Sept 9: Thousands of North Korean troops paraded through Pyongyang Sunday as the nuclear-armed country celebrated its 70th birthday, followed by artillery and tanks, but it refrained from displaying the intercontinental ballistic missiles that have seen it hit with sanctions.

Instead leader Kim Jong Un showed off his friendship with China, raising the hand of President Xi Jinping’s envoy as they saluted the crowd together afterwards.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as the North is officially known, was proclaimed on September 9, 1948, three years after Moscow and Washington divided the peninsula between them in the closing days of the Second World War.

Such set-piece dates are a mainstay of the North’s political calendar, particularly when round numbers are involved, and have long been occasions for showing off its latest hardware.

But too militaristic a display might have risked upsetting the recent diplomatic dalliance on the peninsula, after Kim’s Singapore meeting with US President Donald Trump in June and his third summit with the South’s President Moon Jae-in due in Pyongyang later this month.

After a 21-gun salute, dozens of infantry units marched through Kim Il Sung Square, some in night-vision goggles or wielding rocket-propelled grenade launchers, as the current leader — the founder’s grandson — looked on from a rostrum.

Li Zhanshu, one of the seven members of the Chinese Communist party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s most powerful body, sat next to him, the two of them occasionally exchanging comments.

Armoured personnel carriers, multiple rocket launchers and tanks followed, with biplanes flying overhead in a ’70’ formation.

At one point jets trailing red, white and blue smoke — the colours of the North Korean flag — roared above the Juche Tower, the stone monument to Kim Il Sung’s political philosophy.

Finally came the missiles, the traditional climax of the parades. But the only ones on show were the blue Kumsong-3, an anti-ship cruise missile, and the Pongae-5 surface-to-air weapon.

There was no sign of the Hwasong-14 and -15 missiles that can reach the mainland United States and changed the strategic balance when they were first tested last year.

“It looks like the North Koreans really tried to tone down the military nature of this,” said Chad O’Carroll, managing director of Korea Risk Group.

“There was no display of ICBMs, IRBMs (intermediate-range ballistic missiles), which would really not have sat well with the whole idea that North Korea is committed to ultimate denuclearisation. So I think it will be well received.”

Immediately after the parade thousands of citizens walked through the square, escorting floats displaying economic themes and calls for Korean reunification.

In April, Kim declared that the North’s development of nuclear weapons had been completed and “socialist economic construction” would be the new strategic priority.

In warm sunshine the marchers waved bouquets and flags and chanted “Long live” to the leader.

– Honoured guest –

Diplomatic invitations for the anniversary went out around the world, but the only head of state who attended was Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz — although AFP spotted French actor Gerard Depardieu seated in a section below the main tribune.

After the civilian rally Kim and Li saluted the crowd, the North Korean raising his guest’s hand into the air.

Beijing is its neighbour’s key diplomatic protector and trade partner, and after years in the deep freeze over the North’s missile and nuclear tests their ties have warmed rapidly this year, with Kim visiting China three times to meet President Xi Jinping.

Speculation that Xi might reciprocate for the anniversary did not come to pass — Hu Jintao was the last Chinese president to visit in 2005 — but O’Carroll said it appeared that Pyongyang was looking to promote its friendship with Beijing.

“That’s also got some impact on US-DPRK negotiations of course because China is still a very important player and its presence here with such a high level delegation is intended in some way to remind the US of that.”

Washington is seeking the “final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea”, while Pyongyang has only publicly affirmed its commitment to working towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, a euphemism open to interpretation on both sides, and the process has become bogged down in recent weeks.

“Anniversaries are important in the DPRK, and this one is particularly so,” said Evans Revere of the Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington.

“These celebrations are also occasions for the leader to demonstrate accomplishments and national power, and to take credit for them.” AFP

WASHINGTON, May 26: One day after abruptly pulling the plug on a high-stakes summit with North Korea, US President Donald Trump said Friday the meeting with Kim Jong Un could go ahead after all — and would “likely” happen on the originally scheduled date of June 12.

The summit would be an unprecedented meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, which Washington hopes will result in the full denuclearization of the reclusive state.

Trump said in a tweet that “very productive talks” were ongoing with North Korea about reinstating the summit.

“If it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th,” he wrote, adding the meeting could be extended further if necessary.

On Thursday, Trump cancelled the summit that was due to take place in Singapore, blaming “tremendous anger and open hostility” from Pyongyang in recent days.

But North Korea responded Friday by saying it was willing to talk to the United States “at any time” — a reaction Trump welcomed as “warm and productive.”

“We’re talking to them now,” Trump said of the North Koreans. “They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it.”

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said there was “possibly some good news” on the summit, while White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters: “If the meeting takes place on June 12, we will be ready.”

On Saturday, South Korea, which had brokered the remarkable detente between Washington and Pyongyang, cautiously welcomed Trump’s latest comments.

“We find it fortunate that the embers of the North Korea-US talks are reignited. We are watching developments carefully,” Presidential Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-gyeom said.

Trump’s initial cancellation of the summit blindsided treaty ally Seoul, with President Moon Jae-in calling the move “shocking and very regrettable”.

 ‘TWISTS AND TURNS’

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert cast the fast-moving developments as simply “twists and turns” in the process.

“We never expected it to be easy,” Nauert told reporters.

But the whiplash from the White House was unusual even for the chaos-loving president. In March, apparently acting on impulse, Trump agreed to the talks with Kim after only limited input from aides.

In a letter to Kim, Trump blamed Pyongyang for his decision to call off the summit, and warned North Korea against committing any “foolish or reckless acts” while also highlighting America’s “massive and powerful” nuclear capabilities.

North Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan called Trump’s decision “unexpected” and “regrettable” but sounded a conciliatory tone, saying officials were willing “to sit face-to-face at any time.”

Just before Trump announced the cancellation of the meeting, North Korea declared it had completely dismantled its nuclear test site in the country’s far northeast, in a carefully choreographed goodwill gesture.

 ‘SHOW GOODWILL’

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he respected and supported the US president’s move to cancel the summit while China, Pyongyang’s sole major ally, urged the two foes to “show goodwill.”

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin held out hope the talks would eventually take place.

Politically, Trump had invested heavily in the success of the planned summit.

As the date drew nearer, however, a gulf in expectations between the two sides became apparent.

Before Trump’s announcement, Pyongyang had hardened its rhetoric, calling comments by Vice President Mike Pence “ignorant and stupid.”

Washington has made it clear it wants to see the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization” of the North.

Pyongyang has vowed it will never give up its nuclear deterrent until it feels safe from what it terms US aggression.

LIBYAN MODEL

The White House was unhappy about what it considered to be a “trail of broken promises” by North Korea — including failure to show up for summit preparatory talks and complaints about the latest US-South Korean joint military exercise.

It also was unhappy about the North’s failure to allow international observers to verify the dismantling of the Punggye-ri test site, the staging ground for all six of its nuclear tests.

But the North’s Kim Kye Gwan countered that Pyongyang’s angry statements were “just a backlash in response to harsh words from the US side that has been pushing for a unilateral denuclearization.”

Both Pence and Trump’s hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton had raised the specter of Libyan leader Moamer Khadafi, who gave up atomic weapons only to die years later at the hands of US-backed rebels.

Joel Wit, founder of the respected 38 North website that monitors North Korea, said Kim’s hand has been strengthened regardless of whether the summit goes ahead because recent weeks have seen him forge connections with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as with Russia and South Korea.

“Kim has created sort of a cushion for failure that if the US backs away, the Chinese and Russians will be behind him,” Wit said.

But others said Trump’s demonstrated willingness to walk away could yet extract further concessions from Pyongyang.

“North Korea will have to propose more detailed plans for denuclearization if it wants to talk in the future,” said Go Myong-hyun, an analyst at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies. AFP

Kim Jong Un may live a life of luxury, but most North Koreans struggle just to get by. Here’s a look at what the job prospects are like inside the country: Where North Koreans work, how much they get paid, and what the most desirable jobs are.

When it comes to North Korea, there are a few things we know for sure: Health issues are rampant, censorship is a way of life, and leader Kim Jong Un has expensive taste.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot more we don’t know about North Korea. We can only speculate on some of the off-the-books ways it makes money. We’re not entirely sure which US cities it could hit with its nuclear missiles. And we only have an inkling of how a nuclear attack on US soil would impact our country.

While we know a little bit about Kim Jong Un, we know next to nothing about the day-to-day lives of typical North Koreans. What jobs do they have? How much do they make? What do they spend their money on? We know Kim Jong Un may live a life of luxury, but most North Koreans struggle just to get by.

How did we get here?

First, a little basic background for the uninitiated. Early in the 20th century, Japan ruled the Korean peninsula. After World War II, the peninsula was divided with South Korea under the sphere of influence of the United States and North Korea influenced by Soviet and later Chinese ideals. The 38th parallel divided the two countries. The North’s attack on the South triggered the Korean War that ended with a cease-fire (rather than a treaty), which means the two countries are technically still at war. South Korea has developed into a thriving nation and economic powerhouse. North Korea, ruled by the Kim family, has endured decades of struggles.

Income and opportunities determined from birth

When the Korean War ended, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, consolidated power and instituted a class system known as songbun. It was and is the inverse of the social hierarchy from the Japanese colonial days. Where farmers, teachers, and businessmen were considered social elites under Japanese rule, it is the factory workers, laborers, and those in the military who occupy the highest social ranks now.

A typical job in North Korea

In a country where nothing, not even the internet, is run of the mill, the term “typical job” has a different meaning. Mina Yoon, writing for NK News, says North Koreans don’t have the freedom to choose their jobs. They are assigned jobs by the government, and those are the jobs they’ll do until they die. Yet for the most part, the types of jobs are the same as anywhere else: farming, laboring, factory work, and military. Serving in the military might be the most common line of work. According to a CNN report, North Korea has 1.2 million active soldiers and 7.7 million reserves. The estimated population, according to the CIA, is more than 25 million. That equates to more than one-third of North Koreans being in the military.

Two desirable lines of work

Most work in North Korea is menial labor — hard work done for little pay. But there are two kinds of work that are most desirable.

Though the two countries are technically at war, South Korean companies employ North Korean laborers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. A report from NPR says those jobs are some of the best in North Korea, not only because of the good pay but because of the excellent working conditions.

The other desirable line of work is anything that provides access to foreign currencies. Not only are they high-profile jobs important to the North Korean economy, but workers have chances to earn bonuses based on their performances, according to one defector.

How much do North Koreans make?

This is the question everyone wants to have answered, but the truth is we might never find out. North Korea is a secretive place, so any information on the economy is speculative. The CIA estimates $1,700 per capita income as of 2015, but a BBC report estimates it may be as low as $1,000 per year. As we are about to see, however, salary means next to nothing.

No internet at work (or at home)

While you probably have internet access at work, home, and even on the go, there are only about 1,000 known IP addresses in North Korea, according to CNN.com. Unless you have a high position in government, you most likely wouldn’t have internet access at all.

