounting warheads on ballistic missiles, as well as nuclear counterattack operation plans.

Experts say the images could indicate progress in miniaturising warheads that are powerful yet small enough to mount on intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S.

"It has something more powerful in a smaller space. That's worrisome," said Kune Y. Suh, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University, comparing the new warheads to the 2016 version.

Kim Dong-yup, a former South Korean naval officer who teaches at Kyungnam University, said the warheads were most likely designed for use with at least eight different delivery platforms listed in posters on the wall, including missiles and submarines.

"Those are not limited to tactical missiles but appear to be a miniaturised, lightweight and standardised warhead that can mount on various vehicles," he said.

"Now that the delivery vehicles are nearly ready, they would churn out warheads to secure second strike capabilities - perhaps hundreds, not dozens - while running centrifuges even harder to get weapons-grade nuclear material," he added

Kim Jong Un ordered the production of weapons-grade materials in a "far-sighted way" to boost its nuclear arsenal "exponentially" and produce powerful weapons, KCNA said.

He said the enemy of the country's nuclear forces is not a specific state or group but "war and nuclear disaster themselves," and the policy of expanding the arsenal is solely aimed at defending the country, and regional peace and stability.

Kim was also briefed on an IT-based integrated nuclear weapon management system called Haekbangashoe, which means "nuclear trigger", whose accuracy, reliability and security were verified during recent drills simulating a nuclear counterattack, KCNA said.

North Korea has been ramping up tensions, firing short-range ballistic missiles on Monday and conducting a nuclear counterattack simulation last week against the U.S. and South Korea, which it accused of rehearsing an invasion with their military exercises.

North Korea's military simulated a nuclear airburst with two tactical ballistic missiles equipped with mock warheads during Monday's training, while testing a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone again on March 25-27, KCNA said in separate dispatches.

The underwater drone, called Haeil-1, reached a target in the waters off the northeast coast after cruising along a "jagged and oval" 600km (373-mile) course for more than 41 hours, it said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea does not deserve "a single penny" of economic aid while pushing for nuclear development, his spokesman said.

A South Korean military spokesman said that additional tests and analysis would be needed to verify whether the North's new warheads are deployable, but that its report on the underwater drone was most likely "exaggerated and fabricated."

U.S. AIR CARRIER

Also on Tuesday, a U.S. carrier strike group led by the USS Nimitz docked at the Busan naval base in South Korea after conducting joint maritime drills. It was the carrier's first visit in nearly six years and coincides with the 70th anniversary of the two countries' alliance.

Rear Admiral Kim Ji-hoon of the South Korean navy said joint exercises were intended to improve U.S. extended deterrence - the military capability, especially nuclear forces, to deter attacks on its allies - given the North's evolving threats.

The strike group commander, Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, said his ships were prepared for any contingency.

"We don't seek conflicts with the DPRK. We seek peace and security. We're not going to be coerced, we're not going to be bullied and we're not going anywhere," he told reporters.

DPRK is an abbreviation for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang has accused the allies of stoking tensions and using exercises to rehearse an invasion.

A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling party media outlet, said the drills, especially those involving the aircraft carrier, amount to "an open declaration of war" and preparations for a "preemptive attack" against North Korea.

"The frantic war drills in the puppet region are not just military drills but nuclear war drills for a preemptive strike ... pursuant to the U.S. political and military option to escalate confrontation with the DPRK and finally lead to a war," it said. (Reuters)

China's establishment of diplomatic relations with Honduras was a political decision without conditions attached, China's foreign ministry said on Monday.

Honduras announced at the weekend it had opened formal ties with Beijing and ended its decades-long relationship with Taiwan.

"Diplomatic ties are not something for trade," China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular news briefing, in response to a question on whether China would give Honduras almost $2.5 billion the Central American country had earlier sought from Taiwan.

Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina wrote to Taiwan this month asking for almost $2.5 billion in aid, including a loan of $2 billion to help write off debt as well as funds for the construction of a hospital and a dam, according to copy of the letter seen by Reuters.

Taiwan said in the days leading to China and Honduras announcing diplomatic ties that Chinese involvement was obvious, and that Taiwan would not engage in "meaningless" dollar diplomacy with China.

Taiwan now has formal diplomatic relations with just 13 countries, mostly poor and developing nations in Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Taipei and Beijing accuse each other of using "dollar diplomacy" in their competition for allies.

