denuclearization

On November 28, 2019, North Korea conducted a “thirteenth, anniversary, missile launch”: a major multiple rocket launchers (MRL) weapons test, when two large-caliber short-range projectiles were launched from its South Hamgyong province into the Sea of Japan. Yonhap News Agency later clarified that the two projectiles traveled a maximum distance of 380 km at an altitude of approximately 97 km, quoting a press release given by the South Korean army’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

On 2 October 2019, North Korea carried out yet another (11th since the start of the year) missile launch, which has caused a much bigger uproar than the test firing of short-range missiles or of a “super-large” multiple rocket launcher (MLRS) that we had reported on earlier this summer.

Patrick Lawrence eyes the U.S. president’s difficulties with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton as he tries to resume peace talks with Pyongyang. By Patrick Lawrence Special to Consortium News Moon Jae-in’s Oval Office meeting…Read more →

RT CrossTalk host Peter Lavelle and The Duran’s Alex Christoforou take a quick look at the Vietnam summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
No joint agreement was reached between the two countries after Kim insisted all US sanctions be lifted on his country, while White House National Security Adviser, John Bolton played the role of last-minute spoiler, influencing President Trump’s negotiations so as to produce an ultimate failure to agree.

One would expect the headlines would already be starting to scream. About North Korea that is. That is also, if one is not watching the permanent distraction programming of American media as Michael Cohen, perhaps the worst possible choice of witness, tries to save his tail from prison and malign President Trump at the same time.

Even armchair observers probably understood long before the Hanoi summit had even been scheduled that the gulf between the American and North Korean positions on denuclearization was probably too wide to overcome (after nearly a year of talks, the two sides are no closer to a deal).

TEHRAN – Iran welcomed the Foreign Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, as North Korea is officially known), Ri Yong-ho, to Tehran one day after the U.S. reimposed sanctions on Iran. The visit also came in the midst of faltering talks between Pyongyang and Washington over fulfilling the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
Ri met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday, when the foreign minister briefed Rouhani on the ongoing talks between the DPRK and the U.S.

Fox News reported that an American research group claimed that North Korea began dismantling its main missile engine test facilities.
This is viewed as a possible sign that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is following through with the North Korean side of the agreement that Chairman Kim and President Trump agreed to at their historic summit in Singapore on 12 June.
The Fox piece continues:

On the heels of the historic June 12 Trump-Kim Singapore Summit that de-escalated tensions between North Korea and the US, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made his third visit to NK to move the negotiations for denuclearization and security on the peninsula forward. He met with his North Korean counterpart, Vice Chair of the Party Central Committee, Kim Young Chol, on July 6 and 7, for intensive negotiations.