After months of insisting that North Korea had dodged the depredations of the coronavirus, media reports published Saturday afternoon (local time) claimed that 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong Un declared an emergency lockdown in an area near the DMZ after a person suspected of being infected with the virus returned to the North after illegally crossing into South Korea, according to state media reports.

A new defense white paper published by the Japanese Ministry of National Defense takes aim at Chinese expansionism and North Korean weapons tests, claiming they pose major threats to Tokyo. The paper claims Beijing is taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to further its regional ambitions.

The annual white paper, which the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved on Tuesday, criticizes Beijing for “relentlessly” challenging Tokyo’s control over the disputed Senkaku Islands, which China claims are its own and calls the Diaoyu Islands.

“Despite protests by our country, Chinese official ships repeatedly intruded into our territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands,” the paper said, according to Kyodo News Agency.

In order to eliminate the nuclear threats from the US, the DPRK government has made all possible efforts, either through dialogue or in resort to the international law, but all ended in a vain effort…. The only option left was to counter nuke with nuke.

Does this statement made by the North Korean government sound like a threat to launch a nuclear strike on the US?

When one reads this brief snippet taken from a 5,500 word report carefully, it’s obvious that this is not a threat to launch a nuclear strike, but an explanation of the rationale behind North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea’s leader, said another summit with the United States would only be useful for Washington at this point, adding her country had no intention of “threatening the U.S.,” according to state media.

Kim said in her personal opinion, there is unlikely to be another summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump this year but “a surprise thing may still happen,” news agency KCNA reported on Friday.

North Korea earlier rejected the possibility of restarting negotiations with the United States and accused Washington of embracing a "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang and disregarding agreements made at past summits.

The DPRK said on Monday it does not intend to hold negotiations with the US, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

After the aggravation of inter-Korean relations, the media and experts from different countries, as well as some officials, spoke about the need and even the possibility of resuming US-DPRK talks before the US presidential election in November.

In his book due to be released on 23 June, John Bolton, in particular, accuses US President Donald Trump of misusing his powers and claims that POTUS was manipulated and easily influenced by the foreign leaders of China, Russia, Turkey, and North Korea.

John Bolton’s lawyers have filed a motion in court to dismiss a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit against the former US national security adviser aimed at blocking the publication of his upcoming book for reportedly containing highly classified information.

According to the motion, "[…] Defendant John R. Bolton moves to dismiss the [DOJ’s] complaint for failure to state a claim".

Now that the distinctive inter-Korean liaison office at Kaesong lies in ruins following Tuesday's major escalation, North Korea is reportedly preparing to send troops into the border area where they will resume "all kinds of regular military exercises" just meters away from South Korea.

According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, North Korea's military is reviewing plans to reenter the DMZ that was previously disarmed under an inter-Korean agreement.

"Our army is keeping a close watch on the current situation in which the north-south relations are turning worse and worse, and getting itself fully ready for providing a sure military guarantee to any external measures to be taken by the Party and government," the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said in a statement carried by KCNA, the Korean Central News Agency.

Pyongyang has vowed to send troops back into previously disarmed areas and renew military drills near the border, amid an ongoing spat with Seoul over defectors, inflamed further by the recent demolition of a negotiations outpost.
North Korea will reestablish a troop presence in the Mount Kumgang and Kaesong regions – which both fall just beyond the Demilitarized Zone along the border – and resume “all kinds of regular military exercises,” the Korean People's Army said on Wednesday, according to Yonhap News.

North Korea blew up a liaison office building it operates with South Korea, officials in Seoul said Tuesday, as tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated amid stalled denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and the Trump administration.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said it was still trying to determine precisely what happened. But it confirmed that the joint liaison office, opened in 2018 to foster better relations between the rival Koreas, was destroyed by North Korea at the border town of Kaesong.

The targeting of the building by North Korea comes as Pyongyang has repeatedly warned Seoul that it needs to prevent defectors and activists from sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border via balloons and drones.

South Korea is holding an emergency meeting on Sunday in response to worsening ties with North Korea, and following threats of military action by Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim, who serves as a top aide, says that she is to instruct North Korean forces to carry out a decisive action, saying “I feel it is high time to surely break with the South Korea authorities.”

