Kim Jong-Un goes underground after Qasem Soleimani's killing: report
World | January 06, 2020 19:48 ISTNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un might have gone underground fearing the same fate that befell Iran’s top commander Major General Qasem Soleimani
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un might have gone underground fearing the same fate that befell Iran’s top commander Major General Qasem Soleimani
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be planning to give him “a nice present” such as a “beautiful vase” for Christmas rather than a missile launch. The president was asked what he will do if North Korea does conduct a long-range missile test.
"The recent words and expressions spouted one after another by Trump sound like a threat to someone at a glance but they are a corroboration that he feels fear inside," Ri Su-yong, Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said in a statement carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
On Wednesday, Pyongyang's state media reported that Kim rode to Mount Paekdu and "revolutionary battle sites" where his late grandfather, Kim Il-sung staged anti-Japanese and independence struggles, calling for a fight against "imperialists" and "class enemies", Yonhap News Agency reported.
It will be possible to consult denuclearization only when confidence-building between the North and the US goes first and all the threats to the security and development of Pyongyang were removed, Kim Yong Chol, chairman of the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, stressed.
Kim watched "an airborne landing training of sharpshooter sub-units of the Air and Anti-Aircraft Force of the Korean People's Army (KPA)", Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in the report.
The North tested the weapon twice before, once in August and again in September. The September test was considered a failure because state media did not mention the firing was a success.
Those talks have faltered after the collapse of a February summit between Kim and Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, where the U.S. rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a piecemeal deal toward partially surrendering its nuclear capabilities.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to surmount U.S.-led sanctions on his country in state media reports Wednesday alongside evocative propaganda images of him riding a white horse seen as foretelling significant decisions as his own deadline for U.S. movement on nuclear talks is nearing.
Japan's Coast Guard has said that it was notified of the collision on at around 9.10 a.m.
The Korean Central News Agency said the test of the Pukguksong-3 missile in the waters off its east coast was successful and “ushered in a new phase in containing the outside forces’ threat to (North Korea) and further bolstering its military muscle for self-defense.”
The first projectile was launched at 7.17 am local time, while the one that reached the EEZ was fired 10 minutes later.
Tuesday’s rocket launcher test was made hours after North Korea said it was willing to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States in late September.
First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui also warned the US not to test Pyongyang's patience, claiming that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's remarks made the resumption of working-level negotiations between the two countries more difficult, reports Yonhap News Agency.
South Korea’s military said Friday North Korea fired more projectiles into the sea to extend a recent streak of weapons tests believed to be aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul over slow nuclear diplomacy.
North Korea has fired two unidentified missiles, its fourth such launch in less than two weeks, South Korea's military has said. They were fired from South Hwanghae province across the peninsula into the sea to the east, a statement said, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
What the North fired appears to be a new type of short-range ballistic missiles, but more analysis was needed, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said, adding that it has convened an emergency meeting of security-related ministers to discuss the development.
The launches from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan were North Korea’s second weapons test in less than a week and were seen as a move to keep up pressure on Washington and Seoul amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations. Pyongyang has also expressed anger over planned U.S.-South Korea military drills.
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, short-range missiles fired by North Korea were launched from the town of Wonsan, a regular launch site on the North’s eastern coast. The launches were aimed at ramping up pressure on the United States to make concessions as the two countries are struggling to resume diplomacy on the North’s nuclear weapons program.
North Korea lifted the second Intercontinental Cup at Ahmedabad, beating Tajikistan with a solitary goal in the second half.
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