WASHINGTON: The United States promised Friday that it would work to rebuild North Korea’s sanctions-crippled economy if Kim Jong Un’s regime agrees to surrender its nuclear arsenal.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s vow came as senior US officials expressed growing optimism ahead of the landmark June 12 summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.
Pompeo, who held talks Pyongyang’s young leader over the weekend, even said “we have a pretty good understanding between our two countries about what the shared objectives are.”
He was speaking after talks with his South Korean opposite number Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha to coordinate Washington and Seoul’s preparations for the historic encounter.
Many observers have warned Kim’s regime will try to drive a wedge between the allies as the summit approaches, playing Seoul’s fear of war against Washington’s nuclear concerns.
But both Kang and Pompeo insisted that they agreed on the need for the “total, permanent and verifiable” denuclearization of the divided peninsula.
Trump and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in are due to meet on May 22 at the White House for the next round of planning.
And Pompeo said the United States would remain on board to help develop the North’s economy, which has been devastated by its own mismanagement and crippling international sanctions.
“If North Korea takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on par with our South Korean friends,” he said.
Since an ad hoc 1953 armistice put an end to active hostilities between the North and the South, South Korea has emerged from devastation to become a leading world economy.
But the North has remained one of the world’s most isolated states and its outdated economy has been further battered by a UN-backed “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions.
Over the past year Kim and Trump have also added a personal touch to a half-century of international enmity, swapping insults and both openly threatening devastating direct military action.
Kim’s regime also carried out missile tests that convinced US intelligence officials, including Pompeo in his former role as CIA chief, that North Korea could threaten US cities.
But South Korea’s President Moon reached out to the North, reopening direct talks, and when Kim invited Trump to a summit to discuss disarmament the mood changed.
At the weekend, Pompeo flew to Pyongyang for a second round of talks and to recover three released American detainees, and now a summit date has been set for June 12 in Singapore.
“We had good conversations, conversations that involve deep complex problems, challenges, strategic decisions that chairman Kim has before him,” Pompeo said.
The pair, he said, talked “about how it is he wishes to proceed and if he’s prepared, in exchange for the assurances that we’re ready to provide him, if he is prepared to fully denuclearize.
“We’ll require a robust verification program, one that we would undertake with partners around the world which would achieve that outcome,” he warned.
But he added: “I’m confident that we have a shared understanding of the outcome that the leaders want, certainly President Trump and chairman Kim, but I think President Moon as well.”
South Korea’s Kang shared in Pompeo’s optimism and was at pains to insist that there is no daylight between how Washington and Seoul are approaching the talks.
“We agreed that the summit would be a historic opportunity for resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, and securing enduring peace on the Korean peninsula,” she said.
“We reaffirmed that our goal is to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula,” she added, promising “air-tight” coordination.
Pompeo’s promise of an economic carrot to match the stick of “maximum pressure” may reassure observers who are concerned that Seoul and Washington’s objectives are not exactly aligned.
“There’s a danger here of the peace track moving more quickly than the denuclearization track,” warned Abraham Denmark, an Asia expert and former senior US defense official.
“If that happens, it could give North Korea an opportunity to try to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington,” said Denmark, now at the Wilson Center think tank in the US capital.
So far, the North Korean regime has made vague pledges to “denuclearize” but has not spelled out what that means, when it would happen or how it would be implemented.
In North Korea’s bombastic rhetoric, “denuclearization” has, for years, been a byword for US troop withdrawals from South Korea — an idea that Kang appeared to reject.
After her talks with Pompeo, she took pains to “emphasize again that the US military presence in Korea is a matter for the ROK-US alliance first and foremost.”
Hard-liners in the North are believed to see a nuclear weapon as a guarantee against outside efforts to topple the regime, but Trump insists he will not tolerate their growing arsenal.
US vows to make North Korea rich if it gives up nukes
US vows to make North Korea rich if it gives up nukes
- US President Donald Trump and North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un will meet in a landmark summit on June 12.
- Since an ad hoc 1953 armistice put an end to active hostilities between the North and the South, South Korea has emerged from devastation to become a leading world economy.
