Kim Jong Un will be the first North Korean leader to come to the South after the Korean War (File)</s>BERLIN (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday it was "closely monitoring" rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, less than 200 days before the 2018 Winter Olympics are set to begin in South Korea's Pyeongchang.

The Games return to the country next year for the first time since the 1988 summer Olympics in Seoul. But what would be the first winter Games in Asia outside Japan and the first of three consecutive Olympics on the continent risk being overshadowed by the mounting crisis involving North Korea.

 The reclusive North's apparent progress in developing nuclear weapons and missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland led to a war of words this week between the two countries, unnerving regional powers.

 President Donald Trump said the United States would respond with "fire and fury" if North Korea threatened it. North Korea dismissed the warnings and outlined detailed plans for a missile strike near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. 

 Experts in South Korea said the plans for an attack around Guam ratcheted up risks significantly, since Washington was likely to view any missile aimed at its territory as a provocation, even if it were launched as a test.

 "We are monitoring the situation on the Korean peninsula and the region very closely," an IOC spokesperson said. "The IOC is keeping itself informed about the developments. We continue working with the organizing committee on the preparations of these Games, which continue to be on track."

 South Korea had failed twice to land the winter Olympics of 2010 and 2014 but succeeded in getting the nod in 2011 for the 2018 edition, which is scheduled for Feb. 9-25.

 South Korean President Moon Jae-in said last month the North will be given until the last minute to decide whether it will take part in the Olympics. He wants to get North Korea involved, even though none of its athletes have met the qualification standards.

 His proposal for a unified team has already been turned down by a top North Korean sports official as unrealistic in the current political climate.

 

 (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Larry King)</s>IF you think reactions to President Obama’s arrival on the world stage from the likes of the Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Venezuelan and even European leaders have been lukewarm at best, check out the North Koreans.

Sometime in the next couple of days, Pyongyang is expected to launch a satellite into orbit.

The launch vehicle? A multistage Taepodong ballistic missile — which, by the by, has the potential to hit the western United States.

For good measure, it’s predicted they might loose a couple of salvos of short- and medium-range missiles during the same period, as well.

The obvious point of that is to (saber) rattle its South Korean and Japanese neighbors. (Naturally, those missiles put US forces in South Korea and Japan into harm’s way, too.)

Of course, the North Koreans say the launch is just a harmless bid to put a satellite into orbit (following unsuccessful attempts in 1998 and 2006). We’re supposed to believe that the purpose is benign — for civilian communications or scientific monitoring, plus propping up the image of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il, who suffered a serious stroke last year.

A successful launch would also raise the prestige of the isolated, Stalinist regime: Only nine nations have launched their own satellites into orbit, Iran the most recent.

But the launch defies two UN resolutions, passed in the wake of Pyongyang’s 2006 nuclear-weapon test, that prohibit North Korean missile and atomic activity.

And the satellite may have a military purpose — such as relaying secure communications or gathering intelligence on US and South Korean forces across the DMZ. (Remember, we’re technically still at war.)

Moreover, a successful satellite shot would pique interest among potential customers, including Iran — which is rumored to have reps in town for the launch. Syria could also be intrigued, considering the Pyongyang-Damascus nuclear ties exposed in recent years.

But, most serious analysts suspect that North Korea is actually testing an intercontinental ballistic missile under the cover of its “civilian” space program.

The ability to launch a payload such as a satellite into space is a key building block in the development of an ICBM capability — that is, a big step toward building missiles that could reach out and touch us beyond Alaska and Hawaii.

Adding to the worries, US intelligence recently warned that North Korea may be making progress in developing a warhead suitable for mating with one of its many ballistic missiles.

The bottom line? It’s an “I will not be ignored” moment: The Dear Leader is sending a shot across the bow of the Obama administration, which had blamed testy US ties with North Korea on bad Bush-era policies.

Indeed, the administration seems to be downplaying the upcoming missile shot as a done deal, threatening unspecified “consequences” for naughty North Korean behavior. It hasn’t even indicated that it would put US missile defenses in Alaska and California on operational alert in advance of a launch (as George W. Bush did in 2006).

Team Obama’s response is so restrained, in fact, it signals resignation and weakness in the eyes of some.

One thing’s absolutely clear: Obama’s notion that the world’s troublemakers would naturally “change” course once he took office continues to crumble. North Korea is just the latest example.

Peter Brookes is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense.</s>Nebraska U.S. Senator Deb Fischer, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, visited with KNEB today about a number of issues.

Fischer embraced the extension of the trade deal with South Korea or KORUS, which she says will not only strengthen the U.S. trade position but also the two countries partnership regarding security and national defense.