North Korea has more of an expanded intranet simply called “Bright.” CNN also discovered the country only has about 5,500 sites, and people use it primarily for studying and accessing government agencies and information. The North Korean internet is all about disseminating information and not entertainment.

Economic reform typically hasn’t worked

In simple terms, the North Korean ethos is that the state and its leader trump all. And since the country was founded on communist principles, it is the state that provides for its workers. In recent years, however, even that hasn’t been enough. According to NK News, currency reform in 2002 led to rampant inflation. The same thing happened in 2009. The same article estimates as much as two-thirds of the population get no government help and provide for themselves, and we’re about to see how they do it.

The black market is rampant

When North Korea was wracked by famine, citizens started trading goods and services as a way to get by. It was basically an open market where demand set the prices, and open markets, whether officially sanctioned or not, continued to thrive. A report from Vox indicates there are hundreds of markets employing thousands of people. The same report estimates 40% of the population earns at least some income from open markets. As the Financial Times writes, the black market economy has thrown currency values out of whack. Yet this is what passes for sweeping economic change in North Korea.

North Korea tied with Somalia for the most corrupt country in the world

Somalia has taken the prize for the most corrupt country for the past 10 years, but North Korea’s giving it a run for its money, CNBC reports. The way the country makes money may have something to do with this corruption, too. CNN reports bank hacking has become a large source of revenue for Kim Jong Un and his regime, and there’s also forced labor for industries like mining, logging, and construction.

Because of Kim Jong Un’s ongoing tyrannical ways, the British Medical Bulletin suggests the ruler himself may actually feel as if the violence and corruption in his country are totally acceptable and normal. And the citizens, of course, are put through great psychological distress.

Progress, in some form, could be coming

As we have seen, North Korea’s economy is a unique monster. There is no job movement, a caste system basically determines lifelong social standing, most work is menial, wages are low, and attempts at economic reform haven’t worked. Yet for all the negatives, there could be positive changes coming. Despite Kim Jong Un’s public defiance and secretive ways, the market economy seems like a boon to the nation. Rhee Yoojin, a researcher for the Korean Development Bank, tells NK News that Kim’s efforts to boost light industrial production have helped the economy. But she also notes that the growing market economy could lead to some turmoil down the line. As with anything in North Korea, what happens in the future is likely to be tumultuous, chaotic, and for the benefit of Kim and his inner circle. CHEATSHEET

SEOUL, April 22: Bill Clinton offered oil and reactors. George W. Bush mixed threats and aid. Barack Obama stopped trying after a rocket launch.

While Seoul and Washington welcomed Pyongyang’s declaration on Saturday to suspend further intercontinental ballistic missile tests and shut down its nuclear test site, the past is littered with failure.

A decades-long cycle of crises, stalemates and broken promises gave North Korea the room to build up a legitimate arsenal that now includes purported thermonuclear warheads and developmental ICBMs. The North’s latest announcement stopped well short of suggesting it has any intention of giving that up.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday to kick off a new round of high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang. The inter-Korean summit could set up more substantial discussions between Kim and President Donald Trump, who said he plans to meet the despot he previously called “Little Rocket Man” in May or June.

A look at previous negotiations with North Korea and how the currently planned talks between Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington took shape:

1994

The Clinton administration in October 1994 reached a major nuclear agreement with Pyongyang, ending months of war fears triggered by North Korea’s threat to withdraw from the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and convert its stockpile of nuclear fuel into bombs.

Under the “Agreed Framework,” North Korea halted construction of two reactors the United States believed were for nuclear weapons production in return for two alternative nuclear power reactors that could be used to provide electricity but not bomb fuel, and 500,000 metric tons of fuel oil annually for the North.

The deal was tested quickly. North Korea complained about delayed oil shipments and construction of the reactors, which were never delivered. The United States criticized the North’s pursuit of ballistic missile capability, demonstrated in the launch of a two-stage rocket over Japan in 1998.

The Agreed Framework further lost political support in Washington with the inauguration of Bush, who in his first State of the Union address in January 2002 grouped North Korea with Iran and Iraq as parts of an “axis of evil.”

The deal collapsed for good months later after US officials confronted North Korea over a clandestine nuclear program using enriched uranium. Washington stopped the oil shipments and Pyongyang restarted its nuclear weapons program.

2005

Responding to Washington’s toughened stance, North Korea announced in 2003 it obtained a nuclear device and would withdraw from the Nonproliferation Treaty.

This brought the United States back to the negotiating table with the North and the six-party talks also involving South Korea, China, Japan and Russia began in Beijing in August 2003.

After months of fiery negotiations, North Korea accepted a deal in September 2005 to end its nuclear weapons program in exchange for security, economic and energy benefits.

But the agreement was shaky from the start as it came just days after the US Treasury Department ordered American banks to sever relations with a Macau bank accused of helping North Korea to launder money from drug trafficking and other illicit activities, which hampered Pyongyang’s international financial transactions.

Disagreements between Washington and Pyongyang over the financial punishment of Banco Delta Asia temporarily derailed the six-nation talks. In October 2006, the North went on to conduct its first nuclear test detonation.

2007

North Korea agreed to resume the disarmament talks a few weeks after the nuclear test. In February 2007, the United States and the four other nations reached an agreement to provide North Korea with an aid package worth about $400 million in return for the North disabling its nuclear facilities and re-allowing international inspectors into the country.

