North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has said unification with South Korea is no longer possible, and that the constitution should be changed to designate it the “principal enemy”.
Kim Jong-un also said three organizations dealing with reunification would shut down, state media KCNA reported.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol said it would respond “multiple times stronger” to any provocation from North Korea.
The two Koreas have been divided since the Korean War ended in 1953.
They did not sign a peace treaty and therefore have remained technically still at war ever since.
In a speech delivered at the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim Jong-un said that the constitution should be amended to educate North Koreans that South Korea is a “primary foe and invariable principal enemy”.
He also said that if a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, the country’s constitution should reflect the issue of “occupying”, “recapturing” and “incorporating” the South into its territory.
Kim Jong-un – who replaced his father, Kim Jong-il, as North Korean leader in 2011 – said the North “did not want war, but we also have no intention of avoiding it”, according to KCNA.
He said he was taking a “new stand” on north-south relations, which included dismantling all organizations tasked with reunification.
Speaking to his cabinet on January 16, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said that if the North carried out a provocation, the South “will retaliate multiple times stronger”, pointing to the South Korean military’s “overwhelming response capabilities”.
Kim Jong-un’s comments came as relations significantly weakened on the Korean Peninsula in recent months.
In November, North Korea fully suspended a five-year military deal with the South aimed at lowering military tensions. It promised to withdraw all measures “taken to prevent military conflict in all spheres including ground, sea and air”, and said it would deploy more forces to the border region.
The South had partly suspended the agreement days earlier after Kim Jong-un claimed to have successfully launched a spy satellite into space.
The rhetoric – and provocative actions – from the North have only escalated since then.
At year-end policy meetings, the North Korean said he needed to “newly formulate” the North’s stance towards inter-Korean relations and reunification policy, adding that the stated goal was to “make a decisive policy change” related to “the enemy”.
He also threatened a nuclear attack on the South, and called for a build-up of his country’s military arsenal.
In a report published last week for 38 North, a US-based organization with a focus on North Korea, former State Department official Robert Carlin and nuclear scientist Siegfried S Hecker said they saw the situation on the Korean Peninsula as “more dangerous than it has ever been” since the start of the Korean War in 1950.
The two countries have boosted ties recently, with both isolated by Western powers, and last September Kim Jong-un visited Russia where he met Vladimir Putin.
North Korea has claimed that it successfully tested a new hypersonic missile called Hwasong-8 on September 28.
According to state media, the new missile was one of the “five most important” new weapons systems laid out in its five-year military development plan.
The North Koreans called the missile a “strategic weapon”, which usually means it has nuclear capabilities.
The launch is another indication of Pyongyang’s growing weapons technology amid strict sanctions.
“The development of this weapons system…[has increased] the nation’s capabilities for self-defense in every way,” North Korean state news outlet KCNA said.
The latest launch also saw North Korea introducing missile fuel ampoule for the first time.
This is a technology that allows missiles to be pre-fuelled and then sent to the field in canisters. This means it could potentially stay launch-ready for years.
The launch also marked North Korea’s third missile test this month. It has already revealed a new type of cruise missile, as a well as a new train-launched ballistic missile system.
The event came as its North Korean envoy Kim Song defended his country’s right to develop weapons at the annual UN General Assembly in New York.
Kim Song said North Korea was “building up our national defense in order to defend ourselves and reliably safeguard the security and peace of the country”.
Hypersonic missiles are much faster and more agile than normal ones, making them much harder for missile defense systems to intercept.
North Korea joins a small pool of countries, including the US, Russia, China and India, in attempting to develop the weapons. In July, Russia announced that it had successfully launched a hypersonic missile which reached a speed of 8659.88km/h (5381mph) from a frigate in the White Sea.
KCNA said the test launch confirmed the “navigational control and stability of the missile”.
Kim Jong-un called on North Korean officials to deal with food supply issues and highlighted the danger of climate change.
In 2020, typhoons badly impacted vital crops, while weeks of drought followed by heavy monsoon rains have damaged them this year as well.
The North Korean leader said measures to overcome “abnormal climate” were needed, and asked also officials to tackle drought and floods.
Kim Jong-un’s comments came in a speech to the ruling party’s Politburo on September 2.
He had said that the “danger” of climate change had become “higher in recent years adding that “urgent action” needed to be taken.
Kim Jong-un also called for improvements to North Korea’s flood management infrastructure saying: “River improvement, afforestation for erosion control, dyke maintenance and tide embankment projects”, should be prioritized.
Apart from the damage caused by natural disasters, North Korea’s economy has been hit hard by international sanctions, as well as border closures and harsh lockdowns to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Although North Korea has not reported any Covid-19 cases, it has sealed its borders and imposed lockdowns.
The border closures have affected vital imports from China.
“Tightening epidemic prevention is the task of paramount importance which must not be loosened even a moment under the present situation,” said Kim Jong-un, according to state media.
North Korea has announced it will skip the Tokyo Olympics this year, saying the decision is to protect its athletes from Covid-19.
Pyongyang’s decision puts an end to South Korea’s hopes of using the Games to engage with the North amid stalled cross-border talks.
In 2018, North and South Korea entered a joint team at the Winter Olympics which led to a series of historic summits.
