It is being reported across international media that North Korea’s nuclear envoy has been executed as part of a purge of officials involved in a failed summit between the US and North Korea.

But there is a reason we treat reports about North Korean officials being executed with extreme caution. The claims are incredibly difficult to verify and they are very often wrong.

Both the South Korean media and the government in Seoul have reported on purges in the past – only for the “executed” officials to turn up a few weeks later looking alive and well next to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

On this occasion, a single anonymous source has told a newspaper in Seoul that Kim Hyok-chol, the former North Korean envoy to the US and a key figure in talks ahead of the summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump in Hanoi, was executed at an airport in Pyongyang.

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The source claims that he was punished alongside four other foreign ministry executives. They were all charged with spying for the US and poorly reporting on the negotiations without properly grasping US intentions.

It’s also alleged that Kim Yong-chol, the North Korean leader’s right hand man who was despatched to Washington to help arrange the Hanoi summit, has now been sent to a labour and re-education camp near the Chinese border.

The report is plausible. These key officials have been out of the public eye since the summit in February. Kim Jong-un is clearly angry at the outcome of his talks with Donald Trump and may have been looking for someone to blame.

His diplomatic gamble with the US has so far failed to yield results, which puts him under pressure. Strict economic sanctions remain in place. Discussions between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled. In Pyongyang, the decision may have been taken that someone has to pay the price.

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It’s worth noting that the state’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper called out unspecified “betrayers” and “turncoats” in an editorial earlier this week. It said that those who “committed anti-party” and “anti-revolutionary actions” would come under the “stern judgement of the revolution”. No names have been given, but the message is clear.

Kim Jong-un has carried out executions in the past. In 2013, Mr Kim’s powerful uncle, Jang Song-thaek, was executed for treason. South Korean intelligence services announced his death days before it was declared by the North.

WHITE HOUSE – Image captionUS President Donald Trump with Kim Yong-chol in the White House in June, 2018

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But so often these reports have turned out to be, dare I say it, fake news.

The most (in)famous of these was the alleged death of singer Hyon Song-wol. In 2013, the same South Korean newspaper announced that she had been shot in a “hail of machine gun fire while members of her orchestra looked on”.

Last year, Hyon Song-wol swept into Seoul leading a visiting North Korean delegation ahead of the Winter Olympics looking rather glamorous in a fur coat and very much alive. She is now one of the most powerful women in North Korea.

Hyon Song-wol (r) led a North Korean delegation at Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics – GETTY IMAGES

South Korean intelligence officials said in 2016 that the former military chief Ri Yong-gil had been executed for corruption. He appeared in state media a few months later – having been given a promotion.

Sources within North Korea can often be a reporter’s most valued asset, but also one of our most troublesome. We have no way of checking their claims.

Intelligence services in Seoul and in the US are trying to establish the fate of Kim Hyok-chol, but unless Pyongyang decides to announce it themselves, we may never know.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48477248

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The North’s stinging response came after the United States said on Monday it had introduced sanctions on three North Korean officials, including a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for alleged human rights abuses.

Denuclearizing North Korea has made little progress since Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump met in Singapore in June in a historic summit. The two sides have yet to reschedule working-level talks between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, which were canceled abruptly in November.

While crediting Trump for his “willingness” to improve relations with the North, also known as DPRK, Pyongyang accused the U.S. State Department of being “bent on bringing the DPRK-U.S. relations back to the status of last year which was marked by exchanges of fire.”

North Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Washington had taken “sanctions measures for as many as eight times against the companies, individuals and ships of not only the DPRK but also Russia, China and other third countries…”

If the U.S. administration believed that heightened sanctions and pressure would force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons, “it will count as (its) greatest miscalculation, and it will block the path to denuclearization on the Korean peninsula forever – a result desired by no one,” according to the statement.

The foreign ministry statement was released under the name of the policy research director of the Institute for American Studies.

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In response to this cancelling and expected postponement of the meeting, President Donald Trump said at a press conference, “We are going to make it…another day.  But we’re very happy with how it’s going with North Korea.  We think it’s going fine.  We’re in no rush.”  U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert has said in a statement that Secretary Pompeo’s meeting with Kim Jong-un “will now take place at a later date,” they will reconvene “when their respective schedules permit,” and “ongoing conversations continue to take place.”  An official from the South Korean Foreign Ministry has cautioned against reading too much in the postponement of the meeting: “[The postponement] should be seen as part of the process of achieving complete denuclearization and establishing a peace regime. We [South Korea] will continue to play our role to continue the momentum of dialogue.”

