North Korea provocation probable on 10 October, warns Japan

Japan has warned that provocation from North Korea should be expected on 10 October as the country's main anniversaries would coincide with the start of lower house election campaigns in Japan.

North Korea has often conducted weapon tests to mark significant events, such as its fifth nuclear test last year on 9 September, its founding anniversary.

Tensions have mounted on the Korean peninsula ever since Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful test on 3 September, which led to a new round of sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.

Since that day, US President Donald Trump and North Korea have continued trading insults, making a reaction from the volatile Kim Jong Un all the more probable.

Earlier in the week North Korea's foreign ministry described Trump as an "old lunatic", saying he was exploiting the death of Otto Warmbier - an American student who died a week after returning to the US from captivity in a North Korean prison.

But Pyongyang is feeling ever lonelier among the international community, with long-time main trading partner Beijing on Thursday warning North Korean companies trading within Chinese borders that it was time to wrap-up operations, as it took the first steps in implementing the most recent set of UN sanctions.

Both North Korean and joint ventures between the two nations would be forced to close by early January 2018.

China, which had already banned textile trade and severely limited the flow of oil to North Korea, said its commerce ministry had set a self-imposed deadline of 120 days from the passing of the resolution to shut down any and all North Korean firms on its soil.