Tag Archives: ICBM

North Korea sanctions ‘nothing compared to what will have to happen’: Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump waits to greet Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak at the White House in Washington, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the latest U.N. sanctions on North Korea were only a very small step and nothing compared to what would have to happen to deal with the country’s nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to boost sanctions on North Korea on Monday, with its profitable textile exports now banned and fuel supplies capped, prompting a traditionally defiant threat of retaliation against the United States.

Monday’s decision, triggered by the North’s sixth and largest nuclear test this month, was the ninth such resolution unanimously adopted by the 15-member Security Council since 2006 over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

A tougher initial U.S. draft was weakened to win the support of China, Pyongyang’s main ally and trading partner, and Russia, both of which hold veto power in the council. Significantly, it stopped short of imposing a full embargo on oil exports to North Korea, most of which come from China.

Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak that he was pleased Malaysia no longer did business with North Korea, before adding that he had just discussed the U.N. vote with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“We think it’s just another very small step, not a big deal. … I don’t know if it has any impact, but certainly it was nice to get a 15-to-nothing vote.

“But those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen,” he said without elaborating. Trump has vowed not to allow North Korea to possess a nuclear missile capable of hitting the United States.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a conference earlier on Tuesday that if China did not follow through on the new sanctions, “we will put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system.”

Washington so far has mostly held off on new sanctions against Chinese banks and other companies doing business with North Korea, given fears of retaliation by Beijing and possibly far-reaching effects on the world economy.

CHINA AND NORTH KOREA

Trump is likely to make a stop in China in November during his first official visit to Asia and Tillerson was due to hold talks later on Tuesday with China’s most senior diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, at which details of the trip are expected to be discussed, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. president has wavered between criticizing China for not doing enough on North Korea to heaping personal praise on the Chinese President Xi Jinping.

North Korea said its Sept. 3 test was of an advanced hydrogen bomb and was its most powerful by far.

Its ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Han Tae Song, rejected the resolution as “illegal and unlawful” and said Washington was “fired up for political, economic, and military confrontation.”

North Korea is “ready to use a form of ultimate means,” Han said. “The forthcoming measures … will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history.”

He did not elaborate, but North Korea frequently vows to destroy the United States.

The latest U.N. resolution also calls on countries to inspect vessels on the high seas, with the consent of the flag state, if they have reasonable grounds to believe ships are carrying prohibited cargo to North Korea.

It also bans joint ventures with North Korean entities, except for nonprofit public utility infrastructure projects, and prohibits countries from bringing in new North Korean workers.

On Tuesday, frustrated U.S. lawmakers called on Tuesday for a “supercharged” response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, saying Washington should act alone if necessary to stiffen sanctions on companies from China and any country doing business with Pyongyang. [nL2N1LT10K}

Saying “time is running out,” Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said the United States should give Chinese banks and companies “a choice between doing business with North Korea or the United States.”

Assistant Treasury Secretary Marshall Billingslea acknowledged at a House hearing that he had not seen sufficient evidence past sanctions were effective, but defended the administration’s strategy.

He called on anyone aware of efforts to enable North Korean trade to come forward before getting caught. “We are closing in on North Korea’s trade representatives,” he said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the United States was “not looking for war” and if North Korea agreed to stop its nuclear program, it could “reclaim its future.”

“If North Korea continues its dangerous path, we will continue with further pressure,” said Haley, who credited a “strong relationship” between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for the resolution.

She said the sanctions could eventually starve North Korea of an additional $500 million or more in annual revenue. The United States has said that a previous rounds of sanctions agreed in August were aimed at cutting North Korea’s $3 billion in exports by a third.

China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that the Trump administration was making a mistake by rejecting diplomatic engagement with North Korea.

“The U.S. needs to switch from isolation to communication in order to end an ‘endless loop’ on the Korean peninsula, where “nuclear and missile tests trigger tougher sanctions and tougher sanctions invite further tests,” it said.

(Restores dropped word “to” in first paragraph.)

(Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Christine Kim in Seoul, David Lawder in Washington, Philip Wen in Beijing, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Nick Macfie and Jonathan Oatis)

U.N. Security Council steps up sanctions on defiant North Korea

U.N. Security Council steps up sanctions on defiant North Korea

By Michelle Nichols and Jack Kim

UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to step up sanctions on North Korea, with its profitable textile exports now banned and fuel supplies capped, prompting a traditionally defiant threat of retaliation against the United States.

Monday’s decision, triggered by the North’s sixth and largest nuclear test this month, was the ninth such resolution unanimously adopted by the 15-member Security Council since 2006 over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Japan and South Korea said after the passage of the U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution they were prepared to apply more pressure if North Korea refused to end its aggressive development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

A tougher initial U.S. draft was weakened to win the support of China, Pyongyang’s main ally and trading partner, and Russia, both of which hold veto power in the council.

