US Sanctions (on North Korea) - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

China’s Xi to visit North Korea as US nuke diplomacy stalls

Sentinel-Tribune — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 07:16:55 +0000

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea this week, state media announced Monday, as U.S. talks with North Korea on its nuclear program are at an apparent standstill.

Xi will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the visit on Thursday and Friday, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said. It said the trip will be the first by a Chinese president in 14 years.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency also announced the visit, but provided no further details.

The visit coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and North Korea, CCTV said. The broadcaster added the leaders will exchange views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The visit comes as negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea appear to have reached an impasse.

A summit in Vietnam in February between Kim and President Donald Trump failed after the U.S. rejected North Korea’s request for extensive relief from U.N. sanctions in exchange for dismantling its main nuclear complex, a partial disarmament step. Since the summit’s breakdown, no major contacts between the U.S. and North Korea have been announced.

Kim traveled to the Russian Far East in April for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The move was viewed as aimed at strengthening his leverage over Washington and persuading Moscow to loosen its implementation of the international sanctions against North Korea.

Last month, North Korea fired short-range missiles and other weapons into the sea in an apparent effort to apply pressure on the U.S.

KCNA reported in April that Kim said he will give the U.S. “till the end of the year” to reach out with further proposals.

Since taking office in 2012, Xi has met with Kim four times in China. The meetings were timed in proximity to Kim’s meetings with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, highlighting Beijing’s role as a key player in the nuclear standoff. Beijing has long advocated a “dual suspension” approach in which North Korea would halt its nuclear and missile activities while the U.S. and South Korea cease large-scale joint military exercises.

Chinese political scholar Zhang Lifan said the aim of Xi’s trip is likely not to make any breakthroughs, but rather to remind other countries of China’s unique position.

Zhang said Beijing may be seeking to gain leverage ahead of a G-20 summit in Japan later this month and reassert itself as a global player amid growing concerns over its economy.

“North Korea is a card for China to play,” Zhang said. “China may want to show off its relationship with North Korea and demonstrate its importance to U.S.-North Korean relations.”

South Korea’s presidential office said it hopes Xi’s visit to North Korea will contribute to a swift resumption of negotiations to resolve the nuclear standoff. It said it has been engaging in discussions with Beijing over the possibility of a visit by Xi, which it views as a positive development in efforts to peacefully resolve the peninsula’s issues.

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Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.sent-trib.com/news/china-s-xi-to-visit-north-korea-as-us-nuke/article_7f108f86-9165-11e9-b097-a7aeedaf9f83.html

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North Korea promises talks with US after both countries fail to reach deal at Hanoi summit

Scroll.in — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 17:47:40 +0000

Talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un abruptly came to an end on Thursday following disagreements over lifting of sanctions.

Screenshot – YouTube

North Korea on Friday promised further negotiations with the United States despite both countries failing to reach a deal at the Hanoi summit in Vietnam the previous day, AFP reported.

Talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam abruptly ended following a disagreement over sanctions imposed on Pyongyang. The two leaders did not issue a joint statement either.

Despite the stalemate, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported that the two leaders had a “constructive and candid exchange”, according to AFP. The agency said that despite “inevitable hardships and difficulties” in forging a new relationship, the Hanoi summit was “successful” and said Kim had promised Trump another meeting.

Trump, during a press meet, said he would “rather do it right than do it fast”. “Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times,” the US president had said.

Meanwhile, South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday reiterated he will work with the United States and North Korea to ensure both countries reach an agreement on denuclearisation, Reuters reported.

“My administration will closely communicate and cooperate with the United States and North Korea so as to help their talks reach a complete settlement by any means,” Moon said in a speech in Seoul.

At their first summit on June 12 in Singapore, Kim had committed to the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula.

Moon said South Korea would consult the US on ways to resume joint projects with North Korea, which includes tourism development at Mount Kumgang and the Kaesong industrial complex, both in the North. Moon, who has been an active supporter of efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula, met Kim three times last year.

‘Sought only partial lifting of sanctions’

Earlier in the day, North Korea claimed it had sought only a partial lifting of sanctions “related to people’s livelihoods and unrelated to military sanctions”. At a midnight press briefing on Friday, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said North Korea had offered a realistic proposal, which involved dismantling all of its main nuclear site at Yongbyon, including plutonium and uranium facilities.

Ri’s statement contradicted Trump’s remarks, who claimed talks had broke down after North Korea demanded that sanctions be fully lifted. “It was about the sanctions basically,” Trump had said in Hanoi. “They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that.”

Based on the current level of trust between the US and North Korea, “this is the biggest denuclearisation step we can take”, Ri said. The minister said North Korea had only asked for the removal of five of the 11 sets of sanctions, CNN reported.

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Source: https://scroll.in/latest/915057/us-north-korea-summit-south-korea-says-it-will-work-to-ensure-an-agreement-on-denuclearisation

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North Korea Threatens To Restart Nuclear Program If US Won’t Lift Sanctions

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 00:06:18 +0000

Things have been quiet in North Korea since Secretary of State Mike Pompeo enjoyed a harmonious surprise lunch with Kim Jong Un during a visit to Pyongyang last month, where Pompeo and the Hermit Kingdom’s ‘Dear Leader’ tentatively agreed to a second summit between President Trump and Kim to be held “as early as possible.” That lunch effectively signaled that denuclearization talks between the two sides had begun again in earnest after North Korea announced that it would dismantle its main nuclear facility and several missile testing sites under international scrutiny – something that Kim tried to spin as a “gesture of good will.”

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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‘It’s an act of war’ North Korea condemns US sanctions – warns against maritime blockade

News U.S. Today — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 23:45:47 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b5zWFMmeGM&t=34s

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DPRK (North Korea) condemns the “largest-ever” US sanctions

China Global TV Network (CGTN) — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 23:34:43 +0000

The post DPRK (North Korea) condemns the “largest-ever” US sanctions first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.