South Korean President Moon Jae-in will send a team of special envoys -- including Seoul&#39;s spy chief -- to the North on Monday to push for talks between Washington and Pyongyang on nuclear weapons.

The delegation, announced by Moon&#39;s office on Sunday, is the latest chapter in a remarkable Olympics-driven detente between the two Koreas.&nbsp;

An intense rapprochement saw the two foes march together at the South&#39;s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that ended February 25, with the North&#39;s leader Kim Jong Un sending his sister as a special envoy to the event.

Kim Yo Jong&#39;s appearance at the Games&#39; opening ceremony made global headlines, marking the first visit to the South by a member of the Kim family since the end of the Korean War.

Moon has sought to use the Pyeongchang Games to open dialogue between the US and the North in the hopes of easing a nuclear standoff that has heightened fears over global security.

He chose five top officials -- including top national security advisor Chung Eui-Yong and spy chief Suh Hoon -- to visit Pyongyang on Monday, Moon&#39;s spokesman said.&nbsp;

&quot;The special delegates will have extensive discussions over issues including creating conditions for North-US talks to denuclearise the Korean peninsula and improving inter-Korea ties,&quot; Yoon Young-chan told reporters.&nbsp;

The 10-member group -- five top delegates and five supporting officials -- would fly to the North&#39;s capital Pyongyang on Monday afternoon before returning on Tuesday, Yoon said.&nbsp;

The delegation will then fly to the US to explain the result of the talks to officials in Washington, he added.&nbsp;

Suh is a veteran in dealings with the North. He is known to have been deeply involved in negotiations to arrange two previous inter-Korea summits in 2000 and 2007.

The isolated, impoverished North staged its most powerful nuclear test and test-fired multiple missiles last year, including some capable of hitting the US mainland, in defiance of UN sanctions.&nbsp;

The North&#39;s leader Kim and US President Donald Trump have also traded threats of war and personal insults, sending tensions soaring.

Moon, who advocates dialogue with the nuclear-armed regime, said last week that Washington needs to &quot;lower the threshold for talks&quot; with Pyongyang.&nbsp;

But the US has ruled out any possibility of talks before the North takes steps towards denuclearisation, and imposed what Trump hailed as the &quot;toughest ever&quot; sanctions on Kim&#39;s regime late last month.&nbsp;

On Saturday, a foreign ministry spokesman in Pyongyang called on the US drop any preconditions for talks.

&quot;The US is taking preposterous action by continuing to trumpet an insistence that it will not have dialogue unless a right condition is met,&quot; the unnamed spokesman was quoted as saying by the state-run KCNA news agency.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will send a team of special envoys -- including Seoul's spy chief -- to the North on Monday to push for talks between Washington and Pyongyang on nuclear weapons

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will send a team of special envoys -- including Seoul's spy chief -- to the North on Monday to push for talks between Washington and Pyongyang on nuclear weapons. The delegation, announced by Moon's office on Sunday, is the latest chapter in a remarkable Olympics-driven detente between the two Koreas. An intense rapprochement saw the two foes march together at the South's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that ended February 25, with the North's leader Kim Jong Un sending his sister as a special envoy to the event. Kim Yo Jong's appearance at the Games' opening ceremony made global headlines, marking the first visit to the South by a member of the Kim family since the end of the Korean War. Moon has sought to use the Pyeongchang Games to open dialogue between the US and the North in the hopes of easing a nuclear standoff that has heightened fears over global security. He chose five top officials -- including top national security advisor Chung Eui-Yong and spy chief Suh Hoon -- to visit Pyongyang on Monday, Moon's spokesman said. "The special delegates will have extensive discussions over issues including creating conditions for North-US talks to denuclearise the Korean peninsula and improving inter-Korea ties," Yoon Young-chan told reporters. The 10-member group -- five top delegates and five supporting officials -- would fly to the North's capital Pyongyang on Monday afternoon before returning on Tuesday, Yoon said. The delegation will then fly to the US to explain the result of the talks to officials in Washington, he added. Suh is a veteran in dealings with the North. He is known to have been deeply involved in negotiations to arrange two previous inter-Korea summits in 2000 and 2007. The isolated, impoverished North staged its most powerful nuclear test and test-fired multiple missiles last year, including some capable of hitting the US mainland, in defiance of UN sanctions. The North's leader Kim and US President Donald Trump have also traded threats of war and personal insults, sending tensions soaring. Moon, who advocates dialogue with the nuclear-armed regime, said last week that Washington needs to "lower the threshold for talks" with Pyongyang. But the US has ruled out any possibility of talks before the North takes steps towards denuclearisation, and imposed what Trump hailed as the "toughest ever" sanctions on Kim's regime late last month. On Saturday, a foreign ministry spokesman in Pyongyang called on the US drop any preconditions for talks. "The US is taking preposterous action by continuing to trumpet an insistence that it will not have dialogue unless a right condition is met," the unnamed spokesman was quoted as saying by the state-run KCNA news agency.

South Korea to send envoys to North on Monday

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday the United States should lower the threshold for talks with North Korea, while Pyongyang should in return show willingness towards denuclearisation.

&quot;Recently, North Korea has shown it is open to actively engaging the United States in talks and the United States is talking about the importance of dialogue,&quot; Moon said during a meeting in Seoul with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong.

&quot;There is a need for the United States to lower the threshold for talks with North Korea and North Korea should show it is willing to denuclearise. It&#39;s important the United States and North Korea sit down together quickly,&quot; he said, according to a statement from his office.

'There is a need for the United States to lower the threshold for talks with North Korea and North Korea should show it is willing to denuclearise,' the South Korean President said

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday the United States should lower the threshold for talks with North Korea, while Pyongyang should in return show willingness towards denuclearisation. "Recently, North Korea has shown it is open to actively engaging the United States in talks and the United States is talking about the importance of dialogue," Moon said during a meeting in Seoul with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong. "There is a need for the United States to lower the threshold for talks with North Korea and North Korea should show it is willing to denuclearise. It's important the United States and North Korea sit down together quickly," he said, according to a statement from his office.

South Korea's Moon says US should lower threshold for North Korea talks

The United States is seeking to have the United Nations ban 33 vessels from ports worldwide and blacklist 27 shipping businesses for helping North Korea circumvent sanctions.

The US request to a UN sanctions committee, came as President Donald Trump announced Friday the &quot;heaviest sanctions ever&quot; on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

Japan joined the United States in supporting the request concerning three of the 33 vessels for carrying out ship-to-ship transfers of oil destined for North Korea in violation of UN resolutions.

Council members have until Friday at 3:00 pm to raise objections to the proposed sanctions.

The measures will come into effect if none of the council members, including the North&#39;s ally China, block the request.

Only eight vessels have so far been banned from ports for sanctions-busting and the US request would significantly expand the blacklist in a bid to cripple North Korea&#39;s maritime network.

Last year, the Security Council adopted a series of resolutions to ban North Korean exports of commodities in a bid to cut off revenue to North Korea&#39;s military programs.

The measures severely restrict deliveries of oil and refined petroleum products to North Korea, but a recent report by a UN panel of experts found that Pyongyang was flouting sanctions.

North Korea earned $200 million in revenue last year from exports of coal, iron, steel and other banned commodities, the report said.

The United States and Japan are strong backers of sanctions as a way to pressure Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table and end its drive to develop nuclear weapons.

The US request to a UN sanctions committee, came as President Donald Trump announced Friday the 'heaviest sanctions ever' on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests

The United States is seeking to have the United Nations ban 33 vessels from ports worldwide and blacklist 27 shipping businesses for helping North Korea circumvent sanctions. The US request to a UN sanctions committee, came as President Donald Trump announced Friday the "heaviest sanctions ever" on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Japan joined the United States in supporting the request concerning three of the 33 vessels for carrying out ship-to-ship transfers of oil destined for North Korea in violation of UN resolutions. Council members have until Friday at 3:00 pm to raise objections to the proposed sanctions. The measures will come into effect if none of the council members, including the North's ally China, block the request. Only eight vessels have so far been banned from ports for sanctions-busting and the US request would significantly expand the blacklist in a bid to cripple North Korea's maritime network. Last year, the Security Council adopted a series of resolutions to ban North Korean exports of commodities in a bid to cut off revenue to North Korea's military programs. The measures severely restrict deliveries of oil and refined petroleum products to North Korea, but a recent report by a UN panel of experts found that Pyongyang was flouting sanctions. North Korea earned $200 million in revenue last year from exports of coal, iron, steel and other banned commodities, the report said. The United States and Japan are strong backers of sanctions as a way to pressure Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table and end its drive to develop nuclear weapons.

US seeks UN ban on 33 ships, 27 firms over North Korea smuggling

Beijing has protested against Washington&#39;s decision to impose sanctions against Chinese companies accused of conducting illicit economic deals with North Korea, the foreign ministry said.&nbsp;

US President Donald Trump on Friday announced measures targeting more than 50 North Korea-linked shipping companies, vessels and trade businesses, hailing the package as the &quot;heaviest sanctions ever&quot; levied on the nuclear-armed regime.&nbsp;

The measures, which the US says are aimed at forcing Pyongyang to roll back its banned nuclear and weapons programmes, apply to companies located or registered in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and Comoros.

Washington has been locked in a nuclear standoff with Pyongyang, which is trying to develop missiles that could deliver an atomic weapon to major US cities, and the sanctions are designed to put the squeeze on North Korea&#39;s already precarious economy and fuel supply.

&quot;China is strongly opposed to the United States&#39; long-arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals,&quot; foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Saturday.

&quot;We have lodged solemn representations to the United States and asked the US&nbsp;to immediately cease the wrong practice so as to avoid undermining relevant cooperation between the two sides,&quot; he added.

China, North Korea&#39;s only major ally, has steadfastly rebuffed Washington&#39;s calls for a full oil embargo -- fearing the chaotic collapse of the Pyongyang regime -- but has accepted caps agreed at the United Nations.

&quot;We will never allow Chinese citizens or companies to be engaged in activities that violate resolutions from the United Nations Security Council,&quot; Geng said.

But Washington says its latest measures target entities that have helped Pyongyang evade UN sanctions.

The North Korean military and broader economy depend heavily on imports of coal and oil from Russia and China, with the latter accounting for some 90 percent of the country&#39;s trade.

Last year, the Security Council adopted a series of resolutions to ban North Korean exports of commodities, including coal, iron and steel.

US President Donald Trump on Friday announced measures targeting more than 50 North Korea-linked shipping companies, vessels and trade businesses

Beijing has protested against Washington's decision to impose sanctions against Chinese companies accused of conducting illicit economic deals with North Korea, the foreign ministry said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced measures targeting more than 50 North Korea-linked shipping companies, vessels and trade businesses, hailing the package as the "heaviest sanctions ever" levied on the nuclear-armed regime. The measures, which the US says are aimed at forcing Pyongyang to roll back its banned nuclear and weapons programmes, apply to companies located or registered in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and Comoros. Washington has been locked in a nuclear standoff with Pyongyang, which is trying to develop missiles that could deliver an atomic weapon to major US cities, and the sanctions are designed to put the squeeze on North Korea's already precarious economy and fuel supply. "China is strongly opposed to the United States' long-arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Saturday. "We have lodged solemn representations to the United States and asked the US to immediately cease the wrong practice so as to avoid undermining relevant cooperation between the two sides," he added. China, North Korea's only major ally, has steadfastly rebuffed Washington's calls for a full oil embargo -- fearing the chaotic collapse of the Pyongyang regime -- but has accepted caps agreed at the United Nations. "We will never allow Chinese citizens or companies to be engaged in activities that violate resolutions from the United Nations Security Council," Geng said. But Washington says its latest measures target entities that have helped Pyongyang evade UN sanctions. The North Korean military and broader economy depend heavily on imports of coal and oil from Russia and China, with the latter accounting for some 90 percent of the country's trade. Last year, the Security Council adopted a series of resolutions to ban North Korean exports of commodities, including coal, iron and steel.

Beijing protests US sanctions on Chinese firms over North Korea ties

China responded angrily Saturday to new sanctions the United States imposed on North Korea, maintaining they were counterproductive to efforts to halt Pyongyang&#39;s nuclear and long-range missile development programs.

China asked the United States to &quot;withdraw&quot; the sanctions imposed on North Korea.Calling the move as &quot;long-arm jurisdiction&quot;, China demanded the US to also revoke the sanctions levied against Chinese companies and individuals.&nbsp;

&quot;China is strongly opposed to the United States` long-arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals based on its domestic laws,&quot; Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said in a statement.

&quot;China has been fully and completely implementing relevant UN resolutions on the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea (DPRK), fulfilling its due responsibilities, and never allowed Chinese people and companies to engage in any activities violating UN resolutions&quot;, Geng said, adding that any violations would be dealt with seriously.

Donald Trump announced on Friday what he called the "largest ever" set of sanctions against North Korea and threatened a "phase two" if the measures weren't effective

China responded angrily Saturday to new sanctions the United States imposed on North Korea, maintaining they were counterproductive to efforts to halt Pyongyang's nuclear and long-range missile development programs. China asked the United States to "withdraw" the sanctions imposed on North Korea.Calling the move as "long-arm jurisdiction", China demanded the US to also revoke the sanctions levied against Chinese companies and individuals. "China is strongly opposed to the United States` long-arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals based on its domestic laws," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said in a statement. "China has been fully and completely implementing relevant UN resolutions on the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea (DPRK), fulfilling its due responsibilities, and never allowed Chinese people and companies to engage in any activities violating UN resolutions", Geng said, adding that any violations would be dealt with seriously.

China reacts angrily to new US sanctions against North Korea

North Korea could co-host the 2021 Winter Asian Games with the South, a top Pyongyang sports&nbsp;official said Tuesday as the two countries&#39; unified ice hockey team played its last Olympic match.

The Pyeongchang Olympics in the South has seen the North engage in a charm offensive, sending athletes, cheerleaders, and its leader Kim Jong Un&#39;s sister to attend the Games and meet with President Moon Jae-in.

It is a marked contrast to the tensions of last year when the nuclear-armed North carried out a barrage of missile tests and its biggest atomic blast to date.

The governor of Gangwon province, which includes Pyeongchang, said at the weekend he was considering a bid for the two Koreas to co-host the 2021 Winter Asian Games, adding the North&#39;s Masikryong ski resort could be used.

Chang Ung, the North Korean member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said the idea was &quot;sufficiently possible&quot;.

&quot;Since a smaller number of countries participates in the Asian Games, it would be easier than the Olympics,&quot; he was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying in Beijing on his way back to Pyongyang.

But the previous speculation about the two co-hosting sporting events has gone nowhere.

Chang praised the Pyeongchang Games as &quot;perfect&quot;, adding: &quot;The Olympics are a great success, thanks to unity achieved by the Korean people.&quot;

The Asian Winter Games take place every four years, with the hosts for the 2021 event to be chosen at this year&#39;s Summer Asian Games in Indonesia in August.

&nbsp;

A top Pyongyang sports official said North Korea could co-host the 2021 Winter Asian Games with the South

North Korea could co-host the 2021 Winter Asian Games with the South, a top Pyongyang sports official said Tuesday as the two countries' unified ice hockey team played its last Olympic match. The Pyeongchang Olympics in the South has seen the North engage in a charm offensive, sending athletes, cheerleaders, and its leader Kim Jong Un's sister to attend the Games and meet with President Moon Jae-in. It is a marked contrast to the tensions of last year when the nuclear-armed North carried out a barrage of missile tests and its biggest atomic blast to date. The governor of Gangwon province, which includes Pyeongchang, said at the weekend he was considering a bid for the two Koreas to co-host the 2021 Winter Asian Games, adding the North's Masikryong ski resort could be used. Chang Ung, the North Korean member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said the idea was "sufficiently possible". "Since a smaller number of countries participates in the Asian Games, it would be easier than the Olympics," he was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying in Beijing on his way back to Pyongyang. But the previous speculation about the two co-hosting sporting events has gone nowhere. Chang praised the Pyeongchang Games as "perfect", adding: "The Olympics are a great success, thanks to unity achieved by the Korean people." The Asian Winter Games take place every four years, with the hosts for the 2021 event to be chosen at this year's Summer Asian Games in Indonesia in August.

Two Koreas 'could co-host winter Asiad', says sports official

Japan today warned against being &quot;blinded&quot; by North Korea&#39;s diplomatic charm offensive at the Winter Olympics, saying the main goal remains ridding Pyongyang of nuclear weapons.

Japan&#39;s Foreign Minister Taro Kono used a visit to Singapore, the current chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, to call for unity in dealing with Pyongyang, a spokesman said.

&quot;We need to maximise pressure on North Korea, to corner North Korea to change its policy by fully implementing the UN Security Council Resolution,&quot; said Toshihide Ando, deputy press secretary at Japan&#39;s foreign affairs ministry.

&quot;We will continue to work with the United States and South Korea on this issue. But it&#39;s important that we should not be blinded by the charm offensive by North Korea,&quot; he told reporters at a briefing on Kono&#39;s visit.

He said Kono met Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan separately and discussed regional issues, including developments on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has used the Winter Games hosted by South Korea in Pyeongchang to unleash a diplomatic push for his isolated regime.

Kim sent his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong to the Games where she delivered a letter inviting South Korean President Moon Jae-in to a summit. She is the first member of the dynasty to set foot in the South since the Korean War.

North Korea&#39;s delegation to the Games also included the country&#39;s ceremonial head of state and hundreds of female cheerleaders.

Analysts have said the charm offensive aims to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington and weaken the world community&#39;s resolve to force the regime to abandon atomic weapons.

A day before the Winter Games, the North staged a military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 70th anniversary of its armed forces, putting its intercontinental ballistic missiles on show.&nbsp;

Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono used a visit to Singapore, the current chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, to call for unity in dealing with Pyongyang, a spokesman said

Japan today warned against being "blinded" by North Korea's diplomatic charm offensive at the Winter Olympics, saying the main goal remains ridding Pyongyang of nuclear weapons. Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono used a visit to Singapore, the current chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, to call for unity in dealing with Pyongyang, a spokesman said. "We need to maximise pressure on North Korea, to corner North Korea to change its policy by fully implementing the UN Security Council Resolution," said Toshihide Ando, deputy press secretary at Japan's foreign affairs ministry. "We will continue to work with the United States and South Korea on this issue. But it's important that we should not be blinded by the charm offensive by North Korea," he told reporters at a briefing on Kono's visit. He said Kono met Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan separately and discussed regional issues, including developments on the Korean Peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has used the Winter Games hosted by South Korea in Pyeongchang to unleash a diplomatic push for his isolated regime. Kim sent his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong to the Games where she delivered a letter inviting South Korean President Moon Jae-in to a summit. She is the first member of the dynasty to set foot in the South since the Korean War. North Korea's delegation to the Games also included the country's ceremonial head of state and hundreds of female cheerleaders. Analysts have said the charm offensive aims to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington and weaken the world community's resolve to force the regime to abandon atomic weapons. A day before the Winter Games, the North staged a military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 70th anniversary of its armed forces, putting its intercontinental ballistic missiles on show.

Don't be 'blinded' by North Korea charm offensive: Japan

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited the South`s President Moon Jae-in for a summit in Pyongyang, Seoul said Saturday.

The invitation, delivered by Kim&#39;s visiting sister Kim Yo Jong, said Kim was willing to meet the South`s leader &quot;at the earliest date possible&quot;, said a spokesman for the presidential Blue House.

An inter-Korean summit would be the third of its kind, after Kim`s father and predecessor Kim Jong Il met the South`s Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun in 2000 and 2007 respectively, both of them in Pyongyang.

