“The government will pursue normalization of inter-Korean relations and an irreversible path to peace until the end,” Moon said in his final New Year’s address before his five-year term ends in May. “I hope efforts for dialogue will continue in the next administration too.”

In his own address on New Year’s Eve, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made no mention of Moon’s calls for a declaration officially ending the 1950-1953 Korean War, or of stalled denuclearization talks with the United States.

Moon held multiple summits with Kim, including once in Pyongyang, during a flurry of negotiations in 2018 and 2019, before talks stalled amid disagreements over international demands that the North surrender its arsenal of nuclear weapons, and Pyongyang’s call for Washington and Seoul to ease sanctions and drop other “hostile policies.”

Moon is pushing an “end of war declaration” as a way to jumpstart those stalled negotiations and his administration has hinted at backchannel discussions.

But North Korea has not publicly responded to the latest push, and the United States has said it supports the idea but may disagree with the South over its timing.

“It is true that there is still a long way to go,” Moon acknowledged, but argued that if inter-Korean relations improve, the international community will follow.

Moon said his outreach to North Korea had been enabled by a large military buildup that helped make South Korea safer.

“Peace is possible on strong security,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic overshadowed the standoff with North Korea, as Pyongyang put the country into an unprecedented lockdown and Moon faced domestic pressure to tamp down the first major coronavirus outbreak outside of China in early 2020.

Since then, South Korea used aggressive tracking and tracing, as well as social distancing rules and a belated but thorough vaccination campaign to keep overall cases and deaths relatively low by global standards.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/01/north-korea-has-big-plans-for-its-special-operations-forces-biggest-on-earth/

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Donald Trump has brushed off North Korea’s warning of a “Christmas gift”, saying the United States would “deal with it very successfully” and that perhaps it would be a “nice present”.

The US president added: “Maybe it’s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase.”

Kim Jong Un is demanding sanctions relief by the end of the year

The US has imposed tough sanctions, insisting North Korea ends all nuclear activity before they can be lifted.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had threatened to take unspecified action if sanctions relief is not forthcoming by the end of the year.

The North has said that what “Christmas gift” it gives the United States depends on Washington’s actions.

Meanwhile, leaders from China, Japan, and South Korea have reiterated their commitment to ending North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes at a trilateral summit.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the three agreed that “dialogue and consultation is the only effective way to solve the issues of the Korea Peninsula”.

“We three countries are willing to work together with the international community to solve the issue of the Korea Peninsula in a political way,” Mr. Li said at a joint news conference following the meeting.

Mr. Li, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in also said they discussed furthering regional co-operation on the economy, the environment, and people-to-people exchanges.

“We all advocate for free trade and promote economic integration. China holds that safeguarding free trade benefits the protection of multilateralism, of world peace,” Mr. Li said.

In his comments, Mr. Moon said the sides agreed to support efforts to restart talks between Washington and Pyongyang so that “denuclearisation and peace… could actually advance”.

Mr. Abe echoed that stance in his remarks, criticizing North Korean missile launches as violating UN resolutions and seriously threatening regional security.

“For that purpose, it was confirmed that full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions remains important, and we need to maintain the momentum of the US-North Korea process,” Mr. Abe said.

Although China is Pyongyang’s most important source of investment, diplomatic support, and economic aid, it has shown little success in convincing Mr. Kim’s government to abandon its nuclear arsenal.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/well-deal-with-it-donald-trump-brushes-off-kim-jong-uns-threat-of-christmas-gift-11894827

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HANOI, Vietnam — President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will get a second chance to make a deal when they meet for the second time Wednesday in the Vietnamese capital.

But the two-day summit will take place against a backdrop of warnings from intelligence officials and experts that the North is unwilling to relinquish its nuclear weapons, which it sees as key to regime survival.

That leaves little chance for a breakthrough. Even the Trump administration has sought to manage expectations, with the president saying he won’t lift sanctions and is in no rush to reach a deal.