North Korea demolished the cooling tower at its Nyongbyon reactor site in June 2008. But in September, the North declared it will resume reprocessing plutonium, complaining that Washington wasn’t fulfilling its promise to remove the country from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The Bush administration removed North Korea from the list in October after the country agreed to continue disabling its nuclear plant. However, a final attempt by Bush to complete an agreement to fully dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons program collapsed in December when the North refused to accept US-proposed verification methods.

The six-nation talks have stalled since then. The North conducted its second nuclear test in May 2009, months after Obama took office.

2012

Months after taking power following the death of his father, current North Korean leader Kim reached a deal with the Obama administration in February 2012 to suspend nuclear weapons and missile tests and uranium enrichment and to also allow international inspectors to monitor its nuclear activities in exchange for US food aid.

The United States killed the deal in April when the North launched a long-range rocket it claimed was built for delivering satellites. The failed launch was seen by the outside world as a prohibited test of ballistic missile technology.

The North criticized the United States of “overreacting” and launched another long-range rocket in December it said successfully delivered a satellite into space.

In 2013, Kim announced that his government would pursue a national “byungjin” policy aimed at simultaneously seeking nuclear development and economic growth. This was seen as a clean break from the North’s previous stance that mainly used the nuclear program as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from foreign governments, rather than for immediate military purposes.

2018

North Korea’s abrupt diplomatic outreach in recent months comes after a flurry of weapons tests that marked 2017, including the underground detonation of an alleged thermonuclear warhead and three launches of developmental ICBMs designed to strike the US mainland.

Inter-Korean dialogue resumed after Kim in his New Year’s speech proposed talks with the South to reduce animosities and for the North to participate in February’s Winter Olympics in Pyongchang. North Korea sent hundreds of people to the games, including Kim’s sister, who expressed her brother’s desire to meet with Moon for a summit. South Korean officials later brokered a potential summit between Kim and Trump.

While South Korean and US officials have said Kim is likely trying to save his broken economy from heavy sanctions, some analysts see him as entering the negotiations from a position of strength after having declared his nuclear force as complete in November last year.

Seoul has said Kim expressed genuine interest in dealing away his nuclear weapons. But North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of “denuclearization” that bears no resemblance to the American definition, vowing to pursue nuclear development unless Washington removes its troops from the peninsula and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan.

Some experts say Kim’s nuclear program is now too advanced to realistically expect a roll back to near zero.

“Kim will not offer CVID at the door,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University who’s advising Moon on his summit with Kim. He was referring to an abbreviation for the “complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement” of the North’s nuclear weapons program.

“Everything depends on whether Trump can accept a deal that puts out the ‘early fire’ — taking away the North’s ICBMs and freezing and closing its known nuclear and missile production facilities — and leave the rest for future negotiations,” Koh said. AP

SEOUL, Nov 29: After 2 ½ months of relative quiet, North Korea launched its most powerful weapon yet early Wednesday, claiming a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile that some observers believe could reach Washington and the entire eastern U.S. seaboard.

In a special state media broadcast hours later, North Korea said it successfully fired a “significantly more” powerful, nuclear-capable ICBM it called the Hwasong-15. Outside governments and analysts concurred the North had made a jump in missile capability.

A resumption of Pyongyang’s torrid testing pace in pursuit of its goal of a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can hit the U.S. mainland had been widely expected, but the power of the missile and suddenness of the test still jolted the Korean Peninsula and Washington. The launch at 3:17 a.m. local time and midday in the U.S. capital indicated an effort to perfect the element of surprise and to obtain maximum attention in the United States.

In a government statement released through state media, North Korea said the Hwasong-15, the “greatest ICBM,” could be armed with a “super-large heavy nuclear warhead” and is capable of striking the “whole mainland” of the United States. The North said the missile reached a height of 4,475 kilometers (2,780 miles) and traveled 950 kilometers (590 miles) before accurately hitting a sea target, similar to the flight data announced by South Korea’s military.

It said leader Kim Jong Un after the successful launch “declared with pride” that the country has achieved its goal of becoming a “rocket power.” State TV said Kim gave the order on Tuesday and broadcast a photo of Kim’s signed order where he wrote: “Test launch is approved. Taking place at the daybreak of Nov. 29! Fire with courage for the party and country!”

The firing is a clear message of defiance aimed at the Trump administration, which a week earlier had restored North Korea to a U.S. list of terror sponsors. It also ruins nascent diplomatic efforts, raises fears of war or a pre-emptive U.S. strike and casts a deeper shadow over the security of the Winter Olympics early next year in South Korea.

A rattled Seoul responded by almost immediately launching three of its own missiles in a show of force. President Moon Jae-in expressed worry North Korea’s missile threat could force the United States to attack the North before it masters a nuclear-tipped long-range missile, something experts say may be imminent.

“If North Korea completes a ballistic missile that could reach from one continent to another, the situation can spiral out of control,” Moon said at an emergency meeting in Seoul, according to his office. “We must stop a situation where North Korea miscalculates and threatens us with nuclear weapons or where the United States considers a pre-emptive strike.”

Moon has repeatedly declared the U.S. cannot attack the North without Seoul’s approval, but many here worry Washington may act without South Korean input.

The launch was North Korea’s first since it fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan on Sept. 15 and may have broken any efforts at diplomacy. U.S. officials have sporadically floated the idea of direct talks with North Korea if it maintained restraint.

The missile also appears to improve on North Korea’s past launches.

If flown on a standard trajectory, instead of Wednesday’s lofted angle, the missile would have a range of more than 13,000 kilometers (8,100 miles), said U.S. scientist David Wright, a physicist who closely tracks North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs. “Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C., and in fact any part of the continental United States,” Wright wrote in a blog post for the Union for Concerned Scientists.

