Rabu, 01 Januari 2020
North Korea promises to reveal a "new strategic weapon" - CBS This Morning
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2020-01-01 12:27:03Z
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North Korea signals end of nuclear-test suspension, promises 'new' weapon - NBC News
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he sees no reason to continue his self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, warning the world will soon see "a new strategic weapon" unveiled by his country in the near future.
However, in the comments published Wednesday, Kim also appeared to leave the door open to diplomacy, suggesting that tests would only resume if Washington did not change its policies.
North Korea has suspended nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests since an unprecedented flurry of activity in 2017. But during that time, negotiations that Washington hoped would lead to Kim giving up his nuclear arsenal have fallen apart.
In the comments released Wednesday, Kim complained that his country's suspension of nuclear and ballistic missile tests had been repaid by the U.S. holding military drills with South Korea and imposing more sanctions on his isolated country.
He said that "under such conditions" there was "no ground" to continue suspending tests. "This is chilling our efforts for worldwide nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation," he said.
The remarks were made at a four-day meeting of his Workers' Party’s Central Committee and reported by North Korea's state-controlled news agency, KCNA.
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Dec. 26, 201905:56
Late Tuesday, President Donald Trump urged Kim to stick to an agreement signed at a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018. It was the first time sitting leaders from these historical enemies had met in person, but their agreement for North Korea to "denuclearize" was widely criticized by experts as vague to the point of being almost meaningless.
"Look, he likes me, I like him, we get along," Trump said at a New Year's party at Mar-a-Lago. "But he did sign a contract, he did sign an agreement talking about denuclearization ... I think he’s a man of his word so we’re going to find out, but I think he’s a man of his word."
Previously, North Korea had threatened to deliver a "Christmas gift" to the U.S. — raising the possibility of another weapons test. On Tuesday, Trump said, "I know he's sending out certain messages about Christmas presents and I hope his Christmas present is a beautiful vase. That's what I'd like, a vase."
According to state-media's report of the four-day meeting, Kim "confirmed that the world will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK in the near future," referring to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It did not provide details about what this weapon might be.
Kim also said his country would take "shocking actual action to make [the U.S.] pay for the pains sustained by our people."
Many analysts and officials think that Kim will never give up his nuclear arsenal, which is estimated to contain up to 40 warheads and is seen by the repressive, authoritarian country as key to the survival of the Kim dynasty that has ruled it for more than 70 years.
However, there were elements in Kim's remarks that suggest his regime is willing to discuss the extent and power of this arsenal in exchange for sanctions relief.
"The scope and depth of bolstering our deterrent will be properly coordinated depending on the U.S. future attitude to the DPRK," he said.
Vipin Narang, a politics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who focuses on nuclear weapons, tweeted the potential to negotiate on this issue is "the door we should urgently push on."
Others noted that although Kim said he saw no reason to continue suspending tests, he had not resumed them yet.
"We should be grateful that he’s all talk and no action at this point; the subtext: Kim is leaving room for diplomacy," tweeted Jean H. Lee, a Korea expert at the Wilson Center.
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2020-01-01 12:22:00Z
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Protests continue at US embassy in Baghdad - CNN
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2020-01-01 12:21:55Z
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Australia sending aid to wildfire towns as death toll rises - NBC News
PERTH, Australia — Australia deployed military ships and aircraft Wednesday to help communities ravaged by apocalyptic wildfires that have left at least 17 people dead nationwide and sent thousands of residents and holidaymakers fleeing to the shoreline.
Navy ships and military aircraft were bringing water, food and fuel to towns where supplies were depleted and roads were cut off by the fires. Authorities confirmed three bodies were found Wednesday at Lake Conjola on the south coast of New South Wales, bringing the death toll in the state to 15.
More than 175 homes have been destroyed in the region.
On Tuesday morning, 4,000 people in the coastal town of Mallacoota fled to the shore as winds pushed a fire toward their homes under a sky darkened by smoke and turned blood-red by flames. Stranded residents and vacationers slept in their cars, and gas stations and surf clubs transformed into evacuation areas. Dozens of homes burned before winds changed direction late Tuesday, sparing the rest of the town.