China’s Foreign Ministry urged the two sides to “meet each other halfway.”

The third-generation North Korean leader rode into Hanoi on Tuesday in an armored limousine surrounded by motorcycle police as crowds lined up behind barricades and cheered.

He transferred to the limo after a nearly three-day, 2,500-mile train journey from Pyongyang through China to the Vietnamese border town of Dong Dang.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from a car after arriving by train in Dong Dang in Vietnamese border town Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, ahead of his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.  MINH HOANG/AP

His entourage included North Korean lead nuclear negotiator Kim Yong Chol, his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong and other high-ranking officials, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Trump was to arrive by plane later Tuesday. The summit was expected to begin Wednesday evening with a private dinner, followed by a series of official meetings on Thursday.

The pomp surrounding the summit also provides Trump an escape from Washington as his former attorney and confidant Michael Cohen is scheduled to testify at a closed-door hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday in Washington.

Cohen will answer questions about his involvement in plans to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow as well as whether the president directed him to lie to Congress.

In Hanoi, Trump faces pressure to wrest concrete commitments from Kim after their first summit on June 12 ended with a vaguely worded agreement to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Here’s a look at what may be on the table:

Nuclear facilities

North Korea argues that it already has taken steps by suspending nuclear and missile tests and blowing up its main nuclear-testing facility. Kim also offered to dismantle the nuclear material production facility of Yongbyon if the United States takes “corresponding measures.”

The U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said earlier this month that Pyongyang pledged to destroy all its plutonium and uranium enrichment facilities in exchange for reciprocal moves. Biegun also said that Pyongyang must provide a complete list of its nuclear assets before any deal can be reached. Any such deal would raise questions about verification. Past talks have collapsed over the issue of inspections.

End-of-war declaration

The 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the U.S. and South Korea against the Chinese-backed North, ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty. The North wants an end-of-war declaration, which would be the first step toward a formal peace treaty. The actual treaty would have to be signed by China, the U.S.-led United Nations Command and North Korea. But Washington has long said it wouldn’t begin the process until final, irreversible denuclearization is achieved. The U.S. concern is that a move toward a peace agreement would undercut the justification for maintaining some 28,500 American troops on the divided peninsula.

International sanctions

The United States and the U.N. Security Council have imposed punishing economic sanctions against the North for banned nuclear weapons development. Nobody expects Trump to agree to lift the measures, but experts say the U.S. could allow more exemptions for humanitarian needs and inter-Korean economic projects. The Trump administration, however, has insisted it will maintain its “maximum pressure campaign” until denuclearization is achieved.

Military exercises

Trump surprised the international community and many of his aides when he announced he was suspending joint military exercises with South Korea, which have long been a lynchpin of the alliance. The next major drills are reportedly expected to begin Monday on a smaller scale, but officials have declined to confirm that until after the summit. North Korea hates the drills, which it considers rehearsals for an invasion. Experts say Kim may also push for Washington to agree to ease up on the deployment of so-called strategic assets such as aircraft carriers and supersonic bombers to the divided peninsula.

gamel.kim@stripes.com
Twitter: @kimgamel

Source: https://www.stripes.com/news/trump-kim-get-second-chance-to-make-deal-but-expectations-low-amid-doubts-n-korea-will-surrender-nukes-1.570437

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Nine months after they first met in Singapore, Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, the US president, will come together again this week for a high-stakes summit.

They hope to overcome an impasse on how to deal with North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. But what is really driving the two leaders to a level of rapprochement unthinkable just two years ago?

Trump staking political capital on a win

Donald Trump’s trip to Vietnam reflects a growing reality in the last two years of his first term that foreign policy, not domestic legislation, offers him the best chance of ‘wins’ he can sell at the 2020 election.

The US president delivered on a string of campaign promises at home in his first two years – a $1.5 trillion tax cut, tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, two Supreme Court judges and surge in military spending.

