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Tag: Kim Jong-un

  • North Korea threatens retaliation over U.S.-South Korea drills

    Pyongyang on Thursday threatened a “corresponding response”, three days after South Korea and the U.S. kicked off two weeks of joint air-force drills.

    The “acts of perfidy’’ by Seoul had “greatly disappointed us’’ and represented a “military provocation,’’ a spokesman for North Korea’s reunification committee was quoted as saying by state-run news agency KCNA.

    The drills are a scaled back alternative to the huge Max Thunder drills that the U.S. and South Korea have staged every year since 2009.

    The two countries have also announced the suspension of several major joint military exercises over the past year, including Foal Eagle and Key Resolve in March, as part of a diplomatic push for North Korea to denuclearise.

    Pyongyang has long viewed the exercises as a provocation and a rehearsal for an invasion of North Korea.

    On Thursday, the spokesman said the changes “can never conceal the aggressive, offensive and confrontational nature of their hostile acts no matter how hard they may try to give (an) impression about ‘reduction in scope’ by replacing the code-name.

    The drills were an “outright challenge’’ to the Panmunjom Declaration signed by North and South Korean leaders in 2018, he said.

    “There will be a corresponding response to it from our army.’’

    Tensions have been simmering between the U.S. and North Korea since U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, cut short a summit in Hanoi in February, after failing to reach an agreement on denuclearisation.

    dpa/NAN

  • Update: Summit with North Korea’s Kim ‘better than anybody expected’ – Trump

    U.S. President Donald Trump said a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday had gone “better than anybody could have expected”.

    He also said they would sign a document following talks on ways to end a nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula.

    Kim stood silently alongside Trump as he spoke to media during a post-lunch stroll through the gardens of the Singapore hotel where the summit was held, but the North Korean leader had earlier described their meeting as a “a good prelude to peace”.

    Both men walked to Trump’s limousine and looked in at the rear seat, with Trump apparently showing Kim something inside.

    They then resumed their walk.

    “A lot of progress – really very positive. I think better than anybody could have expected. Top of the line, very good.

    “We’re going now for a signing,” Trump told newsmen, without giving details on what would be signed.

    Should they succeed in making a diplomatic breakthrough, it could bring lasting change to the security landscape of Northeast Asia, like the visit of former U.S. President Richard Nixon to China in 1972 led to the transformation of China.

    Both men had looked serious as they got out of their limousines for the summit at the Capella hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa, a resort island with luxury hotels, a casino, manmade beaches and a Universal Studios theme park.

    But, with cameras of the world’s press trained on them, they displayed an initial atmosphere of bonhomie as they met on the verandah of the Capella, a refurbished 19th century British regimental officers’ mess.

    After a handshake, they were soon smiling and holding each other by the arm, before Trump guided Kim to the library where they held a meeting with only their interpreters.

    Trump had said on Saturday he would know within a minute of meeting Kim whether he would reach a deal.

    Inside, they sat alongside each other against a backdrop of North Korean and U.S. flags, with Kim beaming broadly as the U.S. president gave him a thumbs up.

    The combatants of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War are technically still at war, as the conflict, in which millions of people died, was concluded only with a truce.

    After initial exchanges lasting around 40 minutes, Trump and Kim emerged, walking side-by-side through the colonnaded hotel before entering a meeting room, where they were joined by their most senior officials.

    Kim was heard telling Trump through a translator: “I think the entire world is watching this moment.

    Many people in the world will think of this as a scene from a fantasy…science fiction movie.”(Reuters/NAN)

  • Russian suggests Vladivostok as location for Putin-Kim meeting

    A summit meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could take place early September at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, near Russia’s borders with China and North Korea.

    Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed the location and time during a meeting recently in Pyongyang with Kim, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday in Moscow.

    “Whether that suits the North Korean side, time will tell,’’ Peskov said, with definitive details on the proposed meeting still to be confirmed.

    If the eastern city of Vladivostok was to be selected as a meeting point, Kim would only require a short train ride across North Korea’s common border with Russia to attend the meeting.

    The Eastern Economic Forum, which is traditionally used by Russia to attract investors from Pacific nations, is scheduled to take place this year, on Sept. 6  and 7.

    NAN

  • North Korean official meets U.S Secretary of State in New York

    The right-hand man to North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has met United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, in New York to discuss a historic summit.

    Gen Kim Yong-chol dined with Mr. Pompeo after flying in from China, and the two are due to meet again on Thursday, the BBC reports.

    He is the most senior North Korean to visit the U.S in nearly 20 years.

    U.S President, Donald Trump, cancelled the June 12 summit, but both sides have since made fresh efforts to hold it as planned.

