As 2019 draws to a close, unease is growing in South Korea over US methods in dealing with North Korea, which has threatened a possible missile launch or nuclear test referred to by officials as a “Christmas surprise”.

Scepticism has deepened over Washington’s ultimate aims for the Korean peninsula, given the pressure on Seoul to buy more US arms and increase its share of costs to keep 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea.

The South is already Washington’s fourth-biggest weapons market, spending US$6.23 billion between 2009 and 2018, and recently deployed a fleet of US F-35A stealth fighter jets, a move condemned by Pyongyang as a breach of last year’s inter-Korean summit agreement.

The developments linked to the dispute between Seoul and Washington about sharing defense costs became an indirect reason for the hype surrounding the US Ambassador to South Korea, Harry B. Harris. Some far left politicians even demanded that he be deemed persona non grata.

Harry B. Harris was born in Japan. He became the first Asian American to head the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) and also the highest-ranking member of the American military of Japanese descent. Hence, his appointment immediately caused an uproar among Korean nationalists. After all, not only did the Japanese oppress them but now they were going to be the ones conveying orders from Washington to Seoul.

Two days of negotiations between the US and South Korea on cost-sharing of the US military presence have ended in failure, and there are no more talks scheduled before the existing deal expires on December 31.

President Trump’s last minute demands for a massive increase could be shaping up to be a huge mistake, as South Korea was already paying more than most nations do for US troops, and had agreed to a more modest increase. Getting from $800 million per year to around $1 billion per year was one thing, but Trump’s zero-hero demand for $5 billion per year angered many in South Korea.

SOURCE: RIGGED GAME
PAM MARTENS AND RUSS MARTENS OF WALL STREET ON PARADE.
One has to wonder how much money it would take for the New York Fed to throw at Wall Street before the New York Times reports to its readers on the biggest Wall Street bailout by the Fed since the financial crisis.

Last Thursday, December 12, the New York Fed announced that over the next month it would shower the trading houses (primary dealers) on Wall Street with a total of $2.93 trillion in short-term loans. The money is for a Wall Street liquidity crisis that has yet to be explained in credible terms to the American people and yet the New York Times does not appear to have an investigative reporter assigned to investigate what’s really going on just 11 years after those same trading houses blew themselves up in the biggest financial crash since the Great Depression and took the U.S. economy along for the ride.

With North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s New Years’ deadline for resuming negotiations quickly approaching, some Pentagon leaders are fretting that Kim may send the US a “Christmas gift” or possibly ring in the new year with a new long-range missile test. Kim announced a unilateral moratorium on such tests in April 2018.

“A long-range ballistic missile” test is expected before year's end, according to Gen. Charles Brown, commander of Pacific Air Forces and air component commander for US Indo-Pacific Command.

“What I would expect is some type of long-range ballistic missile would be the gift. It’s just a matter of does it come on Christmas Eve, does it come on Christmas Day, does it come after the New Year,” Brown told reporters at a breakfast roundtable on Tuesday, according to The Hill.

Trump who was too much of a coward to put any concessions on the table in Hanoi is blowing up the Korean nuclear freeze. Russia and China are trying to save the freeze, by doing Trump should have done, and remove the very top layer of UNSC sanctions declared in 2017. As the Russians correctly point out Pyongyand should be rewarded for its willingness to talk and to limit and downscale its nuclear capabilities.

Of course, the effort was doomed from the start. US has veto power in the UNSC, so this is an illusion. In fact, as things stand the US and its Western European poodles won’t even let the Russian Chinese-backed proposal be voted on.

“In the past, remarks by American diplomats were kept secret, because they could cause diplomatic problems, but Harris’s remarks keep coming to light. They’re basically being leaked because even people who value the South Korea-US alliance feel that his remarks are inappropriate”

The current situation on the Korean Peninsula is a direct outgrowth of what Pyongyang observed in 1999

A week after North Korea resumed its "dotard" insults at President Trump and their ambassador to the United Nations said further denuclearization talks are no longer needed, Reuters reported Thursday via Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that, even if denuclearization talks resumed between both countries, the Trump administration has nothing to offer:

North Korea's foreign ministry criticized the Trump administration for meeting with officials at the UN Security Council and suggested that it would be ready to respond to any corresponding measures that Washington imposes.

