The Nation Newspaper

Tag: North Korea

  • U.S to ban citizens from visiting North Korea

    U.S to ban citizens from visiting North Korea

    The United States is to ban its citizens from travelling to North Korea.

    Two agencies that operate tour in North Korea – Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours – said the ban would be announced on July 27 to come into effect 30 days later.

    The BBC reports that Young Pioneer Tours was the agency that took U.S student, Otto Warmbier, to North Korea.

    He was later arrested and jailed for 15 years, before being returned in a coma to the U.S in June. He died a few days later.

    The China-based company later announced it would no longer take visitors from the U.S to the country.

    It issued a statement on Friday saying: “We have just been informed that the U.S government will no longer be allowing U.S citizens to travel to the DPRK (North Korea).

    “It is expected that the ban will come into force within 30 days of July 27. After the 30 day grace period any U.S national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government.”

    Rowan Beard, of Young Pioneer Tours, told the BBC that the company had been informed by the Swedish embassy, which looks after U.S affairs in North Korea.

    The embassy is trying to check the number of U.S tourists left in the country.

    There are reported to be three U.S citizens in custody in North Korea:

    Kim Dong-chul, a 62-year-old naturalised U.S citizen born in South Korea, who was sentenced to 10 years of hard labour in April 2016 for spying.

    Korean-American professor, Kim Sang-duk (or Tony Kim), who was detained in April 2017. The reasons for his arrest are not yet clear.

    Kim Hak-song, like Kim Sang-duk, worked at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) and was detained in May 2017 on suspicion of “hostile acts” against the state.

  • Pentagon to provide options against North Korea

    Pentagon to provide options against North Korea

    The U.S. military is  ready to provide options to President Donald Trump over the continued launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea, Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis said.

    Mattis, in a statement by the U.S. Department of Defence, however, said diplomatic and economic efforts remained the tools  of choice to convince North Korea to stop its nuclear and missile programmes.

    “The President and Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, have been very clear that we are leading with diplomatic and economic efforts.

    “The military remains ready in accordance with our alliance with Japan, with Korea,’’ Mattis said during a news conference at the Pentagon.

    “The North Korean launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4 is a very serious escalation and provocation and also an affront to the United Nations Security Council resolutions,’’ he said.

    The defence secretary stressed that the effort  against North Korea was purely diplomatically led, adding the weapons of choice are economic sanctions.

    He, however, added  that  these would  be buttressed by military capabilities.

    Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is the administration points  man with regard to North Korea.

    “We stand ready to provide options if they are necessary,’’ Mattis said, pointing out that diplomacy with regards  to North Korea had  not failed.

    Mattis quoted  Gen. Vincent Brooks, the Commander of U.S. Forces in Korea, saying America and South Korea have exercised extreme self-restraint in avoiding war.

    He noted the shelling of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, the sinking of a South Korean ship earlier that year and other provocations at sea, on land and in cyberspace.

    “Our self-restraint holds, and diplomatic efforts remain underway as we speak,’’ he said.

    The U.S. is working with allies to influence North Korea, while U.S. officials are also working with China – North Korea’s benefactor and the largest trading partner  to place more pressure on North Korean leaders to stop the nuclear and missile programmes.

    The Secretary said the Defence Department was still analysing intelligence from the North Korean launch, adding that “it clearly had a booster  which was a new development on a previous missile.’’

  • Xi says China-U.S. relations affected by ‘negative factors’

    Xi says China-U.S. relations affected by ‘negative factors’

    China-U.S. relations have been affected by some “negative factors,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump during a phone call on Monday.

    The conversation came after a series of recent actions by the U.S. related to Taiwan, North Korea and the South China Sea that have been labeled by Beijing as “wrong decisions” or “provocations.”

    Xi told Trump he hoped the U.S. would handle Taiwan-related issues appropriately and that China places great importance on Trump’s reaffirmation of the “One China” policy, which prohibits countries that have diplomatic relations with Beijing from pursuing official ties with Taiwan, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

    On Thursday, the U.S. government angered Beijing when it approved a 1.4-billion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a breakaway province.

    China asked the U.S. to cancel the deal lest it would damage “China-US relations and cooperation in important fields,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Friday.

    A U.S. government official said US arms sales to Taiwan reflect no change in the “one China” policy and are based on an assessment of Taiwan’s defence needs.

    The U.S. government also announced on Thursday it had imposed sanctions against China’s Bank of Dandong over its alleged dealings with North Korea.

