North and South Korea exchange gunfire at border: Seoul

North Korean troops fired multiple gunshots towards the South in the DMZ dividing the peninsula on Sunday, prompting South Korean forces to fire back, Seoul said.

The rare exchange of gunfire comes a day after North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un had made his first public appearance in nearly three weeks following an absence that triggered intense speculation about his health and fears about the stability of the isolated nation.

A South Korean guard post was hit by several shots from the North, the joint chiefs of staff (JCS) in Seoul said in a statement, adding no casualties were reported in the South.

"Our military responded with two rounds of gunfire and a warning announcement," the JCS said.

The South Korean military later said the North Korean gunshots were "not deemed intentional", according to the Yonhap news agency.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said he believed the shots had not been fired on purpose, telling ABC's "This Week" it was likely they were "accidental".

The two neighbours remain technically at war, after fighting in the Korean War was halted with an armistice in 1953.

Despite its name, the demilitarized zone is one of the most fortified places on earth, replete with minefields and barbed-wire fences.

The last time the two sides exchanged fire on the border was in 2014. North Korean soldiers also shot at a defector in 2017 but the South did not fire back.

- Swirling health rumours -

Easing military tensions on their border was one of the agreements reached between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a summit in Pyongyang in September 2018.

But most of the deals have not been acted on by North Korea, with Pyongyang largely cutting off contact with Seoul.

North Korea's discussions with the United States over Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal are also at a standstill, despite three meetings between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

The uncertainty around the process would have increased had Kim been incapacitated or dead as rumoured in recent weeks.

Speculation about Kim's health has been swirling since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar.

His absence triggered a series of unconfirmed reports over his condition, while the United States and South Korea insisted they had no information to believe any of the conjecture was true.

However, North Korean state television on Friday showed Kim walking, smiling broadly and smoking a cigarette at what it said was the opening of a fertiliser factory.

A senior South Korean presidential official on Sunday brushed off rumours that Kim had undergone surgery during his absence, saying they had enough grounds to believe he had not.

Trump on Saturday welcomed the leader's return.

"I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!" the president tweeted.

Before Kim's reappearance, Pompeo said last month that he remained hopeful a nuclear deal could be clinched with North Korea.

"Regardless of what transpires inside of North Korea with respect to their leadership, our mission remains the same -- to deliver on that commitment that Chairman Kim made with President Trump... (the) verified denuclearisation of North Korea," Pompeo told reporters.

"We are still hopeful that we'll find a path to negotiate that solution to get the outcome that is good for the American people, good for the North Korean people and for the whole world."

Agence France-Presse

Diplomacy heats up before summit, with trips by US, North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — Diplomacy accelerated Tuesday ahead of a potential summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a team of American diplomats involved in preparatory discussions left a Seoul hotel, possibly to continue talks with their North Korean counterparts.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol planned to head to the United States, potentially for more talks to set up the summit. He would be the most senior North Korean official to visit the United States in 18 years.

Yonhap said Kim Yong Chol's name was on the passenger list for a flight Wednesday from Beijing to New York. It earlier reported that he was heading straight to Washington, but later said he changed his flight to New York. South Korean officials couldn't immediately confirm the report. Kim was seen in the Beijing airport Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Kim is a former military intelligence chief and now a vice chairman of the North Korean ruling party's central committee tasked with inter-Korean relations. A visit to the United States would mark the highest-level North Korean official visit since 2000, when late National Defense Commission First Vice Chairman Jo Myong Rok visited Washington, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.


In South Korea, it wasn't immediately clear whether the American officials, including Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to Manila, were heading to the Korean village of Panmunjom, which straddles the border inside the Demilitarized Zone, where they met with North Korean officials on Sunday. Sung Kim is a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and was a top negotiator with North Korea in past nuclear talks.