Analysts of the issue generally appear unsurprised by the announcement from North Korea.  Terence Roehrig, professor of national security at the U.S. Naval War College, has told United Press International that it is not a surprise that there has been little progress on denuclearization.  He has said, “I remain skeptical North Korea is going to be willing to give up its nuclear weapons.”  Bruce Bennett, a senior defense researcher at the RAND Corporation, told UPI that the North Korean leader seems to be doing whatever he pleases while continuing to engage with the United States and South Korea.  According to Woo Jung-yeop, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute, the postponing of the meeting signals that North Korea is not willing to meet the U.S.’ expectations.

While the rhetoric exchanged between the United States and North Korea is nothing like the sort of “fire and fury” of a year ago, there is a deep risk that both leaders could return to the bellicosity that threatened a nuclear escalation.  A major obstacle to continuing progress in talks between Pyongyang and Washington has been growing tensions between the United States and China.  With China as North Korea’s closest ally, China plays an important role in guiding North Korean foreign policy.  However, as tensions increase between Beijing and Washington over trade and military dispositions, vis-à-vis the South China Sea and Taiwan, China’s continued support for U.S. diplomacy with North Korea will remain limited.  President Trump himself has argued that the lack of progress in talks has been due to China’s “considerable aid” to North Korea and the United States’ position that China has been bypassing sanctions on North Korea.

In terms of North Korean actions, Pyongyang has itself done little to de-escalate tensions.  Though Kim Jong-un jointly signed the Panmunjom Declaration with his South Korean counterpart in April of this year, and there have been other various efforts to pursue closer ties between the two Koreas, there have been few signs of demonstrative progress.  In a September article by the Japanese newspaper The Nikkei, a recent report of the International Atomic Energy Agency has noted North Korea’s “continuation and further development” of its nuclear programs.  Meanwhile, international efforts in pushing for North Korea’s denuclearization have failed thus far.  While it is understandable that North Korea remains largely protective of its strongest asset in defending its sovereignty, it needs to be more transparent in priorities and what sort of results it expects from dialogue with the United States.

To resolve these issues, it is imperative that South Korea under President Moon Jae-in continues to maintain its central diplomatic role.  While the South Korean President is losing support on domestic issues, after his summit with Kim Jong-un in September his approval rating rose to 61 percent, according to Gallup Korea; according to Realmeter, 71.6 percent of respondents backed the outcomes of the summit.  Thus, with a South Korean public largely supporting his diplomatic efforts, President Moon certainly has the domestic legitimacy and support in order to pursue his diplomatic activities, vis-à-vis North Korea.  While the South Korean leader has to play a balancing act between Pyongyang and Washington, there is perhaps no better leader guide the agenda of de-escalation.

Other efforts that may be promising are Russia’s request to China that it schedule a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council for Thursday to discuss North Korea and advocate for an easing of U.N. sanctions as part of a denuclearization accord.  On Friday, Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Mattis are due to meet their Chinese counterparts at the second U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, offering another venue with which to discuss North Korea.

As relations between Washington and Tehran sour, especially after the re-imposing of sanctions, it is vital that relations between Washington and Pyongyang do not reach such a state.  With political tensions already at a high concerning the South China Sea, any further increase in hostilities in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific would pose deep challenges not only for the region, but for the world.  With much of the world’s economy centered on China, South Korea, Japan, and the United States, stability in the Asia-Pacific would bolster security elsewhere.  This postponement will hopefully be just a delay in ongoing talks and not a sign of a return to the hawkishness of 2017.

Spencer A. Wong

The post As Talks Between Washington And Pyongyang Stall, Fears Over The Breakdown Of North Korea’s Denuclearization Process Rise first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

However, talks during the intervening weeks has apparently been less than productive, as the North is once again growing tired of the US’s continued insistence that a complete denuclearization will need to take place before the painful economic sanctions facing the North can be lifted.

According to NBC News, North Korea threatened to restart its nuclear program on Tuesday if the US doesn’t lift economic sanctions.While the North has relapsed into similar bellicose rhetoric since the US-NK detente began early this year, this is perhaps the most aggressive threat in that time.