North Korea’s description of a “super-large heavy” warhead could raise debate on whether it plans another nuclear test to demonstrate it has such a weapon. When the North flight-tested two of its older ICBM models, the Hwasong-14s, in July, it said the missiles were capable of delivering “large-sized heavy” warheads. The North went on to conduct its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, which it described as a detonation of a weapon built for ICBMs.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing the possibility of a nuclear test “cannot be discounted,” lawmaker Kim Byung-kee said.

The missile was launched from near Pyongyang, and Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said it landed inside of Japan’s special economic zone in the Sea of Japan, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of Aomori, which is on the northern part of Japan’s main island of Honshu.

A big unknown, however, is the missile’s payload. If, as expected, it carried a light mock warhead, then its effective range would have been shorter, analysts said.

The analyses of Wednesday’s test suggest progress by Pyongyang in developing a weapon of mass destruction that could strike the U.S. mainland. President Donald Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from having that capability — using military force if necessary.

Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military official who is now an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the missile is likely an upgraded version of its old ICBM with an enhanced second-stage. He believes the North will try to evaluate the weapon’s performance, including the warhead’s ability to survive atmospheric re-entry and strike the intended target, before it attempts a test that shows the full range of the missile.

In response to the launch, Trump said the United States will “take care of it.” He told reporters after the launch: “It is a situation that we will handle.” He did not elaborate.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday afternoon at the request of Japan, the U.S. and South Korea.

When the Trump administration declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, the U.S. also imposed new sanctions on North Korean shipping firms and Chinese trading companies dealing with the North. North Korea called the terror designation a “serious provocation” that justifies its development of nuclear weapons.

South Koreans are famously nonchalant about North Korea’s military moves, but there is worry about what the North’s weapons tests might mean for next year’s Winter Olympics in the South. Moon ordered a close review of whether the launch could hurt South Korea’s efforts to successfully host the games in Pyeongchang, which begin Feb. 9.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who spoke with Trump, said Japan will not back down against any provocation and would maximize pressure on the North in its strong alliance with the U.S. AP

BEIJING, Nov 15: Following President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, China said Wednesday that it would send a high-level special envoy to North Korea amid an extended chill in relations between the neighbors over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Song Tao, the head of China’s ruling Communist Party’s International Department, will travel to Pyongyang on Friday to report on outcomes of the party’s national congress held last month, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Xinhua said Song, as president and party leader Xi Jinping’s special envoy, would carry out a “visit” in addition to delivering his report, but gave no details about his itinerary or meetings. It also made no mention of Trump’s trip to Beijing or the North’s weapons programs, although Trump has repeatedly called on Beijing to do more to use its influence to pressure Pyongyang into altering its behavior.

Song would be the first ministerial-level Chinese official to visit North Korea since October 2015, when Politburo Standing Committee member Liu Yunshan met with leader Kim Jong Un. Liu delivered a letter to Kim from Xi expressing hopes for a strong relationship, although the respite in frosty ties proved short-lived. Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin visited Pyongyang in October of last year.

China’s Communist Party and North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party have long-standing ties that often supersede formal diplomacy, even while Beijing has long been frustrated with Pyongyang’s provocations and unwillingness to reform its economy.

However, Song is not directly connected to China’s efforts to convince Pyongyang to cease its nuclear weapons program and return to talks, downplaying the chances for a breakthrough in that highly contentious area.

China is also North Korea’s largest trading partner and chief source of food and fuel aid, although it says its influence with Kim’s regime is often exaggerated by the U.S. and others. While it is enforcing harsh new U.N. sanctions targeting the North’s sources of foreign currency, Beijing has called for steps to renew dialogue.

Beijing is also opposed to measures that could bring down Kim’s regime, possibly depriving it of a buffer with South Korea and the almost 30,000 U.S. troops stationed there, and leading to a refugee crisis and chaos along its bother with the North.

In Beijing last week, Trump urged Xi to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.

China can fix the problem “easily and quickly,” Trump said in remarks to journalists alongside Xi. He urged Xi to “hopefully work on it very hard.”

“If he works on it hard, it will happen. There’s no doubt about it,” Trump said.

While calling the visit significant, a top Chinese expert on North Korea relations downplayed any connection with Trump’s statements in Beijing, saying it fit a pattern of traditional exchanges between the two parties following significant events such as national congresses.

“Representatives are dispatched to brief the other side at a chosen time and chosen level. It is a tradition and it is unnecessary to connect it with Trump’s visit to China,” said Guo Rui, researcher at the Institute for North Korean and South Korean Studies at Jilin University in northeastern China.

However, he said the visit “shows China’s willingness to see a continuous development of the friendly relations between the two sides.”

“Although the Korean Peninsula situation has been evolving fast with worrisome indications, the two parties are maintaining normal exchanges, and that is of significance for stabilizing the bilateral relations and the peninsular situation,” Guo said.

The nature of Song’s visit as a party-to-party exchange rather than one between the two governments appears to paint it as a bilateral attempt to strengthen relations, said John Delury, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University who specializes in Korea and China.

The fact that Song was identified as Xi’s special envoy also suggests that Xi is personally making a push to open the channel at a higher level and engage more constructively with Kim, Delury said.

“This is a chance to see if he can open things up,” he said. “The relationship has been so frosty, it will be interesting to see if there’s some improvement in the bilateral ties.”

North Korea staged its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, detonating what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb, and last launched a ballistic missile on Sept. 15, firing it over the Japanese island of Hokkaido into the Pacific Ocean.

Since then, there has been a lull in such activity, leading to some hopes in Beijing that Pyongyang might be responding to international pressure and becoming more amenable to talks.