"The United States said about corresponding measure at the meeting, as we have said we have nothing to lose and we are ready to respond to any corresponding measure that the US chooses," said KCNA citing a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

The U.S. Army announced Thursday upcoming winter deployments of two infantry brigade combat teams to Afghanistan and Korea.

Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, stationed at Fort Drum, New York, will deploy in early 2020 to Afghanistan to replace the 3rd BCT, 82nd Airborne Division, as part of a regular rotation of forces to support Operation Freedom's Sentinel, according to a Dec. 5 Army news release.

The Israeli government has increased discretionary spending on settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory by 50 per cent over the last two years, reported the Jerusalem Post.

According to data published by settlement watchdog Peace Now, so-called “discretionary spending” “is expenditure by various ministries outside the general budget, including from the Interior, Housing, Education, and Energy and Water ministries, as well as the National Roads Authority”.

These funds are directed towards the construction of settlement housing units, as well as for roads inside the settlements, “buildings for educational, social and religious purposes, commercial centres and industrial parks”, the report added.

The North Korean foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Washington would decide what “Christmas gift” it would receive if the United States fails to change its “hostile policies” on denuclearization before the end of the year, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea has been ramping up missile tests and other military demonstrations in recent months in an apparent pressure tactic over the talks. Negotiations have faltered since a February summit between Kim Jong-un and Trump in Vietnam which broke down after the U.S. rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Kim later issued his end-of-year deadline and has also said the North would seek a “new path” if the U.S. persists with sanctions and pressure. Working-level talks last month in Sweden broke down over what the North Koreans described as the Americans’ “old stance and attitude.

orth Korea has said the US has until the end of the year to come up with a new proposal to revive stalled diplomatic engagement between the two nations. US officials have similarly warned North Korea that time is running out, albeit without specific deadlines.

As a practical matter, these deadlines are all artificial and arbitrary, and the nations could engage whenever they want to. At the same time, many months have gone by without any progress, and the process is plainly growing stale for it.

It isn’t even that there are a slew of disagreements holding things up. Rather, there is a very specific issue: North Korea wants something in return for denuclearization, and the US just keeps demanding they denuclearize unconditionally, with hints they might get something in return eventually.

he South Korean military reported that they fired warning shots at a North Korean merchant ship on Wednesday when it crossed the disputed maritime border off the country’s west coast, forcing the ship to flee.

The ship in question, which was not identified, was believed to have crossed into disputed waters because of a combination of bad weather and engine problems. It did, however, manage to flee back to North Korea.

Still, firing warning shots at a ship in distress at all probably isn’t idea for South Korea to have done, even if no further incidents came of it. South Korea’s military wants to strictly control the maritime border, but this was a decidedly unfriendly act.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
The Israeli government is aiming to increase the volume of Israel’s defence exports, reported Globes, which has revealed the main points of the plan for the first time.

The project, being overseen by the Defence Ministry’s International Defence Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) led by Brigadier General (Res.) Yair Kulas, will begin to be rolled out in early 2020.

According to Globes, the plan is based on “focused seminars for senior commanders in foreign armies”, Israeli military “assistance for promoting sales of Israeli weapons”, and “subsidising small and medium-sized defence companies seeking to sell arms around the world”.

Speaking this week, Kulas said that SIBAT favours a major expansion of agreements between countries, resulting in significant deals for the large defence companies, especially Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.

North Korea has said it is not "interested" in further meetings with the US, a day after President Donald Trump tweeted a message to the country's leader Sunday saying "See you soon!"

A statement from North Korean Foreign Ministry adviser Kim Kye Gwan, posted by state news agency, KCNA, said: "I interpreted President Trump's tweet on the 17th to signify a new DPRK-US summit" but "we are no longer interested in these meetings that are useless to us."

Kim suggested that the US is trying to portray "advancement in Korean Peninsula issue" but that it was a delay tactic.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to “act quickly” to reach a deal with the United States, in a tweet weighing in on North Korea’s criticism of his political rival former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump, who has met Kim three times since 2018 over ending the North’s missile and nuclear programs, addressed Kim directly, referring to the one-party state’s ruler as “Mr. Chairman”.

In his tweet, Trump told Kim, “You should act quickly, get the deal done,” and hinted at a further meeting, signing off “See you soon!”

South Korea has historically paid an unusually large percentage of the cost of keeping US forces there, and under pressure from President Trump, agreed earlier this year to a substantial increase, with South Korea agreeing to pay $924 million annually.