After months of silence on whether it would even take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South, which had their opening ceremony Friday, nuclear-armed North Korea has gone on a charm offensive, dispatching athletes, performers and Kim`s sister plus other diplomatic delegates to the South. 
 
Moon met Kim Yo Jong and the North`s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam for talks and lunch at the Blue House on Saturday.&nbsp;

&quot;Special envoy Kim Yo Jong delivered a personal letter&quot; from her brother stating his &quot;wish to improve inter-Korean relations&quot;, said Moon`s spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.

She verbally conveyed Kim`s invitation to Moon &quot;to visit the North at his most convenient time&quot;, he added.

Moon has long argued for engagement with the North to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear ambitions, but did not immediately accept the offer.

Moon called for efforts to &quot;create the right conditions to realise&quot; such a visit, his spokesman said, urging Pyongyang to more actively seek dialogue with the US.

&quot;It is absolutely necessary for the North and the United States to engage in talks at an early date,&quot; he cited Moon as saying.

Washington has long insisted the North must show a willingness to denuclearise before any negotiations -- which Pyongyang says it will never do.

The invitation, delivered by Kim's visiting sister Kim Yo Jong, said Kim was willing to meet the South`s leader 'at the earliest date possible', said a spokesman for the presidential Blue House

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited the South`s President Moon Jae-in for a summit in Pyongyang, Seoul said Saturday. The invitation, delivered by Kim's visiting sister Kim Yo Jong, said Kim was willing to meet the South`s leader "at the earliest date possible", said a spokesman for the presidential Blue House. An inter-Korean summit would be the third of its kind, after Kim`s father and predecessor Kim Jong Il met the South`s Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun in 2000 and 2007 respectively, both of them in Pyongyang. After months of silence on whether it would even take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South, which had their opening ceremony Friday, nuclear-armed North Korea has gone on a charm offensive, dispatching athletes, performers and Kim`s sister plus other diplomatic delegates to the South. Moon met Kim Yo Jong and the North`s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam for talks and lunch at the Blue House on Saturday. "Special envoy Kim Yo Jong delivered a personal letter" from her brother stating his "wish to improve inter-Korean relations", said Moon`s spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom. She verbally conveyed Kim`s invitation to Moon "to visit the North at his most convenient time", he added. Moon has long argued for engagement with the North to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear ambitions, but did not immediately accept the offer. Moon called for efforts to "create the right conditions to realise" such a visit, his spokesman said, urging Pyongyang to more actively seek dialogue with the US. "It is absolutely necessary for the North and the United States to engage in talks at an early date," he cited Moon as saying. Washington has long insisted the North must show a willingness to denuclearise before any negotiations -- which Pyongyang says it will never do.

Kim Jong Un's sister invites South Korean president to Pyongyang

Novelist and investigative journalist Suki Kim, who went undercover in North Korea in 2011 posing as a missionary and an English teacher, says when one talks of art and literature in that country, one has to step back to see if that is even possible.

When all universities in North Korea were shut down for an entire year in 2011, the students were sent to construction fields except for 270 students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a brand-new university staffed only by foreigners for sons of North Korea&#39;s ruling class.

Thrice a day, the students had to sing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: &quot;Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us.&quot;

This went on to become the title of Suki&#39;s book. &quot;Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea&#39;s Elite&quot; is Suki&#39;s account of teaching English during the last six months of Kim Jong-il&#39;s reign.

Suki describes this university as a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where she accepted a job teaching English.

Over the next six months, she taught them under the watchful eye of the regime.

&quot;But strangely, there were no inquisitiveness on the part of the students. They were not connected to the outside world and did not have the curiosity too. Actually, they were not allowed to nurture any such curiosity,&quot; Suki said during the recently-concluded Jaipur Literature Festival.

Suki scribbled notes whenever she could and later kept the written matter on USB sticks. Since 2002, she has travelled to North Korea, witnessing both Kim Jong-il&#39;s 60th Birthday celebrations as well as his death at age 69 in 2011.

She says no freedom of expression exists in North Korea.

&quot;It is all under surveillance. How can one talk of art and literature in North Korea when one is allowed only to write and speak about the top leader. One has to step back to see if that (arts and literature) is even possible,&quot; she says. 
According to Suki, it is important to examine and verify news and information related to North Korea.

She was responding to a question related to the book &quot;The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea&quot;, written in 2014 by an anonymous writer from that country and translated by Deborah Smith.

In the collection, the dissident known only by the pseudonym Bandi paints a powerful and unflinching portrait of life under the rule of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.

&quot;I am not sure if one can give a proof that a real North Korean wrote that book. Not every bit of information related to North Korea can be considered genuine without proper verification,&quot; Suki says.

Born and raised in Seoul, Suki lives in New York. Her first novel, &quot;The Interpreter&quot;, was a finalist for a PEN Hemingway Prize.

Suki, who came to the Jaipur Literature Festival for the first time, says she loves novels of mother-daughter duo of Anita and Kiran Desai and Manil Suri.

When all universities in North Korea were shut down for an entire year in 2011, the students were sent to construction fields except for 270 students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. Thrice a day, the students had to sing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea

Novelist and investigative journalist Suki Kim, who went undercover in North Korea in 2011 posing as a missionary and an English teacher, says when one talks of art and literature in that country, one has to step back to see if that is even possible. When all universities in North Korea were shut down for an entire year in 2011, the students were sent to construction fields except for 270 students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a brand-new university staffed only by foreigners for sons of North Korea's ruling class. Thrice a day, the students had to sing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: "Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us." This went on to become the title of Suki's book. "Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite" is Suki's account of teaching English during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign. Suki describes this university as a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where she accepted a job teaching English. Over the next six months, she taught them under the watchful eye of the regime. "But strangely, there were no inquisitiveness on the part of the students. They were not connected to the outside world and did not have the curiosity too. Actually, they were not allowed to nurture any such curiosity," Suki said during the recently-concluded Jaipur Literature Festival. Suki scribbled notes whenever she could and later kept the written matter on USB sticks. Since 2002, she has travelled to North Korea, witnessing both Kim Jong-il's 60th Birthday celebrations as well as his death at age 69 in 2011. She says no freedom of expression exists in North Korea. "It is all under surveillance. How can one talk of art and literature in North Korea when one is allowed only to write and speak about the top leader. One has to step back to see if that (arts and literature) is even possible," she says. According to Suki, it is important to examine and verify news and information related to North Korea. She was responding to a question related to the book "The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea", written in 2014 by an anonymous writer from that country and translated by Deborah Smith. In the collection, the dissident known only by the pseudonym Bandi paints a powerful and unflinching portrait of life under the rule of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. "I am not sure if one can give a proof that a real North Korean wrote that book. Not every bit of information related to North Korea can be considered genuine without proper verification," Suki says. Born and raised in Seoul, Suki lives in New York. Her first novel, "The Interpreter", was a finalist for a PEN Hemingway Prize. Suki, who came to the Jaipur Literature Festival for the first time, says she loves novels of mother-daughter duo of Anita and Kiran Desai and Manil Suri.

Suki Kim: The novelist who went undercover in North Korea

North Korea violated United Nations sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, according to a confidential report by independent UN&nbsp;monitors, which also accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Syria and Myanmar.

The report to a UN&nbsp;Security Council sanctions committee, seen by Reuters on Friday, said North Korea had shipped coal to ports, including in Russia, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam, mainly using false paperwork that showed countries such as Russia and China as the coal origin, instead of North Korea.

The 15-member council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang&#39;s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

&quot;The DPRK (North Korea) is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries and the international banking system,&quot; the UN&nbsp;monitors wrote in the 213-page report.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the UN report. Russia and China have repeatedly said they are implementing UN&nbsp;sanctions on North Korea.

Syria Myanmar

The monitors said they had investigated ongoing ballistic missile cooperation between Syria and Myanmar, including more than 40 previously unreported North Korea shipments between 2012 and 2017 to Syria&#39;s Scientific Studies and Research Centre, which oversees the country&#39;s chemical weapons program.

The investigation has shown &quot;further evidence of arms embargo and other violations, including through the transfer of items with utility in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs,&quot; the UN&nbsp;monitors wrote.

They also inspected cargo from two North Korea shipments intercepted by unidentified countries en route to Syria. Both contained acid-resistant tiles that could cover an area equal to a large scale industrial project, the monitors reported.

One country, which was not identified, told the monitors the seized shipments can &quot;be used to build bricks for the interior wall of a chemical factory.&quot;

Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013. However, diplomats and weapons inspectors suspect Syria may have secretly maintained or developed a new chemical weapons capability.

The Syrian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the UN&nbsp;report.

The UN&nbsp;monitors also said one country, which they did not identify, reported it had evidence that Myanmar received ballistic missile systems from North Korea, along with conventional weapons, including multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles.

Myanmar UN&nbsp;Ambassador Hau Do Suan said the Myanmar government &quot;has no ongoing arms relationship, whatsoever, with North Korea&quot; and is abiding by the UN&nbsp;Security Council resolutions.

Banned exports, imports

Under a 2016 resolution, the UN&nbsp;Security Council capped coal exports and required countries to report any imports of North Korean coal to the council sanctions committee. It then banned all exports of coal by North Korea on Aug. 5.

The UN&nbsp;monitors investigated 16 coal shipments between January and Aug. 5 to ports in Russia, China, Malaysia and Vietnam. They said Malaysia reported one shipment to the council committee and the remaining 15 shipments violated sanctions.

After the coal ban was imposed on Aug. 5, the UN&nbsp;monitors investigated 23 coal shipments to ports in Russia, China, South Korea and Vietnam. The UN&nbsp;monitors said all those shipments &quot;would constitute a violation of the resolution, if confirmed.&quot;

&quot;The DPRK combined deceptive navigation patterns, signals manipulation, transshipments as well as fraudulent documentation to obscure the origin of the coal,&quot; the monitors said.

The UN&nbsp;monitors &quot;also investigated cases of ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in violation (of UN&nbsp;sanctions) ... and found that the network behind these vessels is primarily based in Taiwan province of China.&quot;

The monitors said one country, which they did not name, told them North Korea had carried out such transfers off its ports of Wonsan and Nampo and in international waters between the Yellow Sea and East China Sea between October and January.

The report said several multinational oil companies, which were not named, were also being investigated for roles in the supply chain of petroleum products transferred to North Korea.

North Korea violated United Nations sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, according to a confidential report by independent UN monitors, which also accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Syria and Myanmar

North Korea violated United Nations sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, according to a confidential report by independent UN monitors, which also accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Syria and Myanmar. The report to a UN Security Council sanctions committee, seen by Reuters on Friday, said North Korea had shipped coal to ports, including in Russia, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam, mainly using false paperwork that showed countries such as Russia and China as the coal origin, instead of North Korea. The 15-member council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products. "The DPRK (North Korea) is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries and the international banking system," the UN monitors wrote in the 213-page report. The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the UN report. Russia and China have repeatedly said they are implementing UN sanctions on North Korea. Syria Myanmar The monitors said they had investigated ongoing ballistic missile cooperation between Syria and Myanmar, including more than 40 previously unreported North Korea shipments between 2012 and 2017 to Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Centre, which oversees the country's chemical weapons program. The investigation has shown "further evidence of arms embargo and other violations, including through the transfer of items with utility in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs," the UN monitors wrote. They also inspected cargo from two North Korea shipments intercepted by unidentified countries en route to Syria. Both contained acid-resistant tiles that could cover an area equal to a large scale industrial project, the monitors reported. One country, which was not identified, told the monitors the seized shipments can "be used to build bricks for the interior wall of a chemical factory." Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013. However, diplomats and weapons inspectors suspect Syria may have secretly maintained or developed a new chemical weapons capability. The Syrian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the UN report. The UN monitors also said one country, which they did not identify, reported it had evidence that Myanmar received ballistic missile systems from North Korea, along with conventional weapons, including multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles. Myanmar UN Ambassador Hau Do Suan said the Myanmar government "has no ongoing arms relationship, whatsoever, with North Korea" and is abiding by the UN Security Council resolutions. Banned exports, imports Under a 2016 resolution, the UN Security Council capped coal exports and required countries to report any imports of North Korean coal to the council sanctions committee. It then banned all exports of coal by North Korea on Aug. 5. The UN monitors investigated 16 coal shipments between January and Aug. 5 to ports in Russia, China, Malaysia and Vietnam. They said Malaysia reported one shipment to the council committee and the remaining 15 shipments violated sanctions. After the coal ban was imposed on Aug. 5, the UN monitors investigated 23 coal shipments to ports in Russia, China, South Korea and Vietnam. The UN monitors said all those shipments "would constitute a violation of the resolution, if confirmed." "The DPRK combined deceptive navigation patterns, signals manipulation, transshipments as well as fraudulent documentation to obscure the origin of the coal," the monitors said. The UN monitors "also investigated cases of ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in violation (of UN sanctions) ... and found that the network behind these vessels is primarily based in Taiwan province of China." The monitors said one country, which they did not name, told them North Korea had carried out such transfers off its ports of Wonsan and Nampo and in international waters between the Yellow Sea and East China Sea between October and January. The report said several multinational oil companies, which were not named, were also being investigated for roles in the supply chain of petroleum products transferred to North Korea.

North Korea earned $200 million from banned exports, sends arms to Syria, Myanmar: UN report

US&nbsp;Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday the United States is receiving evidence that international sanctions are &quot;really starting to hurt&quot; North Korea, and praised China for putting pressure on Pyongyang.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in had attributed North Korea&#39;s recent willingness to talk to South Korea to the pain of sanctions, Tillerson told an event at Stanford University in California.

Tillerson said that he was confident the pressure would eventually bring North Korea to the negotiating table over its nuclear and missile programs. Pyongyang has carried out nuclear and missiles tests in defiance of United Nations and other sanctions.

&quot;We are getting a lot of evidence that these sanctions are really starting to hurt,&quot; Tillerson said, citing intelligence and anecdotal evidence from defectors.

He said Japan told a conference on North Korea in Vancouver on Tuesday that more than 100 North Korean fishing boats had drifted into its waters and two-thirds of those aboard them had died.

&quot;What they learned is that they are being sent out in the winter time because there are food shortages and they are being sent out to fish with inadequate fuel to get back,&quot; he said.

China did not attend the Vancouver meeting, where 20 nations agreed to step up sanctions pressure on North Korea, but Tillerson highlighted Beijing&#39;s role.

&quot;We have never had Chinese support for sanctions like we&#39;re getting now,&quot; he said.

&quot;Russia&#39;s a slightly different issue, but the Chinese have learned in hard on the North Koreans,&quot; he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that Russia is helping North Korea evade sanctions and that Pyongyang is getting &quot;closer every day&quot; to being able to deliver a long-range missile to the United States.

Tillerson said that while North Korea had a record of seeking to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies through &quot;charm offensives&quot;, Washington was supportive of the North-South dialogue.

He said it was possible North Korea&#39;s presence &quot;may be their early effort to break the ice.&quot;

&quot;We&rsquo;ll see - nothing may come of it,&quot; he said.

Tillerson said of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un: &quot;he knows how to reach me if he wants to talk. But he&#39;s going to tell me he wants to talk. We&#39;re not going to chase him.&quot;

Tillerson said he was confident the sides would eventually get to the negotiating table and he wanted to know when that happened that the United States had &quot;very, very strong military options standing behind me.&quot;

The Trump administration has said repeatedly that all options are available, including military ones, in forcing North Korea to give up development of nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States, although it prefers a diplomatic solution.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Tillerson said that while North Korea had a record of seeking to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies through "charm offensives", Washington was supportive of the North-South dialogue.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday the United States is receiving evidence that international sanctions are "really starting to hurt" North Korea, and praised China for putting pressure on Pyongyang. South Korean President Moon Jae-in had attributed North Korea's recent willingness to talk to South Korea to the pain of sanctions, Tillerson told an event at Stanford University in California. Tillerson said that he was confident the pressure would eventually bring North Korea to the negotiating table over its nuclear and missile programs. Pyongyang has carried out nuclear and missiles tests in defiance of United Nations and other sanctions. "We are getting a lot of evidence that these sanctions are really starting to hurt," Tillerson said, citing intelligence and anecdotal evidence from defectors. He said Japan told a conference on North Korea in Vancouver on Tuesday that more than 100 North Korean fishing boats had drifted into its waters and two-thirds of those aboard them had died. "What they learned is that they are being sent out in the winter time because there are food shortages and they are being sent out to fish with inadequate fuel to get back," he said. China did not attend the Vancouver meeting, where 20 nations agreed to step up sanctions pressure on North Korea, but Tillerson highlighted Beijing's role. "We have never had Chinese support for sanctions like we're getting now," he said. "Russia's a slightly different issue, but the Chinese have learned in hard on the North Koreans," he said. U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that Russia is helping North Korea evade sanctions and that Pyongyang is getting "closer every day" to being able to deliver a long-range missile to the United States. Tillerson said that while North Korea had a record of seeking to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies through "charm offensives", Washington was supportive of the North-South dialogue. He said it was possible North Korea's presence "may be their early effort to break the ice." "We’ll see - nothing may come of it," he said. Tillerson said of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un: "he knows how to reach me if he wants to talk. But he's going to tell me he wants to talk. We're not going to chase him." Tillerson said he was confident the sides would eventually get to the negotiating table and he wanted to know when that happened that the United States had "very, very strong military options standing behind me." The Trump administration has said repeatedly that all options are available, including military ones, in forcing North Korea to give up development of nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States, although it prefers a diplomatic solution.

Tillerson: Evidence sanctions 'really starting to hurt' North Korea

North Korea today denounced President Donald Trump&#39;s tweeted message that he has a bigger nuclear button than its leader Kim Jong-Un as the &quot;spasm of a lunatic&quot; and the &quot;bark of a rabid dog&quot;.

Kim used his annual New Year address to warn he has a &quot;nuclear button&quot; on his table, sweetening his remarks by expressing an interest in dialogue and taking part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South next month.

In response, Trump wrote on Twitter: &quot;Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger &amp; more powerful one than his, and my Button works!&quot;

In Pyongyang&#39;s first reaction to the tweet, the North&#39;s official party newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Tuesday dismissed Trump&#39;s &quot;swaggering&quot; as nothing but the &quot;spasm of a lunatic&quot; frightened by North Korea&#39;s power and the &quot;bark of a rabid dog&quot;.

In the days after Kim&#39;s New Year speech the two Koreas underwent a rapid apparent rapprochement, culminating last week in their first official talks for two years when they agreed Pyongyang would attend the Games.

But the North has since issued a series of warnings against both the South and the United States.

Pyongyang has made apocalyptic threats against its enemies for years, but Trump has repeatedly used highly menacing rhetoric towards the nuclear-armed North, sparking criticism that he is ratcheting up already-high tensions on the Korean peninsula.

He has threatened to rain &quot;fire and fury&quot; on the North, warning Kim he was on a &quot;suicide mission&quot; by developing nuclear missiles.

