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But the North has remained one of the world’s most isolated states and its outdated economy has been further battered by a UN-backed “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions.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.
UK net migration hit record of more than 900,000 in 2023
- Immigration is a big political issue in Britain where voters worry public services cannot cope with immigrants
- Current Labour government says it wants to reduce immigration numbers by training workers to fill skills gaps
LONDON: Net migration to Britain hit a record of more than 900,000 in 2023, much higher than original estimates, although tougher visa rules have started to reduce the number of arrivals, official data showed.
Immigration is a big political issue in Britain, where voters worry that already stretched public services cannot cope with such large numbers arriving, but sectors such as health care say they cannot function without foreign workers.
Data from the Office for National Statistics on Thursday showed net migration of 906,000 for the year to the end of June 2023, revised up from the previous estimate of 740,000, in what the ONS described as “unprecedented levels” since 2021.
Numbers did fall 20 percent from the record high to 728,000 for the year to the end of June 2024, the ONS said, driven by declining numbers of dependents coming with those on study visas after the rules were changed.
The jump to a record level in 2023 came under the previous Conservative government’s watch. It had promised to cut immigration and introduced measures to curb students and care workers bringing in family members.
The current Labour government, elected in July, has also said it wants to reduce numbers by training workers to fill skills gaps.
The big jump to 2023 numbers was attributed to more available data, more information on Ukraine visas and improvements to how it estimates migration, the ONS said.
High levels of legal migration in 2016 was one of the driving forces behind Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
While post-Brexit changes to visas saw a sharp drop in the number of European Union migrants to Britain, new work visa rules led to a surge in immigration from India, Nigeria and Pakistan, often to fill health and social care vacancies.
Cyprus could become a member of NATO when conditions permit, the country’s president says
- Turkiye maintains more than 35,000 troops in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot northern part of ethnically divided Cyprus, doesn’t recognize the island’s government
NICOSIA: Cyprus could apply to become a member of NATO once its armed forces receive the necessary training and equipment with US help to bring them up to the standards of the world’s premier military alliance, the president of the Mediterranean island nation said Thursday.
President Nikos Christodoulides put Cyprus on a trajectory for possible NATO membership, ending weeks of media speculation about his government’s intentions following his meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington last month. The development goes against Cyprus’ long-held policy of neutrality harking back to the Cold War era, when it walked a political tightrope between Washington and Moscow.
Christodoulides said although Cyprus can’t join NATO at this time because of objections that Turkiye would raise to its potential membership, the Cypriot National Guard shouldn’t be denied the opportunity to upgrade its defensive capabilities with US assistance.
Turkiye, which maintains more than 35,000 troops in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot northern part of ethnically divided Cyprus, doesn’t recognize the island’s government, which is based in the Greek Cypriot southern part.
Christodoulides didn’t elaborate on how Turkish objections could be sidestepped. But the UN is currently working to prepare for a resumption of peace talks between the rival sides in Cyprus, which was split in 1974 when Turkiye invaded following a coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece.
“And because we don’t want the National Guard to lose such opportunities, we’re in talks with the US — and we thank them for their positive response — on how the Cyprus Republic can make the best use of these opportunities, so when everything is in its place, the Cyprus Republic can become a member state of NATO,” Christodoulides told The Associated Press.
“The strengthening of the Cyprus Republic’s deterrent capabilities is of the utmost importance, and we take advantage of every opportunity, both in the direction of the United States and NATO, but also the European Union.”
Christodoulides said Cyprus’ geographic location — it’s the closest EU member state to the Middle East at just 182 kilometers (114 miles) from the Lebanese capital, Beirut — has given impetus to planned upgrades to its military infrastructure. He said the government is currently in talks with the US for upgrades to a key air base and with the EU for a naval base.
Following his meeting with Biden, Christodoulides told the AP of his government’s commitment to expanding defense and security cooperation with the US
Cyprus’ Andreas Papandreou air base on its southwestern edge is currently hosting a US Marine contingent and a number of V-22 Osprey tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft prepositioned to assist in potential evacuations from nearby Lebanon and elsewhere.
Russian attacks leave one million Ukrainians without power
- Ukraine is bracing for what could be its toughest winter of the almost three-year war
KYIV: More than a million Ukrainians were left without power in freezing cold temperatures on Thursday after a massive nationwide Russian missile and drone attack.
Ukraine is bracing for what could be its toughest winter of the almost three-year war as Moscow steps up its aerial bombardment of the war-torn country and its troops advance on the frontlines in the east.
“There are emergency blackouts all over the country due to the enemy’s attack on our energy sector. There is no end in sight,” said the CEO of the Yasno energy supplier Sergey Kovalenko.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said Russia was “continuing their tactics of terror,” seeking to plunge Ukrainian civilians into darkness and cut of heating in the coldest months of the year.