“We don’t take pleasure in further strengthening sanctions today. We are not looking for war,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council after the vote. “The North Korean regime has not yet passed the point of no return.

“If it agrees to stop its nuclear program, it can reclaim its future … If North Korea continues its dangerous path, we will continue with further pressure,” said Haley, who credited a “strong relationship” between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for the successful resolution negotiations.

North Korea’s ambassador, Han Tae Song, told the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday the United States was “fired up for political, economic, and military confrontation”.

The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States, which it accuses of continual preparation for invasion.

“My delegation condemns in the strongest terms, and categorically rejects, the latest illegal and unlawful U.N. Security Council resolution,” he said.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was “ready to use a form of ultimate means”, Han said, without elaborating.

“The forthcoming measures by DPRK will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history.”

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood took the floor to say the Security Council resolution “frankly sent a very clear and unambiguous message to the regime that the international community is tired, is no longer willing to put up with provocative behavior from this regime”.

U.N. member states are now required to halt imports of textiles from North Korea, its second largest export after coal and other minerals in 2016 that totaled $752 million and accounted for a quarter of its income from trade, according to South Korean data. Nearly 80 percent went to China.

“This resolution also puts an end to the regime making money from the 93,000 North Korean citizens it sends overseas to work and heavily taxes,” Haley said.

“This ban will eventually starve the regime of an additional $500 million or more in annual revenues,” she said.

RESUME DIALOGUE

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said the only way for Pyongyang to end diplomatic isolation and free itself of economic pressure was to end its nuclear program and resume dialogue.

“North Korea needs to realize that a reckless challenge against international peace will only bring about even stronger international sanctions against it,” the Blue House said.

However, China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that the Trump administration was making a mistake by rejecting diplomatic engagement with the North.

“The U.S. needs to switch from isolation to communication in order to end an ‘endless loop’ on the Korean peninsula, where “nuclear and missile tests trigger tougher sanctions and tougher sanctions invite further tests,” Xinhua said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly welcomed the resolution and said after the vote it was important to change North Korea’s policy by stepping up pressure.

The resolution imposes a ban on condensates and natural gas liquids, a cap of 2 million barrels a year on refined petroleum products, and a cap on crude oil exports to North Korea at current levels. China supplies most of North Korea’s crude.

A U.S. official, familiar with the council negotiations and speaking on condition of anonymity, said North Korea imported about 4.5 million barrels of refined petroleum products annually and 4 million barrels of crude oil.

Chinese officials have privately expressed fears that an oil embargo could risk causing massive instability in their neighbor. Russia and China have also expressed concern about the humanitarian impact of stiffer sanctions on North Korea.

Haley said the resolution aimed to hit “North Korea’s ability to fuel and fund its weapons program”. Trump has vowed not to allow North Korea to develop a nuclear missile capable of hitting the mainland United States.

South Korean officials said after the North’s sixth nuclear test that Pyongyang could soon launch another intercontinental ballistic missile in defiance of international pressure. North Korea said its Sept. 3 test was of an advanced hydrogen bomb and was its most powerful by far.

The latest resolution contained new political language urging “further work to reduce tensions, so as to advance the prospects for a comprehensive settlement”.

The resolution also calls on countries to inspect vessels on the high seas, with the consent of the flag state, if they have reasonable grounds to believe the ships are carrying prohibited cargo.

It also bans joint ventures with North Korean entities, except for non-profit public utility infrastructure projects.

(Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Christine Kim in Seoul, Philip Wen in Beijing, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Nick Macfie)

France discusses increased pressure on North Korea with Trump, Abe

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides guidance with Ri Hong Sop (2nd L) and Hong Sung Mu ( 2nd R) on a nuclear weapons program in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang September 3, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s Emmanuel Macron discussed increased pressure and sanctions on North Korea on the telephone with U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday, the French president’s office said.

The three leaders stressed the need for a “united and firm” reaction from the international community toward Pyongyang, Macron’s office said.

South Korea was bracing on Saturday for a possible further missile test by North Korea as it marked its founding anniversary, just days after its sixth and largest nuclear test.

The French presidency said North Korea’s “repeated provocations” were a “threat to peace and international security”. It also said Macron had expressed France’s “solidarity” with Japan.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has escalated as North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has stepped up the development of weapons, testing a string of missiles this year, including one flying over Japan.

Experts believe the Pyongyang government is close to its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States, something U.S. President Trump has vowed to prevent.

