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UN Security Council members are due to meet informally on Monday for a second round of negotiations on a Russian and Chinese proposal to lift a raft of sanctions on North Korea, a move that some diplomats say has little support. China and Russia are convening negotiations a day before North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's deadline for the United States to show flexibility in stalled talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. North Korea has warned the United States could receive an unwanted "Christmas gift" if it fails. A top White House official said...

U.S. officials are on high alert for signs of a possible missile launch from North Korea in the coming days that officials have referred to as a “Christmas gift.” A significant launch or nuclear test would raise the end of North Korea's self-imposed moratorium on missile launches and tests. It would also be a major blow to one of President Trump’s major foreign policy goals to get North Korea back to the negotiating table to eliminate its nuclear weapons. In this Dec. 16, 2019, photo, South Korean army soldiers stand guard at the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom...

North Korea's recent test of its super-large multiple rocket launcher has not only proved the weapon system's improved "volley-firing" capabilities but also showed that North Korea's weapons development programs have proceeded steadily for the past two years, experts said Monday. On Nov. 28, North Korea conducted the test-firing of the super-large multiple launch rocket system for the fourth time this year following Aug. 24, Sept. 10 and Oct. 31 launches. All four tests involved two rockets fired from the weapon system, with the North succeeding to narrow down the firing interval from 17 minutes on Aug. 24 and 3 minutes...

Malarkey! Joe Biden has done it again! He stood before an audience and told a big whopper of a lie. This was even with his wife standing directly behind him! It’s time for Jill Biden and the Biden family to tell Joe his time is up. Joe Biden claims he has “spent a lot of time” with Kim Jong Un. That is FALSE Biden and Kim Jong Un have never met. Joe Biden claims has has "spent a lot of time" with Kim Jong Un. That is FALSE Biden and Kim Jong Un have never met. pic.twitter.com/evCJLqEdAz Trending: Who’s Joe...

In a region where the subtlest of signals sends shockwaves, this one looks like a tsunami. Talks between the US and South Korea broke down earlier today in a remarkable show of public acrimony, with the Trump administrationÂ’s negotiator accusing Seoul of acting in bad faith. At issue is the bill that the White House wants South Korea to pay for our military protection, which quintuples SeoulÂ’s current contribution: The United States broke off talks with South Korea on Tuesday over how to share the cost of the two nationsÂ’ military alliance, injecting fresh tension into the relationship over...

South Korean and U.S. officials broke off talks on Tuesday aimed at settling the cost burden for Seoul of hosting the U.S. military, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, amid a public backlash over a U.S. demand for a sharp increase in the bill. Officials had resumed a planned two-day negotiation on Monday, trying to narrow a $4 billion gap in what they believe South Korea should contribute for the cost of stationing U.S. troops in the country for next year. “Our position is that it should be within the mutually acceptable Special Measures Agreement (SMA) framework that has been agreed...

South Korean and U.S. officials broke off talks on Tuesday aimed at settling the cost burden for Seoul of hosting the U.S. military, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said, amid a public backlash over a $5 billion U.S. demand for the bill. The breakdown in talks was a sharp and rare public disagreement in the 66-year alliance, with each side suggesting the other was not prepared to come to a fair and reasonable compromise on sharing the costs for hosting 28,500 U.S. troops as a deterrent to North Korea.

Iran, China, and Russia will hold in the coming weeks their first-ever joint war drills, which leaders say are meant to send a "message to the world" about increased military cooperation between the rogue countries. The commander of Iran's navy, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, said Wednesday that the Islamic Republic will team up with Moscow and Beijing within the next month to hold the mass war drills. "The joint wargame between Iran, Russia, and China, which will hopefully be conducted next month, carries the same message to the world, that these three countries have reached a meaningful strategic point in...

<p>Multiple forms of socialism, from hard Stalinism to European redistribution, continue to fail.</p> <p>Russia and China are still struggling with the legacy of genocidal communism. Eastern Europe still suffers after decades of Soviet-imposed socialist chaos.</p> <p>Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea and Venezuela are unfree, poor and failed states. Baathism -- a synonym for pan-Arabic socialism -- ruined the postwar Middle East.</p>

Japan and South Korea's "Japan-Korea Military Intelligence Protection Agreement" (GSOMIA) will lapse next Saturday (23rd), Japan-Korea Foreign Ministry will hold a director-level consultation on Friday, and the Japanese side asks whether South Korea is Renewed GSOMIA to make a "wise correspondence." According to comprehensive foreign media reports, South Korea announced in August that it will not renew GSOMIA, which allows for the exchange of military intelligence between Japan and South Korea. Today, the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Miyazaki Saki, and the South Asian Foreign Minister of the South Korean Foreign Ministry,...

