North Korea cancelled planned talks with VP

US Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet with North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un's sister, while in South Korea for the Winter Olympics this month but the North Koreans canceled at the last minute, US officials said on Tuesday.

"North Korea dangled a meeting in hopes of the Vice President softening his message, which would have ceded the world stage for their propaganda during the Olympics," Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, said in a statement.

But after Pence condemned North Korean human rights abuses and announced plans for new economic sanctions, "they walked away from a meeting or perhaps they were never sincere about sitting down," Ayers said.

Pence was going to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, and the nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam, but the North Koreans called off the February 10 meeting two hours before it was set to start, a US official said, confirming a story first reported by the Washington Post.

"The President made a decision that if they wanted to talk, we would deliver our uncompromising message. If they asked for a meeting, we would meet. He also made clear that until they agreed to complete denuclearization we weren't going to change any of our positions or negotiate," Ayers said, echoing comments made by Pence since he left the Olympics and other US officials.

Meanwhile, Japan has reported a new suspected sanctions violation by Pyongyang to the UN after spotting an apparent cargo transfer between a ship marked with Chinese characters and a North Korean vessel, reported AFP.

The Japanese navy "found the Yu Jong 2, a North Korean-flagged tanker, lying alongside a small vessel of unknown nationality... on the high sea" around 250 kilometres  offshore from the Chinese city of Shanghai, the foreign ministry said.