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North Korean state media reported on Friday that dictator Kim Jong-un signed a law making the Communist tyranny’s march to nuclear weapons “irreversible,” banning all further denuclearization talks with the outside world, and mandating an immediate nuclear attack if Kim or other top officials is harmed by foreign powers. The new legislation, passed by the rubber-stamp “Supreme People’s Assembly” on Thursday, supersedes a 2013 law that laid out North Korea’s nuclear ambitions in less belligerent terms. Among other differences, the 2013 law did not specify conditions under which North Korea would initiate a nuclear war without hesitation.

SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Signs of activity have recently been detected at some North Korean nuclear facilities, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief has said, expressing serious concern at the reclusive regime's continued activities. Mr Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the board of governors that there was evidence that the regime has continued construction at an experimental light-water reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, including testing of the infrastructure for cooling water in late 2020. He added that while there were no signs of producing enriched uranium at the reported...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will "soon" visit Seoul as part of a series of high-profile diplomatic efforts aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons. Moon said in a speech to parliament that a second North Korea-U.S. summit is also "near at hand" and that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit North Korea soon. Moon also said he expects Kim to visit Russia soon and that Kim may meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Moon has previously said that Kim told him he would visit Seoul...

Ongoing talks with North Korea have raised the possibility of a future with far less tension on the Korean Peninsula – even, possibly, a declaration of the end of the Korean War. But that should not change the long-standing military relationship that cements the U.S.-South Korea relationship, a delegation of South Korean officials who visited Washington earlier this month argued. “Even after reunification of the Korean Peninsula takes place I believe there will be a need for the continued presence of U.S. forces in Korea, because we also have to concern ourselves with Russia and China,” said Hoon Sul, a...

A hardline adviser speaks out against the president's lovey-dovey diplomacy with Kim Jong Un. On Wednesday—just after Donald Trump gushed about falling “in love” with North Korea’s dictator and ahead of another trip by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang to prepare for a second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un—Lindsey Graham delivered a stark message to the U.S. president: End the lovefest. “I’m telling President Trump, ‘Enough with I love you,’” said the Republican senator, a close ally of Trump’s who had spoken to the president right before joining Jeffrey Goldberg on stage at The Atlantic Festival....

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will pay a fresh visit to North Korea on Sunday and meet leader Kim Jong Un to push forward denuclearization efforts, the State Department said. Pompeo, who is trying to arrange a new summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, will also head to U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, as well as North Korea's chief ally China, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. It will be the fourth trip by Pompeo to the longtime U.S. pariah amid American hopes of reaching an agreement to end North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. "I think...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday hailed the "dawn of a new day" with North Korea as the U.S. pushes diplomacy to denuclearize the regime. Chairing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, Pompeo sounded a hopeful note on the diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. But he also called for strict enforcement of all U.N. Security Council sanctions on Pyongyang until denuclearization is achieved. "Past diplomatic attempts to halt North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile development were unsuccessful," Pompeo said. "But now we're at the dawn of a new day." Pompeo credited U.S....

After the big bang of the Singapore summit in June, with its showy but vague North Korean commitment to denuclearization, many analysts doubted that the deal had any real substance. But we're beginning to see the first signs of what a serious accord would look like. This week's North-South summit meeting in Pyongyang produced accord on some basic essentials of a real denuclearization process. North Korea agreed to accept internal inspectors to monitor destruction of one of its test sites, a first step toward the broader inspection process that will be essential for any verifiable pact. North Korea also agreed...

North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong Un wants to meet with President Trump again, says South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has just returned from Pyongyang. Moon also spoke directly to the North Korean public, describing a peaceful future to an audience of some 150,000 people. "We had lived together for five thousand years but apart for just 70 years," Moon said in his speech on Thursday, in which he repeatedly addressed the crowd as "Citizens of Pyongyang, fellow Koreans." Moon continued, "Here, at this place today, I propose we move forward toward the big picture of peace in which the...

Not everyone is as pleased with the announcements as the president appears to be. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said the visit could possibly undermine efforts by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to impose “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang. “While North Korea has stopped testing missiles and nuclear devices, they have NOT moved toward denuclearization,” he tweeted. Other analysts have noted that the North has yet to reveal where all of its nuclear facilities are located, a move they say is necessary to ensure compliance with eventual denuclearization pledges. But it’s not realistic at this point to...