Trump&#39;s &quot;button&quot; tweet &quot;reflects the desperate mental state of a loser,&quot; Rodong Sinmun said in its commentary, diagnosing him as &quot;suffering from anger disorder and schizophrenia&quot;.&nbsp;

Kim Jong-un used his annual New Year address to warn he has a 'nuclear button' on his table

North Korea today denounced President Donald Trump's tweeted message that he has a bigger nuclear button than its leader Kim Jong-Un as the "spasm of a lunatic" and the "bark of a rabid dog". Kim used his annual New Year address to warn he has a "nuclear button" on his table, sweetening his remarks by expressing an interest in dialogue and taking part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South next month. In response, Trump wrote on Twitter: "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" In Pyongyang's first reaction to the tweet, the North's official party newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Tuesday dismissed Trump's "swaggering" as nothing but the "spasm of a lunatic" frightened by North Korea's power and the "bark of a rabid dog". In the days after Kim's New Year speech the two Koreas underwent a rapid apparent rapprochement, culminating last week in their first official talks for two years when they agreed Pyongyang would attend the Games. But the North has since issued a series of warnings against both the South and the United States. Pyongyang has made apocalyptic threats against its enemies for years, but Trump has repeatedly used highly menacing rhetoric towards the nuclear-armed North, sparking criticism that he is ratcheting up already-high tensions on the Korean peninsula. He has threatened to rain "fire and fury" on the North, warning Kim he was on a "suicide mission" by developing nuclear missiles. Trump's "button" tweet "reflects the desperate mental state of a loser," Rodong Sinmun said in its commentary, diagnosing him as "suffering from anger disorder and schizophrenia".

North Korea calls Trump nuclear button boast the 'bark of a rabid dog'

South Korean President Moon Jae-in credited US&nbsp;President Donald Trump on Wednesday for helping to spark the first inter-Korean talks in more than two years and warned that Pyongyang would face stronger sanctions if provocations continued.

The talks were held on Tuesday on the South Korean side of the demilitarised zone, which has divided the two Koreas since 1953, after a prolonged period of tension on the Korean peninsula over the North&#39;s missile and nuclear programmes.

North Korea ramped up its missile launches last year and also conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, resulting in some of the strongest international sanctions yet.

The latest sanctions sought to drastically cut the North&#39;s access to refined petroleum imports and earnings from workers abroad. Pyongyang called the steps an &quot;act of war&quot;.

Seoul and Pyongyang agreed at Tuesday&#39;s talks, the first since December 2015, to resolve all problems between them through dialogue and also to revive military consultations so that accidental conflict could be averted.&nbsp;

&quot;I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks, I want to show my gratitude,&quot; Moon told reporters at his New Year&#39;s news conference. &quot;It could be a resulting work of the US-led sanctions and pressure.&quot;

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchanged threats and insults over the past year, raising fears of a new war on the peninsula. South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with the North after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Basic stance

Washington had raised concerns that the overtures by North Korea could drive a wedge between it and Seoul, but Moon said his government did not differ with the United States over how to respond to the threats posed by Pyongyang.

&quot;This initial round of talks is for the improvement of relations between North and South Korea. Our task going forward is to draw North Korea to talks aimed at the denuclearisation of the North,&quot; Moon said. &quot;(It&#39;s) our basic stance that will never be given up.&quot;

Moon said he was open to meeting North Korea&#39;s leader at any time to improve bilateral ties, and if the conditions were right and &quot;certain achievements are guaranteed&quot;.

&quot;The purpose of it shouldn&rsquo;t talk for the sake of talks,&quot; he said.

However, Pyongyang said it would not discuss its nuclear weapons with Seoul because they were only aimed at the United States, not its &quot;brethren&quot; in South Korea, nor Russia or China, showing that a diplomatic breakthrough remained far off.

North Korea`s Rodong Sinmun newspaper said all problems would be resolved through efforts by the Korean people alone.

&quot;If the North and South abandon external forces and cooperate together, we will be able to fully solve all problems to match our people&#39;s needs and our joint prosperity,&quot; it said.

Washington still welcomed Tuesday`s talks as a first step towards solving the North Korean nuclear crisis. The US&nbsp;State Department said it would be interested in joining future talks, with the aim of denuclearising the North.

The United States, which still has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, initially responded coolly to the idea of inter-Korean meetings. Trump later called them &quot;a good thing&quot; and said he would be willing to speak to Kim.

Lee Woo-young, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said it was wise of Moon to praise Trump, his sanctions and pressure campaign.

&quot;By doing that, he can help the US&nbsp;build logic for moving toward negotiations and turning around the state of affairs in the future, so when they were ready to talk to the North, they can say the North came out of isolation because the sanctions were effective.&quot;

The United States and Canada are set to host a conference of about 20 foreign ministers on January 16 in Vancouver to discuss North Korea, without the participation of China, Pyongyang&#39;s sole major ally and biggest trade partner.

China would not attend the meeting and is resolutely opposed to it, said foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang.

&quot;It will only create divisions within the international community and harm joint efforts to appropriately resolve the Korean peninsula nuclear issue,&quot; he told a regular briefing on Wednesday.

Large Olympics delegation

Pyongyang also said it would send a large delegation to next month&#39;s Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Washington agreed with Seoul last week to postpone until after the Olympics joint military exercises that Pyongyang denounces as rehearsals for invasion. But it also said the apparent North-South thaw had not altered the US&nbsp;intelligence assessment of the North&rsquo;s weapons programmes.

The United States has also warned that all options, including military, are on the table in dealing with the North.

&quot;We cannot say talks are the sole answer,&quot; Moon said. &quot;If North Korea engages in provocations again or does not show sincerity in resolving this issue, the international community will continue applying strong pressure and sanctions.&quot;

Seoul said on Tuesday it was prepared to offer financial assistance and lift some unilateral sanctions temporarily so North Koreans could attend the Olympics. North Korea said its delegation would include athletes and officials, among others.

However, Moon said on Wednesday South Korea had no plans for now to ease unilateral sanctions against North Korea, or revive economic exchanges that could run foul of United Nations sanctions.&nbsp;

Moon also said his government would continue working towards recovering the honour and dignity of former &quot;comfort women&quot;, a euphemism for those forced to work in Japan&#39;s wartime brothels.

But historical issues should be separated from bilateral efforts with Japan to safeguard peace on the Korean peninsula, he added.

&quot;It&#39;s very important we keep a good relationship with Japan,&quot; Moon said.

On Tuesday, South Korea said it would not seek to renegotiate a 2015 deal with Japan despite determining that the pact was insufficient to resolve the divisive issue, and urged Japan for more action to help the women.

The talks were held on Tuesday on the South Korean side of the demilitarised zone, which has divided the two Koreas since 1953

South Korean President Moon Jae-in credited US President Donald Trump on Wednesday for helping to spark the first inter-Korean talks in more than two years and warned that Pyongyang would face stronger sanctions if provocations continued. The talks were held on Tuesday on the South Korean side of the demilitarised zone, which has divided the two Koreas since 1953, after a prolonged period of tension on the Korean peninsula over the North's missile and nuclear programmes. North Korea ramped up its missile launches last year and also conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, resulting in some of the strongest international sanctions yet. The latest sanctions sought to drastically cut the North's access to refined petroleum imports and earnings from workers abroad. Pyongyang called the steps an "act of war". Seoul and Pyongyang agreed at Tuesday's talks, the first since December 2015, to resolve all problems between them through dialogue and also to revive military consultations so that accidental conflict could be averted. "I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks, I want to show my gratitude," Moon told reporters at his New Year's news conference. "It could be a resulting work of the US-led sanctions and pressure." Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchanged threats and insults over the past year, raising fears of a new war on the peninsula. South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with the North after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty. Basic stance Washington had raised concerns that the overtures by North Korea could drive a wedge between it and Seoul, but Moon said his government did not differ with the United States over how to respond to the threats posed by Pyongyang. "This initial round of talks is for the improvement of relations between North and South Korea. Our task going forward is to draw North Korea to talks aimed at the denuclearisation of the North," Moon said. "(It's) our basic stance that will never be given up." Moon said he was open to meeting North Korea's leader at any time to improve bilateral ties, and if the conditions were right and "certain achievements are guaranteed". "The purpose of it shouldn’t talk for the sake of talks," he said. However, Pyongyang said it would not discuss its nuclear weapons with Seoul because they were only aimed at the United States, not its "brethren" in South Korea, nor Russia or China, showing that a diplomatic breakthrough remained far off. North Korea`s Rodong Sinmun newspaper said all problems would be resolved through efforts by the Korean people alone. "If the North and South abandon external forces and cooperate together, we will be able to fully solve all problems to match our people's needs and our joint prosperity," it said. Washington still welcomed Tuesday`s talks as a first step towards solving the North Korean nuclear crisis. The US State Department said it would be interested in joining future talks, with the aim of denuclearising the North. The United States, which still has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, initially responded coolly to the idea of inter-Korean meetings. Trump later called them "a good thing" and said he would be willing to speak to Kim. Lee Woo-young, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said it was wise of Moon to praise Trump, his sanctions and pressure campaign. "By doing that, he can help the US build logic for moving toward negotiations and turning around the state of affairs in the future, so when they were ready to talk to the North, they can say the North came out of isolation because the sanctions were effective." The United States and Canada are set to host a conference of about 20 foreign ministers on January 16 in Vancouver to discuss North Korea, without the participation of China, Pyongyang's sole major ally and biggest trade partner. China would not attend the meeting and is resolutely opposed to it, said foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang. "It will only create divisions within the international community and harm joint efforts to appropriately resolve the Korean peninsula nuclear issue," he told a regular briefing on Wednesday. Large Olympics delegation Pyongyang also said it would send a large delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea. Washington agreed with Seoul last week to postpone until after the Olympics joint military exercises that Pyongyang denounces as rehearsals for invasion. But it also said the apparent North-South thaw had not altered the US intelligence assessment of the North’s weapons programmes. The United States has also warned that all options, including military, are on the table in dealing with the North. "We cannot say talks are the sole answer," Moon said. "If North Korea engages in provocations again or does not show sincerity in resolving this issue, the international community will continue applying strong pressure and sanctions." Seoul said on Tuesday it was prepared to offer financial assistance and lift some unilateral sanctions temporarily so North Koreans could attend the Olympics. North Korea said its delegation would include athletes and officials, among others. However, Moon said on Wednesday South Korea had no plans for now to ease unilateral sanctions against North Korea, or revive economic exchanges that could run foul of United Nations sanctions. Moon also said his government would continue working towards recovering the honour and dignity of former "comfort women", a euphemism for those forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels. But historical issues should be separated from bilateral efforts with Japan to safeguard peace on the Korean peninsula, he added. "It's very important we keep a good relationship with Japan," Moon said. On Tuesday, South Korea said it would not seek to renegotiate a 2015 deal with Japan despite determining that the pact was insufficient to resolve the divisive issue, and urged Japan for more action to help the women.

South Korea's Moon says Trump deserves 'big' credit for North Korea talks

The two Koreas are eyeball-to-eyeball one day, engaged in a slanging match the other and jaw-jaw the next day. Over the last 65 years, only the actors have changed, not the script. North Korea (NK), meanwhile, has gone about merrily developing a range of WMD.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Last year, NK conducted its most powerful nuclear test ever, demonstrated its ability to even launch an ICBM, engaged in chilling rhetoric (duly matched for the first time by an American President), threatened destruction of the US and South Korea (ROK), shrugged off ever-tightening UNSC sanctions and contemptuously dismissed South Korean peace overtures.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

And then suddenly on 1st January, Kim Jong-un (KJU) offered to talk to Seoul and expressed willingness to send his athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics at PyeongChang, which is taking place between 9 to 25 February 2018. President Moon Jae-in, whose parents migrated from North Korea, has always been a votary of peace and reconciliation. He grabbed the offer with alacrity.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Restoration of North-South military hotline followed. USA and ROK quickly consented to postpone the annual joint military exercises, as demanded by Pyongyang. President Trump promptly credited his hardline policy for the thaw. Ministerial-level talks were held successfully at the &lsquo;Peace Village&rsquo; at DMZ on 9th January, with the sides agreeing to North Korean participation, resumption of a military dialogue to lower tensions and further talks on related issues.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

What led to these dramatic developments, all in a span of nine days? First and foremost, it was North&rsquo;s growing isolation. Increasing Chinese discomfiture with Kim Jong-un was the other reason.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

UNSC sanctions were steadily tightening. The cap on supply of oil and petroleum products, if implemented in right earnest (unlikely!), could potentially cause genuine hardship to the Kim regime. Its avenues of earning foreign exchange were getting choked. NK&rsquo;s missions abroad, which routinely engage in illicit activities to generate cash, were coming under a scanner.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Countries, including Kuwait, Mexico, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Spain and Thailand had begun downgrading or suspending diplomatic ties with Pyongyang. The US, Japan and ROK had begun singing from the same music sheet. That was the cue for NK to tactically shift gears.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Going by its play-book, NK extended the olive branch, to ease the mounting pressure, buy time, extract some freebies from ROK and try to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

For good reasons, Seoul has, historically, taken a softer approach towards Pyongyang, while the US has advocated a muscular one. Also, the optics; NK athletes are capable of winning a few medals, which will sit well with the home crowd. Media across the world will live-stream footage of smiling and smartly turned-out NK sportspersons, constituting good propaganda value. NK can rest assured that South Koreans will reserve their loudest cheers for the NK contingent.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The South Korean public, politicians, media and academia &ndash; hawks and doves in equal measure &ndash; will again fathom signs of thaw and hope. There would be renewed calls for resuming humanitarian assistance. The sides may even arrive at a secret understanding or two, which would only surface over time. It may be recalled that ROK President Kim Dae-jung&rsquo;s &lsquo;successful&rsquo; Sunshine Policy and summit with Kim Jong-il, was anchored on a secret &lsquo;gift&rsquo; of US$500 million to North Korea.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

And then NK will launch its next missile, conduct one more nuclear test, commit another provocation or simply get &lsquo;offended&rsquo; at ROK-US joint military exercises, abruptly shattering ROK&rsquo;s dream sequence.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL).

Going by its play-book, NK extended the olive branch, to ease the mounting pressure, buy time, extract some freebies from ROK and try to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.

The two Koreas are eyeball-to-eyeball one day, engaged in a slanging match the other and jaw-jaw the next day. Over the last 65 years, only the actors have changed, not the script. North Korea (NK), meanwhile, has gone about merrily developing a range of WMD. Last year, NK conducted its most powerful nuclear test ever, demonstrated its ability to even launch an ICBM, engaged in chilling rhetoric (duly matched for the first time by an American President), threatened destruction of the US and South Korea (ROK), shrugged off ever-tightening UNSC sanctions and contemptuously dismissed South Korean peace overtures. And then suddenly on 1st January, Kim Jong-un (KJU) offered to talk to Seoul and expressed willingness to send his athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics at PyeongChang, which is taking place between 9 to 25 February 2018. President Moon Jae-in, whose parents migrated from North Korea, has always been a votary of peace and reconciliation. He grabbed the offer with alacrity. Restoration of North-South military hotline followed. USA and ROK quickly consented to postpone the annual joint military exercises, as demanded by Pyongyang. President Trump promptly credited his hardline policy for the thaw. Ministerial-level talks were held successfully at the ‘Peace Village’ at DMZ on 9th January, with the sides agreeing to North Korean participation, resumption of a military dialogue to lower tensions and further talks on related issues. What led to these dramatic developments, all in a span of nine days? First and foremost, it was North’s growing isolation. Increasing Chinese discomfiture with Kim Jong-un was the other reason. UNSC sanctions were steadily tightening. The cap on supply of oil and petroleum products, if implemented in right earnest (unlikely!), could potentially cause genuine hardship to the Kim regime. Its avenues of earning foreign exchange were getting choked. NK’s missions abroad, which routinely engage in illicit activities to generate cash, were coming under a scanner. Countries, including Kuwait, Mexico, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Spain and Thailand had begun downgrading or suspending diplomatic ties with Pyongyang. The US, Japan and ROK had begun singing from the same music sheet. That was the cue for NK to tactically shift gears. Going by its play-book, NK extended the olive branch, to ease the mounting pressure, buy time, extract some freebies from ROK and try to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington. For good reasons, Seoul has, historically, taken a softer approach towards Pyongyang, while the US has advocated a muscular one. Also, the optics; NK athletes are capable of winning a few medals, which will sit well with the home crowd. Media across the world will live-stream footage of smiling and smartly turned-out NK sportspersons, constituting good propaganda value. NK can rest assured that South Koreans will reserve their loudest cheers for the NK contingent. The South Korean public, politicians, media and academia – hawks and doves in equal measure – will again fathom signs of thaw and hope. There would be renewed calls for resuming humanitarian assistance. The sides may even arrive at a secret understanding or two, which would only surface over time. It may be recalled that ROK President Kim Dae-jung’s ‘successful’ Sunshine Policy and summit with Kim Jong-il, was anchored on a secret ‘gift’ of US$500 million to North Korea. And then NK will launch its next missile, conduct one more nuclear test, commit another provocation or simply get ‘offended’ at ROK-US joint military exercises, abruptly shattering ROK’s dream sequence. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL).

Opinion: North Korea is fooling all with promises of peace talks

North Korea will send its athletes to the Winter Olympics in the South, the rivals said Tuesday, after their first formal talks in more than two years following high tensions over Pyongyang&#39;s nuclear weapons programme.

At the meeting in Panmunjom -- the truce village in the Demilitarised Zone that splits the peninsula -- the two sides also decided to hold military talks and to restore a military hotline closed since February 2016.

It came after Seoul responded to a New Year speech by the North&#39;s leader Kim Jong-Un last week with an offer of high-level dialogue, and last week a civilian hotline was restored after an almost two-year suspension.

Seoul and Olympic organisers have been keen for Pyongyang -- which boycotted the 1988 Summer Games in South Korea&#39;s capital -- to take part in what they repeatedly proclaimed a &quot;peace Olympics&quot; in Pyeongchang next month.

But the North gave no indication it would do so until Kim&#39;s speech, pursuing its banned weapons programmes in defiance of United Nations sanctions, launching missiles capable of reaching the US and detonating its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.

&quot;The North Korean side will dispatch a high-level delegation, National Olympic Committee delegation, athletes, cheerleaders, art performers&#39; squad, spectators, a taekwondo demonstration team and a press corps and the South will provide necessary amenities and facilities,&quot; they said in a joint statement.&nbsp;

The US cautiously welcomed the talks, warning that the North&#39;s invitation to the Games must not undermine international efforts to isolate Kim&#39;s regime.

US officials would work with Seoul to ensure that the North&#39;s participation &quot;does not violate the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council over North Korea&#39;s unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile programs&quot;, the State Department said in a statement.

It added that President Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In had already agreed &quot;to continue the campaign of maximum pressure on North Korea toward the goal of complete and verifiable denuclearization.&quot;

New Year&#39;s gift

For the talks, the North&#39;s delegation walked over the Military Demarcation Line marking the border to the Peace House venue on the southern side, just yards from where a defector ran across in a hail of bullets two months ago.

Looking businesslike, the South&#39;s Unification minister Cho Myoung-Gyon and the North&#39;s chief delegate Ri Son-Gwon shook hands at the entrance to the building, and again across the negotiating table.

Ri wore a badge on his left lapel bearing an image of the country&#39;s founding father Kim Il-Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il, while Cho sported one depicting the South Korean flag.&nbsp;

&quot;Let&#39;s present the people with a precious new year&#39;s gift,&quot; said Ri. &quot;There is a saying that a journey taken by two lasts longer than the one travelled alone.&quot;

The atmosphere was friendlier than at past meetings, and Cho told Ri: &quot;The people have a strong desire to see the North and South move toward peace and reconciliation.&quot;

But there was no mention in the joint statement of the proposal by Seoul to resume reunions of families left divided by the Korean War, which Pyongyang has previously refused to do unless several of its citizens are returned by the South.

Ri also told South Korean journalists that denuclearisation was not on the table and not an issue for the two to discuss.

&quot;The target of all our nuclear and hydrogen bombs and ICBMs and all other sophisticated weapons is the US,&quot; he said. &quot;These weapons are not aimed at our brethren.&quot;

There were &quot;many problems&quot; to settle between the two sides, he added, warning of &quot;unexpected obstacles&quot; down the road.

