Pyongyang continues to pressurise Trump administration for concessions
North Korea has said it successfully performed another “crucial test” at its long-range rocket launch site that it claims will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent.
The test may have included technologies to improve intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) which could potentially reach the continental US.
Continue reading...Donald Trump said on Sunday North Korean leader Kim Jong-un risks losing “everything” and his country must denuclearize, after the North said it had carried out a “successful test of great significance”.
“Kim Jong-un is too smart and has far too much to lose, everything actually, if he acts in a hostile way. He signed a strong Denuclearization Agreement with me in Singapore,” Trump said on Twitter, referring to his first summit with Kim in 2018.
Continue reading...Country’s ambassador to the UN said dialogue sought by US was a ‘time-saving trick’ to suit domestic political agenda
North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Saturday denuclearization is already off the negotiating table with the US and lengthy talks with Washington are not needed.
Related: I shall taunt you a second time: North Korea threatens Trump ‘dotard’ insults
Continue reading...The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, rode a white horse up a sacred mountain on his second symbolic visit to the site in less than two months. Photos showed Kim, his wife and top lieutenants, on horseback as they travelled to snow-covered Mount Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean peninsula
Continue reading...North Korea yesterday issued a thinly veiled warning it could resume long-distance missile tests in the next few weeks if the US does not change its negotiating position on the regime’s nuclear disarmament, saying “it is entirely up to the US what Christmas gift it will select to get”.
Related: North Korea's Kim Jong-un opens new city and 'socialist utopia' of Samjiyon
Continue reading...US president says potential Democratic rival is ‘somewhat better than that’ and urges North Korean leader to agree nuclear deal
Donald Trump has come to the defence of one of his potential rivals for the presidency, telling North Korea its recent description of Joe Biden as a “rabid dog” that should be “beaten to death” was a little unfair.
Trump’s criticism of Pyongyang – albeit via a half-hearted endorsement of Biden’s character – came amid attempts to resurrect stalled nuclear talks, with Trump imploring North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to “get the deal done”, and the US and South Korea agreeing to postpone an annual air force drill the North routinely condemns as a rehearsal for an invasion.
Continue reading...Kim Jong-un ‘expressed satisfaction’ with the test and congratulated weapons scientists, state media said
North Korea conducted another test of super-large multiple rocket launchers on Thursday afternoon, calling it a success, the state news agency KCNA said on Friday.
The latest test of the “super-large multiple rocket launchers”, following two tests in August and September of the same weapon that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw, according to KCNA, indicates the progression of North Korea’s weapons development while talks with the US remain in limbo.
Continue reading...North Korean ruler demands makeover of joint resort, saying South Korean facilities are like ‘temporary buildings at construction sites’
Kim Jong-un has ordered the demolition of “unpleasant-looking” South Korean facilities at the Mount Kumgang resort – a rare symbol of inter-Korean collaboration – and called for them to be replaced with “modern” buildings constructed by the North.
The North’s ruler said it was a “mistake” for the resort, on the east coast, to be regarded as the common property of two Koreas given its location on North Korean soil, according to the state news agency KCNA.
Continue reading...North Korean leader’s heavily publicised trip up Mount Paektu on white horse could be sign of a big decision
Kim Jong-un is planning “a great operation to strike the world with wonder”, North Korean state media has said, after he found inspiration during a heavily publicised horse ride to the top of the nation’s most sacred mountain.
In a series of photos released by state news agency KCNA, Kim is seen riding a large white horse through snowy fields and woods on Mount Paektu, the spiritual homeland of the Kim dynasty.
Continue reading...Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un exchange compliments as their countries mark 70 years of diplomatic relations
Xi Jinping has promised to promote a “long-term, sound and stable” relationship with North Korea as the two countries mark 70 years of diplomatic relations.
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, also sent a message to the Chinese president, saying their countries’ “invincible friendship will be immortal on the road of accomplishing the cause of socialism,” said Pyongyang’s state news agency KCNA on Sunday.
Continue reading...State media says test-firing ushers in ‘new phase’ in country’s defence systems, ahead of nuclear talks with US
North Korea says it successfully test-fired a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the sea off its east coast.