South Korea was Nebraska agriculture’s fifth-largest customer in 2016 and imported $340 million of Nebraska agricultural products that year.

Fischer also says she is hopeful the proposed meeting with President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will produce positive results.

Fischer indicated she is watching the preparations for the meeting with an optimistic eye, hoping the negotiations will reduce or even eliminate the threat of a nuclear attack against the U.S.

Fischer says she wants the President to be open with Congress on any negotiations with the North Korean leader and not have the bad surprises that cropped up in the closed door Iranian deal negotiated by former President Obama.

Fischer also says legislation she cosponsored that was recently passed will bridge gaps in the existing National Instant Criminal Background Check System and empower states and local school districts to improve safety in schools.

Fischer says the legislation would require compliance with current reporting laws and identify dangerous people who are not allowed to have firearms under current laws.

Fischer said there was a “total breakdown in Florida”, where she said nothing was done despite the fact the gunman was not only identified by mental health people, but also law enforcement and even the FBI. Fischer said “That cannot happen again.”

Fischer says the legislation includes grant funding for training students, faculty, and local law enforcement to coordinate and identify violent situations, plus make improvements to school infrastructure and reporting systems.</s>President Donald Trump said Thursday that he may "hold up" the U.S. trade deal with South Korea.

Trump said he could hold off on the deal until there's a deal reached with North Korea "because it's a very strong card." Earlier this month, the president accepted an invitation, conveyed by South Korean officials, to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by the end of May.

Earlier this week, the U.S. and South Korea reached a deal to revise their trade pact. South Korea's steel exports to the U.S. would decline by about 30 percent. The nations also reached a side deal aimed at deterring competitive currency devaluation by South Korea.

"We've redone it, and it's going to level the playing field on steel and cars and trucks coming into this country," Trump said Thursday. "And I may hold it up until after a deal is made with North Korea, Does everybody understand that? You know why, right? Because it's a very strong card, and I want to make sure everyone is treated fairly."

Trump was giving remarks at an event to push his infrastructure plan, which would include $200 billion in federal funding meant to encourage $1.5 trillion in overall investment from states, municipalities and private entities.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.</s>North Korea sent a rare announcement addressed to "all Koreans at home and abroad" on Thursday, saying they should make a "breakthrough" for unification without the help of other countries, its state media said.

It said all Koreans should "promote contact, travel, cooperation between North and South Korea" while adding Pyongyang will "smash" all challenges against reunification of the Korean peninsula.

The announcement, issued after a joint meeting of government and political parties, added Koreans should wage an energetic drive to defuse the acute military tension and create a peaceful climate on the Korean peninsula.

Military tension on the Korean peninsula was a "fundamental obstacle" for the improvement of inter-Korean relations and unification, the North's official news agency said.

It added joint military drills with "outside forces" has shown to be unhelpful for the development of relations between North and South Korea.
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North Korea did not provide details on why the meeting had been held but the statement said it was aimed to support leader Kim Jong Un's remarks regarding unification from his New Year's address.

It said this year is meaningful for both North and South Korea as it is the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea while South Korea will be hosting the Winter Olympics next month.</s>People watch a TV screen showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, left, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 9, 2018. (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON: The meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would not take place without "concrete actions" that match the promises made by the reclusive nation, the White House said today.

It, however, maintained that the time and place for the meeting has not been determined, a day after Trump said he has agreed to meet Kim by May, setting the stage for a historic summit between the two leaders who have repeatedly traded insults amid spiralling tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes.

"This meeting would not take place without concrete actions that match the promises made by North Korea," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference, adding that the time and place for the meeting is yet to be determined.

Sanders reiterated that the Trump administration will continue with its "maximum pressure" campaign on Pyongyang.

Last night and this morning, Trump has had a series of telephonic conversations with a number of world leaders, who have been involved with the US on the North Korean issue.

Sanders said the US has accepted the invitation to talk based on the commitment made by North Korea.

"We are making no concessions. We are not going to move forward until we see concrete and verifiable actions from North Korea," she said.

The President, she said, is committed to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"The US is speaking from a position of strength and North Korea is on a weak wicket," Sanders added.

Earlier in the day, US Vice President Mike Pence said that North Korea's desire to meet to discuss denuclearization while suspending all ballistic missile and nuclear testing  is evidence that President Trump's strategy to isolate the Kim regime is working.

"The North Koreans are coming to the table despite the United States making zero concessions and, in close coordination with our allies, we have consistently increased the pressure on the Kim regime," he said.

