Tag Archives: North Korea

Malawi, Politics, Regional

Mozambique denies doing business with North Korea

Maravi Post Reporter

WASHINGTON — Mozambique is denying allegations that it continues to do business with North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions.

A CNN report published this month found that North Korea has signed contracts worth millions of dollars in Mozambique, funneled the money through diplomatic channels and used profits from fishing vessels off the Mozambican coast to fund its nuclear program.

But Mozambique’s deputy minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Maria Manuela Lucas, denied that her government has made any agreements with North Korea that violate sanctions. She said Mozambique welcomes outside monitoring.

“The Mozambican government recently invited the U.N. panel to visit Mozambique to see the work that the country is doing to be able to collaborate with this panel.

The panel has recently been assembled and will also publish a report of the last meeting. The panel promised to visit Mozambique this quarter,” said Lucas.

She also said her government is working with private Mozambican businesses to educate them about the sanctions and shut down illegal operations.

The report also alleges that North Korea is providing military training to elite Mozambican forces and offering technical support to the military.

A previous U.N. report alleged that North Korea and Mozambique had a military partnership worth at least $6 million.

North Korea used a shell company to sell weapons, including missiles, radar and air defense systems, according to the report.

Mozambican opposition figures seized on the CNN report as evidence of the ruling Frelimo Party’s corrupt and inept leadership.

“It shows lack of seriousness on the part of our government, by our rulers, who establish shady business on the fringes of what are the international rules, which can somehow penalize the image of Mozambique,” said Fernando Bismarques, a spokesman for the Democratic Movement of Mozambique, an opposition party.

The United States, which has led the charge for tougher sanctions against North Korea, declined to comment specifically about the Mozambique case, but said it would continue to hold countries accountable.

“All U.N. member states are required to implement sanctions resolutions in good faith, and we expect them all to do so,” a U.S. State Department official said.

“We continue to call on all countries, including Mozambique, to take the appropriate steps to apply maximum pressure on the DPRK including reducing economic ties.”

Politics

North Korea imposes more demands on South Korea over Olympics

Maravi Post Reporter

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is huddling Tuesday with nations that fought on America’s side in the Korean War, looking to increase economic pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons even as hopes rise for diplomacy. (Jan. 16)

A week after North Korea said it would send a delegation to next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, the regime’s demands have taken on a sinister pattern.

Reports emerged Tuesday that North Korea demanded the South return defectors who fled the totalitarian regime. That came after requiring that South Korea pay the North’s Olympic costs and an agreement by the United States and South Korea to suspend a planned joint military exercise.

The demands came to light since last week’s talks between North and South Korea — the first sit-down between the two countries in more than two years.

“This is why all those crotchety hawks evinced such skepticism at North Korea’s talks,” tweeted Robert Kelly, a professor of political science at Pusan National University in South Korea. “We all saw this coming.”

The South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo reported Tuesday that the North demanded the return of 12 women who escaped in 2016 from their jobs at restaurant in Ningbo, China, a demand the paper said the South is legally bound to refuse.

South Korea’s government said the timing is too sensitive to comment, the newspaper said.

The North has warned that it will not agree to more reunions for families split by the Korean War unless the defectors, and another woman who fled from elsewhere, are returned.

The talks last week occurred after the U.S. agreed to South Korea’s request to postpone a large military exercise, which usually involves 30,000 American troops and 200,000 South Koreans, until after the Olympics are held Feb. 9-25. in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

On Friday,a North Korean state-run publication issued a demand for a “permanent halt” to U.S.-South Korean military drills while inter-Korean talks continue, according to The Strait Times of Singapore.

“Inter-Korean talks and war drill can never be compatible,” the North Korean publication, Uriminzokkiri, declared.

North Korea, which is under sanctions by the United Nations and U.S. aimed at ending its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs, also succeeded in getting South Korea to agree to fund its Olympic delegation, which will include as many as 500 athletes, performers, officials and reporters, according to The Hankyoreh, a South Korean online publication.

South Korea will pay the entire delegation’s expenses, said author and Korea analyst Gordon Chang.

“This is typical. (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s) family playbook goes back several decades,” Chang said. “First they refuse to talk to South Korea. Then they make a bold overture. Next comes demands and then they throw a tantrum.”

If the Trump administration puts enough pressure on North Korea, the Kim family might agree it has no choice but to disarm, Chang said. But the White House has yet to impose sanctions where they would be most effective — on its top two trading partners, China and Russia, he added.

The North Korean demands were revealed as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Tuesday in Vancouver with foreign ministers from 20 nations that sided with the U.S. during the Korean War, which ended in 1953, to discuss how to pressure North Korea to quit its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

“We must increase the costs of the regime’s behavior to the point that North Korea must come to the table for credible negotiations,” Tillerson said in his opening comments.

Tillerson called for interdiction operations at sea.