North Korea says it has no cases of the virus but experts say this is unlikely.
The announcement makes North Korea the first major country to skip the delayed 2020 Games because of the pandemic. The event is due to begin on 23 July.
This will be the first time North Korea has missed a Summer Olympics since 1988, when it boycotted the Seoul Games during the Cold War.
According to a report by the state-run site Sports in the DPRK, the decision was made at an Olympic committee meeting on March 25.
North Korea has taken stringent measures against the coronavirus since it broke out last year.
It shut its borders in late January and later quarantined hundreds of foreigners in its capital.
Since early 2020, trains and wagons have been forbidden to enter or leave North Korea, with most international passenger flights stopped as well.
There were hopes from South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in that the Games could be a catalyst for progress between both Koreas.
That had been the case in 2018, when North Korea sent 22 athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, along with government officials, journalists and a 230-member cheering group.
Among the contingent was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong – a move which helped it initiate diplomacy with South Korea and the US.
The talks that followed led to a series of historic, high-profile meetings between Kim Jong-un and former President Donald Trump.
There were hopes for improved relations after the meetings, but nothing materialized and the atmosphere has since deteriorated.
Meanwhile, in Japan, an Olympic preparatory event was canceled after Covid infections broke out at a training camp for the Japanese water polo team – with seven people testing positive for the virus.
It follows the announcement that the Osaka leg of the Olympic torch relay will be canceled after infections in the city hit record highs.
There have been growing concerns in Japan that more infectious strains of the virus could be driving a potential fourth Covid-19 wave in the country.
US attempts to communicate with North Korea have included the “New York Channel” – through the North Korean mission at the United Nations.
A US official told Reuters there had been “multiple attempts” to engage with North Korea, but no meaningful contact for more than 12 months, which includes much of Donald Trump’s final year as president.
President Biden has already announced a policy review on North Korea, which is expected to be unveiled in April.
He has called Kim Jong-un a thug and stressed the need for North Korean nuclear disarmament before heavy US and UN economic sanctions can be eased.
Kim Jong-un has continued to emphasize North Korea’s military capability, claiming the development of more accurate long-range missiles, super large warheads, spy satellites and a nuclear-powered submarine.
At the same time the North Korean leader has called on the US to ditch its “hostile policies”.
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are expected to feature prominently during this week’s visit to Japan and South Korea by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Relations between the US and North Korea plummeted in 2017 when North Korea tested long-range missiles capable of hitting American cities.
Tensions eased as President Trump bet on developing a personal rapport with Kim Jong-un.
However, the much-trumpeted meetings, including summits in Singapore and Vietnam, failed to overcome differences over nuclear disarmament and sanctions. The US rebuffed North Korean demands for the lifting of sanctions in return for only a partial reduction in nuclear capabilities.
North Korea is currently more cut off from the outside world than ever before. Its borders have been closed for over a year to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Trade with North Korea’s main ally China has dwindled by more than 90% in the last few months.
North Korea closed its borders in January 2020 soon after the virus began to emerge in China.
In November 2020, Microsoft said at least nine health organizations including Pfizer had been targeted by state-backed organizations in North Korea and Russia.
It said North Korean groups dubbed Zinc and Cerium, and a Russian group nicknamed Fancy Bear, were responsible.
However, Russia has denied targeting other countries’ vaccine research.
While many of the break-in attempts failed, Microsoft warned at the time that some had been successful.
Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has received more responsibilities in the government, South Korea’s spy agency claims.
Kim Jong-un still maintains “absolute authority”, but handed various policy areas to others to reduce his stress levels, the spy agency reportedly said.
Kim Yo-jong is now “steering overall state affairs”, the National Intelligence Service added.
However, South Korea’s spy agency has been wrong about North Korea in the past.
The claims were reportedly made during a closed-door briefing on August 20 to South Korea’s National Assembly.
Lawmakers then discussed the assessment with journalists.
The agency was quoted as saying: “Kim Jong-un is still maintaining his absolute authority, but some of it has been handed over little by little.”
Kim Yo-jong now has responsibility for Pyongyang’s policy towards the US and South Korea, among other policy issues, and is “the de-facto number two leader,” it added, although it stressed that Kim Jong-un had “not selected a successor.”
The North Korean leader’s decision to delegate was in part to “relieve stress from his reign and avert culpability in the event of policy failure,” it said.
However, some analysts have been skeptical of the intelligence, with website NKNews noting that Kim Yo-jong appeared to have missed two important meetings this month, leading to speculation from some observers that she may have been demoted.
Kim Yo-jong is the younger sister of Kim Jong-un and the only one of his siblings considered a close and powerful ally.
Born in 1987, she is four years younger than Kim Jong-un. The two of them lived and studied in Bern, Switzerland, at the same time.
Kim Yo-jong first gained international attention in 2018, when she was the first member of the Kim dynasty to visit South Korea.
She was part of the delegation to the Winter Olympics, where North and South competed as a joint team.
Kim Yo-jong also worked alongside her brother at international summits, including his meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, China’s Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has suspended plans for “military action” against South Korea, state news agency KCNA reported.
Recent weeks saw a rising tide of angry rhetoric from North Korea over activist plans to send leaflets with anti-North Korean messages over the border.
