PYONGYANG, North Korea (AFP) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Pyongyang Friday to press Kim Jong Un for a more detailed commitment to denuclearization following the North Korean leader’s historic summit with President Donald Trump. Pompeo was greeted in the North Korean capital by Kim’s right hand man Kim Yong Chol and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho. Since meeting Kim in Singapore last month Trump has been bullish about hopes for […]
Tag: Nuclear
Iran talks aim to save nuclear deal after US pullout
by Frank Zeller Agence France-Presse VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – The top diplomats of Iran and five world powers meet Friday as Tehran seeks assurances it will benefit economically from the nuclear deal despite the US withdrawal from the pact. But in a setback on the eve of the talks, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron that European economic measures now on offer did not go far enough. Rouhani, who this week visited Europe […]
UAE further delays launch of first nuclear reactor
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Wednesday that its first nuclear reactor would come online in late 2019 or early 2020, further delaying the launch of the Arab World’s first atomic power station. Construction of the first of four reactors at the $20 billion (17 billion euro) Barakah plant has been completed ahead of “operation by the end of 2019 (or) early 2020,” Emirates Nuclear Energy Corpation said, quoted […]
US envoy Pompeo to return to North Korea this week
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads back to North Korea this week to flesh out the bare bones nuclear agreement between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un. Pompeo will leave Washington on Thursday for Pyongyang at the start of a round-the-world diplomatic mission that will bring him to Brussels and a key NATO summit, officials said. Trump has boasted that a statement he signed with Kim in […]
Pentagon chief seeks to reassure S. Korea, Japan on North
by Paul Handley © Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — US Defense Secretary James Mattis told South Korea Thursday that their alliance remained “ironclad”, as he sought to reassure key East Asian allies following Donald Trump’s unilateral suspension of military exercises with Seoul. Concern has mounted in the region over the stance of the US president, who has lauded North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “talented guy” as he seeks to persuade […]
North Korea still building at nuclear site: monitor
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is carrying out rapid improvements to its nuclear research facility, a monitor said on Wednesday, despite declaring a commitment to denuclearisation of the peninsula at the Singapore summit. The nuclear-armed North’s leader Kim Jong Un promised to “work toward” the goal at a landmark summit in the city-state earlier this month with US President Donald Trump. But the Singapore meeting failed to clearly define denuclearisation or produce […]
N. Korea ‘already starting’ denuclearization: Trump
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — North Korea has already begun its denuclearization, US President Donald Trump said Thursday, after many observers greeted with skepticism the results of his historic meeting with the North’s leader Kim Jong Un. “They’ve already blown up one of their big test sites. In fact, it was actually four of their big test sites. And the big thing is, it will be a total denuclearization, which is already starting,” Trump said at a cabinet […]
Major US military exercises with South Korea ‘suspended indefinitely’
by Thomas Watkins, with Ben Dooley in Beijing Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US military has indefinitely postponed major joint exercises with South Korea, an official told AFP on Thursday, acting on President Donald Trump’s pledge to halt the “provocative” military drills following his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. The move, a significant break in how the US and South Korean militaries have worked together for decades, came […]
N. Korea’s Kim knows denuclearization must be ‘quick’: Pompeo
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea’s Kim Jong Un understands that denuclearization must happen “quickly”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday, warning there will be no sanctions relief for Pyongyang until the process is complete. Washington remained committed to the “complete, verifiable and irreversible” denuclearization of North Korea, Pompeo added, after the joint statement from the historic US-North Korea summit in Singapore drew criticism for lack of detail on the key issue. “We […]
S. Korea newspapers welcome summit as ‘first step’ toward peace
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Most South Korean newspapers reacted with cautious optimism Wednesday to the historic meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in Singapore, although one conservative daily denounced the agreement it produced as “absurd”. The centrist Hankook daily noted that the post-summit joint statement signed by the US president and North Korean leader on Tuesday had omitted Washington’s demand for a “complete, verifiable, irreversible” denuclearisation of the North and lacked a […]
Kim invites Trump to visit Pyongyang as North hails ‘radical switchover’
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Kim Jong Un invited Donald Trump to visit North Korea during their historic summit and the US President accepted, Pyongyang state media reported Wednesday, calling it the start of a “radical switchover” in the nuclear-armed Cold War foes’ fraught relations. The unprecedented encounter in Singapore Tuesday saw the leader of the world’s most powerful democracy shake hands with the third generation scion of a dynastic dictatorship, standing as equals […]
Trump says he will stop ‘war games’ with S. Korea
Singapore (AFP) — The US will stop holding joint military exercises on the Korean peninsula, President Donald Trump said Tuesday, making a major concession to North Korea after his summit with Kim Jong Un. Washington and Seoul are security allies, with 28,500 US troops stationed in the South to defend it from its neighbor which invaded in 1950. They hold joint military exercises every year that infuriate Pyongyang, which has long demanded an end […]





