SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumors over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.
"Our government position is firm," said Moon's special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. "Kim Jong Un is alive and well."
The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan -- a resort town in the country's east -- since April 13, adding: "No suspicious movements have so far been detected."
Conjecture about Kim's health has grown since his conspicuous absence from the April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar.
Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers' Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the following day state media reported him inspecting fighter jets at an air defense unit.
His absence has unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cold water on.
"We have nothing to confirm and no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now," the South's presidential office said in a statement last week.
Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, has reported Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month.
Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.
Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected reports that Kim was ailing but declined to state when he was last in touch with him.
On Monday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Kim had sent a message of thanks to workers on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project.
It was the latest in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions taken in Kim's name, although none has carried any pictures of him.
Satellite images reviewed by 38North, a US-based think tank, showed a train probably belonging to Kim at a station in Wonsan last week.
It cautioned that the train's presence did not "indicate anything about his health" but did "lend weight" to reports he was staying on the country's eastern coast.
Reporting from inside the isolated North is notoriously difficult, especially on anything to do with its leadership, which is among its most closely guarded secrets.
Previous absences from the public eye on Kim's part have prompted speculation about his health.
In 2014 he dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. Days later, the South's spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.
Agence France-Presse
Microsoft said Monday it obtained a court order allowing it to seize web domains used by North Korean hacking groups to launch cyberattacks on human rights activists, researchers and others.
The US technology giant said a federal court allowed it to take control of 50 domains operated by a group dubbed Thallium, which tricked online users by fraudulently using Microsoft brands and trademarks.
"This network was used to target victims and then compromise their online accounts, infect their computers, compromise the security of their networks and steal sensitive information," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president for customer security and trust.
"Based on victim information, the targets included government employees, think tanks, university staff members, members of organizations focused on world peace and human rights, and individuals that work on nuclear proliferation issues. Most targets were based in the US, as well as Japan and South Korea," he added.
Microsoft, which had been investigating the group through its Digital Crimes Unit and Threat Intelligence Center, said the hacking group sent spoofed emails that appeared to come from Microsoft which tricked users into revealing their login credentials, a technique known as spear phishing.
"By gathering information about the targeted individuals from social media, public personnel directories from organizations the individual is involved with and other public sources, Thallium is able to craft a personalized spear-phishing email in a way that gives the email credibility to the target," Burt said.
After getting the victim's credentials, the hackers can access emails, contact lists, calendar appointments and other data and often forwards any new emails to the attackers.
The hackers also used malicious software which can access other data on a victim's computer.
An order from a US federal court in Virginia allowed Microsoft to take control of the domains, meaning "the sites can no longer be used to execute attacks," Burt said.
Microsoft said this was the fourth nation-state group it has acted against and follows similar moves against operations from China, Russia and Iran, dubbed Barium, Strontium and Phosphorus, respectively.
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SEOUL, South Korea- North Korea has launched a visceral diatribe against US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, calling the former vice-president a "rabid dog," while also borrowing the terminology of Donald Trump.
Pyongyang is renowned for its vitriol, but the verbal deluge was unusually ferocious even by its own standards.
Biden "had the temerity to dare slander the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK," the North's official KCNA news agency said late Thursday, referring to the country by its official name.
"Rabid dogs like Biden can hurt lots of people if they are allowed to run about," it went on. "They must be beaten to death with a stick.
"Doing so will be beneficial for the US also," it added.
It was not immediately clear what had provoked Pyongyang's ire, but Biden's campaign released an ad this week condemning Trump's foreign policy, saying that "dictators and tyrants are praised, our allies pushed aside."
The voiceover says the word "tyrants" at the exact moment a picture appears of US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shaking hands at their Singapore summit last year.
KCNA appeared to cite one of Trump's favored insults for the candidate -- "Sleepy Joe" -- when it said Americans called him "Biden not awakened from asleep."
Biden had shown "a sign of the final stage of dementia," KCNA added. "It seems time has come for him to depart his life."
KCNA misspelled the candidate's name as "Baiden" throughout, seemingly reflecting the spelling used in the Korean alphabet.
It is not the first time the North has condemned Biden. In May it called him an "imbecile" and a "fool of low IQ" days after he called Kim a "dictator" and "tyrant."
The rhetoric underscores its "impatience" with any criticism of Kim, said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute.
"Pyongyang has always loathed hearing its leadership labeled as tyrant or dictator by the outside world," he said.
The invective against Biden was "pretty high on the scale," North Korean propaganda specialist Mason Richey of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies told AFP, highlighting the multiple repetitions of the "beating the dog" trope.
Trump himself has also been the target of Pyongyang's anger at times.
In 2017 the two leaders traded personal insults and threats of war before the diplomatic rapprochement that has seen them meet three times and Trump repeatedly proclaims their personal friendship, although nuclear negotiations remain deadlocked.
As tensions mounted, Kim called Trump a "mentally deranged US dotard" whom he would "tame with fire," while KCNA also branded him a "rabid dog."
KCNA used the same Korean word previously translated as "dotard" in its article Thursday, although the epithet did not appear in the official English version.
