North Korea says it's open to talks with the US but will only do so without preconditions.

North Korea says it's open to talks with the US but will only do so without preconditions.

North Korea has threatened to "counter the US" if the United States holds joint military exercises with South Korea, and said it would not beg for talks with Washington.

The US is due to start joint exercises in early April, a South Korean presidential security adviser said this week, according to Yonhap news agency, the latest in a series of drills that the North has regularly described as a threat.

"If the US finally holds joint military exercises while keeping sanctions on the DPRK, the DPRK will counter the US by its own mode of counteraction and the US will be made to own all responsibilities for the ensuing consequences," North Korea's official KCNA news agency said in its commentary on Saturday, saying the drills would harm reconciliation efforts on the peninsula.

The DPRK is the acronym of the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

On February 23, the US said it was imposing its largest package of sanctions to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs. President Donald Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work.

North Korea has slammed Trump's unilateral sanctions against it, but it said it was open to talks with the US during senior North Korean officials' visit to South Korea for the Olympics last month.

The White House said any talks with North Korea must lead to an end of its nuclear program.

North Korea reiterated on Saturday that it was willing to talk to the US but said it would never sit with any precondition.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman was quoted by state media KCNA news agency as saying "we will neither beg for dialogue nor evade the military option claimed by the US".

"Whether peace desired by our nation and the rest of the world settles on the Korean peninsula or a situation that no one desires is developed in the vicious cycle of confrontation depends entirely on the attitude of the US," the spokesman said, according to KCNA.

South Korea plans to send a special envoy to North Korea in response to an invitation from leader Kim Jong Un, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told Trump in a phone call on Thursday.</s>North Korea locked horns wth the US after President Donald Trump demanded the hermit state denuclearise before negotiations begin. But the communist nation rejected his precondition, stepping up fears of World War 3. The spokesman for the foreign ministry of North Korea warned: “In decades-long history of the DPRK-US [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] talks, there had been no case at all where we sat with the US on any precondition and this will be the case in future too. “The US attitude shown after we clarified our intention for DPRK-US dialogue compels us to only think that the US is not interred in resuming DPRK-US dialogue.”

The news comes the day after North Korea unleashed fury at Trump’s plans for joint military drills with South Korea, promising a “dark cloud of war” should he persist. Pyongyang’s mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency said: "If the US finally holds joint military exercises while keeping sanctions on the DPRK, the DPRK will counter the US by its own mode of counteraction and the US will be made to own all responsibilities for the ensuing consequences.

"The US should clearly understand this and exercise prudence. "During the Olympic closing ceremony, South Korean president Moon Jae-in announced a North Korean delegate said his country is willing to hold talks with the States. Trump responded by saying they would only happen “under the right conditions”.</s>Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel is no stranger to taking shots at President Trump.

The comedian has repeatedly made jokes -- and seriously criticized -- the president on his late night talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” He also hit Trump repeatedly last February when he hosted the 89th Academy Awards.

Ahead of the awards show, below are some of Kimmel’s previous Trump jabs.

“Television brings people together, but television can also tear us apart,” Kimmel said during his opening monologue at the Emmys. “I mean if it wasn’t for television, would Donald Trump be running for president? No, he would be at home right now quietly rubbing up against his wife Malaria while she pretends to be asleep.”

Kimmel later said that “Celebrity Apprentice” producer Mark Burnett was responsible for the Trump phenomenon.

“Thanks to Mark Burnett, we don’t have to watch reality shows anymore because we’re living in one,” he said.

After Trump won the presidential election, Kimmel described the five stages of grief -- denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

“Now stage one, is, of course, denial. As in, ‘No, the host of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ is not our president, he can’t possibly be,’” Kimmel said on his show. “‘CNN must have the map wrong, they must have missed a county or something.’”

When he reached the stage of acceptance, Kimmel said, “No matter how you feel about it, Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America,” Kimmel said.

"So thank God we legalized marijuana yesterday,” he continued, in an apparent reference to a California proposition.

