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Also See: United Nations; South Korea; Bombast;
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Undated:
The Moranbong Band (lit. "Tree
Peony
Peak
Band"), also known as the Moran Hill Orchestra,[1]
is an all-female music group in
North
Korea whose members were selected by the country's supreme leader
Kim Jong-un.[2][3][4][5]
Performing interpretive styles of
pop,
rock,
and
fusion, they are the first all-female band from the DPRK, and made their
world debut on July 6, 2012.[6]
Their varied musical style has been described as
symphonic because it is "putting together different kinds of sounds, and
ending in a harmonious, pleasing result."[7]
March 6: The U.S. has started shipping an anti-missile system to South Korea after
North Korea began testing medium-range missiles Monday, according to a new
report.
http://thehill.com/policy/international/asia-pacific/322643-us-sending-anti-missile-system-to-south-korea-report
March 17:
Rex Tillerson has
reportedly cut short his meetings with South Korean leaders during a visit
to Seoul, with local officials citing the secretary of state’s “fatigue,” but
not before making a bit of news: Thursday Tillerson
declared decades of attempted diplomatic engagement with North Korea a
failure and warned that “all options are on the table” to deter the nuclear
threat from the country.
April 4: North Korean cyber attackers have targeted banks in 18
countries with Pyongyang using the money to boost its terrifying nuclear
programme, security experts have claimed.
April 4: President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese President
Xi Jinping on Friday for a whirlwind 24-hour summit to commence discussions on
issues of paramount importance to the administration: trade and North Korea.
Mr. Trump is expected to press Xi on taking a tougher approach to address the
North Korean nuclear problem by applying financial pressure on China’s
unpredictable neighbor, according to a senior White House official.
The official argued that while China’s political influence over its neighbor may
be diminished, its economic leverage is still “considerable,” since China
accounts for 90 percent of North Korea’s trade.
April 6: "Before the end of President Trump's current term, the North Koreans
will probably be able to reach Seattle with an indigenously produced nuclear
weapon aboard an indigenously produced intercontinental ballistic missile,"
Michael Hayden, who served as the director of the CIA between 2006 to 2009,
said Tuesday while speaking at Johns Hopkins University
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/04/asia/north-korea-projectile/
April 9: The US military has ordered a navy strike group to move towards
the Korean peninsula, amid growing concerns about North Korea's missile
programme.
April 11: In a statement provided to CNN by officials in North
Korea, Pyongyang said the “current grim situation” justified its “self-defensive
and pre-emptive strike capabilities with the nuclear force at the core.”
April 18: The "armada" that President Trump said he was sending to deter
North Korea still hasn't arrived — and it has thousands more miles to cover if
it actually does sail to the Korean Peninsula.
April 20: "We are sending an armada. Very powerful," Trump told Fox
Business Channel's Maria Bartiromo. "We have submarines. Very powerful. Far
more powerful than the aircraft carrier. That, I can tell you."
It turns out the carrier group was never actually steaming towards the
peninsula, but rather heading to joint exercises with the Australian navy. US
officials insist it's now on its way to the Sea of Japan, known in South Korea
as the East Sea. It
still hasn't arrived. "How does the US expect South Koreans to trust the
US when its leader bluffs and exaggerates? South Koreans' feelings were hurt
considerably by remarks by the leader of a close ally."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/20/asia/south-korea-worries-donald-trump-uss-carl-vinson/index.html
April 27: Tillerson: China threatened
sanctions if North Korea conducts nuclear test
"They confirmed to us that they had requested that the regime conduct no further
nuclear test," Tillerson said of the Chinese during an interview on
Fox'sSpecial Report with Bret Baier. "In fact, we were told by the
Chinese that they informed the (North Korean) regime that if they did conduct
further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions action on their own."
April 27: A North Korean government official in a rare interview
promised his country's nuclear tests would "never stop" as long as the US
continued what they viewed as "acts of aggression." ... Sok Chol Won wouldn't
confirm when the country's long-anticipated sixth nuclear test would take place
but said it wouldn't be influenced by outside events. "The nuclear test is an
important part of our continued efforts to strengthen our nuclear forces," he
said.
http://carnegieendowment.org/2017/04/27/nuclear-tests-will-never-stop-north-korean-government-official-says-pub-68801
April 26:Donald Trump said South Korea should pay for
hosting the American THAAD anti-missile system, in line with his general
narrative that America’s allies are taking advantage of US protection. Seoul has
rejected the idea.