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STOCKHOLM -- Working-level nuclear talks in Sweden between officials from Pyongyang and Washington have broken off, North Korea's top negotiator said late on Saturday, dashing prospects for an end to months of stalemate.
The talks, at an isolated conference center on the outskirts of Stockholm, were the first such formal discussion since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in June and agreed to restart negotiations that stalled after a failed summit in Vietnam in February.
The North's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Myong Gil, who spent much of the day in talks with an American delegation, cast the blame on what he portrayed as US inflexibility, saying the other side's negotiators would not "give up their old viewpoint and attitude."
"The negotiations have not fulfilled our expectations and finally broke off," Kim told reporters outside the North Korean embassy, speaking through an interpreter.
The US State Department said Kim's comments did not reflect "the content or spirit" of more than 8-1/2 hours of talks, and Washington had accepted Sweden's invitation to return for more discussions with Pyongyang in 2 weeks.
"The US brought creative ideas and had good discussions with its DPRK counterparts," spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. North Korea is also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
She said the US delegation had previewed a number of new initiatives that would pave the way for progress in the talks and underscored the importance of more intensive engagement.
"The United States and the DPRK will not overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean peninsula through the course of a single Saturday," she added.
"These are weighty issues, and they require a strong commitment by both countries. The United States has that commitment."
North Korea's Kim downplayed the US gestures.
"The U.S. raised expectations by offering suggestions like a flexible approach, new method, and creative solutions, but they have disappointed us greatly and dampened our enthusiasm for negotiation by bringing nothing to the negotiation table," he said.
Swedish broadcaster TV4 said the US Special Representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, who led the team, had arrived back at the U.S. embassy in central Stockholm.
The Swedish foreign office declined to give details on the invitation for new talks, or whether Pyongyang had accepted.
Since June, US officials had struggled to persuade North Korea, which is under sanctions banning much of its trade, due to its nuclear program, to return to the table, but that appeared to change this week when the North abruptly announced it had agreed to talks.
On Saturday, negotiator Kim accused the United States of having no intention of solving difficulties through dialogue but said a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula was still possible.
It would only happen "when all the obstacles that threaten our safety and check our development are removed completely without a shadow of a doubt," he said, in an apparent reference to North Korea's desire for Washington to ease economic pressure.
On Sunday, China's President Xi Jinping and the North's leader exchanged messages to reaffirm the neighbors' relationship on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. China is the North's only major ally.
Xi, who has met Kim 5 times in the past year, said they had "reached a series of important consensuses, leading China-North Korea relations into a new historical era," the official Xinhua news agency said.
Kim replied the 2 leaders would "resolutely safeguard the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the world," Xinhua reported.
TENSIONS
The delegation from North Korea arrived in Sweden on Thursday. Analysts have said both countries' leaders had growing incentives to reach a deal, but it was unclear if common ground could be found after months of tension and deadlock.
The readout from the talks did not sound very promising, said Jenny Town, a managing editor at 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea project.
"I think (North Korea's) expectations were too high that the removal of Bolton would provide more flexibility on what the US wants as initial steps," she said, referring to Trump's hardline former aide John Bolton, abruptly fired last month amid disagreements on how to tackle foreign policy challenges.
"While certainly, it removes some pressure for an all or nothing deal, it seems the gap between what the 2 sides want as a baseline and are willing to reciprocate still has not narrowed," Town added.
An official at South Korea's presidential office said the talks in Sweden were nevertheless the beginning of negotiations, and that South Korea hoped the United States and North Korea would keep the momentum of the dialogue.
Only a day after announcing the new talks, North Korea said it had test-fired a new ballistic missile designed for submarine launch, underscoring the need for Washington to move quickly to negotiate limits on Pyongyang's growing arsenal.
Speaking in Athens on a tour of southern Europe while the talks were still underway, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said he was hopeful of progress.
"We are mindful this will be the first time that we've had a chance to have a discussion in quite some time and that there remains to be a lot of work that will have to be done by the 2 teams," he told a news conference.
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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday underlined his intense personal support for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even if he admitted that Pyongyang's recent missile tests "may" violate a UN resolution.
"There may be a United Nations violation, but Chairman Kim does not want to disappoint me with a violation of trust, there is far too much for North Korea to gain," Trump said in a series of tweets on the subject.
"Chairman Kim has a great and beautiful vision for his country, and only the United States, with me as President, can make that vision come true," Trump added, misspelling the North Korean dictator's official title.
Nuclear-armed North Korea is barred from ballistic missile tests under UN resolutions, and its recent repeated testing of short-range missiles has been condemned by European members of the UN Security Council.
Trump, however, has dismissed the tests as "standard."
The US president has invested a huge amount of political capital in his attempt to persuade Kim to end his country's isolation and give up its nuclear arsenal.
However, despite three massively publicized face-to-face meetings and numerous exchanges of letters, Trump has modest gains to show for his diplomacy.
In Trump's latest tweets, he has again suggested that his personal touch will be enough to persuade Kim to reverse the regime's years-long push for military nuclear power.
"He will do the right thing because he is far too smart not to, and he does not want to disappoint his friend, President Trump!" the US president said.
