Kim Jong Un, Donald Trump in Singapore, on cusp of making history

US President Donald Trump arrived in Singapore on Sunday for a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that could lay the groundwork for ending a nuclear stand-off between the old foes and the transformation of the isolated Asian nation. 

Trump flew into Singapore's Paya Lebar Air Base aboard Air Force One, looking to strike a deal that will lead to the denuclearisation of one of America's bitterest foes. He came from a divisive G7 meeting in Canada with some of Washington's closest allies that further strained global trade ties. After stepping down from Air Force One on a steamy tropical night, Trump was greeted by Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. Asked by a reporter how he felt about the summit, Trump said: "Very good". North Korea's Kim landed in Singapore earlier on Sunday. When Trump and Kim meet on Tuesday at Sentosa, a resort island off Singapore's port with a Universal Studios theme park and man-made beaches, they will be making history.

Venezuela's President also wants North Korea style talks with the US

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called for dialogue with Washington similar to that between the US and North Korea, but warned that he will not give in to threats from Donald Trump.

"I think that the processes of dialogue between Democratic Republic of Korea and the US government are very positive and could serve as an example" for a rapprochement between Washington and Caracas, Maduro told a news conference in the southern city of Bolivar.

However, he noted differences between the tensions between the White House and Venezuela and those between the US and North Korea, as "we do not have nuclear missiles." But the talks with Pyongyang "could serve as an example that the world needs tolerance, dialogue, respect for differences," Maduro said ahead of a campaign event for Sunday's election.

The early polls are being boycotted by the Venezuelan opposition, and much of the international community has condemned them as illegitimate.

Think twice' before you 'Thunder': N Korea threatens to scrap Trump summit

North Korea abruptly canceled talks with South Korea and warned the U.S. to “think twice” about the fate of President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with Kim Jong Un next month, tamping down hopes of a breakthrough at the historic summit.

North Korea told South Korean authorities that it was “indefinitely” suspending minister-level talks planned for Wednesday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said. North Korea cited the annual South Korean-U.S. “Max Thunder” air defense drills in its decision to call off the meeting, which was intended to discuss implementing last month’s peace declaration with South Korea.

“The U.S. will have to think twice about the fate of the DPRK-U.S. summit now on high agenda before a provocative military racket against the DPRK in league with the south Korean authorities,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name. “We will closely watch the ensuing behavior of the U.S. and the South Korean authorities.”

Singapore likely to be the venue for Trump-Kim meeting in June

US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un are likely to meet in Singapore next month, reports said Monday, as anticipation builds for unprecedented talks between the mercurial leaders.

Trump said at the weekend that the two sides had settled on a date and location for the summit -- the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader -- without providing details.

"We'll be announcing it soon," Trump told reporters. The landmark summit will take place in "mid-June", South Korea's Chosun Ilbo daily reported Monday, citing diplomatic sources who quoted Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton.

The newspaper suggested that the possibility of Singapore hosting the landmark meeting had "increased greatly", after a decision by Trump to host South Korean president Moon Jae-in at the White House later this month, without giving further explanation.

Bolton met his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong in Washington late last week to discuss plans for both locations, according to local media reports.

A similar report on the weekend from South Korea's Yonhap news agency also said Singapore was firming as the favoured location for the summit.

Verification a critical factor in North Korea denuclearisation programme

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to dismantle his nuclear test site, and supposedly, he’s even inviting the international press into his usually off-limits kingdom to witness the extravaganza. The gesture is meant to prove he’s serious about eliminating his weapons program – and he wants all the world to see it.

But be warned: This could be a show of the dog-and-pony variety. Some experts claim the site has already been pulverized by previous tests and is now of little use. If that’s the case, Kim’s move, at best, may be merely symbolic; at worst, it could be a ruse, meant to convince a hopeful world that he’s ditching his nukes when he’s not. How can we know what the truth really is?

And here we find the one factor that may kill off any nuclear deal with North Korea: verification.

The U.S. and South Korea will need to be assured the North Koreans are doing what they say they’re doing. Any agreement will have to include some sort of process to inspect Pyongyang’s nuclear facilities and verify that every aspect of Kim’s weapons-making program has been eliminated.

Look forward to meeting Kim Jong-un; US talking to N Korea directly: Trump

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the US was in direct talks with North Korea "at a very high level" ahead of his planned summit with Kim Jong-un.

The two countries were looking at five potential venues for the summit, "but it is not in the United States", Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago where he was hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"We've also started talking to North Korea directly.We have had direct talks at very high levels -- extremely high levels -- with North Korea," Trump said before a restricted bilateral meeting with Abe.

"I really believe there's a lot of goodwill. A lot of good things are happening.We'll see what happens.As I always say, we'll see what happens.Because ultimately, it's the end result that counts, not the fact that we're thinking about having a meeting or having a meeting," he said.

