NEW YORK: A senior North Korean diplomat reiterated at the UN Monday that his country won&#39;t give up its nuclear weapons despite numerous demands to do so, calling them crucial to keeping a &ldquo;balance of power&rdquo; with South Korea. &ldquo;We will never walk away from this position,&rdquo; he said. Under the spotlight of the General Assembly&#39;s annual meeting of world leaders, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong amplified his country&#39;s longstanding complaints about US-led military exercises with South Korea and Japan. Complaining that the US and its allies are mounting a &ldquo;growing threat of aggression,&rdquo; he portrayed his own country&#39;s arsenal as the reason &ldquo;the balance of power on the Korean Peninsula is ensured.&rdquo; Still, his address was more tempered, especially toward the United States, than many of his country&rsquo;s prior remarks on the world stage and elsewhere. While Kim lambasted &mdash; without naming names &mdash; &ldquo;hegemonic forces&rdquo; and an &ldquo;indiscriminate tariff war,&rdquo; there were no personal insults, and there was more sternness than over-the-top bellicosity. Kim vowed that &ldquo;we will never give up nuclear,&rdquo; noting that North Korea&rsquo;s nuclear program is enshrined in its constitution. He asserted that security on the Korean Peninsula &ldquo;is faced with serious challenges more than ever,&rdquo; saying that the US-Japanese-South Korean exercises &ldquo;are breaking all the previous records in terms of scale, nature, frequency and scope.&rdquo; The North routinely characterizes such war games as preludes to an attack. South Korea says military exercises are necessarySouth Korea, for its part, has said the recent trilateral military exercises were necessary to counter North Korea&rsquo;s growing nuclear and missile threats. Numerous UN Security Council resolutions have demanded that the North stop building nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Kim&rsquo;s appearance at the United Nations marked the first time since 2018 that North Korea sent a senior diplomat to the General Assembly gathering. The UN, he said, &ldquo;should not feel relieved, nor congratulate ourselves, on the non-occurrence of World War III for the past 80 years. Instead, we should pay due attention to the fact that the inducible threat has persisted and is now becoming more serious, and take measures accordingly. The diplomat&#39;s appearance at the UN comes amid signs of renewed interest in a possible meeting between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and US President Donald Trump. Trump and the North Korean leader met three times in 2018-2019 as Pyongyang was building a nuclear weapons stockpile, which Kim Jong Un views as key to his country&rsquo;s security and his continued authority in the northeast Asian nation. The talks collapsed over US-led sanctions against the North, and its leader has since shunned any diplomacy with the US and South Korea. Since Trump returned to power in January, he has repeatedly expressed hope of restarting talks with Kim. Last Monday, the North Korean leader said he still has &ldquo;good memories&rdquo; of Trump but urged the United States to drop its demand that the North surrender its nuclear arms as a precondition for resuming diplomacy. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in an Associated Press interview on Friday that President Lee Jae Myung has asked Trump to become &ldquo;a peacemaker&rdquo; and use his leadership to get North Korea to talks to reduce military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Cho said Trump &ldquo;expressed his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again.&rdquo; Trump has an Asia visit upcomingTrump is expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Trump is also scheduled to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during that meeting. North Korea has always had close ties to neighboring China, but in recent years has focused on expanding cooperation with Russia, another neighbor, by supplying combat troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine. The leaders of North Korea and China recently held their first summit in over six years, pledging mutual support and enhanced cooperation. The meeting followed a first-ever joint appearance by the DPRK&rsquo;s Kim, China&rsquo;s President Xi Jinping, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a massive Beijing military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At a follow-up meeting in Beijing on Sunday, the foreign ministers of North Korea and China agreed to deepen their bilateral ties and resist &ldquo;hegemonism,&rdquo; an apparent reference to their pushback against the United States.