    China’s Foreign Ministry retorted that the sanctions were a “wrong decision” made arbitrarily by the US outside the framework of the UN Security Council.

    on Sunday, a U.S. warship sailed close to a disputed island in the South China Sea claimed by China, prompting an angry response from Beijing, which described the action as a “serious provocation.”

    The guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem came within 12 miles of an island in the Paracel Archipelago, which is claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, CNN reported.

    The ship was part of a U.S. Navy “freedom of navigation exercise,” the news network added.

    The operation “infringed upon China’s sovereignty, disrupted peace, security and order of the relevant waters and put in jeopardy the facilities and personnel on the Chinese islands, and thus constitutes a serious political and military provocation,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.

    China had dispatched military vessels and fighter planes to warn the U.S. vessel, said Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense.

    “The Chinese side will continue to take all necessary means to defend national sovereignty and security,” Lu added.

    China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a key shipping lane that is believed to be rich in resources. An international court in 2016 invalidated China’s claims to the region in a case filed by the Philippines, but Beijing does not recognise the ruling.

    This is the second “freedom of navigation operation” that has taken place during Donald Trump’s presidency.

    The exercises were done routinely under the Obama administration, however, Trump was at first mostly silent on the South China Sea issue while he turned to China for help in reining in the nuclear threat from North Korea.

    Trump and Xi also discussed the nuclear threat from North Korea during the phone call.

    Both leaders “reaffirmed their commitment to a denuclearised Korean Peninsula,” the White House said.

  • Trump growing frustrated with China, weighs trade steps – officials

    Trump growing frustrated with China, weighs trade steps – officials

    President Donald Trump is growing increasingly frustrated with China over its inaction on North Korea and bilateral trade issues, three senior administration officials told Reuters.

    The officials said Trump was looking at options including tariffs on steel imports, which Commerce Secretary

    Wilbur Ross already has said he is considering as part of a national security study of the U.S. steel industry.

    Whether Trump would take any steps against China remains unclear.

    In April, he backed off from a threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement after he said Canadian and Mexican leaders telephoned him asking him to halt a planned executive order in favor of opening discussions.

    The officials said there was no consensus on the way forward with China and they did not say what other options

    were being studied.

    A senior official said that no decision was expected this week.

    Chinese steel already is subject to dozens of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy orders. As a result it has only a small share of the U.S. market.

    “What’s guiding this is he ran to protect American industry and American workers,” one of the U.S. officials said, referring to Trump’s 2016 election promise to take a hard line on trade with China.

    The official said on North Korea, Trump “feels like he gave China a chance to make a difference” but has not seen enough results.

    The U.S. has pressed China to exert more economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to help rein in its nuclear and missile programmes.

    Beijing has repeatedly said its influence on North Korea is limited and that it is doing all it can.

    The official said: “They did a little, not a lot.

    “And if he’s not going to get what he needs on that, he needs to move ahead on his broader agenda on trade and on North Korea.”

    U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, who arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, spoke reporters outside his residence on Wednesday and said the United States hoped to collaborate with China.

    “We need to work together to deal with some of the pressing, difficult issues, such as the threat from North Korea.

    “We want to work together to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

    The death of American university student Otto Warmbier on June 21, after his release from 17 months of imprisonment in Pyongyang, has further complicated Trump’s approach to North Korea, his top national security challenge.

    Trump signaled his disappointment with China’s efforts in a tweet last week: “While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!”

    Trump had made a grand gesture of his desire for warm ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he played host to Xi in April at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, Florida.

    “I think China will be stepping up,” Trump said at the time.

    Since then, however, North Korea’s tests of long-range missiles have continued unabated and there have been reports it is preparing for another underground nuclear test.

    An official said Trump dropped by on June 22 as White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner were meeting Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi.

    China’s inability to make headway on North Korea was one of the topics that was discussed, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

    In a statement last week, China’s foreign ministry said Yang had met McMaster and Kushner, but it gave no details.

    Ministry spokesman Lu Kang did not directly answer a question about that meeting, but said China and the U.S. had discussed North Korea, among other issues, during a security dialogue Yang attended.

    Yang also had a separate meeting with Trump.

    The ministry said on Saturday that Yang told Trump that China was willing to work with all sides, including the U.S., to lessen tension on the Korean peninsula and promote an “appropriate” resolution.

    Trump met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday at the White House and made a point of noting that the U.S., India and Japan would be joining together in naval exercises soon in the Indian Ocean, a point that seemed aimed at India rival Beijing.

    Trump also thanked India for joining the U.S. in imposing new sanctions against North Korea.

