North Korea

South Korea’s looming crisis

Twenty years after the Asian financial crisis, South Korea seems to have learned its lesson, having taken great pains to strengthen its economic resilience. But now the country is confronting a new set of internal and external risks, which may foreshadow another major economic crisis – or worse.

9 October 2017
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Trump: 'Only one thing will work'

US President Donald Trump said Saturday that diplomatic efforts with North Korea have consistently failed, adding that "only one thing will work."Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words with North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un, trading insults amid rising tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals."Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid," Trump tweeted.It "hasn&#03

8 October 2017
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Is US preparing for war?

US President Donald Trump offered cryptic remarks Thursday night while posing for photos with military leaders, saying the gathering might represent “the calm before the storm.”He made the comments among senior military leaders and their spouses in the White House State Dining Room ahead of a dinner expected to include the discussion of a range of national security issues.“You guys know what this represents?” Trump asked assembled members of the media.

6 October 2017
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VX found on Kim Jong Nam murder suspects

Traces of a nerve agent used to murder the half-brother of North Korea's leader were found on the clothes of two women on trial for assassinating him, a chemist testified Thursday.His testimony is the first evidence directly linking the women to the poison VX which was used to kill Kim Jong-Nam as he waited at a crowded airport in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are accused of smearing VX on Kim's face in February in a Cold War

5 October 2017
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N. Korea gets second web connection via Russian firm

A state-owned Russian company has opened up a second internet connection for North Korea which could strengthen Pyongyang's cyber capabilities and undermine US efforts to isolate the regime, security experts said.The activation of the new line from TransTeleCom was first detected Sunday by analysts at Dyn Research, which monitors global internet connectivity.The new connection supplements the existing link provided by China Unicom, which has almost exclusively routed North Korean interne

5 October 2017
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US admin backs Tillerson's North Korea effort

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis tried to clear up doubts about the US administration's North Korea strategy Tuesday, backing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's effort to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff.Defence Secretary Mattis was speaking two days after President Donald Trump appeared to undermine his top diplomat by saying Tillerson was "wasting his time" by maintaining contacts with Kim Jong-Un's regime.State Department officials insist Trump was not c

4 October 2017
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US: Now is not the time to talk

Now is not the time to talk to North Korea, the White House declared Monday, as President Donald Trump appeared to undermine efforts to force Pyongyang to the table.Until this weekend, Washington's plan to counter Kim Jong-Un's increasingly sophisticated nuclear arsenal seemed to be to employ sanctions and diplomatic pressure to convince him to talk.Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confirmed this on Saturday in Beijing when he told reporters Washington is using diplomatic channels t

3 October 2017
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Souring relations between Malaysia and N. Korea

Two women went on trial in Malaysia for murdering North Korea supreme leader Kim Jong Un's half brother, Kim Jong Nam. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong pleaded not guilty to the murder. The women, both in their 20s, are accused of rubbing toxic VX nerve agent onto his face. Relations between Malaysia and North Korea soured after the murder.On February 13, 2017 Nam died about 20 minutes after he was assaulted.

2 October 2017
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Trial begins over Kim Jong Nam's assassination

Two women go on trial Monday accused of murdering the half-brother of North Korea's leader, in an audacious assassination in Malaysia that stunned the world and sparked a diplomatic crisis.Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong arrived at the heavily guarded court outside the capital Kuala Lumpur for the proceedings, handcuffed and wearing bulletproof vests.The defendants were arrested just days after the killing of Kim Jong-Nam on February 13 as he waited to board a plane

2 October 2017
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US probes North Korea's willingness to talk

Washington has opened channels to North Korea to find out if the regime is ready to talk about giving up its nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday.His office in Washington quickly clarified that North Korea has shown no interest in such discussions.Speaking after a day of talks with China's President Xi Jinping and top diplomats, Tillerson told reporters that US officials are in touch with Pyongyang.The disclosure follows an escalating war of words between US Pr

1 October 2017
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Tillerson in China to pile pressure on North Korea

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with China's foreign minister in Beijing on Saturday to discuss efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions and prepare President Donald Trump's November visit.Tillerson, whose arrival was delayed due to technical problems with his plane in Tokyo, was greeted by Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Great Hall of the People at Tiananmen Square.Tillerson told Wang that he looked forward to an exchange "on issues important to us and in p

30 September 2017
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