Asia

North Korean diplomat insists his country won't give up nukes at the UN

UNITED NATIONS: South Korea&rsquo;s president has asked President Donald Trump to become &ldquo;a peacemaker&rdquo; and use his leadership to get North Korea to talks to reduce military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the South&rsquo;s top diplomat said Friday.&nbsp;Trump &ldquo;welcomed&rdquo; the request from President Lee Jae-myung, and &ldquo;expressed his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again,&rdquo; Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in an interview with The Associated Press. There was no immediate word from the White House.&nbsp;Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met three times as North Korea was building a nuclear weapons stockpile, which Kim views as key to the country&rsquo;s security and his continued rule of the northeast Asian nation.&nbsp;There were two summits in Singapore in June 2018 and in Vietnam in February 2019, where Trump and Kim disagreed about US-led sanctions against the North. A third meeting that year at the border between the two Koreas failed to salvage their nuclear talks &mdash; and Kim has since shunned any diplomacy with the US and South Korea.&nbsp;&ldquo;It would be fantastic if they met with each other in the near future,&rdquo; Cho said. &quot;And President Lee Jae-myung made it clear to President Trump that he will not be sitting in the driver&rsquo;s seat. He asked President Trump to become a peacemaker, and he relegated himself to become a pacemaker,&rdquo; the foreign minister said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t mind. On the contrary, we want President Trump (to) exercise his leadership to pull North Korea to the dialogue table.&rdquo;&nbsp;Can a meeting happen?Since Trump returned to power in January, he has repeatedly expressed hope of restarting talks with Kim. The North Korean leader said Monday he still has &ldquo;good memories&rdquo; of Trump but urged the United States to drop its demand that the North surrender its nuclear arms as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy.&nbsp;Trump is expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which has prompted media speculation that he might meet Kim again at the border. Trump is also expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during that meeting.&nbsp;The foreign minister said Lee asked Trump to take the lead because the world has changed and become &ldquo;much more precarious&rdquo; since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.&nbsp;&ldquo;Accordingly, we are equally worried about any possible military skirmish on the Korean Peninsula,&rdquo; Cho said. &ldquo;So, we are compelled to explore dialogues with North Korea to reduce the military tension, and at least we want to have a hotline.&rdquo;&nbsp;He stressed that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula &ldquo;is the imperative &ndash; we cannot let it go.&rdquo;&nbsp;Tensions between the Koreas continue apaceEarly Friday, South Korea&rsquo;s military said it fired warning shots to drive away a North Korean merchant ship that briefly crossed the disputed western sea boundary between the two countries, amid continuing high tensions.&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not surprised at all,&rdquo; Cho said, &ldquo;but this incident justifies the policy of the new government that we need to have a hotline between the militaries, reduce the military tension and build confidence between the two parties.&rdquo;&nbsp;Lee, who headed the left-leaning Democratic Party, won a snap election in June following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. Cho, a career diplomat and former UN ambassador, took office as foreign minister on July 19.&nbsp;In Lee&#39;s speech to the annual meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, he stated that South Korea has returned to the international community as a normal state after the domestic turmoil and has demonstrated its commitment to democracy.&nbsp;Cho said he felt &ldquo;a bit uncomfortable&rdquo; talking about the previous government compared to the current government, since Yoon was elected. But Cho recalled that when Yoon, who had been a prosecutor, was elected, he was convinced &ldquo;he would become an aberration.&rdquo;&nbsp;Peace is the priority, the diplomat saysSince becoming foreign minister, Cho said he has been explaining to neighboring countries, including during visits to Japan and China, that the new government &ldquo;is determined to seek peace on the Korean Peninsula and also in northeast Asia.&rdquo;&nbsp;He said the government wants to engage China, and he had a &ldquo;very good constructive meeting&rdquo; with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, &ldquo;but I made it clear that there are certain things we cannot accept.&rdquo;&nbsp;Cho referred to China&rsquo;s installation of &ldquo;something&rdquo; in the Yellow Sea that infringes on South Korea&rsquo;s sovereignty. &ldquo;So we made it clear that it be removed. Otherwise, we would think about taking proper measures,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;Cho flew to Washington immediately after a massive raid by US immigration officers at a Hyundai plant in southeast Georgia detained 475 people, the majority of them South Koreans. It became a major diplomatic issue between the two countries.&nbsp;The minister said Trump intervened and wanted them to remain, but they were chained and handcuffed, and his primary objective was to get them back home.&nbsp;Cho said his talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended up having &ldquo;a silver lining&rdquo; because obtaining visas for South Korean workers has been a longstanding problem, and &ldquo;we were able to address this issue squarely, and we will be able to sort out the problem.&rdquo;

South Korea, North Korea, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun

Trump “welcomes” the request from President Lee Jae-myung, and “expresses his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again,” says Foreign Minister Cho Hyun.