“They stockpiled missiles for attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, for warfare against civilians during... winter,” Andriy Yermak said in a post on Telegram.
The combined missile and drone attack, launched in waves throughout the early hours of Thursday, knocked out electricity for more than a million subscribers in Ukraine’s west, hundreds of kilometers from the front lines.
“As of now, 523,000 subscribers in Lviv region are without electricity,” regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said on social media.
The western region, which borders EU and NATO member Poland, has been spared the worst of the fighting of Russia’s 33-month invasion but has been targeted in Russian drone and missile attacks sporadically.
Regional officials said at least another 280,000 were cut off in the western Rivne region and another 215,000 in the northwestern Volyn region, which also borders Poland.
The full extent of the damage was still being assessed on Thursday morning, with Russian drones also having targeted the capital Kviv, the northeastern city of Kharkiv and port city of Odesa on the Black Sea and other regions reporting power outages.
“Power engineers are working to ensure backup power supply schemes where possible. They have already started restoration work where the security situation allows,” the energy ministry said.
It said it was the 11th massive Russian attack on Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure this year.
In an early morning warning posted on social media as the strikes were unfolding, Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said facilities were “under massive enemy attack.”
The strikes, which came as temperatures hit 0 degrees Celsius in many Ukrainian cities, are the latest in two weeks of dramatic escalation in the near three-year war.
A senior UN official, Rosemary DiCarlo, this month warned Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure may make this winter the “harshest since the start of the war.”
Both sides have fired new weapons in an attempt to gain an upper hand ahead of Donald Trump being inaugurated as US president in January.
Russia earlier this week said it was preparing its own retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on its territory using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.
Kyiv has launched at least three attacks on Russian border regions with the missiles since the White House gave it permission to fire them on Russian territory.
Moscow responded to the first strike by firing a never-before-seen hypersonic ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the nuclear-capable missile could be used against Western countries next.
Trump on Wednesday named staunch loyalist and retired general Keith Kellogg as his Ukraine envoy, charged with ending the Russian invasion.
The incoming president has criticized US aid to Ukraine and boasted he could secure a ceasefire in hours — comments that have triggered concern in Kyiv that the US could push it to cede land.
Kellog, an 80-year-old national security veteran, co-authored a paper this year calling for Washington to leverage military aid as a means of pushing for peace talks.
Concerned at a string of Russian advances on the frontline, the outgoing Joe Biden administration has also urged Ukraine drop the minimum age of conscription from 25 to 18 to plug severe manpower shortages.
Russia’s defense ministry also said Thursday it had downed 25 Ukrainian drones fired overnight, including 14 over the southern Krasnodar territory — just to the east of the annexed Crimean peninsula.
China says top military official Miao Hua suspended, under investigation
- Latest senior apparatchik to fall in a sweeping crackdown on graft in the country’s armed force
- Unconfirmed reports say defense minister Dong Jun was also placed under investigation for corruption
BEIJING: China said Thursday that top military official Miao Hua had been removed from office and was suspected of “serious violations of discipline,” the latest senior apparatchik to fall in a sweeping crackdown on graft in the country’s armed forces.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party “has decided to suspend Miao Hua from duty pending investigation,” Wu Qian, spokesman of China’s Ministry of Defense, told a press briefing.
Wu did not provide further details about the charges against Admiral Miao, a member of Beijing’s powerful Central Military Commission.
But “serious violations of discipline” are commonly used by officials in China as a euphemism for corruption.
The announcement follows reports, unconfirmed by Beijing, that Defense Minister Dong Jun has been placed under investigation for corruption.
If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to be probed for graft.
India’s parliament suspended temporarily after row over allegations against Adani group
- The problem is that India’s states are unprepared for the rapid rise in renewable generating capacity, lack adequate transmission infrastructure and storage
NEW DELHI: Both houses of Indian parliament were suspended temporarily on Thursday within minutes of opening as opposition lawmakers disrupted proceedings for the third day this week seeking a discussion on allegations against the Adani Group.
US authorities have accused Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and managing director of Adani Green, Vneet S. Jaain, of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian solar power supply contracts, and misleading US investors during fund raises there.
“We want a discussion on this in parliament. It is going to be the third day that we are demanding a reply from the prime minister” on the Adani issue, Manickam Tagore, a lawmaker from the main opposition Congress party, which has been leading the protests against the business group, told news agency ANI.
Many of India’s opposition parties accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of favoring Adani and blocking investigations against him in India, accusations both have denied.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been a vocal critic of Adani, said Gautam Adani, 62, should be arrested.
While the government has not made any comment on the indictment, Modi’s BJP has said it had no reason to defend Adani, adding that the party was not against industrialists and considered them partners in nation-building efforts.
“Let him defend himself,” BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said on Tuesday, adding that the law would take its course.