(Reporting by Michel Rose,; Writing by Matthias Blamont, Editing by Leigh Thomas and Angus MacSwan)

‘Lips and teeth’ no more as China’s ties with North Korea fray

FILE PHOTO: North Korean soldiers chat as they stand guard behind national flags of China (front) and North Korea on a boat anchored along the banks of Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, June 10, 2013. REUTERS/Jacky Chen

By Philip Wen and Christian Shepherd

BEIJING (Reuters) – When Kim Jong Un inherited power in North Korea in late 2011, then-Chinese president Hu Jintao was outwardly supportive of the untested young leader, predicting that “traditional friendly cooperation” between the countries would strengthen.

Two years later, Kim ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song Thaek, the country’s chief interlocutor with China and a relatively reform-minded official in the hermetic state.

Since then, ties between the allies have deteriorated so sharply that some diplomats and experts fear Beijing may become, like Washington, a target of its neighbor’s ire.

While the United States and its allies – and many people in China – believe Beijing should do more to rein in Pyongyang, the acceleration of North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities has coincided with a near-total breakdown of high-level diplomacy between the two.

Before retiring this summer, China’s long-time point man on North Korea, Wu Dawei, had not visited the country for over a year. His replacement, Kong Xuanyou, has yet to visit and is still carrying out duties from his previous Asian role, traveling to Pakistan in mid-August, diplomats say.

The notion that mighty China wields diplomatic control over impoverished North Korea is mistaken, said Jin Canrong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University.

“There has never existed a subordinate relationship between the two sides. Never. Especially after the end of the Cold War, the North Koreans fell into a difficult situation and could not get enough help from China, so they determined to help themselves.”

A famine in the mid-1990s that claimed anywhere from 200,000 to three million North Koreans was a turning point for the economy, forcing private trade on the collectivized state. That allowed the North a degree of independence from outside aid and gave credence to the official “Juche” ideology of self-reliance.

AVOID CHAOS

China fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Chinese leader Mao Zedong lost his eldest son, and Beijing has long been Pyongyang’s chief ally and primary trade partner.

While their relationship has always been clouded by suspicion and mistrust, China grudgingly tolerated North Korea’s provocations as preferable to the alternatives: chaotic collapse that spills across their border, and a Korean peninsula under the domain of a U.S.-backed Seoul government.

That is also the reason China is reluctant to exert its considerable economic clout, worried that measures as drastic as the energy embargo proposed this week by Washington could lead to the North’s collapse.

Instead, China repeatedly calls for calm, restraint and a negotiated solution.

The North Korean government does not provide foreign media with a contact point in Pyongyang for comment by email, fax or phone. The North Korean embassy in Beijing was not immediately available for comment.

China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a faxed request for comment. It has repeatedly spoken out against what it calls the “China responsibility theory” and insists the direct parties – North Korea, South Korea and the United States – hold the key to resolving tensions.

‘FEUDAL AGES’

Until his death in 2011, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made numerous entreaties to ensure China would back his preferred son as successor.

While then-President Hu reciprocated, the younger Kim, in his late 20s at the time, began to distance himself from his country’s most powerful ally.

“There’s a lot of domestic politics in North Korea where this young leader who isn’t well-known, he’s not proven yet, especially has to show that he’s not in the pocket of Beijing,” said John Delury of Seoul’s Yonsei University. “I think he made the decision first to keep Hu Jintao and then (current President) Xi Jinping really at bay.”

Within months of coming to power, Kim telegraphed North Korea’s intentions by amending its constitution to proclaim itself a nuclear state. The execution of Jang in 2013 sealed Beijing’s distrust of the young leader.

“Of course the Chinese were not happy,” said a foreign diplomat in Beijing focused on North Korea. “Executing your uncle, that’s from the feudal ages.”

In an attempt to warm ties, Xi sent high-ranking Communist Party official Liu Yunshan to attend the North’s October 2015 military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Liu hand-delivered a letter from Xi praising Kim’s leadership and including congratulations not just from the Chinese Communist Party but Xi’s personal “cordial wishes” in a powerful show of respect.

Xi’s overture has been repaid with increasingly brazen actions by Pyongyang, which many observers believe are timed for maximum embarrassment to Beijing. Sunday’s nuclear test, for example, took place as China hosted a BRICS summit, while in May, the North launched a long-range missile just hours before the Belt and Road Forum, dedicated to Xi’s signature foreign policy initiative.

MISREADING LIPS

Mao Zedong’s description of North Korea’s relationship with China is typically mischaracterised as being as close as “lips and teeth”.

His words are better translated as: “If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold,” a reference to the strategic importance of the North as a geographical security buffer.

Despite its resentment at the pressure North Korea’s actions have put it under, Beijing refrains from taking too hard a line.

It said little when Kim Jong Un’s half-brother was assassinated in February at Kuala Lumpur’s airport. The half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, had been seen as a potential rival for power in Pyongyang and had lived for years in Beijing, then Macau.

An editorial in China’s influential Global Times warned after Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test that cutting off North Korea’s oil would redirect the conflict to one between North Korea and China.