Victoria Emergency Commissioner Andrew Crisp told reporters the Australian Defence Force was moving naval assets to Mallacoota on a supply mission that would last two weeks and helicopters would also fly in more firefighters since roads were inaccessible.
Conditions cooled Wednesday, but the fire danger remained very high across the state, where four people are missing.
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“We have three months of hot weather to come. We do have a dynamic and a dangerous fire situation across the state,” Crisp said.
In the New South Wales town of Conjola Park, 89 properties were confirmed destroyed and cars were melted by Tuesday’s fires. More than 100 fires were still burning in the state Wednesday, though none were at an emergency level. Seven people have died this week, including a volunteer firefighter, a man found in a burnt-out car and a father and son who died in their house.
Firefighting crews took advantage of easing conditions on Wednesday to restore power to critical infrastructure and conduct some back burning, before conditions were expected to deteriorate Saturday as high temperatures and strong winds return.
"There is every potential that the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw yesterday," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said.
The early and devastating start to Australia’s summer wildfires has led authorities to rate this season the worst on record and reignited debate about whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government has taken enough action on climate change. Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas, but Morrison rejected calls last month to downsize Australia’s lucrative coal industry.
Morrison won a surprise third term in May. Among his government’s pledges was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2030 — a modest figure compared to the center-left opposition Labor party’s pledge of 45 percent
The leader of the minor Australian Greens party, Richard Di Natale, demanded a royal commission, the nation’s highest form of inquiry, on the wildfire crisis.
“If he (Morrison) refuses to do so, we will be moving for a parliamentary commission of inquiry with royal commission-like powers as soon as parliament returns,” Di Natale said in a statement.
About 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land have burned nationwide over the past few months, with at least 17 people dead and more than 1,000 homes destroyed.
Some communities canceled New Year’s fireworks celebrations, but Sydney’s popular display over its iconic harbor controversially went ahead in front of more than a million revelers. The city was granted an exemption to a total fireworks ban in place there and elsewhere to prevent new wildfires.
Smoke from the wildfires meant Canberra, the nation’s capital, on Wednesday had air quality more than 21 times the hazardous rating to be reportedly the worst in the world.
The smoke has also wafted across the Tasman Sea and into New Zealand.
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2020-01-01 10:11:00Z
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Iraqi militiamen hurl stones at U.S. Embassy, prepare for extended stay - Reuters.com
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqi militiamen and their supporters hurled stones at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for a second day on Wednesday and security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to drive them away.
The protests, led by Iranian-backed militias, mark a new turn in the shadow war between Washington and Tehran playing out across the Middle East.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who faces re-election in 2020, on Tuesday threatened to retaliate against Iran but said later he did not want to go to war.
The protests also cast uncertainty over the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Crowds had rallied on Tuesday to protest against deadly U.S. air strikes on militia bases, setting fires, throwing rocks and smashing surveillance cameras. They did not breach the huge embassy’s main compound, however.
Overnight, demonstrators pitched tents and camped outside the embassy walls. On Wednesday morning, they were bringing in food supplies, cooking equipment and mattresses, Reuters witnesses said, suggesting they intended to stay for a long time.
Senior Iraqi army officers had negotiated with those gathered outside the embassy in an attempt to convince them to leave but failed to do so. Washington is putting pressure on Iraqi leaders to ensure the security of its staff.
The incident marked a sharp escalation of the proxy conflict between Washington and Tehran - both influential players in Iraq - while mass protests are challenging Iraq’s own political system nearly 17 years after the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The protests followed U.S. air strikes on Sunday on bases operated by the Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah inside Iraq which killed at least 25 fighters and wounded 55.
The strikes were retaliation for the killing of a U.S. civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military
base, which Washington blamed on Kataib Hezbollah.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday y condemned the U.S. attacks.
“The Iranian government, nation and I strongly condemn the attacks,” Iranian state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.
Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the violence at the U.S. Embassy and said Tehran would be held responsible. Iran rejected the accusation.
More U.S. troops were being sent to the embassy, U.S. officials said. The 750 troops would initially be based out of Kuwait. The officials said that as many as 4,000 troops could be sent to the region in the coming days if needed.
More than 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq supporting local forces. The air strikes have galvanized calls inside Iraq to expel U.S. forces, not just from Iran-backed militias but also their political rivals.
Reporting by Thaier al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein, Editing by Angus MacSwan
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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2020-01-01 09:27:00Z
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North Korea indicates it could resume nuclear testing - CNN
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2020-01-01 09:06:15Z
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Twin foreign policy crises greet Trump as election year dawns - CNN
The US showdown with Iran rocketed to dangerous new levels after protestors burst into the US embassy compound in Iraq as US strikes on Tehran-backed militia forces killed 25 people.
Kim Jong Un meanwhile warned North Korea would soon reveal a "new strategic weapon." If that is code for testing an intercontinental missile that could theoretically deliver a nuclear warhead to the US, his diplomatic "love affair" with Trump could soon dissolve in a dangerous new trans-Pacific standoff.
The developing challenges to the President raise the possibility that the controversial foreign policy choices that he made in the first three years of his administration could return to haunt him as he asks voters for a second term. At the very least, rising tensions will require a steady diplomatic hand and nuanced presidential leadership as he operates on a fine line of showing strength but stopping short of undue provocation.
The President's first concern is Iran. He is now warning the Islamic Republic that any new threats to Americans or attacks on US targets could trigger an even more serious escalation than the already robust US air raids.
"Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!" Trump wrote in a tweet on Tuesday. And, speaking with reporters later Tuesday as he entered a New Year's Eve gala at Mar-a-Lago, the President said he doesn't want war but that if it comes to conflict, Iran wouldn't last long.
"I don't think that would be a good idea for Iran," Trump said.
The administration rushed extra forces to protect the embassy, as a senior administration official told CNN the White House was "very concerned" about what might happen on Wednesday.
Yet Trump is already taking a risky victory lap on Twitter, comparing his leadership to the Obama administration after the storming of a US consulate in northeastern Libya in 2012, and presenting the results of heightened tensions with Iran as a desirable outcome.
"The Anti-Benghazi!" the President tweeted Tuesday evening. There are limited comparisons between the situations in Baghdad -- where the US embassy is one of the most heavily defended buildings in the world -- and the rudimentary compound used by the roving US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the attack, in the middle of a civil war in Libya.
In many ways, the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad -- which followed US strikes on the militia to avenge the death of a US contractor in the country -- is an almost inevitable consequence of the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy targeting Iran.
Critics have long warned that showy decisions related to Iran and North Korea apparently made to further Trump's own political prospects and not a more sober evaluation of US foreign policy goals could eventually backfire.
Trump's decision to ditch Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal -- with which Tehran was complying -- and to crank up sanctions has caused a debilitating economic crisis and humanitarian pain in Iran.
Washington says the nuclear deal was one of the worst agreements in history because it did not rein in Iran's missile program or curtail what the US regards as malicious activity and support for terrorism in its neighborhood. The assumption behind Trump's strategy is that Tehran's clerical regime will collapse or that the Iranians will return to the negotiating table to accept a far more punitive nuclear deal.
Despite some of the most intense anti-government demonstrations in decades, many analysts believe that there is no sign the regime is falling. In fact, there is more evidence that Trump's hardline approach is causing Iran to become more belligerent in its own region -- quite the opposite of the US goal.
"While the Trump Administration has touted its maximum pressure campaign against Iran, the results so far have been more threats against international commerce, emboldened and more violent proxy attacks across the Middle East, and now, the death of an American citizen in Iraq," New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said.
In response to the US policy, shaped by administration hardliners like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iran has also resumed nuclear activity, even starting up centrifuges in an underground facility dismantled under the Obama-era deal.
