SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday to meet his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un for the third time this year amid a deadlock in denuclearization talks between the US and North Korea.
During a three-day summit in the North Korean capital, both leaders are expected to discuss ways of defusing military tension along their heavily fortified border, as well as restarting their joint economic cooperation with massive investments from the South.
The summit, however, is not expected to yield tangible results about Pyongyang’s denuclearization, which is well down the list of agenda items for the Moon-Kim summit talks.
Upon his arrival at the Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook were greeted by Kim and his wife. With bright smiles, Kim hugged Moon, as he did at their second encounter at the northern part of the border village of Panmunjeom in May. Thousands of North Korean residents holding flower bouquets waved national and unification flags and an honor guard quick-marched in tight lines.
Riding a black convertible Mercedes limousine, both leaders rode together along the Pyongyang streets to the Paekhwawon State Guesthouse, while their wives shared a separate vehicle to the luxury guest house, where former South Korean Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun stayed during their summits with Kim Jong Un’s father in 2000 and 2007 respectively.
The first Moon-Kim meeting was held at 3:45 p.m. and continued for two hours at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. The two sides are expected to discuss ways toward signing a permanent peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which had ended in a truce, according to the presidential office.
Kim expressed his hope for progress in the nuclear talks with the US, thanking Moon for his balancing role between Washington and Pyongyang.
“Thanks to this (US-North Korea meeting), regional conditions stabilized and a more advanced outcome is expected,” the North Korean leader said at the start of the meeting.
Praising Kim’s “bold decision,” Moon said: “I feet the great weight we must bear, along with a heavy responsibility. I wish this will be a summit that produces abundant results as a gift to the 80 million people (of the Korean Peninsula) ahead of Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day).”
A day before departing to Pyongyang, Moon said on Twitter: “What I want to achieve is peace. Not a tentative change which could be volatile depending on the international situation, but irreversible, permanent and unwavering peace, regardless of what might happen in the global arena.”
As part of efforts to secure peace and closer ties with the communist North, Moon is expected to focus on ways of easing military tensions, including the possibility of disarming the Joint Security Area in the Panmunjeom, removing front-line guard posts and preventing naval conflicts along their boundary in the Yellow Sea.
Another key topic for this summit is expanding their joint economic projects that have been suspended for a decade owing to North Korea’s provocations, including nuclear tests and test-firings of ballistic missiles.
President Moon has pledged efforts to improve the North’s poor infrastructure, such as roads, railways and electricity supply under his so-called “New Economic Map Initiative.” To that end, Moon decided this time to take South Korean business tycoons with him to the reclusive state to let them discuss practical economic cooperation with North Korean officials.
Among those included in Moon’s economic delegation are Lee Jae-yong, heir to the Samsung Group; Choi Tae-won, chairman of SK Corporation; Koo Kwang-mo, CEO of LG Group; and Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai Group.
But increasing economic engagement with the North has sparked a backlash since for now almost all inter-Korean economic projects with North Korea are prohibited by US-led United Nations economic sanctions on North Korea.
“It seems, being accompanied by business tycoons, President Moon wants to showcase his will to expand inter-Korean economic cooperation,” said Hyun Jin-kwon, an associate professor of the economics department at Ajou Unversity in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. “But it should be very cautious since North Korea is still imposed by economic sanctions. Any hasty business cooperation with the North could be a violation of the international sanctions.”
The inclusion of billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong is controversial as Lee was convicted of crimes related to a bribery scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye. Lee initially received a five-year prison term and later it was reduced to two and a half years and suspended. He awaits a final ruling.
“Trials are trials; work is work,” said Im Jong-seok, presidential chief of staff, the supervisor of this summit between Moon and Kim, at a press briefing Monday.
Im, Moon’s right-hand man, admitted this summit was not likely to be used as a breakthrough to the stalled denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
“It’s difficult to have any optimistic outlook (for progress on denuclearization),” he told reporters. “The summit is expected to produce meaningful agreements that fundamentally remove the danger of armed clashes and ease fears of war (between the two Koreas).”
Leaders of two Koreas meet in hopes of easing tension
Leaders of two Koreas meet in hopes of easing tension
- President Moon has pledged efforts to improve the North’s poor infrastructure, such as roads, railways and electricity supply under his so-called “New Economic Map Initiative”
- Kim expressed his hope for progress in the nuclear talks with the US, thanking Moon for his balancing role between Washington and Pyongyang
North Korea’s Kim, Russian minister agree to boost military ties
The United States and South Korea have accused the nuclear-armed North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine, with experts saying Kim is eager to gain advanced technology, and battle experience for his troops, in return.