Peace Olympics

Olympic organisers welcomed the North&#39;s participation in Pyeongchang and a Unification ministry official dubbed the Games &quot;a Peace Festival&quot;.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Pyongyang&#39;s decision to take part was a &quot;great step forward in the Olympic spirit&quot;.

Only two athletes from the North have so far qualified for the Games, but hundreds of young female North Korean cheerleaders have created a buzz at three previous international sporting events in the South.

Any high-level delegation accompanying the team could include Kim&#39;s younger sister Yo-Jong -- a senior member of the ruling Workers&#39; Party, according to South Korean reports.&nbsp;

The Unification ministry official said the meeting &quot;laid the foundation for restoring the severed inter-Korean ties and normalising them&quot;.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also welcomed the progress, especially plans to hold military talks and reopen the military hotline.&nbsp;

&quot;The re-establishment and strengthening of such channels is critical to lowering the risk of miscalculation or misunderstanding,&quot; his spokesman said in a statement.

It remains unclear when the proposed military talks -- which would be the first of their kind since 2014 -- would be held.

Lim Eul-Chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said the North&#39;s participation would &quot;help turn South Korean public sentiment about the North more favourable&quot;.

Pyongyang would then probably seek to resume lucrative joint economic projects, such as the suspended Kaesong industrial complex, he added -- although it is unclear whether that would be in compliance with UN sanctions.

Pyongyang&#39;s state media reiterated its condemnations of Trump on Tuesday, but Lim said the North &quot;appears to be trying to use the improvement in ties with the South as a springboard to resume talks with the US, which holds the key to controlling or possibly easing sanctions.&quot;

The United States and South Korea agreed last week to delay their joint military exercises until after the Games, apparently to help calm nerves.

North Korea will send its athletes to the Winter Olympics in the South after their first formal talks in more than two years

North Korea will send its athletes to the Winter Olympics in the South, the rivals said Tuesday, after their first formal talks in more than two years following high tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. At the meeting in Panmunjom -- the truce village in the Demilitarised Zone that splits the peninsula -- the two sides also decided to hold military talks and to restore a military hotline closed since February 2016. It came after Seoul responded to a New Year speech by the North's leader Kim Jong-Un last week with an offer of high-level dialogue, and last week a civilian hotline was restored after an almost two-year suspension. Seoul and Olympic organisers have been keen for Pyongyang -- which boycotted the 1988 Summer Games in South Korea's capital -- to take part in what they repeatedly proclaimed a "peace Olympics" in Pyeongchang next month. But the North gave no indication it would do so until Kim's speech, pursuing its banned weapons programmes in defiance of United Nations sanctions, launching missiles capable of reaching the US and detonating its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. "The North Korean side will dispatch a high-level delegation, National Olympic Committee delegation, athletes, cheerleaders, art performers' squad, spectators, a taekwondo demonstration team and a press corps and the South will provide necessary amenities and facilities," they said in a joint statement. The US cautiously welcomed the talks, warning that the North's invitation to the Games must not undermine international efforts to isolate Kim's regime. US officials would work with Seoul to ensure that the North's participation "does not violate the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council over North Korea's unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile programs", the State Department said in a statement. It added that President Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In had already agreed "to continue the campaign of maximum pressure on North Korea toward the goal of complete and verifiable denuclearization." New Year's gift For the talks, the North's delegation walked over the Military Demarcation Line marking the border to the Peace House venue on the southern side, just yards from where a defector ran across in a hail of bullets two months ago. Looking businesslike, the South's Unification minister Cho Myoung-Gyon and the North's chief delegate Ri Son-Gwon shook hands at the entrance to the building, and again across the negotiating table. Ri wore a badge on his left lapel bearing an image of the country's founding father Kim Il-Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il, while Cho sported one depicting the South Korean flag. "Let's present the people with a precious new year's gift," said Ri. "There is a saying that a journey taken by two lasts longer than the one travelled alone." The atmosphere was friendlier than at past meetings, and Cho told Ri: "The people have a strong desire to see the North and South move toward peace and reconciliation." But there was no mention in the joint statement of the proposal by Seoul to resume reunions of families left divided by the Korean War, which Pyongyang has previously refused to do unless several of its citizens are returned by the South. Ri also told South Korean journalists that denuclearisation was not on the table and not an issue for the two to discuss. "The target of all our nuclear and hydrogen bombs and ICBMs and all other sophisticated weapons is the US," he said. "These weapons are not aimed at our brethren." There were "many problems" to settle between the two sides, he added, warning of "unexpected obstacles" down the road. Peace Olympics Olympic organisers welcomed the North's participation in Pyeongchang and a Unification ministry official dubbed the Games "a Peace Festival". International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Pyongyang's decision to take part was a "great step forward in the Olympic spirit". Only two athletes from the North have so far qualified for the Games, but hundreds of young female North Korean cheerleaders have created a buzz at three previous international sporting events in the South. Any high-level delegation accompanying the team could include Kim's younger sister Yo-Jong -- a senior member of the ruling Workers' Party, according to South Korean reports. The Unification ministry official said the meeting "laid the foundation for restoring the severed inter-Korean ties and normalising them". UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also welcomed the progress, especially plans to hold military talks and reopen the military hotline. "The re-establishment and strengthening of such channels is critical to lowering the risk of miscalculation or misunderstanding," his spokesman said in a statement. It remains unclear when the proposed military talks -- which would be the first of their kind since 2014 -- would be held. Lim Eul-Chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said the North's participation would "help turn South Korean public sentiment about the North more favourable". Pyongyang would then probably seek to resume lucrative joint economic projects, such as the suspended Kaesong industrial complex, he added -- although it is unclear whether that would be in compliance with UN sanctions. Pyongyang's state media reiterated its condemnations of Trump on Tuesday, but Lim said the North "appears to be trying to use the improvement in ties with the South as a springboard to resume talks with the US, which holds the key to controlling or possibly easing sanctions." The United States and South Korea agreed last week to delay their joint military exercises until after the Games, apparently to help calm nerves.

North Korea to attend Olympics in rival South

North and South Korea held their first talks in over two years on Tuesday, which Washington welcomed as a first step to solving the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis, even though Pyongyang said those were aimed only at the United States and not up for discussion.

The US&nbsp;State Department said Washington would be interested in joining future talks, but stuck to its insistence that they must be aimed at denuclearisation, showing that a diplomatic breakthrough remains far off.

In a joint statement after 11 hours of talks, North and South Korea said they had agreed to hold the military to military talks and that North Korea would send a large delegation to next month&#39;s Winter Olympics in South Korea.

However, North Korea made a &quot;strong complaint&quot; after Seoul proposed talks to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.

&quot;Clearly this is a positive development,&quot; a spokesman for the US&nbsp;State Department, Steve Goldstein, said of the joint statement while adding: &quot;We would like nuclear talks to occur; we want denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. This is a good first step in that process.&quot;

North and South Korea said they agreed to meet again to resolve problems and avert accidental conflict, amid high tension over North Korea&#39;s program to develop nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States.

&quot;All our weapons, including atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs and ballistic missiles, are only aimed at the United States, not our brethren, nor China and Russia,&quot; Pyongyang&#39;s chief negotiator, Ri Son Gwon, said.

&quot;This is not a matter between North and South Korea, and to bring up this issue would cause negative consequences and risks turning all of today&#39;s good achievement into nothing,&quot; Ri said in closing remarks.

The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment on the United States being the only potential target of North Korea&#39;s nuclear weapons.

US&nbsp;President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged threats and insults in the past year, raising fears of a new war on the peninsula.

The United States, which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, initially responded coolly to the idea of inter-Korean meetings, but Trump later called them &quot;a good thing&quot; and said he would be willing to speak to Kim.

&quot;At the appropriate time, we&#39;ll get involved,&quot; Trump said on Saturday, although US-North Korean talks appear unlikely anytime soon, given entrenched positions on both sides.

The United States has warned that all options, including military ones, are on the table in dealing with North Korea.

Washington agreed with Seoul last week to postpone joint military exercises that Pyongyang denounces as rehearsals for invasion until after the Olympics, but the North-South thaw has not altered the US&nbsp;intelligence assessment of North Korea&rsquo;s weapons programs.&nbsp;

The consensus, according to US&nbsp;officials familiar with the classified analysis, is that Kim remains convinced the United States is determined to overthrow him and that only a nuclear arsenal that threatens America can deter that.

One official said the North-South talks were likely to follow the pattern of past diplomatic efforts, in which the North has benefited from additional food and other aid without making any concessions on the weapons front.

The additional danger now, said a second official, was that Kim would seek to use the talks to take advantage of Trump&#39;s sometimes bellicose rhetoric to try to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul.

On Tuesday, UN&nbsp;Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the talks, particularly the agreement to hold military-to-military talks, calling this &quot;critical to lowering the risk of miscalculation&quot;.

He also welcomed North Korea&#39;s decision to send a delegation to the Olympics and said he hoped for the resumption of dialogue leading to denuclearisation.

In spite of the North Korean negotiator`s remarks, South Korea&#39;s Unification Ministry said it believed Tuesday&#39;s talks could lead to the discussion of a &quot;fundamental resolution&quot; of the nuclear issue.

&quot;We will closely coordinate with the United States, China, Japan and other neighbours in this process,&quot; it said, adding that Seoul had asked Pyongyang to halt acts that stoke tension.

Tuesday&#39;s meeting followed a year of ramped-up North Korean missile launches and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, which prompted a US-led campaign to toughen UN&nbsp;sanctions.

High hopes

Earlier on Tuesday, Seoul said it was prepared to lift some unilateral sanctions temporarily so North Koreans could visit for the Olympics. North Korea said its delegation would include athletes, high-ranking officials, a cheering squad, art performers, reporters and spectators.

Talks to work out details would be held soon, the South&#39;s Unification Ministry said.

Tuesday&#39;s talks were the first between the two Koreas since 2015 and were held at the Peace House on the South Korean side of Panmunjom truce village.

Seoul said it proposed reunions of divided families in time for February&#39;s Lunar New Year holiday, but the joint statement made no mention of any agreement on this.

Seoul said North Korea had finished technical work to restore a military hotline, with normal communications set to resume on Wednesday.

North Korea cut communications in February 2016, following South Korea&#39;s decision to shut down a jointly run industrial park.

Seoul also said North Korea responded &quot;positively&quot; to the South&#39;s proposal for athletes from both sides to march together in the Olympic opening ceremony.

Such a joint parade has not happened since the 2007 Asian Winter Games in China.

China&#39;s Foreign Ministry said it was happy to see talks between North and South Korea and welcomed all positive steps. Russia echoed the sentiment. &quot;This is exactly the kind of dialogue that we said was necessary,&quot; a Kremlin spokesman said.

Some US-based analysts have hailed the talks as an opening for diplomacy, but others see an attempt by North Korea to weaken US&nbsp;pressure so that it is eventually accepted as a nuclear-armed state.

Evans Revere, a former senior US&nbsp;diplomat for East Asia, said that by engaging Seoul, North Korea was clearly seeking to weaken the US-South Korean alliance and it was important that Seoul had raised the nuclear issue to show it was not just a US-North Korea matter.

The US State Department said Washington would be interested in joining future talks, but stuck to its insistence that they must be aimed at denuclearisation

North and South Korea held their first talks in over two years on Tuesday, which Washington welcomed as a first step to solving the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis, even though Pyongyang said those were aimed only at the United States and not up for discussion. The US State Department said Washington would be interested in joining future talks, but stuck to its insistence that they must be aimed at denuclearisation, showing that a diplomatic breakthrough remains far off. In a joint statement after 11 hours of talks, North and South Korea said they had agreed to hold the military to military talks and that North Korea would send a large delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea. However, North Korea made a "strong complaint" after Seoul proposed talks to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. "Clearly this is a positive development," a spokesman for the US State Department, Steve Goldstein, said of the joint statement while adding: "We would like nuclear talks to occur; we want denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. This is a good first step in that process." North and South Korea said they agreed to meet again to resolve problems and avert accidental conflict, amid high tension over North Korea's program to develop nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States. "All our weapons, including atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs and ballistic missiles, are only aimed at the United States, not our brethren, nor China and Russia," Pyongyang's chief negotiator, Ri Son Gwon, said. "This is not a matter between North and South Korea, and to bring up this issue would cause negative consequences and risks turning all of today's good achievement into nothing," Ri said in closing remarks. The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment on the United States being the only potential target of North Korea's nuclear weapons. US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged threats and insults in the past year, raising fears of a new war on the peninsula. The United States, which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, initially responded coolly to the idea of inter-Korean meetings, but Trump later called them "a good thing" and said he would be willing to speak to Kim. "At the appropriate time, we'll get involved," Trump said on Saturday, although US-North Korean talks appear unlikely anytime soon, given entrenched positions on both sides. The United States has warned that all options, including military ones, are on the table in dealing with North Korea. Washington agreed with Seoul last week to postpone joint military exercises that Pyongyang denounces as rehearsals for invasion until after the Olympics, but the North-South thaw has not altered the US intelligence assessment of North Korea’s weapons programs. The consensus, according to US officials familiar with the classified analysis, is that Kim remains convinced the United States is determined to overthrow him and that only a nuclear arsenal that threatens America can deter that. One official said the North-South talks were likely to follow the pattern of past diplomatic efforts, in which the North has benefited from additional food and other aid without making any concessions on the weapons front. The additional danger now, said a second official, was that Kim would seek to use the talks to take advantage of Trump's sometimes bellicose rhetoric to try to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul. On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the talks, particularly the agreement to hold military-to-military talks, calling this "critical to lowering the risk of miscalculation". He also welcomed North Korea's decision to send a delegation to the Olympics and said he hoped for the resumption of dialogue leading to denuclearisation. In spite of the North Korean negotiator`s remarks, South Korea's Unification Ministry said it believed Tuesday's talks could lead to the discussion of a "fundamental resolution" of the nuclear issue. "We will closely coordinate with the United States, China, Japan and other neighbours in this process," it said, adding that Seoul had asked Pyongyang to halt acts that stoke tension. Tuesday's meeting followed a year of ramped-up North Korean missile launches and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, which prompted a US-led campaign to toughen UN sanctions. High hopes Earlier on Tuesday, Seoul said it was prepared to lift some unilateral sanctions temporarily so North Koreans could visit for the Olympics. North Korea said its delegation would include athletes, high-ranking officials, a cheering squad, art performers, reporters and spectators. Talks to work out details would be held soon, the South's Unification Ministry said. Tuesday's talks were the first between the two Koreas since 2015 and were held at the Peace House on the South Korean side of Panmunjom truce village. Seoul said it proposed reunions of divided families in time for February's Lunar New Year holiday, but the joint statement made no mention of any agreement on this. Seoul said North Korea had finished technical work to restore a military hotline, with normal communications set to resume on Wednesday. North Korea cut communications in February 2016, following South Korea's decision to shut down a jointly run industrial park. Seoul also said North Korea responded "positively" to the South's proposal for athletes from both sides to march together in the Olympic opening ceremony. Such a joint parade has not happened since the 2007 Asian Winter Games in China. China's Foreign Ministry said it was happy to see talks between North and South Korea and welcomed all positive steps. Russia echoed the sentiment. "This is exactly the kind of dialogue that we said was necessary," a Kremlin spokesman said. Some US-based analysts have hailed the talks as an opening for diplomacy, but others see an attempt by North Korea to weaken US pressure so that it is eventually accepted as a nuclear-armed state. Evans Revere, a former senior US diplomat for East Asia, said that by engaging Seoul, North Korea was clearly seeking to weaken the US-South Korean alliance and it was important that Seoul had raised the nuclear issue to show it was not just a US-North Korea matter.

US hails Korea talks, despite North's rejection of denuclearisation

With tension on the Korean Peninsula higher than it&rsquo;s been for years and fears are surging on all sides that a full-blown conflict is nearer than ever. But as the war of words between Washington and Pyongyang gets ever more lurid, with missile and warhead tests on one side and military exercises and flypasts on the other, it&rsquo;s easy to forget that North and South Korea have made serious efforts to defrost their relationship before.

On July 7 1988, with the Cold War coming to an end, South Korean President Rho Tae-woo announced his plan to &ldquo;actively promote exchanges of visits between the people of South and North Korea, including politicians, businessmen, journalists, religious leaders, cultural leaders, artists, academics and students&rdquo;. This South Korean policy, called Nordpolitik, was modelled on West Germany&rsquo;s Ostpolitik. But it took more than ten years to begin these exchanges.

In 2000, the two leaders of South and North Korea met in Pyongyang for the first time since the division of the Korean peninsula. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung reassured North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il, who was worried that North Korea would meet a fate similar to East Germany, that the South Korean proposal for a peacebuilding process was not to absorb North Korea, but to promote peaceful coexistence.

After their first summit, the South and North Korean governments expanded several cross-border peacebuilding activities, such as humanitarian, development, and economic cooperation, business, and socio-cultural exchanges. Within a few years, as part of these activities, more than half a million people crossed the border between North and South Korea. Almost 2m South Korean tourists visited North Korea.

And yet today, the inter-Korean peacebuilding of the 2000s looks like a long-lost dream. What went wrong?

Pushed to the limit

Some say the breaking point was the hardline changes in US and South Korean policy toward North Korea after 9/11, epitomised by George W. Bush&rsquo;s &ldquo;Axis of Evil&rdquo; speech. Others say the north is to blame because of its nuclear ambitions. But what both arguments have in common is North Korea&rsquo;s deep sense of insecurity, which goes back more than 60 years.

When Japan was defeated in World War II, the Korean independence movement and its provisional government, who had long fought Japanese colonial rule, were not recognised as victors. Instead, the northern half of Korea was put under Soviet control and the south was occupied by the US, effectively dividing the Korean peninsula in two.

The first North Korean leader, Kim Il-sung, seemed convinced he could resolve this division by force, but his attack on South Korea in 1950 and the ensuing Korean War almost cost North Korea its existence. Only Chinese intervention saved it, and the war was suspended (though not ended) by the Armistice Treaty of 1953.

<figure><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NTFreay3bOA?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440"></iframe></figure>

&nbsp;

But North Korean memories of how US bombers destroyed their country and how close the US came to using the atomic bomb on North Korea, are still very much alive, and may be stronger after the end of the Cold War.

North Korean leaders have for decades used the spectre of an American attack to justify their authoritarian rule. The continuous economic sanctions and displays of military power by the US and South Korea did not deter North Korean plans to develop nuclear weapons in order to ensure its survival, and instead seem to have given the North Korean dictatorship fodder for its rhetoric.

Not backing down

As if to validate the rhetoric of the North Korean regime, the US president, Donald Trump, successfully persuaded South Korea to purchase more American weapons during his recent visit to East Asia. The US and South Korea are planning yet another joint military drill from December 4-8, in which about 230 warfare aircraft will participate in a show of force.

Meanwhile, North Korea fired another ballistic missile on November 28, once again claiming that their development of nuclear and missile technology is not &ldquo;to pose any threat to any country&rdquo;, but to defend North Korea from the US threat.

Putting aside debate around the nature of the North Korean regime, the insecurity experienced by a conflict party is not a phenomenon unique to the Korean conflict. Several contemporary peace processes, such as the Northern Ireland peace process, show that without addressing the issue of insecurity, any agreement would not be possible.

Would peacebuilding mean simply appeasing a regime that is playing with nuclear fire &ndash; or is it perhaps a better option than &ldquo;smart sanctions&rdquo; and military exercises? For South Korean civil society groups, who can remember crossing borders, building relationships, and re-humanising each other, peacebuilding is still regarded as the best way to neutralise the nuclear ambitions of the North Korean leadership and improve the human rights conditions of the North Korean people.