South Korea asks Trump to be 'peacemaker' with North Korea, says top diplomat

Reuters

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">SEOUL:&nbsp;South Korea fired warning shots on Friday at a North Korean commercial vessel that crossed the maritime border in disputed waters off the Korean peninsula&#39;s west coast, and the vessel subsequently retreated, the South&#39;s military said. The incursion early on Friday also involved South Korean military transmitting verbal warnings, and the operation followed standard protocol, the South&#39;s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The waters around the so-called Northern Limit Line border, which was drawn up after the 1950-53 Korean War, have been the scene of deadly naval clashes in the past. North Korea does not recognize the line as the border. South Korea says North&#39;s long-range missiles at &#39;final stage&#39;Separately, South Korea&#39;s president said on Thursday that Pyongyang is at the &quot;final stage&quot; of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile which could hit the United States with nuclear weapons. Seoul and its Western allies have failed to stop North Korea&#39;s weapons program, and Pyongyang says it will never give up its nuclear arsenal. &quot;Whether to gain leverage in talks with the United States or to secure its own regime, North Korea has kept developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of carrying nuclear bombs to the US,&quot; President Lee Jae Myung said during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange. &quot;It does not seem to have succeeded yet, but it is said to be at the final stage, with only the re-entry technology left, and that too looks likely to be solved,&quot; he said. Since taking office in June, Lee has reversed the stance of his hawkish predecessor and vowed to improve ties with North Korea. Speaking in New York, he said that &quot;the goal should be to freeze nuclear development, ICBM development and exports.&quot; Halting further production and development of nuclear weapons would bring &quot;major security gains,&quot; he said. The South Korean president estimated his northern neighbor was producing enough material for &quot;about 15 to 20 additional nuclear bombs each year.&quot; &quot;If left unchecked, the number of nuclear bombs would keep growing each year and its ICBMs would become more advanced,&quot; he said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ruled out denuclearization and has strengthened military ties with Russia in recent years. Kim said this week that he was open to talks with Washington, but only if he can keep his nuclear weapons, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea's President says North Korea is at the "final stage" of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile which could hit the United States with nuclear weapons.



South Korea fires warning shots at North Korean ship crossing sea border

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says he still has good memories of U.S. President Donald Trump and urged Washington to drop its demand the North surrender its nukes as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy. Speaking to Pyongyang&rsquo;s rubber-stamp parliament on Sunday, Kim stressed that he has no intention of ever resuming dialogue with rival South Korea, a key U.S. ally that helped broker Kim&rsquo;s previous summits with Trump during the American president&rsquo;s first term, according to a speech published by state media on Monday. Kim suspended virtually all cooperation with the South following the collapse of his second summit with Trump in 2019 over disagreements about U.S.-led sanctions against the North. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened in recent years as Kim has accelerated his weapons buildup and aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine. Kim&rsquo;s comments came as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung prepares to depart for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, where he is expected to address nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula and call on North Korea to return to talks. Trump is also expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, prompting media speculation that he may try to meet Kim at the inter-Korean border, as they did during their third meeting in 2019, which ultimately failed to salvage their nuclear diplomacy. During his latest speech at the Supreme People&rsquo;s Assembly, Kim reiterated that he would never give up his nuclear weapons program, which experts say he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival and the extension of his family&rsquo;s dynastic rule. &ldquo;The world already knows well what the United States does after forcing other countries to give up their nuclear weapons and disarm,&rdquo; Kim said. &ldquo;We will never lay down our nuclear weapons &hellip; There will be no negotiations, now or never, about trading anything with hostile countries in exchange for lifting sanctions.&rdquo; He said he still holds &ldquo;good personal memories&rdquo; of Trump from their first meetings and that there is &ldquo;no reason not to&rdquo; resume talks with the United States if Washington &ldquo;abandons its delusional obsession with denuclearization.&rdquo; Kim has stepped up testing activities in recent years, demonstrating weapons of various ranges designed to strike U.S. allies in Asia and the U.S. mainland. Analysts say Kim&rsquo;s nuclear push is aimed at eventually pressuring Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength. Kim is also trying to bolster his leverage by strengthening cooperation with traditional allies Russia and China, in an emerging partnership aimed at undercutting U.S. influence. He has sent thousands of troops and huge supplies of military equipment to Russia to help support President Vladimir Putin&rsquo;s war in Ukraine. He visited Beijing earlier this month, sharing the spotlight with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin at a massive military parade. Experts say Kim&rsquo;s rare foreign trip was likely intended to boost his leverage ahead of a potential resumption of talks with the United States. There&rsquo;s growing concern in Seoul that it could lose its voice in future efforts to defuse the nuclear standoff on the peninsula, as the North seeks to negotiate directly with the United States. Such fears were amplified last year when Kim declared that he was abandoning North Korea&rsquo;s long-standing goal of peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered a rewriting of the North&rsquo;s constitution to cement the South as a permanent enemy.