    Scheduled to happen in Singapore, the historic meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim would be the first between sitting U.S and North Korean leaders.

    On Wednesday evening, Mr. Pompeo and Gen. Kim arrived separately at a building close to the United Nations headquarters.

    Emerging later, Mr. Pompeo tweeted: “Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight. Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu.”

     

  • Trump cancels summit with North Korea’s leader

    United States President, Donald Trump, has cancelled a summit with North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, blaming “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the North.

    He said it was possible a meeting could still take place but warned North Korea against committing “foolish” acts, the BBC reports.

    The summit aimed to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons and would have been the first time a sitting U.S President met a North Korean leader.

    But doubts had emerged on both sides whether the talks would take place.

    Mr. Trump’s announcement marked a fresh twist in the turbulent relationship between him and Mr. Kim.

    Last year saw the two exchange lurid insults.

    This year though has seen warmer relations, including the release of three U.S detainees in North Korea.

    The move came just hours after North Korea said it had dismantled tunnels at its only nuclear test site in a move witnessed by foreign journalists.

  • Trump contradicts adviser on North Korea

    United States President, Donald Trump, has contradicted his own national security adviser, saying the so-called “Libya model” for denuclearisation is not being pursued with North Korea.

    The suggestion by John Bolton angered the North, which threatened to pull out of a summit with Mr. Trump next month, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Trump said he still thought a summit would happen.

    In 2003, the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, agreed to give up his nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of sanctions.

    However, he was killed by Western-backed rebels years later – a comparison that appears to have alarmed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

    Pyongyang warned on Wednesday that it might not attend the talks, due to take place in Singapore on June 12.

    As Mr. Bolton looked on, the U.S President said: “The Libyan model isn’t a model that we have at all when we’re thinking of North Korea.”

    The deal Mr. Trump was considering with Kim Jong-un would be “something where he’d be there, he’d be in his country, he’d be running his country, his country would be very rich.

    “If you look at South Korea, this would be really a South Korean model in terms of their industry. They’re hard-working, incredible people.”

     

  • China calls on U.S., North Korea to ease tensions, meet halfway

    China on Wednesday asked the U.S. and North Korea to cherish recent efforts to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and meet each other halfway, hours after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un threatened to cancel a highly anticipated summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

    “When the peace settlement process on the peninsula is facing an important opportunity, all parties concerned, especially North Korea and the U.S., should meet each other halfway and show kindness.

    “They should show sincerity to each other, and together create favourable conditions and atmosphere for the leaders’ meeting,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said on Wednesday.

    His statement came hours after Jong-Un threatened to cancel his summit with Trump, scheduled for June 12, if the U.S. insisted that North Korea completely abandon its nuclear weapons.

    Read Also: Nigeria, China in $2.5b currency swap deal

    China also hopes the DPRK and the ROK will follow the spirit of the Panmunjom Declaration, understand and respect each other’s reasonable concerns to build trust and improve ties, Lu said.

    Lu called on the parties concerned to avoid taking steps that would escalate the situation.

    He also called for creating favorable conditions for dialogue and consultations.

    NAN

  • Trump’s gambit Iran: World awaits decision on nuclear deal

    “Insane,” “ridiculous,” “worst deal ever” are some of the descriptions used by US President Donald Trump for the Iran nuclear agreement, which he has bitterly opposed since early in his campaign for the White House.

    The world will soon find out whether Trump’s rants about the 2015 deal will produce a concrete shift in US diplomacy, regarding one of the most important foreign policy issues of his presidency.

    Trump officially has until Saturday to decide whether to reintroduce US sanctions on Iran, which among other things could spell an end to the accord.

    But he has said he will announce his decision at 2.00 p.m. ( 1800 GMT ) on Tuesday.

    In January, Trump renewed waivers for US sanctions on Iran but warned that it was the last time he would do so unless several “disastrous flaws” in the agreement were addressed.

    His ultimatum triggered a 120-day period that ends this weekend.

    There is a growing consensus in the United States that his decision will effectively pull the US out of the deal, and that prospect has been accompanied by a range of speculation over what comes next.

    French President, Emmanuel Macron, said he didn’t know what Trump would decide.

    But after several meetings with the president over a three-day state visit recently he said: “My view is that he will get rid of this deal on his own for domestic reasons’’.

    “The president campaigned on getting out of the deal and I think that he’s going to do so,’’ Lieut.-Gen. William G Boykin said on Thursday on Fox News.

    Iranian leaders already have pledged to abandon the deal if the US withdraws.

    But it could remain in the deal with Britain, France and Germany, along with China and Russia, which have expressed their continued support.

    Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has warned that if Trump withdraws, it could risk war.

    Since Trump issued the ultimatum in January, U.S. and European negotiators have met a number of times to address US concerns within and beyond the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( JCPOA ), as the deal is formally known.

    The U.S. side has raised four main issues: Iran’s ballistic missile programme, its involvement in regional conflicts, inspection of Iranian nuclear sites and so-called sunset clauses.

    The sunset clauses, which let some restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme expire, have proved the most difficult of these.

    The U.S. claims that the clauses provide Iran with a pathway to building nuclear weapons over time.

    Trump has pushed the European partners to search for possible compromises.

    Determined to stay in the deal, the bloc has argued that abandoning it would not help address the ballistic weapons issue or Iran’s role in the region.

    “The JCPOA is a non-proliferation agreement.

    “Other issues of concern are addressed separately,’’ a senior EU official said on condition of anonymity.

    “If the deal falls apart, you would not be in any better position to tackle these issues.’’

    Furthermore, the deal is doing what it is supposed to do, by curbing Iran’s nuclear activities, the official noted.

    If the agreement falls apart and there’s no substitute, he said, it would “probably trigger a nuclear arms race in the region.’’

    The dramatic developments on the Korean Peninsula may also influence Trump’s thinking on the nuclear deal.

    Pulling out of the JCPOA could erode the trust he’s tried to build in the effort to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula, ahead of a planned meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un; or it could send a strong message to Pyongyang that Trump is prepared to deliver on his threats.

    Domestic politics could likewise have a role to play, as Trump could be thinking about fulfilling a campaign promise ahead of the November mid-term elections to boost his Republican Party’s chances of maintaining its majority in Congress.

    In recent weeks, Trump has manoeuvred aggressively.

    Read Also: U.S. Ambassador to UN disapproves of Trump’s “communication style”

    He has changed his secretary of state, switching the moderate Rex Tillerson for the more hawkish Mike Pompeo, a fierce critic of the Iran deal.

    He has also brought in John Bolton, a foreign policy hawk, as his national security adviser.

    Pompeo met Israeli President, Benjamin Netanyahu, on his first foreign trip after taking office, stressing that if the Iran nuclear deal cannot be fixed, Trump will withdraw.

    The “full array of threats,’’ including Iran’s missile systems and support for militant groups in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen must be addressed as part of a revised agreement, he said.

    Pompeo also said documents that Netanyahu revealed April 30 show that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme for years and lied about it.

    “What this means is the deal was not constructed on a foundation of good faith or transparency,’’ Pompeo said.

    NAN

  • Koreas make nuclear pledge after summit

    The leaders of North and South Korea have agreed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons, after holding a historic summit.

    The announcement was made by the North’s Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in of South Korea after talks at the border, the BBC reports.

    The two also agreed to push towards turning the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 into a peace treaty this year.

    The summit came just months after warlike rhetoric from North Korea.

    Speaking at a banquet after Friday’s talks, Mr. Kim hailed the progress he said had been made.

    “We bade farewell to the frozen relationship between North and South Korea, which was a nightmare. And we announced the beginning of a warm spring to the world,” he said.

    Details of how denuclearisation would be achieved were not made clear and many analysts remain skeptical about the North’s apparent enthusiasm for engagement.

    An issue for the North is the security guarantee extended by the United States, a nuclear power, to South Korea and Japan and its military presence in both countries.

    Previous inter-Korean agreements have included similar pledges but were later abandoned after the North resorted to nuclear and missile tests and the South elected more conservative presidents.

    Mr. Kim said the two leaders had agreed to work to prevent a repeat of the region’s “unfortunate history” in which progress had “fizzled out.”

     

  • Trump ‘keen’ to meet North Korea leader after China talks

    United States President, Donald Trump, has said he is keen to meet Kim Jong-un after being told the North Korean leader’s trip to China “went very well.”

    But Mr. Trump said maximum sanctions and pressure on North Korea would continue ahead of proposed talks in May.

    He added that denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula was now a possibility.

    The BBC reports that the comments followed Mr. Kim’s meeting with China’s President, Xi Jinping, in his first known foreign trip since taking office in 2011.

    Mr. Kim and his wife were greeted with a banquet and a guard of honour, with the North Korean leader reportedly saying he was committed to denuclearisation.

    China is North Korea’s main economic ally.

    On Wednesday, Mr. Trump welcomed news of progress following the talks between the two leaders in Beijing after days of speculation.

    “Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong-un will do what is right for his people and for humanity,” Mr. Trump posted, adding in the next tweet that Mr. Kim also “looks forward to his meeting with me.”