  • U.S. student’s death a ‘mystery to us as well’ – North Korea

    U.S. student’s death a ‘mystery to us as well’ – North Korea

    North Korea said on Friday the death of U.S. university student Otto Warmbier soon after his return home was a mystery.

    The North’s foreign ministry spokesperson also dismissed accusations that Warmbier had died because of torture and beating during his captivity as “groundless”.

    The unnamed spokesperson said in comments carried by the official KCNA agency that Warmbier was “a victim of the policy of strategic patience” of former U.S. President Barack Obama whose government never requested his release.

    “The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week just after his return to the U.S. in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well,” the spokesman was quoted by KCNA as saying.

    Warmbier, 22, was arrested in the reclusive country while visiting as a tourist. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel, North Korea state media said.

    He was brought back to the United States last week in a coma with brain damage, in what doctors described as state of “unresponsive wakefulness”, and died on Monday.

    His death heightened the conflict between the North and the U.S. already aggravated by North Korea’s defiant missile launches and two nuclear tests since early 2016 as part of its effort to build a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

    U.S. President Donald Trump blamed “the brutality of the North Korean regime” for Warmbier’s death and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who had advocated dialogue with the North.

    Trump said Pyongyang had a “heavy responsibility” in the events leading up to the American’s death.

    The North’s spokesman said such accusations are part of a smear campaign to slander the country that had given “medical treatments and care with all sincerity” to a person who was “clearly a criminal”.

    The unnamed ministry spokesman said that the U.S. doctors who had traveled to the North on June 14 to evacuate Warmbier had recognised that the North had “provided him with medical treatment and brought him back alive whose heart was nearly stopped.”

    “Although Warmbier was a criminal who committed a hostile act against the DPRK, we accepted the repeated requests of the present U.S. administration and, in consideration of his bad health, sent him back home on humanitarian grounds,” the spokesman said.

    DPRK is short for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

    The exact cause of Warmbier’s death remains unclear.

    Officials at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he was treated after his return from the North, declined to provide details, and his family asked the Hamilton County Coroner on Tuesday not to perform an autopsy.

    Thousands of friends and family members gathered at Wyoming High School in suburban Cincinnati on Thursday for a memorial service for Warmbier, who graduated from the school as salutatorian in 2013.

    The U.S. has demanded North Korea release three other U.S. citizens it holds in detention: missionary Kim Dong Chul and academics Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song.

    Warmbier was freed after the U.S. State Department’s special envoy on North Korea, Joseph Yun, traveled to Pyongyang and demanded the student’s release on humanitarian grounds, capping a flurry of diplomatic contacts, a U.S. official has said.

    The North previously released American detainees it had accused and convicted of crimes against the state on the occasion of high-level visits by U.S. officials.

  • N. Korea missile programme progressing faster than expected, says South

    N. Korea missile programme progressing faster than expected, says South

    North Korea’s missile programme is progressing faster than expected, South Korea’s defence minister said on Tuesday, hours after the UN Security Council demanded the North halt all nuclear and ballistic missile tests and condemned Sunday’s test-launch.

    The North, which has defied all calls to rein in its weapons programmes, even from its lone major ally, China, has been working on a missile, mounted with a nuclear warhead, capable of striking the U.S. mainland.

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has called for an immediate halt to Pyongyang’s provocations and has warned that the “era of strategic patience” with North Korea is over. U.S.

    Disarmament Ambassador Robert Wood said on Tuesday China’s leverage was key and that it could do more.

    South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo told parliament Sunday’s test-launch was “successful in flight”.

    “It is considered an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM of enhanced caliber compared to Musudan missiles that have continually failed,” he said, referring to a class of missile designed to travel up to 3,000 to 4,000 km (1,860 to 2,485 miles).

    Asked if North Korea’s missile programme was developing faster than the South had expected, he said: “Yes.”

    The North’s KCNA news agency said Sunday’s launch tested its capability to carry a “large-size heavy nuclear warhead”.

    Its ambassador to China said in Beijing on Monday it would continue such test launches “any time, any place”.

    The missile flew 787 km (489 miles) on a trajectory reaching an altitude of 2,111.5 km (1,312 miles), KCNA said.

    Pyongyang has regularly threatened to destroy the U.S., which it accuses of pushing the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war by conducting recent military drills with South Korea and Japan.

    Trump and new South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Washington in June, with North Korea expected to be high on the agenda, the South’s presidential Blue House said.