After all, it is about coming up with a more effective strategy for peace in the Korean peninsula, and beyond. If war is not an option, the inevitable process to build peace must resume.

As if to validate the rhetoric of the North Korean regime, the US president, Donald Trump, successfully persuaded South Korea to purchase more American weapons during his recent visit to East Asia. The US and South Korea are planning yet another joint military drill from December 4-8, in which about 230 warfare aircraft will participate in a show of force.

Meanwhile, North Korea fired another ballistic missile on November 28, once again claiming that their development of nuclear and missile technology is not &ldquo;to pose any threat to any country&rdquo;, but to defend North Korea from the US threat.

Putting aside debate around the nature of the North Korean regime, the insecurity experienced by a conflict party is not a phenomenon unique to the Korean conflict. Several contemporary peace processes, such as the Northern Ireland peace process, show that without addressing the issue of insecurity, any agreement would not be possible.

Would peacebuilding mean simply appeasing a regime that is playing with nuclear fire &ndash; or is it perhaps a better option than &ldquo;smart sanctions&rdquo; and military exercises? For South Korean civil society groups, who can remember crossing borders, building relationships, and re-humanising each other, peacebuilding is still regarded as the best way to neutralise the nuclear ambitions of the North Korean leadership and improve the human rights conditions of the North Korean people.

After all, it is about coming up with a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09512748.2015.1022586?scroll=top&amp;needAccess=true">more effective strategy</a> for peace in the Korean peninsula, and beyond. If war is not an option, the inevitable process to build peace must resume.

&nbsp;

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" rel="nofollow" target="blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-two-koreas-have-tried-to-make-peace-before-and-they-could-do-so-again-86809" rel="nofollow" target="blank">original article</a>.

&nbsp;

For South Korean civil society, who can remember crossing borders, building relationships, and re-humanising each other, peacebuilding is still regarded as the best way to neutralise the nuclear ambitions of the North Korean leadership and improve the human rights conditions of the North Koreans.

With tension on the Korean Peninsula higher than it’s been for years and fears are surging on all sides that a full-blown conflict is nearer than ever. But as the war of words between Washington and Pyongyang gets ever more lurid, with missile and warhead tests on one side and military exercises and flypasts on the other, it’s easy to forget that North and South Korea have made serious efforts to defrost their relationship before. On July 7 1988, with the Cold War coming to an end, South Korean President Rho Tae-woo announced his plan to “actively promote exchanges of visits between the people of South and North Korea, including politicians, businessmen, journalists, religious leaders, cultural leaders, artists, academics and students”. This South Korean policy, called Nordpolitik, was modelled on West Germany’s Ostpolitik. But it took more than ten years to begin these exchanges. In 2000, the two leaders of South and North Korea met in Pyongyang for the first time since the division of the Korean peninsula. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung reassured North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il, who was worried that North Korea would meet a fate similar to East Germany, that the South Korean proposal for a peacebuilding process was not to absorb North Korea, but to promote peaceful coexistence. After their first summit, the South and North Korean governments expanded several cross-border peacebuilding activities, such as humanitarian, development, and economic cooperation, business, and socio-cultural exchanges. Within a few years, as part of these activities, more than half a million people crossed the border between North and South Korea. Almost 2m South Korean tourists visited North Korea. And yet today, the inter-Korean peacebuilding of the 2000s looks like a long-lost dream. What went wrong? Pushed to the limit Some say the breaking point was the hardline changes in US and South Korean policy toward North Korea after 9/11, epitomised by George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil” speech. Others say the north is to blame because of its nuclear ambitions. But what both arguments have in common is North Korea’s deep sense of insecurity, which goes back more than 60 years. When Japan was defeated in World War II, the Korean independence movement and its provisional government, who had long fought Japanese colonial rule, were not recognised as victors. Instead, the northern half of Korea was put under Soviet control and the south was occupied by the US, effectively dividing the Korean peninsula in two. The first North Korean leader, Kim Il-sung, seemed convinced he could resolve this division by force, but his attack on South Korea in 1950 and the ensuing Korean War almost cost North Korea its existence. Only Chinese intervention saved it, and the war was suspended (though not ended) by the Armistice Treaty of 1953. But North Korean memories of how US bombers destroyed their country and how close the US came to using the atomic bomb on North Korea, are still very much alive, and may be stronger after the end of the Cold War. North Korean leaders have for decades used the spectre of an American attack to justify their authoritarian rule. The continuous economic sanctions and displays of military power by the US and South Korea did not deter North Korean plans to develop nuclear weapons in order to ensure its survival, and instead seem to have given the North Korean dictatorship fodder for its rhetoric. Not backing down As if to validate the rhetoric of the North Korean regime, the US president, Donald Trump, successfully persuaded South Korea to purchase more American weapons during his recent visit to East Asia. The US and South Korea are planning yet another joint military drill from December 4-8, in which about 230 warfare aircraft will participate in a show of force. Meanwhile, North Korea fired another ballistic missile on November 28, once again claiming that their development of nuclear and missile technology is not “to pose any threat to any country”, but to defend North Korea from the US threat. Putting aside debate around the nature of the North Korean regime, the insecurity experienced by a conflict party is not a phenomenon unique to the Korean conflict. Several contemporary peace processes, such as the Northern Ireland peace process, show that without addressing the issue of insecurity, any agreement would not be possible. Would peacebuilding mean simply appeasing a regime that is playing with nuclear fire – or is it perhaps a better option than “smart sanctions” and military exercises? For South Korean civil society groups, who can remember crossing borders, building relationships, and re-humanising each other, peacebuilding is still regarded as the best way to neutralise the nuclear ambitions of the North Korean leadership and improve the human rights conditions of the North Korean people. After all, it is about coming up with a more effective strategy for peace in the Korean peninsula, and beyond. If war is not an option, the inevitable process to build peace must resume. As if to validate the rhetoric of the North Korean regime, the US president, Donald Trump, successfully persuaded South Korea to purchase more American weapons during his recent visit to East Asia. The US and South Korea are planning yet another joint military drill from December 4-8, in which about 230 warfare aircraft will participate in a show of force. Meanwhile, North Korea fired another ballistic missile on November 28, once again claiming that their development of nuclear and missile technology is not “to pose any threat to any country”, but to defend North Korea from the US threat. Putting aside debate around the nature of the North Korean regime, the insecurity experienced by a conflict party is not a phenomenon unique to the Korean conflict. Several contemporary peace processes, such as the Northern Ireland peace process, show that without addressing the issue of insecurity, any agreement would not be possible. Would peacebuilding mean simply appeasing a regime that is playing with nuclear fire – or is it perhaps a better option than “smart sanctions” and military exercises? For South Korean civil society groups, who can remember crossing borders, building relationships, and re-humanising each other, peacebuilding is still regarded as the best way to neutralise the nuclear ambitions of the North Korean leadership and improve the human rights conditions of the North Korean people. After all, it is about coming up with a more effective strategy for peace in the Korean peninsula, and beyond. If war is not an option, the inevitable process to build peace must resume. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Opinion: Are two Koreas serious in defrosting the relationship?

A day after US President Donald Trump said he is open to talks with the North Korean leader, his top Indian-American diplomat to the US said that Pyongyang needs to take a series of steps to make that happen.

Prominent among them being stop testing missiles and nuclear weapons and be willing to talk about banning their nuclear weapons, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley was quoted as saying by ABC News in an interview on Sunday.

&quot;There is no turnaround,&quot; Haley said when asked if Trump&#39;s statement at Camp David on Saturday meant any reversal of the stated US policy with regard to talks with North Korea.

&quot;What he (Trump) has basically said is yes, there could be a time where we talk to North Korea but a lot of things have to happen before that actually takes place,&quot; Haley said.

They have to stop testing. They have to be willing to talk about banning their nuclear weapons. Those things have to happen.

&quot;What we&#39;re trying to do is make sure we don&#39;t repeat what&#39;s happened the last 25 years,&quot; she said.

&quot;Which is them start to act like they&#39;re coming to the table, them ask for a lot of money and then them cheat their way through. We&#39;re going to be smart this time. We&#39;re going to make sure that whatever happens makes the United

States safer and make sure that we de-nuclearise the peninsula,&quot; Haley said.

Haley said stop testing is very important and has to be for a significant amount of time.

&quot;And then you go and you work toward the next step. This is going to be phases. This isn&#39;t going to happen overnight as we&#39;ve seen, but it&#39;s a dangerous situation,&quot; she said.&nbsp;

A day after US President Donald Trump said he is open to talks with the North Korean leader, his top Indian-American diplomat to the US said that Pyongyang needs to take steps to make that happen

A day after US President Donald Trump said he is open to talks with the North Korean leader, his top Indian-American diplomat to the US said that Pyongyang needs to take a series of steps to make that happen. Prominent among them being stop testing missiles and nuclear weapons and be willing to talk about banning their nuclear weapons, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley was quoted as saying by ABC News in an interview on Sunday. "There is no turnaround," Haley said when asked if Trump's statement at Camp David on Saturday meant any reversal of the stated US policy with regard to talks with North Korea. "What he (Trump) has basically said is yes, there could be a time where we talk to North Korea but a lot of things have to happen before that actually takes place," Haley said. They have to stop testing. They have to be willing to talk about banning their nuclear weapons. Those things have to happen. "What we're trying to do is make sure we don't repeat what's happened the last 25 years," she said. "Which is them start to act like they're coming to the table, them ask for a lot of money and then them cheat their way through. We're going to be smart this time. We're going to make sure that whatever happens makes the United States safer and make sure that we de-nuclearise the peninsula," Haley said. Haley said stop testing is very important and has to be for a significant amount of time. "And then you go and you work toward the next step. This is going to be phases. This isn't going to happen overnight as we've seen, but it's a dangerous situation," she said.

North Korea needs to take series of steps to mend ties with US: Haley

Fewer than 100 North Koreans a month defected to the South last year, Seoul said Friday, the lowest for 15 years as Pyongyang and Beijing both tighten controls on movement.

A total of 1,127 North Koreans came to the South last year, down 21 percent from 2016, according to data from the unification ministry. It was the lowest figure since 2001.

The vast majority of defectors from the impoverished North, which suffers chronic food shortages and is subject to UN Security Council sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, go first to China.

They sometimes stay there for several years before making their way to the South, often via a third country.

Defections across the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean peninsula are very rare, but this year there have been four, including a dramatic dash under a hail of bullets by a Northern soldier in November.

Another soldier escaped to the South across the DMZ in December but observers said there was no evidence of a trend.

Pyongyang has been bolstering border controls since the second half of 2015, putting up more guards and setting up high-tension wires to prevent its citizens from fleeing to its giant neighbour.

&quot;On top of that, China has drastically strengthened crackdowns on North Korean escapees, repatriating them recklessly whenever they find them,&quot; Seo Jae-Pyong, an official of the Association of North Korean Defectors, said.

Many professional brokers who help arrange defectors` trips through China and Southeast Asian countries to the South have consequently gone underground, he said.

As of the end of December, more than 31,000 North Korean defectors had entered the South since 1948, when the two Koreas were officially separated into different states.

Numbers peaked at 2,914 in 2009 and have mostly declined in recent years.

Female defectors continue to account for a lion`s share, with women making up 83 per cent of last year`s defectors.

It is easier for women to leave the North, as men all have assigned jobs, making any absence easier to spot for the authorities.

Defections across the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone that divides the Korean peninsula are very rare, but this year there have been four.

Fewer than 100 North Koreans a month defected to the South last year, Seoul said Friday, the lowest for 15 years as Pyongyang and Beijing both tighten controls on movement. A total of 1,127 North Koreans came to the South last year, down 21 percent from 2016, according to data from the unification ministry. It was the lowest figure since 2001. The vast majority of defectors from the impoverished North, which suffers chronic food shortages and is subject to UN Security Council sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, go first to China. They sometimes stay there for several years before making their way to the South, often via a third country. Defections across the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean peninsula are very rare, but this year there have been four, including a dramatic dash under a hail of bullets by a Northern soldier in November. Another soldier escaped to the South across the DMZ in December but observers said there was no evidence of a trend. Pyongyang has been bolstering border controls since the second half of 2015, putting up more guards and setting up high-tension wires to prevent its citizens from fleeing to its giant neighbour. "On top of that, China has drastically strengthened crackdowns on North Korean escapees, repatriating them recklessly whenever they find them," Seo Jae-Pyong, an official of the Association of North Korean Defectors, said. Many professional brokers who help arrange defectors` trips through China and Southeast Asian countries to the South have consequently gone underground, he said. As of the end of December, more than 31,000 North Korean defectors had entered the South since 1948, when the two Koreas were officially separated into different states. Numbers peaked at 2,914 in 2009 and have mostly declined in recent years. Female defectors continue to account for a lion`s share, with women making up 83 per cent of last year`s defectors. It is easier for women to leave the North, as men all have assigned jobs, making any absence easier to spot for the authorities.

North Korean defector numbers slump as controls tighten

South Korea Tuesday proposed high-level talks with Pyongyang on January 9, after the North&#39;s leader Kim Jong-Un called for better relations and said his country might attend the Winter Olympics in the South.

Kim used his annual New Year address to warn he has a &quot;nuclear button&quot; on his table, but sweetened his remarks by expressing an interest in dialogue and taking part in the Pyeongchang Games next month.

South Korea&#39;s unification minister Cho Myoung-Gyon told a press conference that Seoul was &quot;reiterating our willingness to hold talks with the North at any time and place in any form&quot;.

&quot;The government proposes to hold high-level government talks with North Korea on January 9 at the Peace House in Panmunjom,&quot; Cho said, referring to a truce village on the border between the two Koreas.

&quot;We hope that the South and North can sit face to face and discuss the participation of the North Korean delegation at the Pyeongchang Games as well as other issues of mutual interest for the improvement of inter-Korean ties.&quot;

The news comes after North Korea has rattled the international community in recent months with multiple missile launches and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test -- purportedly of a hydrogen bomb.

It has shrugged off a raft of new sanctions and heightened rhetoric from Washington as it drives forward with its weapons programme, which it says is for defence against US aggression.&nbsp; 
But US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that sanctions and other pressure were beginning to have a &quot;big impact&quot; on the North, citing leader Kim Jong-Un&#39;s offer of talks with the South.

&quot;Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not -- we will see!&quot; he said on his Twitter account.

The Koreas, divided by a Demilitarised Zone since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, last held high-level talks in 2015 to try to ease tensions.

Those talks failed to reach an agreement.

&quot;Just the fact that they are meeting will be meaningful because it signals an attempt on both sides to improve relations,&quot; said Koh Yu-Hwan, a political science professor at Dongguk University.

But once they sit down, the North could put Seoul in a difficult position by making unacceptable demands such as an end to its annual joint military drills with the United States, Koh added.

&quot;What North Korea is trying to do is re-establish its relations as a nuclear state (with Seoul). The South&#39;s dilemma is whether we can accept that.&quot;

South Korean President Moon Jae-In, who has long favoured engagement to ease tensions with the North, earlier Tuesday welcomed Kim&#39;s suggestion of an opportunity for dialogue.

However, he indicated that improvements in ties must go hand in hand with steps towards denuclearisation of the North.

&#39;Positive response&#39;&nbsp;

Kim&#39;s comments on Monday were the first indication of North Korea&#39;s willingness to take part in the Winter Games from February 9-25.

Moon called them a &quot;positive response&quot; to Seoul&#39;s hopes that the Pyeongchang Olympics would be a &quot;groundbreaking opportunity for peace&quot; and urged officials to come up with measures to realise the North&#39;s participation.

Beijing, Pyongyang&#39;s main ally, welcomed developments.

&quot;We support the two sides in taking advantage of this opportunity to make concrete efforts to improve bilateral ties... and realise the denuclearisation of the peninsula,&quot; said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.

Washington considers China key to a resolution of the crisis and has asked Beijing to do more to rein in Pyongyang.

While China has supported UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea, it has proposed a freeze-for-freeze approach under which the US would stop military drills in South Korea and the North would halt its weapons programmes.

But the idea has been rejected by Washington and Seoul, and Pyongyang insists it will continue its nuclear and missile projects.

&#39;Same blood&#39;

In his speech Monday the North&#39;s leader said the Olympics could provide a reason for officials from the neighbours &quot;to meet in the near future&quot;.

&quot;Since we are compatriots of the same blood as South Koreans, it is natural for us to share their pleasure over the auspicious event and help them,&quot; Kim said in his address.

The main venues for the Games are just 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the heavily fortified border with North Korea and the build-up to the event has been overshadowed by the nuclear weapons standoff.

But Seoul and the Games&#39; organisers are keen for the North to take part, and analysts say its participation at Pyeongchang is likely given Kim&#39;s remarks about sending a delegation there.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

South Korea Tuesday proposed high-level talks with Pyongyang on January 9, after the North's leader Kim Jong-Un called for better relations and said his country might attend the Winter Olympics in the South

South Korea Tuesday proposed high-level talks with Pyongyang on January 9, after the North's leader Kim Jong-Un called for better relations and said his country might attend the Winter Olympics in the South. Kim used his annual New Year address to warn he has a "nuclear button" on his table, but sweetened his remarks by expressing an interest in dialogue and taking part in the Pyeongchang Games next month. South Korea's unification minister Cho Myoung-Gyon told a press conference that Seoul was "reiterating our willingness to hold talks with the North at any time and place in any form". "The government proposes to hold high-level government talks with North Korea on January 9 at the Peace House in Panmunjom," Cho said, referring to a truce village on the border between the two Koreas. "We hope that the South and North can sit face to face and discuss the participation of the North Korean delegation at the Pyeongchang Games as well as other issues of mutual interest for the improvement of inter-Korean ties." The news comes after North Korea has rattled the international community in recent months with multiple missile launches and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test -- purportedly of a hydrogen bomb. It has shrugged off a raft of new sanctions and heightened rhetoric from Washington as it drives forward with its weapons programme, which it says is for defence against US aggression. But US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that sanctions and other pressure were beginning to have a "big impact" on the North, citing leader Kim Jong-Un's offer of talks with the South. "Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not -- we will see!" he said on his Twitter account. The Koreas, divided by a Demilitarised Zone since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, last held high-level talks in 2015 to try to ease tensions. Those talks failed to reach an agreement. "Just the fact that they are meeting will be meaningful because it signals an attempt on both sides to improve relations," said Koh Yu-Hwan, a political science professor at Dongguk University. But once they sit down, the North could put Seoul in a difficult position by making unacceptable demands such as an end to its annual joint military drills with the United States, Koh added. "What North Korea is trying to do is re-establish its relations as a nuclear state (with Seoul). The South's dilemma is whether we can accept that." South Korean President Moon Jae-In, who has long favoured engagement to ease tensions with the North, earlier Tuesday welcomed Kim's suggestion of an opportunity for dialogue. However, he indicated that improvements in ties must go hand in hand with steps towards denuclearisation of the North. 'Positive response' Kim's comments on Monday were the first indication of North Korea's willingness to take part in the Winter Games from February 9-25. Moon called them a "positive response" to Seoul's hopes that the Pyeongchang Olympics would be a "groundbreaking opportunity for peace" and urged officials to come up with measures to realise the North's participation. Beijing, Pyongyang's main ally, welcomed developments. "We support the two sides in taking advantage of this opportunity to make concrete efforts to improve bilateral ties... and realise the denuclearisation of the peninsula," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang. Washington considers China key to a resolution of the crisis and has asked Beijing to do more to rein in Pyongyang. While China has supported UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea, it has proposed a freeze-for-freeze approach under which the US would stop military drills in South Korea and the North would halt its weapons programmes. But the idea has been rejected by Washington and Seoul, and Pyongyang insists it will continue its nuclear and missile projects. 'Same blood' In his speech Monday the North's leader said the Olympics could provide a reason for officials from the neighbours "to meet in the near future". "Since we are compatriots of the same blood as South Koreans, it is natural for us to share their pleasure over the auspicious event and help them," Kim said in his address. The main venues for the Games are just 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the heavily fortified border with North Korea and the build-up to the event has been overshadowed by the nuclear weapons standoff. But Seoul and the Games' organisers are keen for the North to take part, and analysts say its participation at Pyeongchang is likely given Kim's remarks about sending a delegation there.