President Trump wants South Korea to pay around $1 billion for the deployment of
the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, he
told Reuters in an exclusive interview.
“I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It’s a billion
dollar system,” said Trump.
“It’s phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky,” he added,
promoting the anti-missile system that is being deployed in South Korea amid
much public discontent and fears that it will only make the immediate
surroundings a prime target of a potential strike.
https://www.rt.com/usa/386408-trump-us-protection-costs/
May 24: North Korea has been accelerating
its missile testing and conducted its second successful launch within two weeks
Sunday. At the same time, the White House has issued a series of escalating
warnings against the regime of Kim Jong Un if it continues its missiles tests
and, particularly, if it follows through on its pledge to conduct a sixth
nuclear test.
Both President Donald Trump and South Korea’s new president Moon Jae In have
said recently that a conflict with North Korea was possible. North Korea has
repeatedly claimed that its weapons program is a tool of self-defense against
the provocative rhetoric and actions of the U.S. in the region.
http://www.newsweek.com/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-us-615002
July 4: Defense Secretary James Mattis ...
recently underscored US military policy when asked by South Carolina Republican
Sen. Lindsay Graham, “Is it the policy of the Trump administration to deny North
Korea the capability of building an ICBM that can hit the American homeland with
a nuclear weapon on top?”
July 6: Trump says the US is drawing up
plans on North Korea, but he won't 'draw red lines'
Trump considers 'pretty severe things:"
At his joint news conference in Warsaw with
Polish President Andrzej Duda
this morning, President Trump
warned North Korea that he’s considering some “pretty severe things” to respond
to its July 4 test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile. Trump said the
North is behaving in a “very, very dangerous manner” and that something will
have to be done about it.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-says-the-us-is-drawing-up-plans-on-north-korea-but-he-wont-draw-red-lines/article/2176701
July 22: House and
Senate negotiators announced an agreement was reached Saturday morning for a
bill that would include new sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea ... the legislation will
give Congress a new ability to block [Trump's] administration from easing
sanctions on Moscow.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/22/politics/congress-deal-russia-sanctions/index.html
July 28:
North Korea on Friday test-fired its
second intercontinental ballistic missile, which flew longer and higher than the
first according to its wary neighbors, leading analysts to conclude that a wide
swath of the U.S. including Los Angeles and Chicago is now within range of
Pyongyang's weapons.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-missile-launch-detected-pentagon/
July 29: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un
claimed Saturday that his country possesses missiles that could strike the
entire United States mainland, following a test launch Friday.
A White House statement called the North's missile test a "reckless and
dangerous action" which will further isolate the country.
August 5: Resolution 2371 (2017), adopted
unanimously by the United Nations Security Council on August 5, 2017,
strengthens UN sanctions on North Korea in response to its two intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM) tests conducted on July 3, 2017 and July 28, 2017. As
such, this resolution sends a clear message to North Korea that the Security
Council is united in condemning North Korea’s violations and demanding North
Korea give up its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Resolution 2371 (2017) includes the strongest sanctions ever imposed in response
to a ballistic missile test. These measures target North Korea’s principal
exports, imposing a total ban on all exports of coal (North Korea’s largest
source of external revenue), iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood, [and]
Imposes additional restrictions on North Korea’s
ability to generate revenue and access the international financial system ...
https://usun.state.gov/remarks/7924
August 7: "We will, under no circumstances,
put the nukes and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table," Ri [North Korean
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho] said, adding Pyongyang would "teach the US a severe
lesson" if it used military force against North Korea.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/06/asia/north-korea-asean/index.html
August 9: North Korea says a plan that could
see it fire four missiles near the US territory of Guam will be ready in a
matter of days.
State media said Hwasong-12 rockets would pass over Japan and land in the sea
about 30km (17 miles) from Guam, if the plan was approved by Kim Jong-un.
August 9: Republican Sen. John McCain,
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump risked going too far
[with his rhetoric about North Korea].