Will Trump meet Kim? Uncertainty prevails as N Korea yet to accept invite

Uncertainty lingers over the first-ever meeting between the United States' President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as Washington is yet to hear directly from Pyongyang on the invitation extended by Kim via South Korean intermediaries.

"We've not heard anything directly back from North Korea, although we expect to hear something directly from them," the New York Daily News reported, citing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as telling reporters on Monday in Nigeria's Abuja, when asked about plans for the meeting, likely to take place in May.

Tillerson also stated that no venue for the meeting had been agreed upon, adding, "I think it's going to be very important that those conversations are held quietly" between the two nations.

According to the report, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday said the meeting wouldn't take place "until we see concrete actions that match the words and the rhetoric of North Korea."

To deal with Kim Jong-un, Trump must be less like Trump

Donald Trump’s decision to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in character. The U.S. president loves outlandish plot twists that confound critics and supporters alike.


Agreeing to this meeting was questionable. It’s something previous presidents have refused to do, and with reason: It’s a concession that demanded something valuable from the other side. Trump has not secured that, and he appears to have acted impulsively. This isn’t encouraging -- but the decision has been made and what matters now is to make the best of it.


That will require Trump to be less like Trump.


His administration deserves credit for marshaling a stringent global sanctions regime that’s taking a real toll on North Korea. His intemperate threats have pushed Chinese leaders into adopting harsher sanctions than they might otherwise have done. Yet Kim also has reason to feel emboldened: He’s won a face-to-face meeting with a sitting U.S. president -- a coup neither his father nor grandfather achieved -- without committing to much beyond a pause in nuclear and missile tests. Trump, impressed to a fault with his own accomplishments, shouldn’t assume his adversary has been cowed.

Donald Trump needs unfamiliar tools like patience for North Korea talks

President Donald Trump will need to adopt an unfamiliar set of traits -- patience, persistence, clear goals and conditions -- and be prepared to walk away when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, people who have negotiated with Kim’s regime say.


Trump’s apparently impromptu decision to begin setting up talks contrasts with Kim’s situation -- North Korea has prepared deliberately for decades for a meeting with the sitting U.S. president as a major step toward gaining international legitimacy.


Negotiations with the North Korean regime are “very painstaking and, frankly, painful,” said Christopher Hill, who served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea and assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush. “You think you have an agreement one minute and then you don’t the next minute.”

Very good deal with Kim underway says Trump as N Korea vows to denuclearise

US President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to give an update on the recent breakthroughs achieved to de-nuclearise North Korea, claiming a deal with the Kim Jong Un-headed country was underway and it would be a "very good one" for the world.

"The deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World. Time and place to be determined," tweeted Trump on Friday.

The tweet also said the "time and place" of the historic meeting between Kim and Trump have yet to be decided.

Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the country has made "zero concessions" for advancing talks and would need "concrete and verifiable actions" regarding de-nuclearisation in order for the meeting of the two leaders to go ahead.

Trump hails 'progress' after agreeing to meet Kim Jong Un; sanctions remain

US President Donald Trump hailed “great progress” in talks with North Korea after agreeing to meet Kim Jong Un in what would be an unprecedented summit.


“Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearisation with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze,” Trump said on Twitter late Thursday in Washington. “Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said earlier the meeting would occur at “a place and time to be determined.” The announcement was first made by South Korean National Security Council chief Chung Eui-yong, who told reporters in Washington that Kim “expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible” and that Trump “said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve permanent denuclearisation.”

North Korea's Kim ready to give up nukes if his regime safety is guaranteed

North Korea is open to denuclearization if the safety of Kim Jong Un’s regime is guaranteed, South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s office said.
The two leaders will meet for a summit at the end of April along the border, the statement said, adding that North Korea was ready for candid talks with the U. S. to normalize relations.
“North Korea has clearly expressed its intention for denuclearlization on the Korean peninsula, and if there is no military threat, and North Korea’s regime security is promised, they have clarified that there is no reason to hold nuclear weapons,” Moon’s office said.
US President Donald Trump has said that North Korea must be willing to denuclearize before talks can begin.

Tensions have risen over the past year as Kim has sought the capability to strike the US homeland with a nuclear weapon.
North Korea has agreed to halt nuclear and missile tests while talks are taking place, Moon’s office said. It also pledged to avoid using nuclear or conventional weapons against South Korea, it said.

South Korean delegation holds talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

A South Korean delegation met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday, a South Korean official said, after arriving in the North on a visit aimed at encouraging North Korea and the United States to talk.

Both North Korea and the United States have expressed a willingness to talk, but US President Donald Trump demands the North first gives up its nuclear weapons programme.
The North, which has vowed never to give up its nuclear deterrent against what it sees as U. S. hostility, says it will not sit down to talks under preconditions.
Reclusive North Korea, which has made no secret of its pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the mainland United States in defiance of U. N. Security Council resolutions, is also concerned about a joint U.

S.-South Korea military exercise, which it sees as preparation for war.
South Korean officials have said the drill will start next month as planned, after being postponed for the Winter Olympics held last month in South Korea.

