North Korea's Kim Jong-Un wanted 'famous basketball players' in denuclearisation deal with US
World | May 10, 2019 22:51 ISTNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is said to be a huge basketball fan.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is said to be a huge basketball fan.
Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Kim expressed "great satisfaction" over Saturday's drills and stressed that his front-line troops should keep a "high alert posture" and enhance combat ability to "defend the political sovereignty and economic self-sustenance of the country."
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un even managed to match Russian President Vladimir Putin's manspreading — the two sat with knees spread wide apart as they chatted before the start of their first summit, which began Thursday in the Far East port city of Vladivostok.
Kim's first trip to Russia comes about two months after his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, which failed because of disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on the North.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will visit Russia for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean state media confirmed.
As per reports, negotiations are building up towards a meeting in the next few days in Russia's Far East.
According to the accounts of White House journalists sent to media via e-mail, Trump said while addressing the media along with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in at the White House that "we want sanctions to remain in place."
Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, addressing a meeting of diplomats and foreign media, including The Associated Press, in Pyongyang said the North was deeply disappointed by the failure of the two sides to reach any agreements at the Hanoi summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.
Asked if this summit would yield a political declaration to end the Korean War, Trump told reporters: "We'll see."
Kim will pay an official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong before his meeting with Trump.
Trump has said his outreach to Kim and their first meeting last June in Singapore opened a path to peace. But there is not yet a concrete plan for how denuclearization could be implemented.
Citing an unnamed source, Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday that Kim Hyok-chol will be the new counterpart to Stephen Biegun, the US special representative for North Korea.
The White House announced on Friday that the second Trump-Kim summit will take place "near the end of February" but did not say where it will be held.
Kim's trip comes after US and North Korean officials are believed to have met in Vietnam to discuss the location of a second summit between Kim and Trump.
Expressing his wish to hold talks with Trump again, Kim said; "to produce a result that will be welcomed by the international community".
Kim, however, warned he might have to seek a "new path" if the US maintains sanctions and demands unilateral concessions, The Washington Post reported.
Discussions over the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula gained momentum after the Singapore meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-Un.
The so-called "nuke masks" were created by 5149, a South Korean fashion and cosmetics company. It said it has sold more than 25,000 "unification moisture nuclear masks" since June, the BBC reported.
Moon has previously said that Kim told him he would visit Seoul within this year when the leaders met in Pyongyang in September.
In May, following the first summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the North Korean military had destroyed tunnels at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the presence of foreign media, although nuclear
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