by admin | May 25, 2021 | Events, Social Round-up, World
Washington : US officials have been instructed to move forward with plans to convene a historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, the media.
The decision is ultimately up to Trump, who said on Wednesday he would announce the time and location in three days, reports CNN.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump on Wednesday ruled out the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides North and South Korea as a potential location for the talks with Kim.
Singapore and the DMZ are the only two places Trump has floated in public as potential venues for the meeting.
The Southeast Asian city-state has been the preferred location among US officials, who saw its neutrality as an advantage over locations closer to Pyongyang.
Speaking during a briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders affirmed that a date and site had been determined.
“I can tell you that a date and location are set but beyond that, I don’t have any other announcements at this point,” Sanders said.
“But we expect that to be announced here in the next few days.”
The meeting would be the first ever between a sitting US President and a North Korean leader, reports CNN.
Singapore has long been seen as a gateway between Asia and the West, and today remains a close ally to Washington and also hosts a US military presence.
It is also one of just 47 countries to host a North Korean embassy.
Even as Trump on Wednesday sought to heighten expectations for his summit, he acknowledged that the plans could fall apart.
“Everything can be scuttled. Everything can be scuttled,” he said.
“A lot of good things can happen, a lot of bad things can happen. I believe that we have… Both sides want to negotiate a deal. I think it’s going to be a very successful deal.”
But, he repeated, “lots of things can happen. And, of course, you’ll be the first to know about it if it fails”.
He added that on Thursday morning, he will travel to an airbase outside Washington D.C., along with Vice President Mike Pence to welcome the three US citizens – all with Korean heritage – recently released from prison by North Korea as a goodwill gesture.
The three Americans — Kim Dong-chul, 64, Kim Sang-duk, 58, and Kim Hak-song, around 60 — who had been held prisoners in North Korea, were all born in South Korea but later acquired US citizenship.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up, World
Seoul : Seoul and Pyongyang on Friday agreed to work together to realise a “complete” denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula following a historic summit between the two countries’ leaders that came after a gap of over a decade.
The agreement was part of a joint declaration issued after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a summit earlier in the day at the truce border village of Panmunjom, reports Yonhap News Agency.
“South and North Korea affirmed their shared objective of achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearisation,” said the declaration signed by both the leaders.
They shared the view that the recent steps that the North had taken were “very meaningful” and “important” for denuclearisation efforts and agreed to do their respective part in that matter, the declaration said.
The two Koreas had earlier agreed to denuclearise their countries and establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula in their two previous summits held in 2000 and 2007.
The talks began at 10.15 a.m., about 45 minutes after Kim crossed the MDL, becoming the first North Korean leader to do so since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
“It is good to see you,” Kim said to Moon, waiting just south of the MDL for their first-ever encounter that was quickly followed by a handshake.
“I cannot stop my excitement as we meet here at such a historical place. Also, it is very moving that you, Mr. President, have come to Panmunjom, the demarcation line, to greet me,” the North Korean leader said.
Kim surprised many by inviting Moon to briefly cross the inter-Korean border to the North Korean side, which South Korean officials said was not pre-arranged.
Moon expressed his gratitude to Kim for agreeing to hold the summit.
“The moment Chairman Kim crossed the Military Demarcation Line, Panmunjom became a symbol of peace, not a symbol of division. I wish to again express my respect to Chairman Kim Jong-un’s decision that made today’s discussions possible,” the President said
The summit came amid thawing ties this year that followed heightening tensions between the Koreas, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Pyongyang staged nearly a dozen missile tests since Moon took office in May 2017, while also conducting its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September.
Friday’s summit marked the third inter-Korean summit and the first to be held in South Korea.
The leaders’ talks ended shortly before noon. Kim returned to his country in a black limousine that crossed the inter-Korean border while surrounded by nearly a dozen North Korean guards.
He will cross the inter-Korean border again later in the day for various events that will include a friendship walk with Moon.
Moon will host a welcoming dinner later in the day for Kim and possibly his wife, Ri Sol-ju.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up, World
Kim Jong-un
Seoul : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will cross the border on foot to attend the historic inter-Korean summit on Friday, the Presidential office said here on Thursday.
Kim will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the military demarcation line (MDL) dividing the two Koreas at 9.30 a.m., Xinhua quoted the Blue House as saying.