    Moon met Matt Pottinger, overseeing Asian affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, on Tuesday and said he hoped to continue to have “sufficient, close discussions” between Seoul and Washington, the Blue House press secretary said at a briefing.

    In a unanimously agreed statement, the 15-member UN Security Council said it was of vital importance that North Korea show “sincere commitment to denuclearisation through concrete action and stressed the importance of working to reduce tensions”.

    “To that end, the Security Council demanded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea conduct no further nuclear and ballistic missile tests,” the council said, adding that it was ready to impose further sanctions on the country.

    The statement also condemned an April 28 ballistic missile launch by Pyongyang.

    Following that launch, Washington began talks with China on possible new UN sanctions.

    Traditionally, the U.S. and China have negotiated new measures before involving remaining council members.

    The Security Council first imposed sanctions on North Korea in 2006 and has strengthened the measures in response to its five nuclear tests and two long-range rocket launches.

    Pyongyang is threatening a sixth nuclear test.

    Trump warned in an interview with Reuters this month that a “major, major conflict” with North Korea was possible.

    In a show of force, the United States sent an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean peninsula to conduct drills with South Korea and Japan.

     

  • North Korea accuses U.S of planning to kill Kim Jong-un

    North Korea has accused United States and South Korean agents of plotting to kill its Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un.

    A North Korean referred to only as “Kim” was paid to carry out an attack with biochemical substances, the ministry of state security said.

    The plot was foiled, it said, but gave no details on the fate of “Kim.”

    The CIA declined to comment and South Korea has issued no statement so far, the BBC reports.

    The North’s claim comes amid continued high tension on the Korean peninsula.

    U.S President Donald Trump has promised to “solve” North Korea and stop it from developing nuclear weapons.

    The ministry of state security statement, carried by state news agency KCNA, said the CIA and South Korean intelligence services had “hatched a vicious plot to hurt the supreme leadership of the DPRK.”

    It did not mention Kim Jong-un by name, but he is widely referred to as the supreme leader.

  • North Korea accuses CIA of ‘bio-chemical’ plot against leadership

    North Korea on Friday accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and South Korea’s intelligence service of a plot to attack its “supreme leadership” with a bio-chemical weapon and said such a “pipe-dream” could never succeed.

    Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for weeks, driven by concern that North Korea might conduct its sixth nuclear test or test-launch another ballistic missile in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

    Reclusive North Korea warned this week that U.S. hostility had brought the region to the brink of nuclear war.

    The North’s Ministry of State Security released a statement saying “the last-ditch effort” of U.S. “imperialists” and the South had gone “beyond the limits”.

    The North’s KCNA news agency in a statement said: “the CIA and the Intelligence Service (IS) of south Korea, hotbed of evils in the world, hatched a vicious plot to hurt the supreme leadership of the DPRK.

    “Those acts have been put into the extremely serious phase of implementation after crossing the threshold of the DPRK”, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

    “A hideous terrorists’ group, which the CIA and the IS infiltrated into the DPRK on the basis of covert and meticulous preparations to commit state-sponsored terrorism against the supreme leadership of the DPRK by use of bio-chemical substance, has been recently detected.”

    The U.S. Embassy in Seoul and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service were not immediately available for comment.

    The U.S. military has said CIA director Mike Pompeo visited South Korea this week and met the NIS chief for discussions.

    KCNA said the two intelligence services “ideologically corrupted” and bribed a North Korean surnamed Kim and turned him into “a terrorist full of repugnance and revenge against the supreme leadership of the DPRK”.

    “They hatched a plot of letting human scum Kim commit bomb terrorism targeting the supreme leadership during events at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and at military parade and public procession after his return home,” KCNA said.

    “They told him that assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results will appear after six or twelve months…

    “Then they handed him over 20,000 dollars on two occasions and a satellite transmitter-receiver and let him get versed in it.”

    North Korea conducted an annual military parade, featuring a display of missiles and overseen by top leader Kim Jong Un and his right-hand men on April 15 and then a large, live-fire artillery drill 10 days later.

    KCNA, which often carries shrill, bellicose threats against the United States, gave lengthy details about the alleged plot but said it could never be accomplished.

    “Criminals going hell-bent to realise such a pipe dream cannot survive on this land even a moment,” it said.

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that Washington was working on more sanctions against North Korea if it takes steps that merit a new response.

    He also warned other countries their firms could face so-called secondary sanctions for doing illicit business with Pyongyang.

    Tillerson said the Trump administration had been “leaning hard into China … to test their willingness to use their influence, their engagement with the regime”.

