TheNewsGuru

Tag: North Korea

  • WAR: Russia strengthens relationship with North Korea

    WAR: Russia strengthens relationship with North Korea

    Amid its war with Ukraine,  Russia is seeking to strengthen its ties with the Asian country of North Korea.

    Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin made this known via a statement signed and released by him on Sunday in Moscow.

    In a letter sent to his counterpart Kim Jong-un on Pyongyang’s liberation day, Mr. Putin said the move would be in both countries interests.

    In his reaction, North Korean President, Kim said their relationship dates back to pre-World War years with victory over Japan.

    He added that their “comradely friendship” would grow stronger.

    North Korean Television, KCNA, reports that the expanded bilateral relations would “conform with the interests of the two countries”.

    It added that “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” between the two countries “had been put on a new high stage, in the common front for frustrating the hostile forces’ military threat and provocation”.

    Pyongyang did not identify the hostile forces by name, but the term has been used repeatedly by North Korea to refer to the US and its allies.

    The Soviet Union was once a major ally of North Korea, offering economic cooperation, cultural exchanges, and aid.

    Meanwhile, the relationship between these two nations went sour the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) disintegrated into smaller units in 1989

    In July, North Korea was one of the few countries to officially recognize two Russian-backed separatist states in eastern Ukraine, after Russia signed a decree declaring them an independent.

    Meanwhile both leaders  Kim Jong Un and  Vladimir Putin met  on Thursday at a summit designed to show that Washington is not the only power able to set the agenda on Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

    Putin and Kim, in their first ever face-to-face encounter, shook hands outside the summit venue, a university campus, then sat down in a conference room to exchange greetings in front of the television cameras

    However, Ukraine which is at war with Russia, in his retaliation, has cut off all diplomatic ties with Pyongyang in North Korea.

  • North Korean’s Kim threatens to use nuclear weapons if attacked

    North Korean’s Kim threatens to use nuclear weapons if attacked

    North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un has threatened to use nuclear weapons in the event of military conflict with the United States and South Korea, according to remarks reported by state media on Thursday.

    “Our armed forces are thoroughly prepared to respond to any crisis,” Kim said.

    He added that North Korea’s nuclear deterrence forces were ready to mobilise “accurately and promptly” for their mission.

    Ahead of the start of joint summer military exercises by U.S. and South Korean forces next month, Kim adopted a sharper tone than usual.

    South Korea faced total destruction, if it undertook “dangerous attempts” against North Korea, he said in reference to plans by the government in Seoul to revive a system for preventive strikes to counter Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme.

    Kim’s remarks were made during a speech to veterans in Pyongyang on Wednesday to mark the 69th anniversary of the signing of a ceasefire ending the 1950-53 Korean War.

    The day is marked as “Victory Day” in North Korea.

    North Korea has conducted several missile tests this year in contravention of United Nations resolutions amid rising tension in the region.

    The Pyongyang government is subject to stringent sanctions as a result of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme.

    For its part, North Korea accuses the U.S. of adopting hostile policies.

    The U.S. and South Korea are to conduct joint field exercises again this year during their joint manoeuvres after reducing them in recent years as a diplomatic gesture.

  • U.S. levels new sanctions on North Korea

    The U.S. targeted two Russian banks Friday as part of new sanctions over alleged support for North Korea and its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

    U.S.
    North Korea President, Kim Jong-un

     

    The sanctions come after what the U.S. says were three new ballistic missile launches by North Korea on Tuesday, including one intercontinental ballistic missile.

     

    The launches happened after President Joe Biden ended an Asian trip in which he stressed Washington’s commitment to defending allies from the North’s nuclear threat.

    U.S.
    North Korea launched three ballistic missiles toward its east coast

     

    The U.S. says this week’s launches brought North Korea’s total for this year to 23, as the isolated country pushes to develop and expand the range of its nuclear and missile programs.

     

    Friday’s sanctions targets include two Russian banks, Far Eastern and Sputnik, that the U.S. says do business with U.S.-sanctioned North Korean entities. Bank Sputnik also helped North Korea arrange payments for the use of Russian satellite services, the Treasury Department said in announcing the sanctions.

     

    The new sanctions also target a Belarus-based North Korea man who the United States says was helping generate funding for the missile launches, and a trading company.

     

    On Thursday, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution sponsored by the United States that would have imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea for its spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons.

     

    Thursday’s vote represented the first serious division among the five veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N.’s most powerful body on a North Korea sanctions resolution.

     

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that North Korea fired three ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan early Wednesday.

     

    South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it had “detected at around 0600 (2100 GMT), 0637 and 0642 the firings of ballistic missiles launched from Sunan area.”

     

    Japan’s coastguard warned of a “possible ballistic missile” launch from North Korea, telling vessels to stay away from fallen objects in the waters.

