Tag Archives: NorthKorea

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First US sitting President in history to step on DMZ

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What it means for the world as what has just happened for the first time in history. Trump arrived in Japan for the G20 summit where the contact been established and intention has been shared with Kim Jong Un which was accepted.

  • A historic moment: Trump has become the first sitting US President to step into North Korea. He met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone (DMZ), and the two leaders held a private bilateral meeting before Kim returned to North Korea.
  • A day of diplomacy: Earlier today, Trump held a bilateral meeting, working lunch, and a joint press conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the capital of Seoul.

Donald Trump has made history as the first sitting US president to set foot on North Korean soil.

He and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shook hands at the demilitarized zone before both leaders stepped into North Korea. Trump said that “stepping across that line was a great honor,” and said he’d invite Kim to the White House: cnn.it/2Nm3qiq

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un just shook hands at the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the border that separates the two Koreas.

This is the first time the two leaders have met since their February summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, which ended abruptly without an agreement.

Earlier today, Trump had hinted that a third summit might be on the cards.

Global Thread, Sports

The 23rd Winter Olympics are set to be the coldest in history: Pyeongchang South Korea

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The 23rd Winter Olympics begin in Pyeongchang on Friday and are set to be the coldest in history but NOT FOR THE Koreans as they will be under critical observation

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Though none of the North Korean athletes competing at next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea are expected to win a medal, they will at least be assured of a thunderous reception.

Over 17 days, more than 3,000 of the world’s best athletes will compete in 102 medal events in 15 sports.

Around 77% of tickets have been sold – approximately 826,000 – across the 13 venues in South Korea

More excitement greeted Wednesday’s news that the athletes will be accompanied by 230 members of the “army of beauties”, North Korea’s all-female cheerleading troupe who – international politics permitting – will be dispatched to portray a gentler image of one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships.

 

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World’s most oppressed countries.

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Today, it is a democracy that finds itself battered and weakened. A quarter-century ago, at the end of the Cold War, it appeared that totalitarianism had at last been vanquished and liberal democracy had won the great ideological battle of the 20th century.

 

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The Freedom in the World 2018 index by the US government-funded non-governmental organization (NGO) Freedom House has found that in its own words:

Democracy is in crisis. The values it embodies—particularly the right to choose leaders in free and fair elections, freedom of the press, and the rule of law— are under assault and in retreat globally.

For the 12th consecutive year, countries that experienced democratic setback outnumbered those that registered gains. The report stated that 88 countries were classed as “free”, while 49 were classed as “not free”.

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The report also criticised some nations for becoming increasingly authoritarian:

The retreat of democracies is troubling enough. Yet at the same time, the world’s leading autocracies, China and Russia, have seized the opportunity not only to step up internal repression but also to export their malign influence to other countries, which are increasingly copying their behavior and adopting their disdain for democracy.

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   A confident Chinese president Xi Jinping recently proclaimed that China is ‘blazing a new trail’ for developing countries to follow. It is a path that includes politicized courts, intolerance for dissent, and predetermined elections

 

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The Gambia’s status improved from Not Free to Partly Free, its political rights rating improved from 6 to 4, and its civil liberties rating improved from 6 to 5 due to the installation of newly elected president Adama Barrow into office in January and the holding of competitive legislative elections in April. Among other openings associated with the departure of former president Yahya Jammeh, exiled journalists and activists returned, political prisoners, were released, ministers declared their assets to an ombudsman, and the press union began work on media-sector reform.

The Freedom in the World report evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 14 territories, assigning a score between 0 and 4 in a series of 25 indicators to give a final score of 100.

The methodology is derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, regardless of geopolitical, geographic, ethnic or religious considerations.

Breaking news, Global Thread

Contemporary sanctions on North Korea by United Nations

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The latest United Nations sanctions on North Korea are expected to choke its economy still further, but with Washington and Pyongyang showing no signs of stepping back from their face off, observers have warned that the world is running out of options to resolve the crisis.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday voted unanimously to support the sanctions, spearheaded by the United States, which will see North Korea’s imports of refined petroleum products cut by almost 90 percent from January.

The self-proclaimed nuclear power – after its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile launch in late November – is also banned from exporting food products, machinery, electrical equipment, stone and wood as the UN seeks to cut external funding for its weapons and nuclear programmes

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US proposes to cut off oil supplies to North Korea at UN Security Council

The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea following its latest intercontinental ballistic missile test, a move that analysts said could have a significant impact on the isolated country’s struggling economy.

The resolution seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum product exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in what diplomats said was a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed.

North Korea on Nov. 29 said it successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile in a “breakthrough” that puts the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons whose warheads could withstand re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere.

“It (the resolution) sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation,” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said following the vote.

Source: CNBC

 

 

 

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Iran move intended to shattered US relation with North Korea: Tillerson

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On Sunday US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson denied that Donald J Trump threatens to break the Iran nuclear deal had weakened America’s chance of reining in North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile drive through diplomacy.

Tillerson pushed back at claims that Trump has undermined his efforts after outspoken Republican senator and Trump critic Bob Corker said the president was seeking to “castrate” his top diplomat.

“I think what North Korea should take away from this decision is that the United States will expect a very demanding agreement with North Korea,” Tillerson said on CNN’s State of the Union

By calling into question the landmark deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, worried allies fear the US president has sent a message to Pyongyang that America’s word cannot be trusted. In a virulent speech Friday, Trump refused to certify Iran’s compliance with the deal, kicking its fate to Congress, which he told to address its “many serious flaws.”

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“One that is very binding and achieves the objectives not just of the United States but the policy objectives of China and other neighbors in the region, a denuclearized Korean peninsula.”

“If we achieve that, there will be nothing to walk away from because the objective will be achieved.”

“No, sir. He has made it clear to me to continue my diplomatic efforts,” Tillerson said. “Those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops.”

“The president has also made clear to me that he wants this solved diplomatically,” he added. “He’s not seeking to go to war.”

The Secretary of State was forced this month to deny claims of a serious rift with Trump after it was reported he had called the president a “moron.”Tillerson has refused to outright deny the report, which he once more dismissed on CNN as “petty stuff.”

But he had a quick comeback at the ready when asked about Corker’s claim that Trump was trying to “castrate” him on the world stage: “I checked. I’m fully intact.”