The 2017 Oscars featured multiple Trump references - including when Kimmel “thanked” Trump and praised Meryl Streep in his opening monologue.

“And maybe this is not a popular thing to say, but I want to say thank you to President Trump,” Kimmel said. “I mean, remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That’s gone! Thanks to him.”

The joke came in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, sparked by a lack of diversity among major award nominees.

Kimmel went on to reference Trump’s labeling of Streep as “over-rated.” Streep was up for Best Actress at the awards show.

“This is Meryl’s 20th Oscar nomination, made even more amazing considering the fact that she wasn’t even in a movie this year -- we just wrote her name down out of habit,” he said. “Meryl, stand up if you would. Everybody please join me in giving Meryl Streep a totally undeserved round of applause, will you? The highly overrated Meryl Streep, everyone.”

Kimmel spoke about White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s Iraq trip on his show.

The comedian said that Kushner “has no experience dealing with foreign governments” and called him “a guy who negotiates rent.”

“I mean -- this is his job, is to figure out how much it will cost to put a Dunkin Donuts on the first floor of an office building,” he said. “Dennis Rodman has more foreign policy experience than Jared Kushner. That’s for -- for real.”

Kimmel said he’d been thinking about why the president would send his son-in-law -- and that there is “only one possible explanation -- I think the president might be trying to kill him.”

“You know, a lot of fathers don’t get along with their son-in-laws,” he joked.

Kimmel said that Trump firing FBI Director James Comey “is kind of like O.J. firing Judge Ito halfway through the trial.” He added that Comey was fired while investigating potential Russian collusion.

“This is the kind of thing dictators do,” Kimmel said. “This is the kind of thing reality TV hosts do, they fire someone every week. Maybe that’s what happened, he thinks he’s still on ‘The Celebrity Apprentice.’ It was between James Comey and Meatloaf and, well, the Loaf won again.”

Kimmel later said, “One reason they gave -- and this is really something -- for firing Comey is because he mishandled the Hillary Clinton email situation, which is hilarious because that would mean Trump fired James Comey for making him president.”

Kimmel slammed Trump after the president spoke at a press conference about a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that had been met by counter-protesters.

The comedian called Trump “completely unhinged” and the press conference “astonishing.”

“The only thing I can compare it to is, remember when Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ear off? And then he bit his other ear off?” he said. “This was the presidential equivalent of that.”

Later in the monologue, Kimmel put forward the idea of naming Trump “the first king of America.”

“We need to set him up in a castle, maybe in Florida, lead him to the top, and then lock the door to that castle -- forever,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel spoke about Trump’s decision to repeal the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) program.

“This morning, our president woke up and asked his staff, ‘Now that this hurricane is over, what’s something horrible I can do to distract people from the Russia investigation?” he said. “Someone said, ‘You know, there are 800,000 innocent kids you could deport for no good reason,’ and he said, ‘Done and done!’”

Kimmel eventually joked, “The president’s spokesperson said it was a difficult decision, the president’s been debating it for months, but ultimately Donald Trump believes that if these kids want to be American, they have to do it the right way: by marrying Donald Trump. And that’s as simple as that.”

The comedian made headlines in May when he spoke on-air about his son Billy, who was born with heart defects. Kimmel used his show as a platform for families’ access to equal medical care, and repeatedly spoke out against congressional attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

In late September, Kimmel called Trump “bad at math” regarding the proposed Graham-Cassidy health care bill.

Kimmel aired a clip of Trump saying, "We have the votes. We can't do it now because we have somebody in the hospital."

Kimmel pointed out a tweet from Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss, which said he was at home.

“There was no senator in the hospital,” Kimmel said, “and even if he was, there were still at least three other Republicans who were against the bill.”

“So just to recap, Mr. President: There was no Senator in the hospital, you didn't have the votes, the bill didn’t pass, and you’re bad at math, okay?” he said.

Kimmel called on Trump to leave the presidency in October.