Trump withdrew from a planned June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un last Thursday, citing hostile North Korean comments, but has since said the meeting in Singapore could still happen. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has lobbied hard for nuclear negotiations between Trump and Kim, met with the North Korean leader in a surprise meeting on Saturday in an effort to keep the summit alive.

In their second meeting in a month, Moon said Kim expressed willingness to cooperate to end confrontation and work toward peace for the sake of a successful summit with Trump. But Kim also said he was unsure whether he could trust the United States over its promise to end hostile policies against North Korea and provide security assurances if the country does abandon its nuclear weapons, according to Moon.
Despite Kim's apparent eagerness for a summit with Trump, there are lingering doubts about whether he will fully relinquish his nuclear weapons, which he may see as his only guarantee of survival. Moon has insisted Kim can be persuaded to abandon his nuclear facilities, materials and bombs in a verifiable and irreversible way in exchange for credible security and economic guarantees.

U.S. and South Korean officials haven't confirmed the details of the pre-summit negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang at the border.

The officials may discuss bridging the gap between Washington and Pyongyang on what a deal on the North's nuclear weapons would look like. There's also speculation that American officials are trying to persuade the North Koreans to export a certain number of its nuclear warheads overseas at an early stage as proof of its commitment to denuclearize.

U.S. officials have talked about a comprehensive one-shot deal in which North Korea eliminates its nukes first and receives rewards later. But Kim, through two summits with Chinese President Xi Jinping in March and May, has called for a phased and synchronized process in which every action he takes is met with a reciprocal reward from the United States.

Seoul has been advocating an alternative approach in which the North's comprehensive commitment and credible actions toward denuclearization are followed by a phased but compressed process of inspection and verifiable dismantling. Before he canceled the summit, Trump did not rule out an incremental approach that would provide incentives along the way to the North.

source: philstar.com

NKorean leader Kim watches performance by SKorean pop stars

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on yesterday watched a rare performance by South Korean pop stars visiting Pyongyang, media reports said, amid thawing ties between the rivals after more than a year of heightened tensions over the North's nuclear program.

A South Korean artistic group including K-pop singers flew to Pyongyang on Saturday for two performances in the North Korean capital. Their trip comes before Kim is to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a border village on April 27 and with President Donald Trump in May in separate summits.

South Korean media pool reports from Pyongyang said Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, watched yesterday's performance by the South Korean group at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater. The reports said Kim's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, and other top officials, including nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam, were also present.

Kim clapped his hands during the event, and he shook hands with South Korean performers and took a group photo with them after their performance, according to the reports.

South Korean pop singers performed in the North during a past era of detente, but it was the first time for a North Korean leader to attend such a South Korean performance. Before yesterday's performance, South Korea last sent a pop singer to North Korea in 2005.

The pool reports cited an unidentified South Korean official as saying that Kim had initially planned to watch the second performance, set for Tuesday, but changed his plan due to a scheduling conflict. On Tuesday, the two Koreas plan to hold a joint performance.

The ongoing cooperation steps between the rivals began after North Korea took part in February's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. During the games, a North Korean art troupe performed in South Korea, and Moon and his wife watched it with visiting senior North Korean officials including Kim Yo Jong, who became the first member of the North's ruling Kim family to visit the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

source: philstar.com

Trump cranks up North Korea threats as Pyongyang holds anti-U.S. rally

SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS – U.S. President Donald Trump dialled up the rhetoric against North Korea again at the weekend, warning the country’s foreign minister that he and leader Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer”, as Pyongyang staged a major anti-U.S. rally.

North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that targeting the U.S. mainland with its rockets was inevitable after “Mr Evil President” Trump called Pyongyang’s leader a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

“Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!” Trump said on Twitter late on Saturday.

Trump and Kim have traded increasingly threatening and personal insults as Pyongyang races towards its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States – something Trump has vowed to prevent.

Analysts say the escalation in rhetoric is increasing the risk of a miscalculation by one side or the other that could have massive repercussions.

source: interaksyon.com