August 9: President Trump brought the United
States and North Korea to the precipice of war by warning that any further
threats would be met with a nuclear attack. (“North Korea best not make any more
threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world
has never seen.”) North Korea proceeded to test this warning by immediately
issuing a
new threat, to attack Guam. This forced the United States into the
unenviable position of either instigating a massive war with horrific casualties
or surrendering its credibility. ... Defense Secretary
James Mattis
[threatened reprisal in return for North Korean actions, rather than threats.]
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/ignore-our-crazy-president-u-s-tells-north-korea.html
August 9: The message of this [Trump war
threat] cleanup is that Trump’s statements do not necessarily represent the
position of the U.S. government – a reality most American political elites in
both parties already recognize, but which needs to be made clear to other
countries that are unaccustomed to treating their head of state like a random
Twitter troll.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/ignore-our-crazy-president-u-s-tells-north-korea.html
August 9: ... respect for Trump’s
capabilities is a horse that’s already fled the barn. New chief of staff John
Kelly has supposedly instilled military-style order and message discipline into
the administration, but Trump is unteachable. Minimizing the havoc means getting
everybody to pretend Trump isn’t really president.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/ignore-our-crazy-president-u-s-tells-north-korea.html
August 10: The Constitution may give
Congress the ability to declare war, but in reality it has little ability to
stop the President if he's determined to strike North Korea.
August 10: South Korean military official
says that there have been no indications that Pyongyang is readying a strike.
"Currently, there is no unusual movement related to a direct provocation," South
Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Roh Jae-cheon said in a press briefing.
August 17: Just a week after the president
repeatedly threatened North Korea with military action in response to
Pyongyang’s nuclear missile program, [Steve] Bannon mocked that position as
nonsensical.
August 20:
North Korea warned today that the
United States will be "pouring gasoline on fire" by conducting an annual war
game in the South next week amid heightened tensions between
Pyongyang and
Washington.
August 26: Guam officials said they were
immediately notified about the three failed short-range missiles launched by
North Korea Saturday morning, and the launch posed no danger to the island.
September 3: North Korea carried out
its most powerful nuclear test to date on Sunday, claiming to have developed
an advanced hydrogen bomb that could sit atop an intercontinental ballistic
missile.
September 3: The nuclear device that North
Korea tested appeared to be so large that Vipin Narang, an expert on nuclear
proliferation and strategy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called
it a “city buster.”
September 3: US Defense Secretary James
Mattis vowed "a massive military response" to any threat from North Korea
against the United States or its allies in a statement outside the White House
after a meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and top
national security advisers Sunday.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/03/politics/trump-north-korea-nuclear/index.html?adkey=bn
September 3: North Korea carried out its
most powerful nuclear test to date on Sunday, claiming to have developed an
advanced hydrogen bomb that could sit atop an intercontinental ballistic
missile.
The bomb used in the country's sixth-ever nuclear test sent tremors across the
region that were 10 times more powerful than Pyongyang's previous test a year
ago, Japanese officials said.
The device was more than eight times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped
on Hiroshima in 1945, according to NORSAR, a Norway-based group that monitors
nuclear tests.
Based on the tremors that followed the test, NORSAR estimated it had an
explosive yield of 120 kilotons. Hiroshima's had 15 kilotons.
September 3: “We strongly urge North Korea
side to face up to the firm will of the international community on the
denuclearization of the peninsula, abide by relevant resolutions of the UN
Security Council, stop taking wrong actions that exacerbate the situation and
are not in its own interest, and return to the track of resolving the issue
through dialogue,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
http://fox6now.com/2017/09/03/north-korea-tests-most-powerful-nuclear-bomb-yet/
September 4: ... any US military action puts
millions of civilians in the South Korean capital of Seoul at risk, analysts
say, and is therefore very unlikely to happen.
September 21: North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un has warned President Trump that he will make the U.S. leader “pay
dearly” for his threat to totally destroy North Korea, in an unusual direct and
angry statement published Friday.
Calling Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” and his speech to the U.N.
General Assembly “unprecedented rude nonsense,” Kim said that he was now
thinking hard about how to respond.
September 26: Many policy analysts describe
the North Korean nuclear threat as a policy challenge with only poor options, in
that none guarantee the denuclearization of North Korea and some, if
unsuccessful, could make matters worse.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-know-about-sanctions-north-korea
October 1: Tweeting from his golf resort in
New Jersey on Sunday morning, the President of the United States disparaged the
effort to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea.
