Tag: Kim Yong-chol

The North Korean leader was accompanied by Kim Yong-chol, who has been a key negotiator in talks with the US, and by his sister Kim Yo-jong, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported. North Korea appeals for food aid as regime cuts rations due to drought and sanctions Read more There was a report of a green and yellow train similar to one used in the past by Kim crossing into the Chinese border city of Dandong via a bridge. Kim’s overseas travel plans are routinely kept secret and it could take more than two days for the train to travel thousands of miles through China to Vietnam. The Trump-Kim meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Hanoi. Vietnam’s foreign ministry announced on Saturday that Kim would pay an official goodwill visit to the country “in the coming days” in response to an invitation by the president Nguy?n Phú Tr?ng, who is also the general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist party. In his meeting with Trump, Kim is expected to seek a US commitment for improved bilateral relations and partial sanctions relief while trying to minimise any concessions on his nuclear facilities and weapons. Kim wants to leverage his nuclear and missile programme for economic and security benefits, but doubts remains as to whether he is prepared to deal away an arsenal that he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival. North Korea maintaining more than a dozen missile launch sites, photos show Read more While North Korea has repeatedly demanded that the US take corresponding measures, including sanctions relief, Washington has called for more concrete steps from Pyongyang toward denuclearisation. Hanoi has been gearing up for the summit with heightened security. Trump expects to meet Kim Jong-un next year as nuclear talks stall Read more The Communist party’s Nhân Dân newspaper on Friday quoted the department of roads as saying the ban would first apply to trucks 10 tons or bigger, and vehicles with nine seats or more on the 170km (105-mile) stretch of highway from ??ng ??ng, the border town with China, to Hanoi from 7pm on Monday to 2pm on Tuesday, followed by a complete ban on Tuesday on all vehicles from 6am to 2pm.

The North Korean leader was accompanied by Kim Yong-chol, who has been a key negotiator in talks with the US, and by his sister Kim Yo-jong, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported. North Korea appeals for food aid as regime cuts rations due to drought and sanctions Read more There was a report of a green and yellow train similar to one used in the past by Kim crossing into the Chinese border city of Dandong via a bridge. Kim’s overseas travel plans are routinely kept secret and it could take more than two days for the train to travel thousands of miles through China to Vietnam. The Trump-Kim meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Hanoi. Vietnam’s foreign ministry announced on Saturday that Kim would pay an official goodwill visit to the country “in the coming days” in response to an invitation by the president Nguy?n Phú Tr?ng, who is also the general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist party. In his meeting with Trump, Kim is expected to seek a US commitment for improved bilateral relations and partial sanctions relief while trying to minimise any concessions on his nuclear facilities and weapons. Kim wants to leverage his nuclear and missile programme for economic and security benefits, but doubts remains as to whether he is prepared to deal away an arsenal that he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival. North Korea maintaining more than a dozen missile launch sites, photos show Read more While North Korea has repeatedly demanded that the US take corresponding measures, including sanctions relief, Washington has called for more concrete steps from Pyongyang toward denuclearisation. Hanoi has been gearing up for the summit with heightened security. Trump expects to meet Kim Jong-un next year as nuclear talks stall Read more The Communist party’s Nhân Dân newspaper on Friday quoted the department of roads as saying the ban would first apply to trucks 10 tons or bigger, and vehicles with nine seats or more on the 170km (105-mile) stretch of highway from ??ng ??ng, the border town with China, to Hanoi from 7pm on Monday to 2pm on Tuesday, followed by a complete ban on Tuesday on all vehicles from 6am to 2pm.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said it himself to Congress and the American people: “No regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea.” But when it comes to human rights, don’t expect Trump to hold Kim Jong Un’s feet to the fire at the Singapore summit. In the run-up to Tuesday’s historic face-to-face with Kim, Trump has appeared unconcerned about the implications of feting an authoritarian leader suspected of ordering the public assassination of his half-brother with nerve agent, executing his uncle by firing squad, and presiding over a notorious gulag estimated to hold between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners. While Trump highlighted Pyongyang’s problematic human rights record in January during his State of the Union address — where he also said the “depraved character of the North Korean regime” demonstrated the nature of the nuclear threat it could pose — the president has skirted those concerns since agreeing in March to Kim’s suggestion of a summit. When Trump met former North Korean military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol at the White House two weeks ago, the president said they didn’t discuss human rights, underscoring that it was not a primary concern. At a pre-summit briefing by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday, the issue didn’t get a mention. Robert King, who served as U.S. envoy on North Korean human-rights issues under the Obama administration, said Trump has used human rights as an instrument to get Kim Jong Un to negotiate on nuclear weapons, but not as a policy priority in its own right. “The other problem is that he’s anxious to see some progress at the summit, and human rights is not an easy issue to raise with Kim Jong Un,” King said. U.S. presidents have always faced a predicament in balancing national security and geopolitical priorities with democratic values. “Kim Jong Un wants security guarantees,” they wrote Monday, “but history has taught time and again liberal democracies shouldn’t try to guarantee the survival of a regime that runs political prison camps and commits crimes against humanity.” During a quarter-century of on-off negotiations, human rights have played second fiddle for U.S. administrations seeking to ameliorate the threat posed by the North’s nukes, and there’s a reason. And under a 2016 U.S. law, relief from U.S. sanctions that target the North Korean government would require progress on human rights, he said.

New signs the North Korean regime may be backing down as a missile launch facility appears dismantled. Greg Palkot has the story. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as…

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The overtly political 2018 Winter Olympics closed Sunday night very much as they began, with humanity’s finest athletes marching exuberantly across the world stage as three nations with decades of war and suspicion among them shared a VIP box — and a potential path away from conflict. Senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. presidential adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump sat in two rows of seats behind the Olympic rings, meant to represent a competition of peace and international unity. “You have shown our sport brings people together in our very fragile world. Thrilled athletes marched into the arena around the world’s flags, relaxed after showing their athletic best to themselves and to the world. North Korea, South Korea, Japan and China are neighbors with deep, sometimes twisted histories that get along uneasily with each other in this particular geographic cul-de-sac. What followed was a strong dose of athletic diplomacy: two weeks of global exposure for the Korean team, particularly the women’s hockey squad, which trained for weeks with North and South side by side getting along, taking selfies and learning about each other. Kim, President Donald Trump’s daughter and Moon sat in close proximity as the Olympics’ end unfolded before them and the statement was released in Seoul. The developments Sunday both inside and outside the VIP box were particularly striking given that Kim Yong Chol, now vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, is suspected of masterminding a lethal 2010 military attack on the South. The U.S. women’s hockey team and men’s curlers, both of which claimed gold. What’s next for the games?