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SEOUL - An Australian student who was expelled from North Korea denied on Tuesday that he had been spying on the authoritarian state while he lived there.
Alek Sigley, 29, was released last week after being detained for several days, with Pyongyang later accusing him of promoting propaganda against the country online.
"The allegation that I am a spy is (pretty obviously) false," he wrote on Twitter, adding that he was "well both mentally and physically".
"I am still very interested in North Korea and want to continue academic research and other work related to the country. But I currently have no plans to visit the country again, at least in the short term," he wrote.
The tweets were the first comments addressing the incident from Sigley, who speaks fluent Korean and had been one of just a handful of Westerners living and studying in North Korea.
His disappearance, which prompted deep concern about his fate, came just days before a G20 summit and a landmark meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
After he was released and flew to Japan, North Korean state media published a report saying the country had deported the student for spying.
"I may never again walk the streets of Pyongyang, a city that holds a very special place in my heart," Sigley, who speaks fluent Korean, tweeted Tuesday.
"I may never again see my teachers and my partners in the travel industry, whom I've come to consider close friends. But that's life."
From the capital, Sigley organized tours to the country and ran a number of social media sites that posted a stream of apolitical content about life in one of the world's most secretive nations.
His blog posts focused on everyday Pyongyang -- from the city's dining scene to North Korean app reviews -- and he married his Japanese wife there last year.
He also wrote columns for specialist website NK News, which North Korean state media called an anti-regime news outlet in its report on Saturday.
NK News has released a statement denying the accusations, which the student said he stood by.
He said the "only material" he gave to the news site and other outlets was what was published.
His case was complicated by Australia's lack of diplomatic representation in North Korea, with the Swedish envoy helping to negotiate his release.
On Twitter, Sigley said he would not be speaking to the press or answering questions about the events on social media, having said on Friday he was planning to "return to normal life".
In 2016, University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned during a tour of North Korea, died days after arriving back in the United States.
Doctors said Warmbier suffered severe brain damage while in detention and fell into a coma before his death aged 22.
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PYONGYANG -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang Thursday during a historic visit to burnish an uneasy alliance, as the two men each face challenges of their own with US President Donald Trump.
While the North's nuclear negotiations with the US are at a standstill, Kim told his country's key diplomatic supporter and main provider of trade and aid that he was "willing to be patient", Chinese state media reported, but wanted "the parties concerned" to meet him halfway.
Xi is the first Chinese president to visit North Korea in 14 years, after relations between the Cold War-era allies deteriorated over Pyongyang's nuclear provocations and Beijing's subsequent backing of UN sanctions.
But Kim ensured that Xi was the first head of state he met when he embarked on a flurry of diplomacy last year, and has now visited his ally 4 times in China.
Pyongyang has been increasingly keen for Xi to reciprocate, while according to diplomats, Beijing has been biding its time to see how nuclear talks between Kim and Trump play out.
But China's own trade negotiations with Washington hit a wall last month and analysts say Xi is now looking for leverage ahead of his meeting with Trump at next week's G20 summit in Japan.
At their formal talks, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Kim told Xi that the North had taken "many positive measures to avoid a tense situation" over the past year, "but has not received positive responses from the relevant parties".
"This is not what the DPRK wants to see," CCTV cited him as adding.
Pyongyang wants to demonstrate to Trump that it has China's support after Trump and Kim's second summit in Hanoi in February broke up without a deal.
Xi told Kim that he "positively evaluated" the North's efforts and was "willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the DPRK and all relevant parties".
China has fretted over being sidelined by diplomatic developments since last year. Trump went as far as declaring he had fallen "in love" with Kim.
"Xi wants everyone to remain acutely aware that he can influence Kim, and that no comprehensive, durable deal with North Korea can occur without China's assistance -- and approval," Scott Seaman, Asia director of the Eurasia Group consultancy, said in a research note.
But Robert Wood, US Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, told AFP the US was not concerned.
"What we hope is that President Xi is making the point to Kim Jong Un that we need to move forward on denuclearisation, again something that Kim Jong Un has agreed to."
21-GUN SALUTE
Kim met Xi at Pyongyang airport as he began a two-day state visit with his wife Peng Liyuan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and other officials, television images showed.
Portraits of the two leaders stood outside the terminal, pictures showed, and a 21-gun salute was fired before the pair drove into the capital together, standing in a convertible Mercedes-Benz as they went past tens of thousands of cheering residents lining the streets and more waving from their windows.
Pyongyang always puts on an impressive show when a foreign leader visits, but in an unprecedented move, Xi was welcomed at the Kumsusan Palace, the mausoleum where the preserved bodies of the North's founder Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il -- the grandfather and father of the current leader -- lie in state.
Xi and his wife also watched "a large group calisthenics and art performance" with Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju at a stadium in Pyongyang, China's state-run Global Times reported on its Twitter account. It carried a picture of the two smiling leaders surrounded by a crowd waving Chinese and North Korean flags.
The show of amity belies a sometimes strained relationship -- Kim did not visit Beijing to pay his respects for more than six years after inheriting power.