Zhao Tong, a North Korea expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, said North Korea was deeply unhappy with China’s backing of earlier UN sanctions.

“If China supports more radical economic sanctions that directly threaten the stability of the regime, then it is possible that North Korea becomes as hostile to China as to the United States.”

(This story has been refiled to remove reference to uncle in paragraph 18)

(Reporting by Philip Wen and Christian Shepherd; Editing by Tony Munroe and Lincoln Feast)

South Korea braces for possible new missile test to mark North’s founding day

FILE PHOTO: South Korean national flags hang on a barbed-wire fence near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, August 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

By Christine Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea braced for a possible further missile test by North Korea when it marks its founding anniversary on Saturday, just days after its sixth and largest nuclear test, which it marks each year with a big display of pageantry and military hardware.

Throughout the week, South Korean officials have warned the North could launch another intercontinental ballistic missile, in defiance of U.N. sanctions and amid an escalating standoff with the United States.

Last year, North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on the Sept. 9 anniversary.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has escalated as North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, has stepped up the development of weapons, testing a string of missiles this year, including one flying over Japan, and conducting its sixth nuclear test on Sunday.

Experts believe the isolated regime is close to its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States, something Trump has vowed to prevent.

South Korean nuclear experts, checking for contamination, said on Friday they had found minute traces of radioactive xenon gas but that it was too early to link it to Sunday’s explosion.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) said it had been conducting tests on land, air and water samples since shortly after the North Korean nuclear test on Sunday.

Xenon is a naturally occurring, colorless gas that is used in manufacturing of some sorts of lights. But the NSSC said it had detected xenon-133, a radioactive isotope that does not occur naturally and which has in the past been linked to North Korea’s nuclear tests.

There was no chance the xenon “will have an impact on South Korea’s territory or population”, the agency said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said all options are on the table in dealing with North Korea and on Thursday said he would prefer not to use military action, but if he did, it would be a “very sad day” for North Korea.

“Military action would certainly be an option. Is it inevitable? Nothing is inevitable,” Trump told reporters. “If we do use it on North Korea, it will be a very sad day for North Korea.”

Even as Trump has insisted that now is not the time to talk, senior members of his administration have made clear that the door to a diplomatic solution is open, especially given the U.S. assessment that any pre-emptive strike would unleash massive North Korean retaliation.

North Korea says it needs its weapons to protect itself from U.S. aggression and regularly threatens to destroy the United States.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

US CARRIER ON THE MOVE

The USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered carrier, left its home port in Japan for a routine autumn patrol of the Western Pacific, a Navy spokeswoman said. That area included waters between Japan and the Korean peninsula, she added, without giving any further details.

The Ronald Reagan was out on routine patrol from May until August, and was sent to the Sea of Japan with the another carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, to take part in drills with Japan’s Self Defence Forces as well as the South Korean military.

North Korea vehemently objects to military exercises on or near the peninsula, and China and Russia have suggested the United States and South Korea halt their exercises to lower tension.

While Trump talked tough on North Korea, China agreed on Thursday that the United Nations should take more action against it, but it also pushed for dialogue.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on a new set of sanctions soon. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was too early to draw conclusions about the final form of the U.N. resolution, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying at a news conference on Friday.

North Korea offered fresh vitriol against the pending sanctions, specifically targeting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who this week accused North Korean leader Kim of “begging for war”.

“There is nothing more foolish than thinking we, a strong nuclear state, will endure this evil pressure aimed at overthrowing our state,” the North’s official news agency said in a commentary.

“Even if Nikki Haley is blind, she must use her mouth correctly. The United States administration will pay for not being able to control the mouth of their U.N. representative.”

The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers abroad, and to subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

China is by far North Korea’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 92 percent of two-way trade last year. It also provides hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil and fuel to the impoverished regime.

China’s economic influence has been felt by South Korea as well. The two countries have been at loggerheads over South Korea’s decision to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, which has a powerful radar that can probe deep into China.

Shares in South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor and key suppliers slid on Friday on worry over its position in China after highly critical Chinese state newspaper comments.

The military section of China’s Global Times newspaper on Thursday referred to THAAD as “a malignant tumor”.

Graphic on Nuclear North Korea: http://tmsnrt.rs/2n0gd92

(Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo in TOKYO, Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL and Christian Lowe in MOSCOW; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Robert Birsel)

China agrees U.N. action, and talk, needed to end North Korea crisis

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors are seen as they arrive at Seongju, South Korea, September 7, 2017. Lee Jong-hyeon/News1 via REUTERS

By Christian Shepherd and Katya Golubkova

BEIJING/VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – China agreed on Thursday that the United Nations should take more action against North Korea after its latest nuclear test, while also pushing for dialogue to help resolve the standoff.

