North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calls for readiness against virus, typhoon

Kim Jong Un held his third high-level political conference in as many weeks, where he raised alarm about the nation’s coronavirus response and a typhoon forecast to hit the country early Thursday

In a rare display of urgency, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held his third high-level political conference in as many weeks, where he raised alarm about the nation’s coronavirus response and a typhoon forecast to hit the country early Thursday. During an enlarged meeting of the Politburo of the ruling Workers’ Party on Tuesday, Kim lamented unspecified “defects” and shortcomings in the country’s anti-virus campaign and urged that they be corrected swiftly, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.

Kim also called thorough preparations to minimise damage from Typhoon Bavi, which comes weeks after torrential rains caused flooding and massive damage to homes and crops, inflicting further pain to an economy ravaged by US-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons and border closures amid the pandemic. Kim Jong Un set tasks for the party and public services at every level, “saying that to thoroughly prevent the casualties by the typhoon and minimise the damage to crops is important work which can never be neglected even a moment, KCNA paraphrased the leader as saying.

Typhoon Bavi as of Wednesday morning was near the South Korean island of Jeju and was on course to hit the northwest coast of the Korean Peninsula around daybreak Thursday morning. South Korea’s weather agency said it had a maximum wind speed of 155 kilometers per hour (96 mph) and was forecast as one of the strongest to hit the peninsula this year…

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No suspicious activity in North: South Korea amid Kim’s poor health reports

Speculation about Kim’s health was raised after he missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15

South Korea’s presidential office says no suspicious activities have been detected in North Korea, however, it couldn’t confirm Kim Jong Un’s current health.Earlier after media reports surfaced about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in ‘grave danger’ following a surgery surfaced, the South Korean government on Tuesday said that it is looking into the news .However, officials from South Korea’s Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, said they couldn’t immediately confirm the report.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 factoid: South Korea stages a sharp recovery, Kerala does well too

Another US media house Daily NK, reported that Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving.Speculation about Kim’s health was raised after he missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.Credible information about North Korea and especially its leadership is difficult to obtain and even intelligence agencies have been wrong about its inner workings in the past…

Kim Jong-un’s half-brother killed in Malaysia was a CIA informant: Report

The Journal cited an unnamed “person knowledgeable about the matter” for the report, and said many details of Kim Jong Nam’s relationship with the CIA remained unclear

International News: Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who was killed in Malaysia in 2017, had been an informant for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The Journal cited an unnamed “person knowledgeable about the matter” for the report, and said many details of Kim Jong Nam’s relationship with the CIA remained unclear. Reuters could not independently confirm the story. The CIA declined to comment.

The Journal quoted the person as saying “There was a nexus” between the CIA and Kim Jong Nam. “Several former U.S. officials said the half brother, who had lived outside of North Korea for many years and had no known power base in Pyongyang, was unlikely to be able to provide details of the secretive country’s inner workings,” the Journal said.

The former officials also said Kim Jong Nam had been almost certainly in contact with security services of other countries, particularly China’s, the Journal said. Kim Jong Nam’s role as a CIA informant is mentioned in a new book about Kim Jong Un, “The Great Successor,” by Washington Post reporter Anna Fifield that is due to be published on Tuesday. Fifield says Kim Jong Nam usually met his handlers in Singapore and Malaysia, citing a source with knowledge of the intelligence.

The book says that security camera footage from Kim Jong Nam’s last trip to Malaysia showed him in a hotel elevator with an Asian-looking man who was reported to be a U.S. intelligence agent. It said Ki’s backpack contained $120,000 in cash, which could have been payment for intelligence-related activities, or earnings from his casino businesses. South Korean and U.S. officials have said the North Korean authorities had ordered the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, who had been critical of his family’s dynastic rule. Pyongyang has denied the allegation.

Two women were charged with poisoning Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with liquid VX, a banned chemical weapon, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. Malaysia released Doan Thi Huong, who is Vietnamese, in May, and Indonesian Siti Aisyah in March…

North Korea is 'begging for war'; strongest measures needed: US to UNSC

North Korea on Sunday announced that it has successfully conducted a test of a hydrogen bomb

 

 

The United States' top UN representative has said that North Korea is "begging for war" and urged the UN Security Council to impose "the strongest possible measures" on Pyongyang over its sixth and largest nuclear test.

"To the members of the UN Security Council, I must say - enough is enough.The time for half-measures in the Security Council is over. We must now adopt the strongest possible measures", Sputnik quoted US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley as saying during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the recent hydrogen bomb test by North Korea.

"Kim Jong-un's abusive use of missiles and his nuclear threats show that he is begging for war. War is never something the United States wants. We don't want it now. But our country's patience is not unlimited," she added.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman dubbed North Korea's nuclear tests as a dangerous provocation and said that Pyongyang has undermined the international non-proliferation efforts.

"We are alarmed by this dangerous provocation. The secretary-general condemns the underground nuclear test announced by the DPRK. This act is yet another serious breach of the DPRK's international obligations and undermines international non-proliferation and disarmament efforts," he said.

Japan's UN Ambassador Koro Bessho called for UNSC to adopt swiftly a new resolution with further robust sanction measures against Pyongyang.

He said UNSC must act to stop North Korea from continuing such actions and should put maximum pressure to change its policy.

He further said that North Korea's nuclear test was an outrageous and unacceptable challenge to the security and safety of the world.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump on Sunday termed North Korea a "rogue nation" for conducting nuclear tests and said that its "actions continue to be very dangerous to the Washington."

In a series of tweets, Trump further said that North Korea has become a great threat and embarrassment to China.

North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017

..North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017

South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!.....Read More