Tag: US State Department

Notice in the below excerpt that the North Koreans at the Pyongyang summit did not agree to what the State Department has issued in their statement:

“We believe a new process which is supported by all the relevant states is unfolding,” senior presidential press secretary Yoon Young-chan said.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s pledge to take tangible denuclearization measures prompted Washington to immediately extend its hand to Pyongyang for further talks. The invitation comes after weeks of stalled negotiations between the countries.

In the statement, Pompeo stated the U.S. is “prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform U.S.-North Korea relations.”

It said Pompeo invited North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to New York for a meeting and asked Pyongyang to begin denuclearization talks with its new Special Representative Stephen Biegun in Vienna, as soon as circumstances allow.

“This will mark the beginning of negotiations to transform U.S.-North Korea relations through the process of rapid denuclearization of North Korea, to be completed by January 2021, as committed to by Chairman Kim, and to construct a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” the statement said.

The location for the proposed U.S. talks with North Korea is home to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“We believe the symbolic meaning of the location being where the IAEA is headquartered was considered,” South Korea’s nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon told reporters at the press center for the inter-Korean summit in Seoul.

Meanwhile, some terms in the U.S. statement did not match the joint statement from the Pyongyang summit such as the “permanent dismantlement of all facilities at Yongbyon in the presence of U.S. and IAEA inspectors.”

The statement did not refer to the “reciprocal measure” the North Korea stated the U.S. needed to take before it would permanently shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facility, as stated in the inter-Korean agreement.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this summit really did not do anything to bring North Korea closer to real denuclearization instead it just advanced the Kim regime’s “pretend denuclearization” initiative.

This is pretty audacious whoever is committing these attacks on US diplomats:

The State Department is evacuating several Americans from China amid health concerns about mysterious symptoms arising after unusual noises detected by U.S. diplomats and their families working in the consulate in Guangzhou.

After initial screenings by a medical team dispatched last month when the first incident was reported, the State Department has sent “a number” of affected people to the United States for further evaluation, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

The evacuation was the first sign that the unexplained ailments previously known to have afflicted only one U.S. government employee in China has now broadened and threatens to become a full-blown health crisis like the one that affected at least 24 U.S. diplomats and their families in Cuba.

The latest round of evacuations began Wednesday in China, which was still Tuesday in the United States. More diplomats and their dependents are expected to be sent home in coming days.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but it is believed that the sonic attacks in Cuba were caused possibly by a flawed spying device.  So whatever the spying device being used in Cuba was maybe it came from China and this same device malfunctioned while spying on US diplomats in Guangzhou as well?

Doesn’t the State Department have bigger priorities other than criticizing South Korea for what textbooks its government wants to use in its schools?  What would most Americans think if South Korea released a report criticizing the US for government for its No Child Left Behind and Common Core educational mandates?:

The Park Geun-hye administration’s plan for introducing state-issued history textbooks was singled out as a matter of concern in a US State Department human rights report.Section 2 on “Respect for Civil Liberties” in the department’s “2015 Human Rights Report” published on Apr. 13 included two new references to South Korea’s middle and high school history textbooks in an item on “Freedom of Speech and Press.”“In October the Ministry of Education announced plans to require middle and high schools to use only Korean history books authored by the government-affiliated National Institute of Korean History starting in the 2017 school year,” the report noted in a subsection on “Censorship or Content Restrictions.”

“This would end the right of schools, since 2010, to choose from a range of textbooks approved by the ministry,” the report continued.The textbook issue was mentioned again in another item on “Academic Freedom and Cultural Events” in the section on “Freedom of Speech and Press.”“There were no government restrictions specifically targeting academic freedom or cultural events. However, a government plan to end middle and high schools’ right to choose Korean history textbook [sic] raised concerns about academic freedom,” the report noted.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.