Last week, North Korea blew up the joint liaison office with South Korea and also threatened to send troops to the border area.
At a meeting chaired by leader Kim Jong-un, state media said the decision was taken to suspend military action.
The Central Military Commission made its decision after taking what it called the “prevailing situation” into consideration.
North Korea also began to dismantle loudspeakers it had erected only last week, traditionally used to blast anti-South Korean messages over the border, Yonhap reported.
The move represents a notable de-escalation in rhetoric after Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong’s orders to the army to “decisively carry out the next action” – in part because of what Pyongyang said was Seoul’s failure to stop activists floating balloons with anti-regime leaflets over the border.
The meeting also discussed documents outlining measures for “further bolstering the war deterrent of the country,” KCNA reported.
Tensions between North and South Korea appeared to be on the mend when in 2018, leaders of both countries met for the first time at the border.
The historic summit saw both sides pledge to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons – and in the months that followed, there were efforts to improve ties and maintain dialogue.
However, the relationship has been on a downward spiral after a failed summit between Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump.
And the past few weeks saw relations deteriorate especially rapidly – prompted by defector groups in South Korea sending propaganda across the border,
South Korean activists typically send balloons that carry objects like leaflets, USB sticks or DVDs with criticism of the Pyongyang regime, as well as South Korean news reports or even Korean dramas.
All of this is aimed at breaking North Korea’s control on domestic information with the hope that people might eventually topple the regime from within.
The South Korean government has already tried to stop groups sending leaflets across the border, arguing their actions put residents near the border at risk. The move prompted North Korea to renew threats of military action – and shortly afterwards it blew up a joint liaison office that it had established with South Korea in 2018.
North Korea has announced it will cut off all official communication channels with South Korea, including a hotline between the two nations’ leaders.
It said this was the first in a series of actions, describing South Korea as “the enemy”.
Daily calls, which have been made to a liaison office located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, will cease from June 9.
North and South Korea had set up the office to reduce tensions after talks in 2018.
Image source Flickr
The two states are technically still at war because no peace agreement was reached when the Korean War ended in 1953.
North Korea “will completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the North and the South, which has been maintained through the North-South joint liaison office… from 12:00 on 9 June 2020,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report said.
Military communication channels will also be cut, it said.
When the liaison office was temporarily closed in January because of Covid-19 restrictions, contact between the two states was maintained by phone.
North Korea and South Korea made two phone calls a day through the office, at 09:00 and 17:00. On June 8, the South said that for the first time in 21 months, its morning call had gone unanswered, although contact was made in the afternoon.
“We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face-to-face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay,” KNCA said.
Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un’s sister, threatened last week to close the office unless South Korea stopped defector groups from sending leaflets into North Korea.
She said the leaflet campaign was a hostile act that violated the peace agreements made during the 2018 Panmunjom summit between South Krea’s Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.
North Korean defectors occasionally send balloons carrying leaflets critical of the communist region into the North, sometimes with supplies to entice North Koreans to pick them up.
North Koreans can only get news from state-controlled media, and most do not have access to the internet.
Ties between North Korea and South Korea appeared to improve in 2018, when the leaders of both countries met three times. Such high-level meetings had not taken place in over a decade.
North Korea and South Korea have exchanged gunfire in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which divides the two Asian countries.
Gunshots fired by North Korea at 07:41 AM local time hit a South Korean guard post in the central border town of Cheorwon, Seoul’s military said.
No casualties were reported on the South Korean side.
In response, South Korea fired “two rounds of gunfire and a warning announcement according to our manual”, the military statement said.
It is not clear what provoked the initial gunshots. The joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said that they were trying to contact North Korea through their military hotline to determine the cause of the incident.
This is the first time in five years that North Korean troops have directly fired on South Korea. The last incident happened when a North Korean soldier made a dash across the military demarcation line to defect to South Korea.
The DMZ was set up after the Korean War in 1953 in order to create a buffer zone between the two countries.
For the past two years, the South Korean government has tried to turn the heavily fortified border into a peace zone.
Easing military tensions at the border was one of the agreements reached between the leaders of the two countries held a summit in Pyongyang in September 2018.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has appeared in public for the first time after 20 days of absence, North Korean state media says.
According to KCNA news agency, Kim Jong-un cut the ribbon at the opening of a fertilizer factory.
The agency adds that people at the factory “broke into thunderous cheers of hurrah” when he appeared on May 1st.
The reported appearance – Kim Jong-un’s first since an event on state media on April 12 – comes amid global speculation over his health.
However, the latest reports from North Korean media could not be independently confirmed.
State media later released images that it said showed Kim Jong-un cutting a ribbon outside a factory.
Asked about Kim Jong-un’s reported reappearance, President Donald Trump told reporters that he didn’t want to comment yet.
According to KCNA, Kim Jong-un was accompanied by several senior North Korean officials, including his sister Kim Yo-jong.
He cut a ribbon at a ceremony at the plant, in a region north of Pyongyang, and people who were attending the event “burst into thunderous cheers of ‘hurrah!’ for the Supreme Leader who is commanding the all-people general march for accomplishing the great cause of prosperity”, KCNA says.
