Tag: North Korea

Japan expands sanctions aimed at N. Korea

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan said Friday it had added 19 more entities to its list of organizations and individuals targeted by asset-freeze sanctions on North Korea. The sanctions list now comprises 103 entities and 108 individuals in total, including seven Chinese entities, five Chinese individuals, one Singaporean entity and two Namibian entities, it said. They include organizations involved in financial services, coal and minerals trading, transportation and sending North Korean laborers abroad, the foreign […]

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China, S. Korea eye warmer ties following tensions

by Becky Davis Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — The presidents of China and South Korea sought Thursday to repair ties strained over a US anti-missile defense system, but the beating of a South Korean photojournalist by Chinese security cast a pall over the summit. Relations between Beijing and Seoul have been icy since South Korea allowed the United States to install the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system to guard against threats […]

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Putin, Trump discussed North Korea in phone call: Kremlin

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear program with US counterpart Donald Trump in a phone call Thursday, the Kremlin said. The two heads of state discussed “the situation in several crisis zones, with a focus on solving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula,” it said in a statement, without elaborating. Washington this week said it was ready to talk to North Korea — which has […]

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UN envoy says North Korea agrees on need ‘to prevent war’

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — A senior UN official returning from Pyongyang said Tuesday that North Korean officials had told him it was important to prevent war but offered no concrete proposal for talks. “They agreed that it was important to prevent war,” Jeffrey Feltman, the UN’s political affairs chief, told reporters after briefing the Security Council on his trip. Feltman met with North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho and Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong-Kuk […]

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Kim vows to make N.Korea ‘world’s strongest nuclear power’: KCNA

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Kim Jong-Un has vowed to make North Korea the “world’s strongest nuclear power,” state media reported Wednesday, as the reclusive nation shows little sign of reining in a weapons program fuelling global alarm. The North has rattled the international community with a flurry of missile launches and its largest ever nuclear test in recent months in its bid to develop a warhead capable of striking the United States. Kim told workers […]

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US warns companies smuggling fuel to North Korea

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — White House National Security Advisor HR McMaster warned Tuesday that shipping companies caught smuggling goods into North Korea could be making their “last delivery” anywhere. McMaster said UN sanctions have not halted deliveries of essential goods like refined fuel products that North Korea wants. The smuggling is done by ship-to-ship transfers, he said, suggesting that foreign vessels are moving the goods on the high seas to North Korean ships that take them […]

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US, S. Korea, Japan start missile-tracking drill, irking China

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – The US, South Korea and Japan carried out joint exercises Monday to track missiles from North Korea, as China warned that such manoeuvres fuel tensions following nuclear-armed Pyongyang’s longest-range test launch to date. The trilateral drill comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and declared it had achieved nuclear statehood, escalating global alarm over its weapons push. The two-day exercise — the sixth since […]

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Japan plans long-range missiles amid N. Korea threat: minister

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan plans to purchase offensive air-to-surface missiles to counter North Korea’s rising military threat, its defense minister said Friday, a move likely to stir debate over its decades-long pacifist policy. Itsunori Onodera said the ministry intends to request a special budget for the fiscal year starting April 2018 to purchase long-range cruise missiles deployed on fighter jets. According to local media, the ministry plans to buy JASSM and LRASM long-range, air-to-ground […]

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Olympics chief seeks North Korea visit – report

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Olympics chief Thomas Bach is hoping to visit North Korea as early as this month to discuss Pyongyang’s participation in the 2018 Winter Games, a report said Friday. South Korean organizers of the Pyeongchang Olympics are pushing for the North to compete as they hope to portray the event as a symbol of peace on the flashpoint peninsula. The North missed the October 30 deadline to confirm its participation, although […]

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South Korea’s Moon to visit China for talks on N. Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-In will visit China next week for talks on North Korea and other issues, his office said Wednesday, amid tentative signs of diplomatic movement after months of high tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threats. The announcement came as a high-level United Nations representative held talks with a senior North Korean official during a rare trip to Pyongyang. Jeffrey Feltman, UN undersecretary general for political affairs, […]

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South Korea’s Moon to visit China next week

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-In will visit China next week for talks on North Korea and other issues, his office said Wednesday, amid tentative signs of diplomatic movement after months of high tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threats. The announcement came as a high-level United Nations representative held talks with a senior North Korean official during a rare trip to Pyongyang. Jeffrey Feltman, UN undersecretary general for political affairs, […]

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UN envoy bound for N. Korea as tensions soar

by Philippe Rater Agence France Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The United Nations has dispatched an envoy to North Korea for a rare visit aimed at defusing tensions over Pyongyang’s intercontinental ballistic missile launch, as the US and South Korea began joint military exercises condemned by Kim Jong-Un’s regime. The unusual visit by Jeffrey Feltman, which begins Tuesday and runs to Friday, comes less than a week after North Korea test-fired a ballistic […]

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