SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea executed its nuclear envoy to the United States as part of a purge of officials who steered negotiations for a failed summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper said on Friday.
Tag: North Korea
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🎧 The Daily: Why the North Korea Deal Fell Apart (Again) | New York Times
Despite the unlikely courtship between the leaders of the two countries, neither the United States nor North Korea wants to be the first to compromise.
📺 PBS NewsHour – January 18, 2019 | PBS
Friday on the NewsHour, a report by BuzzFeed alleges that President Trump personally directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a business project in Moscow. Plus: The president announces a second summit with North Korea to discuss denuclearization, how the shutdown is affecting people in D.C., David Brooks and Ruth Marcus on the week in politics, hockey and race and an unusual ice formation.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Diplomacy and Deception From North Korea | New York Times
President Trump says the nuclear threat from North Korea is over. But new satellite images of hidden missile bases suggest that the situation has only worsened since his meeting with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.
👓 Why there has been no progress in nuclear talks with North Korea | The Economist
The North is using the vague language of the Singapore agreement to stall the process
🎧 ‘The Daily’: What Trump Gave Kim | New York Times
In a joint statement, President Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, committed to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Why is a seemingly significant promise being dismissed by critics as meaningless?
On today’s episode:
• Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who writes about human rights and global affairs, and who has repeatedly traveled to North Korea.
Background reading:
• The summit meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim yielded a vaguely worded joint statement in which both parties agreed to work toward peace, but offered few details on how they planned to move forward.
• In a news conference after the meeting, Mr. Trump announced that the United States would halt joint military exercises with South Korea, a decision that appeared to catch both the Pentagon and South Korean officials off-guard.
• The president’s concessions to North Korea may vastly outweigh their returns, Mr. Kristof writes in an Op-Ed. Lawmakers in both parties have noted that it remains unclear what, if anything, has been gained by the U.S.
• The encounter between the two leaders was rich in spectacle — and in ambiguity. Here are 10 takeaways from the event.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: A Historic Handshake | New York Times
For the first time ever, a sitting president of the United States has met with a North Korean leader. Was the handshake between President Trump and Kim Jong-un a beginning or an end?
On today’s episode:
• Mark Landler, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, who is reporting on the summit meeting from Singapore.
Background reading:
• In an encounter that seemed unthinkable just months ago, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim met face-to-face for the first time in Singapore on Tuesday morning. Here are live updates and photographs from the meeting.
• Among the issues on the table were the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and economic relief for North Korea.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: ‘Dear Mr. Chairman …’ | New York Times
President Trump abruptly canceled on Thursday the highly anticipated summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, that was scheduled to take place on June 12. In a letter to Mr. Kim announcing his decision, Mr. Trump wrote, “The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace.”
On today’s episode:
• Mark Landler, who covers the White House for The New York Times.
Background reading:
• Mr. Trump announced his decision to call off the summit meeting in a strikingly personal letter that contained mixed messages, both raising the possibility of military action against the North and leaving the door open for a future diplomatic encounter between the two men.
• The announcement came hours after North Korea appeared to destroy its only known nuclear test site in a spectacle that was attended by foreign journalists and was meant to be a sign of good faith ahead of the meeting with Mr. Trump.
• North Korea responded in a carefully worded statement that it remained “willing to sit down with the United States any time, in any format, to resolve the problems.”
🎧 ‘The Daily’: North Korea’s Fear? Becoming Libya | New York Times
John R. Bolton, President Trump’s new national security adviser, has said that negotiations with North Korea should follow “the Libya model.” Now, North Korea is threatening to call off the planned summit meeting with Mr. Trump. What risks does the Libya model hold for Kim Jong-un?
On today’s episode:
• Mark Landler, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.
Background reading:
• In a statement released on Wednesday, North Korea’s vice foreign minister threatened to cancel scheduled talks with President Trump if the United States continues to insist on complete nuclear abandonment.
