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.

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.

US working 'very closely' to ensure India's NSG membership, reaffirms envoy

The US is working "very closely" with international partners to secure India's Nuclear Suppliers Group membership, its envoy Kenneth Juster said on Thursday and hoped that New Delhi would join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons in the "very near future".

India has been seeking entry into the 48-member elite nuclear club, which controls nuclear trade, but China has repeatedly stonewalled its bid.

Juster acknowledged that the US and India faced challenging and complicated issues related to the transfer of sensitive US technology with both military and conventional applications.

"India sought increased access to this technology, while the US wanted to ensure that any transfers would be used solely by the designated recipients for the agreed-upon purposes.

"This required a sophisticated system of export controls, which India, candidly, did not have at the time," Juster said in his first policy speech since taking over as the US ambassador to India.

The initial interactions on the subject were "quite formal and somewhat strained due to the wide gulf" in the positions of the two nations, Juster acknowledged.

He said the US had moved from a restrictive policy on the export of dual-use items to India to a much more "liberal one".

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N Korea fires most powerful missile toward Japan; can handle it, says Trump

North Korea on Wednesday fired a ballistic missile that landed into the Sea of Japan, the media reported citing officials.

The missile, believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by the Pentagon based on initial assessments, was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea and flew roughly around 1,000 km before landing in the Sea of Japan, Fox News reported.

The missile flew east for about 53 minutes before landing off the north of Honshu, Japan's largest island, the New York Times reported.

The missile was fired high into the air, reaching a maximum altitude of over 4,500 km, in an arc similar to the North's two previous intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, which were launched in July.

The distance travelled appeared to be significantly greater than that of the two previous ICBMs, which flew for 37 minutes on July 4 and for 47 minutes on July 28.

David Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the missile performed better than the two fired in July, with a potential range of more than 12,000 km, able to reach Washington or any other part of the continental US.

"It's pretty impressive," Wright said of the test flight. "This is building on what they've done before. It's muscle-flexing to show the US that they're going to continue to make progress."
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North Korea rouses neighbours to reconsider nuclear weapons

As North Korea races to build a weapon that for the first time could threaten American cities, its neighbours are debating whether they need their own nuclear arsenals.

The North’s rapidly advancing capabilities have scrambled military calculations across the region, and doubts are growing the United States will be able to keep the atomic genie in the bottle.

For the first time in recent memory, there is a daily argument raging in both South Korea and Japan — sometimes in public, more often in private — about the nuclear option, driven by worry that the United States might hesitate to defend the countries if doing so might provoke a missile launched from the North at Los Angeles or Washington.

In South Korea, polls show 60 per cent of the population favours building nuclear weapons. And nearly 70 per cent want the United States to reintroduce tactical nuclear weapons for battlefield use. There is very little public support for nuclear arms in Japan, the only nation ever to suffer a nuclear attack, but many experts believe that could reverse quickly if North and South Korea both had arsenals.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has campaigned for a military build-up against the threat from the North, and Japan sits on a stockpile of nuclear material that could power an arsenal of 6,000 weapons.

This brutal calculus over how to respond to North Korea is taking place in a region where several nations have the material, the technology, the expertise and the money to produce nuclear weapons. Beyond South Korea and Japan, there is already talk in Australia, Myanmar, Taiwan and Vietnam about whether it makes sense to remain nuclear-free if others arm themselves — heightening fears that North Korea could set off a chain reaction in which one nation after another feels threatened and builds the bomb.
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Why the Nobel Peace Prize brings little peace

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, an advocacy group that has worked to draw attention to their “catastrophic humanitarian consequences.”

Every year, the winners of the Nobel Prizes are announced to great fanfare. And none receives more scrutiny than the Nobel Peace Prize.
With good reason. The other Nobel Prizes are given to people who have already changed our world – for their remarkable accomplishments. But, in the case of the Nobel Peace Prize, the hope of the Nobel Committee is to change the world through its very conferral. It, therefore, rewards aspiration more than achievement.

Francis Sejersted, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 1991-1999, once noted with pride the Nobel Peace Prize’s political ambitions:

“The Committee also takes the possible positive effects of its choices into account [because] … Nobel wanted the Prize to have political effects. Awarding a Peace Prize is, to put it bluntly, a political act.”
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Trump at UN: Threatens to 'destroy' North Korea if US, allies are attacked

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea unless Pyongyang backs down from its nuclear challenge, mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

It was Trump’s most direct threat to attack North Korea for belligerent acts that have included launching ballistic missiles over Japan and conducting underground nuclear tests.

His comments rattled the world leaders gathered before him in the green-marbled UN General Assembly hall, where minutes earlier UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had appealed for statesmanship.

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said.

"The United States is ready, willing and able. But hopefully, this will not be necessary. That's what the United Nations is all about. That's what the United Nations is for. Let's see how they do.
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UN has 'exhausted' its options on North Korea nuclear crisis: Nikki Haley

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warned that the world body has "exhausted" its options on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

"We have pretty much exhausted all the things that we can do at the Security Council at this point," Haley on Sunday said in an interview with the CNN.

"None of us want war," she said, adding that if diplomacy fails on the nuclear issue, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis "will take care of it", Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the US and South Korea have agreed to increase pressure on North Korea after its latest missile test, the White House said on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in spoke on Saturday by phone and committed to "continuing to take steps to strengthen deterrence and defence capabilities and to maximize economic and diplomatic pressure" on North Korea, according to a White House statement.
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