The reason talks denuclearization talks have effectively stalled, according to the Washington Post, is that the Trump administration has repeatedly insisted that sanctions remain in place until the North completely dismantles its nuclear program…

“A lot of work remains, but I’m confident that we will keep the economic pressure in place until such time as Chairman Kim fulfills the commitment he made to President Trump back in June in Singapore,” Pompeo said.

…while Kim has insisted that sanctions be lifted gradually as the North slowly unravels its program.

In the statement, North Korea stopped just short of threatening to break off talks.

The statement released by the Foreign Ministry Friday evening came amid a sense of unease between Washington and Seoul over the use of sanctions and pressure to get the North to relinquish its nuclear program.

The ministry said North Korea could bring back its “pyongjin” policy of simultaneously advancing its nuclear force and economic development if the United States doesn’t change its stance.

The North came short of threatening to abandon the ongoing nuclear negotiations with the United States.

But it accused Washington of derailing commitments made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump at their June summit in Singapore to work toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, without describing how and when it would occur.

What’s worse, the threatening statement seemingly came out of nowhere. On Friday, Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he had planned to talk with his North Korean counterpart, senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, this week.

Though we can think of one reason why this development isn’t all that surprising. Given the interminable back-and-forth between President Trump and President Xi Jinping over the framework for talks between the two leaders at the G-20, which have been confirmed many times only for senior administration officials to deny the reports, or at the very least hedge them, China may once again be growing impatient with the US, which is understandable, given its slowing economy, blossoming corporate debt defaults and the looming threat that the US could slap more tariffs on another $200 billion-plus of Chinese goods entering the US. And this wouldn’t be the first time that China may have leaned on the North to up its bellicose rhetoric to try and distract the Trump Administration from the ongoing trade war.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-06/north-korea-threatens-restart-nuclear-program-if-us-wont-lift-sanctions

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The June 12 meeting in Singapore, the first between heads of the technically still-warring nations, is meant to begin the process of ending North Korea’s nuclear program, and Trump said he believes Kim is committed to that goal. The announcement puts back on track a high-risk summit that could be a legacy-defining moment for the American leader, who has matched his unconventional deal-making style with the mercurial Kim government.

Despite recently envisioning Nobel laurels, Trump worked on Friday to lower expectations for a quick breakthrough.

“We’re going to deal, and we’re going to really start a process,” Trump said. He spoke from the South Lawn of the White House after seeing off a senior Kim deputy who spent more than an hour with him in the Oval Office. Much had been made of a letter his visitor was bringing from the North Korean leader, but Trump’s comments left it unclear when he had even managed to take a look at it.

The president said it was likely that more than a single meeting would be necessary to bring about his goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. He said, “I think you’re going to have a very positive result in the end, not from one meeting.”

In the latest sign of hostility cooling down but hopes kept in check, Trump said he had unilaterally put a hold on hundreds of new sanctions against the North, without Kim’s government even asking. “I’m not going to put them on until such time as the talks break down,” he said.

“I don’t even want to use the term ‘maximum pressure’ anymore,” Trump added, referencing his preferred term for the punishing U.S. economic sanctions imposed on North Korea in response to its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. But he said he would not remove current sanctions until the North took steps to denuclearize.

Trump warmly greeted Kim Yong Chol, the vice chairman of the North Korean ruling party’s central committee, in the Oval Office, where a brief encounter meant for the hand delivery of a personal letter from Kim Jong Un became a longer discussion of areas of disagreement between the two countries.

After the meeting, Trump posed for photos with Kim Yong Chol outside the Oval Office, and they talked amiably at Kim’s black SUV before he was driven away.

Trump told reporters he hadn’t yet read the letter from the North Korean leader and added with a smile, “I may be in for a big surprise, folks.” But minutes earlier, he had described the note as “a very interesting letter,” and teased journalists about revealing its contents.

Later Friday, deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley confirmed that Trump had read the letter, but he did not reveal its contents.

Plans for the meeting in Singapore had been cast into doubt after Trump suddenly announced his withdrawal last week, only to announce a day later that it could still get back on track. White House officials cast the roller-coaster public statements as reflective of efforts by each leader to test the resolve of the other.

Trump cited increasingly bellicose statements from the North – and ignored messages about summit logistics – when he announced he was backing out of the summit in a strongly worded letter. He cited “tremendous anger and open hostility” by Pyongyang but also urged Kim Jong Un to call him. By the next day, he was signaling the event could be back on after a conciliatory response from North Korea.

Within days, three teams of officials in the U.S., Singapore and the Korean demilitarized zone began meeting on preparations for the summit.