Ukraine, US teams ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in ‘coming days’: Zelensky
Kyiv, Ukraine: Officials from Ukraine and the United States could meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days for a second round of peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday.
“Ukrainian and American teams are ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to continue coordinating steps toward peace,” Zelensky wrote on X.
One person dies as migrants aim to cross English Channel
- Both the British and French governments have made tackling migrants crossing the English Channel illegally a high priority
PARIS: One person has died after a boat carrying migrants trying to cross the English Channel from France got into difficulties overnight, said a local French authority on Thursday.
The French local authority responsible for the North Sea and English Channel regions said 15 people had been rescued and brought back to shore at the port of Gravelines, near Dunkirk.
Both the British and French governments have made tackling migrants crossing the English Channel illegally – often in perilous conditions as they travel in dinghies or small boats – a high priority.
Data in January showed Britain’s Labour government had removed 16,400 illegal migrants since coming to power last July, marking the highest rate of such removals since 2018, although Labour’s political opponents say the government needs to do more.
India detains hundreds of farmers as police bulldoze protest sites
- The farmers had camped on the border with adjoining Haryana since last February
- Security forces have earlier halted their march toward the capital, New Delhi
NEW DELHI: Police in India’s northern state of Punjab detained hundreds of farmers and used bulldozers to tear down their temporary camps in a border area where they had protested for more than a year to demand better crop prices.
The farmers had camped on the border with adjoining Haryana since last February, when security forces halted their march toward the capital, New Delhi, to press for legally-backed guarantees of more state support for crops.
“We did not need to use any force because there was no resistance,” Nanak Singh, a senior police officer, told the ANI news agency about Wednesday night’s clearance action. “The farmers cooperated well and they sat in buses themselves.”
The farmers had been given prior notice, he added.
Television images showed police using bulldozers to demolish tents and stages, while escorting farmers carrying personal items to vehicles.
Media said among the hundreds detained were farmers’ leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, the latter carried away in an ambulance as he had been on an indefinite protest fast for months.
“On one hand the government is negotiating with the farmer organizations and on the other hand it is arresting them,” Rakesh Tikait, a spokesperson for farmer group Bhartiya Kisan Union said on X.
Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which authorized the eviction, said it stood by the farmers in their demands, but asked them to take up their grievances with the federal government.
“Let’s work together to safeguard Punjab’s interests,” said the party’s vice president in the state, Tarunpreet Singh Sond, adding that the blockage of key roads had hurt the state’s economy. “Closing highways is not the solution.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was forced to repeal some farm laws in 2021 after a year-long protest by farmers when they camped outside Delhi for months.
Federal government officials met the farmers’ leaders on Wednesday, said Fatehjung Singh Bajwa, the vice president of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab.
“It is clear that this arrest is a deliberate attempt to disrupt the ongoing dialogue between farmers and BJP leadership,” he added in a post on X.
Muslims with tattoo regrets flock to free removal service during Ramadan
- A growing number of people in Indonesia’s capital have signed up for free tattoo removal services offered by Amil Zakat National Agency
- Launched in 2019, the tattoo removal program is now held every Ramadan, a month of fasting, increased worship, religious reflection and good deeds
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Teguh Islean Septura groans in pain as each staccato rat-a-tat-tat of the laser fires an intense beam at the elaborate tattoos on his arm. But the former musician’s determination to “repent” in the holy month of Ramadan is enough to keep him going.
The 30-year-old guitarist got his back, arms and legs tattooed to “look cool” when he was performing in a band. But these days Septura has a newfound zeal for Islam, including the conviction that Muslims should not alter the body that God gave them.
“As humans, sometimes we make mistakes. Now I want to improve myself by moving closer to God,” Seputra said, as a health worker aimed the white laser wand at Septura’s skin, blasting the red, green and black pigments with its penetrating light. “God gave me clean skin and I ruined it, that’s what I regret now.”
Septura is among a growing number of people in Indonesia’s capital who have signed up for free tattoo removal services offered by Amil Zakat National Agency, an Islamic charity organization, during Ramadan to give practicing Muslims an opportunity to “repent.”
Launched in 2019, the tattoo removal program is now held every Ramadan, a month of fasting, increased worship, religious reflection and good deeds. Some 700 people have signed up for the services this year, and in total nearly 3,000 people have taken part.
