South Korea and Japan on Sunday reaffirmed their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and agreed to revive joint search-and-rescue drills in a step forward for security ties between the neighboring countries.

The removal marks the latest escalation in a years-long anti-corruption campaign initiated ​by President Xi Jinping that has seen ⁠scores of senior officials and ​top generals investigated, removed and purged.

The hermetic nation is under multiple sets of sanctions over a nuclear programme its leaders have vowed to pursue as an essential deterrent to the United States and South Korea.

Tens of thousands of people were reported missing as collapsed buildings dotted cities in a country already enduring an economic crisis and political upheaval after US forces captured former president Nicolas Maduro in January.

Frustration mounted over the uneven pace of relief in some of the hardest-hit areas including La Guaira state, where residents and volunteers were still digging through rubble by hand amid shortages of heavy equipment and limited official presence.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas on Wednesday afternoon, followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor, according to the US Geological Survey.

Two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck the same area of Venezuela on the evening of June 24, causing buildings to collapse.

"Since June 24, approximately 1,000 additional deaths (unconsolidated figures) have been observed compared to the deaths recorded in previous months," Public Health France said in a statement.

Britain, France and Switzerland have baked in record heat in June, and the system was expected to test more records as the heatwave crosses the Rhine River.

Maximum temperatures are expected to surpass 30C for more than 380 million people across Europe excluding Turkey, representing nearly two-thirds of the population, according to an analysis based on forecasts from the German weather service and 2025 population projections from the Joint Research Centre.

Despite the latest flare-up, oil prices have fallen sharply on hopes that traffic through Hormuz would recover. In peacetime, it carries about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas exports.

The agreement, which includes a pilot effort in which Lebanese soldiers take control of two areas occupied by Israel as well as a process aimed at disarming Hezbollah, is the result of five rounds of talks in the US capital.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Bahrain officials on Thursday on the final leg of a trip to the Middle East where he has sought to sell the Trump administration's preliminary Iran accord to skeptical Gulf Arab allies.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington would not accept Iranian tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz, as disputes over the vital waterway, nuclear inspections, and missiles exposed early strains in negotiations to end the Middle East war.