The journey from Tokyo to Hong Kong normally takes me about five hours. It’s now been 19 hours since I left Narita airport and I’m still not home, as I await my COVID-19 test result. This is what international travel is like during the coronavirus pandemic. (Thread) I’ve never seen a gate at Narita like this.

#breaking North Korea urges foreign diplomats to leave on Friday. Dozens of foreign diplomats quarantined in Pyongyang, North Korea are planning to take an evacuation flight this Friday, a source inside the country tells me. The source agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, given the extreme sensitivity of the current situation in North Korea: “We got a new note [on Saturday] urging missions again to leave and stating [the flight] is scheduled to leave on the 6th [of March],” the source says.

The United States and North Korea will begin working level talks in Stockholm, Sweden beginning tomorrow, Friday Oct 4, according a source with knowledge of the plans. The chief negotiator from the North Korean side will be the DPRK’s former ambassador to Vietnam, Kim Myong Gil. Kim Myong Gil is a longtime NK diplomat who has participated in multiple nuclear negotiations including the six-party-talks, five rounds of negotiations in Beijing from 2003 to 2007. Kim was also part of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s delegation to Hanoi, Vietnam in February.

#breaking CNN EXCLUSIVE: Sources: ‘Executed’ North Korean special envoy to the US, Kim Hyok Chol, is still alive and remains in custody and under investigation for his role in the failed Hanoi summit, several sources familiar with the situation tell me. When asked about a South Korean newspaper report last week, citing a single anonymous source, claiming the top North Korean diplomat was executed in March on charges of “being recruited by U.S. imperialists and betraying the Supreme Leader,” one source said, “the news was wrong.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country needed to become more self-reliant “so as to deal a telling blow to the hostile forces who go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring the DPRK to its knees.” The DPRK leader didn’t specify what he meant by ‘telling blow,’ but he did underscore the need to “more vigorously advance socialist construction” to support the “national economy suited to the specific local conditions of our country based on our efforts, technology & resources”

#breaking Preliminary report obtained by @OrenCNN on the Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX accident that killed all 157 on board, shows significant similarities to the Lion Air accident, with the plane’s computer system pushing the nose down four times into a steep 40-degree dive. Report paints a graphic picture of the flight’s final minutes as the two pilots tried in vain to end the dive together. One key difference between the accidents: Ethiopian pilots correctly diagnosed the issue and effectively disabled the MCAS system about 3 min before the crash

#breaking Diplomats from the United States and North Korea will meet for talks today in Stockholm hosted by the Swedish Foreign Ministry, a diplomatic source with close knowledge of the meetings tells CNN. The talks will focus on the way forward, following up on last summer’s summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and also on the recently announced upcoming second summit between them, the source added.