South Korea proposes high-level talks with North Korea on January 9

The UN Security Council on Thursday denied international port access to four North Korean ships suspected of carrying or having transported goods banned by international sanctions targeting Pyongyang, diplomats told AFP.

The ban of the four vessels -- the Ul Ji Bong 6, Rung Ra 2, Sam Jong 2 and Rye Song Gang 1 -- brings the UN&#39;s total number of blocked ships to eight. The United States requested the most recent ban along with measures targeting ships registered in other countries, diplomats said on condition of anonymity.&nbsp;

But China only agreed to target the four ships flying North Korean flags, diplomats said, as part of international efforts to curb Pyongyang&#39;s missile and nuclear programs.

&quot;Only four ships have been accepted&quot; for the ban but &quot;the procedure remains open&quot; to include other vessels in the future, one diplomat said.

The list submitted by the US in December had also included ships flying flags from Belize, China, Hong Kong, Palau and Panama.

Shortly before the Council decision US President Donald Trump -- who has often hailed China&#39;s efforts to put pressure on North Korea -- sharply criticised Beijing for failing to cut off Pyongyang&#39;s oil supply.

&quot;Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea,&quot; Trump said on Twitter.&nbsp;

&quot;There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!&quot;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946416486054285314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

It was not immediately clear if Trump was referring to the report or US intelligence in his tweet, or if he was accusing China -- the North&#39;s main ally -- of directly violating sanctions targeting Pyongyang.

Transshipment at sea

In 2017, the Security Council has slapped three sets of sanctions on North Korea: one on August 5 targeting the iron, coal and fishing industries; another set on September 11 aimed at textiles and limiting oil supply; and the most recent on December 22 focused on refined petroleum products.

The US has denounced trafficking of banned goods that allows North Korea to stock up, particularly the transfer of cargo between different ships on the high seas.

Blocking suspected vessels from ports -- except in the case of humanitarian need as determined by the council&#39;s sanctions committee -- is provided for in the August resolution.

On October 5, the UN had already identified four ships &quot;carrying prohibited goods,&quot; resulting in a ban on port access that was a &quot;first in United Nations&quot; history, according to Hugh Griffiths, part of a UN panel of experts monitoring the application of sanctions on Pyongyang.

Those four vessels were registered in the Comoros, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cambodia and North Korea, and were targeted for the illegal transport of coal, iron and North Korean fish.

South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, citing government sources in Seoul, reported earlier this week that US satellites had spotted Chinese ships selling oil to North Korean vessels dozens of times since October.

Washington remains convinced that only pressure from the government of Chinese President Xi Jinping will persuade Kim to back down and negotiate an end to the nuclear standoff.

The ban of the four vessels -- the Ul Ji Bong 6, Rung Ra 2, Sam Jong 2 and Rye Song Gang 1 -- brings the UN's total number of blocked ships to eight

The UN Security Council on Thursday denied international port access to four North Korean ships suspected of carrying or having transported goods banned by international sanctions targeting Pyongyang, diplomats told AFP. The ban of the four vessels -- the Ul Ji Bong 6, Rung Ra 2, Sam Jong 2 and Rye Song Gang 1 -- brings the UN's total number of blocked ships to eight. The United States requested the most recent ban along with measures targeting ships registered in other countries, diplomats said on condition of anonymity. But China only agreed to target the four ships flying North Korean flags, diplomats said, as part of international efforts to curb Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. "Only four ships have been accepted" for the ban but "the procedure remains open" to include other vessels in the future, one diplomat said. The list submitted by the US in December had also included ships flying flags from Belize, China, Hong Kong, Palau and Panama. Shortly before the Council decision US President Donald Trump -- who has often hailed China's efforts to put pressure on North Korea -- sharply criticised Beijing for failing to cut off Pyongyang's oil supply. "Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea," Trump said on Twitter. "There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!" Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2017 × It was not immediately clear if Trump was referring to the report or US intelligence in his tweet, or if he was accusing China -- the North's main ally -- of directly violating sanctions targeting Pyongyang. Transshipment at sea In 2017, the Security Council has slapped three sets of sanctions on North Korea: one on August 5 targeting the iron, coal and fishing industries; another set on September 11 aimed at textiles and limiting oil supply; and the most recent on December 22 focused on refined petroleum products. The US has denounced trafficking of banned goods that allows North Korea to stock up, particularly the transfer of cargo between different ships on the high seas. Blocking suspected vessels from ports -- except in the case of humanitarian need as determined by the council's sanctions committee -- is provided for in the August resolution. On October 5, the UN had already identified four ships "carrying prohibited goods," resulting in a ban on port access that was a "first in United Nations" history, according to Hugh Griffiths, part of a UN panel of experts monitoring the application of sanctions on Pyongyang. Those four vessels were registered in the Comoros, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cambodia and North Korea, and were targeted for the illegal transport of coal, iron and North Korean fish. South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, citing government sources in Seoul, reported earlier this week that US satellites had spotted Chinese ships selling oil to North Korean vessels dozens of times since October. Washington remains convinced that only pressure from the government of Chinese President Xi Jinping will persuade Kim to back down and negotiate an end to the nuclear standoff.

UN bars four North Korean ships from international ports

The United States&#39; top diplomat defended his country&#39;s foreign policy record on Wednesday, saying progress had been made in the last year to rein in North Korea&#39;s nuclear ambitions and to counter the &quot;immense challenges&quot; posed by Russia, China and Iran.

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said some 90 percent of Pyongyang&#39;s export earnings had been cut off by a series of international sanctions after the Trump administration &quot;abandoned the failed policy of strategic patience&quot;.

Tensions have escalated dramatically on the Korean peninsula this year after the isolated but nuclear-armed regime staged a series of atomic and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests -- and as US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un traded personal insults.

Washington wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme and has spearheaded three rounds of UN sanctions against the isolated regime, restricting crucial exports of coal, iron, seafood and textiles from the cash-starved state.

Pyongyang has hit out at those sanctions, calling the latest round &quot;an act of war&quot;, and has vowed to never give up its nuclear programme.

In his piece Tillerson said &quot;a door to dialogue remains open&quot; for Pyongyang but warned &quot;until denuclearization occurs, the pressure will continue&quot;.

At the same time he called on China -- Pyongyang&#39;s only major ally -- to &quot;do more&quot; to pressure North Korea.

Trump&#39;s administration has been dogged by allegations his campaign team colluded with Russia to help him win last year&#39;s election.

Addressing relations with Moscow, Tillerson said the Trump administration had &quot;no illusions about the regime we are dealing with&quot; and that they were &quot;on guard against Russian aggression&quot;.&nbsp;

But he added that Washington needed to &quot;recongize the need to work with Russia where mutual interests intersect&quot; citing Syria civil war where the two countries have backed opposing sides but pushed for peace talks.

On Iran he struck a less conciliatory tone.

&quot;The flawed nuclear deal is no longer the focal point of our policy toward Iran,&quot; he warned. &quot;We are now confronting the totality of Iranian threats.&quot;

He also defended his cuts to the State Department and USAID budget, saying they were designed to &quot;address root problems that lead to inefficiencies and frustrations&quot;.

Critics say Tillerson&#39;s first year in office has seen scores of key diplomatic posts go unfilled, embassies hampered by cuts and many veteran staff leave the foreign service altogether.

Tillerson said some 90 percent of Pyongyang's export earnings had been cut off by a series of international sanctions after the Trump administration 'abandoned the failed policy of strategic patience'

The United States' top diplomat defended his country's foreign policy record on Wednesday, saying progress had been made in the last year to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions and to counter the "immense challenges" posed by Russia, China and Iran. In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said some 90 percent of Pyongyang's export earnings had been cut off by a series of international sanctions after the Trump administration "abandoned the failed policy of strategic patience". Tensions have escalated dramatically on the Korean peninsula this year after the isolated but nuclear-armed regime staged a series of atomic and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests -- and as US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un traded personal insults. Washington wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme and has spearheaded three rounds of UN sanctions against the isolated regime, restricting crucial exports of coal, iron, seafood and textiles from the cash-starved state. Pyongyang has hit out at those sanctions, calling the latest round "an act of war", and has vowed to never give up its nuclear programme. In his piece Tillerson said "a door to dialogue remains open" for Pyongyang but warned "until denuclearization occurs, the pressure will continue". At the same time he called on China -- Pyongyang's only major ally -- to "do more" to pressure North Korea. Trump's administration has been dogged by allegations his campaign team colluded with Russia to help him win last year's election. Addressing relations with Moscow, Tillerson said the Trump administration had "no illusions about the regime we are dealing with" and that they were "on guard against Russian aggression". But he added that Washington needed to "recongize the need to work with Russia where mutual interests intersect" citing Syria civil war where the two countries have backed opposing sides but pushed for peace talks. On Iran he struck a less conciliatory tone. "The flawed nuclear deal is no longer the focal point of our policy toward Iran," he warned. "We are now confronting the totality of Iranian threats." He also defended his cuts to the State Department and USAID budget, saying they were designed to "address root problems that lead to inefficiencies and frustrations". Critics say Tillerson's first year in office has seen scores of key diplomatic posts go unfilled, embassies hampered by cuts and many veteran staff leave the foreign service altogether.

Tillerson defends foreign policy record at year's end

North Korea is preparing to launch a satellite, a Seoul newspaper said today, as outside observers warn that the nuclear-armed regime&#39;s space programme is a fig leaf for weapons tests.

Pyongyang is under multiple UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests and is prohibited from carrying out any launch using ballistic missile technology including satellites.

&quot;Through various channels, we&#39;ve recently learned that the North has completed a new satellite and named it Kwangmyongsong-5&quot;, the Joongang Ilbo daily reported, quoting a South Korean government source.

&quot;Their plan is to put a satellite equipped with cameras and telecommunication devices into orbit&quot;, he said.

Pyongyang launched their Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite in February 2016, which most in the international community viewed as a disguised ballistic missile test.

A spokesman for the South Korean military joint chiefs of staff said there was &quot;nothing out of ordinary at this moment&quot; but added that Seoul was watching out for any provocative acts &quot;including the test of a long-range missile disguised as a satellite launch&quot;.

The report came as the North&#39;s ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun reasserted the regime&#39;s right to launch satellites and develop its space technology.

In a commentary published yesterday and titled &quot;peaceful space programmes are sovereign countries&#39; legitimate rights&quot;, the daily said Pyongyang&#39;s satellite launches &quot;absolutely correspond&quot; with international laws concerning space development.

At a UN General Assembly committee meeting in October, North Korea&#39;s deputy UN ambassador Kim In-Ryong said his country has a 2016-2020 plan to develop &quot;practical satellites that can contribute to the economic development and improvement of the people&#39;s living&quot;.

He stressed North Korea&#39;s right to produce and launch satellites &quot;will not be changed just because the US denies it&quot;.

North Korea is believed to have successfully put a satellite into orbit in December 2012 after years of failures dating back to 1998 when it launched a pilot satellite and named it Kwangmyongsong-1.

Earlier this month, the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaia Gazeta quoted a Russian military expert, Vladimir Khrustalev, as saying that North Korea was expected to launch two satellites -- an Earth exploration-satellite and a communications satellite -- in the near future.

Khrustalev made the remark after returning from his week-long trip to North Korea in mid-November when he met with representatives of the country&#39;s National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA), the Russian daily said.

Tensions have soared as the isolated regime has staged a series of atomic and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests -- most recently on November 29.&nbsp;

Pyongyang is under multiple UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests and is prohibited from carrying out any launch using ballistic missile technology including satellites

North Korea is preparing to launch a satellite, a Seoul newspaper said today, as outside observers warn that the nuclear-armed regime's space programme is a fig leaf for weapons tests. Pyongyang is under multiple UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests and is prohibited from carrying out any launch using ballistic missile technology including satellites. "Through various channels, we've recently learned that the North has completed a new satellite and named it Kwangmyongsong-5", the Joongang Ilbo daily reported, quoting a South Korean government source. "Their plan is to put a satellite equipped with cameras and telecommunication devices into orbit", he said. Pyongyang launched their Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite in February 2016, which most in the international community viewed as a disguised ballistic missile test. A spokesman for the South Korean military joint chiefs of staff said there was "nothing out of ordinary at this moment" but added that Seoul was watching out for any provocative acts "including the test of a long-range missile disguised as a satellite launch". The report came as the North's ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun reasserted the regime's right to launch satellites and develop its space technology. In a commentary published yesterday and titled "peaceful space programmes are sovereign countries' legitimate rights", the daily said Pyongyang's satellite launches "absolutely correspond" with international laws concerning space development. At a UN General Assembly committee meeting in October, North Korea's deputy UN ambassador Kim In-Ryong said his country has a 2016-2020 plan to develop "practical satellites that can contribute to the economic development and improvement of the people's living". He stressed North Korea's right to produce and launch satellites "will not be changed just because the US denies it". North Korea is believed to have successfully put a satellite into orbit in December 2012 after years of failures dating back to 1998 when it launched a pilot satellite and named it Kwangmyongsong-1. Earlier this month, the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaia Gazeta quoted a Russian military expert, Vladimir Khrustalev, as saying that North Korea was expected to launch two satellites -- an Earth exploration-satellite and a communications satellite -- in the near future. Khrustalev made the remark after returning from his week-long trip to North Korea in mid-November when he met with representatives of the country's National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA), the Russian daily said. Tensions have soared as the isolated regime has staged a series of atomic and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests -- most recently on November 29.

North Korea preparing to launch satellite: Report

Australian police accidentally broadcast on social media details of an operation to arrest a suspected North Korean agent -- three days before he was taken into custody, media reported Wednesday.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/sydney-man-charged-with-acting-as-agent-for-north-korea-26979"> Sydney-based man</a>, described by authorities as a &quot;loyal agent of North Korea&quot;, was arrested on Saturday and charged with trying to sell missile parts and technology on the black market to raise money for Pyongyang in breach of international sanctions.

But a minute of conversation about the case between federal police officers, including the timing of the arrest, was broadcast on Periscope Wednesday and linked to on Twitter, The West Australian reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said it had listened to the discussion, which included a suggestion that officers are &quot;not going in all guns blazing, it&#39;s only half-a-dozen people and a forensic van&quot;.

The paper added that while the tweet was deleted, the broadcast remained live -- and was watched by 40 people -- before it was also removed after the publication alerted federal police.

It was only by luck that no details of the identity of the target were revealed, the West Australian added.&nbsp;

Federal police confirmed part of a conversation was mistakenly broadcast via its Periscope account while &quot;testing a piece of social media broadcasting equipment&quot;.

&quot;Steps have been taken to ensure such incidents will not occur again,&quot; the force said in a statement.

&quot;The matter has been referred to the AFP&#39;s security area for review.&quot;

AFP (Australian Federal Police) Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters on Sunday that the case involving the alleged agent was &quot;like nothing we have ever seen on Australian soil&quot;.

He added that the 59-year-old suspect, named in local media as Chan Han Choi, was a &quot;loyal agent of North Korea, believing he was acting to serve some higher patriotic purpose&quot;.

Choi, who is in custody, is due back in court this week.

'Loyal agent of North Korea' was arrested by authorities, believing he was acting to serve some higher patriotic purpose

Australian police accidentally broadcast on social media details of an operation to arrest a suspected North Korean agent -- three days before he was taken into custody, media reported Wednesday. The Sydney-based man, described by authorities as a "loyal agent of North Korea", was arrested on Saturday and charged with trying to sell missile parts and technology on the black market to raise money for Pyongyang in breach of international sanctions. But a minute of conversation about the case between federal police officers, including the timing of the arrest, was broadcast on Periscope Wednesday and linked to on Twitter, The West Australian reported Tuesday. The newspaper said it had listened to the discussion, which included a suggestion that officers are "not going in all guns blazing, it's only half-a-dozen people and a forensic van". The paper added that while the tweet was deleted, the broadcast remained live -- and was watched by 40 people -- before it was also removed after the publication alerted federal police. It was only by luck that no details of the identity of the target were revealed, the West Australian added. Federal police confirmed part of a conversation was mistakenly broadcast via its Periscope account while "testing a piece of social media broadcasting equipment". "Steps have been taken to ensure such incidents will not occur again," the force said in a statement. "The matter has been referred to the AFP's security area for review." AFP (Australian Federal Police) Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters on Sunday that the case involving the alleged agent was "like nothing we have ever seen on Australian soil". He added that the 59-year-old suspect, named in local media as Chan Han Choi, was a "loyal agent of North Korea, believing he was acting to serve some higher patriotic purpose". Choi, who is in custody, is due back in court this week.

North Korean's arrest: Australia police accidentally broadcast arrest plans on social media

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that analysis continued on North Korea`s most recent missile test, but he did not believe its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) posed an imminent threat to the United States.

&quot;It has not yet shown to be a capable threat against us right now ... we`re still doing the forensics analysis,&quot; Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

Last month, North Korea said it had successfully tested a new type of ICBM that could reach all of the US mainland and South Korea and US-based experts said data from the November&nbsp;29 test appeared to support that.

Mattis did not elaborate on what was lacking in the test to show it was not a capable threat.

He said himself immediately after the test that the missile had gone higher than any previous North Korean launch and that it was part of a research and development effort &quot;to continue building ballistic missiles that can threaten everywhere in the world, basically.&quot;

US-based experts, some of whom have been sceptical about past North Korean claims, said last month that data and photos from the test appeared to confirm North Korea had a missile of sufficient power to deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in America.

But experts and US officials have said questions remain about whether it has a re-entry vehicle capable of protecting a nuclear warhead as it speeds toward its target and about the accuracy of its guidance systems.

South Korea`s Defense Ministry said this latest test put Washington within range, but Pyongyang still needed to prove it had mastered re-entry, terminal stage guidance and warhead activation.

Some US-based experts believe North Korea could be only two or three tests away from being able to declare the missile operational.

US President Donald Trump vowed &quot;it won`t happen&quot; after North Korean said in January is was in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States.

