Here is the status of the unofficial talks between the US and North Korea going on in Malaysia:
In this two separate photos taken on Oct. 22, 2016, in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, former U.S. deputy nuclear negotiator Joseph R. DeTrani (L) and North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations Jang Il-hun (R) talk to reporters on the sidelines of their informal dialogue held from Friday to Saturday over pending issues. (Yonhap)
A North Korean delegation led by its deputy foreign minister held talks with former government officials of the United States here for a second day on Saturday to discuss pending issues such as the North’s nuclear and missile tests.
The U.S.-North Korea contact, although it is informal or unofficial, came after North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test in September, just eight months after its previous nuke test.
“I came here through Beijing,” the North’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations Jang Il-hun told Yonhap News Agency. As for topics discussed during the dialogue, he said the two sides talked about several “pending issues and each other’s thoughts on them.”
Asked whether there was an offer from the U.S. to stop its nuclear and missile tests, he fell short of clarifying, but said, “hopely moving forward.”
North Korea’s vice foreign minister Han Song-ryol was also among the five-member delegation. The four-member U.S. delegation included Robert Gallucci, who negotiated a landmark 1994 nuclear freeze deal with Pyongyang; former U.S. deputy nuclear negotiator Joseph R. DeTrani; and Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in New York.
Sigal told Yonhap News that the two parties mainly discussed the North’s nuclear and missile issues during the informal dialogue.
The North stuck to its stance that it wants to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. before it stops its nuclear and missile programs. But the U.S. reiterated its position that scrapping nuclear programs should be put before anything else, Sigal said. [Yonhap]
A Chinese boat carrying the North Korean flag enters the dock of the Korean Coast Guard in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Oct. 18, 2016. The boat was seized by the coast guard the previous day, while catching fish illegally after crossing a western inter-Korean maritime border into the South Korean side. Cash-strapped North Korea has reportedly sold the rights to its western territorial waters to Chinese fishermen. Chinese illegal fishing is a chronic headache to South Korea. (Yonhap)
It looks like the North Koreans are preparing for their next provocation:
North Korea said Thursday it will continue to launch satellites into space despite South Korea’s condemnation, which analysts said points toward Pyongyang testing a long-range rocket soon.
North Korean satellites will continue going up even as South Korea condemns Pyongyang’s move, an unidentified spokesman at North Korea’s bureau on space development was quoted as saying by the country’s media.
“We will march toward the goal of conquering space by firing off more satellites in accordance with our five-year space development program,” the spokesman said.
The report came amid growing speculation that North Korea is likely to launch a long-range rocket in the not-too-distant future after its last launch in February.
Pyongyang has claimed it has the right to develop its space program by putting satellites into orbit, but Seoul and Washington have viewed Pyongyang’s move as a disguised test for its ballistic missile technology. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if they will time it to coincide with the US Presidential election?
North Korean school children are told about the importance of washing their hands on Oct. 17, 2016, as the country marked Global Handwashing Day in this photo from the North’s Korean Central News Agency. (Yonhap)
Could you imagine the uproar if an American zoo had a chimp doing this? Also so much for the anti-smoking campaign that was launched in North Korea:
Pyongyang’s newly opened zoo has a new star: Azalea, the smoking chimpanzee.
According to officials at the newly renovated zoo, which has become a favorite leisure spot in the North Korean capital since it re-opened in July, the 19-year-old female chimpanzee, whose name in Korean is “Dallae,” smokes about a pack a day. Dallae is short for azalea.
They insist, however, she doesn’t inhale.
Thrown a lighter by a zoo trainer, the chimpanzee lights her own cigarettes. If a lighter isn’t available, she can light up from lit cigarette if one is tossed her way.
Though such a sight would draw outrage in many other locales, it seemed to delight visitors who roared with laughter on Wednesday as the chimpanzee, one of two at the zoo, sat puffing away as her trainer egged her on. The trainer also prompted her to touch her nose, bow thank you and do a simple dance.
The zoo is pulling in thousands of visitors a day with a slew of attractions ranging from such typical fare as elephants, giraffes, penguins and monkeys to a high-tech natural history museum with displays showing the origins of the solar system and the evolution of life on Earth. [Associated Press via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if according to North Korea the evolution of life on Earth all began in North Korea?
So far the North Korean’s are 1 for 8 when it comes to the successful testing of their Musudan missile:
North Korea launched what was presumed to be a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), Thursday, which exploded soon after liftoff, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The launch took place at 7 a.m. near an airbase in Kusong, North Pyongan Province, soon after top defense and foreign affairs officials from South Korea and the United States wrapped up their high-level talks in Washington.
Experts say that the North was apparently attempting to show off its capability of striking U.S. military bases in Guam, though this failed, in response to the allies’ agreement to strengthen the U.S. “extended deterrence” protection of South Korea.
“The latest launch was seen as the North’s armed protest to show its willingness not to lose out to the allies’ plan to enhance extended deterrence,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University.
Extended deterrence refers to Washington’s stated commitment to defend its ally by mobilizing all military capabilities ― nuclear and conventional ― to cope with the North’s aggression and provocations.
The Musudan, which can be fired from a mobile launcher, is believed to have a range of 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers and is in theory capable of reaching U.S. naval and air bases in Guam.
The U.S. Strategic Command also confirmed that it detected what it assessed was a failed North Korean missile launch, noting that the missile was presumed to be a Musudan.
It was the North’s eighth launch of an IRBM ― the seventh took place on Oct. 17 near the airbase as well, while six previous launches were conducted near the eastern port city of Wonsan.
Among them, only the sixth launch conducted on June 22 was considered successful. The Korean Central News Agency at the time claimed that the missile reached a maximum altitude of 1,413.6 kilometers and fell precisely onto a designated target 400 kilometers away at sea. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it is interesting that the North Koreans are not able to replicate the success they had with their sixth Musudan test.
North Korea hosts a sports contest for foreign diplomats in the country at the Rungna People’s Sports Park in Pyongyang in this photo released by the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 16, 2016. Seen on the table are soft drinks, including Coca-Cola that appear to have come from China. The event, held from Oct. 11-16, was the fourth of its kind. (Yonhap)