"Our resolve is undeterred and our policy remains the same: all sanctions remain in place and the maximum pressure campaign will continue until North Korea takes concrete, permanent, and verifiable steps to end their nuclear program," Pence said.

Sanders said Trump is hopeful that the US can make some continued progress.

"Look, what we know is that the maximum-pressure campaign has clearly been effective. We know that it has put a tremendous amount of pressure on North Korea," she said.

"They have made some major promises. They've made promises to denuclearize. They've made promises to stop nuclear and missile testing. They have recognised that regular military exercises between the US and its ally, South Korea, will continue.

The maximum-pressure campaign, we're not letting up," she said.</s>SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. journalist Laura Ling, jailed for three months in one of the world’s most isolated nations, wrote to her family that she “cried so much” her first few days after being arrested by North Korean border guards.

“Now, I cry less. I try very hard to think about positive things, but sometimes it is hard too,” the 32-year-old Californian wrote in a letter from Pyongyang relayed to her family two weeks ago.

Ling and colleague Euna Lee – reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV, a media venture started by former Vice President Al Gore – stand trial Thursday in North Korea’s highest court, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in “hostile acts.” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the charges baseless.

Their trial, on charges that could land them in one of North Korea’s notoriously grim labor camps, comes at a sensitive time in the diplomatic scramble to rein in an increasingly belligerent Pyongyang.

In the past two months, North Korea has launched a long-range rocket and conducted an underground nuclear test in defiance of the U.N. Security Council. The North also abandoned international disarmament negotiations and may have restarted its plutonium reprocessing plant. On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the regime appears to be preparing a long-range missile.

Analysts say North Korea could use the women as bargaining chips in any negotiations with Washington and its allies.

“Having two journalists detained in the North leaves the U.S. very little maneuvering room since Washington now has to take the women’s safety into account,” said Yoon Deok-min, a professor at South Korea’s state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

The U.S. and North Korea, which fought on opposite sides of the bitter three-year Korean War in the early 1950s, do not have diplomatic relations. Washington also has 28,500 troops in South Korea to help monitor the cease-fire laid out in a truce signed in 1953.

Reclusive North Korea, which has few allies and has seen South Korean aid dry up since President Lee Myung-bak took office last year, is desperate to normalize ties with the U.S., analysts said.

Analyst Paik Hak-soon called North Korea’s nuclear test a ploy to put “maximum pressure” on President Barack Obama to cave into Pyongyang’s desire for direct talks.

Thursday’s trial could provide a diplomatic opening for such talks, Paik said. “Had it not been for the journalists, sending a high-level envoy for direct talks with Pyongyang could create the impression the U.S. is yielding to North Korea’s provocations.”

Gore himself may head to North Korea to lobby for the reporters’ release, TBS television in Tokyo said Saturday, citing unnamed sources. Messages left with a Gore spokeswoman went unanswered, and Current TV has refused to comment.

The journalists were arrested at the northeastern border with China on March 17. Activists who helped organize their trip say they had been reporting on North Korean women and children who fled to China for an uncertain life as refugees.

Meanwhile, the journalists’ families began speaking out. They are set to appear Monday on NBC’s “Today” show and CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

“We have been holding our breath every day as we’ve watched the political situation on the Korean Peninsula grow increasingly tense,” the families said in a statement Sunday. “Our loved ones sit in the midst of it. We desperately urge the governments of the United States and North Korea to keep our issue separate from the larger geopolitical standoff.”

On the day the trial is set to begin, candlelight vigils will be held across the U.S.

“To say that this has been stressful would be to grossly understate how hard this has been. Our families have been very quiet because of the extreme sensitivity of the situation, but given the fact that our girls are in the midst of a global nuclear standoff, we cannot wait any longer,” sister Lisa Ling, a TV journalist who herself reported in North Korea in 2005, wrote in a message posted to a Facebook page for Ling and Lee.

The families said they were “gravely concerned,” noting that Lee has a 4-year-old child and that Ling was being treated for an ulcer before her trip to China.

“In our limited communication with her, we fear it has become more serious since her detainment and requires immediate medical attention,” their statement said.

Lee and Ling are journalists “simply doing their job,” the families said. “We can say with absolute certainty that when the girls left U.S. soil, they never intended to set foot onto North Korean territory. If at any point a transgression occurred, we sincerely apologize on their behalf.”</s>SEOUL, March 29 (Reuters) - International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach travelled to Pyongyang on Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported, a visit that comes after North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Games helped ease inter-Korean relations.

Bach took North Korea’s state airline Air Koryo from Beijing Capital International Airport with 10 other IOC officials, South Korea’s Yonhap said.

