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.

Let's talk without preconditions if you are excited about it: US to N Korea

The United States is ready to begin talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament without prior conditions, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday.

"We're ready to have the first meeting without preconditions," Tillerson told a meeting on the crisis at the Atlantic Council policy forum in Washington.

"Let's just meet and let's talk about the weather if you want and talk about whether it's going to be a square table or a round table if that's what you're excited about."

This appeared to represent a softening in the US position, seeing as officials had previously demanded that Kim Jong-Un's regime demonstrate a willingness to consider giving up their arsenal.

But elsewhere in his remarks, Tillerson insisted the US- led pressure campaign of economic and diplomatic sanctions would continue until "the first bomb drops."

He stressed that Washington "simply cannot accept a nuclear armed North Korea" and that President Donald Trump "intends to ensure that they do not have deliverable nuclear weapons to (reach) the shores of the United States.
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Human rights violations: US imposes more sanctions on N Korea indiviudals

The US Department of Treasury on Thursday issued new sanctions on seven individuals and three entities of North Korea over what it called human rights abuses.

"Today's sanctions target the North Korean military and regime officials engaged in flagrant abuses of human rights," Xinhua quoted US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as saying.

Pyongyang's financial facilitators "who attempt to keep the regime afloat with foreign currency earned through forced labour operations" were also targeted, Mnuchin added.

Among the sanctioned individuals were North Korea's military security officials and Labour Minister Jong Yong Su. North Korea's consul general in Shenyang, China, and a diplomat at its embassy in Vietnam were also targeted.

As a result of the saction, any property or interests of the designated persons in the US will be blocked and transactions by Americans involving these persons are generally prohibited.

The new moves came a month after the US Department of Treasury slapped sanctions on eight banks and 26 individuals linked to North Korea financial networks in response to the country's ongoing development of weapons of mass destruction.

The North Korea successfully tested two intercontinental ballistic missile and a hydrogen bomb this year, triggering two new economic sanctions by the UN Security Council.
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US not at war with North Korea, such a suggestion is absurd: White House

The White House today rejected claims that the United States has declared war on North Korea as "absurd" in the latest exchange of barbs and insults between the two nuclear powers.

"We have not declared war on North Korea and frankly the suggestion of that is absurd'" said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

North Korea's foreign minister today accused US President Donald Trump of declaring war against his country and said Pyongyang was ready to defend itself by shooting down US bombers.

The latest threats stoked a week-long war of words that began when the American leader threatened in his address to the United Nations General Assembly to "totally destroy" North Korea if it launches an attack.

Sanders also took issue with the suggestion that Pyongyang would have the right to shoot down US planes near North Korean airspace.

"It's never appropriate for a country to shoot down another country's aircraft when it's over international waters," she said.
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US asks UN to slap oil embargo on North Korea, freeze Kim Jong-Un's assets

The United States has asked the UN Security Council to slap an oil embargo on North Korea and freeze the assets of leader Kim Jong-Un, in response to Pyongyang's sixth and most powerful nuclear test.

A US-drafted resolution obtained by AFP also called for banning textile exports and ending payments made to North Korean labourers sent abroad, further depriving the regime of revenue to pursue its military programs.

The United States circulated the proposed resolution to the 14 other council members two days after Ambassador Nikki Haley called for the "strongest possible measures" to be imposed on North Korea.

Haley said on Monday that the United States was seeking a vote on the new sanctions on September 11.

The draft text takes aim directly at North Korea's leadership with a freeze on leader Kim's assets as well as those of the ruling Worker's Party of Korea and the government of North Korea.

Kim would be added to a UN sanctions blacklist that would subject him to a global travel ban, along with four other senior North Korean officials, according to the draft.
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US will receive more 'gift packages,' warns North Korea after nuclear test

A top North Korean diplomat on Tuesday warned that his country is ready to send “more gift packages” to the United States as world powers struggled for a response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear weapons test.

Han Tae Song, ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, confirmed that North Korea had successfully conducted its sixth and largest nuclear bomb test on Sunday.

”The recent self-defence measures by my country, DPRK, are a gift package addressed to none other than the US,” Han told a disarmament conference, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s formal name.

“The US will receive more ‘gift packages’ ... as long as it relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK,” he added without elaborating.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday accused North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of “begging for war” with a series of nuclear bomb and missile tests, and urged the 15-member Security Council to impose the “strongest possible” sanctions to deter him and shut down his trading partners.

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