Kim Jong-un said he was satisfied with the factory’s production system, and praised it for contributing to the progress of the country’s chemical industry and food production, the state news agency adds.
Speculation about Kim Jong-un’s health began after he missed the birth anniversary celebrations of his grandfather, state founder Kim Il-sung on April 15.
The anniversary is one of the biggest events in the North Korean calendar, and the North Korean usually marks it by visiting the mausoleum where his grandfather lies. Kim Jong-un had never missed this event.
Claims about Kim Jong-un’s ill-health then surfaced in a report for a website run by North Korean defectors.
An anonymous source told the Daily NK that they understood Kim Jong-un had been struggling with cardiovascular problems since last August “but it worsened after repeated visits to Mount Paektu”.
This led to a chain of reporting by international media on a single-sourced story.
News agencies then began to run with that claim, and it was all they had until some reports emerged that intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were monitoring the claim.
Then came a more sensational headline in US media that Kim Jong-un was in a critical condition after heart surgery.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared to stoke the rumors on April 29, by saying US officials “hadn’t seen” Kim Jong-un recently.
However, a statement from the South Korean government, and sources at Chinese intelligence – speaking to the Reuters – said this was not true.
Kim Jong-un went missing for 40 days in September 2014, after attending a concert. He reappeared in mid-October, using a cane.
State media never explained where Kim Jong-un had been. However, South Korea’s intelligence agency said he probably had an operation on his left ankle stemming from problems with a cyst.
According to South Korea’s military, North Korea has fired two projectiles into the Sea of Japan.
The projectiles appeared to be
short-range ballistic missiles.
They were launched early on March 21
from Pyongan province towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
North Korea launched multiple
missiles as part of firing drills earlier this month. The US and China have
called on North Korea to return to talks on ending its nuclear and missile
programs.
On March 21, South Korea’s Joint
Chief of Staff said it was monitoring the situation in case there are
additional launches.
It described the actions as
“extremely inappropriate” at a time when the world was dealing with
the Covid-19 pandemic.
The projectiles flew for 255 miles
with a maximum altitude of around 30 miles, the South Korean military said.
Japan’s coast guard confirmed a
missile had landed outside the waters of its exclusive economic zone.
It comes as North Korea announced it
would be holding a session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s
parliament, on April 19. Analysts say the meeting will involve almost 700 of
North Korea’s leaders in one spot.
There have been no reported cases of coronavirus in North Korea, though some
experts have cast doubt on this.
North Korea borders China, where the virus emerged, and South Korea, where
there has been a major outbreak.
A top US military official said last week he was “fairly certain”
there were infections in North Korea.
However, North Korea quarantined around 380 foreigners – mostly diplomats and staff in Pyongyang – in their compounds for at least 30 days. The restrictions were lifted at the beginning of March. Around 80 foreigners, mainly diplomats, were flown out of Pyongyang on March 9.
Kim Jong-un has climbed North Korea’s highest
mountain, Mount Paektu, on horseback, according to state media.
A series of photos released by KCNA show the North Korean leader astride a
white horse on a snow-covered mountain.
This is not the first time Kim Jong-un has scaled the 2,750-meter peak and
analysts say such gestures have been known to precede major announcements.
Mount Paektu holds a special place in North Korea’s identity and is feted as
the birthplace of Kim Jong-un’s father.
A KCNA report released on October 16 said: “His march on horseback in Mt Paektu is a great event of weighty
importance in the history of the Korean revolution.
“Sitting on the horseback atop Mt
Paektu, [he] recollected with deep emotion the road of arduous struggle he
covered for the great cause of building the most powerful country, with faith
and will as firm as Mt Paektu.”
In 2017, Kim Jong-un visited the mountain a few weeks before his New Year’s
address, where he hinted at a diplomatic thaw with South Korea.
The North Korean leader has reportedly climbed Mount Paektu at least three
times, and made a joint visit to the mountain with South Korean president Moon
Jae-in in 2018.
KCNA previously released photos of Kim Jong-un atop the mountain, after
apparently climbing it in black leather shoes.
Mount Paektu, an active volcano, is
said to be the birthplace of Dangun, the founder of the first Korean kingdom
more than 4,000 years ago.
The mountain is hundreds of kilometers
from the capital Pyongyang, and sits right on the border between North Korea
and China.
Earlier this month, North Korean officials held talks with US officials in Sweden, the first since President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un met briefly at the DMZ in June.
Two short-range ballistic missiles
have been fired off North Korea’s east coast, according to South Korea’s
military, the second such launch in a week.
They were launched from the Wonsan
area on July 31.
Last week’s launch was the first
such action since President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
met in June.
North Korea called last week’s
launch a “solemn warning” to Seoul over its planned military
exercises with Washington.
Pyongyang has previously expressed
anger that the annual drills will go ahead next month- an event it sees as
preparation for war.
The missiles were launched at
05:06AM and 05:27 AM local time from the Kalma area near the port of Wonsan.
The missiles flew 155 miles and
reached a height of 20 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan, also known as
the East Sea, said South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The South Korean defense minister
Jeong Kyeong-doo said the missiles were identified as a different type from
previous models.
Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe confirmed that
there was no impact on Japan’s security following the launch.