Kim, who met Belousov on Friday, blasted the recent decision by Western powers to permit Kyiv to strike inside Russia with their weapons, saying it constituted a “direct military intervention in the conflict,” according to KCNA.
“It is an exercise of the right to self-defense for Russia to take resolute action to make the hostile forces pay the price,” Kim was quoted as saying.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim signed a strategic partnership treaty in June that obligates both states to provide military assistance “without delay” in the case of an attack on the other and jointly oppose Western sanctions.
KCNA said Saturday that Belousov’s visit “would greatly contribute to bolstering up the defense capabilities of the two countries and... promoting the friendly, mutual cooperation and development of the relations between the two armies.”
Belousov, in a statement, expressed gratitude for the two countries’ deeping bonds and praised North Korea’s “absolutely independent foreign policy.”
Analysts have suggested Pyongyang could be using Ukraine as a means of realigning its foreign policy.
By sending soldiers, North Korea is positioning itself within the Russian war economy as a supplier of weapons, military support and labor — potentially even bypassing traditional ally, neighbor and main trading partner China, they say.
Russia also offers access to vast natural resources, such as oil and gas, they say.
Belousov is well-placed to help with such arrangements, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP, calling the Russian “an economic expert without a military background.”
As Russia’s defense chief, he specializes in “long-term strategies for securing weapons and military supplies, evading sanctions, and overseeing post-war reconstruction,” Hong said.
Russia and North Korea have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Both countries are under rafts of UN sanctions — the former for its nuclear weapons program and the latter for the Ukraine conflict.
Since US president-elect Donald Trump’s victory earlier this month, the Joe Biden administration has stepped up its support for Kyiv, transferring more weapons and giving Ukraine permission to fire long-range missiles onto Russian territory.
Kim said Friday that his government, army and people would “invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Earlier this month, Pyongyang said it had ratified the landmark defense pact with Russia, after lawmakers in Moscow voted unanimously in favor of the deal, which Putin later signed.
South Korea and Ukraine said Wednesday they would deepen security cooperation in response to the “threat” posed by the deployment of North Korean troops, but there was no mention of potential arms shipments.
President Yoon Suk Yeol said earlier this month that Seoul was “not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons” to Ukraine, which would mark a major shift to a long-standing policy barring the sale of weapons to countries in active conflict.
US approves $385 mln arms sale for Taiwan
- United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties
WASHINGTON. The US State Department has approved the potential sale of spare parts for F-16 jets and radars to Taiwan for an estimated $385 million, the Pentagon said on Friday, a day before Taiwan President Lai Ching-te starts a sensitive Pacific trip.
The United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei, to the constant anger of Beijing.
Democratically governed Taiwan rejects China’s claims of sovereignty.
China has been stepping up military pressure against Taiwan, including two rounds of war games this year, and security sources have told Reuters that Beijing may hold more to coincide with Lai’s tour of the Pacific, which includes stopovers in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the sale consisted of $320 million in spare parts and support for F-16 fighters and Active Electronically Scanned Array Radars and related equipment.
The State Department also approved the potential sale to Taiwan of improved mobile subscriber equipment and support for an estimated $65 million, the Pentagon said. The principal contractor for the $65 million sale is General Dynamics.
Last month, the United States announced a potential $2 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery for the first time to the island of an advanced air defense missile system battle tested in Ukraine.
Lai leaves for Hawaii on Saturday on what is officially a stopover on the way to Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, three of the 12 countries that still to have formal diplomatic ties with Taipei. He will also stop over in Guam.
Hawaii and Guam are home to major US military bases.
China on Friday urged the United States to exercise “utmost caution” in its relations with Taiwan.
The State Department said it saw no justification for what it called a private, routine and unofficial transit by Lai to be used as a pretext for provocation.
North Korea’s Kim vows steadfast support for Russia’s war in Ukraine
- North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia and some of them have already begun engaging in combat on the frontlines
- South Korea, the US and their partners are concerned that Russia could give North Korea advanced weapons technology in return
SEOUL, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed his country will “invariably support” Russia’s war in Ukraine as he met Russia’s defense chief, the North’s state media reported Saturday.
A Russia military delegation led by Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday, amid growing international concern about the two countries’ expanding cooperation after North Korea sent thousands of troops to Russia last month.
The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim and Belousov reached “a satisfactory consensus” on boosting strategic partnership and defending each country’s sovereignty, security interests and international justice in the face of the rapidly-changing international security environments in a Friday meeting.
