by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Media, World
Seoul : North Korean authorities on Tuesday morning denied permission to South Korean journalists to attend the dismantling of their nuclear base scheduled to take place between May 23-25.
Pyongyang had originally invited the South Korean media along with those from Russia, the US, the UK, and China, but the South Korean journalists’ list was rejected on Tuesday, Efe news reported quoting Seoul’s Ministry of Unification.
Members of a news agency and a South Korean television network had travelled to Beijing to fly to North Korea from there on Tuesday to attend the dismantling ceremony.
The Ministry in a statement said it regretted Pyongyang’s decision but despite the setback, it will continue working towards cooperating with Pyongyang and improving US-North Korea ties.
The announcement of the closure of the Punggye-ri base came during the inter-Korean summit, when Pyongyang pledged to work towards total denuclearisation, after claiming that it would stop its weapons tests.
Pyongyang, which announced that it wanted the closure to be made public with the presence of foreign journalists, has conducted six underground nuclear tests, including the last and most powerful in September 2017.
The latest cancellation is a new setback after last week when Pyongyang abruptly suspended a high-level meeting with Seoul after accusing it of holding joint military exercises with the US.
Kim Jong-un’s regime also said that holding the summit with US President Donald Trump would be uncertain due to the pressure from the White House on the denuclearisation model that it wants to impose on North Korea.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | World
South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) (file photo)
Seoul : South Korea on Thursday urged North Korea to fulfil the agreements reached during the inter-Korean summit and to resume talks a day after Pyongyang cancelled a high-level meeting with Seoul and said it was reconsidering its participation in the upcoming summit with the US.
The message was issued by the standing committee of South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) after North Korea cancelled Wednesday’s talks for implementing the Panmunjom Declaration signed on April 27 between its leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Efe news reported.
“While reaffirming their stance that the declaration… must be carried out without any disruption, the members agreed to continue consulting with the North side to hold the high-level talks at an early date,” the committee said in a statement.
In the declaration, the two Koreas had agreed to work for establishing peace and denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
The council, headed by top security advisor Chung Eui-yong, also backed the summit between Kim and the US President Donald Trump, on June 12 in Singapore, although Pyongyang’s statements on Wednesday raised doubts about its future.
The NSC said it would boost cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Pyongyang to make the summit a success “under the spirit of mutual respect”.
North Korea had announced that it was reconsidering its participation in the summit, alleging that the US wanted to pressurize it to accept a complete unilateral nuclear disarmament, a condition which it termed unacceptable.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | World
Pyongyang : North Korea on Wednesday threatened to abandon planned talks between leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump in June if Washington continued to insist on pushing it “into a corner” on nuclear disarmament, media reports said.
A statement published by the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said Pyongyang would never accept economic assistance from the US in exchange for unilaterally abandoning its nuclear program, CNN reported.
Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea’s First Vice Minister of on Foreign Affairs said the US has said “it would offer economic compensation and benefit in case we abandon (nuclear weapons)”.
“We have never had any expectation of US support in carrying out our economic construction and will not… make such a deal in future,” he added.
“If they try to push us into a corner and force only unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in that kind of talks and will have to reconsider…the upcoming summit.”
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa spoke with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier on Wednesday (Seoul time).
According to a statement, Pompeo was quoted as saying that preparations would continue for the Trump-Kim summit, “keeping in mind this action of the North”, CNN reported.
The two have agreed to continue close cooperation to achieve a complete denuclearisation and peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean statement said.
The statement also referred to comments made by Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton about Libya being a potential model for North Korean denuclearisation.
Bolton’s comments, Kim said, were indicative of “an awfully sinister move to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers”, the CNN reported.
“It is absolutely absurd to dare compare (North Korea), a nuclear weapon state, to Libya which had been at the initial stage of nuclear development,” he added.
“World knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq which have met miserable fate.”
After weeks of improving ties on the Korean Peninsula, capped by the dramatic image of Kim shaking hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, things took a sudden step backwards on Wednesday.
In a missive delivered to the South in the early hours during the day, the North said it was suspending high-level talks scheduled for Wednesday in view of “provocative military disturbances with South Korea.”
North Korea’s anger, which took both Seoul and Washington off guard, came as the two allies were conducting annual “Max Thunder” air force drills, which Pyongyang has always objected to in the past and accused of destabilising the situation on the Peninsula, the CNN reported.
In a statement, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it was regrettable that the North unilaterally postponed the talks due to the annual (South Korea-US) joint air combat drills.
“Such action by the North is inconsistent with the fundamental spirit and purpose of the Panmunjeom Declaration agreed by the South and North leaders on April 27,” it added.
An earlier KCNA report said the Max Thunder 2018 air combat drill was against the declaration — signed last month between the Koreas — wherein they agreed to cease all hostile acts against each other, the CNN reported.
In March though, North Korea had said the drill were necessary it understood.
—IANS
by Editor | 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 Editor | May 25, 2021 | World
Pyongyang : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday arrived here in North Korea, amid growing speculation over the possible release of three US detainees, to prepare for the historic talks between Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump.
Pompeo’s arrival coincided with the first trilateral summit between Japan, China and South Korea, who endorsed the agreement signed by Pyongyang and Seoul to achieve complete denuclearisation and long-term peace on the Korean Peninsula, Efe news reported.
Ahead of the surprise visit, the US Secretary of State said he hoped North Korea would “do the right thing” and release three Americans imprisoned in the country.
“We’ve been asking for the release of these detainees for 17 months,” the BBC quoted Pompeo as saying.
A South Korean presidential official told news agency Yonhap that Pyongyang was expected to release the US citizens –Kim Dong-chul, 64, Kim Sang-duk, 58, and Kim Hak-song, about 60, — as a “goodwill gesture” ahead of the summit.
A State Department official travelling with Pompeo said the US would also be “listening for signs from North Korea that things have substantially changed” with the nation’s nuclear ambitions.
Trump on Tuesday referred to Pompeo’s latest visit while announcing the US’ withdrawal from an Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran.
This is Pompeo’s second trip to Pyongyang after meeting with Kim in April.
Pompeo had said that a “good relationship” was formed at that meeting, which marked the highest level of US contact with North Korea since 2000.
At a trilateral summit in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to join forces and focus on an open dialogue with Pyongyang to make it abandon its nuclear arsenal.
In a joint press meet after the summit, Abe stressed the importance of the inter-Korean agreement for peace and stability in the region and said he shares a common stand with Beijing and Seoul that the successive UN resolutions on North Korea should be complied with.
Kim was earlier quoted as saying that he hoped “phased and synchronised” measures would be taken to realise denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.
Li said the dialogue in the peninsula was heading in a good direction and added that all parties should take advantage of this moment to resolve the conflict.
Moon welcomed the strong support from Li and Abe for the “Panmunjom Declaration” signed between Seoul and Pyongyang on April 27, and said he would do everything possible to implement the pact.
This was the first trilateral summit since 2012 and it comes amid a whirlwind of diplomatic activity to finalize preparations for the upcoming Kim-Trump meet.
—IANS
