Tag: North Korea

Trump praises North Korea after missile tests rattle region

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump bestowed praise Friday on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following a flurry of short-range missile tests that rattled the region and lowered expectations for the resumption of nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump issued a three-part tweet reflecting an approach to North Korea that emphasizes personal diplomacy. Despite widespread skepticism that Kim will give up his nuclear weapons program, Trump is attempting to coax Kim back into negotiations with flattery and by offering to help him achieve a better economic future for his country.

Trump tweeted that North Korea’s recent tests of short-range missiles weren’t part of the commitments he and Kim made at their historic June 2018 summit in Singapore, although he conceded they might be in violation of a U.N. resolution.

View the complete August 2 article by Matthew Lee and Deb Riechmann from the Associated Press on the PBS website here.

North Korea launches 2 short-range missiles, Seoul says

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military said North Korea conducted its second weapons test in less than a week Wednesday, firing two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast in a move observers said could be aimed at boosting pressure on the United States as the rivals struggle to set up fresh nuclear talks.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missiles were launched from Wonsan, a city the North pushes as a vacation destination but that it also uses as a regular launch site.

It said both missiles were believed to have flown about 250 kilometers (155 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30 kilometers (19 miles), and that the South Korean and U.S. militaries were trying to gather more details.

The test, which would be yet another North Korean violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, comes as the country’s negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear weapons program are at a stalemate and as Pyongyang has expressed anger over planned U.S.-South Korean military drills.

View the complete July 31 article by Hyung-Jin Kim on the Associated Press website here.

Scoop: Trump’s negotiator signals flexibility in North Korea talks

Axios logoSteve Biegun, the Trump administration’s North Korea negotiator, told reporters in an off the record briefing Sunday that the administration wanted a “complete freeze” of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction program while they are negotiating with the U.S.

Between the lines: Biegun’s off the record remarks, made aboard Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s plane during the return trip to Washington from Korea, signaled he’s willing to be more flexible with North Korea than the hardliners in the Trump administration. Biegun said the administration isn’t ready to lift the sanctions against North Korea if it freezes its weapons program, but that it could give Kim other concessions, such as humanitarian relief and improved diplomatic ties.

  • Biegun insisted, however, that the administration hasn’t abandoned its goal of “complete denuclearization.”

Continue reading “Scoop: Trump’s negotiator signals flexibility in North Korea talks”

Trump’s reality show takes over U.S. foreign policy

Washington Post logoPresident Trump did something historic on Sunday. Before onlooking cameras and a grinning despot, he became the first U.S. president to cross the line of demarcation that separates the two Koreas.

For the former reality television host, the scene was vintage Trump. Over the past few weeks, Trump’s team teased the prospect of a third meeting since 2018 with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, possibly after the president wrapped up his visit to Japan and the Group of 20 summit. Rumors and speculation gripped the White House press corps. Then came a presidential tweet from Osaka on Saturday, where Trump indicated he would travel to the DMZ, the last frozen frontier of the Cold War, and coyly asked the despot in Pyongyang to meet him there for a handshake.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!

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Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Leaving South Korea after a wonderful meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un. Stood on the soil of North Korea, an important statement for all, and a great honor!

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Kim happily obliged, achieving a feat unmatched by his father or grandfather. And so, before a bruising scrum of bodyguards and journalists, Trump strode past Panmunjom’s blue-painted compounds and got a photo op for the ages.

View the complete July 1 article by Ishaan Tharoor on The Washington Post website here.

‘Surreal’: Ivanka Trump plays a prominent role in her father’s historic Korea trip

Washington Post logoFew Americans alive today have set foot inside North Korea, the isolated, nuclear-armed dictatorship sometimes called the Hermit Kingdom.

On Sunday, Ivanka Trump became one of them, capping a consequential three-day Asian trip in which the president’s eldest daughter played a very public role that blended family ties with diplomatic work that is usually performed by diplomats.

She pronounced the short walk to the other side of one of the world’s most fortified borders “surreal.”

View the complete June 30 article by Anne Gearan on The Washington Post website here.

Trump Says He ‘Wouldn’t Let’ CIA Spy On Kim Jong Un

Trump told reporters that he would not allow the CIA to use North Korea dictator Kim Jung Un’s family as informants. The comments came on Tuesday afternoon as Trump prepared to leave for an event in Iowa.

“I saw the information about the CIA with respect to his brother or half-brother, and I would tell him that would not happen under my… under my auspices. That’s for sure. I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices,” Trump said.

In his remarks, Trump was referring to reports that Kim’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nan, was a CIA informant before he was murdered in 2017, allegedly under orders from the North Korean government.

View the complete June 11 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Trump’s North Korea Tweet Shows How ‘Kim Is Playing The President’

Proving that there’s still room for him to shock and disappoint the country, President Donald Trump sided with North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un again over the weekend, brushing off his recent missile launches and saying he smiled when the dictator called former Vice President Joe Biden “low IQ” and “worse.”

It’s not clear whether the insults worked for their narrow purpose — will even Trump’s followers join in laughing at Biden along with a murderous tyrant? But Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee pointed out on Monday that, in addition to being a pathetic display in its own right, it showed how the president is still getting “played” by his friend in Pyongyang.

“He seems to side with, and the people that he likes, are people like Kim Jong-un, Putin, Orban, Erdogan, all strong-arm type people, living in close to fascist-type societies where it’s just dominated by the executive,” he said on CNN. “I think Kim is playing the president. He played him at the first summit. He played him at the second summit. So Kim realizes that the real low-IQ person is the president. And he can continue to play games with him all along, until Kim gets what he wants.”

View the complete May 27 article by Cody Fenwick from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Still angling for a deal, Trump backs Kim Jong Un over Biden, Bolton and Japan

TOKYO — President Trump on Monday denied that North Korea had fired any ballistic missiles or violated the United Nations Security Council resolutions, taking the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the assessments of his own national security adviser and his Japanese host. He praised the murderous dictator as a “very smart man.”

He also again sided with Kim over former vice president Joe Biden, after his Democratic rival was branded a “fool of low I.Q.” by North Korea’s state media for calling the North Korean leader a dictator and a tyrant.

At a joint news conference with Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Trump gave cover to Kim as he directly contradicted his national security adviser, John Bolton, as well as Abe, by arguing that Pyongyang had not launched ballistic missiles this month or violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

View the complete May 27 article by Ashley Parker and Simon Denyer on The Washington Post website here.

North Korea fires short-range projectiles, South says

North Korea fired multiple short-range projectiles off its east coast on Saturday morning, South Korea’s military announced.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North fired a barrage of short-range projectiles from the town of Wonsan, according to South Korea’sYonhap News Agency.

The South Korean military had said earlier that the North fired multiple short-range “missiles” before saying that they fired “projectiles.”

View the complete May 3 article by Tal Axelroad on The Hill website here.

North Korea: If US wants to talk, put someone ‘more mature’ than Pompeo in charge

(CNN) — North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has issued a stinging rebuke of United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, hours after the country claimed to have tested a new tactical weapon.

In a statement released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Foreign Ministry official Kwon Jong Gun said Pompeo had been “letting loose reckless remarks and sophism of all kinds against us every day.”

Kwon said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had made his “principled stand” on negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington clear in a recent speech to the country’s rubberstamp parliament.

View the complete April 18 article by James Griffiths on the CNN website here.