North Korea, which is pursuing its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of international condemnation, said it would respond to any new U.N. sanctions and U.S. pressure with “powerful counter measures”, accusing the United States of aiming for war.

The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers abroad, and to subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Pressure from Washington has ratcheted up since North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday. That test, along with a series of missile launches, showed it was close to achieving its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon that could reach the United States.

“Given the new developments on the Korean peninsula, China agrees that the U.N. Security Council should make a further response and take necessary measures,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters.

“Any new actions taken by the international community against the DPRK should serve the purpose of curbing the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs, while at the same time be conducive to restarting dialogue and consultation,” he said, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

China is by far North Korea’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 92 percent of two-way trade last year. It also provides hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil and fuel to the impoverished regime.

U.S. President Donald Trump has urged China to do more to rein in its neighbor, which was typically defiant on Thursday.

“We will respond to the barbaric plotting around sanctions and pressure by the United States with powerful counter measures of our own,” North Korea said in a statement by its delegation to an economic forum in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he had an executive order ready for Trump to sign that would impose sanctions on any country that trades with North Korea, if the United Nations did not put new sanctions on it.

‘DIRTY POLITICS’

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in spoke at the regional meeting in Vladivostok and agreed to try to persuade China and Russia to cut off oil to North Korea as much as possible, according to South Korean officials.

North Korea accused South Korea and Japan of “dirty politics” for what it said was the highjacking a meeting meant to be about economic development.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the meeting he thought the North Korea crisis would not escalate into nuclear war, predicting that common sense would prevail.

But he said he believed North Korea’s leadership feared that any freeze of its nuclear program would be followed by what amounted to “an invitation to the cemetery”.

North Korea says it needs its weapons to protect itself from U.S. aggression.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

China and Russia have advocated a “freeze for freeze” plan, under which the United States and South Korea would stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs.

But neither side appears willing to budge.

Abe later met Putin at the Vladivostok conference and said they both agreed that North Korea’s nuclear test was a serious threat to regional peace and a challenge to global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Putin said he and Abe decisively condemned North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile that flew over Japan last week.

THAAD DEPLOYMENT

Amid the rising tension, South Korea installed the four remaining launchers of a U.S. anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on a former golf course south of its capital, Seoul, early on Thursday. Two launchers had already been deployed.

More than 30 people were hurt when about 8,000 police broke up a blockade near the site by about 300 villagers and members of civic groups opposed to the THAAD deployment, fire officials said.

The deployment has drawn strong objections from China, which believes the system’s radar could be used to look deeply into its territory and will upset the regional security balance.

China lodged another stern protest on Thursday.

“We again urge South Korea and the United States to take seriously China’s and regional nations’ security interests and concerns, stop the relevant deployment progress, and remove the relevant equipment,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular media briefing.

South Korean Marines wrapped up a three-day firing drill aimed at protecting islands just south of the border with North Korea, while the air force will finish up a week-long drill on Friday.

For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010031V7472/index.html

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim and Soyoung Kim in SEOUL, Christian Shepherd and Vincent Lee in BEIJING, Oksana Kobzeva and Denis Pinchuk in VLADIVOSTOK, Steve Holland, Eric Walsh, Jeff Mason and Jim Oliphant in WASHINGTON and Kiyoshi Takenaka in TOKYO; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)

Trump says U.S. not ‘putting up with’ North Korea’s actions

Trump says U.S. not 'putting up with' North Korea's actions

By Jeff Mason and Michael Martina

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that the United States would no longer tolerate North Korea’s actions but said the use of military force against Pyongyang will not be his “first choice.”

His comment appeared to be in line with classified briefings to Congress in which Trump’s top national security aides – Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence – stressed the search for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, lawmakers said.

A senior administration official, meanwhile, said that the White House has set aside for now consideration of exiting a free trade pact with South Korea, a move being contemplated by Trump that could have complicated relations with Seoul.

In a flurry of phone calls with world leaders days after North Korea’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping committed to “take further action with the goal of achieving the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” the White House said.

“President Xi would like to do something. We’ll see whether or not he can do it. But we will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea,” Trump told reporters, though he offered no specifics.

“I believe that President Xi agrees with me 100 percent,” he added.

Asked whether he was considering a military response to North Korea, Trump said: “Certainly, that’s not our first choice, but we will see what happens.”

Xi, who has been under pressure from Trump to do more to help curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, told the U.S. president during their 45-minute call that the North Korean issue must be resolved through “dialogue and consultation.”

The focus on negotiations by China, North Korea’s main trading partner, contrasted with Trump’s assertions over the last few days that now was not the time for talks with North Korea while pressing instead for increased international pressure on Pyongyang.