But the early weeks of a newly divided Congress, with the Democrats holding the House of Representatives, have seen his demand for border wall cash fall on deaf ears and underlined the new political reality on Capitol Hill.

Mr Trump’s national emergency may be stuck in the courts for months and there is little sign his call for bipartisan legislation to reduce drug prices or approve new infrastructure spending will be taken up any time soon.

Easing sanctions without hard commitments towards denuclearisation would likely be seen as a win for North Korea back home. Declaring peace could undermine the position of US troops stationed in South Korea.

Much of the debate boils down to this: which is most driving Mr Trump’s behaviour? The desire to secure long-lasting peace on the Korean peninsula? Or the wish to produce tangible ‘wins’ that can be touted on the re-election campaign trail?

Critics say the latter is too prominent in the president’s mind and this colours his decision-making during the summit. Mr Trump insists he is in no rush to see North Korea denuclearise and still holds all the cards.

Hanoi will provide clues as to which side is winning.

Kim playing to a domestic audience

On the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, government posters extolling the virtues of a strong economy are a constant reminder that Kim Jong-un’s priority has firmly shifted towards economic development after declaring last year that his nuclear weapons programme is complete. 

His frustration with ongoing US-led sanctions that are dampening his regime’s economic progress caused talks with Washington to stall last year, and Kim has already cautioned that America’s refusal to make any concessions would be a deal-breaker.

In a New Year’s speech that focused largely on the domestic economy and technological advancement, he issued a blunt warning that Pyongyang would simply choose a “new path” if Washington tried to corner North Korea into unilateral nuclear disarmament without taking “corresponding” measures.

A shift in the US position would allow talks to proceed at “an excellent and fast pace” he promised. The messaging from Pyongyang, putting the onus on Washington to act, has remained consistent since the Singapore summit last June.

Kim not only wants to be treated by Mr Trump as an equal on the global stage, but he knows that the stakes are high domestically if he fails to modernize his impoverished pariah regime.

In North Korea the Kim family are treated like deities CREDIT: EDDIE MULHOLLAND/THE TELEGRAPH

In a Telegraph interview last November, Ri Gi Song, one of the country’s leading economists candidly admitted that without harsh sanctions “our development pace would be much faster than now”.

Reports last week of the recent purging of 50-70 of the Pyongyang elite, through assets seizure, exile, imprisonment or execution, reveal the regime’s ongoing capacity for cruelty to keep its citizens in check.

In his isolated nation, Kim and his forefathers are still revered as deities, but the young leader cannot hold back the reach of the global internet and modernization indefinitely.

He must also win the loyalty of his subjects through improving their standard of living. Basic food shortages that are expected to lead to ration cuts this year are adding to the pressure. 

Kim’s ambitious plans to develop a massive tourism complex in the eastern city of Wonsan, a long-term urban development plan in Simuijin, a city on the border with China, or to enter joint business ventures with the South at the Kaesong industrial park, are all contingent on the removal of sanctions.

Mr Trump may have already raised Kim’s expectations of easing the economic squeeze on his regime, suggesting on Wednesday that sanctions could be scaled back if Pyongyang does “something meaningful” in return.

The president’s declaration that he now has “no pressing time schedule” for North Korea to relinquish its nuclear arsenal is a remarkable shift in tone from White House demands pre-Singapore for a rapid commitment to “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation”.

It may also be an indication that Kim’s gamble to develop his nuclear weapons programme as leverage to secure his regime has paid off, and that his nukes are here to stay.

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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/26/analysis-inside-heads-kim-jong-un-donald-trump-hanoi-summit/

[Disclaimer]

The post Analysis: Inside the heads of Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump at the Hanoi summit 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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As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in kick off a three-day summit Tuesday, Moon’s main goals are to improve relations with North Korea and try to keep denuclearization on track.