Sen. John McCain cautioned Tuesday that President Donald Trump should not threaten North Korea if he was not prepared to act. "I take exception to the president's comments, because you got to be sure you can do what you say you're going to do," the Arizona Republican told "The Mac & Gaydos Show" on KTAR-FM in Phoenix. President Trump told reporters in New Jersey that further threats from Pyongyang would be "met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," Trump said. "They will be met...

“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April said he would give the U.S. until the end of the year to become more flexible on nuclear talks. Since then, he's launched 12 missiles to back up that warning, including a launch on Thursday. So far, though, there is no evidence the U.S. is changing its stance, meaning the situation could soon get much more volatile, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul”...(sound file at link)

Following Uganda’s independence in 1962, the landlocked Central African country has suffered from multiple civil wars and guerrilla movements. One of those brought Idi Amin, a tyrannical dictator, into power in 1971. During his presidency, Uganda first developed relations with North Korea. The relations between the two countries have strengthened during the Ugandan presidencies succeeding Amin until today. The first high-level cooperation between Uganda and North Korea was recorded in April of 1972 when a high-level military delegation representing the Idi Amin government partook in military celebrations in Pyongyang. During this visit, three agreements were reached between Uganda and North...

Authorities in North Korea are conducting a crackdown on illegal cellphone use after confidential information was reportedly leaked about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s recent activities, local officials and traders told RFA’s Korean Service. Illegal cellphones are believed to have been used to disseminate what were apparently sensitive details about Kim’s itinerary during his visits to Baekdu mountain and the Samjiyeon tourist zone earlier this month. An official from Ryanggang province told RFA’s Korean Service Monday that once the leak occurred, authorities moved very quickly to find its source. “The State Security Department’s censorship teams were dispatched to every...

North Korean laborers have started fighting over and stealing each other’s excrement in an attempt to meet an impossible quota collection in time to prepare fertilizer for next year’s farming season, a report revealed this week...The quota, ordered by dictator Kim Jong-un in his New Year’s address, ordered that each household should meet a quota amounting to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) per able-bodied citizen. According to local sources, the quota was intentionally unattainable because its true goal was to force citizens to pay fines and bribes for their failure to meet the necessary targets.

President Donald Trump is one of the most controversial world leaders in modern times, igniting the ire of America’s staunchest allies. Whether it’s the proposed Muslim ban, the US border wall and immigration, or his praise of authoritarian leaders, Trump is deft at inciting deep divisions among the public. In 2018, political scientist Daniel Drezner summarized this consensus in The Washington Post: “The world hates President Trump.” Data from the Pew Research Center illustrates Drezner’s thinking. For the residents of US allies, their confidence in the US president dropped substantially from the last year of Obama’s presidency to the beginning...

By Yi Whan-woo, Kim Yoo-chul As nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the United States remain in a stalemate after no "substantial outcome" from their recent encounter in Sweden, the lack of visible progress in the denuclearization dialogue is raising concerns that the North is "buying time" for its military and nuclear advancement. During an Asan Institute for Policy Studies security forum held in Seoul, Tuesday, Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Washington-based RAND Corporation, claimed that despite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's promise to end his nuclear program, Pyongyang has not taken any meaningful measures toward this....

WASHINGTON: Ousted National Security Advisor John Bolton said Kim Jong Un “will never give up” nuclear weapons voluntarily — an implicit warning to his former boss. Bolton was restating a consensus view of the Intelligence Community, one that runs counter to President Trump’s faith that the North Korean dynast can be wheedled and cajoled. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies today, Bolton attracted a forest of TV cameras hoping for some fireworks. They probably thought they were getting something hot when Bolton made his comment about North Korea but, as Breaking D readers know, the Intelligence Community’s...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources. The letter, the second Trump received from Kim last month amid stalled denuclearization talks between the two countries, pre-dated North Korea's latest launch of short-range projectiles a week ago. In the second letter, which was passed to Trump in the third week of August, Kim spoke of his willingness to meet Trump for another summit, one source reportedly told the Joongang Ilbo newspaper. The White House, the U.S. State Department...

The largest solar panel production facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere is continuing to add staff at its $157 million factory in Dalton, Georgia, which began production six months ago. The Korean solar panel maker Hanwha Q CELLS is conducting a hiring fair Thursday in Dalton, Georgia, as it adds another 50 jobs at its 200,000-square-foot plant in the Carbondale Business Park in Dalton. The plant already employs 600 workers and is expects to reach full production — and to conduct a ceremonial ribbon cutting — in the next month. "Our first products shipped from the factory this...