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his
time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Donald Trump wrote, using the
nickname he has adopted to humiliate the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. The
President was responding to Tillerson’s recent comment that the U.S. is
“probing” for diplomatic solutions via two or three channels to Pyongyang. In
his tweets on Sunday, Trump belittled that strategy and suggested that he is
more interested in military action: “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to
be done!”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/no-laughing-matter-why-trumps-words-on-north-korea-matter
October 10: The U.S. military flew two
strategic bombers
over the Korean peninsula in a show of force late on Tuesday, as President
Donald Trump met top defense officials to discuss how to respond to any threat
from North Korea.
October 10: The United Nations has banned
four ships from visiting any global port, after they were found to have violated
sanctions imposed on North Korea.
The banned vessels were reportedly the Petrel 8, Hao Fan 6, Tong San 2 and Jie
Shun.
According to the MarineTraffic website, a maritime database that monitors the
movement of vessels, Petrel 8 is registered in Comoros, Hao Fan 6 in Saint Kitts
and Nevis, and Tong San 2 in North Korea. The registered country of Jie Shun is
not listed.
October 12: Donald Trump has “lit the wick
of the war,” North Korea’s foreign minister warned Wednesday.
Speaking to Russian state news agency Tass, Ri Yong Ho said Trump’s
threat to “totally destroy” North Korea during his U.N. speech in
September had crossed a line.
October 17: North Korean official: Nuclear
war could break out at any moment
North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations warned that “nuclear
war can break out at any moment,” as the crisis on the Korean Peninsula “has
reached the touch-and-go point.”
Kim In-ryong told the U.N. general assembly’s disarmament committee Monday
that his country is the only nation that has been subject to “such an extreme
and direct nuclear threat” from the United States since the 1970s.
October 25: ... Ri Yong Ho, the foreign
minister [of North Korea], raised the possibility that North Korea could test a
powerful hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean. The threat came hours after US
President Donald Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea in a speech
to the UN.
Ri's remarks come after Trump on Sunday boasted that the US was "prepared for
anything" when it came to the North Korea nuclear crisis.
"We'll see what happens. ... We are so prepared, like you wouldn't believe," he
said ...
November 7:
President Donald Trump issued a stark
warning to North Korea during his address Wednesday to South Korea's National
Assembly, warning that provocative action would amount to a "fatal
miscalculation" under his administration.
He cast himself as more willing than previous US presidents to use military
force against Pyongyang should they continue threatening the United States and
its allies.
November 11: Donald Trump sarcastically
responded Sunday morning to insults issued by North Korea that described the US
President as a “destroyer” who “begged for nuclear war” during his tour of Asia.
The North Korean statement also referred to Trump as a “dotard,” a word meaning
a very old person, and one the reclusive nation has used on him in the past.
November 15: Trump's Diplomacy Probably
Pushed China To Start Talks With North Korea, Experts Say
China will soon send a senior diplomat to visit North Korea for the first time
in two years, indicating that President Donald Trump's recent pressure on
Beijing to tackle Kim Jong Un's regime and its nuclear program might finally be
working, experts say.
Chinese state media
reported on President Xi Jinping's decision Wednesday, days after Trump
finished a 12-day Asia tour in which he visited China and pleaded with regional
leaders to confront Kim.
“I don’t believe in coincidences, and they are sending this guy right after
Trump’s visit,” Robert Manning, a former State Department official and East Asia
expert, told Newsweek. “There was a comfort level between Xi and Trump
on North Korea during this recent visit. But we don’t know what they’ve agreed
to.”
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-china-north-korea-diplomat-visit-deal-712559
December 18: The Trump administration on
Monday evening publicly acknowledged that North Korea was behind the WannaCry
computer worm that affected more than 230,000 computers in more than 150
countries earlier this year.
December 23: North Korea: UN imposes fresh
sanctions over missile tests ... The United Nations Security Council has voted
unanimously to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea in response to its recent
ballistic missile tests.
The US-drafted resolution includes measures to reduce the nation's petrol
imports by up to 90% [and tighten restrictions on smuggling and the use of North
Korean workers overseas].
China and Russia, North Korea's main trading partners, voted in favour of the
resolution.
December 26: The Kremlin said on Tuesday that
Russia was ready to mediate between North Korea and the United States in an
effort to reduce tensions after
recent Pyongyang missile tests and months of an escalating war of words
between the countries' leaders.