She didn’t specify what that would entail, but South Koreans have recently been sending anti-regime leaflets north, and that tends to rile up the North Korean government and lead to threats of non-specific actions. South Korea is urging both sides to honor agreements.

The Trump-Kim bromance which held the potential for a historic breakthrough toward lasting peace and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula may have run its course. A top Pyongyang official now says there's "little reason" to maintain ties.

"North Korea sees little use maintaining a personal relationship between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump if Washington sticks to hostile policies, state media reported on Friday - the two-year anniversary of the leaders’ first summit," Reuters reports of the surprisingly frank remarks.

Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said in statements reported by state news agency KCNA that Pyongyang is growing tired of what it sees as mere political point scoring from the US administration, with nothing actually changing for North Korea.

Still on his public appearance 'return' tour after last month's 'where's Kim?' false alarm, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted a meeting of top generals on the country's nuclear policy Sunday — the first appearance since his May 1st tour of a factory quashed persistent rumors about his health.

State media asserted Pyongyang would continue to bolster its nuclear capabilities undeterred, amid stalled nuclear talks with the White House, at the meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Military Commission (CMC).

KCNA reported the meeting was aimed at efforts to “reliably contain the persistent big or small military threats from the hostile forces,” according to Reuters. The report emphasized the country would increase its "nuclear war deterrence".

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made an unusually small number of public appearances in the past two months, once again going three weeks without state media reporting his attendance at a public event, according to analysts.

North Korea fired gunshots at a South Korean guard post in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a buffer area which separates the two countries, on Sunday, and the South fired back, according to its military.

The North Korean gunfire hit the wall but did not injure anyone or cause any discernible damage to the guard post or its equipment, said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). Several bullets from the North were fired into the DMZ at 7:41 a.m. local time Sunday, the JCS said in a text message to press.

The South Korean military responded by broadcasting a verbal warning and returning fire twice, according to protocol outlined in the response manual and on the judgment of the field commander, according to the JCS statement.

Kim Yo-jong, who has been progressing quickly through the ruling party ranks over the past few years, played a prominent role in her brother's diplomacy being by his side at key state meetings, such as his summits with President Donald Trump in Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam last year. However, analysts wonder whether a woman could take up the reins of the country, especially without being explicitly blessed by her brother, the report says.

The CRS goes further to note that any power struggle may have major implications for the United States, including on such burning issues as North Korea's nuclear arsenal and the possibility of a confrontation with China that could "alter the fundamental security structure of the region” etc.

Meanwhile, things still look calm from the economic perspective, the report says noting North Korea has shown "few signs of severe economic distress that could trigger a systemic collapse".

As reports swirl about whether or not Kim Jong Un’s younger sister is a candidate to replace him should he die, a South Korean think tank reported Wednesday that she has been gaining power in the Hermit Kingdom in recent months.

South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said on Friday that North Korea is stepping up readiness activities for its air and artillery units, for no apparent reason.

The activity could indicate Pyongyang is preparing another illegal missile test, or it could be related to the disappearance of dictator Kim Jong-un, believed by some outside observers to be dead or incapacitated.

The rumor mill over the fate of Kim Jong Un has gone into overdrive, as the North Korean leader hasn't been seen since April 11 - over two weeks ago. And as the New York Times notes in a Sunday morning report, North Korea's recent silence on Kim is highly unusual, considering that rumors are flying that their leader is either dead or in a vegetative state after a botched heart surgery.

"North Korea is still sending letters and gifts to foreign leaders and domestic workers in the name of its leader, Kim Jong-un. Its news media brims, as usual, with panegyric propaganda extolling Mr. Kim’s leadership," reports the Times.

The rumor mill over the fate of Kim Jong Un has gone into overdrive, as the North Korean leader hasn't been seen since April 11 - over two weeks ago. And as the New York Times notes in a Sunday morning report, North Korea's recent silence on Kim is highly unusual, considering that rumors are flying that their leader is either dead or in a vegetative state after a botched heart surgery.