The United States and South Korea have asked the United Nations to consider tough new sanctions on North Korea after its nuclear test on Sunday that Pyongyang said was an advanced hydrogen bomb.

Late on Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicated that if the U.N. Security Council fails to approve sufficiently strong measures, Trump could authorize him to impose sanctions on any country or entity that trades with North Korea.

“We believe that we need to economically cut off North Korea,” Mnuchin told reporters aboard Air Force One as it flew back from North Dakota, where Trump gave a speech on tax reform. “I have an executive order prepared. It’s ready to go to the president. It will authorize me to . . . put sanctions on anybody that does trade with North Korea.”

Mnuchin said that Trump would consider the order “at the appropriate time once he gives the U.N. time to act.”

He provided no further details, including whether Trump would consider slapping sanctions on China, North Korea’s largest trade partner.

Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted on Wednesday that resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis was impossible with sanctions and pressure alone.

Putin met South Korea’s Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of an economic summit in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok amid mounting international concern that their neighbor plans more weapons tests, including possibly a long-range missile launch before a weekend anniversary.

Putin echoed other world leaders in denouncing North Korea’s latest nuclear bomb test on Sunday, saying Russia did not recognize its nuclear status.

“Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear program is a crude violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, undermines the non-proliferation regime and creates a threat to the security of northeastern Asia,” Putin said at a news conference.

“At the same time, it is clear that it is impossible to resolve the problem of the Korean peninsula only by sanctions and pressure,” he said.

No headway could be made without political and diplomatic tools, Putin said.

MOON SEEKS SANCTIONS

Moon, who took office this year advocating a policy of pursuing engagement with North Korea, has come under increasing pressure to take a harder line.

He has asked the United Nations to consider tough new sanctions after North Korea’s latest nuclear test.

The United States wants the Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban the country’s exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers abroad and subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Diplomats say the U.N. Security Council could also consider barring the country’s airline.

“I ask Russia to actively cooperate as this time it is inevitable that North Korea’s oil supply should be cut at the least,” Moon told Putin, according to a readout from a South Korean official.

Putin said North Korea would not give up its nuclear program no matter how tough the sanctions.

“We too, are against North Korea developing its nuclear capabilities and condemn it, but it is worrying cutting the oil pipeline will harm the regular people, like in hospitals,” Putin said, according to the South Korean presidential official.

Russia’s exports of crude oil to North Korea were tiny at about 40,000 tonnes a year, Putin said. By comparison, China provides it with about 520,000 tonnes of crude a year, according to industry sources.

Last year, China shipped just over 96,000 tonnes of gasoline and almost 45,000 tonnes of diesel to North Korea, where it is used across the economy, from fishermen and farmers to truckers and the military.

Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed in a telephone call on Tuesday that China must do more to persuade North Korea to cease its missile tests, a spokesman for May said.

‘FREEZE FOR FREEZE’

Sanctions have done little to stop North Korea boosting its nuclear and missile capacity as it faces off with Trump, who has vowed to stop it from being able to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear weapon.

China and Russia have advocated a “freeze for freeze” plan, where the United States and South Korea stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs, but neither side is willing to budge.

North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as U.S. aggression.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

China objects to both the military drills and the deployment in South Korea of an advanced U.S. missile defense system that has a radar that can see deep into Chinese territory.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry said the four remaining batteries of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would be deployed on a golf course in the south of the country on Thursday. Two THAAD batteries have already been installed.

For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010031V7472/index.html

(Additional reporting by Denis Pinchuk in VLADIVOSTOK, Soyoung Kim in SEOUL, Stephanie Nebehay in GENEVA, William Mallard and Kaori Kaneko in TOKYO, Christian Shepherd and Michael Martina in BEIJING, and Jonathan Landay and Jim Oliphant in WASHINGTON; Writing by Matt Spetalnick and Lincoln Feast; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Putin says sanctions, pressure alone won’t resolve North Korea crisis

Putin says sanctions, pressure alone won't resolve North Korea crisis

By Denis Pinchuk and Christine Kim

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia/SEOUL (Reuters) – Resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis is impossible with sanctions and pressure alone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday after meeting his South Korean counterpart, adding that the impact of cutting oil would be worrying.

Putin met South Korea’s Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of an economic summit in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok amid mounting international concern that their neighbor plans more weapons tests, possibly a long-range missile launch ahead of a weekend anniversary.

Putin denounced North Korea’s sixth and largest nuclear bomb test on Sunday, saying Russia did not recognize its nuclear status.

“Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear program is a crude violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, undermines the non-proliferation regime and creates a threat to the security of northeastern Asia,” Putin said at a joint news conference.

“At the same time, it is clear that it is impossible to resolve the problem of the Korean peninsula only by sanctions and pressure,” he said.

