North Korea’s Kim meets China’s Xi, says awaiting US actions

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A grab from a video footage run by China’s CCTV shows Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shaking hands before their meeting in Pyongyang. (CCTV via AP)
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (File/Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP)
Updated 21 June 2019
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North Korea’s Kim meets China’s Xi, says awaiting US actions

  • The summit comes as both Xi and Kim are locked in separate disputes with the United States — Xi over trade and Kim over his nuclear weapons
  • Chinese and North Korea media have said Xi would stay in Pyongyang for two days

BEIJING: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, meeting in Pyongyang with Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Thursday that his country is waiting for a desired response in stalled nuclear talks with the United States.

“North Korea would like to remain patient, but it hopes the relevant party will meet halfway with North Korea to explore resolution plans that accommodate each other’s reasonable concerns,” he said, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Xi’s trip to North Korea, the first by a Chinese president in 14 years, raises the possibility that China could help break a months-long impasse in talks between the US and North Korea over the North’s nuclear weapons.

Describing the issue as “highly complex and sensitive,” Xi said his government is willing to play a constructive role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

“The international community expects the US and North Korea to continue to talk and achieve results,” he said, according to CCTV.

The summit comes as both countries are locked in separate disputes with the United States — China over trade and North Korea over its nuclear weapons.

With Xi due to meet President Donald Trump next week in Japan, analysts say Kim may ask the Chinese leader to pass on a message that could revive the talks with the US

Xi’s two-day state visit to North Korea, announced just three days ago, began with the synchronized pomp of all major events in the country.

About 10,000 cheering people and a 21-gun salute greeted Xi and senior Chinese officials at an arrival ceremony at Pyongyang’s airport.

The CCTV evening news showed Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan waving to the crowd after emerging from their Air China plane, then being greeted by Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju before receiving flowers and watching goose-stepping troops march by.

The crowd stood in tight formations, waving flowers and chanting slogans to welcome Xi. Other people lined the roads and cheered from overpasses as Xi’s motorcade traveled to central Pyongyang, where he joined Kim in an open-top vehicle.

Standing in the car, they waved to crowds as they rode to the square where the embalmed bodies of Kim’s grandfather and father, the first two leaders of North Korea, lie in state.

As of Thursday evening, North Korean media had yet to report on Xi’s arrival.

Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea broke down after a second summit between Kim and Trump in February in Vietnam ended in failure.

A series of North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear tests in 2016 and 2017 alarmed the US, its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea, and even China. Last year, Kim turned to diplomacy, including his first meeting with Trump in Singapore.

The talks with the US have reached an impasse over a fundamental difference in approach.

The US is demanding that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons entirely before international sanctions are lifted. North Korea is seeking a step-by-step approach in which moves toward denuclearization are matched by concessions from the US, notably a relaxation of the sanctions.

“Over more than a year, the North Korean side has taken many positive measures to avoid escalation of the situation and manage and control the peninsular situation, but it hasn’t received an active response from the relevant party,” Kim told Xi on Thursday, according to CCTV.

Xi is expected to endorse North Korea’s calls for an incremental disarmament process.

A commentary in China’s official Xinhua news agency said China could play a unique role in breaking the cycle of mistrust between North Korea and the U.S, but that both sides “need to have reasonable expectations and refrain from imposing unilateral and unrealistic demands.”

A former North Korean diplomat who defected in 2016 said he thinks Kim wants to give Xi a message to deliver to Trump when the two meet at the upcoming G-20 summit in Japan.

Thae Yong Ho said Kim may offer to abandon some of his nuclear facilities in a bid to set up a third summit with the US president. But he cautioned that such a move would be only to buy time and not to denuclearize fully, as the US is demanding.

“The main purpose for the Kim Jong Un regime in negotiating is to keep North Korea as a new nuclear state in this region, there is no doubt about that,” he said at a news conference in Tokyo, where he is promoting the Japanese translation of his book, “Password From the Third Floor,” an inside look at North Korean diplomacy and the Kim regime.

China is North Korea’s most important foreign partner, though their relations grew somewhat rocky as Kim’s efforts to build his country’s nuclear weapons capabilities threatened regional stability.

Kim met Xi four times in China as the talks with both the US and South Korea got underway. A banner at the airport welcome ceremony read, “Long Live with Unbreakable Friendship and Unity Formed by Blood.”