Song’s visit to Pyongyang also comes as China and South Korea are repairing their relations, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in scheduled to visit next month for talks with Xi.

Previously warm ties soured last year over Seoul’s decision to deploy a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system aimed at guarding against North Korean threats.

Beijing claimed the THAAD system damaged its own security because its radars could observe military movements within northeastern China and retaliated by banning Chinese tour groups from visiting and interfering in the China operations of South Korean companies.

While South Korea resisted China’s demands to withdraw the system, Beijing appeared satisfied with a pledge from Seoul not to expand it, among other commitments. AP

BEIJING, Nov 9: President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the “very one-sided and unfair” trade relationship between the US and China, but stopped short of castigating Chinese President Xi Jinping by saying he doesn’t blame the country for having taken advantage of the US.

Speaking after the announcement of new business deals between US and Chinese companies, Trump said China “must immediately address the unfair trade practices that drive” what he said is “shockingly” large trade deficit, along with barriers to market access, forced technology transfers and intellectual property theft.

“But I don’t blame China,” he said. “After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens?”

To applause, Trump said: “I give China great credit.”

Trump’s comments came during his second day in China and after lengthy meetings with Xi. The day included announcements that the US and China had signed agreements valued at more than $250 billion for products including US-made jet engines, auto parts, liquefied natural gas and beef.

Such contract signings are a fixture of foreign leader visits to Beijing and are intended to defuse foreign complaints about China’s trade policies.

Many of the contracts signed Thursday appeared to represent purchases that Chinese mobile phone makers, airlines and other customers would have made anyway, but were saved to be announced during Trump’s visit. It was unclear if the pledges extend beyond a US-China trade agreement announced in May that featured LNG and beef exports to China.

The deals are “a way of distracting from the fact that there’s been no progress in China on structural reform, market access or the big issues that the president has tried to make progress on with regard to China,” said Elizabeth Economy, the Asia studies director at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Trump had made narrowing the multibillion-dollar US trade deficit with China a priority for his administration. During the presidential campaign, he accused China of “raping our country” on trade and pledged to minimize the countries’ trade imbalance.

China’s trade surplus with the United States in October widened by 12.2 percent from a year earlier, to $26.6 billion, according to Chinese customs data released Wednesday. The total surplus with the United States for the first 10 months of the year rose to $223 billion.

For his part, Xi promised a more open business environment for foreign companies in China and said his country was committed to further opening its economy to foreign investment.

“China will not close its doors” and will open them “even wider,” he said, pledging that foreign companies in China, including American ones, would find the market “more open, more transparent and more orderly.”

The United States and other trading partners have been pressing Beijing to give their companies more access to its state-dominated economy. But it remains unclear how far China will go to fulfill its pledges. Previous US administrations have hailed market-opening promises only to be left disappointed.

Xi also described US-China relations as standing at a “new historic starting point,” and declared: “The Pacific Ocean is big enough to accommodate both China and the United States.”

Before arriving in China, Trump had delivered a stern message to Beijing, using an address to the National Assembly in South Korea to call on China, North Korea’s biggest trade partner, to do more to confront and isolate the antagonistic nation. That included calling on China to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions aimed at depriving the North’s government of revenue for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs

“You cannot support, you cannot supply, you cannot accept,” he said.

Trump on Thursday appeared far more conciliatory, thanking China for its efforts and saying he’d been encouraged by his conversations.

“China can fix this problem easily. And quickly. And I am calling on China and your great president to hopefully work on it very hard,” Trump said. “If he works on it hard it will happen. There’s no doubt about it.”

It was an optimistic tone that Trump stuck throughout the day. Earlier, he’d said he looked “forward to many years of success and friendship working together to solve not only our problems, but world problems, and problems of great danger and security.”

“I believe we can solve almost all of them, and probably all of them,” he said.

China is increasingly disenchanted with North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, but remains wary of using its full economic leverage over its traditional ally. It fears triggering a collapse of the North’s totalitarian regime that could cause an influx of refugees into northeastern China and culminate in a US-allied unified Korea on its border.

Before the meetings, China rolled out the red carpet for Trump, treating him to an elaborate welcome ceremony on the plaza outside the Great Hall of the People before the leaders turned to their private talks.

Trump looked on approvingly as a Chinese honor guard played the national anthems of both countries, cannons boomed and soldiers marched. He clapped and smiled as children waving US and Chinese flags and flowers screamed and jumped wildly.

The day before, Trump and first lady Melania Trump spent the first hours of their visit on a private tour of the Forbidden City, Beijing’s ancient imperial palace. It’s usually teeming with tourists but was closed to the public for the presidential visit.

Trump said Thursday the welcome “was truly memorable and impressive and something I will never forget.” AP

BEIJING, Nov 9: President Donald Trump will push China on trade and North Korea during a two-day visit in which he will cajole, flatter and scold the rising Asian power.

White House aides view Trump’s visit as the centerpiece of his lengthy Asia tour. Trump, who is mired in consistently low approval ratings at home, will encounter newly emboldened Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently consolidated power in his country, while Trump’s every utterance will be studied by allies anxious to see if his inward-looking “America First” mantra could cede power in the region to China.

Before arriving in Beijing on Wednesday, Trump used an address to the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, to deliver a stern message to China, North Korea’s biggest trade partner. Trump urged “responsible nations” to unite and stop supporting North Korea.

“You cannot support, you cannot supply, you cannot accept,” he said, calling on “every nation, including China and Russia,” to fully implement recent U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea.