Politics, Regional, Top News

North Korea reopens cross-border communications with South Korea

Maravi Post Reporter

indiatvnews-The sudden signs of easing animosity, however, came as President Donald Trump threatened Kim with nuclear war in response to his threat earlier this week.

In his New Year’s address Monday, Kim said he was willing to send a delegation to next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea. But he also said he has a “nuclear button” on his desk and that all U.S. territory is within striking distance of his nuclear weapons, comments Trump latched onto Tuesday when he boasted of a bigger and more powerful “nuclear button” than Kim’s.

The two leaders exchanged crude insults last year, as the North received new U.N. sanctions over its sixth and most powerful nuclear test explosion and a series of intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

The recent softening of contact between the rival Koreans may show a shared interest in improved ties, but there’s no guarantee tensions will ease. There have been repeated attempts in recent years by the rivals to talk, but even when they do meet, the efforts often end in recriminations and stalemate.

Outside critics say Kim may be trying to use better ties with South Korea as a way to weaken the alliance between Washington and Seoul as the North grapples with toughened international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs.

Kim’s latest announcement, which was read by a senior Pyongyang official on state TV, followed a South Korean offer on Tuesday of high-level talks with North Korea to find ways to cooperate on next month’s Winter Olympics in the South and discuss other inter-Korean issues.

Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the state-run Committee for the Peaceful Reunification, cited Kim as welcoming South Korea’s overture and ordering officials to reopen a communication channel at the border village of Panmunjom. Ri also quoted Kim as ordering officials to promptly take substantial measures with South Korea out of a “sincere stand and honest attitude,” according to the North’s state TV and news agency.

South Korea quickly welcomed Kim’s decision and later confirmed that the two Koreans began preliminary contacts on the channel. During their 20-minute communication, liaison officials of the two Koreans exchanged their names and examined their communication lines to make sure they were working, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

Since taking office last May, South Korea’s liberal President Moon Jae-in has pushed hard to improve ties and resume stalled cooperation projects with North Korea. Pyongyang had not responded to his outreach until Kim’s New Year’s address.

Relations between the Koreans soured under Moon’s conservative predecessors, who responded to the North’s expanding nuclear program with hard-line measures. All major rapprochement projects were put on hold one by one, and the Panmunjom communication channel had been suspended since February 2016.

Moon has joined U.S.-led international efforts to apply more pressure and sanctions on North Korea, but he still favors dialogue as a way to resolve the nuclear standoff. The Trump administration says all options are on the table, including military measures against the North. Moon has repeatedly said he opposes any war on the Korean Peninsula.

Some observers believe these differences in views may have led Kim to think he could drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington as a way to weaken their alliance and international

Top News

The US has to accept North Korea as a nuclear power

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir

Although President Trump is not responsible for the complete failure of the US to stop North Korea from becoming a nuclear power, his bellicose threats against North Korea and the acceleration of Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear program have dangerously increased regional tension. The conflicting messages emerging from the White House, the lack of coordination with the Department of Defense, and the absence of effective diplomacy point to a total lack of a coherent strategy to deal with North Korea. It is time for the US to accept the reality that North Korea is a nuclear power. Short of a massive military attack on its nuclear facilities, which is unthinkable, no diplomatic efforts or incentives will compel Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, as the history of the conflict has demonstrated. Continue reading The US has to accept North Korea as a nuclear power →

Opinion, Regional

Nikki Haley says North Korea is “begging for war”

Maravi Post Reporter

The United States’ ambassador to the United Nations on Monday said North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was “begging for war” with his continued defiance of international sanctions barring his country from nuclear and missile tests.

Ambassador Nikki Haley told an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council that “enough is enough” from North Korea, which she said must face the “strongest possible measures” from the council for conducting its sixth nuclear test explosion over the weekend — the isolated totalitarian state’s most powerful to date.

Analysis: North Korea’s view of the nuclear standoff. What non-military options does U.S. have to address N. Korea crisis?

U.S. military options against North Korea’s nuclear threat

Haley said President Trump’s administration still wanted to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff, but warned “our country’s patience is not unlimited.”

As Haley called for tough new economic sanctions against North Korea, the rogue state was reportedly making preparations for a new long-range missile test as South Korea takes measures — in conjunction with the U.S. — in retaliation for what the North claimed was its first successful test of a hydrogen bomb.

Haley said that, despite a steady ramping-up of international sanctions against North Korea since 2006, “the North Korea nuclear program is more advanced and more dangerous than ever … War is never something the United States wants. We don’t want it now. But our country’s patience is not unlimited.”

A draft resolution for more sanctions would be circulated this week with a possible vote next week, Haley said.

The emergency meeting illustrated the unanimity by world powers of shock and condemnation at the latest nuclear test, but it also revealed fundamental divisions about what to do next: While the U.S. wants tougher sanctions and to keep military options on the table, Russia and China focused on negotiations with the Pyongyang government, CBS News’ Pamela Falk reports.