Beijing sees the North as a strategic buffer, keeping the 28,500 US troops in South Korea far from its borders. Xi's trip was to include a stop at Pyongyang's Friendship Tower, which commemorates the millions of Chinese troops who saved Kim Il Sung's forces from defeat during the Korean War.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walks past honor guards during a welcoming ceremony upon arrival at the railway station in the far-eastern Russian port of Vladivostok on Wednesday. Although Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin are set to meet for the first time and are not planning on signing any agreements or making a joint statement, the North Korean leader’s visit comes amid a deadlock in the nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.
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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday sought to quell a firestorm sparked by his comments on the case of an American student tortured and left in a coma in North Korea, saying his words had been "misinterpreted."
Trump sparked widespread criticism when he told reporters at this week's summit with Kim Jong Un in Vietnam that he believed the North Korean leader's claim that he didn't know what happened to Otto Warmbier during his detention.
The 22-year-old Warmbier died days after being sent back to the United States in 2017.
After a stern rebuke from Warmbier's parents, Trump took to Twitter, insisting he held North Korea responsible for the student's death -- but without directly blaming Kim or even mentioning him.
"I never like being misinterpreted, but especially when it comes to Otto Warmbier and his great family," Trump said. "Of course I hold North Korea responsible for Otto's mistreatment and death.
"Most important, Otto Warmbier will not have died in vain. Otto and his family have become a tremendous symbol of strong passion and strength, which will last for many years into the future."
Earlier Friday, Warmbier's parents Fred and Cindy condemned the US leader's "lavish praise" of Kim this week following their summit in Hanoi.
"We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out," they said in a statement.
"Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity," they said.
"No excuses or lavish praise can change that."
In his response, Trump noted: "I got Otto out along with three others. The previous Administration did nothing, and he was taken on their watch."
He concluded: "I love Otto and think of him often!"
FIRESTORM OVER TRUMP PRAISE
Warmbier, an Ohio native who studied at the University of Virginia, had traveled to North Korea on a tour.
He was pulled away at the Pyongyang airport and charged with crimes against the state for allegedly taking down a propaganda poster in his hotel.
He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. After lengthy negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, Warmbier was released but died a few days later on American soil.
After the Hanoi summit, Trump said of Kim: "He knew the case very well, but he knew it later."
Kim "tells me that he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word," Trump said.
'TORTURED BEYOND BELIEF'
Washington politicians reminded the president that in 2017, he took credit for obtaining Warmbier's release.
"Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea," Trump said at the time.
That year, he also labelled Kim Jong Un a "madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people."
Warmbier's parents were then invited to attend Trump's State of the Union address in Congress in January 2018 and were hailed as "incredible people" in his speech.
In a tweet earlier Friday, before the Warmbier statement, Trump sought to put a good spin on his abortive nuclear talks with Kim.
"Great to be back from Vietnam, an amazing place. We had very substantive negotiations with Kim Jong Un - we know what they want and they know what we must have. Relationship very good, let’s see what happens!"
After Warmbier's death, the US government supported his parents in a lawsuit against Pyongyang.
On Dec. 24, a US judge ordered North Korea to pay $501 million over Warmbier's death from apparent torture.
A judge said that Warmbier had been used "as a pawn in that totalitarian state's global shenanigans and face-off with the United States."
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NEW YORK -- Global equities markets fell on Thursday as weak Chinese economic data and mixed messages on the progress of trade talks between China and the United States weighed on investor sentiment.
Earlier, news of the collapse of the summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on denuclearization triggered flight-to-quality bids in lower-risk assets such as the Swiss franc.
Data showed that Chinese factory activity contracted to a three-year low and China's export orders fell at their fastest pace since the global financial crisis a decade ago, adding to ongoing worries about a slowdown in the Chinese economy and its impact on global markets.
"There's been a lot of stimulus measures in China, and it's still not showing up in the numbers as soon as people would like," said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Advisory Services in Atlanta.
Receding optimism on the US-China trade talks also dampened sentiment.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said his office was taking legal steps to implement Trump's announcement on Sunday to delay a tariff increase on more than $200 billion worth of Chinese goods that had been scheduled to take effect on Friday. But Lighthizer's office later issued a statement saying that it was not abandoning the threat of increasing the tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent.
On Wall Street, data showing better-than-expected US economic growth in the fourth quarter helped offset worries over China. Gross domestic product rose 2.9 percent for the year, just shy of the 3 percent goal set by the Trump administration.
"The numbers came out in a pretty robust way," said Mona Mahajan, US investment strategist at Allianz Global Investors in New York. "There hasn't been much reaction because of the geopolitical uncertainty in the headlines."
The US economic data also prompted a rise in Treasury yields and a retreat in gold prices.
Benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes last fell 8/32 in price to yield 2.7222 percent, from 2.693 percent late on Wednesday.
Spot gold dropped 0.5 percent to $1,313.20 an ounce.
PULLING BACK
Global equities scaled a four-month high earlier this week, helped by upbeat expectations about the US-China trade talks. But on Thursday, the MSCI All-Country World Index dropped 0.4 percent to notch a third day of losses, albeit modest ones.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 69.16 points, or 0.27 percent, to 25,916, the S&P 500 lost 7.89 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,784.49 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 21.98 points, or 0.29 percent, to 7,532.53.