Trump has said all options are on the table, including military ones, although his administration has made clear it prefers a diplomatic solution. 
&quot;It continues to be a diplomatically led effort,&quot; Mattis said. &quot;When we`re ready to have conversations ... dialogues, that will be up to the president and secretary of state.&quot;

At a UN Security Council session on the crisis on Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged North Korea to carry out a &quot;sustained cessation&quot; of weapons testing to allow the two countries to hold talks.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that analysis continued on North Korea`s most recent missile test, but he did not believe its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) posed an imminent threat to the United States

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that analysis continued on North Korea`s most recent missile test, but he did not believe its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) posed an imminent threat to the United States. "It has not yet shown to be a capable threat against us right now ... we`re still doing the forensics analysis," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon. Last month, North Korea said it had successfully tested a new type of ICBM that could reach all of the US mainland and South Korea and US-based experts said data from the November 29 test appeared to support that. Mattis did not elaborate on what was lacking in the test to show it was not a capable threat. He said himself immediately after the test that the missile had gone higher than any previous North Korean launch and that it was part of a research and development effort "to continue building ballistic missiles that can threaten everywhere in the world, basically." US-based experts, some of whom have been sceptical about past North Korean claims, said last month that data and photos from the test appeared to confirm North Korea had a missile of sufficient power to deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in America. But experts and US officials have said questions remain about whether it has a re-entry vehicle capable of protecting a nuclear warhead as it speeds toward its target and about the accuracy of its guidance systems. South Korea`s Defense Ministry said this latest test put Washington within range, but Pyongyang still needed to prove it had mastered re-entry, terminal stage guidance and warhead activation. Some US-based experts believe North Korea could be only two or three tests away from being able to declare the missile operational. US President Donald Trump vowed "it won`t happen" after North Korean said in January is was in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States. Trump has said all options are on the table, including military ones, although his administration has made clear it prefers a diplomatic solution. "It continues to be a diplomatically led effort," Mattis said. "When we`re ready to have conversations ... dialogues, that will be up to the president and secretary of state." At a UN Security Council session on the crisis on Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged North Korea to carry out a "sustained cessation" of weapons testing to allow the two countries to hold talks.

Mattis says North Korean ICBM not yet a 'capable threat' against US

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&#39;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, arrived Tuesday to discuss what the world body described as &quot;issues of mutual interest and concern&quot;.

He and vice foreign minister Pak Myong-Kuk discussed &quot;cooperation between the DPRK and the UN Secretariat and assistance from UN agencies to the DPRK and other matters of mutual interest&quot;, the North&#39;s KCNA news agency reported, using the acronym for the country&#39;s official name.

Feltman&#39;s trip -- the first by a UN diplomat of his rank since 2010 -- comes less than a week after North Korea test-fired a new ballistic missile said to be capable of reaching the United States.

Discussing ways to &quot;peacefully resolve North Korea&#39;s nuclear issue&quot; will be on Moon&#39;s agenda when he meets President Xi Jinping next week, Moon&#39;s office said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the visit would discuss &quot;international and regional issues of common concern&quot; including &quot;increasing communication and coordination on the Korean peninsula nuclear issue&quot;.&nbsp;

China has proposed that the North suspend missile and nuclear tests in exchange for a suspension of US-South Korean military exercises, a suggestion Washington has repeatedly rejected.

Strained ties

A US B-1B bomber flew over the Korean peninsula on Wednesday, Seoul&#39;s defence ministry said, as part of a major joint air exercise.

The five-day Vigilant Ace drill -- involving some 230 aircraft including F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighters -- began Monday, five days after the North&#39;s ICBM test.

A spokesperson for the North&#39;s foreign ministry said the military exercises were &quot;creating touch-and-go situation on the Korean peninsula&quot;, KCNA reported Wednesday.&nbsp;

The spokesperson also slammed recent comments by Trump&#39;s National Security Adviser HR McMaster who warned the potential for war with the North was increasing every day.

&quot;Violent war remarks... amid such circumstances have made an outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula an established fact,&quot; the spokesman said, according to KCNA.&nbsp;

&quot;The remaining question now is: when will the war break out&quot;.

Moon will arrive in Beijing next Wednesday for a four-day state visit, his first trip to China since taking office in May. The two countries are trying to improve ties strained by Seoul&#39;s deployment of a US missile defence system.

Seoul and Washington say the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is intended solely to counter missile threats from North Korea but Beijing sees it as a threat to its own military capabilities.&nbsp;

It has imposed a series of sanctions on South Korean firms and banned Chinese tour groups from going to the country in moves seen as economic retaliation. The tour group ban has since been partially lifted.

China is South Korea&#39;s biggest trading partner and the measures have had a big impact on some of the South&#39;s biggest companies, including retail conglomerate Lotte -- which provided a golf course for the THAAD deployment -- and auto giant Hyundai.

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

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, arrived Tuesday to discuss what the world body described as "issues of mutual interest and concern". He and vice foreign minister Pak Myong-Kuk discussed "cooperation between the DPRK and the UN Secretariat and assistance from UN agencies to the DPRK and other matters of mutual interest", the North's KCNA news agency reported, using the acronym for the country's official name. Feltman's trip -- the first by a UN diplomat of his rank since 2010 -- comes less than a week after North Korea test-fired a new ballistic missile said to be capable of reaching the United States. Discussing ways to "peacefully resolve North Korea's nuclear issue" will be on Moon's agenda when he meets President Xi Jinping next week, Moon's office said. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the visit would discuss "international and regional issues of common concern" including "increasing communication and coordination on the Korean peninsula nuclear issue". China has proposed that the North suspend missile and nuclear tests in exchange for a suspension of US-South Korean military exercises, a suggestion Washington has repeatedly rejected. Strained ties A US B-1B bomber flew over the Korean peninsula on Wednesday, Seoul's defence ministry said, as part of a major joint air exercise. The five-day Vigilant Ace drill -- involving some 230 aircraft including F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighters -- began Monday, five days after the North's ICBM test. A spokesperson for the North's foreign ministry said the military exercises were "creating touch-and-go situation on the Korean peninsula", KCNA reported Wednesday. The spokesperson also slammed recent comments by Trump's National Security Adviser HR McMaster who warned the potential for war with the North was increasing every day. "Violent war remarks... amid such circumstances have made an outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula an established fact," the spokesman said, according to KCNA. "The remaining question now is: when will the war break out". Moon will arrive in Beijing next Wednesday for a four-day state visit, his first trip to China since taking office in May. The two countries are trying to improve ties strained by Seoul's deployment of a US missile defence system. Seoul and Washington say the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is intended solely to counter missile threats from North Korea but Beijing sees it as a threat to its own military capabilities. It has imposed a series of sanctions on South Korean firms and banned Chinese tour groups from going to the country in moves seen as economic retaliation. The tour group ban has since been partially lifted. China is South Korea's biggest trading partner and the measures have had a big impact on some of the South's biggest companies, including retail conglomerate Lotte -- which provided a golf course for the THAAD deployment -- and auto giant Hyundai.

South Korea's Moon to visit China for talks on North Korea

On an icy December day in 2011, North Korea&#39;s new leader&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Un was accompanied by seven advisers as they escorted the hearse that carried his father,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Il, through the streets of Pyongyang.

None of the men remain with the young&nbsp;Kim. This October, he demoted the last of his father&#39;s aides, both men in their nineties. They were among around 340 people he has purged or executed, according to the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank of South Korea&#39;s National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Kim, &quot;obviously a madman&quot; in the eyes of US&nbsp;President Donald Trump, has completed a six-year transition to what the South calls a reign of terror. His unpredictability and belligerence have instilled fear worldwide: After he tested a &quot;breakthrough&quot; missile earlier this week, he pronounced North Korea a nuclear power capable of striking the United States. But a closer look at his leadership reveals a method&nbsp;behind&nbsp;the &quot;madness.&quot;

At 33,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Un is one of the world&#39;s youngest heads of state. He inherited a nation with a proud history, onto which a socialist state had essentially been grafted by Cold War superpowers to create a buffer between Communist China and the capitalist South. Under&nbsp;Kim&#39;s father, the economy was mismanaged, and the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union eliminated an important source of support. Up to three million people starved.

To consolidate a weak position, the young leader has been cultivating three main forces: military and nuclear power, a tacit private sector market economy, and the fear and adoration of a god. To this end, he has executed two powerful men and promoted one young woman &ndash;&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Yo&nbsp;Jong, his younger sister, who Korea-watchers say is also&nbsp;Kim&#39;s chief propagandist. She is&nbsp;Kim&#39;s only other blood relative to be involved in politics: His elder brother,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Chol, was rejected by their father as heir.

Over the five years to December 2016,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;spent $300 million on 29 nuclear and missile tests, $180 million on building some 460 family statues, and as much as $1 billion on a party congress in 2016 &ndash; including $26.8 million on fireworks alone, according to the Institute, which employs high-level defectors.

&quot;Yes, he has replaced many top commanders and officials so easily and ruthlessly killed some of them, which could make you wonder if he&#39;s sane,&quot; said Lee Sang-keun, a North Korean leadership expert at the Institute of Unification Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

&quot;But this is a historical way of governing that can put you in power for a long time.&quot;

Great Leader

In ancient days, Pyongyang was the capital of a mighty empire, Koguryo, the root of the modern word &quot;Korea.&quot; Going back through history, the Great Leader concept is a blend of several ideas handed down through time: an almighty god, the Confucian worship of a parent, and a king with the Mandate of Heaven, according to Lee Seung-yeol, a senior researcher at the National Assembly Research Service in Seoul.

Lee, a leading North Korea leadership researcher, said the state&#39;s theory of succession meansKim&nbsp;the younger&#39;s rise should have been completed while his father was alive:&nbsp;Kim&#39;s father was anointed 20 years before he took over, giving him time to build allies and a leadership system.

Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Un had just three years as leader-in-waiting.

Born in 1984, he was third in line for power and a fractious, competitive child, according to Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese chef who worked for the family and one of the few people to recount meetings with the young&nbsp;Kim. In his memoirs published in 2010, Fujimoto, who now runs a sushi restaurant in Pyongyang, said&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;once snapped at his aunt Ko Yong Suk for calling him &quot;Little General.&quot;&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;wanted to be called &quot;Comrade General.&quot;

When&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Il knew his young son would soon succeed him, researchers have said, the father took several measures to protect the boy. Lee said these included shifting the country&#39;s power base to create rivalry between the elites so&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;the younger could play one group off against another.

Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Il had declared the military the country&#39;s supreme power &ndash; a policy known as songun, which means &quot;military first.&quot; At a party conference in 2010, he changed the setup so the military had to compete with the party administration for the leader&#39;s favour.

&quot;Poor man&#39;s weapon&quot;

Military strategy was the first thing&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;changed. His father had used the promise of nuclear disarmament as a bargaining chip for aid, and in February 2012, young&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;started in his father&#39;s footsteps, promising to freeze North Korea&#39;s nuclear programme in return for food aid from the United States.

But weeks later he changed tack, saying North Korea would fire a long-range rocket. &quot;The negotiations were carried on as the legacy of&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Il,&quot; said Wi Sung-lac, a former South Korean envoy to talks in 2011 that contributed to the February deal. &quot;Since then his strategicthinking&nbsp;has shaped up.&quot;

In&nbsp;Kim&#39;s view, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya were fatally weakened by not having nuclear weapons, North Korean media say. &quot;History proves that powerful nuclear deterrence serves as the strongest treasured sword for frustrating outsiders&#39; aggression,&quot; the official KCNA news agency said in an editorial in January 2016.

North Korea is racing to achieve a nuclear deterrent because the state feels threatened, worrying particularly that&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;may face a fate like Gaddafi. The Libyan leader agreed in 2003 to eliminate his weapons of mass destruction; in 2011, he was killed by rebels that the United States and its allies had supported.

Months after&nbsp;Kim&#39;s accession, North Korea updated its constitution to declare itself a nuclear weapons state.

One leading pallbearer at&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Il&#39;s funeral was Ri Yong Ho, Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People&#39;s Army.&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;sacked him in July 2012. South Korean intelligence later confirmed that Ri had been executed.

By December 2012, North Korea had carried out another, successful, rocket test.

In 2013,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;outlined a new policy: The &quot;byungjin line,&quot; or parallel development, to combine the nuclear buildup and economic growth.

A nuclear deterrent is essential to that, says Thae Yong-ho, North Korea&#39;s former deputy ambassador to London, who staged a high-profile defection to South Korea in 2016. The threat of absolute destruction makes a nuclear bomb a &quot;poor man&#39;s weapon&quot; with which to tighten control of the country and ensure long-term rule, Thae said.

&quot;Once he has assumed control of usable nuclear weapons, he has more room to allocate resources more flexibly, and allocate the military forces for civilian construction,&quot; said Thae.

&quot;Foolish dream&quot;

North Korea spends about a quarter of its GDP on defence: Russia&#39;s President Vladimir Putin has said&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Un would have his people &quot;eat grass&quot; rather than give up its nuclear programme.

But with a legacy of famine,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;also says he wants to boost people&#39;s prosperity.

The former chef, Fujimoto, said that on one summer break from school in Switzerland in 2000, the young&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;was preoccupied with a visit to Beijing his father had made.

&quot;Let&#39;s talk,&quot; Fujimoto recalled the future leader saying over drinks on his father&#39;s private train. &quot;I hear from higher up that China seems to be succeeding on many fronts &ndash; engineering, commerce, hotels, agriculture - everything,&quot;&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;said. &quot;In many ways, don&#39;t we need to take them as a model example for us?&quot;

In 2012, shortly after taking power,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;went a small way to mimic reforms China made in the 1980s. Farmers were allowed to keep most of the harvest. State enterprises were given the right to buy and sell at market prices and to hire and fire workers. Private entrepreneurs and traders were encouraged to invest in state projects or with party and military entities.&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;also began to turn a blind eye to informal markets &ndash; a force his father tried in vain to contain.

That April,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;addressed the nation - the first time in 17 years North Koreans had heard the voice of their leader. &quot;It is the party&#39;s steadfast determination to ensure that the people will never have to tighten their belt again,&quot; he said.

Outsiders hoped the reform signaled a new political openness as&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;drove to promote the North in the world: In 2012 Antonio Razzi, an Italian senator for Forza Italia who calls himself the only Italian to have met the leader, said&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;had asked him to find training facilities for soccer players in Italy.

&quot;I have talked with many (North Korean) local leaders,&quot; Razzi said. &quot;They have no plan to attack anybody. North Korea is interested in nuclear only as a form of defence.&quot;

Kim&nbsp;worked to ensure the economic freedom would not unseat him.

Also escorting his father&#39;s funeral car in 2011 was Jang Song Thaek, an administrator at the vanguard of the reforms. He was married to&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Il&#39;s sister, was a special envoy to China and had overseen a host of new Special Economic Zones all over the country.

In December 2013, Jang was hauled out of the Politburo in front of the cameras and accused of plotting a coup. &quot;Jang dreamed such a foolish dream,&quot; state media said, adding Jang hoped his reformist plans would help him &quot;get &#39;recognised&#39; by foreign countries.&quot;

Jang was shot &quot;dozens of times&quot; by an anti-aircraft gun and his remains removed with a flamethrower, according to South Korea&#39;s National Intelligence Service (NIS) &ndash; an account no one has confirmed.

&quot;Development dictator&quot;

From that point on,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;honed his personality cult. On the day Jang&#39;s purge was announced, North Korea&#39;s official daily the Rodong Sinmun unveiled a song dedicated to&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Un, titled &quot;We Know Nothing But You.&quot; More were to follow.

The next year,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;also ordered school textbooks be revised to focus on idolisation of himself and include images of nuclear weapons and missiles, according to the NIS-affiliated Institute for National Security Strategy.

The idolisation campaign kicked into high gear in 2016, focused on pop culture and youth:&nbsp;Kim&#39;s chosen female singers, the Moranbong Band, staged a series of musical performances and plays calling for loyalty to the leader, while the Shock Brigade, a crew of young North Koreans in charge of major economic construction, produced about 1,200 poems and other literary works, the Institute said.

&quot;He has linked his own legitimacy to improving the economic situation in the country,&quot; said John Delury of Seoul&#39;s Yonsei University. &quot;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Un wants to become a development dictator.&quot;

At home, he casts himself as a bringer of plenty. In 2015, almost half the times he was photographed were at economic events, data from Seoul&#39;s Unification Ministry shows. Only this year, as his weapons tests multiplied and met an angry response in the United States, have military appearances come back into prominence.

Standing tearfully&nbsp;behind&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Un at their father&#39;s funeral was his younger sister, 28-year-oldKim&nbsp;Yo&nbsp;Jong. On the same October day that&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;dropped the last two of his father&#39;s aides, he included her in his Politburo.&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Chol, their elder brother, leads a quiet life in Pyongyang where he plays guitar in a band, according to former ambassador Thae.

&quot;I think&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong&nbsp;Un has been making good use of the existing system, while strengthening his power base and dictator regime in a very shrewd manner,&quot; said Lee Su-seok, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy.

North Korea's Kim?Jong?Un has completed a six-year transition to what the South calls a reign of terror