Trump is expected to demand that China curtail its dealings with Pyongyang and expel North Korean workers. Trump has praised China for taking some steps against Pyongyang but urged them to do more, as administration officials believe the border between China and North Korea remains a trade corridor.

“I want to just say that President Xi — where we will be tomorrow, China — has been very helpful. We’ll find out how helpful soon,” Trump said Tuesday night in Seoul. “But he really has been very, very helpful. So China is out trying very hard to solve the problem with North Korea.”

The White House is banking on Trump’s personal rapport with Xi to drive the negotiations. Trump has frequently showered praise on Xi, who recently became the nation’s most powerful leader in decades, including with a trip to Trump’s Florida estate for a summit.

“He’s a powerful man. I happen to think he’s a very good person. Now with that being said, he represents China, I represent the U.S.A., so, you know, there’s going to always be conflict,” Trump recently told the Fox Business Network. “People say we have the best relationship of any president-president, because he’s called president also. Now some people might call him the king of China. But he’s called president.”

The president and first lady Melania Trump were greeted at the airport by dozens of children who waved U.S. and Chinese flags and jumped up and down. They sipped tea with Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, received a private tour of the Forbidden City, Beijing’s ancient imperial palace, including a performance by young opera students before dinner. Trump said afterward that he’s “having a great time” in China.

White House officials point to the summit in Florida this spring, an event partly defined by Trump telling his Chinese counterpart about the missile strike he ordered on Syria while the two men dined on chocolate cake. But experts in the region suggest that Xi may be playing Trump.

“Trump keeps portraying his relationship with XI as great pals but that’s wildly naive,” said Mike Chinoy, an expert on East Asia policy at the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. “The Chinese have figured out how to play Trump: flatter him. And there’s nothing the Chinese do better than wow foreign diplomats.”

Trump talked tough during his campaign about fixing American’s trade relationship with China and labeling it a “currency manipulator.” But he has signaled that he would take it easy on Beijing if it will help with the nuclear threat from North Korea.

“Trump has mortgaged the whole U.S.-China relationship to get the Chinese on board with the North Korea plan,” Chinoy said. “He is now coming at it from a position of weakness.”

White House officials have said that if Trump were to chide Xi about human rights or democratic reforms he would likely do it privately. Andrew Nathan, a political science professor and China expert at Columbia University, said Trump’s “infatuation” with Xi was reminiscent of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s fascination with Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China.

“For Trump, Xi is wish fulfillment: ‘I wish I could be as powerful as that guy!’” Nathan said.

One uncertainty for Trump: whether he will be able to use Twitter in China, which has banned the social media platform. Though the United States could enable it to work, the White House declined to comment on whether Trump would tweet from China.

Trump arrived in Beijing after two days in Seoul, where he largely avoided the inflammatory rhetoric — like dubbing North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” — that has defined his approach to Pyongyang. But he also warned North Korea in his speech to “not underestimate us. And do not try us.”

He also sounded an optimistic note while in South Korea, saying confidently, if vaguely, that “ultimately, it’ll all work out” while shifting views and expressing hope that diplomacy could resolve the tensions. Trump also underlined U.S. military options, noting that three aircraft carrier groups and a nuclear submarine had been deployed to the region.

But he said “we hope to God we never have to use” the arsenal.

One hoped-for message to Pyongyang went unsent. Though the White House had previously indicated that Trump would not visit the heavily fortified demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, plans had been in the works for him to make an unannounced visit Wednesday morning.

Trump boarded the Marine One helicopter and flew to within five minutes of the DMZ when U.S. military pilots and Secret Service agents determined the fog was too thick to safely land. The helicopter returned to Seoul and Trump waited nearly an hour for the weather to clear.

The fog did not lift in time. AP

NEW YORK, Sept 22: President Donald Trump has added economic action to his fiery military threats against North Korea, authorizing stiffer new sanctions in response to the Koreans’ nuclear weapons advances.

Trump’s latest steps to punish foreign companies that deal with the North was the latest salvo in a U.S.-led campaign to isolate and impoverish the government of Kim Jong Un until it halts the missile and nuclear tests. Trump announced the measures Thursday as he met leaders from South Korea and Japan, the nations most immediately imperiled by North Korea’s threats of a military strike.

“North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world and it is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal, rogue regime,” Trump said as he joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in for lunch. “Tolerance for this disgraceful practice must end now.”

Hours later, Kim branded Trump as “deranged” and warned that he will “pay dearly” for his threat to “totally destroy” the North if it attacks. The rare statement from the North Korean leader responded to Trump’s combative speech days earlier where he not only issued the warning of potential obliteration for the isolated nation, but also mocked the North’s young autocrat as a “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission.”

Returning insult with insult, Kim said Trump was “unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country.” He described the president as “a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire.” He characterized Trump’s speech to the world body on Tuesday as “mentally deranged behavior.”

Trump’s executive order expanded the Treasury Department’s ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea, and to ban them from interacting with the U.S. financial system.

“Foreign financial institutions must choose between doing business with the United States or facilitating trade with North Korea or its designated supporters,” the order says. It also issues a 180-day ban on vessels and aircraft that have visited North Korea from visiting the United States.

Trump also said China was imposing major banking sanctions, too, but there was no immediate confirmation from the North’s most important trading partner. China’s central bank would not take questions by phone Friday and did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

Trump praised China for instructing its banks to cut off business with Pyongyang, but neither the Chinese nor Trump officials were ready to say so. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he had spoken at length Thursday with the head of China’s central bank but “I am not going to comment on confidential discussions.”