"North Korea is still sending letters and gifts to foreign leaders and domestic workers in the name of its leader, Kim Jong-un. Its news media brims, as usual, with panegyric propaganda extolling Mr. Kim’s leadership," reports the Times.

Taiwan News relays that Japanese media, citing the medical team treating Kim Jong Un, is reporting that the 36-year-old has been left in a vegetative state following a botched heart surgery.

The rash of stories claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is on his deathbed – all sourced to a South Korean blog post – show Western media will run any horrific item on the Hermit Kingdom, confident they won’t be contradicted.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is clinging to life by a thread after heart surgery went horribly, horribly wrong! Or at least, US intelligence is monitoring reports that Kim was “in grave danger” after botched surgery, as CNN reported on Monday. The source for Kim’s health troubles was a single report from South Korean web outlet The Daily NK, itself citing a single source in the North.

The U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK) has furloughed about half of its 8,500 local hires, not for fear of the COVID 19 pandemic, but in a ploy to extract more subsidies from the South Korean government, using workers as pawns.

As of April 1, about 4,000 Korean employees were put on unpaid leave until further notice after the U.S. and South Korean governments failed to renew a cost-sharing deal that expired December 31.

“This is an unfortunate day for us,” USFK commander, Gen. Robert B. Abrams, said on April 1, commenting on the unprecedented massive furlough. “It’s heartbreaking.”

In a sarcastic tweet he sent some hours later, however, the four-star army general betrayed his sympathetically toned remarks.

“I learned today that,” Gen. Abrams said, “’Don’t count your chickens before they hatch’ = ‘Don’t eat your kimchi stew before the time is right.’”

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Un is receiving treatment after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure early this month, a South Korean media report said, amid speculation over Kim's health following his absence from a major anniversary event.

Iran says South Korea has rejected a SWIFT payment request by Tehran for purchase of coronavirus testing kits over the US sanctions.

Iran's Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour late Saturday released a document that shows a Saudi-funded TV had asked a Korean bank to reject the request.

"As a result, the Korean bank rejected Iran's request and the kits were not delivered to Iran," he said.

According to the document, London-based Iran International television channel falsely claimed that the SWIFT request had been made by a software company which sought to export non-medical goods to Iran.

South Korea today reported just eight new cases of coronavirus as the country's daily increase dropped to single figures for the first time in two months.

The East Asian nation has now confirmed 10,661 cases of the virus, which has killed 234 people in South Korea throughout the global pandemic.

A further 8,042 patients have recovered and been released from quarantine, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, while 12,243 others were today undergoing testing for Covid-19.

'We must not loosen our guard until the last confirmed patient is recovered,' South Korea President Moon Jae-in said.

South Korean health officials are investigating several possible explanations for a small but growing number of recovered coronavirus patients who later test positive for the virus again.

Among the main possibilities are re-infection, a relapse, or inconsistent tests, experts say.

South Korea had reported 141 such cases as of Thursday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Experts believe that one reason people are relapsing may be that the virus attacks immune cells called T lymphocytes that play a major role in the body's ability to identify infections and start to mount a response.

Investigators have found an oil pipeline that was illegally installed and used by US Forces Korea (USFK) in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, in the 1940s and 50s.

Sources at South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense and the city of Gunsan told the Hankyoreh on Apr. 1 that the city and the Defense Installations Agency found the pipeline underground on a second dig near 609-29 Gaesa Neighborhood, in the vicinity of Okgu Reservoir, on Mar. 31.

The steel pipeline, with a diameter of 150mm, was buried around 70cm underground, running from Gunsan Harbor to an airfield on the US Kunsan (Gunsan) Air Base. The pipeline was presumably left there by USFK after they shut it down 40 years ago.

North Korea said Monday that “reckless remarks” by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made it clear that Washington has no intention of resuming nuclear talks, and warned that it is now compelled to pay back “the pains the U.S. has imposed on our people.”

After a teleconference of foreign ministers of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations last week, Pompeo told reporters the international community must remain united in urging North Korea to return to nuclear talks and in continuing to apply pressure on its nuclear and missile programs.