Kim said that North Korea “will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the imperialists’ moves for hegemony,” KCNA said.
North Korea has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a defensive response to what both Moscow and Pyongyang call NATO’s “reckless” eastward advance and US-led moves to stamp out Russia’s position as a powerful state.
Kim slammed a US decision earlier in November to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles as a direct intervention in the conflict. He called recent Russian strikes on Ukraine “a timely and effective measure” demonstrate Russia’s resolve, KCNA said.
According to US, Ukrainian and South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia and some of them have already begun engaging in combat on the frontlines. US, South Korean and others say North Korea has also shipped artillery systems, missiles and other conventional weapons to replenish Russia’s exhausted weapons inventory.
Both North Korea and Russia haven’t formally confirmed the North Korean troops’ movements, and have steadfastly denied reports of weapons shipments.
South Korea, the US and their partners are concerned that Russia could give North Korea advanced weapons technology in return, including help to build more powerful nuclear missiles.
Last week, South Korean national security adviser Shin Wonsik told a local SBS TV program that that Seoul assessed that Russia has provided air defense missile systems to North Korea. He said Russia also appeared to have given economic assistance to North Korea and various military technologies, including those needed for the North’s efforts to build a reliable space-based surveillance system.
Belousov also met North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol on Friday. During a dinner banquet later the same day, Belousov said the the two countries’ strategic partnership was crucial to defend their sovereignty from aggression and the arbitrary actions of imperialists, KCNA said.
In June, Kim and Putin signed a treaty requiring both countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. It’s considered the two countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.
Blast at Kosovo canal feeding key power plants a ‘terrorist attack’, says prime minister
- “The attack was carried out by professionals. We believe it comes from gangs directed by Serbia,” says Prime Minister Albin Kurti
- Animosity between ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the end of the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s
PRISTINA: An explosion on Friday damaged a canal supplying water to Kosovo’s two main coal-fired power plants, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said, blaming a “terrorist attack” by neighboring Serbia.
“This is a criminal and terrorist attack aimed at damaging our critical infrastructure,” Kurti told a press conference late Friday.
“The attack was carried out by professionals. We believe it comes from gangs directed by Serbia,” he added without providing any evidence.
The blast occurred near the town of Zubin Potok in the country’s troubled north, damaging a canal supplying water to cooling systems at two power plants that generate most of Kosovo’s electricity.
Kurti gave no details about the extent of the damage, but said if it was not repaired part of Kosovo could be without electricity as soon as Saturday morning.
Pictures from the scene published by local media showed water leaking heavily from one side of the reinforced canal, which runs from the Serb-majority north of Kosovo to the capital Pristina and also supplies drinking water.
The United States strongly condemned the “attack on critical infrastructure in Kosovo,” the US embassy in Pristina said in a statement on Facebook.
“We are monitoring the situation closely... and have offered our full support to the government of Kosovo to ensure that those responsible for this criminal attack are identified and held accountable.”
Animosity between ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the end of the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move that Serbia has refused to acknowledge.
Kurti’s government has for months sought to dismantle a parallel system of social services and political offices backed by Belgrade to serve Kosovo’s Serbs.
Friday’s attack came after a series of violent incidents in northern Kosovo, including the hurling of hand grenades at a municipal building and a police station earlier this week.
AFP has contacted the Serbian government for comment.
Senior Russian diplomat says possibility of new nuclear tests remains open question
- Moscow has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union
MOSCOW: A possible resumption of nuclear weapons tests by Moscow remains an open question in view of hostile US policies, a senior Russian diplomat was quoted as saying early on Saturday.
“This is a question at hand,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS news agency when asked whether Moscow was considering a resumption of tests.
“And without anticipating anything, let me simply say that the situation is quite difficult. It is constantly being considered in all its components and in all its aspects.”
In September, Ryabkov referred to President Vladimir Putin as having said that Russia would not conduct a test as long as the United States refrained from carrying one out.
Moscow has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But Putin this month lowered the threshold governing the country’s nuclear doctrine in response to what Moscow sees as escalation by Western countries backing Ukraine in the 33-month-old war pitting it against Russia.
Under the new terms, Russia could consider a nuclear strike in response to a conventional attack on Russia or its ally Belarus that “created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity.”
The changes were prompted by US permission to allow Ukraine to use Western missiles against targets inside Russia.
Russia’s testing site is located on the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, where the Soviet Union conducted more than 200 nuclear tests.
Putin signed a law last year withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. He said the move sought to bring Russia into line with the United States, which signed but never ratified the treaty.