  • North Korea’s Kim Jong Un makes public appearance amid death rumours

    North Korea’s Kim Jong Un makes public appearance amid death rumours

    North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 20 days, ending the global rumours about his death that were triggered due to his absence.

    Kim Jong Un celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, informed North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday.

    The state media agency reported that Kim Jong Un attended the ceremony on Friday in Sunchon and he was accompanied by several other senior officials.

    The North Korean supreme leader was also accompanied by his sister Kim Yo Jong.

    North Korea’s official newspaper Rodong Sinmun published several photos of Kim Jong Un where he was seen smiling while he looked around the factory.

    The newspaper also showed him cutting a red ribbon and his sister looking from behind.

    If looked closely, the images gave no clear sign of him being in discomfort.

    This was Kim Jon Un’s first public appearance since April 11.

  • North Korea ignores coronavirus threats, fires missiles into sea

    Not bothered by coronavirus fears, North Korea fired three unidentified projectiles into the sea on Monday, Seoul’s military said, the second such weapons test by Pyongyang in a week.

    The three devices were fired in a northeasterly direction from the Sondok area in South Hamgyong province, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, without further details.

    “The military is monitoring for additional launches and maintaining readiness,” it added.

    A spokesman at Japan’s defence ministry said North Korea launched what appeared to be “ballistic missile(s)”, adding there had been no indication of anything coming down in Tokyo’s territory or exclusive economic zone.

    Analysts say the North has been continuing to refine its weapons capabilities during its long-stalled nuclear discussions with the US, which have been at a standstill since the collapse of the Hanoi summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump more than a year ago.

    Three projectiles fired successfully from a single Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL) would be “a new milestone” for the North’s short-range ballistic missile programme, tweeted Ankit Panda, senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists.

    Vipin Narang of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology added: “Kim continues to test, improve, and operationalize his force.”

    After last week’s launch the North’s state media said Kim had overseen a “long-range artillery” drill, carrying images of multiple launch rocket systems and several of a larger calibre rocket being fired in a forest.

    South Korea said that launch appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles — which the nuclear-armed North is banned from testing under UN Security Council resolutions.

    Monday’s launch came days after Kim sent a personal letter to the South’s President Moon Jae-in, offering “comfort” for the rapid outbreak of the new coronavirus in the country.

  • Spurned by Washington, North Korea’s Kim seeks a friend in Putin

    Spurned by Washington, North Korea’s Kim seeks a friend in Putin

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday at a summit designed to show that Washington is not the only power able to set the agenda on Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

    The two men embarked on a day of talks on an island off the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok two months after Kim’s summit with U.S. President Donald Trump ended in disagreement, cooling hopes of a breakthrough in the decades-old nuclear row.

    Putin and Kim, in their first ever face-to-face encounter, smiled broadly and shook hands outside the summit venue, a university campus.

    They then stood side by side on an escalator, chatting with help from interpreters, as they made their way to an upper floor to begin their talks.

    In brief opening remarks in front of the media, Putin said he hoped Kim’s visit would “help us better understand by what means we can reach a settlement on the

    Korean peninsula, what we can do together, what Russia can do to support the positive processes now underway.”

    “Without question we welcome your efforts to develop dialogue between the Koreas, and to normalise North Korean-U.S. relations,” Putin said.

    Kim, who had arrived in Vladivostok a day earlier on board his armoured train, told Putin the meeting would help strengthen and develop ties between Russia and North Korea, which share a long history of friendship.

    “As world attention is focused on the Korean Peninsula, there will be very meaningful dialogue for us to jointly assess the Korean peninsula policies and share, coordinate and study our views,” Kim said.

    The summit in Vladivostok provides Pyongyang with an opportunity to seek support from a new quarter, Russia, and possible relief from the sanctions hurting its economy.

    For the Kremlin, the summit is a chance to show it is a global diplomatic player, despite efforts by the U.S. and other Western states to isolate it.

    But with Moscow committed to upholding sanctions until the North dismantles its nuclear program, analysts said the summit was unlikely to produce any tangible help for Pyongyang, beyond a show of camaraderie.

    Putin has a track record of making world leaders wait for him, but on Wednesday the Russian leader arrived at the venue around half an hour before Kim showed up, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene.

    Putin’s last summit with a North Korean leader was in 2002 when his counterpart was Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s father and predecessor.

    Kim Jong Il also met in 2011 with Dmitry Medvedev, the Putin lieutenant who was then Russian president.

    Thursday’s summit was taking place on the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University, a complex that back in 2012 played host to an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

    Classes were going on as normal and students were walking a few meters from the building where Kim and Putin were meeting.

    Members of the Russian president’s security detail were dotted around the campus.

    Buildings were decked out with the Russian and North Korean flags.

    A concert is planned for the two leaders later in the day, and an orchestra was rehearsing in the hall where they were due to perform.