MSCI's gauge of emerging markets stocks fell 1.0 percent.
According to equity market analysts in Reuters polls, global stock markets in 2019 will at best only recoup losses from the deep sell-off late last year. They see the risk skewed more toward a sharp fall by mid-year.
"The expectation is that we'll probably chop sideways until we get substantial news," said Robert Phipps, director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin, Texas.
In currency markets, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was little changed. The dollar was also nearly flat against the euro .
The Swiss franc rose 0.4 percent against the dollar, rising following the news of the end of the summit between Trump and Kim.
The Japanese yen hit a 10-month low against the dollar and was last down 0.4 percent.
Brent crude settled down 36 cents, or 0.54 percent, at $66.03 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude settled up 28 cents, or 0.49 percent, at $57.22 a barrel.
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HANOI - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will arrive in Vietnam on Feb. 25 ahead of a planned second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, three sources with direct knowledge of Kim's schedule told Reuters on Saturday.
Trump and Kim are due to meet in Hanoi on Feb. 27 and 28 following their historic first meeting last June in Singapore. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday Washington aims to "get as far down the road as we can" at the summit.
Kim will meet with Vietnamese officials when he arrives in Hanoi, said the sources, who requested anonymity citing the sensitivity and secrecy surrounding the movements of the North Korean leader.
He will also visit the Vietnamese manufacturing base of Bac Ninh and the industrial port town of Hai Phong, one source said.
Vietnam's president and general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, will meet Kim ahead of a planned trip by Trong to neighboring Laos, one of the sources with direct knowledge told Reuters.
A Reuters witness saw Kim's close aide, Kim Chang Son, in Hanoi on Saturday visiting a government guesthouse and the Metropole and Melia hotels in the center of the capital.
Reuters was first to report last month that Hanoi was preparing to receive Kim for a state visit this month.
Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has embraced economic reforms and developed close diplomatic ties with its former foe the United States, has been widely touted as a model of reform for isolated and impoverished North Korea.
The former Cold War allies, which share a similar socialist ideology and exchanged military and political support during the Vietnam War, are eyeing a new chapter in relations following Hanoi's opening up and embrace of the West.
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SEOUL -- North Korea could consider a change of approach if the US maintains its sanctions on the nuclear-armed country, leader Kim Jong Un warned in his New Year speech Tuesday after 12 months of diplomatic rapprochement.
"If the US does not keep its promise made in front of the whole world... and insists on sanctions and pressures on our republic," Kim said, "we may be left with no choice but to consider a new way to safeguard our sovereignty and interests".
Kim was referring to his summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, when he said he had "fruitful talks" and "exchanged constructive ideas".
At the time the two leaders signed a vaguely-worded pledge on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but progress has since stalled with Pyongyang and Washington arguing over what that means.
The North is subject to multiple sets of United Nations Security Council sanctions over banned nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, which have seen it carry out 6 atomic tests and launch rockets capable of reaching the entire US mainland.
"I am ready to sit with the US President again at any time in the future and will make efforts by all means to produce a result that will be welcomed by the international community," Kim said in his address, broadcast by the North's state television.
Kim spoke sitting in a dark leather armchair, in a large office flanked with packed bookshelves along one side and paintings of his predecessors, his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung behind him.
As he began speaking -- in a deep, gravelly voice -- a clock behind him showed the time as just moments after 12.
But at times during the address it was blurred out, and towards the end of the half-hour broadcast it was close to 1, suggesting the speech was recorded in several takes.
YEAR OF RAPPROCHEMENT
The leader's New Year speech is a key moment in the North Korean political calendar, reviewing the past and setting out out goals for the future.
The 2018 address was a crucial catalyst for the developments that followed.
It came after a year of high tensions when the North made rapid progress in its weapons programs and fears of conflict rose.
The two leaders traded personal insults - Trump mocked Kim as "Little Rocket Man," who in turn called him a "mentally deranged US dotard" - and threats of war.
On January 1 2018 Kim ordered mass production of missiles and bombs and warned the whole US mainland was "within the range of our nuclear strike and the nuclear button is on my office desk all the time."
But he also offered to send a team to the forthcoming Winter Olympics in the South - opening the way for the South's dovish President Moon Jae-In to play the role of peace broker.
A rapid sequence of developments followed, with athletes and a senior delegation led by his powerful sister going to the Pyeongchang Games in February, before Kim met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing ahead of the Singapore summit with Trump.
Kim also met with Moon 3 times last year -- twice at the border truce village of Panmunjom and once in the North's capital Pyongyang -- and at the weekend vowed to meet Moon "frequently" this year.
In his speech Tuesday Kim said the US and South Korea should no longer carry out joint military exercises -- which have been largely halted since the Singapore meeting -- calling such drills "a source of tension".
"War-related equipment -- including strategic assets of outside powers -- should no longer be allowed to be brought in," he added.
Seoul and Washington are in a security alliance and the US stations 28,500 troops in the South to protect it against its neighbor, which invaded in 1950.
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PARIS -- Revelers welcomed 2019 with fireworks displays and festivities as a celebratory wave swept westward across the globe from Asia to Europe and the Americas at the conclusion of a tumultuous year.