On an icy December day in 2011, North Korea's new leader Kim Jong Un was accompanied by seven advisers as they escorted the hearse that carried his father, Kim Jong Il, through the streets of Pyongyang. None of the men remain with the young Kim. This October, he demoted the last of his father's aides, both men in their nineties. They were among around 340 people he has purged or executed, according to the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank of South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS). Kim, "obviously a madman" in the eyes of US President Donald Trump, has completed a six-year transition to what the South calls a reign of terror. His unpredictability and belligerence have instilled fear worldwide: After he tested a "breakthrough" missile earlier this week, he pronounced North Korea a nuclear power capable of striking the United States. But a closer look at his leadership reveals a method behind the "madness." At 33, Kim Jong Un is one of the world's youngest heads of state. He inherited a nation with a proud history, onto which a socialist state had essentially been grafted by Cold War superpowers to create a buffer between Communist China and the capitalist South. Under Kim's father, the economy was mismanaged, and the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union eliminated an important source of support. Up to three million people starved. To consolidate a weak position, the young leader has been cultivating three main forces: military and nuclear power, a tacit private sector market economy, and the fear and adoration of a god. To this end, he has executed two powerful men and promoted one young woman – Kim Yo Jong, his younger sister, who Korea-watchers say is also Kim's chief propagandist. She is Kim's only other blood relative to be involved in politics: His elder brother, Kim Jong Chol, was rejected by their father as heir. Over the five years to December 2016, Kim spent $300 million on 29 nuclear and missile tests, $180 million on building some 460 family statues, and as much as $1 billion on a party congress in 2016 – including $26.8 million on fireworks alone, according to the Institute, which employs high-level defectors. "Yes, he has replaced many top commanders and officials so easily and ruthlessly killed some of them, which could make you wonder if he's sane," said Lee Sang-keun, a North Korean leadership expert at the Institute of Unification Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. "But this is a historical way of governing that can put you in power for a long time." Great Leader In ancient days, Pyongyang was the capital of a mighty empire, Koguryo, the root of the modern word "Korea." Going back through history, the Great Leader concept is a blend of several ideas handed down through time: an almighty god, the Confucian worship of a parent, and a king with the Mandate of Heaven, according to Lee Seung-yeol, a senior researcher at the National Assembly Research Service in Seoul. Lee, a leading North Korea leadership researcher, said the state's theory of succession meansKim the younger's rise should have been completed while his father was alive: Kim's father was anointed 20 years before he took over, giving him time to build allies and a leadership system. Kim Jong Un had just three years as leader-in-waiting. Born in 1984, he was third in line for power and a fractious, competitive child, according to Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese chef who worked for the family and one of the few people to recount meetings with the young Kim. In his memoirs published in 2010, Fujimoto, who now runs a sushi restaurant in Pyongyang, said Kim once snapped at his aunt Ko Yong Suk for calling him "Little General." Kim wanted to be called "Comrade General." When Kim Jong Il knew his young son would soon succeed him, researchers have said, the father took several measures to protect the boy. Lee said these included shifting the country's power base to create rivalry between the elites so Kim the younger could play one group off against another. Kim Jong Il had declared the military the country's supreme power – a policy known as songun, which means "military first." At a party conference in 2010, he changed the setup so the military had to compete with the party administration for the leader's favour. "Poor man's weapon" Military strategy was the first thing Kim changed. His father had used the promise of nuclear disarmament as a bargaining chip for aid, and in February 2012, young Kim started in his father's footsteps, promising to freeze North Korea's nuclear programme in return for food aid from the United States. But weeks later he changed tack, saying North Korea would fire a long-range rocket. "The negotiations were carried on as the legacy of Kim Jong Il," said Wi Sung-lac, a former South Korean envoy to talks in 2011 that contributed to the February deal. "Since then his strategicthinking has shaped up." In Kim's view, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya were fatally weakened by not having nuclear weapons, North Korean media say. "History proves that powerful nuclear deterrence serves as the strongest treasured sword for frustrating outsiders' aggression," the official KCNA news agency said in an editorial in January 2016. North Korea is racing to achieve a nuclear deterrent because the state feels threatened, worrying particularly that Kim may face a fate like Gaddafi. The Libyan leader agreed in 2003 to eliminate his weapons of mass destruction; in 2011, he was killed by rebels that the United States and its allies had supported. Months after Kim's accession, North Korea updated its constitution to declare itself a nuclear weapons state. One leading pallbearer at Kim Jong Il's funeral was Ri Yong Ho, Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army. Kim sacked him in July 2012. South Korean intelligence later confirmed that Ri had been executed. By December 2012, North Korea had carried out another, successful, rocket test. In 2013, Kim outlined a new policy: The "byungjin line," or parallel development, to combine the nuclear buildup and economic growth. A nuclear deterrent is essential to that, says Thae Yong-ho, North Korea's former deputy ambassador to London, who staged a high-profile defection to South Korea in 2016. The threat of absolute destruction makes a nuclear bomb a "poor man's weapon" with which to tighten control of the country and ensure long-term rule, Thae said. "Once he has assumed control of usable nuclear weapons, he has more room to allocate resources more flexibly, and allocate the military forces for civilian construction," said Thae. "Foolish dream" North Korea spends about a quarter of its GDP on defence: Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said Kim Jong Un would have his people "eat grass" rather than give up its nuclear programme. But with a legacy of famine, Kim also says he wants to boost people's prosperity. The former chef, Fujimoto, said that on one summer break from school in Switzerland in 2000, the young Kim was preoccupied with a visit to Beijing his father had made. "Let's talk," Fujimoto recalled the future leader saying over drinks on his father's private train. "I hear from higher up that China seems to be succeeding on many fronts – engineering, commerce, hotels, agriculture - everything," Kim said. "In many ways, don't we need to take them as a model example for us?" In 2012, shortly after taking power, Kim went a small way to mimic reforms China made in the 1980s. Farmers were allowed to keep most of the harvest. State enterprises were given the right to buy and sell at market prices and to hire and fire workers. Private entrepreneurs and traders were encouraged to invest in state projects or with party and military entities. Kim also began to turn a blind eye to informal markets – a force his father tried in vain to contain. That April, Kim addressed the nation - the first time in 17 years North Koreans had heard the voice of their leader. "It is the party's steadfast determination to ensure that the people will never have to tighten their belt again," he said. Outsiders hoped the reform signaled a new political openness as Kim drove to promote the North in the world: In 2012 Antonio Razzi, an Italian senator for Forza Italia who calls himself the only Italian to have met the leader, said Kim had asked him to find training facilities for soccer players in Italy. "I have talked with many (North Korean) local leaders," Razzi said. "They have no plan to attack anybody. North Korea is interested in nuclear only as a form of defence." Kim worked to ensure the economic freedom would not unseat him. Also escorting his father's funeral car in 2011 was Jang Song Thaek, an administrator at the vanguard of the reforms. He was married to Kim Jong Il's sister, was a special envoy to China and had overseen a host of new Special Economic Zones all over the country. In December 2013, Jang was hauled out of the Politburo in front of the cameras and accused of plotting a coup. "Jang dreamed such a foolish dream," state media said, adding Jang hoped his reformist plans would help him "get 'recognised' by foreign countries." Jang was shot "dozens of times" by an anti-aircraft gun and his remains removed with a flamethrower, according to South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) – an account no one has confirmed. "Development dictator" From that point on, Kim honed his personality cult. On the day Jang's purge was announced, North Korea's official daily the Rodong Sinmun unveiled a song dedicated to Kim Jong Un, titled "We Know Nothing But You." More were to follow. The next year, Kim also ordered school textbooks be revised to focus on idolisation of himself and include images of nuclear weapons and missiles, according to the NIS-affiliated Institute for National Security Strategy. The idolisation campaign kicked into high gear in 2016, focused on pop culture and youth: Kim's chosen female singers, the Moranbong Band, staged a series of musical performances and plays calling for loyalty to the leader, while the Shock Brigade, a crew of young North Koreans in charge of major economic construction, produced about 1,200 poems and other literary works, the Institute said. "He has linked his own legitimacy to improving the economic situation in the country," said John Delury of Seoul's Yonsei University. "Kim Jong Un wants to become a development dictator." At home, he casts himself as a bringer of plenty. In 2015, almost half the times he was photographed were at economic events, data from Seoul's Unification Ministry shows. Only this year, as his weapons tests multiplied and met an angry response in the United States, have military appearances come back into prominence. Standing tearfully behind Kim Jong Un at their father's funeral was his younger sister, 28-year-oldKim Yo Jong. On the same October day that Kim dropped the last two of his father's aides, he included her in his Politburo. Kim Jong Chol, their elder brother, leads a quiet life in Pyongyang where he plays guitar in a band, according to former ambassador Thae. "I think Kim Jong Un has been making good use of the existing system, while strengthening his power base and dictator regime in a very shrewd manner," said Lee Su-seok, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy.

The thinking behind Kim Jong Un's 'madness'

North Korea may announce the completion of its nuclear programme within a year, South Korea&#39;s unification minister said on Tuesday, as the isolated country is moving more faster than expected in developing its weapons arsenal.

&quot;Experts think North Korea will take two to three more years but they are developing their nuclear capabilities faster than expected and we cannot rule out the possibility Pyongyang may declare the completion of their nuclear programme in a year,&quot; said Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon at a media event in Seoul.

'Experts think North Korea will take two to three more years, but they are developing their nuclear capabilities faster than expected,' said Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon

North Korea may announce the completion of its nuclear programme within a year, South Korea's unification minister said on Tuesday, as the isolated country is moving more faster than expected in developing its weapons arsenal. "Experts think North Korea will take two to three more years but they are developing their nuclear capabilities faster than expected and we cannot rule out the possibility Pyongyang may declare the completion of their nuclear programme in a year," said Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon at a media event in Seoul.

North Korea may announce completion of nuclear programme within a year: South Korea minister

China on Wednesday rejected new United States sanctions targeting Chinese traders doing business with North Korea as &quot;wrong&quot;, stressing that it has enforced UN sanctions over Pyongyang&#39;s nuclear provocations.

The Chinese companies were hit by punitive measures along with North Korean shipping interests after US President Donald Trump put Pyongyang back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Trump warned this week that the sanctions announcement would be the first in a series of moves over the next two weeks that would reinforce his &quot;maximum pressure campaign&quot; against Kim Jong-Un&#39;s regime.

As had been expected, the US Treasury Department&#39;s measures unveiled on Tuesday make use of existing US directives against North Korean trade but expand their scope to take in more companies and individuals.

Most importantly, they expand the list of Chinese firms accused of doing business with the North despite promises from Beijing that it will honour UN-backed punitive measures.

&quot;We consistently oppose any country adopting unilateral sanctions based on its own domestic laws and regulations and the wrong method of exercising long-arm jurisdiction,&quot; foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing.

Trump met China&#39;s President Xi Jinping earlier this month and is bullish about the US-China relationship, but concerns remain that Beijing is not ready to take tough measures against Kim.

&quot;China has been comprehensively respecting and strictly implementing (UN) Security Council resolutions and our efforts in this regard are witnessed by all,&quot; Lu said.

The spokesman called on Washington to provide &quot;any solid evidence&quot; that Chinese companies have violated the UN sanctions.

He said that if any companies or individuals have violated domestic laws, &quot;we will severely deal with that in accordance with our laws and regulations&quot;.

&nbsp;&#39;More should be done&#39;

While China has backed the UN measures, it has been reluctant to take the more drastic step of cutting off oil supplies through a pipeline to North Korea&#39;s lone refinery, fearing that regime collapse could lead to chaos on their common border.

And, according to US officials, some Chinese-based banks and trading firms continue to do business with the North in defiance of UN sanctions and US threats of unilateral measures.

China has pressed for dialogue, saying this week that &quot;more should be done&quot; to hold talks to resolve the crisis.

A Chinese special envoy also wrapped up a four-day trip to the North on Monday, during which the two sides discussed regional concerns but made no direct statements about the nuclear standoff.

Beijing has pushed for a &quot;dual-track approach&quot; which would see the United States freeze its military drills in South Korea while North Korea would halt its weapons programs.

Washington has rejected that approach.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions would not only increase Pyongyang&#39;s isolation but also expose &quot;its evasive tactics.&quot;

&quot;These designations include companies that have engaged in trade with North Korea cumulatively worth hundreds of millions of dollars,&quot; Mnuchin said.

&quot;We are also sanctioning the shipping and transportation companies, and their vessels, that facilitate North Korea&#39;s trade and its deceptive manoeuvres.&quot;

In all, the new measures add one individual, 13 trading entities and 20 ships to US sanctions lists.

Any property or assets of the firms involved found to be in areas under US jurisdiction are to be frozen, and Americans are banned from trading with them.

Three Chinese firms -&nbsp;Dandong Kehua Economy and Trade, Dandong Xianghe Trading Company and Dandong Hongda Trade -&nbsp;are said to have sold computers, minerals and ore to North Korea.

Chinese businessman Sun Sidong and his company Dandong Dongyuan Industrial are accused of exporting vehicles, machinery, radio navigation and &quot;items associated with nuclear reactors.&quot;

&nbsp;&#39;We suspended trading&#39;&nbsp;

A woman who answered the phone at the company said it was not doing business with North Korea and suggested that the firm had halted its operations.

&quot;We are not operating,&quot; she said.

Another woman at Dandong Kehua Economy and Trade denied knowing about the sanctions.

&quot;We have temporarily suspended (trading),&quot; she said.

The Chinese companies were hit by punitive measures along with North Korean shipping interests after US President Donald Trump put Pyongyang back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism

China on Wednesday rejected new United States sanctions targeting Chinese traders doing business with North Korea as "wrong", stressing that it has enforced UN sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear provocations. The Chinese companies were hit by punitive measures along with North Korean shipping interests after US President Donald Trump put Pyongyang back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Trump warned this week that the sanctions announcement would be the first in a series of moves over the next two weeks that would reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong-Un's regime. As had been expected, the US Treasury Department's measures unveiled on Tuesday make use of existing US directives against North Korean trade but expand their scope to take in more companies and individuals. Most importantly, they expand the list of Chinese firms accused of doing business with the North despite promises from Beijing that it will honour UN-backed punitive measures. "We consistently oppose any country adopting unilateral sanctions based on its own domestic laws and regulations and the wrong method of exercising long-arm jurisdiction," foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing. Trump met China's President Xi Jinping earlier this month and is bullish about the US-China relationship, but concerns remain that Beijing is not ready to take tough measures against Kim. "China has been comprehensively respecting and strictly implementing (UN) Security Council resolutions and our efforts in this regard are witnessed by all," Lu said. The spokesman called on Washington to provide "any solid evidence" that Chinese companies have violated the UN sanctions. He said that if any companies or individuals have violated domestic laws, "we will severely deal with that in accordance with our laws and regulations". 'More should be done' While China has backed the UN measures, it has been reluctant to take the more drastic step of cutting off oil supplies through a pipeline to North Korea's lone refinery, fearing that regime collapse could lead to chaos on their common border. And, according to US officials, some Chinese-based banks and trading firms continue to do business with the North in defiance of UN sanctions and US threats of unilateral measures. China has pressed for dialogue, saying this week that "more should be done" to hold talks to resolve the crisis. A Chinese special envoy also wrapped up a four-day trip to the North on Monday, during which the two sides discussed regional concerns but made no direct statements about the nuclear standoff. Beijing has pushed for a "dual-track approach" which would see the United States freeze its military drills in South Korea while North Korea would halt its weapons programs. Washington has rejected that approach. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions would not only increase Pyongyang's isolation but also expose "its evasive tactics." "These designations include companies that have engaged in trade with North Korea cumulatively worth hundreds of millions of dollars," Mnuchin said. "We are also sanctioning the shipping and transportation companies, and their vessels, that facilitate North Korea's trade and its deceptive manoeuvres." In all, the new measures add one individual, 13 trading entities and 20 ships to US sanctions lists. Any property or assets of the firms involved found to be in areas under US jurisdiction are to be frozen, and Americans are banned from trading with them. Three Chinese firms - Dandong Kehua Economy and Trade, Dandong Xianghe Trading Company and Dandong Hongda Trade - are said to have sold computers, minerals and ore to North Korea. Chinese businessman Sun Sidong and his company Dandong Dongyuan Industrial are accused of exporting vehicles, machinery, radio navigation and "items associated with nuclear reactors." 'We suspended trading' A woman who answered the phone at the company said it was not doing business with North Korea and suggested that the firm had halted its operations. "We are not operating," she said. Another woman at Dandong Kehua Economy and Trade denied knowing about the sanctions. "We have temporarily suspended (trading)," she said.

China slams 'wrong' US sanctions on North Korea-tied Chinese firms

Satellite images taken this month of a North Korean naval shipyard indicate Pyongyang is pursuing an &ldquo;aggressive schedule&rdquo; to build its first operational ballistic missile submarine, a US&nbsp;institute reported on Thursday.

Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, cited images taken on November 5th showing activity at North Korea&rsquo;s Sinpo South Shipyard.

&ldquo;The presence of what appear to be sections of a submarine&rsquo;s pressure hull in the yards suggests construction of a new submarine, possibly the SINPO-C ballistic missile submarine - the follow-on to the current SINPO-class experimental ballistic missile submarine,&rdquo; 38 North said in a report.

The report said that throughout 2017 there had been a continued movement of parts and components into and out of two parts yards adjacent to the constructions halls in the center of the shipyard.

It said the November 5th images showed two large circular objects that could be sections of a submarine&rsquo;s pressure hull. It said these appeared larger than those for North Korea&rsquo;s ROMEO-class attack submarine.

Images of a test stand indicated continued testing of a mechanism for ejection launch of missiles from a submarine. However, the report said no activity could be seen suggesting preparations for a new test of a submarine-launched missile.

North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States, sparking a major international crisis in which US&nbsp;President Donald Trump has said that all options are under consideration, including military ones.

North Korea is also thought to be working on a solid-fuel missile for submarine launches.

Last month, The Diplomat magazine quoted a US&nbsp;government source as saying US&nbsp;military intelligence had detected a new diesel-electric submarine under construction at Sinpo and dubbed it the Sinpo-C. It said the submarine was likely a larger successor to North Korea&rsquo;s single experimental ballistic missile submarine.

North Korea has conducted dozens of missile tests this year and its largest and biggest nuclear test on Sept. 3. The past two months have seen a relative lull and it has not tested a missile since firing one over Japan on September 15.

Another article in The Diplomat last month quoted a US&nbsp;government source as saying that North Korea had tested a new solid fuel engine sometime between Oct. 15 and Oct. 21. US&nbsp;intelligence officials have declined to comment on this.

Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, cited images taken on November 5th showing activity at North Korea?s Sinpo South Shipyard

Satellite images taken this month of a North Korean naval shipyard indicate Pyongyang is pursuing an “aggressive schedule” to build its first operational ballistic missile submarine, a US institute reported on Thursday. Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, cited images taken on November 5th showing activity at North Korea’s Sinpo South Shipyard. “The presence of what appear to be sections of a submarine’s pressure hull in the yards suggests construction of a new submarine, possibly the SINPO-C ballistic missile submarine - the follow-on to the current SINPO-class experimental ballistic missile submarine,” 38 North said in a report. The report said that throughout 2017 there had been a continued movement of parts and components into and out of two parts yards adjacent to the constructions halls in the center of the shipyard. It said the November 5th images showed two large circular objects that could be sections of a submarine’s pressure hull. It said these appeared larger than those for North Korea’s ROMEO-class attack submarine. Images of a test stand indicated continued testing of a mechanism for ejection launch of missiles from a submarine. However, the report said no activity could be seen suggesting preparations for a new test of a submarine-launched missile. North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States, sparking a major international crisis in which US President Donald Trump has said that all options are under consideration, including military ones. North Korea is also thought to be working on a solid-fuel missile for submarine launches. Last month, The Diplomat magazine quoted a US government source as saying US military intelligence had detected a new diesel-electric submarine under construction at Sinpo and dubbed it the Sinpo-C. It said the submarine was likely a larger successor to North Korea’s single experimental ballistic missile submarine. North Korea has conducted dozens of missile tests this year and its largest and biggest nuclear test on Sept. 3. The past two months have seen a relative lull and it has not tested a missile since firing one over Japan on September 15. Another article in The Diplomat last month quoted a US government source as saying that North Korea had tested a new solid fuel engine sometime between Oct. 15 and Oct. 21. US intelligence officials have declined to comment on this.

Satellite images indicate 'aggressive schedule' by North Korea on missile submarine: US Institute

US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Asia-Pacific region was being held hostage by the &quot;twisted fantasies&quot; of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, as he called on countries to stand united against Pyongyang.

Trump has embarked on a tour of Asia this week trying to rally regional support for curbing North Korea&#39;s nuclear weapons programme, warning that time is running out over the crisis.

&quot;The future of this region and its beautiful people must not be held hostage to a dictator&#39;s twisted fantasies of violent conquest and nuclear blackmail,&quot; he said during a speech in Vietnam to the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. The region, he added, must &quot;stand united in declaring that every single step the North Korean regime takes toward more weapons is a step it takes into greater and greater danger&quot;.

The US administration thinks China&#39;s economic leverage over North Korea is the key to strong-arming Pyongyang into halting its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

On Thursday, Trump was in Beijing meeting President Xi Jinping, where he called on China to &quot;act fast&quot; over North Korea.&nbsp;&quot;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,&quot; he said.&nbsp;

Washington has also worked in recent months to convince allies across Asia to oppose Pyongyang, an issue that will remain prominent during his two day trip to Vietnam, which is currently hosting a major regional summit. Alongside Trump, the leaders of Japan, Russia, China and South Korea are also attending the APEC summit.

'The future of this region and its beautiful people must not be held hostage to a dictator's twisted fantasies of violent conquest and nuclear blackmail,' he said

US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Asia-Pacific region was being held hostage by the "twisted fantasies" of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, as he called on countries to stand united against Pyongyang. Trump has embarked on a tour of Asia this week trying to rally regional support for curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, warning that time is running out over the crisis. "The future of this region and its beautiful people must not be held hostage to a dictator's twisted fantasies of violent conquest and nuclear blackmail," he said during a speech in Vietnam to the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. The region, he added, must "stand united in declaring that every single step the North Korean regime takes toward more weapons is a step it takes into greater and greater danger". The US administration thinks China's economic leverage over North Korea is the key to strong-arming Pyongyang into halting its nuclear weapons and missile programmes. On Thursday, Trump was in Beijing meeting President Xi Jinping, where he called on China to "act fast" over North Korea. "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," he said. Washington has also worked in recent months to convince allies across Asia to oppose Pyongyang, an issue that will remain prominent during his two day trip to Vietnam, which is currently hosting a major regional summit. Alongside Trump, the leaders of Japan, Russia, China and South Korea are also attending the APEC summit.

Trump says Asia held hostage by North Korea's 'twisted fantasies'

pyongyang

Pyongyang, News on Pyongyang, stories on Pyongyang, articles on Pyongyang, Pyongyang stories at Wion, Pyongyang news, Pyongyang latest news