Pak developing new types of nukes, N Korea the most volatile threat: US

Pakistan is developing new types of nuclear weapons, including short-range tactical ones, that bring more risks to the region, America's intelligence chief warned.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats' remarks came days after a group of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists struck the Sunjuwan Military Camp in Jammu on Saturday, killing seven people including six soldiers.

Pakistan is developing new types of nuclear weapons, including short-range tactical weapons, Coats told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on worldwide threats organised by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

China is coercing neighbours to reorder Indo-Pacific region: Pentagon

China is coercing its neighbours to reorder the Indo-Pacific region, the Pentagon told Congress in its annual budget proposals for the fiscal 2019, beginning October 1 this year.
Trump administration on Monday released their proposal for the fiscal year 2019 budget.

Fiscal years are different from calendar years. The budgetary proposal covers October 1, 2018, through September 30, 2019.
"China is leveraging military modernisation, influence operations and predatory economics to coerce neighbouring countries to reorder the Indo-Pacific region to their advantage," the Pentagon said in its annual defence budget for the fiscal 2019.

US VP Mike Pence avoids Olympics encounter with North Korean official

US Vice-President Mike Pence on Friday skipped a dinner hosted by South Korean President Moon Jae-in at which he was due to share a table with North Korea's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam ahead of the opening of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Pence briefly encountered Kim but they tried to avoid directly facing each other, with Pence leaving the venue only after a five-minute stay, reported Yonhap news agency.

The top US official was originally scheduled to sit at the head table with the South Korean host and North Korea's chief delegate to the Winter Games.

Pence has brought Fred Warmbier, the father of a young American who died after being released from prison in North Korea, as a guest to South Korea.

Sporting events that rocked world politics, from Hitler to Nixon

The Winter Olympics starting this week in South Korea are the latest in a string of sporting events that have helped shape global politics.

Whether it be an emerging power challenging a dominant one (1908), a dictator looking for a propaganda coup (1936) or a terrorist group looking to shock the world (1972), global sporting events are often more about what goes on away from the playing field.

This year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in invited North Korea in the hope that a detente would help avert a devastating war over its nuclear program. While it’s unclear if the Games will lead to a lasting peace, they’ve already been successful for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: He’s grabbed more headlines than any of the athletes.

After trading barbs, Trump open to talks with North Korea's Kim Jong-un

President Donald Trump, shelving comparisons about the size of a "nuclear button", said he is open to talking with the North Korean leader he's called "Little Rocket Man" and hopes some progress results from upcoming talks between the Koreas.

Trump, who last year lambasted his chief diplomat for talking about negotiations with the nuclear-armed North, told reporters at Camp David that some dialogue or direct conversation with Kim Jong Un was not beyond the realm of possibility.

"Sure, I always believe in talking," Trump said. "Absolutely, I would do that, I wouldn't have a problem with that at all." But he was quick to add that any talks would come with conditions, which he did not specify.

The first formal talks between North and South in more than two years are set to take place in a border town Tuesday as the rivals try to find ways to cooperate on the Winter Olympics in the South and to improve their ties. Tensions are high because of the North's nuclear and missile programs.

"Right now they're talking Olympics. It's a start, it's a big start," Trump said during a question-and-answer session after meetings with GOP leaders in Congress and Cabinet members on the administration's 2018 legislative agenda.
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N Korea should worry about the mental health of Kim Jong-un: White House

The White House has questioned the mental health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after his repeated threats to the US that he has "nuclear button on his desk."

"I think the President and the people of this country should be concerned about the mental fitness of the leader of North Korea. He's made repeated threats. He's tested missiles time and time again for years," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference.

Sanders was responding to questions on Trump's nuclear button tweet, after which some political analysts in the US have been questioning his mental fitness.

"This is a President who's not going to cower down and he's not going to be weak, and is going to make sure that he does what he's promised to do, and that's stand up and protect the American people," Sanders said.

A day earlier, Trump, responding to the latest rhetoric of North Korean leader Kim Jong un, said that he too has a nuclear button which is not only much bigger and powerful, but also works.
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I too have a 'Nuclear button': Trump warns 'food-starved' North Korea's Kim

United States President Donald Trump has hit back at North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying that he too has a nuclear button on his desk which was much bigger and powerful than his.

"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times'. 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!" Trump said on twitter on Tuesday.

Trump's tweet came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned the United States that "the nuclear button is always on the desk of my office".

"The entire mainland of the US is within the range of our nuclear weapons and the nuclear button is always on the desk of my office. They should accurately be aware that this is not a threat but a reality," he said, according to a CNN translation of his speech, during his national New Year's address.

He also declared that North Korea was "a responsible nuclear nation that loves peace" and that "the US cannot wage a war" against it.

Rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, which conducted its largest nuclear test in September and fired off a powerful ICBM in late November, have raised concerns worldwide.
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