If enforced, the Chinese action Trump described could severely impede the isolated North’s ability to raise money for its missile and nuclear development. China, responsible for about 90 percent of North Korea’s trade, serves as the country’s conduit to the international banking system.

Trump said the China action he described “was a somewhat unexpected move and we appreciate it.”

China remains leery of pressuring North Korea into collapse and has resisted cutting off its critical oil supplies, not wanting chaos on its border. Along with Russia, China wants the U.S. to seek dialogue with the North. American officials say the time isn’t right for any formal diplomatic process. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday that negotiations are the “only way out” of the nuclear standoff.

Several news outlets this month have reported Chinese steps to restrict banking transactions, but the government hasn’t made a formal announcement. Asked for comment last week, the Foreign Ministry said China has always fully implemented U.N. sanctions on North Korea but opposes “unilateral” restrictions imposed by another country on Chinese entities. China’s embassy in Washington declined to comment Thursday. AP

SEOUL, Sept 16: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country is nearing its goal of “equilibrium” in military force with the United States, as the United Nations Security Council strongly condemned the North’s “highly provocative” ballistic missile launch over Japan on Friday.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency carried Kim’s comments on Saturday — a day after U.S. and South Korean militaries detected the missile launch from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

It traveled 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) as it passed over the Japanese island of Hokkaido before landing in the northern Pacific Ocean. It was the country’s longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile.

The North has confirmed the missile as an intermediate range Hwasong-12, the same model launched over Japan on Aug. 29.

Under Kim’s watch, North Korea has maintained a torrid pace in weapons tests, including its most powerful nuclear test to date on Sept. 3 and two July flight tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles that could strike deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.

The increasingly frequent and aggressive tests have added to outside fears that the North is closer than ever to building a military arsenal that could viably target the U.S. and its allies in Asia. The tests, which could potentially make launches over Japan an accepted norm, are also seen as North Korea’s attempt to win greater military freedom in the region and raise doubts in Seoul and Tokyo that Washington would risk the annihilation of a U.S. city to protect them.

The KCNA said Kim expressed great satisfaction over the launch, which he said verified the “combat efficiency and reliability” of the missile and the success of efforts to increase its power.

While the English version of the report was less straightforward, the Korean version quoted Kim as declaring the missile as operationally ready. He vowed to complete his nuclear weapons program in the face of strengthening international sanctions, the agency said.

Photos published by North Korea’s state media showed the missile being fired from a truck-mounted launcher and a smiling Kim clapping and raising his fist while celebrating from an observation point. It was the first time North Korea showed the missile being launched directly from a vehicle, which experts said indicated confidence about the mobility and reliability of the system. In previous tests, North Korea used trucks to transport and erect the Hwasong-12s, but moved the missiles on separate firing tables before launching them.

The U.N. Security Council accused North Korea of undermining regional peace and security by launching its latest missile over Japan and said its nuclear and missile tests “have caused grave security concerns around the world” and threaten all 193 U.N. member states.

Kim also said the country, despite “limitless” international sanctions, has nearly completed the building of its nuclear weapons force and called for “all-state efforts” to reach the goal and obtain a “capacity for nuclear counterattack the U.S. cannot cope with.”

“As recognized by the whole world, we have made all these achievements despite the U.N. sanctions that have lasted for decades,” the agency quoted Kim as saying.

Kim said the country’s final goal “is to establish the equilibrium of real force with the U.S. and make the U.S. rulers dare not talk about military option for the DPRK,” referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

He indicated that more missile tests would be forthcoming, saying that all future drills should be “meaningful and practical ones for increasing the combat power of the nuclear force” to establish an order in the deployment of nuclear warheads for “actual war.”

Prior to the launches over Japan, North Korea had threatened to fire a salvo of Hwasong-12s toward Guam, the U.S. Pacific island territory and military hub the North has called an “advanced base of invasion.”

The Security Council stressed in a statement after a closed-door emergency meeting that all countries must “fully, comprehensively and immediately” implement all U.N. sanctions.

Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Koro Bessho called the missile launch an “outrageous act” that is not only a threat to Japan’s security but a threat to the whole world.

Bessho and the British, French and Swedish ambassadors demanded that all sanctions be implemented.

Calling the latest launch a “terrible, egregious, illegal, provocative reckless act,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said North Korea’s largest trading partners and closest links — a clear reference to China — must “demonstrate that they are doing everything in their power to implement the sanctions of the Security Council and to encourage the North Korean regime to change course.”

France’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country is ready to work on tougher U.N. and EU measures to convince Pyongyang that there is no interest in an escalation, and to bring it to the negotiating table.

Friday’s launch followed North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3 in what it described as a detonation of a thermonuclear weapon built for its developmental ICBMs.

The Hwasong-12 and the Hwasong-14 were initially fired at highly lofted angles to reduce their range and avoid neighboring countries. The two Hwasong-12 launches over Japan indicate North Korea is moving toward using angles close to operational to evaluate whether its warheads can survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry and detonate properly.

While some experts believe North Korea would need to conduct more tests to confirm Hwasong-12′s accuracy and reliability, Kim Jong Un’s latest comments indicate the country would soon move toward mass producing the missiles for operational deployment, said Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. He also said that the North is likely planning similar test launches of its Hwasong-14 ICBM.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a liberal who initially pushed for talks with North Korea, said its tests currently make dialogue “impossible.”

“If North Korea provokes us or our allies, we have the strength to smash the attempt at an early stage and inflict a level of damage it would be impossible to recover from,” said Moon, who ordered his military to conduct a live-fire ballistic missile drill in response to the North Korean launch. AP