Tag: Kim Jong-un

North Korea rejects UN sanctions, defends nuclear programme

North Korea on Sunday rejected the latest sanctions imposed on it by the UN Security Council (UNSC) and reiterated its intention of further developing its nuclear deterrence programme. A Foreign Affairs Ministry statement said that Pyongyang criticised the punitive measures announced on Friday that further limit the country’s access to petroleum products, ban its exports...

December 24, 2017

N.Korea poses substantial nuclear threat to US: Kim Jong-un

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un on Friday said his country has achieved rapid development in strategic weaponry and poses “substantial nuclear threat to the US”, state news agency reported. Kim said this at a meeting with high-ranking Workers Party officials days after Pyongyang successfully tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to date, Efe...

December 22, 2017

US ready for North Korea talks without preconditions: Tillerson

The US is ready to open nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea, without preconditions, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said. “Let’s just meet and let’s talk about the weather if you want,” he said on Tuesday at a policy forum in Washington, BBC reported. His statement appeared to shift the US position away from...

December 13, 2017

Little Rocket Man’

After two and a half months of relative quiet, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has jolted four nations with Wednesday’s test of a ballistic missile, one that almost literally has had inter-continental reverberations. Pyongyang’s robust response to last week’s cache of crippling sanctions has had an immediate impact with President Donald Trump threatening to impose yet...

December 1, 2017

North Korea brings world closer to war: Haley at UN

North Korea’s latest test of an intercontinental ballistic missile has brought the world “closer to war”, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warned at an emergency meeting with the members of the UN Security Council in New York and urged all nations to cut ties with the rogue regime. Speaking at the UN Security...

November 30, 2017

Renewed reprisal

As critical as the fresh cache of sanctions against the regime of Kim Jong-un has been its timing ~ exactly 24 hours after Donald Trump restored North Korea on the list of “state sponsors of terrorism”. It bears recall that in 2008, President Bush had removed the “rogue nation” from the list. North Korea is...

November 23, 2017

Trump’s Seoul speech declaration of war: North Korea

North Korea on Wednesday called a speech by US President Donald Trump at the South Korean Parliament an “open declaration of war”. During his speech last week, Trump, who was here during his 5-nation Asian tour, had criticised the repressive North Korean regime and painted a bleak picture of life in the country, Efe news...

November 15, 2017

China to send envoy to North Korea

China is sending a senior diplomat to North Korea, the media reported on Wednesday, reopening a channel of dialogue with the isolated regime. The announcement comes a week after US President Donald Trump visited China and asked President Xi Jinping to work hard to fix the problem of North Korea’s nuclear programme. Song Tao, who...

November 15, 2017

Trump slams ‘haters’ over Russia, takes dig at N Korea’s Kim

US President Donald Trump unleashed a twitter storm from his Asia tour today, slamming “haters and fools” playing politics with US-Russia ties and declaring that he would never describe North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as “short and fat”. Currently on the Vietnam leg of a five-nation sweep through the region, the US president, who has...

November 12, 2017

N Korea rules out negotiations as Donald Trump heads to Asia

North Korea ruled out talks and threatened to increase its nuclear arsenal in a fresh warning to Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday as the US President set off on a tour of Asia. Trump departed for his first presidential trip to Asia yesterday, with tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats looming large. He...

November 4, 2017

Kim Jong-un visits cosmetics firm with wife

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has taken time away from the confrontation with the US and allies to visit a cosmetics factory in Pyongyang. He went to the newly renovated factory with senior party members and his rarely seen wife, Ri Sol-ju, BBC reported on Sunday. The site was visited by his father and predecessor...

October 30, 2017

India-N Korea ties could act as conduit for communications: Tillerson

India’s diplomatic ties with North Korea could act as a “conduit for communications”, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said amidst tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over the latter’s nuclear missile tests. India had informed the US that it has “minimal” trade with North Korea and that there was a small Indian embassy in...

October 27, 2017

Kim Jong-un congratulates Xi on re-election

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping for his re-election as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the state media said on Thursday. Kim applauded Xi for the successful conduct of the 19th Congress of the CPC, through a message sent on Wednesday, in which he wished the...

October 26, 2017

Open to negotiations with North Korea: Trump

US President Donald Trump has said he is open to the possibility of negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme. “We’re going to see what happens with North Korea. That’s all I can say. We’re going to see what happens. We’re totally prepared for numerous things,” Donald Trump told reporters on Friday at...

October 14, 2017

The moment is now

It may not be wholly inappropriate, after close to a decade, to recall Barack Obama’s victory chant ~ “Yes we can”. Yet the acronym, ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) assumes profound significance and across the world in the context of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. There are at least three facets to the...

October 11, 2017

Kim Jong-un hails North Korea’s nuclear programme

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has lauded his country’s nuclear weapons programme as the best way to defend its sovereignty and counter threats from the US. Speaking to the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang on Saturday, Kim Jong-un said “nuclear weapons of North Korea are a precious fruition borne...

October 8, 2017

Negotiations with N Korea is a waste of time: Trump

The President of the US said on Sunday that his secretary of state was wasting his time trying to negotiate with North Korea. Donald Trump made his remarks after Rex Tillerson had said in a press conference Saturday in Beijing that the US had established direct channels with the secretive Asian nation and was seeking...

October 2, 2017