Since then, Trump had suggested a few times that he wanted more, and that South Korea could easily afford it. His new demand, however, shocked everyone on both sides as he is demanding over five times what South Korea is paying, $4.7 billion annually.

This is raising a lot of questions in South Korea about the viability of keeping the US around, but the bigger task is for US officials, who are trying to somehow justify a $4.7 billion price tag that seemingly came out of nowhere.

The top North Korean envoy to the negotiations with Washington said he was not interested unless the United States was ready to make substantial concessions.

The United States and North Korea could open a new round of working-level talks later this month or in early December, a South Korean official has indicated, and the timing is critical due to Pyongyang’s year-end deadline to move past the negotiations’ current stall.

If 2020 arrives without further progress, North Korean state media warned in late October, the “close personal relations” between President Trump and leader Kim Jong-un will be no more.

Fresh working-level talks are always to be welcomed, but there are three important points to realize as Kim’s deadline draws near.

The United States is “very actively” trying to persuade North Korea to come back to negotiations, South Korea’s national security adviser said on Sunday, as a year-end North Korean deadline for U.S. flexibility approaches.

North Korea said Tuesday the U.S. redesignation of Pyongyang as a sponsor of terrorism is dimming prospects for nuclear diplomacy between the countries.

The North’s statement comes as North Korea is escalating its pressures on the United States over a stalemate in nuclear negotiations. Last week, North Korea test-fired projectiles from what it called a newly developed “super-large” multiple rocket launcher in the country’s first weapons test in about a month.

The North’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the State Department’s terrorism blacklist report released last week proves again the United States maintains a “hostile policy” and “inveterate repugnancy” toward North Korea.

North Korea on Sunday said it’s running out of patience with the United States over what it described as hostile policies and unilateral disarmament demands, and warned that a close personal relationship between the leaders alone wouldn’t be enough to prevent nuclear diplomacy from derailing.

In a statement published by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol said there has been no substantial progress in relations despite warm ties between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. He said the persisting hostility means “there can be the exchange of fire at any moment.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un rode a white horse to Mt. Paektu and lashed out at sanctions imposed on the country, the state-run KCNA news agency reported Wednesday — hailing the action as "a great event of weighty importance."

The big picture: The images at the sacred, active volcano and accompanying proclamation that "there will be a great operation to strike the world with wonder again and make a step forward in the Korean revolution" comes days after denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S. broke down.

Pyongyang and Washington walked away from the negotiating table in Sweden this past weekend — with divergent statements on the first working-level meeting to be held since negotiations broke down at the February summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un in Hanoi.

The North Koreans declared that the most recent talks had broken down because the United States had arrived at the negotiations with an “empty hand.”

North Korea said on Thursday its patience has limits and it could reverse steps to build trust with the United States, as it criticized a U.N. Security Council call for it to cease its weapons programs and denounced a U.S. missile test.

North Korea has confirmed a new successful missile launch on Wednesday, which notably involved its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in three years, and a new type of "vertical mode" ballistic missile.

The test was "to contain external threats and bolster self-defense" as Reuters reports, and comes just two days ahead of working level talks with the United States in Stockholm, Sweden at the end of this week.

North Korea has confirmed a new successful missile launch on Wednesday, which notably involved its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in three years, and a new type of "vertical mode" ballistic missile.

The test was "to contain external threats and bolster self-defense" as Reuters reports, and comes just two days ahead of working level talks with the United States in Stockholm, Sweden at the end of this week.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile Wednesday from an underwater launch platform, a United States official told CNN, a day after Pyongyang and Washington agreed to resume nuclear talks.

The US assessed that the missile was not fired from a submarine although the tested missile is designed to function as a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the US official, who was familiar with the situation, said.
The missile was launched toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, Wednesday morning, South Korea's military said. While North Korea has launched from an underwater platform before, it is the first time it has done so since talks with US President Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor said the United States is in a “classic standoff” with North Korea as Washington seeks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

In his first public remarks since leaving the Trump administration three weeks ago, John Bolton said Monday that it would be unacceptable for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to possess nuclear warheads.

“I think right now we are in a classic standoff with North Korea. They want a piece of something that we should not be prepared to give them,” Bolton said of Pyongyang’s ambition to maintain an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

North Korea accused the United States on Friday of failing to follow through on summit agreements between U.S. President Donald Trump and the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, but said it is placing hope in the U.S. president’s “wise option and bold decision.”