The country has carried out a handful of similar tests this month. The missiles fell into waters between the North and Japan.

This is the third time the DPRK has launched missiles recently, following the launch of three unidentified projectiles into the Sea of Japan on 9 March.

North Korea has launched two short-range ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan, Yonhap news agency reported on Saturday citing the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

According to the military, today's missiles were launched from the North Pyongan Province.

"This morning, the [South] Korean military captured two projectiles [believed] to be short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Pyongan North Island region over the East Sea", the JCS said.

In a potential setback for President Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signaled his country could resume testing nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missiles. WSJ Korea correspondent Andrew Jeong explains what’s next for the U.S.-North Korea talks

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a letter expressing hope for South Korea to overcome a coronavirus outbreak, President Moon Jae-in’s office said on Thursday, as the South battles the biggest epidemic of the disease outside China.

The outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new strain of coronavirus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, Hubei province, last December and has since claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people worldwide.

600 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) have been confirmed in South Korea, bringing the total number of cases to 4,812, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. The total number of fatalities has reached 28.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CEO Eun-Kyung Jung) said that 600 additional [cases of coronavirus] were confirmed from 2 March to 3 March 2020, and the total number of confirmed patients was 4,812", the statement said.

With growing concerns about air travel due to the breakout of Covid-19 in Asia, South Korea's transport ministry announced that all passengers bound for the US would have to undergo mandatory temperature checks before boarding planes starting March 3, reported Bloomberg.

The United States postponed its wargames with South Korea on Thursday as concerns continue to grow over the coronavirus. The combined command announced an upcoming “command post-training” conducted by members of the two militaries’ Combined Forces Command will be postponed “until further notice”, World News reported.

The first case of the novel coronavirus among the US armed forces has been registered in South Korea, according to the United States Forces Korea (USFK).

"A USFK soldier stationed at Camp Carroll tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first time a U.S. service member has tested positive for the virus. We’re implementing all appropriate control measures to protect the force", USFK tweeted.

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor shut down a factory in South Korea on Friday after a worker tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The factory in Ulsan builds the Palisade, Tucson, Santa Fe and Genesis GV80 crossovers.

The closing dealt a fresh setback to Hyundai, which has gradually resumed production at local plants hit by a Chinese parts shortage in the wake of the virus outbreak.

South Korea has the most infected people outside China, affecting companies like Samsung and Hyundai. South Korea on Friday reported 256 new cases, bringing the total number of infected to 2,022, as the world prepared for a global recession.

"The company has also placed colleagues who came in close contact with the infected employee in self-quarantine and taken steps to have them tested for possible infection," Hyundai Motor said in a news release.

The automaker said it was disinfecting the factory. It did not say when production would resume.

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor shut down a factory in South Korea on Friday after a worker tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The factory in Ulsan builds the Palisade, Tucson, Santa Fe and Genesis GV80 crossovers.

The closing dealt a fresh setback to Hyundai, which has gradually resumed production at local plants hit by a Chinese parts shortage in the wake of the virus outbreak.

South Korea has the most infected people outside China, affecting companies like Samsung and Hyundai. South Korea on Friday reported 256 new cases, bringing the total number of infected to 2,022, as the world prepared for a global recession.

"The company has also placed colleagues who came in close contact with the infected employee in self-quarantine and taken steps to have them tested for possible infection," Hyundai Motor said in a news release.

The automaker said it was disinfecting the factory. It did not say when production would resume.

- Confirmed cases worldwide pass 83,000; deaths top 2,800
- JPMorgan joins rush to curb global travel as virus spreads
- China is making progress in the battle to get back to work
- South Korea reveals 571 more cases
- Limited virus testing in Japan masks true scale of infection
- Hong Kong dog found to have ‘low level’ of virus

South Korea’s foreign minister called on Monday for a quick resumption of stalled U.S.-North Korean nuclear talks, adding that her government stood ready to engage with Pyongyang to facilitate dialogue.

Kang Kyung-wha, addressing the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, said the goal remained complete denuclearisation on the divided Korean peninsula.