• The statement repeatedly cites the example of Libya, whose former leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, agreed in 2003 to forfeit the country’s nuclear capability in the hope of economic integration with the West. Colonel Qaddafi was captured and killed by rebel forces after the United States and its allies launched airstrikes in Libya in 2011.
• According to administration and foreign officials, President Trump has been seeking advice from his aides and allies, including from President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, about whether he should proceed with the talks with Kim Jong-un at the risk of political embarrassment.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Prospect of Peace With North Korea | New York Times
The time and place for a historic meeting between the president of the United States and the leader of North Korea have been set. Does President Trump deserve credit for the diplomatic breakthrough on the Korean Peninsula?
On today’s episode:
• Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist who writes about human rights and global affairs, and who has repeatedly traveled to North Korea for The Times.
Background reading:
• After the release of three American detainees in North Korea, President Trump confirmed on Thursday that he would meet with Kim Jong-un, the North’s leader, on June 12 in Singapore.
• North Korea has invited journalists from the United States and other countries to witness the dismantling of its underground nuclear test site before the summit meeting.
• It may now be possible to envision an era of peace with North Korea, but the odds that the North will forfeit its nuclear arsenal entirely are uncertain at best, Nicholas Kristof writes.
Does Trump get credit? He still hasn’t actually carried anything out yet. It’s even more ironic to be listening to this on the same day that they’re walking away from the table less than 10 days later. Nick Kristof should have held to his guns of doom and gloom.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: A Family Divided by the Korean War | New York Times
In a historic summit meeting, North and South Korea vowed to pursue a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War after more than 65 years. That could bring reunions for the thousands of families who have been separated since the war broke out.
On today’s episode:
• Sylvia Nam tells the story of her grandfather, who went to North Korea a few months after the Korean War started and never returned.
Background coverage:
• After more than six decades, the Korean War is technically still not over. Here are photographs of the war, and a video explaining what happened— and why it matters.
• At a summit meeting on Friday, the leaders of North and South Korea signed a joint statement affirming that “a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula” would be a common goal of the two countries.
• The South Korean government said on Sunday that Kim Jong-un, the North’s leader, had declared he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States agreed to sign a peace treaty and promised not to invade his country. Skeptics warn that North Korea has made similar pledges in the past.
A fascinating story…
👓 North Korea says it will suspend nuclear and missile tests, shut down test site | Washington Post
TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has declared that he will suspend nuclear and missile tests starting Saturday and that he will shut down the site where the previous six nuclear tests were conducted. The surprising announcement comes just six days before Kim is set to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a precursor to a historic summit between Kim and President Trump. The U.S. president is set to meet Kim at the end of May or beginning of June, although a location has not yet been set.
👓 ‘The Daily’: Rex Tillerson’s Firing and North Korea | The New York Times
Mr. Tillerson’s push for nuclear talks put him at odds with his boss. He has been replaced as secretary of state just as President Trump prepares to meet Kim Jong-un.
👓 Trump’s Abrupt ‘Yes’ to North Korea: The 45 Minutes That Could Alter History | The New York Times
How President Trump threw aside caution and agreed to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in a daring and risky diplomatic gambit to end a nuclear standoff.
It kills me that a year and change in, they still can’t get their act together to coordinate major moves like this. Our country is not a race car that stops on a dime or turns very quickly. Trump may want it to, but it’s not going to do it easily. He’s also likely to destroy a lot of value in our economies by playing bull in the china shop.
I’m still astounded that he’s managed to keep any businesses afloat when making snap decisions like this. It’s really his family’s incredible wealth that in large part has prevented him from reverting to the mean over his lifetime. I can only imagine what additional damage he might do if he actually had any executive capabilities.
If I were his Secretary of State, I’d be resigning and then doing some additional speaking out of school.
🎧 North Korea Reaches Out | The Daily – New York Times
South Korea says that the North is willing to talk about dismantling its atomic arsenal. What happened to the threat of nuclear war?
A nice breakdown on recent history of North Korea and nuclear weapons.