Six days ago, North Korea fired two
short range missiles, one of which travelled about 425 miles and the other 268
miles.
That launch was the first since President Trump and Kim Jong-un held an
impromptu meeting in June at the demilitarized zone (DMZ), an area that divides
the two Koreas, where they agreed to restarted denuclearization talks.
North Korea has recently again voiced anger over planned military exercises
between South Korea and the US, an annual event which the allies have refused
to cancel but have scaled back significantly.
One analyst said more missile tests could be expected.
North Korea called the drills a “violation of the spirit” of the
joint statement signed by President Trump and Kim Jong-un at their first
face-to-face talks in Singapore last year.
Pyongyang had warned the exercises could affect the resumption of
denuclearization talks.
On July 29, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he hoped these talks
could start “very soon”, but that there were no further summits
planned.
Last year, Kim Jong-un said North Korea would stop nuclear testing and would no longer launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.
North Korea says Alek Sigley, who
had been detained for several days before being released, had been
“spying” for news outlets.
The 29-year-old Australian student
was reported missing in late June, but was freed on July 4 after Swedish
officials in Pyongyang met the North Korean government.
NK News, one of
the websites to publish Alek Sigley’s writing, has rejected North Korea’s
claims that he spied for them.
It said Alek Sigley’s columns only
“presented an apolitical view of life in Pyongyang”.
Alek Sigley, a fluent Korean
speaker, had been living in Pyongyang while studying a Master’s at Kim Il-sung
University and running a tourism business.
He has not commented on why he
detained. Following his release, he flew to Japan, where his wife lives.
On July 6, North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA said that Alek Sigley
had “on numerous occasions transferred information, including photographs
and analysis that he gathered while travelling to every corner of Pyongyang
using his status as an international student”.
Alek Sigley had done this “upon request by anti-DPRK [North Korea] news
outlets such as NK news”, KCNA added.
The North Korean government decided to deport him on humanitarian grounds
after he “honestly admitted that he had been spying… and repeatedly
asked for our forgiveness for infringing on our sovereignty”, it said.
North Korea often accuses foreigners detained in its country of espionage or
“hostile acts”.
In a statement, NK News, a website specializing in North Korean news and analysis,
said it appreciated “the DPRK’s decision to promptly release Sigley on
humanitarian grounds”.
The website said it had published six articles from Alek Sigley which showed “vignettes of ordinary daily life in the capital”.“The six articles Alek published represent the full extent of his work with us and the idea that those columns, published transparently under his name between January and April 2019, are ‘anti-state’ in nature is a misrepresentation which we reject.”
President Donald Trump has offered to meet
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North
and South Korea.
North Korea has described President Trump’s offer as a “very
interesting suggestion”.
Donald Trump has arrived in South Korea to discuss the flagging North Korea
denuclearization talks.
If Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un were to see each other at the DMZ, it would
be their third meeting in just over a year, and their first since a summit in
Vietnam broke down in February.
President Trump tweeted: “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(?)!”
President Trump – who is visiting South Korea after attending the G20 summit
in Japan – conceded that the pair could see each other only “for two
minutes”.
However, despite the apparent lack of any diplomatic preparation, some have
suggested another face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un
could help reset relations and set the scene for future talks.
Only a few hours later, North Korea’s first vice-minister for foreign
affairs, Choe Son Hui, said in statement: “We
see it as a very interesting suggestion, but we have not received an official
proposal in this regard.”
Such a meeting, the statement added, “would serve as another meaningful
occasion in further deepening the personal relations between the two leaders
and advancing the bilateral relations”.
It remains unclear whether officials with President Trump were briefed in
advance about his overture to Kim Jong-un, and South Korea’s presidency said
nothing was yet confirmed.
Last week, a South Korean official said Donald Trump was considering a trip
to the DMZ, prompting speculation a meeting with Kim Jong-un could be possible.
President Trump attempted to make a surprise visit to the area in November
2017, but was forced to abandon the plans due to bad weather.
North Korea has labeled a break-in
at its Madrid embassy last month as a “grave terrorist attack”.
In its first official comment, the
North Korean government called for an investigation and said it was closely
watching rumors that the FBI had played a role.
On March 27, the Cheollima Civil
Defense (CDC), a group committed to ousting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said
it carried out the raid.
The group took computers and data
and said it gave its evidence to the FBI.
At least two international arrest
warrants have been issued for the main suspects.
Spanish authorities say one suspect,
named as Adrian Hong Chang, gained access by asking to see the commercial
attaché, whom he claimed to have met previously to discuss business matters.
His accomplices burst in once he was inside.
The CDC is accused of interrogating
the attaché and trying to persuade him to defect. When he refused, they left him
tied up in the basement.
Two other members of the break-in group were named as US citizen Sam Ryu,
and a South Korean, Woo Ran Lee.
Embassy staff were held hostage for several hours. One woman managed to
flee, escaping through a window and screaming for help. Concerned neighbors
quickly called the police.
When officers arrived, they were greeted by Adrian Hong Chang, posing as a
North Korean diplomat in a jacket with a Kim Jong-un lapel badge.
He told the police that all was well, and nothing had happened.
Most of the group later fled the embassy in three North Korean diplomatic
vehicles. Adrian Hong Chang and some others left later via the back entrance
using another vehicle.