Trump's personal prestige on the line in Iraq
The White House says that it doesn't want war and hopes that the fallout from the air strikes will soon cool and the crisis will pass. But if it does not, it may face the most dangerous US-Iran crisis in many years.
That's because the prestige of Trump and the Iranians is now deeply invested in this showdown and uncertainty about erratic decision making on both sides could lead to miscalculations.
And given the hardline position of the Trump administration towards Iran, it does not seem like there is any face-saving option that could quickly limit an escalation once it starts.
The situation tugs Trump between two dueling instincts in his political soul. He loves to look tough -- and live up to his own perceptions of a ruthless commander in chief.
But the President is also loath to be drawn into foreign entanglements -- one of his few inviolable principles and one that takes on more importance as he runs for reelection.
In June, Trump blinked at the prospect of military action against Iran at the last minute after Tehran's forces shot down a US drone and attacked oil tankers.
Iran may be betting that Trump will do the same again, but such a move might lead to a miscalculation if the President goes against type and could cause reprisals between the enemies that could spin out of control.
The protests at the US embassy in Baghdad raise a troubling historical parallel other than Benghazi. The storming of the US embassy by revolutionaries in Tehran and a subsequent hostage siege helped doom then-President Jimmy Carter to a single term in the 1980 election.
The political lesson from that historic humiliation is not hard to read, and it may play into Trump's thinking on Iran in the run-up to November's presidential election.
Still, Trump is hugely unpredictable. As the days pass after the recent upsurge in tensions the President may not draw conventional political lessons.
The embassy protests are a reminder from Iran of the huge vulnerability of US troops and diplomats in a nation where they have little leverage and where Tehran appears to be winning the battle for influence over the US -- nearly 17 years after its invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
In such circumstances, given his hostility to the idea of large-scale troop garrisons in the Middle East, it's not impossible Trump could suddenly decide to yank all Americans home.
Such an option would open the President to accusations that he surrendered to Iran -- though he'd be liable to spin it as a victory because it would be yet another campaign promise kept.
Iran leaned into the confrontation on Tuesday seeking to use it to solidify its advantage over Washington in Iraq.
"How and on what basis do you expect the Iraqi people to remain silent on all these crimes?" Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement.
End of the love affair?
North Korea's return to belligerence appears to reflect frustration that three face-to-face meetings between Trump and Kim, one of the world's most reviled tyrants, have not yielded any easing of US sanctions.
But the President has much to lose if his opening to the North dissolves, since his claims to have stopped Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests is a centerpiece of his reelection argument.
Trump's diplomacy has made no progress towards denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, despite concessions he offered in meeting Kim and halting US-South Korea military exercises.
In this, Trump has had about as much success as his immediate predecessors in defusing a conflict that has festered in a bitter standoff ever since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Given the personal prestige Trump has sunk into his groundbreaking summits with Kim, it's difficult to predict how the US President might react if North Korea launches a provocative test.
A return to the President's previous "fire and fury" rhetoric cannot be ruled out. Yet Trump has little to gain politically from an election-year showdown with Kim that exposes his wider foreign policy as a failure and revives fears of hostilities across the 38th parallel that could put tens of thousands of US troops and millions of South Korean civilians at risk.
At a meeting of ruling party officials, Kim said Tuesday that if the US "persists in its hostile policy towards the DPRK, there will never the denuclearization on the Korean peninsula." He also announced that "the world will witness a new strategic weapon" in the near future, and in an indication that North Korea could soon resume nuclear weapon testing, said his country should no longer feel bound by its self-imposed halt on nuclear weapons and long range missile testing.
But Pompeo said on Fox News on Tuesday evening that he had seen reports of the threat but was "hopeful" that Kim "will make the right decision."
And Trump, walking into the gala Tuesday night, remained optimistic about the future of diplomacy with the hermit nation, despite Kim's new bellicose rhetoric. The President, touting his relationship with Kim and downplaying North Korea's threatened "Christmas gift," said he believes Kim is a "man of his word."
"I hope his Christmas present is a beautiful vase," Trump said.
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2020-01-01 08:50:00Z
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