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East Oregonian
NATION/WORLD
Saturday, April 21, 2018
N. Korea to suspend nuclear, missile testing
By KIM TONG-HYUNG
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea —
North Korea said Saturday it has
suspended nuclear and long-range
missile tests and plans to close its
nuclear test site ahead of a new
round of negotiations with South
Korea and the United States. There
was no clear indication in the
North’s announcement if it would
be willing to deal away its arsenal.
The North rather expressed
confidence about its nuclear force,
which leader Kim Jong Un declared
as complete in November after a
slew of weapons tests that included
the underground detonation of a
purported thermonuclear warhead
and flight tests of three interconti-
nental ballistic missiles.
Some analysts believe Kim is
entering the negotiations from a
position of strength and is unlikely
to accept a significant cut of his
arsenal or go significantly beyond
freezing a nuclear program. South
Korean and U.S. officials have
said Kim is likely trying to save
his broken economy from heavy
sanctions.
After
the
announcement
Saturday about testing, President
Donald Trump tweeted, “This is
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
People watch the news at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul,
South Korea, Saturday. North Korea said it has suspended nuclear
and long-range missile tests and plans to close its nuclear test site.
very good news for North Korea
and the World” and “big progress!”
He also said he’s looking forward
to his upcoming summit with Kim.
South Korea’s presidential
office welcomed North Korea’s
announcement as “meaningful
progress” toward the denucleariza-
tion of the peninsula. Presidential
official Yoon Young-chan said
in a statement that the North’s
decision brightens the prospects
for successful talks between Seoul,
Pyongyang and Washington.
The North’s official Korean
Central News Agency said the
country is making the move to shift
its national focus and improve its
economy.
The North also vowed to actively
engage with regional neighbors
and the international community
to secure peace on the peninsula
and create an “optimal international
environment” to build its economy.
The announcement came days
In court, Dems allege conspiracy
between Trump camp, Russia
NEW YORK (AP) — The
Democratic Party sued Donald
Trump’s presidential campaign,
Russia, WikiLeaks and Trump’s
son and son-in-law Friday,
accusing them of an intricate
conspiracy to undercut Democrats
in the 2016 election by stealing
tens of thousands of emails and
documents.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan
federal court seeks unspecified
damages and an order to prevent
further interference with computer
systems of the Democratic National
Committee.
“During the 2016 presidential
campaign, Russia launched an
all-out assault on our democracy,
and it found a willing and active
partner in Donald Trump’s
campaign,” DNC Chairman Tom
Perez said in a statement. He
called it an “act of unprecedented
treachery.”
The Democrats accuse Trump
and his associates of trading on
pre-existing relationships with
Russian oligarchs tied to President
Vladimir Putin and of collabo-
rating with Russia as it worked to
undermine Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton.
The president has said repeat-
edly there was no collusion
between his campaign and Russia.
On Friday, his campaign scorned
the lawsuit as “frivolous” and
predicted it would be quickly
dismissed.
“This is a sham lawsuit about
a bogus Russian collusion claim
filed by a desperate, dysfunctional
and nearly insolvent Democratic
Party,” Trump campaign manager
Brad Parscale said in a statement.
He said the campaign would
seek to turn the tables on the Demo-
crats, using the legal discovery
process to try to pry documents
from the DNC including any
related to a dossier detailing allega-
tions of links between Trump and
Russia. The dossier — a collection
of memos — was written by an
ex-British spy whose work was
funded by Clinton and the DNC.
Trump himself tweeted that the
DNC lawsuit could be “very good
news,” saying his campaign “will
now counter for the DNC Server
that they refused to give to the FBI”
as well as Hillary Clinton’s emails.
before Kim is set to meet South
Korean President Moon Jae-in in
a border truce village for a rare
summit aimed at resolving the
nuclear standoff with Pyongyang.
A separate meeting between
Kim and Trump is anticipated in
May or June.
The North’s decisions were made
in a meeting of the ruling party’s
full Central Committee, which had
convened to discuss a “new stage”
of policies. The Korean Workers’
Party Central Committee declared
a “great victory” in the country’s
official “byungjin” policy of simul-
taneously pursuing economic and
nuclear development.
The committee unanimously
adopted a resolution that called for
concentrating national efforts to
achieve a strong socialist economy
and “groundbreaking improve-
ments in people’s lives.”
“To secure transparency on the
suspension of nuclear tests, we will
close the republic’s northern nuclear
test site,” the party’s resolution said.
The official news agency
quoted Kim as saying during the
meeting: “Nuclear development
has proceeded scientifically and
in due order and the development
of the delivery strike means also
proceeded scientifically and verified
the completion of nuclear weapons.
“We no longer need any nuclear
test or test launches of intermediate
and intercontinental range ballistic
missiles and because of this, the
northern nuclear test site has
finished its mission.”
Seoul says Kim has expressed
genuine interest in dealing away
his nuclear weapons. But North
Korea for decades has been pushing
a concept of “denuclearization”
that bears no resemblance to the
American definition, vowing to
pursue nuclear development unless
Washington removes its troops
from the peninsula.
South Korean scientists have
questioned whether the North
could continue conducting under-
ground nuclear detonations at its
mountainous test site in Kilju in the
northeast due to a series of earth-
quakes that were likely triggered
by the activity, suggesting it’s too
unstable for further bomb tests.
At the height of Pyongyang’s
standoff with Washington and
Seoul last year, North Korean
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told
reporters the country could conduct
an atmospheric hydrogen bomb test
over the Pacific Ocean.
Russia: U.S. did not violate
red lines during Syria strikes
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s
foreign minister said Friday that
the U.S. sought out and respected
Moscow’s positions in Syria when it
launched its air strikes last week.
Lavrov noted that despite the
escalating tensions between Moscow
and Washington, the U.S. made sure
it didn’t harm any Russian personnel
and positions during the strikes
against the regime of President
Bashar Assad following a suspected
chemical attack on the town of
Douma.
“We told them where our red lines
were, including the geographical red
lines,” Lavrov told Russian state tele-
vision. “The results have shown that
they haven’t crossed those lines.”
Moscow had warned the U.S.
before the strike that it could hit
back if the U.S. actions jeopardize
Russian servicemen in Syria, and the
Offer expires 04/30/18. See dealer for details.
allies had given Russia an advance
warning to make sure no Russians
were in the line of fire.
Lavrov also revealed that Donald
Trump and Vladimir Putin discussed
the possibility of visiting each other’s
country when the U.S. president rang
his Russian counterpart last month to
congratulate him on his re-election.
Lavrov that Trump indicated
he could make a reciprocal trip to
Russia if Putin were able to accept
his invitation to the White House.
Previously, both the White House
and the Kremlin had only revealed
that Trump had invited Putin to the
White House during the same call on
March 20.
Lavrov says the Trump admin-
istration hasn’t followed up on the
offer and Russia has urged the U.S.
to discuss specifics about such a
meeting.