No headway could be made without political and diplomatic tools, Putin said, later telling the TASS news agency that Russian and North Korean delegations might meet at the Vladivostok forum.

Moon, who came to power this year advocating a policy of pursuing engagement with North Korea, has come under increasing pressure to take a harder line.

He has asked the United Nations to consider tough new sanctions after North Korea’s latest nuclear test.

Diplomats say the U.N. Security Council could consider banning North Korean textile exports, barring its airline or stopping supplies of oil to the government and military.

Other measures could include preventing North Koreans from working abroad and putting top officials on a blacklist aimed at imposing asset freezes and travel bans.

“I ask Russia to actively cooperate as this time it is inevitable that North Korea’s oil supply should be cut at the least,” Moon told Putin, according to a readout from a South Korean official.

Putin said North Korea would not give up its nuclear program no matter how tough the sanctions.

“We too, are against North Korea developing its nuclear capabilities and condemn it, but it is worrying cutting the oil pipeline will harm the regular people, like in hospitals,” Putin said, according to the South Korean presidential official.

Russia’s exports of crude oil to North Korea were tiny at about 40,000 tonnes a year, Putin said. By comparison, China provides it with about 520,000 tonnes of crude a year, according to industry sources.

Last year, China shipped just over 96,000 tonnes of gasoline and almost 45,000 tonnes of diesel to North Korea, where it is used across the economy, from fishermen and farmers to truckers and the military.

‘FREEZE FOR FREEZE’

Sanctions have done little to stop North Korea boosting its nuclear and missile capacity as it faces off with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has vowed to stop it from being able to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear weapon.

China and Russia have advocated a “freeze for freeze” plan, where the United States and South Korea stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs, but neither side is willing to budge.

North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as U.S. aggression.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

China objects to both the military drills and the deployment in South Korea of an advanced U.S. missile defense system that has a radar that can see deep into Chinese territory.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry said the four remaining batteries of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would be deployed on a golf course in the south of the country on Thursday.

Two THAAD batteries have already been installed.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated China’s opposition to the system, saying it could only “severely damage” regional security and raise “tensions and antagonism”.

“China strongly urges the United States and South Korea to pay attention to China and other regional nations’ security interests and concerns, immediately halt the progress of the relevant deployment, and remove the relevant equipment,” Geng said.

BIG BLAST

Asian stocks fell on Wednesday after a slide on Wall Street overnight while the dollar was on the defensive with Korean tension showing few signs of abating.

Sunday’s test of what North Korea said was an advanced hydrogen bomb was its largest by far.

Japan upgraded its assessment of the North Korean test to 160 kilotons from 120 kilotons after the size of the earthquake it generated was revised to magnitude 6.1.

“We estimate this was far bigger than previous nuclear tests,” Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters.

Satellite imagery appeared to show the blast caused landslides at North Korea’s Punggye-ri test site, according to 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring project.

South Korean officials said they were watching for radioactive fallout from the test and for signs of preparations for more activity.

British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said on Wednesday China held the key to resolving the crisis, reiterating comments made by Prime Minister Theresa May and Australian leader Malcolm Turnbull after they spoke with Trump.

“China holds the key, the oil to North Korea flows from China … China has not just influence but has many of the levers that are needed to change behavior in North Korea,” Fallon told BBC radio.

For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010031V7472/index.html

(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in SEOUL, Stephanie Nebehay in GENEVA, William Mallard and Kaori Kaneko in TOKYO, Christian Shepherd and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)

South Korea seeks bigger warheads, North Korean ICBM reportedly on the move

South Korean troops fire Hyunmoo Missile into the waters of the East Sea at a military exercise in South Korea September 4, 2017. Defense Ministry/Yonhap/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE.

By Christine Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea said on Tuesday an agreement with the United States to scrap a weight limit on its warheads would help it respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat after it conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test two days ago.

South Korean officials believe more weapons tests by the reclusive state are possible, despite international outrage over Sunday’s nuclear test and calls for more sanctions against it.

South Korea’s Asia Business Daily, citing an unidentified source, reported that North Korea had been observed moving a rocket that appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards its west coast.

The rocket started moving on Monday and was spotted moving only at night to avoid surveillance, the newspaper said.

South Korea’s defense ministry, which warned on Monday that North Korea was ready to launch an ICBM at any time, said it was not able to confirm the report.

Analysts and South Korean policymakers believe North Korea may test another weapon on or around Sept. 9, when it celebrates its founding day.

North Korea’s fifth nuclear test fell on that date last year, reflecting its tendency to conduct weapons tests on significant dates.

North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as U.S. aggression.

South Korea, after weeks of rising tension, is talking to the United States about deploying aircraft carriers and strategic bombers to the Korean peninsula, and has been ramping up its own defenses.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, agreed on Monday to scrap a warhead weight limit on South Korea’s missiles, South Korea’s presidential office said, enabling it to strike North Korea with greater force in the event of war.