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has agreed to allow nuclear inspectors in and permanently shut down nuclear and missile testing sites. Trump made the remarks in a tweet after Kim held his third summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang where the reclusive ruler reaffirmed his commitment to the denuclearization of the peninsula. "Kim Jong Un has agreed to allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts," Trump said in the tweet. "In the meantime there...

The biggest hurdle to complete denuclearization is related to security guarantees. Kim has always viewed a nuclear capability as a means of ensuring that he will retain power and that his family’s ruling dynasty would continue in perpetuity. The last thing he would want is to give up the only means of retaining power if he wasn’t absolutely certain that neither South Korea nor the U.S. wouldn’t take advantage of his denuclearization to invade and change the ruling North Korean regime. Another obstacle could also become an asset: China. In past years, Beijing has used North Korean belligerence and unpredictability...

Last week the White House announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a letter via South Korea to President Trump sending ‘warm’ regards and a request for a second summit following their historic Singapore meeting earlier this year. The request has generated much speculation among Western and Asian diplomatic and geopolitical circles as to what it means in regards to the primary objective of the U.S., South Korea, Japan, and other concerned parties: The complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. So, does the ongoing flouting of U.S. and international sanctions indicate that Kim isn’t serious about denuclearization and never...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday (Sep 10) said he was ready to provide financial aid to Pyongyang on condition that it resolves the issues of its nuclear and missile test and abducted Japanese nationals. "If we resolve as a whole the questions of abductions of Japanese citizens (and) the missile and nuclear problem, we manage to draw a line under the unhappy past and normalise diplomatic relations, then we can provide it (North Korea) with economic aid," Abe said in translated comments to journalists after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. Japan,...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un still has faith in U.S. President Donald Trump’s commitment to ending their nations’ hostile relations, but he’s frustrated by questions about his willingness to denuclearize and wants his “goodwill measures” to be met in kind, South Korean officials said Thursday. The trove of comments from Kim, including his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and to the suspension of all future long-range missile tests, were relayed by top South Korean security officials returning from meeting him in Pyongyang as well as by the North’s propaganda specialists. Even in their indirect form, each statement will...

North Korea probably won’t be happy with Bob Woodward’s explosive new book about the Trump presidency — and it could hurt the administration’s effort to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. In an excerpt published on Tuesday, Woodward recounts an exchange between President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. In it, Trump calls for killing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after his regime murdered over 80 people with chemical weapons in April 2017. “Let’s f***ing kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the f***ing lot of them,” Trump told Mattis, referring to Assad and his forces....

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump over the phone, a day ahead of his special envoy’s visit to Pyongyang. Presidential Spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said that during the 50-minute conversation, the two leaders discussed ways to boost cooperation on North Korea's denuclearization and meeting at the UN General Assembly to discuss strategy and cooperation for Korean Peninsula-related issues. Moon explained that he was sending a delegation led by his special envoy to discuss ways to establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. Moon told Trump that now is a pivotal time for establishing peace and stressed...

North Korean officials have warned in a letter to the United States that denuclearization talks were “again at stake and may fall apart”, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The letter was delivered directly to U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and stated that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s government felt that the process could not move forward. "The U.S. is still not ready to meet (North Korean) expectations in terms of taking a step forward to sign a peace treaty," CNN reported, citing sources. cnn.it/2MAI9AT The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather...

SEOUL — South Koreans are growing more anxious about President Donald Trump’s commitment to the North Korean nuclear deal, fearing he could simply walk away, having already declared victory back home. The president has earned the respect of many people here for his unconventional diplomacy in meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even among those who otherwise deride Trump as a “merchant” who lacks the “class” of his predecessor. But behind the surprising goodwill and relentlessly upbeat pronouncements from Seoul officials, there are creeping doubts, according to interviews this summer with current and former government advisers, a leading...

US president Donald Trump said on Friday he had cancelled secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s planned trip to North Korea because “we are not making sufficient progress” toward the goal of denuclearising the Korean peninsula. Mr Trump said in a message on Twitter that Mr Pompeo’s visit, which was set for next week, now would likely not take place until after Washington has resolved its trade dispute with China. Mr Trump said China was no longer helping on the North Korea issue. It was a dramatic shift of tone for Mr Trump, who had previously hailed his June summit with...