North Korea has committed to denuclearization several times this year, in meetings with South Korean leaders and, most visibly, at the Singapore summit with President Donald Trump in June. But it’s still unclear how much, if at all, North Korea has followed through. At this week’s summit — the third between Kim and Moon this year — Moon is tasked with getting more answers without putting his relationship with Kim (or the U.S.) at risk.

U.S. intelligence agencies say Kim’s nuclear weapons program is continuing unabated. North Korea erected structures to hide activity at a warhead storage facility and appears to be building more nuclear weapons rather than dismantling them, NBC News reported, citing senior administration officials.

Here’s what to expect from the North Korea-South Korea summit and the impact it could have on the region and the world, including the U.S.

What have North and South Korea accomplished this year?

North Korea and South Korea have made progress on several fronts since the leaders signed an agreement — the Panmunjom Declaration — at their first meeting in April.

Some highlights:

–The two countries have reopened communications to eliminate military tensions and discuss issues of mutual interest,

–Held reunions of dozens of families separated after the war, and

–Established a joint Korean liaison office just over the border in North Korea in the city of Kaesong. Kaesong is also the location of a jointly run industrial complex, where South Korean companies operate using North Korean labor. South Korea closed the complex in 2016 after North Korea launched a satellite and reportedly tested a hydrogen bomb. The complex is still closed, though Moon has expressed a desire to reopen it.

Watch a PBS NewsHour report on the Red Cross-organized family reunions, which took place in North Korea.

The two leaders also agreed under the declaration to meet this month in Pyongyang — the first time Moon will step foot in the North Korean capital, said Jean Lee, director of the Wilson Center’s Korea Center. “It’s clear that the leader of North Korea is trying to make a point to the United States: We may not be on the same page when it comes to denuclearization, but the Koreans are on the same page and we’re going to move forward with our relationship,” she said.

What’s the significance of the summit?

South Korea has a difficult balancing act of pursuing better economic cooperation with the North while not violating U.S. sanctions on North Korea, or doing anything else that might disrupt the U.S.-South Korea alliance, said Frank Aum, senior expert on North Korea at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

“I think the problem right now for South Korea is that it’s frustrated that it can’t do more in terms of inter-Korean cooperation because of the lack of progress in U.S.-DPRK (North Korea) negotiations,” Aum said.

In order to get U.S.-North Korean relations back on track, Moon might try to, among other things, seek more reassurance from North Korea that an end-of-war declaration would not mean the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea, Aum said. The Korean War technically never ended with a peace treaty, though both sides have signed an armistice ending open hostilities.

The United States has a treaty of mutual defense with South Korea that dates back to the 1950s and has a military base with about 28,000 troops in Seoul. At his summit with Kim in June, Trump said the U.S. would halt “war games” with South Korea. But in August, Defense Secretary James Mattis said the U.S. had no future plans to end the joint military drills.

How could improved North-South Korea ties impact the U.S.?

The United States and Asian countries in the region generally support warming relations between the Koreas as long as there is consultation and coordination in the process, said Lisa Collins, a fellow with the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“If actions taken by South Korea to improve relations with North Korea undermine the current (U.S.) policy towards North Korea — that might be seen as counterproductive,” she said.

Lee said the United States is letting South Korea take the lead on its relationship with North Korea, “but continuing down a path of reconciliation without requiring denuclearization will put Seoul and Washington at odds,” she said.

Trump delayed a visit to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in August, “because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Trump tweeted.

On Sept. 9, North Korea held a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding and did not display intercontinental ballistic missiles as it had in the past. The next day, Trump praised Kim on Twitter, and the White House said a second face-to-face meeting between Trump and Kim was in the works.

What does closer engagement mean for the rest of Asia?

Japan, like the U.S., wants South Korea to stand firm on the issue of denuclearization, said Yuki Tatsumi, co-director of the East Asia Program and director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center. North Korea fired several missiles over Japan last year. Given that the U.S.-North Korea negotiation over North Korea’s denuclearization seems to have lost some of its initial momentum, “Japan would not want to see South Korea going too far out on engaging North Korea,” she said.