Trump has declined to publicly acknowledge whether he’s spoken directly with Kim Jong Un ahead of the talks.

Kim Yong Chol, whisked to the Oval Office by White House chief of staff John Kelly, is the most senior North Korean to visit in 18 years, a symbolic sign of easing tensions after fears of war escalated amid North Korean nuclear and missile tests last year.

Questions remain about what a deal on the North’s nuclear weapons would look like. Trump said Friday he believed Kim Jong Un would agree to denuclearization, but the two countries have offered differing visions of what that entails. Despite Kim’s apparent eagerness for a summit with Trump, there are many doubts that he would fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which he may see as his guarantee of survival.

U.S. defense and intelligence officials have repeatedly assessed the North to be on the threshold the capability to strike anywhere in the continental U.S. with a nuclear-tipped missile – a capacity that Trump and other U.S. officials have said they would not tolerate.

Defense ministers from Japan and South Korea offered very different views of the North Korean leader at an international security conference in Singapore. Japan’s defense chief urged caution in dealing with North Korea, while his South Korean counterpart said there was no reason to question the North Korean leader’s sincerity.

Trump has promised that he will provide “protections” for Kim and his government in return for giving up the nuclear program. He also indicated that South Korea, China, and Japan would be prepared to invest in the North to boost its besieged economy.

Kim Yong Chol left his hotel in New York City early Friday for the trip to Washington in a convoy of SUVs. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the former CIA chief who has traveled to North Korea and met with Kim Jong Un twice in the past two months, said he believed the country’s leaders are “contemplating a path forward where they can make a strategic shift, one that their country has not been prepared to make before.”

Kim Yong Chol was allowed into the United States despite being on a U.S. sanctions list, and granted special permission to travel outside the New York area to meet with the president.

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Associated Press writers Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and Matthew Lee in New York contributed.

Source: http://www.hgazette.com/cnhi_network/pressure-grows-on-north-korea-ahead-of-trump-kim-summit/article_2f08e54a-5e15-53b5-902c-01e53bacfd34.html

The post Pressure grows on North Korea ahead of Trump-Kim summit first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“We’ll be meeting on June 12 in Singapore,” the president told reporters after the North Korean emissary left the White House.

He called Friday’s meeting with North Korea’s Kim Yong Chol a “great start.” Trump confirmed that the visiting official gave him a personal letter from dictator Kim Jong Un, though he hadn’t yet read it.

Trump spoke to reporters after an extraordinary scene played out on White House grounds, with Trump hosting the North Korean official for over an hour in the Oval Office — the latest gesture in an effort by both sides to get talks back on track after North Korea’s belligerent rhetoric prompted Trump to nix the summit last week.

Trump said the meeting was supposed to just be about “the delivery of a letter” but ended up being a lengthy conversation with the “second most powerful man in North Korea.”

“We talked about a lot of things,” Trump said. “We really did. But the big deal will be on June 12.”

After the meeting, Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo were seen taking photos with the visitors.

Kim Yong Chol is the most senior North Korean visitor to the United States since Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok visited Washington in 2000 to meet President Bill Clinton. He is North Korea’s former military intelligence chief and is one of the North Korean leader’s closest aides.

Trump said they also discussed ending the Korean War between North and South Korea.

“Can you believe that we’re talking about the ending of the Korean War?” Trump told reporters. “We’re talking about 70 years.”

TRUMP-KIM SUMMIT, FROM THE INVITATION TO THE CANCELLATION: A TIMELINE

The official’s arrival in Washington came a day after Pompeo declared that he was confident negotiations with Pyongyang over holding a nuclear summit were “moving in the right direction.”

“Our two countries face a pivotal moment in our relationship, and it would be nothing short of tragic to let this opportunity go to waste,” Pompeo said in New York after meeting with Kim.

The two countries, eyeing the first summit between the U.S. and the North after six decades of hostility, have also been holding negotiations in Singapore and the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

Kim Yong Chol left his hotel in New York City early Friday for the trip to Washington in a convoy of SUVs. Pompeo, the former CIA chief who has traveled to North Korea and met with Kim Jong Un twice in the past two months, said he believed the country’s leaders are “contemplating a path forward where they can make a strategic shift, one that their country has not been prepared to make before.”

Fox News’ John Roberts and Serafin Gomez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/01/trump-says-singapore-summit-with-kim-is-back-on-after-meeting-north-korean-official.html

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