"Russia is ready if both sides need it and want it," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told reporters, as quoted by Russian news agency TASS. "It is impossible
to become a mediator between two parties only if one side seeks so, the will of
two sides is needed here."
http://www.dw.com/en/russia-ready-to-mediate-between-north-korea-and-us/a-41938317
December 31: ... in a move that could ease
tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Kim proposed immediate talks with Seoul over
North Korea taking part in the
Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
“North Korea’s participation in the Winter Games will be a good opportunity to
show unity of the people, and we wish the games will be a success,” Kim said.
Undated:According to reports from Amnesty
International and the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, by 2017 an
estimated 200,000 prisoners are incarcerated in camps that are dedicated to
political crimes, and subjected to forced labor, physical abuse, execution
and human experimentation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_North_Korea
January 2:
President Trump escalated his war of words with North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday evening, asserting that his "nuclear button" is
"much bigger & more powerful" than the North Korean leader's and threatening
that the U.S. arsenal "works."
Trump was responding to
Kim's annual New Year's Day speech on Monday, during which the North Korean
leader boasted that the United States is "within the range of our nuclear strike
and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office."
January 31: Trump White House Didn't Want To
Hear Why War With North Korea Is A Bad Idea
One view in particular—which
reportedly upset White House officials—opposes the so-called Bloody
Nose approach that calls for a limited pre-emptive strike against North
Korea as a deterrent. Critics like Cha are concerned that any "bloody nose"
strike on a few targets in North Korea would lead to retaliation by North Korean
tyrant Kim Jong Un, and that could quickly spiral into
all-out war on the Korean Peninsula.
“If we believe that Kim is undeterrable without such a strike, how can we also
believe that a strike will deter him from responding in kind?” Cha wrote. “And
if Kim is unpredictable, impulsive and bordering on irrational, how can we
control the escalation ladder, which is premised on an adversary’s rational
understanding of signals and deterrence?”
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-white-house-didnt-want-hear-why-war-north-korea-bad-idea-796483
January 31: Withdrawal of U.S. envoy
candidate and tough talk from Trump worry South Korea
South Korea’s progressive government was already nervous about President Trump’s
intentions when it came to North Korea, fearing he might press ahead with
military action without Seoul’s consent.
February 6: Trump’s ‘marching orders’ to the
Pentagon: Plan a grand military parade ... President Trump’s vision of soldiers
marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to
reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to
plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s
armed forces.
Shows of military strength are not typical in the United States — and they don’t
come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to
Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear
how they would pay for it.
“I don’t think there’s a lack of love and respect for our armed forces in the
United States,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice
University. “What are they going to do, stand there while Donald Trump waves at
them? It smacks of something you see in a totalitarian country — unless there’s
a genuine, earnest reason to be doing it.”
February 7: North Korea has no intention of
meeting U.S officials during the Winter Olympics that start on Friday, the KCNA
news agency reported, dampening hopes the Games will help resolve a tense
standoff over the North's nuclear weapons programme.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/north-korea-pence-olympics-1.4525804
February 10: The South Korean President has
been invited to travel to North Korea, following a formal invitation from the
country's leader, Kim Jong Un, potentially setting up the first meeting of
Korean leaders since 2007.
The invite, presented to South Korean President Moon Jae-in by Kim's younger
sister, Kim Yo Jong, was delivered during a historic meeting between North and
South Korean officials at Seoul's presidential palace Saturday, presidential
spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.
February 17: South Korean President Moon Jae-in said
Saturday that a "consensus" is starting to build between international
negotiators that North Korea must engage in talks with the United States in the
near future.
March 7: U.S.
sanctions North Korea over VX assassination of Kim
Jong Nam ... The U.S. has determined that Pyongyang used the
chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate the half-brother of North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un and has imposed sanctions in response, the State Department
said Tuesday.
March 9: Trump isn't the first US President
to get a North Korean invite. But he's the first to accept.
Just by showing up to see Kim Jong-Un, Donald Trump would give his murderous
dynasty what it has always craved -- the prestige and propaganda coup of a
meeting of equals with the President of the United States.
May 2: North Korea Allegedly Released U.S.