A statement from Foreign Ministry adviser Kim Kye Gwan circulated by North Korea’s U.N. mission came days after Trump said, without elaborating, that another summit meeting with Kim “could happen soon.”

North Korea has welcomed President Donald Trump's suggestion of a "new method" in Washington's nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang and praised the president's decision to fire the hawkish former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Those talks have been stalled for months by disagreements over trade-offs between sanctions relief and disarmament steps. In May North Korea said it wouldn't resume talks while the U.S. insisted on what it called unilateral disarmament.

In a statement released by state media, North Korean diplomat Kim Myong Gil, who will be leading planned working-level talks with Washington, said welcomed that relations would be conducted "from a more practical point of view" now that Bolton had gone.

The White House reportedly received a letter from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un inviting President Trump to visit Pyongyang, which could be the first overture before the potential fourth official visit.

The White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to Reuters to confirm the report in South Korea’s Joongang Ilbo newspaper. The letter reportedly pre-dated the country’s last short-range launch from a week ago.

The recent White House shakeup could have had implications in these discussions.

North Korea said Wednesday leader Kim Jong Un observed the test-launch of a super-large multiple rocket launcher, the latest in a series of weapons tests performed amid stalled diplomacy over the North's nuclear program.

Tuesday's rocket launcher test was made hours after North Korea said it was willing to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States in late September. While offering talks, North Korea still warned its dealings with the U.S. may end if Washington fails to come to the negotiating table without new acceptable proposals.

Some experts said North Korea aims to wrest concessions from the United States once their diplomacy resumes.

Just a few short hours after North Korea said it was willing to resume denuclearization talks with the United States in late September, South Korea's Yonhap news reports that North Korea fired unidentified projectiles toward the eastern sea twice, citing South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The projectiles were launched from the western province of South Pyongan, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Our military is monitoring the situation in case of additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture," they said in a statement carried by Yonhap.

North Korea has turned to renewal energy workarounds to offset international sanctions on fossil fuels and faulty hydroelectric power.

North Korea has conducted a round of long range rocket tests designed to kick down the door and destroy ballistic missile defenses protecting South Korea. The new rockets fly under U.S. high altitude missile defense weapons, paving the way for further missile strikes. The missiles are proof that, far from disarming, the country with an economy smaller than Hawaii’s is prepared to do what it takes to keep South Korea—and the wider world—in fear of its missiles.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that negotiations with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un could begin soon and that the leader issued a “small apology” for testing short-range missiles.

“In a letter to me sent by Kim Jong Un, he stated, very nicely, that he would like to meet and start negotiations as soon as the joint U.S./South Korea joint exercise are over. It was a long letter, much of it complaining about the ridiculous and expensive exercises,” Trump wrote Saturday on Twitter.

There will be no direct talks with South Korea if it continues to stage joint military exercises with the US, a senior North Korean diplomat has said. The warning comes just as Pyongyang test-fired two short-range missiles.

South Korea must know that “Inter-Korean contact itself will be difficult” unless “they put an end” to the ongoing joint military drill with the US, Kwon Jon-gun, director-general for American affairs at the Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday.

President Donald Trump has reacted to four North Korean missile tests in less than two weeks with little more than a shrug. Instead, he appears to be turning his frustrations about the peninsula on South Korea.

Trump chided Seoul on Twitter Wednesday for paying "virtually nothing" for US protection, while two administration officials said that behind closed doors, the President is fuming that South Korea is not doing more to contain Pyongyang's increased aggression.

North Korea said Wednesday leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire demonstration of newly developed, short-range ballistic missiles intended to send a warning to the United States and South Korea over their joint military exercises.

The official Korean Central News Agency said two missiles launched from a western airfield flew across the country and over the area surrounding the capital, Pyongyang, before accurately hitting an island target off its eastern coast.

North Korea on Tuesday continued to ramp up its weapons demonstrations by firing unidentified projectiles twice into the sea while lashing out at the United States and South Korea for continuing their joint military exercises the North says could derail fragile nuclear diplomacy.

North Korea was a no-show at a key regional security conference last week, dashing U.S. hopes for a sideline meeting aimed at restarting nuclear talks.

Instead, the communist state sent a fiery message with a series of missile tests that showed its determination to expand its arsenal amid the diplomatic deadlock.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un likely has several reasons for the show of force, including an effort to increase his negotiating power and to protest U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which are expected to begin Monday.