Monday's celebrations kicked off with Sydney hosting its biggest-ever pyrotechnics display and lighting up its harbour-front skyline for a full 12 minutes.
More than 1.5 million spectators gathered to enjoy the spectacle that also featured a ceremony to celebrate Australia's indigenous culture.
In Hong Kong, hundreds of thousands of party-goers packed the streets on either side of Victoria Harbor for a spectacular 10-minute show that burnt through $1.8 million worth of fireworks.
In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, more than 500 couples tied the knot in a free, mass wedding organized by the government to mark the arrival of a new year.
Fireworks shows, however, were cancelled out of respect for victims of a December 22 tsunami that killed more than 400 people.
In Japan, locals flocked to temples to ring in 2019, as US boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather came out of retirement to beat Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in a multi-million-dollar "exhibition" bout outside Tokyo.
SECURITY CONCERNS
In Dubai, fireworks lit up the sky over the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, to the delight of onlookers, while nearby Ras al-Khaima sought to enter the Guinness Book of Records with the world's longest fireworks show.
Russia saw in the new year progressively over several time zones starting in the far east, with concerts and light shows planned for Moscow city parks, and more than 1,000 ice rinks opened for merrymakers.
But a tower block gas explosion that killed at least 4 people and left dozens missing cast a shadow over New Year's celebrations.
In his New Year's address to the nation, President Vladimir Putin urged people to work together to "increase well-being and quality of life so that all citizens of Russia... feel changes for the better in the coming year."
In Paris, fireworks and a light show with the theme "fraternity" were scheduled for the Champs-Elysees despite persistent "yellow vest" anti-government protests.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a televised address, acknowledged the French government "can do better" by citizens complaining of shrinking spending power.
In Berlin, music lovers partied at a concert at the Brandenburg Gate, while Britain's capital London opted to usher in the new year by celebrating its relationship with Europe, despite Britain's impending departure from the European Union.
London's fireworks display would seek to show Europe that the British capital would remain "open-minded" and "outward-looking" post-Brexit, said the city's mayor Sadiq Khan.
LOOKING AHEAD
In Portugal, dozens of people, some in costume, will brave the winter for a traditional New Year's ocean dip near Lisbon, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo, election officials will be counting votes after a presidential election Sunday.
In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari used his New Year's address to promise a free and fair election in 2019, while Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara vowed the creation of a new, independent, electoral commission for polls planned for 2020.
When the celebrations reach the Americas, Rio de Janeiro's famous hilltop Christ the Redeemer statue will be brought to 3D life with special light projections before fireworks illuminate the city's Copacabana beach where around two million people are expected to party till dawn.
As the world celebrates, many are wondering whether the turmoil witnessed in 2018 will spill over into the next.
The political wrangling in Westminster over Brexit was one of the key stories of this year, with a resolution yet to be reached ahead of Britain's scheduled March 29 departure.
US President Donald Trump dominated headlines in 2018, ramping up a trade war with China, quitting the Iran nuclear deal, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, and meeting his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un.
North Korea's commitment to denuclearization will remain a major political and security issue into next year, as will Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's reassertion of control after Trump's shock announcement of a US troop withdrawal from the country.
The war in Yemen, which has killed about 10,000 people since 2014 and some 20 million at risk of starvation, could take a crucial turn in 2019 after a ceasefire went into effect in mid-December.
Numerous countries go to the polls in the coming year, including India, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, Argentina, and Australia.
Major sporting events on the calendar include the Rugby World Cup in Japan, the cricket one-day international World Cup in England, and the athletics World Championships in Qatar.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SEOUL - The personal information of nearly 1,000 North Koreans who defected to South Korea has been leaked after unknown hackers got access to a resettlement agency’s database, the South Korean Unification Ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said it discovered last week that the names, birth dates and addresses of 997 defectors had been stolen through a computer infected with malicious software at an agency called the Hana center, in the southern city of Gumi.
“The malware was planted through emails sent by an internal address,” a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the issue, referring to a Hana center email account.
The Hana center is among 25 institutes the ministry runs around the country to help some 32,000 defectors adjust to life in the richer, democratic South by providing jobs, medical and legal support.
Defectors, most of whom risked their lives to flee poverty and political oppression, are a source of shame for North Korea. Its state media often denounces them as “human scum” and accuses South Korean spies of kidnapping some of them.
The ministry official declined to say if North Korea was believed to have been behind the hack, or what the motive might have been, saying a police investigation was under way to determine who did it.
North Korean hackers have in the past been accused of cyberattacks on South Korean state agencies and businesses.
North Korea stole classified documents from the South’s defense ministry and a shipbuilder last year, while a cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy following a cyberattack linked to the North.
North Korean state media has denied those cyberattacks.
The latest data breach comes at a delicate time for the two Koreas which have been rapidly improving their relations after years of confrontation.
The Unification Ministry said it was notifying the affected defectors and there were no reports of any negative impact of the data breach.
“We’re sorry this has happened and will make efforts to prevent it from recurring,” the ministry official said.