Prisoners Ahead of Landmark Meeting With Trump ... Kim Dong-chul, Kim Sang-duk
and Kim Hak-song are three U.S. citizens who were arrested in North Korea last
year and accused of “hostile acts.” All three have been held ever since in one
of the rogue regime’s notorious labor camps. But now multiple
media reports have claimed that the three men were released from the camp
and brought to receive medical treatment in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang. It
is unclear if and when they will be returned to the U.S.
http://www.newsweek.com/north-korea-allegedly-released-us-prisoners-ahead-landmark-meeting-trump-908695
May 6: North Korea says US ruining detente
atmosphere ahead of Trump summit with 'misleading' claims ...
The spokesman warned
the U.S. not to interpret Pyongyang’s willingness to talk as a sign of weakness.
He also criticised Washington for its ongoing "pressure and military threats"
and its position that such pressure won’t be eased until North Korea gives up
its nuclear weapons completely.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/06/north-korea-says-us-ruining-detente-atmosphere-ahead-trump-summit/
May 6: US 'provocation' threatens peace,
says North Korea ... A Foreign Ministry official said the US was deliberately
provoking the North by suggesting sanctions will not be lifted until it gives up
nuclear weapons.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44021305
May 9: The recent history of American
political prisoners released from Iran and North Korea
President Donald Trump proudly announced Wednesday that three Americans held by
North Korea had been released ahead of a planned summit between him and the
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
May 12: The head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) believes
there is a "sense of optimism" among North Korea's leaders after enjoying what
he said was unprecedented access to the country.
David Beasley spent two days in the capital, Pyongyang, and two outside it,
accompanied by government minders.
He said the country was working hard to meet nutritional standards, and hunger
was not as high as in the 1990s.
"There is a sense of turning a new page in history," he told the BBC.
May 18: President Donald Trump has said the
US is not pursuing the "Libya model" for the denuclearisation of North Korea.
Mr Trump said Kim Jong-un would stay in power if he made a deal, and hinted he
could be deposed if he refused.
What did President Trump say?
"The model, if you look at that model with Gaddafi, that was a total decimation.
We went in there to beat him. Now that model would take place if we don't make a
deal, most likely. But if we make a deal, I think Kim Jong-un is going to be
very, very happy," Mr Trump said.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44158566
May 21: Trump Aides Worry He Doesn’t Have
Good Grasp on the North Korea Situation
The White House is still reeling after North Korea
reverted to acting like North Korea last week, suddenly ditching the
conciliatory language, canceling talks with South Korea, and threatening to call
off Kim Jong Un’s summit with Trump, which is scheduled for June 12 in
Singapore.
On Friday, the Trump administration tried to get things back on track with a
concession to North Korea:
calling off the joint military exercises with South Korea that led Pyongyang
to cancel its meeting with Seoul. Trump also addressed North Korea’s complaint
about National Security Adviser John Bolton floating the “Libya model” to
denuclearize the North. He somehow managed to contradict Bolton, then repeat the
threat that irked Pyongyang.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/trump-aides-worry-he-doesnt-get-north-korea-situation.html
May 21: Two North Koreans defected to the
South at the weekend, highlighting an issue that has been a source of constant
tension over the years.
Could the latest defection - the first since a historic North-South summit last
month - have an impact on the finely-balanced 12 June summit planned between
North Korea's Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44193264
May 24: Trump on collision course with
Congress on ZTE, the Chinese telecommunications giant sanctioned for doing
business with Iran and North Korea.
Trump has publicly signaled his desire to ease the restrictions on ZTE as he
seeks China's cooperation on North Korea talks and hammering out a trade deal.
But on Friday,
Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's former spy chief, will hand deliver a
letter from the North Korean dictator to President Trump, a reciprocal message
to one Pompeo brought to Pyongyang earlier this month.
June 12: ... this is not the first time
North Korea has promised to abandon its nuclear efforts. (In truth, even this
was simply a reaffirmation of a denuclearization pledge Kim had already made in
April.) Nor is it the second time, or the third. The offer has resurfaced over
the past several decades with surprising regularity. And it has never panned out
so far.
https://www.wired.com/story/north-korea-summit-denuclearize-history/
June 13: Trump tweets that the North Korean
nuclear threat is over
'Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office,' US president
assures, though path toward denuclearization unclear
But there were worries, especially in Tokyo and Seoul, which both have huge US
military presences, about Trump agreeing to halt US military exercises with
South Korea, which the North has long claimed were invasion preparations. That
concession to Kim appeared to catch the Pentagon and officials in Seoul off
guard, and some South Koreans were alarmed.