Japan’s cabinet voted to remove South Korea from its 'whitelist' of preferred trading partners, accusing Seoul of failing to adequately protect dual use materials, while alluding to other influences.

Seoul claims that Tokyo’s move responds to recent court decisions awarding damages to South Korean forced laborers of colonial Japanese corporations. Civil leaders calling for a boycott of Japanese goods and visits rallied outside the Japanese embassy Friday. South Korean President Moon Jae-in addressed the nation in a live televised broadcast.

The South Korean president called for Japan to reverse policy and for talks, also threatening to place restrictions on trade with Japan, and withdraw from an intelligence sharing agreement.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a conference in Bangkok that American negotiators were ready to meet with North Korean counterparts.

According to US intelligence reports, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has launched a projectile that appears to be similar to those launched in previous weeks. It's unclear how many were launched, but US officials confirmed they pose no threat to North America.

Friday's test was preceded by tests on Wednesday and the previous Thursday, each of which saw two short-range ballistic missiles fired eastward from South Hamgyong Province on the country's easy coast into the Sea of Japan.

The South Korean military detained a North Korean soldier who crossed the heavily fortified demilitarised zone that separates the two countries, according to the South’s joint chiefs of staff (JSC).

The soldier expressed his intention to defect to South Korea, the JSC said on Thursday.

The unidentified active-duty soldier was first detected by thermal imaging equipment moving south near the Imjin river late on Wednesday and South Korean troops took him into custody just before midnight.

Also on Wednesday the South Korean military recovered a body near the DMZ suspected to be that of a North Korean civilian, a spokesman for South Korea’s defence ministry said.

Clad in military-type pants and a belt, the body was found in the Imjin river and appeared to have been dead for at least two weeks, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korea conducted a fresh short-range missile tests on Wednesday, its second such launch in less than a week as Pyongyang tries to exert pressure on Washington and Seoul before major military exercises commence and nuclear talks resume.

Two short-range ballistic missiles of an unknown type were fired from a site close to the eastern city of Wonsan, where such tests are often conducted.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles flew around 155 miles at a maximum altitude of 19 miles before landing off the country's east coast, The Associated Press reported.

North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast Wednesday, South Korea's Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) said in a statement, the second such launch in less than a week.

The missiles were launched from the Wonsan-Kalma area just after 5 a.m. local time and 5:27 a.m. (4:27 p.m. ET) on Wednesday, and traveled an estimated distance of 250 kilometers (155 miles) and height of 30 kilometers (18 miles), according to South Korean officials.

A US official also confirmed the missile launches to CNN, adding that they had posed no threat to the US or its allies, and fell into the sea.

Just as Lighthizer and his band of merry trade-deals-men prepare to head to China for face-to-face talks, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports that North Korea has fired an unidentified projectile.

South Korea's joint chiefs of staff have confirmed the unidentified projectile's firing from the Wonsan region of North Korea. The launch took place “early morning” today, according to the statement.

Bloomberg reports that South Korean military are monitoring movement and preparing for additional launches.

As a reminder, at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan in June, Xi urged US President Donald Trump to show "flexibility" and act in a "timely" fashion to ease sanctions on North Korea, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said earlier this month.

Xi's request reflected Beijing's desire to boost economic engagements with Pyongyang, analysts said.

Developing...

North Korea has released pictures of a new submarine that it could potentially use to launch nuclear weapons. If that’s the case, the country may have gained a very dangerous, stealthy ability to threaten the US and its allies — all in defiance of President Donald Trump.

Pyongyang released three images on Monday night showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un standing in front of a massive submarine inside a shipyard. Experts say it’s large enough that it could carry missiles equipped with nuclear bombs, allowing Kim to order nuclear strikes from unknown underwater locations.

The Republic of Korea's Air Force fired warning shots after Russian military aircraft allegedly violated the country's airspace twice on Tuesday, Yonhap news agency reports, citing officers from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets were scrambled after two Chinese and three Russian aircraft approached the ROK air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the Sea of Japan on Tuesday morning, the JCS said.

While the Chinese only entered KADIZ, one of the Russian aircraft allegedly flew too close to the islets of Dokdo and actually breached the S. Korean airspace twice for about three minutes, forcing the South Korean forces to fire “warning shots.”