Kim will cross the MDL, marked only by a low concrete slab, through a narrow aisle between the blue pavilions sitting in the middle of Panmunjom, a border village straddling the two Koreas.
Later both leaders would be escorted by honour guards towards Peace House, the summit venue on the southern side.
Kim will become the first North Korean leader to step on South Korean soil since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty, Efe news reported.
The government in Seoul reported that after a welcoming ceremony and a brief informal talk, the first round of the summit will begin at 10.30 a.m.
Among the nine delegates designated by Pyongyang are the country’s honorary president Kim Yong-nam, Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong, who is director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of North Korea.
Kim Yo-jong had made a historic visit to the South in February during the Winter Games to facilitate the rapprochement.
After the morning session the two parties will have lunch separately before they plant a tree together in a symbolic ceremony.
The two leaders will then go for a short, informal walk before resuming talks.
At the end of the meeting, Moon and Kim Jong-un will sign an agreement and make an announcement, according to a Seoul spokesperson.
He added that where and how the announcement will be made will be determined by the content of the agreement.
The banquet, in which Seoul hopes that Kim’s wife Ri Sol-ju can attend, will start at 6.30 p.m., followed by a “farewell ceremony” that will conclude the summit, according to the details provided by Moon’s office.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : The White House has denied any direct talks yet between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, though Washington has spoken to Pyongyang “at the highest levels”.
The White House statement on Tuesday came minutes after Trump seemingly hinted that he has already spoken with Kim, Xinhua news agency reported.
When asked by reporters if he had spoken directly with Kim, Trump had said “yes”.
In the statement, issued after the confusing incident, the White House said, “In regards to talks with leader Kim Jong-un, the President said the administration has had talks at the highest levels” and added that they were not with him directly.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump himself also said that Washington and Pyongyang have already started direct talks at “very high levels,” without specifying how “high” the level was.
“We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels with North Korea,” Trump said. He might have hinted at CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s reportedly top-secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend as his envoy.
The trip made by Pompeo was an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between the leaders of the two countries. No official confirmation of Pompeo’s visit has come yet.
Trump was expected to meet Kim in May or early June. The venue of the meeting was still to be decided. Trump said that five sites were being weighed and none of them were located in the US.
Tension on the Korean Peninsula has thawed over the last few months. The South and North have agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit on April 27, the first meeting between the leaders of the two sides in 11 years.
“They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war,” said Trump on Tuesday, referring to the summit.
The 1950-1953 Korean war ended in an armistice. The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, an extraordinary development following months of heightened nuclear tension and frequent threats and insults, media reports said.
The news was confirmed on Thursday night by both the White House and visiting South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong.
“President Trump greatly appreciates the nice words of the South Korean delegation and President Moon. He will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong-un at a place and time to be determined. We look forward to the denuclearisation of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain,” CNN quoted White House press secretary Sarah Sanders as saying.
After meeting Trump at the White House, Chung said: “He (Kim) expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible.
“President Trump said he would meet Kim Jong-un by May.”
Chung however, did not provide any information on where the meeting would take, reports The Washington Post.
Chung led the South Korean delegation earlier this week to North Korea, where Kim and his senior cadre expressed a willingness to hold talks with the US and were prepared to discuss denuclearisation and normalising relations.
In Seoul, the presidential Blue House clarified that the meeting would occur by the end of May.
Trump also expressed his optimism about the meeting in a post on Twitter, saying that Kim had “talked about denuclearisation with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze”, The New York Times reported.
“Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time… Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!”
Trump and Kim have spent the past year making belligerent statements about each other, with Trump mocking Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and pledging to “totally destroy” North Korea and Kim calling the American President a “dotard” and a “lunatic” and threatening to send nuclear bombs to Washington, D.C.
No sitting American President has ever met a North Korean leader, The Washington Post reported.
Former president Jimmy Carter met Kim’s grandfather Kim Il-sung, and former president Bill Clinton met his father, Kim Jong-il – during visits to Pyongyang after they had left office.
Both Carter and Clinton also went to Pyongyang to collect Americans who had been imprisoned by the regime.
Since he took over the leadership of North Korea from his father at the end of 2011, Kim Jong-un has not met any other head of state.
Discussions were now underway to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas at the end of next month.
After a year in which North Korea fired intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching all of the US and tested what is widely thought to have been a hydrogen bomb, such a moratorium would be welcomed by Washington and the world.
—IANS