The nations fought together in the 1950-53 Korean War against the United States, South Korea and their allies. China welcomed Kim’s announcement last year that he was shifting the country’s focus from nuclear weapons to economic development.


Text messaging scammers stole $2M in cryptocurrency from victims, says NY lawsuit

Updated 11 January 2025
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Text messaging scammers stole $2M in cryptocurrency from victims, says NY lawsuit

  • Scammers used unsolicited text messages to target people looking for remote work
  • Victims were told to review products online in order to help generate “market data”

NEW YORK: Scammers stole millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from people seeking remote work opportunities as part of an elaborate scheme, according to New York’s attorney general.
Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday that she’s filed a lawsuit in order to recover more than $2 million that she said was stolen from New Yorkers and others around the country.
James said the unknown network of scammers used unsolicited text messages to target people looking for remote work.
They told victims that the job involved reviewing products online in order to help generate “market data,” James’ office said. But in order to begin earning money, victims were told they had to open cryptocurrency accounts and had to maintain a balance equal to, or greater than, the price of the products they were reviewing.
The victims were assured they would get their investments back plus commission, but the funds simply went into the scammers’ crypto wallets, James’ office said. The product reviews were also conducted on a website set up as part of the scheme.
The suit cites seven victims, identified by pseudonyms, residing in New York, Virginia and Florida. One New York victim lost over $100,000, according to the suit. A Florida woman lost over $300,000.
“Deceiving New Yorkers looking to take on remote work and earn money to support their families is cruel and unacceptable,” she said in a statement. “Scammers sent text messages to New Yorkers promising them good-paying, flexible jobs only to trick them into purchasing cryptocurrency and then stealing it from them.”
James’ suit seeks to return the stolen funds.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said her office’s cryptocurrency unit traced over $2 million in stolen crypto and identified the digital wallets where the coins were being held. Then, working with James’ office, they were able to have the currency frozen until they could be returned to victims.
“Work scams that prey on those seeking legitimate employment not only rob victims of their hard-earned money but also shatter their trust in the job market,” she added.


UK finance minister seeks ‘pragmatic’ relations with China to boost trade

Updated 11 January 2025
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UK finance minister seeks ‘pragmatic’ relations with China to boost trade

  • Rachel Reeves is seeking to revive high-level economic and financial talks that have been frozen since 2019
  • China is Britain’s fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for goods and services trade worth almost $138 billion

BEIJING: British finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Saturday during a visit to Beijing that she intended to have “pragmatic” relations with Chinese leaders to boost exports to the world’s second-largest economy.
Under pressure from market turmoil at home, Reeves is seeking to revive high-level economic and financial talks that have been frozen since 2019.
She joins the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue meeting in Beijing with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Saturday, before traveling to Shanghai, accompanied by Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and other finance leaders.
She is due to discuss financial services, trading ties and the importance of cooperation on issues like climate change, the Treasury said.
Her appearance offers a chance to persuade investors that she has plans to deal with a sharp increase in British government borrowing costs, due in part to a global bond selloff which threatens to derail her budget plans.
“The fiscal rules that I set out in my budget in October are non-negotiable and growth is the number one mission of this government to make our country better off,” Reeves told reporters after visiting a Brompton bicycles shop in Beijing.
“That’s why I’m in China to unlock tangible benefits for British businesses exporting and trading around the world to ensure that we have greater access to the second-largest economy in the world.”
Reeves’ visit follows a dialogue opened last year between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Xi Jinping, the first between the two countries’ leaders since 2018.
The approach taken by the Labour government, elected in July, contrasts with the previous Conservative administration which took a robust approach to differences with China — particularly over human rights, Hong Kong and allegations of Chinese espionage.
Asked on Thursday if Reeves would raise human-rights issues, Starmer’s spokesperson said her visit would fit with London’s stance that it would take a strategic approach to China and challenge it “robustly” when necessary.
Starmer has long described his desire to build a relationship with China that is “rooted in the UK’s national interests” by boosting trade, a task that may become more difficult if US President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose tariffs on all imports.
Asked whether Britain would follow Washington and Brussels in imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, Reeves said: “We keep issues under review but we make decisions in our national interest.”
British car manufacturers “like Jaguar and Land Rover export substantially to Chinese markets, and we want to help them to grow.”
China is Britain’s fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for goods and services trade worth almost 113 billion pounds ($138 billion).