It was clear that the U.S. expects — with new sanctions — to take countries to task for evading existing U.N. sanctions, a bank shot of sorts, putting pressure on China and several other countries to curb North Korea’s behavior, Falk said.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said earlier Monday that the North appeared to be planning another missile launch, possibly of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to show off its claimed ability to target the United States with nuclear weapons.

The South fired missiles into the sea on Monday to simulate an attack on North Korea’s main nuclear test site, a day after Pyongyang detonated its largest nuclear test explosion to date, drawing international condemnation.
Despite the heated rhetoric between Washington and the Kim regime, CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports that it is South Korea that faces the most dangerous, most direct threat from the North’s weapons, and the South responded to the sixth nuclear test quickly and fiercely.

In addition to the missile drill, Seoul said Monday that it would temporarily deploy four additional launchers of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system, once it finished an environmental impact assessment. That proclamation quickly highlighted the difficulties of unifying other nations around a response to the North Korean threat.

China and Russia strongly oppose the THAAD deployment in South Korea, with Beijing complaining that its powerful radar can probe deep into its territory, posing a security threat. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday that any further U.S. THAAD hardware placed in South Korea would force Moscow to, “raise the question about our reaction — about our military balances.”

The THAAD systems are also controversial inside South Korea. With protesters trying to block their deployment over environmental concerns for years, South Korea’s new president was himself resistant to putting more of the anti-missile installations in the country. As Doane reports, Kim’s test of an even more powerful nuclear device seems to have eased those concerns.

Whether the latest provocation from Pyongyang can also be used to persuade China and Russia to get behind even more crippling sanctions against North Korea will be the next big test of Security Council unity — and of the negotiating powers of Haley and her team.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Monday that Washington and Seoul were also discussing deploying an American aircraft carrier and strategic bombers to the region.

Chang Kyung-soo, an official with South Korea’s Defense Ministry, told lawmakers on Monday that Seoul was seeing preparations in the North for an ICBM test, but he didn’t provide details about how officials had reached that assessment. Chang also said the yield from the latest nuclear detonation appeared to be about 50 kilotons, which would mark a “significant increase” from North Korea’s past nuclear tests.

According to South Korean lawmakers, the country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) informed them in a closed meeting that Pyongyang may carry out another ICBM test around the anniversary of the regime’s foundation on Saturday, or the anniversary of the establishment of the ruling political party, on Oct. 10.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis warned the North on Sunday that, “Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam or our allies, will be met with a massive military response — a response both effective and overwhelming.”

Regional

North Korea Can Put a Nuclear Weapon on a Missile, Officials Believe

Ausborn Banda
north-korea-missile

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that North Korea has constructed a nuclear weapon small enough to fit on a missile, according to a U.S. official briefed on the assessment.

The U.S. belief that North Korea has reached this milestone was first reported by The Washington Post, which said that the assessment came from a Defense Intelligence Agency analysis completed last month.

The official said, however, that this does not mean that North Korea has fielded a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. The North Koreans still have to establish that they can deliver a weapon accurately that survives reentry.

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in late July in a test that the regime said showed that U.S. cities are now within its target range.

The Department of Defense detected the ballistic missile launch and later confirmed it to be an ICBM by an initial assessment, U.S. officials said. It flew approximately 1,000 kilometers and landed in the Sea of Japan within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis.

Earlier in July, the North Korean government said it had successfully fired a long-range missile into the Sea of Japan, and declared itself a “proud nuclear state.”

“It is a major celebration in our history,” said an announcer on North Korean state television. North Korea “is now a proud nuclear state, which possesses [an] almighty ICBM rocket that can now target anywhere in the world.” NBC News

Malawi

Is TB Joshua’s Prophecy about South Africa coming to Pass?

Maravi Post Reporter

TB Joshua
The [South African] currency that is going up and down will soon be stable,” Joshua told congregants at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) on 3rd January 2016
Four months after Nigerian cleric ‘T.B. Joshua’ gave a series of prophecies concerning South Africa, the writing on the wall shows a significant semblance to his words.

In several articles widely circulated online, Joshua is quoted as telling congregants on January 3rd 2016 that a Southern African leader would face a ‘peculiar’ trouble, calling for prayer during February’s ending and April.

Continue reading Is TB Joshua’s Prophecy about South Africa coming to Pass? →

Malawi

Is TB Joshua’s Prophecy about South Africa coming to Pass?

Maravi Post Reporter
Jacob Zuma
South African President Jacob Zuma

Four months after Nigerian cleric ‘T.B. Joshua’ gave a series of prophecies concerning South Africa, the writing on the wall shows a significant semblance to his words.

In several articles widely circulated online, Joshua is quoted as telling congregants on January 3rd 2016 that a Southern African leader would face a ‘peculiar’ trouble, calling for prayer during February’s ending and April.

Continue reading Is TB Joshua’s Prophecy about South Africa coming to Pass? →