“Late Night host are dealing with the Democrats for their very "unfunny" & repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?” Trump said in a tweet.

“Excellent point Mr. President! You should quit that boring job - I'll let you have my show ALL to yourself #MAGA,” Kimmel later replied.

“North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,’” Trump tweeted. “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

After reading Trump’s tweet on-air, Kimmel said, “Happy New Year, everybody. We have two maniacs with nuclear warheads bragging about who has the bigger button.”

“His hair tried to fly away to Mar-a-Lago on its own,” February 2018

Kimmel poked fun at Trump's hair "flapping in the wind" on his show in February.

“Trump is getting on Air Force One, headed to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend and his hair tried to fly to Mar-a-Lago on its own," Kimmel said. "Now the red hats make sense.”

“That’s unbelievable. I think we might have to see that again” he added, before the clip was replayed. “Yes, you can see - this is why Darth Vader had the good sense to wear a helmet.”

Kimmel joked, “According to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, the president’s hair stayed perfectly still, he does not have a bald spot and anything to the contrary is fake news."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>Donald Trump praised Xi Jinping on Saturday after the ruling Communist party announced it was eliminating the two-term limit for the presidency, paving the way for the Chinese leader to serve indefinitely, according to audio aired by CNN.

"He's now president for life, president for life. And he's great," Mr Trump said of the Chinese president, according to audio of excerpts of Mr Trump's remarks at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida aired by CNN.

"And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday," Mr Trump said to cheers and applause from supporters.

US presidents by tradition served a maximum of two four-year terms until President Franklin Roosevelt was elected a record four times starting in 1932. An amendment to the US Constitution approved in 1951 limits presidents to two terms in office.

China’s annual parliament gathering kicks off on Monday as Mr Xi presses ahead with efforts to ward off financial risks without undermining the economy.

The Communist party announced on February 25 the end of the two-term limit for the president - and the parliament is expected to ratify the move.

During the remarks, Mr Trump praised Mr Xi as "a great gentleman" and added: "He's the most powerful (Chinese) president in a hundred years." Mr Trump said Xi had treated him "tremendously well" during his visit in November.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Saturday.

Mr Trump has often praised the Chinese leader, but in January Mr Trump told Reuters the United States was considering a big "fine" as part of a probe into China’s alleged theft of intellectual property. He has been critical of China's trade policies.

Mr Trump told The New York Times in December that because of North Korea he had "been soft on China because the only thing more important to me than trade is war."

During the speech in Florida, Mr Trump also complained that his actions during the 2016 campaign remained under scrutiny while those of his former rival, Hillary Clinton, were not.

"I'm telling you, it's a rigged system folks," Mr Trump said. "I've been saying that for a long time. It's a rigged system. And we don't have the right people in there yet. We have a lot of great people, but certain things, we don't have the right people."

The president has been critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently.

Mr Trump attacked Mr Sessions for asking the inspector general to investigate potential surveillance abuses by the FBI in the early stages of the Russia investigation, saying that such a probe should be handled instead by "Justice Department lawyers." Mr Sessions later defended himself in an unusual statement.

The president also took aim at former President George W Bush over his decision too invade Iraq.

"Here we are, like the dummies of the world, because we had bad politicians running our country for a long time," he said, calling the Iraq invasion "the single worst decision ever made".

"That was Bush. Another real genius. That was Bush," Mr Trump said sarcastically. "That turned out to be wonderful intelligence. Great intelligence agency there."</s>President Donald Trump continued to talk tough on trade on Monday, defending his announced steel and aluminum tariffs.

“NAFTA, which is under renegotiation right now, has been a bad deal for U.S.A.,” Trump wrote. “Massive relocation of companies & jobs. Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed.”

Reuters reports that representatives from Canada and Mexico will meet on Monday to discuss NAFTA as both countries seek a waiver from Trump’s proposed tariffs.

Trump specifically called out Mexico and Canada for their failures to address problems for the United States.