  • North Korea elects new ceremonial president – Report

    North Korea has elected a new ceremonial president, a month after the election of its official parliament, state media said on Friday.

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s deputy, Choe Ryong Hae, was elected on Thursday as chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as North Korea is officially known.

    According to a report Friday by the news agency KCNA, Choe replaces Kim Yong Nam, 91, who was long considered the diplomatic face of North Korea, but whose retirement was expected due to his advanced age.

    South Korean media have described Choe as a political heavyweight and the number two man in North Korea behind Kim.

    KCNA called his selection a “great political event of crucial historical significance.’’

    The 687 lawmakers in the nominal parliament are elected for a period of five years, while turnout at the polls in March was over 90 per cent.

    The parliament is officially North Korea’s highest organ of state but it only meets once or twice a year to rubber-stamp decisions made by the country’s leaders.

  • North Korea elects new parliament

    North Korea elects new parliament

    North Koreans on Sunday elects a new parliament for the second time under leader Kim Jong Un, though the process is merely a formality and no real competition is allowed.

    Only one candidate from the ruling Korean Workers’ Party contests each constituency, with voters asked to tick either “yes’’ or “no’’ on the ballot.

    The 687 lawmakers are elected for a period of five years and results are expected to be announced in two days’ time.

    According to state-run news agency KCNA, 57 per cent of voters had cast their ballots by midday.

    “All the electors are participating as one in the election for the sake of the prosperity of the socialist country and development of the people’s power with their great pride and honour,’’ it wrote.

    Observers say the elections serve to cement national unity in the country, which is internationally isolated and subject to UN sanctions over its nuclear missiles programme.

    A second summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February, aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear programme, ended without an agreement.

    The parliament is officially North Korea’s highest organ of state but it only meets once or twice a year to rubber-stamp decisions made by the country’s leaders.

     

  • Breaking: U.S. announces new special representative for North Korea

    U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo on Thursday announced Steve Biegun is joining the Department of State team as the Special Representative for North Korea.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Special Representative Biegun will lead efforts to achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of the final, fully-verified denuclearization of North Korea, as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong Un.

    “As Special Representative, he will direct all U.S. policy on North Korea, lead negotiations, and spearhead our diplomatic efforts with our allies and partners,” a statement emanating from the U.S. Secretary of State office read.

    Shortly after his announcement, Biegun said the President of the United States (POTUS) “has created an opening, and it’s one that we must take by seizing every possible opportunity to realize the vision for a peaceful future for the people of North Korea”.

     

  • Pompeo ‘optimistic’ about ending North Korea’s Nuclear Programme

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday expressed optimism that the North Korea’s nuclear programme though it might take time but would soon end.

    It assured that programme would be achieved within a timeline set by the leaders of the two countries.

    It was important to maintain diplomatic and economic pressure, Pompeo said on the sidelines of an Asian regional conference, adding that the United States took very seriously any relaxation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea.

    “I’m optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded,’’ Pompeo told a news conference.

    “The work has begun. The process of achieving denuclearisation of the (Korean) peninsula is one that I think we have all known would take some time.’’

    He said there was every reason to believe the reports about Russia’s issuance of visas to North Korean workers were accurate, which would be in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

    “I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow.

    “We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea,’’ he said.

    Russia has denied a report by the Wall Street Journal that said Moscow was allowing thousands of fresh North Korean labourers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N sanctions.

    Russia’s ambassador to North Korea also denied Moscow was flouting U.N. restrictions on oil supplies to North Korea.

    Pompeo flew to Singapore, where the U.S. and North Korean leaders held a landmark summit in June, to attend meetings of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

    At a group photo session at an ASEAN security forum, Pompeo walked up to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who was also attending, shook hands, exchanged words and smiles.

    Pompeo, who has been leading the U.S. negotiations to get the North to abandon its nuclear programme, had primarily engaged with Kim Yong Chol, a top North Korean party official and former spy agency chief, and not Ri.

    U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim, who has long been a key negotiator on the nuclear issue, said earlier he had no plans to meet the North Koreans in Singapore.

    At the summit on June 12, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is seeking relief from tough sanctions, committed to work toward denuclearisation, but Pyongyang has offered no details on how it might go about this.

    Pompeo suggested on Friday on the flight to Singapore that continued work on weapons programmes by North Korea saying it was inconsistent with its leader’s commitment to denuclearise.

    Pompeo says North Korea has ‘ways to go’ to denuke

    On Monday, a senior U.S. official said U.S. spy satellites had detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

    According to a confidential UN report seen by Reuters on Friday, North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes.

    On Saturday, Pompeo was more upbeat about making progress on the denuclearisation agreement, saying: “we’ve been working since then to develop the process by which that would be achieved.’’

    Reuters/NAN