“We want to pave the way for people who want to hijrah (to move closer to God), including those who want to remove their tattoos” said Mohammad Asep Wahyudi, a coordinator of the event. He added that many people cannot afford to remove their tattoos or know where and how they can do so safely.
Laser removal, which takes repeated treatment and may not be completely successful, could cost thousands of dollars for tattoos as extensive as Septura’s.
Tattooing remains strongly associated with gangs and criminality in some Asian cultures. In addition to the religious prohibitions in Muslim-majority Indonesia, ideas about tattoos also reveal oppressive attitudes toward women, who if tattooed can be labeled as promiscuous or disreputable and not worth marrying.
Sri Indrayati, 52, said she tattooed the name of her first daughter on her hand shortly after she gave birth to her at the age of 22. She said she regretted it when her two grandchildren kept asking her to erase it because it looked like dirty, thick marker writing.
“When I take my grandson to school, (the children) whisper to each other: ‘look at that grandma, she has a tattoo!” she said.
Another woman, Evalia Zadora, got a tattoo of a large star on her back and the words “Hope, Love and Rock & Roll” on her upper chest as a teen to gain acceptance into a gang. She wants to remove them now to move closer to God and out of consideration for her family.
“Bad image (against people with tattoos) is not a big deal for me, but it affected my husband and son,” said Zadora, 36. “They are not comfortable with my tattoos and I respect their feelings, so I want to remove it.
On Trump’s orders, thousands of JFK assassination documents newly public
- The archives’ Kennedy assassination collection has more than six million pages of records, the vast majority of which had been declassified and made public before Trump’s order
WASHINGTON: Thousands of pages of digital documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy are now available for historians, conspiracy theorists and the merely curious, following orders from US President Donald Trump.
The president, shortly after taking office for his second term in January, signed an executive order directing national intelligence and other officials to quickly come up with a plan “for the full and complete release of all John F. Kennedy assassination records.”
The archives’ Kennedy assassination collection has more than six million pages of records, the vast majority of which had been declassified and made public before Trump’s order. Trump told reporters on Monday that 80,000 pages would be released on Tuesday. Justice Department lawyers got orders Monday evening to review the records for release. The digital documents did not start appearing until 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) Tuesday on a National Archives web page. As of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday (0230 GMT Wednesday), the National Archives had published 2,182 PDFs totaling 63,400 pages.
The archives did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment on whether more documents would soon be released in response to a January order from Trump.
Kennedy’s murder has been attributed to a sole gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. The Justice Department and other federal government bodies have reaffirmed that conclusion in the intervening decades. But polls show many Americans still believe his death was a result of a conspiracy.
“There will be people who will be looking at the records and seeing if there is any hint of any confirmation about their theory,” Larry Schnapf, an environmental lawyer who has researched the assassination and pushed the government to make public what it knows about what led up to the shooting in Dallas on a November afternoon six decades ago, said on Wednesday.
Schnapf, who stayed up until 4 a.m. poring over the documents, said that what he found as he went through them was less illuminating about Kennedy’s assassination than about US spy operations.
“It’s all about our government’s covert activities leading up to the assassination,” he said.
Department of Defense documents from 1963 that were among those released Tuesday covered the Cold War of the early 1960s and the US involvement in Latin America, trying to thwart Castro’s support of communists in other countries. One document released from January 1962 reveals details of a top-secret project called “Operation Mongoose,” or simply “the Cuban Project,” which was a CIA-led campaign of covert operations and sabotage against Cuba, authorized by Kennedy in 1961, aimed at removing the Castro regime.
Trump promised on the campaign trail to provide more transparency about Kennedy’s death. Upon taking office, he also ordered aides to present a plan for the release of records relating to the assassinations in 1968 of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said he advocates for transparency in Washington and noted previous administrations, including the Biden administration, have also released Kennedy assassination documents. But he added that even with the thousands of new documents, the public will still not know everything, as much evidence may have been destroyed throughout the decades.
The National Archives did not immediately respond to queries on Wednesday about whether plans for releasing documents on Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr had been developed or when such documents would be released.