Several defectors, including one who became a South Korean television celebrity, have disappeared in recent years only to turn up later in North Korean state media, criticizing South Korea and the fate of defectors.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SINGAPORE - US President Donald Trump on Tuesday kept up his feud with America's closest allies over trade, saying he could not allow them to continue taking advantage of the United States.
Although he insisted he had a good relationship with Justin Trudeau, just days after blowing up a G7 summit the Canadian prime minister had hosted, Trump took another dig at him, saying the United States had a big trade deficit with Canada and that "a little balance" was needed.
Trump's comments after a historic summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were the president's most extensive on the matter since he tweeted that Trudeau was "very dishonest and weak" and raised the prospect of tariffs against auto imports, a move that would imperil the Canadian economy.
"We are being taken advantage of by virtually every one of those countries," Trump told a news conference on Tuesday. "Look, countries cannot continue to take advantage of us on trade."
Trump left a weekend Group of Seven summit in Canada early, then immediately announced he was backing out of a joint communique, torpedoing what appeared to be a fragile consensus on the trade dispute between Washington and its main allies.
The escalating clash cast a shadow over the Trump's nuclear talks with Kim and led critics to question why the president was bashing US partners while appearing to cosy up to one of Washington's bitterest long-time foes.
Trump took time at his news conference to explain a photo that went viral from the G7 summit. It showed a seemingly glowering German Chancellor Angela Merkel and several other leaders appearing to confront a seated Trump.
"We finished the meeting, really everybody was happy, and I agreed to sign something," Trump said. "And in fact the picture with Angela Merkel, who I get along with very well, where I’m sitting there like this ... we’re waiting for the document because I wanted to see the final document as changed.
"I know it didn’t look friendly," Trump said. "I know it was reported sort of nasty both ways – I was angry at her, or she. But actually we were just talking, the whole group, about something unrelated to everything, very friendly."
Trump said he decided to back out of the G7 communique after watching Trudeau's closing summit news conference, at which he warned that Canada would not be pushed around on tariffs - a point the Canadian prime minister had made several times before.
"He'll learn that's going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He'll learn, he can't do that," Trump said.
Trump fired off a volley of tweets on Monday further venting anger at NATO allies, the European Union and Trudeau. Some of Trump's aides also lashed out at the Canadian prime minister.
Trump's extraordinary outburst in recent days appeared aimed at striking a chord with voters who support his "America First" agenda. "Not fair to the people of America! $800 billion trade deficit," he tweeted on Monday.
In the same set of tweets, Trump said: "Justin acts hurt when called out!"
On Tuesday, Trump said: "We have a big trade deficit with Canada ... it’s close to $100 billion a year deal loss."
However, the office of the US Trade Representative has said the United States ran an $8.4 billion trade surplus with Canada in 2017.
Canadian officials have stressed the two countries' extensive trading relationship and pointed out that Canada is the top export destination for 35 US states and that 9 million jobs in the United States depend on trade with its northern neighbor.
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom, Editing by Robert Birsel, Miral Fahmy and Gerry Doyle)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SINGAPORE - US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a "comprehensive" document following a historic summit aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
There were no immediate details on the contents of the document.
Although the breakthrough made at the summit marks just the start of a diplomatic process, it could bring lasting change to the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former US President Richard Nixon visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the transformation of China.
Before signing what Trump described as a "comprehensive letter", Kim said the 2 leaders had a historic meeting "and decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change."
Trump said the process of denuclearization would happen "very, very quickly", adding that he had formed a "special bond" with Kim and the relationship with North Korea would be very different.
"This is going to lead to more and more and more," Trump said.
Asked whether he would invite Kim to the White House, Trump said: "Absolutely, I will."
During a post-lunch stroll through the gardens of the Singapore hotel where the summit was held, Trump said the summit had gone "better than anybody could have expected".
Kim stood silently alongside, but the North Korean leader had earlier described their meeting as a "a good prelude to peace".
Both men walked to Trump's bullet-proof limousine, nicknamed "The Beast," and looked in at the rear seat, with Trump apparently showing Kim something inside. They then resumed their walk.
Both men had appeared cautious and serious when they first arrived for the summit at the Capella hotel on Singapore's Sentosa, a resort island with luxury hotels, a casino, man-made beaches and a Universal Studios theme park.
But, with cameras of the world's press trained on them, they displayed an initial atmosphere of bonhomie as they met on the verandah of the Capella, a refurbished 19th century British regimental officers' mess.
After a handshake, they were soon smiling and holding each other by the arm, before Trump guided Kim to the library where they held a meeting with only their interpreters. Trump had said on Saturday he would know within a minute of meeting Kim whether he would reach a deal.
Inside, they sat alongside each other against a backdrop of North Korean and US flags, with Kim beaming broadly as the US president gave him a thumbs up.
The combatants of the 1950-53 Korean War are technically still at war, as the conflict, in which millions of people died, was concluded only with a truce.
After initial exchanges lasting around 40 minutes, Trump and Kim emerged, walking side-by-side through the colonnaded hotel before entering a meeting room, where they were joined by their most senior officials.
Kim was heard telling Trump through a translator: "I think the entire world is watching this moment. Many people in the world will think of this as a scene from a fantasy...science fiction movie."