They split up into four groups and headed to Portugal. Adrian Hong Chang – a
Mexican citizen who lives in the US – allegedly contacted the FBI to give his
version of events five days later.
CDC, also known as Free Joseon, is committed to overthrowing North Korea’s
ruling Kim dynasty.
A video posted on the group’s
website and YouTube page purports to show one of the intruders smashing
portraits of North Korea’s leaders inside the Madrid embassy.
The Cheollima Civil Defense first
came to prominence after taking credit for getting Kim Jong-un’s nephew, Kim
Han-sol, safely out of Macau after the assassination of his father.
Kim Jong-nam, the North Korean leader’s
estranged half-brother, was murdered at an airport in Malaysia in 2017.
Kim Han-sol has expressed his desire
to go back to North Korea, and has referred to his uncle as a “dictator”.
Sources close to the investigation reportedly told Spanish newspaper El País that the operation was planned
perfectly, as if by a “military cell”.
According to El País and El Confidencial, the attackers seemed to
know what they were looking for. Spanish authorities suspect US intelligence
agencies and their allies could have been involved in the attack.
El País even reports that two of
the group have links to the CIA.
The US has denied any involvement in the raid.
Reports say the attackers could have been looking for information on North Korea’s former ambassador to Madrid, Kim Hyok-chol, who was expelled from Spain in September 2017 over North Korea’s nuclear testing program.
President Donald Trump has arrived in Vietnam’s
capital, Hanoi, ahead of his second summit with North Korean leader, Kim
Jong-un.
Air Force One landed at Noi Bai airport hours after Kim Jon-un reached Hanoi
by train and car.
The summit, which is due to take place between February 27 and 28, follows a
historic first round of talks in Singapore in 2018.
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are expected to discuss progress towards
ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.
Ceremonial guards had lined a red carpet laid out for Kim Jong-un as he
arrived at Dong Dang border station on February 26. He was then driven to
Hanoi, where heavy security and flag-waving crowds were waiting for him.
Kim Jong-un is thought to be
travelling with his sister Kim Yo-jong and one of his key negotiators, former
General Kim Yong-chol, both familiar faces from the previous summit with PresidentTrump.
The journey from Pyongyang to Hanoi
took more than two days and traversed about 2,500 miles.
As Kim Jong-un’s train passed
through China, roads were closed and train stations shut down. Chinese social
media was abuzz with road closures, traffic congestion and delayed trains.
Vietnam’s Dong Dang station was also
closed to the public ahead of his arrival.
Kim Jong-un is now being driven
around 100 miles to Hanoi by car.
The North Korean leader chose to
take the train as this is how his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, travelled when he
went to Vietnam and Eastern Europe.
Kim Jong-un’s private green and
yellow train has 21 bulletproof carriages and is luxurious, with plush pink
leather sofas and conference rooms so the journey would not have been
uncomfortable.
Air Force One left Andrews Air Force
Base in Maryland, landing in Hanoi on Tuesday night local time.
Details of their schedule are only
just becoming clear. President Trump will meet Kim Jong-un for a brief
one-on-one conversation on February 27 and then they will have dinner together
with their advisers, according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. On
February 28, the leaders will meet for a series of back-and-forth meetings.
The Hanoi meeting is expected to
build on the groundwork of what was achieved at the Singapore summit in June
2018.
The first summit produced a vaguely
worded agreement, with both leaders agreeing to work towards denuclearization –
though it was never made clear what this would entail.
However, little diplomatic progress
was made following that meeting.
This time round, both leaders will
be very conscious that expectations will be high for an outcome that
demonstrates tangible signs of progress.
However, President Trump appeared to
be managing expectations ahead of the summit, saying he was in “no
rush” to press for North Korea’s denuclearization.
He said: “I don’t want to rush anybody. I just don’t want testing. As long
as there’s no testing, we’re happy.”
Vietnam has been chosen for many
reasons. It has diplomatic relations with both the US and North Korea, despite
once having been enemies with the US – and could be used by the US as an
example of two countries working together and setting aside their past
grievances.
Ideologically, both Vietnam and North Korea are communist countries – though Vietnam has rapidly developed since and become one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, all while the party there retains absolute power.
Two women who killed Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, will go on trial, after a judge said evidence suggested they knew what they were doing.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Thuong smeared the toxic nerve agent VX on Kim Jong-nam’s face in Kuala Lumpur airport last year.
However, the women deny murder, saying they were told they taking part in a TV prank.
Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Thuong could face the death penalty if convicted.
Four North Korean men also charged over the murder are still at large.
Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, had been waiting to board a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Macau on February 13, 2017, when two women approached him in the departure area.
CCTV footage shows one woman placing her hands over his face before she and the other woman leave the scene.
Kim Jong-nam is then seen seeking medical help – he told staff a chemical had been sprayed on him.
He died on the way to hospital from what was later found to have been exposure to the VX, one of the most toxic of all known chemical agents.
Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong – both in their 20s – have said they were innocent victims of an elaborate North Korean plot.
Their lawyers say that in the days before Kim Jong-nam’s death, the women had been paid to take part in pranks where they wiped liquid on people at airports, hotels and shopping malls.