The Russian Defense Ministry accused South Korean pilots of acting “unprofessionally” while dangerously crossing the path of Russian bombers, which were on a routine mission over “international waters.”

Two Russian Air Force Tu-95MS bombers were flying over the Sea of Japan when they encountered a pair of South Korean F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. The respective planes “performed unprofessional maneuvers while crossing the course of the bombers, thus putting their safety at risk,” the Russian MoD said in a statement. The fighters also did not attempt to communicate with the Russian crews.

Earlier in the day, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff committee claimed their jets were scrambled to intercept the intruding Russian aircraft which violated South Korean airspace twice. Moscow insists the encounter took place over 25km from the isles of Dokdo (known as Takeshima in Japan), and that they recorded no violation of aerial borders by Russian planes.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a large newly built submarine, state news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday, potentially signalling continued development of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) programme.

Kim inspected the operational and tactical data and combat weapon systems of the new submarine which was built under “his special attention” and will be operational in the waters off the east coast, KCNA said.

KCNA said the submarine’s operational deployment was near.

Huawei worked with the North Korean government to build and maintain a commercial wireless network, The Washington Post reported based on people familiar with the situation and internal documents.

The documents show that Huawei partnered with Chinese state-owned firm Panda International Information Technology on several projects over eight years, according to the Post, though it is unclear what role Huawei played. The Post said it obtained work orders, contracts and spreadsheets from people who believed they would be of public interest, including a former Huawei employee.

A report published Friday by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), an organization funded by the government of South Korea, showed that North Korea’s trade volume was cut in half during 2018, evidently as a result of sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.
The KOTRA report showed North Korea’s trade volume falling to $2.84 billion in 2018, a 48.8 percent decline from the previous year. Exports fell by a dizzying 86.3 percent, imports declined 31.2 percent, and the North Korean trade deficit rose by 17.5 percent.

The Korea Times cited the specific U.N. Security Council resolutions that appeared to deflate North Korea’s trade volume so sharply, saying:

North Korea on Tuesday suggested it might call off its 20-month suspension of nuclear and missile tests because of summertime U.S.-South Korean military drills that the North calls preparation for an eventual invasion.

The statement by the North’s Foreign Ministry comes during a general deadlock in nuclear talks, but after an extraordinary meeting of the U.S. and North Korean leaders at the Korean border that raised hopes that negotiations would soon resume.

The comments ramp up pressure on the United States ahead of any new talks.

Much discussion has occurred about a possible freeze of North Korea’s strategic weapons programs. Is it part of the Trump administration’s strategy in the hopefully soon-to-be-resumed talks with Pyongyang, or not? Is there a debate about it within the administration, or not? Is it a good idea, or not? Unnamed sources in the administration say “yes” to some or all of these questions; national security adviser John Bolton emphatically says “no” to all of them.

But, as it turns out, a freeze of North Korea’s nuclear and long-range missile programs could be a good thing — for two reasons. First, it would build trust that could lead to subsequent deals resulting in cuts and permanent limits to North Korea’s weapons programs. It is difficult to overstate the trust gap that currently exists between the two countries, making a single, one-step agreement that resolves the nuclear issue an impossibility.

North Korea slammed South Korea over its ongoing deployment of high-tech U.S. fighter jets, warning Thursday that it will respond by developing and testing unspecified special weapons of its own to "destroy" the aircraft.

The statement, which also urged South Korea to abandon its "preposterous illusions" for improved ties, comes as Seoul has expressed hopes that a recent summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will help revive dialogue between the Koreas.

Under its biggest-ever weapons purchase, South Korea is to buy 40 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin by 2021. The first two arrived in March and two others are to be delivered in coming weeks, according to Seoul officials.

North Korea slammed South Korea over its ongoing deployment of high-tech U.S. fighter jets, warning Thursday that it will respond by developing and testing unspecified special weapons of its own to "destroy" the aircraft.

The son of the highest-profile South Korean to defect to North Korea has arrived in the North to permanently resettle, North Korean state media said. If confirmed, it would be an unusual case of a South Korean defecting to the impoverished, authoritarian North.

The state-run Uriminzokkiri website reported that Choe In-guk, about 72, arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, on Saturday to dedicate the rest of his life to Korean unification at the guidance of leader Kim Jong Un. The website published photos and a video showing a bespectacled Choe in a beret reading his arrival statement at Pyongyang’s airport.