China also is supportive of a “certain amount of reconciliation” between the two Koreas, Lee said. “The Chinese would rather have stability and peace on the Korean peninsula (than) instability right on their doorstep.”

According to Aum, the next step in inter-Korean cooperation will include economic cooperation currently prohibited by sanctions.

Both China and Russia backed U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, though both countries would benefit from projects like updating and expanding North Korea’s railway system, Lee said. It’s a “delicate dance” for all players in the region. “On the one hand they want peace and stability but they also don’t want North Korea to continue building a nuclear program.”

And the “sanctions are only good if the member nations enforce them,” she added.

An undated photo shows a march for peace, prosperity and reunification of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency via Reuters

What about reunification?

The reunification of North and South Korea, if it happens, is still far down the road, analysts say.

“For discussions about peaceful unification to even start, North Korea would have to give up its nuclear weapons program and South Korea would have to build up widespread support domestically for this proposition,” Collins said. Some South Koreans still view North Korea in Cold War terms and as an enemy state, she said.

Though reunification may be out of reach, the importance of other forms of North and South Korean reconciliation, including re-establishing communications, cannot be overstated, Lee said. “It’s a significant step after nearly 10 years of tensions between those two governments. But it is way too soon to talk about reunification,” she said.

By — Larisa Epatko

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The subject of Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, as well as regional infrastructure development, is likely to be high on the agenda at an upcoming summit between China, South Korea and Japan, which is expected to be held in early May in Tokyo, Fumio Kishida told the South China Morning Post.

The meeting, which will be attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, comes amid some easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, as a result of talks between the two Koreas and the planned dialogue between Kim and Trump.

When Washington and Pyongyang agreed to the leaders’ talks, it triggered concerns that Beijing’s role as a mediator between the two would be diminished.

Relations between the restive state and China, its sole ally and economic patron, have deteriorated sharply in recent years, with Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping still yet to hold official visits.

However, Kishida said that as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and North Korea’s main trading partner, China retained considerable leverage over Pyongyang.

“The most important item on the agenda [for the trilateral summit] is peace and stability in Asia, including the North Korea issue. This is the area where the three countries have to work together,” he said on the sidelines of an investment conference last week. “China’s influence over North Korea remains quite significant.”

China can take little credit for North Korea breakthroughs

The move by China, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of North Korea’s foreign trade, to ban imports of textiles and seafood, and exports of oil products from its secretive neighbour in compliance with United Nations sanctions was welcomed, Kishida said.

“China is taking proactive measures to implement the decisions of the United Nations. We welcome those efforts,” he said. “To solve the North Korea issue, China has to work together with the rest of the world.”

Japan ‘pushes for summit’ with China and South Korea this year

Relations between China and Japan have since improved, and Xi met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November. A week later, Abe met Li at a regional summit in Manila.

Japanese officials said they hoped Abe and Xi could arrange reciprocal visits to one another’s countries after the trilateral summit.

Another agenda item for the upcoming summit will be infrastructure development in developing nations, Japanese diplomatic and trade sources said.

North Korea: fearing diplomatic sidelines, Japan explores possible meeting between Shinzo Abe and Kim Jong-un

Kishida said that China and Japan should cooperate to meet the region’s infrastructure requirements, but he expressed concerns about Xi’s pet “Belt and Road Initiative” and the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank due to their lack of transparency. Japan is not directly involved in either.

“We want to monitor and pay attention to whether the AIIB actually complies with global standards in terms of governance.” he said. “We will consider what Japan can do to contribute based on that observation.”

Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2138938/china-still-player-north-korea-despite-trump-kim-talks

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Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, with the Hwasong-15 missile in a photo released by the government news agency in November. CreditKorean Central News Agency

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/world/asia/north-korea-nuclear-missile-intelligence.html

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