    Two women accused of killing the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim with a chemical weapon appeared in court in Malaysia last month.

    They allegedly smeared the man’s face with the toxic VX nerve agent, a chemical described by the UN as a weapon of mass destruction, at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13.

  • N/Korea accuses U.S. of plot to assassinate president

    N/Korea accuses U.S. of plot to assassinate president

    North Korea is accusing the United States of America (USA) and South Korean of a joint plot to kill its leader, Kim Jong-un, according to state media report.

    The ministry of state security said a terrorist group backed by the CIA and South Korea’s intelligence agency had entered the country to attack Kim with a bio-chemical substance.

    It said North Korea would find and “mercilessly destroy” the terrorists.

    It comes amid high tensions in the region.

    North Korean news agency KCNA claimed the alleged plot included the use of “biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance”.

    The Supreme Leader would have been targeted at a military parade and public procession, with the results not visible for six to 12 months afterwards, it said.

    It alleged that a North Korean, identified only by the surname “Kim”, had been “corrupted and bribed” by South Korean intelligence services while he was working in Russia.

    It listed several payments made to him, and said on his return to Pyongyang he was instructed to provide detailed information about a frequently used event ground and to assess possible methods of attack.

    “Korean-style anti-terrorist attack will be commenced from this moment to sweep away the intelligence and plot-breeding organisations of the U.S. imperialists and the puppet clique,” Pyongyang said.

    A war of words between the West and North Korea has escalated in recent weeks, with the communist enclave   threatening to carry out a sixth nuclear test.

    A week ago, North Korea conducted its second failed ballistic missile test in two weeks.

    The U.S. has sent a warship to the region and installed a controversial anti-missile defence system in South Korea.

     

  • U.S. moves THAAD anti-missile to South Korean site, sparking protests

    The U.S. military started moving parts of an anti-missile defense system to a deployment site in South Korea on Wednesday, triggering protests from villagers and criticism from China, amid tension over North Korea’s weapons development.

    The earlier-than-expected steps to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system were also denounced by the frontrunner in South Korea’s presidential election on May 9.

    South Korea’s ministry of defense said elements of THAAD were moved to the deployment site, on what had been a golf course, about 250 km south of Seoul.

    “South Korea and the U.S. have been working to secure an early operational capability of the THAAD system in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile threat.

    “The battery was expected to be operational by the end of the year,” the ministry said.

    The U.S. and South Korea agreed in 2016 to deploy the THAAD to counter the threat of missile launches by North Korea.

    They said that it is solely aimed at defending against North Korea.

    However, China said the system’s advanced radar can penetrate deep into its territory and undermine its security, while it would do little to deter the North, and was adamant in its opposition.

    “China strongly urges the U.S. and South Korea to stop actions that worsen regional tensions and harm China’s strategic security interests and cancel the deployment of the THAAD system and withdraw the equipment.

    “China will resolutely take necessary steps to defend its interests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a briefing.

    China is North Korea’s sole major ally and is seen as crucial to U.S.-led efforts to rein in its bellicose, isolated neighbours.

    The U.S. began moving the first elements of the system to South Korea in March after the North tested four ballistic missiles.

    South Korea has accused China of discriminating against some South Korean companies operating in China because of the deployment.

    The liberal politician expected to win South Korea’s election, Moon Jae-in, has called for a delay in the deployment.

    He said the new administration should make a decision after gathering public opinion and more talks with Washington.

    A spokesman for Moon said moving the parts to the site “ignored public opinion and due process” and demanded it be suspended.

    Television footage showed military trailers carrying equipment, including what appeared to be launch canisters, to the battery site.

    Protesters shouted and hurled water bottles at the vehicles over lines of police holding them back.

    The Pentagon said the system was critical to defend South Korea and its allies against North Korean missiles and deployment would be completed “as soon as feasible”.

    More than 10 protesters were injured, some of them with fractures, in clashes with police,’’ Kim Jong-kyung, a leader of villagers opposing the deployment said.

    He said that about 200 protesters rallied overnight and they would keep up their opposition.

    “There is still time for THAAD to be actually up and running so we will fight until equipment is withdrawn from the site and ask South Korea’s new government to reconsider,” Kim said.

    A police official in the nearby town of Seongju said police had withdrawn from the area and were not aware of any injuries.

    The U.S. and North Korea have been stepping up warnings to each other in recent weeks over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and missiles in defiance of U.N. resolutions.

    North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat is perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting U.S. President Donald Trump.

    He has vowed to prevent North Korea from being able to hit the U.S. with a nuclear missile.