“A speedy resumption of the U.S.-DPRK negotiations is critical so that all stakeholders maintain and build upon the hard-won momentum for dialogue. We stand ready to engage with the North in a way that facilitates and accelerates the U.S.-DPRK dialogue,” Kang told the Geneva forum.

South Korea now emerges as the next hotspot of the Covid-19 outbreak that has been tormenting China for the last several months.

Late on Friday, South Korea reported 142 new confirmed cases, up a mindboggling 70% in just one day, to 346. A second death was also reported.

South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in has placed the country on “red alert” after it reported its fifth death and more than 123 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infected to 556.

As the nation struggled on Sunday to contain the deadly Covid-19 outbreak in the city of Daegu, the president described the coming days as “a very important moment”, the news agency Yonhap said.

The government would bolster its fight against the virus by raising the alert level one notch to the highest of “red”, he told an emergency meeting of agencies in Seoul on Sunday.

Of the 123 new cases, 75 are related to the Shincheonji church in the country’s fourth-largest city of Daegu and a neighbouring hospital.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it has placed more than 9,000 Shincheonji members in self-quarantine and thousands of worshippers have been screened for the virus.

Seemingly overnight, the public attitude toward the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea has gone from simmering apprehension to full-blown paranoia. And nowhere is that more apparent than in Daegu, the country's fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.5 million people - roughly one-tenth of the South's total population.

As the South Korean government debates whether to raise the alert level, the mayor of Daegu has asked all of the city's residents to avoid venturing outside as the government tracks down, tests and quarantines all the members of a church where an infected woman is believed to have spread the virus to more than 40 people.

Earlier Thursday, South Korea said it has confirmed a total of 82 cases of the virus. It seems to be spreading to other places with little hope of containment, although there are quarantine measures in place. “National quarantine efforts that are currently focused on blocking the inflow of the virus (from China) and stemming its spread are inadequate for preventing the illness from circulating in local communities,” said the mayor of the South Korean city of Daegu, Kwon Young-jin.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it had no indications the new coronavirus had spread to North Korea, after South Korean media suggested there were cases and deaths there that were being covered up by the Pyongyang authorities.

In a breakthrough for eradicating the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19), South Korean officials have successfully treated a patient using all-natural oxygen therapy.

Unlike our own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which only advocates for pharmaceuticals and vaccines, Korea’s CDC effectively cured, dare we use that word, a patient by delivering oxygen through a face mask, according to the local news service Newsis.

North Korea illegally exported millions of tons of commodities like coal last year to enhance its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons programs, according to a confidential UN report.

Prepared by a UN-appointed independent panel of experts charged with monitoring sanctions enforcement and efficacy on the Pyongyang regime, the annual report -- which has not yet been publicly released -- reveals North Korea continued its weapons program last year in violation of long-standing UN Security Council sanctions.

Investigators also concluded that "despite its extensive indigenous capability it (North Korea) uses illicit external procurement for components and technology" to develop weapons.

Written largely by the most prestigious British scientist of his day, this official report, containing hundreds of pages of evidence about the use of US biological weapons during the Korean War, was effectively suppressed upon its original release in 1952.

Courtesy of researcher Jeffrey Kaye, INSURGE now publishes the report in text-searchable format for the first time for the general public, with an exclusive, in-depth analysis of its damning findings and implications.

The report provides compelling evidence of systematic violation of the laws of war against North Korea through the deployment of biological weapons — a critical context that is essential for anyone to understand the dynamics of current regional tensions, and what might be done about them.

It's now about two months since a deadly novel coronavirus was found in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and nearly every country and territory in East Asia has confirmed a case.

But not North Korea.

North Korea has postponed plans to tear down South Korean-made hotels and other facilities at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort to prevent the spread of a new virus that has reached the South after sickening thousands in China.

The North’s decision, which was conveyed to the South through a fax message late Thursday, came as it intensifies precautions against the outbreak, including blocking tourists, reducing flights and mobilizing screening efforts in a nationwide campaign state media described as a matter of “national existence.”

A small natural earthquake detected in North Korea on Wednesday was likely a result of seismic instability lingering in the area since North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test in 2017, the South Korean government said.

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.