 

 


2024 was the hottest year on record, scientists say

Updated 31 min 21 sec ago
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2024 was the hottest year on record, scientists say

  • C3S confirms first year above 1.5C since pre-industrial times
  • Climate change impacts, severe weather visible globally
  • Political will to curb emissions wanes despite rising climate disasters

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Global temperatures in 2024 exceeded 1.5 Celsius above the pre-industrial era for the first time, bringing the world closer to breaching the pledge governments made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, scientists said on Friday.
The World Meteorological Organization confirmed the 1.5C breach, after reviewing data from US, UK, Japan and EU scientists.
“Global heating is a cold, hard fact,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “There’s still time to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. But leaders must act – now.”
The bleak assessment came as wildfires charged by fierce winds swept through Los Angeles, with 10 people dead and nearly 10,000 structures destroyed so far. Wildfires are among the many disasters that climate change is making more frequent and severe.

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said climate change was pushing the planet’s temperature to levels never before experienced by modern humans. Scientists have linked climate change to greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.
The planet’s average temperature in 2024 was 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, C3S said. The last 10 years are the 10 hottest years on record, the WMO said.

Climate change is worsening storms and torrential rainfall, because a hotter atmosphere can hold more water, leading to intense downpours. Atmospheric water vapor reached a record high in 2024, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was the third-wettest year on record.
 

In 2024, Bolivia and Venezuela suffered disastrous fires, while torrential floods hit Nepal, Sudan and Spain, and heat waves in Mexico and Saudi Arabia killed thousands. While climate change now affects people from the richest to the poorest on Earth, political will to address it has waned in some countries.
Governments promised under the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to prevent the average global temperature rise from exceeding 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called climate change a hoax, dismissing the global scientific consensus. During his first term in office he withdrew Washington from the Paris Agreement, and he has vowed to push greater fossil fuel production and roll back President Joe Biden’s push toward alternative energy.
Recent European elections have shifted political priorities toward industrial competitiveness, with some European Union governments seeking to weaken climate policies they say hurt business.
Matthew Jones, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia in Britain, said climate-linked disasters will grow more common “so long as progress on tackling the root causes of climate change remains sluggish.”
EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the 1.5C breach last year showed climate action must be prioritized.
“It is extremely complicated, in a very difficult geopolitical setting, but we don’t have an alternative,” he told Reuters.

The 1.5C milestone should serve as “a rude awakening to key political actors to get their act together,” said Chukwumerije Okereke, a professor of climate governance at Britain’s University of Bristol.
Britain’s Met Office confirmed 2024’s likely breach of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, while estimating a slightly lower average temperature of 1.53C for the year.
Buontempo noted that 2024 did not breach that target since it measures the longer-term average temperature, but added that rising greenhouse gas emissions put the world on track to blow past the Paris goal soon.
Countries could still rapidly cut emissions to avoid temperatures from rising further to disastrous levels, he added.
“It’s not a done deal. We have the power to change the trajectory,” Buontempo said.
Concentrations in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, reached a fresh high of 422 parts per million in 2024, C3S said.
Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at US non-profit Berkeley Earth, said he expected 2025 to be among the hottest years on record, but likely not top the rankings. He noted that temperatures in early 2024 got an extra boost from El Niño, a warming weather pattern now trending toward its cooler La Nina counterpart.
“It’s still going to be in the top three warmest years,” he said.


Greenland’s leader says his people don’t want to be Americans as Trump covets territory

Updated 11 January 2025
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Greenland’s leader says his people don’t want to be Americans as Trump covets territory

  • “We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic,” Múte B. Egede tells press conference
  • He added, though, that he understands Trump’s interest in the island given its strategic location and he’s open to a dialogue with the US

COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Greenland’s prime minister said Friday that the mineral-rich Arctic territory’s people don’t want to be Americans, but that he understands US President-elect Donald Trump’s interest in the island given its strategic location and he’s open to greater cooperation with Washington.
The comments from the Greenlandic leader, Múte B. Egede, came after Trump said earlier this week that he wouldn’t rule out using force or economic pressure in order to make Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of Denmark — a part of the United States. Trump said that it was a matter of national security for the US.
Egede acknowledged that Greenland is part of the North American continent, and “a place that the Americans see as part of their world.” He said he hasn’t spoken to Trump, but that he’s open to discussions about what “unites us.”
“Cooperation is about dialogue. Cooperation means that you will work toward solutions,” he said.
Egede has been calling for independence for Greenland, casting Denmark as a colonial power that hasn’t always treated the Indigenous Inuit population well.
“Greenland is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic,” he said at a news conference alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen.