Americas

Kim Jong Un recalls “good memories” of Trump, rejects denuclearization demands, vows to keep nukes, and deepens ties with Russia, China.

North Korean leader recalls 'good memories' of Trump, urges US to drop denuclearization demands

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a test of an attack drone and ordered greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the technology, state media said Friday.&nbsp;Images shared by the official Korean Central News Agency showed the unmanned vehicle taking off and then destroying a target.&nbsp;State media reported that the exercise demonstrated the &quot;excellent combat effectiveness of Kumsong-series tactical attack drones,&quot; stating that Kim expressed &quot;great satisfaction&quot; with the result.&nbsp;Drones are emerging as a &quot;major military activity asset, raising it as a top-priority and important task in modernizing the armed forces of the DPRK,&quot; Kim reportedly said, using the acronym for North Korea.&nbsp;He also ordered &quot;efforts to rapidly develop the newly-introduced artificial intelligence technology&quot; as well as the &quot;expanding and strengthening&quot; of drone production capabilities.&nbsp;Analyst Hong Min at Seoul&#39;s Korea Institute for National Unification said Kim sees drone technology as critical to securing &quot;great power status.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;The drones raise concerns because they offer low-cost, high-efficiency threats: autonomous mission execution, improved accuracy and lethality, suitability for mass production, and enhanced tactical flexibility,&quot; he added.&nbsp;Lessons from RussiaPyongyang unveiled its first attack drones last year, and experts have warned its new capability in this area could be linked to its budding alliance with Russia.&nbsp;Analysts also say North Korean troops sent to fight for Russia will be gaining modern warfare experience, including how drones are used on the battlefield.&nbsp;And Lim Eul-chul at South Korea&#39;s Kyungnam University said AI could allow North Korean drones to &quot;operate even if GPS or communications signals are jammed, relying on pre-trained algorithms.&quot;&nbsp;North Korea has tested GPS jamming attacks on the South Korean assets &mdash; an operation that affected several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft.&nbsp;&quot;The AI drive has gained momentum since 2024, drawing on Russian technology transfers and lessons from the war in Ukraine,&quot; Lim said.&nbsp;South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said the North sent over 10,000 soldiers to Russia in 2024 &mdash; primarily to the Kursk region &mdash; along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.&nbsp;Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said.

Kim Jong Un emphasizes the military importance of AI-powered drones and calls for increased production, likely with technological support from Russia.


Articles tagged with "North Korea"

North Korean diplomat insists his country won't give up nukes at the UN

South Korea asks Trump to be 'peacemaker' with North Korea, says top diplomat

South Korea fires warning shots at North Korean ship crossing sea border

North Korean leader recalls 'good memories' of Trump, urges US to drop denuclearization demands

North Korea's Kim oversees drone test, orders AI development