Trump, Abe to meet before Singapore summit U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed Monday to meet ahead of the president's planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the White House said.Trump and Abe spoke by phone after the U.S. leader canceled his June 12 meeting with Kim, citing "open hostility" from the regime, and then put it back on track.They "confirmed they would meet again to continue close coordination in advance of the expected meeting between the United States and North Korea," the White House said in a statement."The President and Prime Minister affirmed the shared imperative of achieving the complete and permanent dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and ballistic missile programs."If held, the Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore will focus on dismantling the North's nuclear weapons program. Tokyo has urged Washington to also address the issue of North Korea's short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, which pose a direct threat to Japan, and the unresolved abductions of Japanese citizens by Pyongyang decades ago.U.S. officials have beeMay 29, 2018
Moon may visit Singapore during Trump-Kim summit President Moon Jae-in holds a press briefing on his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Cheong Wa Dae, Saturday. / YonhapBy Park Ji-wonPresident Moon Jae-in may visit Singapore while the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is taking place there next month, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Monday.Moon's possible visit, however, hinges on how dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea unfolds, the official said.This prompted speculation that the two Korean leaders and the U.S. leader may jointly declare a formal end to the Korean War in Singapore depending on the outcome of the Kim-Trump summit.“(The success of making an announcement of ending the war through a trilateral summit) is dependent on the result of the North-U.S. summit,” the official said when asked about Moon preparing to go to Singapore.The official added that “there are two issues on the summit table; denuclearization and ensuring the security of the North Korean regime. The declaration of the end of the (Korean) war is part of guaranteeing the NoMay 28, 2018
Unification minister to lead South for high-level talks with North By Park Ji-wonUnification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon is expected to lead a South Korean delegation for high-level talks with North Korea, which will resume on June 1 under an agreement reached at the latest inter-Korean summit.“We are stepping up preparations for the high-level talks with the North,” ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told reporters Monday. “Minister Cho will participate in the talks.”Seoul and Pyongyang were scheduled to hold high-level talks on May 16, but the North unilaterally canceled the meeting, citing the Max Thunder air exercises between South Korea and the U.S.During the planned talks, the two Koreas will likely discuss the details of the implementation of the Panmunjeom Declaration as well as roadmaps for other meetings such as resumption of the suspended inter-Korean military talks, establishing an inter-Korean liaison office in Gaeseong, North Korea, and reconnecting an inter-Korean railroad on the East Coast, all of which have been on the agenda for the canceled talks.“At last week's inter-Korean summit, the two leaders reaffirMay 28, 2018
Moon, the powerful peacemaker Moon offers to meet Kim anytime without formalitiesBy Kim RahnPresident Moon Jae-inU.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may be the main characters of the nuclear standoff drama that has been unfolding with a series of reversals and twists. But without backup and setting by President Moon Jae-in, the whole play may have not been on stage at all.He has again shone as a “mediator” because he reignited the dying embers of the Washington-Pyongyang summit, which was on the verge of falling through following Trump's decision to call it off.Since the beginning of this year, Moon encouraged the North and the U.S. to engage in denuclearization talks by taking advantage of the rare reconciliatory mood created by the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Kim offered a summit with Trump, who immediately accepted it, and they agreed to hold it in Singapore on June 12.But the preparation faltered as the North threatened to reconsider the summit in protest of hawkish U.S. officials' suggestion of a “Libyan model” of denuclearization, and stood up a U.S. advaMay 28, 2018
Why two Koreas are seeking to get closer President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un embrace after their surprise summit in the Panmunjeom truce village, Saturday. / YonhapBy Oh Young-jin The May 26 inter-Korean summit shows how the two Koreas might mend their erstwhile rivalry, combine their forces and become united on the international stage. Of course, their newly found love may prove ephemeral considering their decades-old antagonistic relations that peaked with the 1950-1953 Korean War that was started by the North's invasion under Kim Il-sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.The following seven decades have been marked by a series of close calls that have pushed the 1953 armistice to its limits. So what has changed that could help the two Koreas overcome their history, if indeed that concept of reconciliation is truly possible? Above all, the two Koreas are being unhinged from their Cold-War patrons _ South Korea from the United States and North Korea from China after the demise of the Soviet Union. The collapse of the ideological pillars is forcing Seoul and Pyongyang to find their own way to May 28, 2018
