US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington wanted to see a ceasefire deal in Gaza concluded and the hostages brought out in the next two weeks.
A renewed push is under way to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and return Israeli hostages before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
"We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining," Blinken told a press conference in South Korea, when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.
Blinken also said a North Korean missile test carried out during his visit to Seoul on Monday was a reminder of the need to deepen Washington's cooperation with South Korea and Japan to deter an emboldened Pyongyang.
North Korea fired what appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, which flew more than 1,100 kilometres (690 miles) east before falling into the sea, according to South Korea's military.
Speaking a few hours later, Blinken told a news conference the launch underscored the importance of collaboration between the US, South Korea and Japan, including on sharing real-time missile data and holding trilateral military exercises.
At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded in central Gaza on Sunday, local officials said, in an Israeli missile strike which the military said missed its intended target.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russia's top diplomat his country was ready to "unconditionally support" Moscow's every effort to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, state media reported on Sunday, as the two countries held high-level strategic talks.
A preliminary report depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before an Air India jetliner crashed, killing 260 people last month, after the plane's engine fuel cutoff switches almost simultaneously flipped, starving the engines of fuel.
US President Donald Trump defended the state and federal response to deadly flash flooding in Texas on Friday as he visited the stricken Hill Country region, where at least 120 people, including dozens of children, perished a week ago.