The White House said Trump gave “in-principle approval” to the move.

The United States and South Korea signed a pact in 1979, a year after the South successfully tested a ballistic missile, with Washington expressing the need for limits on ballistic missile capability over concern that tests could undermine regional security.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Both sides have thousands of rockets and artillery pieces aimed at each other across the world’s most heavily armed border, but the North’s rapid development of nuclear weapons and missiles has altered the balance, requiring a stronger response from South Korea, officials say.

“We believe the unlimited warhead payload will be useful in responding to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats,” South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a briefing.

Under current guidelines, last changed in 2012, South Korea can develop missiles up to a range of 800 km (500 miles) with a maximum payload of 500 kg (1,102 lb).

Most of North Korea’s missiles are designed to carry payloads of 100-1,000 kg (220-2,205 lb), according to Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a U.S.-based think thank.

‘BEGGING FOR WAR’

South Korea’s navy held more exercises on Tuesday, a naval officer told a defense ministry briefing. .

“Today’s training is being held to prepare for maritime North Korean provocations, inspect our navy’s readiness and to reaffirm our will to punish the enemy,” the official said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was “begging for war” and urged the 15-member Security Council to impose the “strongest possible” sanctions to deter him and shut down his trading partners.

Haley said the United States would circulate a new Security Council resolution on North Korea this week and wanted a vote on it on Monday.

Trump has repeatedly warned that “all options were on the table” regarding North Korea, including military options.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said threats of military action were counterproductive.

“Russia condemns North Korea’s exercises, we consider that they are a provocation,” Putin told reporters after a summit of the BRICS countries in China.

“(But) ramping up military hysteria will lead to nothing good. It could lead to a global catastrophe.

While referring to more sanctions as a “road to nowhere”, Putin said Russia was prepared to discuss “some details” around the issue. He did not elaborate.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said she believed her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, was open to more sanctions.

“I cannot tell you exact details as the minister asked me not to disclose the content of our discussion, but I could sense that China could be open to more sanctions,” Kang told lawmakers in parliament, referring to a phone call with Wang on Monday.

China’s foreign ministry said it would take part in security council discussions in “a responsible and constructive manner”.

Diplomats have said the Security Council could consider banning North Korean textile exports, banish its national airline and stopping supplies of oil to the government and military.

Other measures could include preventing North Koreans from working abroad and adding top officials to a blacklist aiming at imposing asset freezes and travel bans.

Sanctions imposed after missile tests in July were aimed at slashing North Korea’s $3 billion annual export revenue by a third by banning exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood.

China accounted for 92 percent of North Korea’s trade in 2016, according to South Korea’s government trade promotion agency.

For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010031V7472/index.html

(Reporting by Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Dennis Pinchuk in XIAMEN, China, Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS and Tim Ahmann and David Shepardson in WASHINGTON; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)

North Korea warns of ‘more gift packages’ for U.S.

North Korea warns of 'more gift packages' for U.S.

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – Amid international uproar over North Korea’s latest and biggest nuclear weapons test, one of its top diplomats said on Tuesday it was ready to send “more gift packages” to the United States.

Han Tae Song, ambassador of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the U.N. in Geneva, was addressing the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament two days after his country detonated its sixth nuclear test explosion.

“I am proud of saying that just two days ago on the 3rd of September, DPRK successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test for intercontinental ballistic rocket under its plan for building a strategic nuclear force,” Han told the Geneva forum.

“The recent self-defense measures by my country, DPRK, are a ‘gift package’ addressed to none other than the U.S.,” Han said.

“The U.S. will receive more ‘gift packages’ from my country as long as its relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK,” he added without elaborating.

Military measures being taken by North Korea were “an exercise of restraint and justified self-defense right” to counter “the ever-growing and decade-long U.S. nuclear threat and hostile policy aimed at isolating my country”.

“Pressure or sanctions will never work on my country,” Han declared, adding: “The DPRK will never under any circumstances put its nuclear deterrence on the negotiating table.”

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said that North Korea had defied the international community once again with its test.

“We look forward to working with our partners in the (Security) Council with regard to a new resolution that will put some of the strongest sanctions possible on the DPRK,” he told the conference.

“Advances in the regime’s nuclear and missile program are a threat to us all … now is the time to say tests, threats and destabilizing actions will no longer be tolerated,” Wood said.

“It can no longer be business as usual with this regime.”

The White House said on Monday President Donald Trump had agreed “in principle” to scrap a warhead weight limit on South Korea’s missiles in the wake of the North’s latest test.

The United States accused North Korea’s trading partners of aiding its nuclear ambitions and said Pyongyang was “begging for war”.

(Editing by Tom Miles and Andrew Roche)