Trump’s claim that North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat is questionable.
North Korea is believed to possess more than 50 nuclear warheads, with its
atomic program spread across more than 100 sites constructed over decades to
evade international inspections. Trump insisted that strong verification of
denuclearization would be included in a final agreement, saying it was a detail
his team would begin sorting out with the North Koreans next week.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-tweets-that-the-north-korean-nuclear-threat-is-over/
June 21: Breaking the News Frame Of Trump’s
Nuclear Diplomacy
An ebullient President Trump flew home Tuesday with what he called a “very, very
comprehensive” agreement with North Korea, even as lawmakers, analysts and
allies congratulated the effort but questioned the substance of what had been
achieved.
The brief document signed by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provided
virtually no detail beyond a stated commitment to "denuclearize" the Korean
Peninsula, a promise that Pyongyang has made and ignored many times in the past.
https://www.38north.org/2018/06/lsigal062118/
June 21: Trump ... said North Korea had
begun destroying test sites.
Mattis said he was "not aware" of any indications that North Korea had taken
concrete steps to dismantle any more of its infrastructure for the launching of
ballistic missiles or any additional steps to fully denuclearize following the
June 12 summit in Singapore between Trump and Kim.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/21/politics/trump-north-korea-nuclear-agreement/
June 25: Trump supporters celebrated the
president by paying tribute to North Korea
Trump’s fans have joined the president’s victory lap over his summit with Kim
Jong Un — including a bizarre fashion show nod to the meeting.
At one key moment, a woman in a flowing, black and white, Asian-style costume
appeared. As martial-sounding music played, she walked the runway with arms
outstretched, carrying what looked like a red velvet and gilded Valentine’s Day
candy box. The women cheered as she paused, lifting the box to the heavens.
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/25/17504162/north-korea-tea-for-trump-virginia-women-fashion-show
June 26: Trump Falls for Kim Jong Un’s
Latest Bait and Switch
Watch for North Korea to turn over the remains of some Americans who died 65
years ago. Trump will say it’s a triumph. But what about the nukes? No talk of
turning those over.
The
North Koreans are drawing everyone from President Donald Trump to the U.S.
military command here into excited expectation Kim Jong Un is about to return
the remains of a few U.S. soldiers from among the 5,300 still listed as “missing
in action” 65 years after the
Korean War. But there’s something lost in the exaltation: talk of “complete
denuclearization.”
When Trump told a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, last week that North Korea already
had returned the remains of 200 of “our great fallen heroes,” U.S. and
South Korean officials were puzzled, to say the least. Nobody here had heard
about the return of the remains since Trump had taken credit for getting Kim to
agree to a fourth point on the slim
statement they signed at the Singapore summit on
June 12: “The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA
remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.”
That doesn’t mean that anyone knows for sure what’s happening. Even Defense
Secretary Jim Mattis seemed uncertain on his way to the region this week. The
U.N. Command “is prepared now to receive those remains,” he said. “We are simply
standing by for whatever diplomatic activities are done.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-falls-for-kim-jong-uns-latest-bait-and-switch
June 26: The Trump administration admits
there’s no timeline for North Korea to give up its nukes
The US massively changed its stance toward North Korea in a 24-hour period.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just revealed how much time the United States
will give North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program: an indefinite amount.
... According to President Donald Trump’s top foreign policy aide on Monday,
North Korea doesn’t have a deadline for giving up its nuclear bombs and
missiles — contradicting his administration’s stance from just
one day earlier.
June 26: Bipartisan legislation introduced
Tuesday calls for stringent congressional oversight of U.S. nuclear diplomacy
with North Korea and any deal President Donald Trump strikes with Kim Jong Un.
It comes two weeks after Trump met Kim at a historic summit in Singapore that
yielded a North Korean commitment to the “complete denuclearization” of the
Korean Peninsula but failed to spell how that goal, which has eluded past U.S.
administrations, would be achieved and how long it might take.
