by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US State Secretary Mike Pompeo has named Stephen Biegun to be the new special envoy for North Korea.
The appointment on Thursday aims to fill key posts regarding the Korean Peninsula so as to facilitate issues like bilateral negotiations over denuclearization, peace regime and economic sanctions, among others.
In a speech to the media at a press conference, Pompeo said Biegun’s joining is “timely” as the two of them will travel to North Korea next week “to make further diplomatic progress towards our objective”, Xinhua news agency reported.
“As the special representative, Steve will lead negotiations and spearhead diplomatic efforts with our allies and partners,” Pompeo said, noting that “using diplomacy to resolve the North Korean security threat once and for all remains one of President Donald Trump’s greatest priorities, and Steve is eminently qualified for the task and clear-eyed in the challenge before us.”
For his part, Biegun said he fully understands the importance of this job.
“The issues are tough, and they will be tough to resolve,” he said. “But the President 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.”
“This begins with the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as agreed by Chairman Kim Jong Un at the summit with President Trump in Singapore,” he added.
Biegun is to continue the mission of Joseph Yun, who resigned from his post earlier this year for personal reasons.
US media outlets reported that the departure of Yun, who has been supportive of solving the Korean Peninsula issues through dialogue, was due to his long disappointment over the Trump administration’s provocations against North Korea, and diplomats’ lacking of speaking in the government’s decision-making process.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration also appointed Harry Harris, former commander of US Pacific Command, to become US ambassador to South Korea.
US National Security Advisor John Bolton said earlier on August 19 that Pompeo would leave for a trip to North Korea for the fourth visit since he assumed the current office, adding that Washington expects Pompeo to meet with the North Korea’s top leader Kim Jong-un.
“To move on with the process of denuclearization remains our highest priority,” said Bolton, adding that “it’s important that they (North Korea) demonstrate seriousness” in this regard.
Bolton said earlier last month that Washington has had a plan to dismantle the majority of North Korea’s nuke and ballistic missile programs, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be discussing it with Pyongyang while visiting the country.
However, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said the State Department will not provide a timeline for Pyongyang’s abandonment of nuclear and missile program.
Pompeo has visited North Korea three times, respectively in April, May and July.
Trump on August 20 said he would “most likely” meet with Kim for a second time.
He also said that he believed Pyongyang had taken specific steps toward denuclearization, and that he has “great chemistry” with Kim.
In the joint statement after the June 12 Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore, Trump committed to provide security guarantees to North Korea, while Kim reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The two leaders also agreed to commit to establish new US-North Korea relations, and to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.
According to the website of Ford Motor Company, Biegun has been its vice president of International Governmental Affairs, overseeing “all aspects of Ford’s international governmental relations, including trade strategy and political risk assessment.”
Before joining Ford, Biegun worked in the White House from 2001 to 2003 as executive secretary of the National Security Council. He served as a senior staff member to former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He also served for 14 years as a foreign policy advisor to members of both the House of Representatives and the US Senate.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
Pyongyang : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, for the second time in less than a week, slammed international sanctions on his country, state media reported on Sunday.
“The hostile forces’ persistent sanctions and obstructive moves come as a serious setback to the advance of our socialism,” Kim Jong-un said during the inspection of a reconstruction project in the Samjiyon district, where his late father and former leader, Kim Jong-il, was born.
The North Korean leader, who was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-ju and senior officials of the ruling Workers’ Party, said that despite the sanctions, the country was making history with “legendary miracles despite the most difficult conditions”, reports Efe news.
Kim’s comments comes two days after KCNA published a report where the leader had described the sanctions as “brigandish” during a visit to an under-construction site at the Wonsan-Kalma tourist area.
Since Kim’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on June 12 in Singapore, North Korea, through state and foreign media, has criticized the sanctions imposed on the country by the US and asked that they be lifted although Kim has rarely criticised the sanctions openly.
The US insists that it would retain sanctions on the regime until it takes concrete steps toward denuclearization.
On Wednesday, the US government imposed sanctions against Russian and Chinese companies with alleged links to North Korea for facilitating “illicit shipments” on behalf of Pyongyang.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up, World
Seoul : Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a summit to discuss urgent issues, the media reported.
Putin expressed his readiness to hold a summit with Kim at an “early date” in a message sent on the occasion of North Korea’s liberation, coinciding with the 73rd anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported.
“I affirm that I am ready to meet you at an early date to discuss urgent issues of bilateral relations and important matters of the region,” Putin said.
Earlier in May, the Russian President invited Kim to the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian coastal city of Vladivostok between September 11 and 13, but Pyongyang was yet to respond.
Putin also invited his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the forum.
If Kim and other leaders decided to attend, it would be an unprecedented international gathering in which leaders from five of the six countries that have been working on nuclear disarmament meet.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, World
Seoul : South Korea and North Korea on Monday agreed to hold a summit meeting of their leaders in Pyongyang in September.
The agreement was made during high-level talks on the northern side of the peace village of Panmunjom that separates the two Koreas. They, however, did not unveil the date of the meeting, reports Yonhap News Agency.
“We agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit within September in Pyongyang” the two Koreas said in a joint press statement issued after the meeting.
North Korea’s chief delegate, Ri Son-gwon, hinted after the meeting that the two sides agreed on a date but decided not to announce it, only to emphasise that the summit will take place “within September”.
The summit meeting, if held, will mark the third of its kind between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un following their face-to-face meetings in April and May.
In the April summit, the two leaders agreed to meet again in Pyongyang some time later this year.
During Monday’s talks, the two Koreas also discussed what has been implemented since their previous summits, especially on their promised efforts to expand cross-border exchanges and cooperation.
“We reviewed the implementation situations of the Panmunjom Declaration and held consultations in a sincere manner on matters related to its more active enforcement,” the two sides said, referring to the agreement reached in the historic April summit.
The talks came amid worries that the denuclearization process seems to have been in a stalemate since the June 12 summit in Singapore between North Korea and the US.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : A confidential UN report has accused North Korea of continuing to develop nuclear and missile programmes in violation of international sanctions.
The report was prepared by independent experts who submit their findings every six months to the UN North Korea Sanctions Committee of the Security Council, CNN reported on Saturday.
The report also says North Korea is defying sanctions through diplomats and others based overseas and continues to sell conventional weapons to fuel violence.
The revelation comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Singapore for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ministerial meeting, told reporters that he was an advocate of keeping pressure on Pyongyang as the country has yet to take any concrete steps to dismantling its nuclear program.
“I’ve also emphasized the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea, to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as agreed to by chairman Kim (Jong-un),” he said.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the gathering of southeast Asian diplomats, Pompeo said he had called for “the complete shutdown of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum destined for North Korea”.
—IANS