"I want to stress that, Taiwan authorities are used to dollar diplomacy," Mao said. "We want to tell Taiwan authorities that Taiwan independence is a dead end, dollar diplomacy has no way through, any plots that go against the tide of history are doomed to end in failure."

China and Honduras signed the deal on diplomatic recognition in Beijing over the weekend, ending relations with Taiwan dating back to the 1940s.

China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taipei strongly rejects. (Reuters)

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, seeking closer ties with Western democracies in the face of Chinese pressure, welcomed a large Czech delegation to the island on Monday, a boost for Taipei after once-loyal ally Honduras switched allegiance to Beijing.

Although the number of countries that retain formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan has dwindled to just 13 after the move by Honduras on Sunday, U.S. allies such as the Czech Republic have been bolstering support for the democratic island even as they also only officially recognise China.

The roughly 150-person Czech delegation arrived in Taipei on Saturday, led by the speaker of the lower chamber of the Czech parliament, Marketa Pekarova Adamova.

Tsai, meeting Pekarova Adamova at the presidential office, noted she had come to Taiwan despite "great pressure", in a veiled reference to Chinese criticism of her visit.

"Taiwan and the Czech Republic have both been through authoritarian rule and deeply understand that democracy has not come easily, so we can become firm partners with each other on the road of upholding democracy and freedom," she said.

Pekarova Adamova told Tsai the Czech Republic and Taiwan are strong partners.

"We believe in the same values and principles, among them the most important are freedom, democracy and protection of human rights. Nobody can threaten us from adhering to these rights," she said.

Speaking earlier to reporters after a Taiwan-Czech business forum, Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua said that the timing of the Honduras announcement and the Czech delegation's arrival were two different things, but that the Czech visit was important.

"This visit of the delegation to Taiwan certainly represents that Taiwan is in a democratic alliance," she said.

Newly elected Czech president Petr Pavel drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing in January after taking a call from Tsai, a clear shift from his predecessor's attempts to win Chinese business.

Pekarova Adamova's trip to Taiwan follows one by Senate speaker Milos Vystrcil in 2020. (Reuters)

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, just as a U.S. aircraft carrier staged combined naval exercises with South Korea in a warning to Pyongyang.

The missiles flew about 370 km (230 miles) after being launched from North Hwanghae province at 7:47 a.m. (2247 GMT on Sunday), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The North's latest launch came as a U.S. carrier strike group led by USS Nimitz joined military exercises with South Korea in international waters off the southern island of Jeju.

The carrier is scheduled to arrive at a naval base in Busan on Tuesday in its first docking in South Korea for nearly six years, partly to mark the 70th anniversary of the alliance, Seoul's defence ministry said. In September, another aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan visited the port.

The drills were designed to improve the execution of U.S. extended deterrence - its military capability, especially nuclear forces, to deter attacks on its allies - by deploying American strategic assets amid the North's growing threats, a South Korean navy official said.

Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, strike group commander, did not specify how it detects and responds to North Korean missile tests. But he said it was "well informed" about such activities, serving as a command and control centre gathering information across all domains from space to under the sea.

"It's important for us to be able to integrate with our navy allies and share information and our interoperability, because we don't like to be coerced - I don't think anyone likes a bully," Sweeney told reporters from the carrier.

When asked about growing calls in South Korea for permanently deploying American strategic assets, he said: "The United States has deployable strategic assets at the ready on every day and we can continue to deploy those assets."

North Korea has been ramping up its military tests in recent weeks, firing multiple cruise missiles to practice tactical nuclear attacks, and testing what it called a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone.

South Korea's military condemned the North's launches as a grave provocation and said it would continue building the capability to "overwhelmingly respond to any provocations".

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the latest launch did not pose an immediate threat, but highlighted the destabilising impact of Pyongyang's unlawful nuclear weapons programmes.

The Japanese government also said it lodged a "strong protest" with North Korea.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said North Korea was likely to step up provocative activities, including a possible nuclear test.

U.S. and South Korean officials have for nearly a year warned that the North could carry out what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.

The allies have been conducting a series of joint training in recent weeks including air and sea drills involving American B-1B bombers, and their first large-scale amphibious landing exercises in five years.

They concluded their regular springtime exercises, called Freedom Shield 23, last week, but have other field training continuing, also including amphibious landing drills involving a U.S. amphibious assault ship.

Pyongyang has long bristled at the allies' drills, saying they are preparation for an invasion. South Korea and the United States say the exercises are defensive.

The United States has about 28,500 troops in South Korea. (Reuters)