Bach told Reuters during the Feb. 9-25 Winter Olympics that he would make the visit on the North’s invitation as part of an agreement between the IOC and both North and South Korea.

Athletes from North and South Korea marched under a unified peninsula flag at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang and the two Koreas have experienced a significant thaw in tensions since the Winter Olympics.

Bach’s itinerary in Pyongyang remains unclear but his visit comes amid a flurry of international outreach by North Korea.

After North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a surprise visit to Beijing this week — his first known trip outside North Korea since taking power in 2011 — his engagement with the international community has sparked speculation that he may try to meet other leaders ahead of the summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and United States President Trump.

Japan’s Asahi newspaper said on Thursday Japan had sounded out North Korea about a bilateral summit.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry announced Thursday that the two Korea had set a date to hold their first summit in more than a decade on April 27.

The two Koreas are technically still at war after the 1950-1953 conflict ended with a ceasefire, not a peace agreement.</s>RICHFIELD >> President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to “hold up” the trade agreement his administration finalized with South Korea this week in an effort to gain more leverage in potential talks with North Korea.

Speaking on infrastructure in Ohio, Trump highlighted the recently completed renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, but he warned, “I may hold it up until after a deal is made with North Korea.” The announcement comes as the two Koreas have announced plans to hold bilateral meetings next month in advance of a possible meeting between Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un by the end of May.

Trump noted the “rhetoric has calmed down” with North Korea, but added he may hold up the first trade agreement concluded by his administration, “because it’s a very strong card and I want to make sure everyone is treated fairly.”

Trump didn’t explain why the trade deal and North Korea talks couldn’t proceed simultaneously. But the U.S. is counting on close U.S.-South Korea alignment to present a united front as both countries press the North to denuclearize. The complex and politically charged issue of the renegotiated trade deal could prove distracting just as the U.S. is pursuing high-stakes diplomacy with Pyongyang.

The president’s visit to Richfield, Ohio, was meant to be a push for upgrades to the nation’s aging roads and bridges in his first public appearance since an adult-film actress claimed on national TV that they had sex months after Trump’s wife gave birth to his fifth child.

Instead, Trump turned what was billed as a “major speech” on infrastructure into 53-minute campaign-style rally, with talk of defeating the Islamic State and caring for veterans — not to mention a plug for the television reboot of “Roseanne.”

He called for a plan deploying $200 billion in federal money to spur at least $1.5 trillion in spending over a decade to repair or replace highways, bridges, ports, airports and other infrastructure.

“We will transform our roads and bridges from a source of endless frustration into a source of incredible pride,” he said.

But in a concession to political realities in Washington, where lawmakers are increasingly focused on their re-elections this fall in what is set to be a difficult campaign cycle for Republicans, Trump said, “You’re probably going to have to wait until after the election.”

Trump is claiming Democrats don’t want to work with him on infrastructure because they don’t want to give him any additional “wins” since his tax bill passed in December.

Trump unveiled the sweeping infrastructure proposal in February and cast it as one that could garner bipartisan support. But the plan relies heavily on state and local governments for the bulk of the spending, raising concerns among members of Congress about the possibility of higher commuter tolls and the sale of assets to raise the money.

There is little expectation that Congress will take up a sweeping infrastructure proposal along the lines of what Trump envisions — or that Republicans in control of the House and Senate will write their own legislation — as lawmakers begin to shift their focus to the challenge of getting re-elected in November.

Instead, Congress plans to package a series of related measures, including beefed-up spending in the big budget bill Trump signed into law last week. That bill, which funds the government through Sept. 30, included more money for transportation projects, rural broadband and other investments.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., promoted it in a tweet as “long-overdue updates to our country’s infrastructure.”

Trump’s speech in northern Ohio was his first appearance in public since Friday, when he spoke at the White House and criticized a massive government funding bill he had signed into law. The president, first lady Melania Trump and their 12-year-old son, Barron, spent last weekend at their Palm Beach, Florida, estate. Trump returned to the White House on Sunday shortly before CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired its interview with porn actress Stormy Daniels, who says the married Trump had sex with her in his Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006.

Trump, through his personal attorney and White House aides, has denied the affair. He has not commented on the allegations himself.

In Ohio, Trump also discussed findings in a new report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers saying the infrastructure proposal would contribute modestly to economic growth over the 10-year period and help put hundreds of thousands of unemployed laborers back to work.

Trump was returning to his Florida home after the speech.

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
Authorities announce that the summit between the governments of North Korea and South Korea will take place on April 27, 2018.