The Japanese and US navies are conducting joint exercises in the East China Sea as tension intensifies in the region following North Korea’s missile tests , local media reported on Friday. The two sides launched the drill earlier this week, involving Japanese destroyers and a US Navy carrier strike group, the Sankei Shimbun daily and Kyodo News said, quoting unnamed Japanese and US government sources.
Category: Pyongyang, North Korea
Sean Spicer, barred from Air Force One, avoids the cameras
He is the US president’s most prominent political spokesman but his high profile didn’t protect Sean Spicer from being temporarily banished from Air Force One. Spicer was among a group of Donald Trump’s senior aides who were banned from the presidential aircraft a week ago after Trump erupted in frustration at his staff during an Oval Office meeting.
Facing test of resolve, Trump pushes ahead with North Korea review
Faced with a growing test of resolve for a new U.S. president who vowed while campaigning to get tough on North Korea, Donald Trump’s aides are pressing to complete a strategy review on how to counter Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear threats. Pyongyang’s latest missile launches and the assassination in Malaysia of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half-brother have added urgency, driving home the need for Washington to confront the security challenge.
Facing test of resolve, Trump pushes ahead with North Korea review
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervises a ballistic rocket launching drill of Hwasong artillery units of the Strategic Force of the KPA in an undated photo. KCNA/via A view of the test-fire of Pukguksong-2 guided by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, February 2017.
Looking To Deal? North Korea May Come The US For First Time In Years
Senior North Korean officials may soon come to America for a meeting with former U.S. officials, the first such meeting in over five years, reports The Washington Post. Plans for the “Track 1.5” talks, which are expected to take place in New York within the next few weeks, are still in their early stages, the Post reports.
S. Korea Positive N. Korea Murdered Kim Jong-un’s Brother
As most of the suspects are of North Korean origin, South Korean officials say that Kim Jong-un’s brother was murdered by Pyongyang. Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was murdered Monday at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.
S. Korea Positive N. Korea Murdered Kim Jong-un’s Brother
As most of the suspects are of North Korean origin, South Korean officials say that Kim Jong-un’s brother was murdered by Pyongyang. Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was murdered Monday at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.
China Is Finally Putting The Screws To North Korea
It is suspending all coal imports from North Korea, the Ministry of Commerce said Saturday, without going into specifics as to why it was taking action. Coal exports are a primary source of income for the reclusive state.
Trump handling of security information at Mar-a-Lago queried by House panel
President Donald Trump’s handling of U.S. security information at his Florida resort came under congressional scrutiny on Tuesday as a watchdog panel asked the White House to explain reports that Trump dealt with a sensitive foreign policy issue in view of club guests. Representative Jason Chaffetz, head of the House of Representatives oversight committee, sent a letter asking the White House for details on how Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded to a North Korean ballistic missile test while visiting the Mar-a-Lago golf resort over the weekend.
Preempting Trump, China Dumps Blame For North Korean Missile Launch On US
North Korea tested a new cold-launch, solid-fueled, surface-to-surface, medium-range ballistic missile Sunday. Possibly expecting increased pressure from Trump, who has repeatedly criticized China in the past for not doing enough to reign in North Korea, China is pushing the blame onto the U.S. and South Korea for the latest manifestation of Northern aggression.
Trump: US Stands With Japan Against North Korean Aggression
In a joint statement in Palm Beach, Florida, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test “absolutely intolerable,” adding that Pyongyang must “fully comply with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.” Trump said that the “United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, one hundred percent.”
Yes! Mattis Just Put N. Korea On Notice Like a Boss- ‘Attack…
North Korea is always trying some sort of shenanigans, and Mattis isn’t taking it. He gave them a stern warning that was clearly only going to be said once.
McCain slams China for ‘bullying’ Korea over THAAD
US Senator John McCain slammed China on Thursday for “bullying” South Korea for its decision to host the US THAAD missile defense system aimed at defending against North Korea, urging Beijing to use its “considerable influence” to rein in Pyongyang. McCain, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also said that Chinese bullying of the Asian ally is “unacceptable” and said he hopes the incoming administration of Donald Trump ensures US security commitments.
US, North Korea trade warnings over potential ICBM test
With Donald Trump getting ready to take office as president, North Korea is talking about launching a newly perfected intercontinental ballistic missile. Officials in Washington are saying that if Pyongyang launches anything that threatens the territory of the U.S. or its allies, it will be shot down.
[Chicago Tribune] Trump’s North Korea conundrum
“We may have to go on an arduous march, a time when we will again have to eat the roots of grass,” said a March 2016 editorial in the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, preparing North Koreans for worsening conditions after tougher sanctions were imposed. Last year around this time, North Korea tapped the world on the shoulder with an underground nuclear test that drew the usual international diplomatic tut-tutting.
Donald Trump’s tough talk toward North Korea could come back to haunt him
“It won’t happen!” Trump wrote after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday his nuclear-capable country was close to testing an ICBM of a kind that could someday hit the United States. Preventing such a test is far easier said than done, and Trump gave no indication of how he might roll back North Korea’s weapons programs after he takes office on Jan. 20, something successive U.S. administrations, both Democratic and Republican, have failed to do.
The Latest: China calls Trump remarks on NKorea ‘pandering’
A state-run Chinese tabloid says Donald Trump is “pandering to ‘irresponsible’ attitudes” after the U.S. president-elect accused China of not stepping in to curtail the North Korean nuclear program. The Global Times newspaper says Pyongyang’s nuclear program “stokes the anxieties of some Americans” who blame China rather than looking inward.