They thought the airport was just another prank.
Their lawyers had expressed confidence that the court would see they had no motive to kill Kim Jong-nam.
However, Judge Azmi Ariffin said there was enough evidence to suggest it was “a well-planned conspiracy between the women and the four North Koreans at large”.
He said there was no hidden crew and no attempt to bring the target in on the joke afterwards, and that the footage “showed that they had the knowledge that the liquid on their hands was toxic”.
They will now go on trial for murder and could be hanged if found guilty.
Kim Jong-nam was the older half-brother of Kim Jong-un.
He was once seen as a future leader of North Korea, but when his father died, was bypassed in favor of the younger Kim.
Kim Jong-nam was largely estranged from the family, and spent most of his time overseas in Macau, mainland China and Singapore.
He had spoken out in the past against his family’s dynastic control of North Korea and in a 2012 book was quoted as saying he believed his half-brother lacked leadership qualities.
North Korea has fiercely denied any involvement in the killing.
Four men – believed to be North Koreans who left Malaysia on the day of the murder – have also been charged in the case, but have not been found.
Judge Azmi Ariffin said on August 16: “I cannot rule out that this could be a political assassination. Despite that, I am unable to confirm this fact.”
The visit to China is Kim Jong-un’s third since March, when his first trip abroad since taking office was to meet President Xi Jinping.
Kim Jong-un’s latest visit was, unusually, reported by Chinese state media. However, it gave no details on the agenda.
On June 12, President Trump and Kim Jong-un signed what the US president called a “comprehensive” agreement.
North Korea agreed to denuclearization – something it had also committed to in talks with the South – while President Trump said the US would end its joint military exercises with South Korea.
Ending the war games had been a long-standing demand by both North Korea and China.
However, both South Korea and Japan – the US’s other main ally in Asia – said the joint drills were very important.
President Trump’s announcement appeared to catch South Korea off guard and there was confusion how it would be implemented.
There was also confusion over President Trump calling the drills “provocative”, a term hitherto used by North Korea to describe them. The US had always insisted they are purely defensive in nature.
There are about 29,000 US soldiers based in the South and each year the US and South Korea regularly conduct large scale military drills.
The next military drill was scheduled for August with some 17,500 US military personnel due to take part.
General Kim Yong-chol, one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s most senior officials, is thought to be travelling to the US, as preparations for a possible summit gather pace.
South Korean news agency Yonhap said Kim Yong-chol was due to arrive in the US on May 30, via Beijing.
His trip to the US could be part of preparation for a proposed meeting between the North Korean leader and President Donald Trump.
The summit was thrown into doubt after President Trump pulled out last week.
However, both sides have been working to get the summit – scheduled for June 12 in Singapore – back on track.
It would be the first time a North Korean leader has met a sitting US president.
Kim Yong-chol was scheduled to fly to New York on May 30, after speaking with Chinese officials in Beijing, Yonhap reported, citing diplomatic sources.
The former spy chief would be the most high-profile North Korean official to visit the US since 2000.
The apparent introduction of Kim Yong-chol to negotiations would be significant, as it would underline North Korea’s desire to ensure the talks go ahead.
He has been part of recent high-profile diplomatic overtures by North Korea.
Kim Yong-chol, 72, is a controversial figure in neighboring South Korea, and previously served as a negotiator in inter-Korean talks.
During his time as a military intelligence head, Kim Yong-chol was accused of being behind attacks on South Korean targets, including the torpedoing of a South Korea warship which killed 46 seamen, as well as the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures.
As a result of these incidents, the US imposed personal sanctions on him in 2010 and 2015.
Despite reportedly being punished for an “overbearing attitude” in 2016, Kim Yong-chol has continued to hold senior posts in the army and party, and was the head of North Korea’s delegation to the closing ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea.
He is regularly seen at Kim Jongg-un’s side and has attended meetings with the leaders of China and South Korea, and met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang.
In February, Kim Yong-chol was sent to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where he sat close to President Trump’s daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump.
North Korea has threatened to pull out of a summit with President Donald Trump if the US insists it gives up its nuclear weapons.
The highly anticipated meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is due to take place on June 12.
However, in an angry statement, North Korea’s vice-foreign minister accused the US of making reckless statements and of harboring sinister intentions.
Kim Kye-gwan pointed the finger squarely at US National Security Adviser John Bolton.
He said: “We do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him.”
The groundbreaking agreement for Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump to meet came about as North Korea said it was committed to denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
Exactly what that would entail has remained unclear, but North Korea has invited foreign media to witness the dismantling of its main nuclear test site later this month.
John Bolton recently said North Korea could follow a “Libya model” of verifiable denuclearization, but this alarms Pyongyang, which watched Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi give up his nuclear program only for him to be killed by Western-backed rebels a few years later.
Kim Kye-gwan’s statement, carried by North Korea’s state media, said that if the US “corners us and unilaterally demands we give up nuclear weapons we will no longer have an interest in talks” and “will have to reconsider” attending the June 12 summit in Singapore.
The official said North Korea did have “high hopes” but that it was “very unfortunate that the US is provoking us ahead of the summit by spitting out ludicrous statements”.