“After the administration signed a vague joint statement in Singapore without
any details on a pathway forward on denuclearization, the need for congressional
oversight is more evident than ever,” Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey,
top-ranking Democrat in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a
statement.
https://kdvr.com/2018/06/26/sen-cory-gardner-seeks-more-oversight-of-trump-diplomacy-with-north-korea/
July 30:
On North Korea and Iran, Trump Is Deluding Himself
Take a tough Republican president, a Chinese government committed to help us,
and a North Korean government faced with demands for denuclearization, and what
do you get? It sounds like breaking news. But the scene comes from 2007, when
the Bush administration thought it had achieved a historic breakthrough with
North Korea. It was mistaken.
August 19: 100s of S. Koreans to enter North
to reunite with loved ones
Past reunions have produced powerful images of elderly Koreans crying, embracing
and caressing each other. Nearly 20,000 people have participated in 20 rounds of
face-to-face reunions held between the countries since 2000. Another 3,700
exchanged video messages with their North Korean relatives under a short-lived
program from 2005 to 2007. No one has had a second chance to see their
relatives.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/08/19/100s-s-koreans-to-enter-north-to-reunite-with-loved-ones.html
August 21: About 200 South Koreans and their
family members crossed the border on Monday for three days of meetings with
their
North Korean relatives. The relatives have been given a total of 12 hours
together, including three hours in private. Another 337 South Koreans and
accompanying family members will participate in a second round of reunions from
Friday to Sunday.
Hong Yong-gee, who went with his mother for a 2015 reunion at Diamond Mountain
and met his three North Korean aunts, said Tuesday that it seemed his North
Korean relatives were working off a script.
August 27: North Korea accuses US of
'hatching a criminal plot to unleash a war'
North Korea's state newspaper accused the US of "hatching a criminal plot to
unleash a war against the DPRK" while "having a dialogue with a smile on its
face" Sunday following a report on South Korean radio that American forces in
Japan were running drills aimed at invading Pyongyang.
US Forces Japan (USFJ) told CNN on Monday it was "not aware of the drills"
mentioned in North and South Korean media reports.
"In general, US aircrafts and ships operate from Japan every day in support of
our commitments to our allies and partners in the region and in the interests of
regional peace and security," Col. John Hutcheson, the Director of public
affairs of USFJ, said in a statement.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/27/politics/north-korea-us-special-forces-drill/index.html
September 9: North Korea staged a military
parade Sunday to mark the 70th anniversary of the country's founding, but held
back on showcasing its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), believed to
be capable of targeting the United States.
December 3:Trump
asks South Korean president to deliver 'friendly' message to Kim Jong Un
Though diplomatic talks between the U.S. and North Korea have stalled in
recent months, President Donald Trump this weekend gave South Korean President
Moon Jae-in a hopeful message to pass along to his northern counterpart, Kim
Jong Un.
“The message was that President Trump has a very friendly view of Chairman Kim
and that he likes him, and so he wishes Chairman Kim would implement the rest of
their agreement and that he would make what Chairman Kim wants come true," Moon
told reporters at the G-20 summit this weekend,
according to USA Today.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/03/trump-friendly-message-kim-jong-un-1037424
December 20:North Korea said Thursday it
will never unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons unless the
United States first removes
what Pyongyang called a nuclear threat. The surprisingly blunt statement jars
with Seoul's rosier presentation of the North Korean position and could rattle
the fragile trilateral diplomacy to defuse a nuclear crisis that last year had
many fearing war.
The latest from North Korea comes as the United States and North Korea struggle
over the sequencing of the denuclearization that Washington wants and the
removal of international sanctions desired by Pyongyang. The statement carried
by the North's official Korean Central News Agency also raises credibility
problems for the liberal South Korean government, which has continuously claimed
that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
is genuinely interested in negotiating away his nuclear weapons as Seoul tries
to sustain a positive atmosphere for dialogue.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/20/north-korea-says-it-wont-denuclearize-unless-the-us-removes-threat.html
December 26: North and South Korea Hope to
Leave Hostility Behind With a New Railroad Linking the Peninsula
North and South Korean officials took part in a ceremonial groundbreaking
Wednesday, signing a wooden railroad tie and linking the tracks of what the
nations hope will one day be a train system to bring prosperity to Northeast
Asia.
However, the railway will not become a reality if U.S.-led sanctions against
North Korea persist. Officials had to obtain United Nations approval just to
hold Wednesday’s ceremony since it required transporting vehicles across the
border to the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
http://fortune.com/2018/12/26/north-korea-south-korea-railroad-sanctions/