A view of Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base) in Greenland, October 4, 2023. (Ritzau Scanpix/Thomas Traasdahl via REUTERS)

Trump’s desire for Greenland has sparked anxiety in Denmark as well as across Europe. The United States is a strong ally of 27-nation European Union and the leading member of the NATO alliance, and many Europeans were shocked by the suggestion that an incoming US leader could even consider using force against an ally.

But Frederiksen said that she sees a positive aspect in the discussion.
“The debate on Greenlandic independence and the latest announcements from the US show us the large interest in Greenland,” she said. “Events which set in motion a lot of thoughts and feelings with many in Greenland and Denmark.”
“The US is our closest ally, and we will do everything to continue a strong cooperation,” she said.
Frederiksen and Egede spoke to journalists after a biannual assembly of Denmark and two territories of its kingdom, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The meeting had been previously scheduled and wasn’t called in response to Trump’s recent remarks. Trump’s eldest son also made a visit to Greenland on Tuesday, landing in a plane emblazoned with the word TRUMP and handing out Make America Great Again caps to locals.

A view of Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base) in Greenland, October 4, 2023. (Ritzau Scanpix/Thomas Traasdahl via REUTERS)

The Danish public broadcaster, DR, reported Friday that Trump’s team encouraged homeless and socially disadvantaged people in Greenland to appear in a video wearing the MAGA hats after being offered a free meal in a nice restaurant. The report quoted a local resident, Tom Amtof, who recognized some of those in a video broadcast by Trump’s team.
“They are being bribed, and it is deeply distasteful,” he said.
Greenland has a population of 57,000. But it’s a vast territory possessing natural resources that include oil, gas, and rare earth elements, which are expected to become more accessible as ice melts because of climate change. It also has a key strategic location in the Arctic, where Russia, China and others are seeking to expand their footprint.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, lies closer to the North American mainland than to Denmark. While Copenhagen is responsible for its foreign affairs and defense, the US also shares responsibility for Greenland’s defense and operates an air force base there based on a 1951 treaty.


Guinea suspends ‘unauthorized’ political movements

Gen. Mamady Doumbouya. (Supplied)
Updated 11 January 2025
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Guinea suspends ‘unauthorized’ political movements

  • Government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo said earlier that the West African nation could hold elections by the end of 2025 after a constitutional referendum “probably in May”

CONAKRY: Guinea’s government has demanded the suspension of all political movements it deemed “without authorization,” as the country’s military leaders hinted at possible elections this year.
In a statement read by a presenter on state television, the minister for territorial administration and decentralization, Ibrahima Kalil Conde, “noted with regret the proliferation of political movements without prior administrative authorization.”
“Consequently, all these political movements are asked to cease their activities immediately and to submit an application for administrative authorization to our ministry for their legal existence,” the statement added.
The junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup, has, in recent days, hinted at the possibility of elections by the end of the year.
Under international pressure, the military leaders had initially pledged to hold a constitutional referendum and hand power to elected civilians by the end of 2024 — but neither has happened.
Junta chief Gen. Mamady Doumbouya said in a New Year’s speech that 2025 will be “a crucial electoral year to complete the return to constitutional order.”
Government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo said earlier that the West African nation could hold elections by the end of 2025 after a constitutional referendum “probably in May.”
Since taking power, the junta has cracked down on dissent, with many opposition leaders detained, brought before the courts, or forced into exile.
In October, the junta placed the three main political parties under observation and dissolved 53 others in what it termed a major political “cleanup.”
It suspended another 54 for three months.
In Thursday’s statement, Conde said that national and international institutions and partners should “cease all collaboration with the 54 suspended political parties until 31 January 2025.”