He is known to be highly respected in the North Korean leadership and has taken part in negotiations with the US before. There is very little chance Kim Kye-gwan;s comments were not personally endorsed by Kim Jong-un.
Hours before the announcement, in a sign of growing problems, Pyongyang has also pulled out of a meeting scheduled with South Korea on May 16 because of anger over the start of US-South Korean joint military drills.
Pyonyang had earlier said it would allow them to go ahead, but then called them “a provocative military ruckus” which was undermining its diplomatic efforts.
The sudden change in tone from North Korea is said to have taken US officials by surprise. Analysts said Pyongyang could be trying to strengthen its hand before talks.
The US state department said it was continuing to plan the Trump-Kim meeting, and President Trump is yet to comment.
President Donald Trump has announced he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12 June.
The president tweeted: “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!”
Two months ago, President Trump stunned the world by accepting an invitation to meet Kim Jong-un for an unprecedented sit-down.
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un had previously exchanged insults and threats. The breakthrough came after landmark talks between North Korea and South Korea.
The president’s announcement came hours after he welcomed home three American detainees released by North Korea.
Their release came during a visit to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to arrange details of the meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
No sitting US president has ever met a North Korean leader.
According to the White House, the American citizens detained in North Korea were freed as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the summit, which President Trump earlier said he thought would be a “big success”.
The key issue expected to be discussed is North Korea’s nuclear weapons program – over which Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un furiously sparred in 2017.
North Korea has carried out six nuclear tests since 2006, despite international condemnation and sanctions, saying it needs the weapons for its own security.
The US wants North Korea to give up its weapons program completely and irreversibly.
Ahead of the meeting, Kim Jong-un has pledged to stop nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches, and also to shut down a nuclear test site.
However, analysts caution that Kim Jong-un is unlikely to easily abandon nuclear weapons that he has pushed so hard to obtain, and that “denuclearization” means something quite different to both sides.
The US and Singapore have a close relationship. Singapore has diplomatic ties with North Korea but suspended all trade with the country in November 2017 as international sanctions were tightened.
Other locations which had been considered for the Trump-Kim summit included Mongolia and the Korean border’s demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Three American detainees, who were released by North Korea earlier, have been welcomed home by President Trump.
President Trump said it was a “special night for these really great people” as they arrived at the Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
According to the White House, Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul had been freed as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the planned meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
President Trump said he thought the summit would be “a big success”.
The date and location have been decided but not yet announced.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump entered the plane after it landed at about 02:45 local time and a few minutes later emerged with the three men to wave to the media.
The president said he appreciated that Kim Jong-un had allowed the men to leave as “frankly we didn’t think that was going to happen before the meeting”.
Asked if this was his proudest achievement, President Trump said that would be “when we denuclearize that entire peninsula”.
He said: “It’s a great honor. But the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.”
Of the upcoming summit, President Trump said: “I think that we’re going to have… a very big success… I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful.”
He said he hoped he could travel to North Korea one day and that he believed Kim Jong-un wanted to bring his country “into the real world”.
The three men were smiling and waving and appeared in good health.
In an impromptu chat before the media with President Trump, Kim Dong-chul said: “It’s like a dream and we are very, very happy. We were treated in many different ways. For me, I had to do a lot of labor. But when I got sick I was also treated by them.”
Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul had released an earlier statement saying: “We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo and the people of the United States for bringing us home.
“We thank God and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return.”
The three men had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in labor camps.
Their release came during a visit to North Korea by Mike Pompeo to arrange details of the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.
According to the North Korean state news agency KCNA, Kim Jong-un said he had accepted a US proposal to grant the three detainees an amnesty, adding that his meeting with President Trump would be an “excellent first step” towards improving the situation on the Korean peninsula.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is making a second surprise visit to North Korea, with speculation growing that he will bring home three jailed Americans.
His visit is intended to lay the groundwork for a historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump.
Mike Pompeo told reporters he was hoping to finalize plans for talks, which are likely to focus on denuclearization.
However, the release of the detainees is a central issue for the Americans.
A South Korean presidential official told news agency Yonhap that North Korea was expected to release the US citizens as a “goodwill gesture”.
Mike Pompeo said he hoped Pyongyang would “do the right thing” and release three Americans imprisoned in North Korea.
He said: “We’ve been asking for the release of these detainees for 17 months.”
North Korea has historically used its foreign prisoners as leverage in its diplomatic dealings.
One of the detainees was jailed in 2015, the other two have been in prison for just over a year. Their convictions have been widely condemned as political and an abuse of human rights.
The last American to be freed – Otto Warmbier, who was jailed for stealing a hotel sign – was released last year but was fatally ill, and died shortly after returning home. The cause of death remains unexplained.
Mike Pompeo said a “good relationship” was formed at the first meeting in April, which marked the highest level US contact with North Korea since 2000.
A state department official travelling with Mike Pompeo said the US would also be “listening for signs from North Korea that things have substantially changed” with the nation’s nuclear ambitions.
Last month, President Trump stunned the international community by accepting North Korea’s suggestion for direct talks – it will be an unprecedented move for a sitting US president to meet a North Korean leader.
President Trump referred to Mike Pompeo’s latest visit while announcing that the US was withdrawing from the nuclear agreement with Iran.
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