Tag: north korea

Historic Summit at Panmunjom

- by India Writes Network

Kim Jong-un’s historic meeting with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in across the ‘Military Demarcation Line’ (MDL) on April 27, 2018 will go down as a watershed moment in the destiny of Korean Peninsula. The Korean Peninsula, given its geographic location, has been the scene of inter power rivalry in the North East Asian region. Post the Korean War, despite adversaries being armed to the teeth and in a ‘trip wire’ state of readiness, major confrontation was obviated due the prevailing state of parity in terms of military potential. Hence, even after six and half decades, the status of MDL remained unaltered, despite sporadic incidences of incursion and violence.

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The Contours of a Negotiated Nuclear-Missile Deal with North Korea

- by India Writes Network

North Korea’s Hwasong-15 missile test on November 28 has intensified international concerns about the developments in North East Asia. The missile, fired in an almost vertical trajectory, reached a height of nearly 4500 km before falling in the East China Sea, within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), after travelling 860 km downrange. The total flight time was reported to be 53 minutes. No additional details of the test, such as the weight of the payload for instance, were given. However, preliminary calculations suggest that if the Hwasong-15 launched on November 28 had been flown on a normal missile trajectory, it would have reached distances of up to 13,000 km with the same payload, enough to cover the whole of the continental United States from West Coast to East Coast. If, however, the test had been conducted with no payload, the range would have been 8500 km with a 500 kg payload.

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Trump’s Meeting With Chinese Counterpart: Focus on Trade, North Korea Issue

- by India Writes Network

“The United States really has to change its policies because they’ve gotten so far behind on trade with China and frankly with other countries,” Trump said at an expanded meeting with President Xi. “And I have great respect for you for that because you are representing China. But it’s too bad that past administrations allowed it to get so far out of kilter.”Trump’s two-day visit to Beijing resulted in a number of trade agreements worth $253.4 billion, according to Xi Jinping’s statements during a joint press conference on Thursday. Moreover, on the eve of Trump’s visit, the US and Chinese companies have already signed a number of deals worth $9 billion.

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World leaders hail Nobel Peace Prize for ICAN

- by India Writes Network

Amid rising tensions of a nuclear threat from North Korea and the risks around the Iran nuclear deal, world leaders and peace activists have hailed the Nobel Peace Prize for the Geneva-based anti-nuclear advocacy group International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
The recognition follows the organisation’s decade long work which led to the recent signing of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

“The organisation is receiving the award for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement. “Through binding international agreements, the international community has previously adopted prohibitions against land mines, cluster munitions and biological and chemical weapons. Nuclear weapons are even more destructive, but have not yet been made the object of a similar international legal prohibition,” said Nobel Committee chairman Berit Reiss-Andersen announcing the prize. The UN treaty adopted in July has the support of 122 countries, which also includes Iran. However, major nuclear powers like the United States and Russia have stayed away from it.

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North Korea’s ‘Rocket Man’ top on Trump’s UNGA agenda

- by India Writes Network

The deepening standoff with North Korea and the Iran nuclear accord are expected to top President Donald Trump’s agenda when he delivers his debut address to the United Nations General Assembly session next week. He will meet jointly with the leaders of South Korea and Japan for lunch on Thursday to discuss the looming North Korean threat.
In a tweet on  September 17,  Mr  Trump mocked Kim Jong-un as the “Rocket Man” adding to his long line of inflammatory comments directed at the DPRK chief. He said: “I spoke with president Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!”
The Trump administration is getting increasingly vocal about the possibility of a military action if North Korea does not put a lid on its nuclear programme. The United Nations Security Council adopted a new round of sanctions on North Korea last Monday, reducing gasoline exports and crude oil supplies, in response to the nation’s sixth and largest nuclear weapons test. But the defiant regime responded with a fresh missile launch over Japan on Friday warning sanctions will only further accelerate its nuclear programme.
Speaking to CNN, US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said, “If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behaviour, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed.”

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Proliferating North Korea causes alarm

- by India Writes Network

Chinese nuclear experts suggest that North Korea currently possesses twenty nuclear warheads, and the nuclear enrichment capacity to double this number as early as 2016.
The figure suggested by the Chinese experts is considerably higher than any other previous assessment. Earlier, the US had estimated that the communist state’s nuclear arsenal could be anywhere between ten to sixteen warheads.

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