Asked by a reporter how the meeting was going, Trump said: "Very good. Very, very good. Good relationship."
Kim also sounded positive about the prospects of peace.
"We overcame all kinds of skepticism and speculations about this summit and I believe that this is good for the peace," he said. "I believe this is a good prelude for peace."
The dollar jumped to a 3-week top on Tuesday and Asian shares rose on the news.
Trump was joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff, for the expanded talks, while Kim's team included former military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol, foreign minister Ri Yong Ho and Ri Su Yong, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party.
BODY LANGUAGE
As the two leaders met, Singapore navy vessels, and air force Apache helicopters patrolled, while fighter jets and an Gulfstream 550 early warning aircraft circled.
Body language expert said both men tried to project command as they met, but also displayed signs of nerves.
After the meetings, the two teams and other senior officials met for a working lunch, where beef short ribs, sweet and sour pork and "Daegu Jormin," or Korean braised cod, were served for the main course, according to the menu. That was to be followed by dark chocolate tarts, pastries and vanilla ice cream for dessert. The North Korean leader's sister and close confidante Kim Yo Jong was among the lunch party.
As the cameras captured the moment, Trump quipped: "Very nice. Getting a good picture everyone, so we all look nice and handsome and thin...perfect".
In the hours before the summit began, Trump expressed optimism about prospects for the first-ever meeting of sitting US and North Korean leaders, while Pompeo injected a note of caution whether Kim would prove to be sincere about his willingness to denuclearize.
Pompeo said the summit should set the framework for "the hard work that will follow", insisting that North Korea had to move toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.
North Korea, however, has shown little appetite for surrendering nuclear weapons it considers vital to the survival of Kim's dynastic rule.
Sanctions on North Korea would remain in place until that happened, Pompeo said on Monday. "If diplomacy does not move in the right direction ... those measures will increase."
The White House said later that discussions with North Korea had moved "more quickly than expected" and Trump would leave Singapore on Tuesday night after the summit, rather than Wednesday, as scheduled earlier.
Kim is due to leave on Tuesday afternoon, a source involved in the planning of his visit has said.
One of the world's most reclusive leaders, Kim visited Singapore's waterfront on Monday, smiling and waving to onlookers, adding to a more affable image that has emerged since his April summit with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in.
Trump spoke to Moon and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, both key allies of Washington in the region, to discuss developments ahead of the summit.
"I too, got little sleep last night," Moon told his cabinet in Seoul as the summit began in Singapore.
"I truly hope it will be a successful summit that will open a new age for the two Koreas and the United States and bring us complete denuclearization and peace."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
U.S. President Donald Trump waves next to Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan after arriving in Singapore on Sunday evening. Trump will be meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday at Singapore’s island resort Sentosa.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
THE HAGUE, Netherlands- Hillary Clinton has warned that the Trump administration "was not recognizing the danger" in discussing nuclear disarmament with Pyongyang, and said Washington lacked experienced diplomats to handle the talks.
"If you want to talk to Kim Jong Un about his nuclear weapons you need experienced diplomats," Clinton was quoted as telling Dutch tabloid Algemeen Dagblad in an interview published Saturday.
"These are people familiar with the dossiers and who know the North Koreans and their language," Trump's presidential rival said in an interview conducted in Amsterdam and published in Dutch.
The former secretary of state said however that the US State Department was "being eroded" and that experienced diplomats on the North Korean issue were in short supply, with many having left.
"You cannot have diplomacy without diplomats," she said, adding "the danger is not being recognised by the Trump government."
Clinton's words echo those of veteran diplomat and former US ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, who warned that negotiating with North Korea was not "reality television."
"It's a real opportunity... I worry about the president's unpreparedness and lack of discipline. But I commend him for his very bold move in accepting the invitation," Richardson told AFP on Friday.
"But this is not 'The Apprentice' or a reality TV event. It's a negotiation with an unpredictable leader who has at least 20 nuclear weapons and who threatens the United States," he said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SEOUL - North Korean media lauded the players and supporters of the unified Korean women's ice hockey team Sunday after their first match at the Olympics -- without mentioning their 8-0 drubbing.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North's leader Kim Jong Un, was on hand to watch the game against Switzerland with her country's ceremonial head of state and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
The match was a political event as much as a sporting one, with the unified team -- the Koreas' first for 27 years, and first ever at the Olympics -- part of a deal forged last month and a symbol of Moon's hopes for a "peace Olympics".
And Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency focused on the team and the North Korean cheerleaders rather than the 8-0 defeat -- mentioning neither the outcome nor the score in its dispatch.
"The appearance of the players and the impressive picture of the cheering groups once again made the spectators feel keenly that the Korean nation is a... nation which can't live separated from each other," it said.
Cheering spectators from both Koreas "burst into warm applause and cheers" to support players "skillfully driving the puck, calling each other by the same language and pooling efforts", it added.
The unified team is made up of 23 Southern players and 12 Northerners, with at least three from the North required to be on the starting roster of 22.
But the last-minute decision to form the team was slammed by many South Koreans, who accused Moon of using athletes for political purposes and robbing Seoul's own citizens of opportunities to compete at the Olympics.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