North Korea accused an Australian student of engaging in “spying acts” that led to his expulsion after nine days in detention, the country’s state media said Saturday.

The claim carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency was the first comment by North Korea on the student, Alek Sigley, who had been pursuing a master’s degree at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang since 2018.

The statement appears to send a warning to the small cadre of foreigners in North Korea to stay away from independent social media posts and from having links to websites covering affairs in the North.

North Korea said on Saturday that Alek Sigley, the Australian student whom it deported this past week, had been a spy who admitted to “systematically” collecting information about the isolated country, with a state news agency reporting that he had been “caught red-handed.”

Mr. Sigley, 29, a graduate student in Korean literature at Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang, was freed in North Korea on Thursday and deported on the same day. Until now, neither Mr. Sigley nor the North’s government had publicly explained why he had been detained.

On Saturday, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, using the initials for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, said Mr. Sigley was caught on Tuesday while “committing anti-D.P.R.K. incitement through the internet.”

Democrats running for President slammed President Trump’s Sunday visit to North Korea, claiming it was an ill-conceived waste of American bargaining power, according to The Hill‘s Alex Bolton.

After becoming the first US president to set foot on North Korean soil, Trump met with leader Kim Jong Un in a surprise negotiation session that lasted just under an hour on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone – a meeting which will improve future communication just one week after Trump sent Kim a "friendly" letter (probably telling him he’d swing by after the G20).

President Donald Trump sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un an "excellent" letter, the North's state-run news agency reported Sunday, quoting Kim as saying he would "seriously contemplate it."

The White House declined to confirm that Trump had sent a letter to Kim.

It comes as nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea broke down after the failed summit between Kim and Trump in February in Vietnam.

Chinese President Xi Jinping travels to North Korea to meet leader Kim Jong Un this week looking to strengthen their sometimes shaky bond at a time when both are locked in dispute with the United States — Xi over trade and Kim over nuclear weapons.

Here’s a look at what both Xi and Kim may be trying to achieve with the first visit to Pyongyang of a Chinese leader in 14 years.

Chinese and North Korean state media announced on Monday that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping will visit North Korea this week to meet with dictator Kim Jong-un. It will be Xi’s first visit to North Korea and the first time China’s leader has made such a trip since Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao visited Pyongyang in 2005.

China’s CCTV said Xi will arrive in North Korea on Thursday, June 20, and depart on Friday, June 21. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed the visit, but published no further details.

A spokesman for the Chinese Communist Party said Xi accepted a personal invitation from Kim to visit, possibly issued when the two met in Beijing in January.

“I hope that this visit will contribute to the early resumption of talks on the complete denuclearisation of and the establishment of permanent peace on the Korean peninsula,” a spokeswoman for South Korean President Moon Jae-in said upon learning of Xi’s trip.

Sen. Lindsey Graham has suggested President Trump "put military force on the table" by invading Venezuela (and possibly Cuba) in order to scare North Korea and Iran into doing what they're told. What could possibly go wrong?

"Give Cuba an ultimatum – without Cuba, Maduro doesn’t last one day – tell Cuba to get out of Venezuela. Do what Reagan did in Grenada – put military force on the table!" Graham told a Fox News host, going from zero to invasion in ten seconds flat in response to a question about how Trump should handle his foreign conflicts.

"We need points on the board," the South Carolina senator insisted. "Start with your own backyard… Fix Venezuela and everybody else will know you’re serious." North Korea and Iran, he implied, would fall right into line after Venezuela was put in its place.

The U.S. is accusing North Korea of breaching U.N. sanctions on the import of refined petroleum via illegal ship-to-ship transfers -- a move that marks a contrast to the warmer rhetoric directed at the North Korean regime coming from the White House.

A Security Council diplomat told reporters late Wednesday that the U.S., along with 25 other countries, had complained to the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee monitoring the country’s compliance with sanctions slapped on the country in 2017.

The United States and more than two dozen other countries are asking all nations to immediately halt valuable fuel shipments to North Korea.

A report submitted to the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea accuses Pyongyang of violating a UN-set UN set cap on fuel imports by conducting dozens of ship-to-ship transfers at sea, which break international sanctions. The details in the report were described to CNN and others by a UN Security Council diplomat with knowledge of the findings.

The US complaint about North Korean smuggling came a day after President Donald Trump said he got another 'beautiful letter' from North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un. The White House is interested in a third summit between the two leaders.