Seoul making preparations for June 1 inter-Korean high-level talks South Korea is making preparations for high-level talks with North Korea slated for later this week to discuss follow-up measures to the historic summit between their leaders last month, the unification ministry said Monday.The move came after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met on Saturday and agreed to hold high-level inter-Korean talks on Friday as part of efforts to carry out the so-called Panmunjom Declaration they adopted after the April 27 summit."We are making follow-up working-level preparations," unification ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a regular press briefing.Taking issue with military drills underway, North Korea unilaterally canceled a meeting with the South slated for May 16 that was intended to discuss concrete steps to implement the agreements reached during the summit last month.The cancellation came hours after the two sides exchanged lists of their delegations to the meeting scheduled to take place at the truce village of Panmunjom. If the meeting resumes, officials of the two Koreas are expected to discuss detailed May 28, 2018
VIDEO Kim Jong-un already in Singapore? Howard, an Australian-Chinese impersonating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, poses with the Marina Bay Sands hotel in the background in Singapore May 27, 2018. / REUTERSSurprised Singaporeans pursued North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Sunday before realizing the portly man with slick black hair near the Marina Bay Sands hotel was an impersonator. "It looked like the real Kim Jong-un, but later I realized it's not the real one," said Sagar Admuthe who was visiting from Mumbai, India, after several selfies with the doppleganger against a backdrop of the city's bay."When you see him, it's very difficult to make out."Howard, an Australian-Chinese impersonating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, takes a stroll at the Merlion Park in Singapore May 27, 2018. / REUTERSHoward, an Australian-Chinese impersonating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, talks to South Korean students at the Merlion Park in Singapore May 27, 2018. / REUTERSThe Australian-Chinese man posing as the North Korean leader calls himself only Howard X and said he was appearing to wish success for a summit between Kim and U.S. PrMay 28, 2018
Trump 'truly believes in North Korea's economic potential' U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he believes North Korea will be a great economic nation one day, setting a positive tone ahead of his potential meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.Trump also confirmed that U.S. officials are in North Korea to continue preparations for the summit, which, if held, would take place in Singapore June 12."Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself," he tweeted.The Washington Post first reported the visit of the U.S. delegation led by Amb. Sung Kim, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former negotiator on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The State Department later confirmed that the two sides were having talks in the truce village of Panmunjom, which sits on the inter-Korean border."I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day," Trump wrote. "Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!"The U.S. president has increasingly offered economic rewards in exchange for denuclearizatioMay 28, 2018
Crucial North Korea-US talks taking place all over Sung Kim and Choe Son-huiBy Kim Bo-eunThe ongoing working-level meeting between North Korea and the U.S. is likely to produce a framework on Pyongyang’s denuclearization that will serve as the basis for the North Korea-U.S. summit and ultimately determine the fate of the Korean Peninsula.Delegations led by the North’s vice foreign minister Choe Son-hui and U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim met at the truce village of Panmunjeom, Sunday, to finalize the framework. Kim was former Ambassador to South Korea and a U.S. special envoy for the six party talks on the North’s nuclear program.A separate meeting is set to take place in Singapore, the summit venue, to discuss protocol and security, while communication continues through the New York channel _ the North Korean mission at the United Nations _ to enable the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to be held June 12. The U.S. president last week called off the meeting, citing hostile remarks made by North Korean officials regarding the White House’s reference toMay 28, 2018
'Moon, not Trump, deserves Nobel Peace Prize,' says ex-US secretary / Captured from Robert Reich's FacebookBy Kang Aa-young, Park Si-soo Robert Reich, a former U.S. cabinet member, has praised President Moon Jae-in's “broker diplomacy” between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying the world was “fortunate to have Moon at the helm” in South Korea “at this fragile point in time.” Reich, who was U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1993-97, said that if the North Korean nuclear crisis was settled and a Nobel Peace Prize was awarded, it should go to “Moon, not Trump.” He posted the comment on his Facebook on May 25. Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California in Berkeley. “One final thought from my few days here in South Korea. In the drama that's unfolding, we hear a lot about Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un,” he wrote on Facebook. “But if there is ever going to be a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, the person who will deserve the Nobel Peace Prize won't be Trump. It will be South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in.”RecoMay 27, 2018