“The new-type ballistic missile was fired in vertical mode” in the waters off Wonsan Bay on Wednesday, the North’s KCNA state news agency reported.
Continue reading...Tokyo says there’s no damage from what appear to be ballistic missiles ahead of US-North Korea talks resuming this weekend
North Korea has launched two projectiles, one of which landed in waters inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, the Japanese government said on Wednesday, after what appears to have been a show of strength by Pyongyang before it resumes nuclear talks with the US at the weekend.
Japan’s government said the projectiles appeared to be ballistic missiles, adding that there were no immediate reports of damage to shipping or aircraft.
Continue reading...Worsening relations between the two countries now affecting trade, security, tourism and day-to-day life
Long lunchtime queues form outside restaurants serving samgyeopsal (barbecued pork belly) and sundubu jjigae (a tofu stew). Groups of teenage girls brave the drizzle and eat Korean-style hotdogs on street corners after shopping for cosmetics and K-pop merchandise.
This is not Seoul, but Shin-Ōkubo, a little slice of Korea in central Tokyo. It is home to a large ethnic Korean community, some the descendants of people at the heart of a dispute between Japan and South Korea that local business owners fear is turning them into collateral victims.
Continue reading...Letter from North Korean leader comes as talks between the men have stalled
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invited US president Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources.
The letter pre-dates North Korea’s latest launch of short-range projectiles a week ago and is the second Trump received from Kim last month amid stalled denuclearisation talks between the two countries,
Continue reading...Trump’s anti-interventionist instincts likely to come to the fore in flashpoint countries
Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of John Bolton, his national security adviser, may reflect the near breakdown in personal relations between the two men, as well as Bolton’s rivalry with the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, but it will also have implications for US foreign policy in a range of flashpoints.
Related: John Bolton fired as Trump's national security adviser – live news
Continue reading...US president argues Putin should be included in discussions on Iran, Syria and North Korea
Donald Trump has rowed with his fellow G7 leaders over his demand that Russia be readmitted to the group, rejecting arguments that it should remain an association of liberal democracies, according to diplomats at the summit in Biarritz.
The disagreement led to heated exchanges at a dinner on Saturday night inside the seaside resort’s 19th-century lighthouse. According to diplomatic sources, Trump argued strenuously that Vladimir Putin should be invited back, five years after Russia was ejected from the then G8) for its annexation of Crimea.
Continue reading...Launch comes day after regime called US secretary of state ‘impudent’ and questioned his ability in nuclear talks
North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday in the seventh weapons launch in a month, South Korea’s military said, a day after it threatened to remain America’s biggest threat in protest against US-led sanctions on the country.
The North had been expected to halt weapons tests because 10-day joint US-South Korean military exercises ended earlier this week. Pyongyang regards these drills as an invasion rehearsal.
Continue reading...Upcoming review out of Tokyo will reportedly say missile programme poses ‘serious and imminent threat’
Japan’s government will reportedly state that North Korea is capable of miniaturising nuclear warheads in a forthcoming defence report, it has emerged.
Tokyo will upgrade its estimate of the regime’s nuclear capability, having said last year only that the technical feat was a possibility, the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said on Wednesday, without citing sources.
Continue reading...Regime says Pyongyang and Seoul have nothing to talk about while South Korea continues military drills with US
North Korea has fired at least two unidentified projectiles into the sea off its east coast, shortly after it denounced South Korea’s military drills with the US and declared that inter-Korean talks were over.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff [JCS] said the North conducted the launch early on Friday from a site near the city of Tongchon. It has conducted six rounds of weapons launches since 25 July, apparently in retaliation for military drills involving South Korean and US forces.
Continue reading...The president is heading into 2020 with no major successes and looming crises – so many expect him to attempt to reverse the trend with dramatic deals
Donald Trump is heading into the 2020 elections with no clear-cut foreign policy successes, some dramatic failures and a string of looming crises around the world that could undermine his bid for re-election.
For that reason, many expect the president to try to reverse the trend with dramatic interventions around the globe with uncertain outcomes – which will make the next 16 months even more volatile than his presidency so far.
Continue reading...