“Canada must treat our farmers much better. Highly restrictive,” he wrote on Twitter. “Mexico must do much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the U.S. They have not done what needs to be done. Millions of people addicted and dying.”

On Sunday, Trump said that the United States was on the “losing side” of trade deals.

“Our Steel and Aluminum industries are dead,” he wrote. “Sorry, it’s time for a change! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”</s>Alec Baldwin brought his forever-excellent Donald Trump impersonation back to Saturday Night Live for a ripping cold open that recreated the previous week's televised gun control sitdown.

Baldwin's Trump script swings wide, goofing on everything from Trump's far-fetched boast that he'd have stepped up to defend a school from active shooter to his dwindling White House staff. At one point, he bemoans the United States' weakened position on the world stage, complaining that "Wakanda is laughing at us."

Stick around for the whole thing. Kate McKinnon brings back her amazing and deeply unsettling Jeff Sessions impression for the last little bit, and it's everything Trump-era SNL fans could hope for.</s>SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea threatened on Saturday to“counter the U.S.” if the United States holds joint military exercises with South Korea, and said it would not beg for talks with Washington.

The United States is due to start joint exercises in early April, a South Korean presidential security adviser said this week according to Yonhap news agency - the latest in a series of drills that the north has regularly described as a threat.

“If the U.S. finally holds joint military exercises while keeping sanctions on the DPRK, the DPRK will counter the U.S. by its own mode of counteraction and the U.S. will be made to own all responsibilities for the ensuing consequences,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said in its commentary, saying the drills would harm reconciliation efforts on the peninsula.

The DPRK is the acronym of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

On Feb. 23, the United States said it was imposing its largest package of sanctions to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programmes. President Donald Trump warned of a”phase two” that could be “very, very unfortunate for the world” if the steps did not work.

North Korea has slammed Trump’s unilateral sanctions against it, but it said it was open to talks with the United States during senior North Korean officials’ visit to South Korea for the Olympics last month.

The White House said any talks with North Korea must lead to an end of its nuclear programme.

North Korea reiterated on Saturday that it was willing to talk to the United States but said it would never sit with any precondition.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman was quoted by state media KCNA news agency as saying“we will neither beg for dialogue nor evade the military option claimed by the U.S.”

“Whether peace desired by our nation and the rest of the world settles on the Korean peninsula or a situation that no one desires is developed in the vicious cycle of confrontation depends entirely on the attitude of the U.S.” the spokesman said, according to KCNA.

South Korea plans to send a special envoy to North Korea in response to an invitation from leader Kim Jong Un, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told Trump in a phone call on Thursday.

The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang last month gave a boost to recent engagement between the two Koreas after sharply rising tensions over the North’s missile programme.</s>SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s trade ministry said on Friday it is talking to the United States about its steel exports and will keep up its outreach until U.S. President Donald Trump formally announces proposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products.

Trump on Thursday announced his administration would impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent on imported aluminum to protect U.S. producers.

South Korea is the third-largest steel exporter to the United States after Canada and Brazil.

“Until the U.S. government makes a final decision, we will actively seek outreach activities toward the United States,” South Korea’s trade ministry said in a statement.

South Korean trade minister Kim Hyun-chong has been in the United States since Feb. 25, the ministry said. Kim has met U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and other officials to raise concerns over the so-called Section 232 probe and consider a plan that would minimize the damage to South Koran companies.

Shares of South Korean steelmaker Posco fell more than 3 percent on Friday to a four-week low.

Trump is expected to formally announce the tariffs measure next week.</s>SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — North Korea said Saturday it is willing to have talks with the United States, but that it rejects preconditions and Washington’s demands that it must first demonstrate its willingness to denuclearize.

During the closing ceremony for the recently concluded Olympics in South Korea, the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced that a North Korean delegate to the Olympics said his country is willing to hold talks with the U.S. President Donald Trump responded by saying talks will happen only “under the right conditions.”

The Trump administration’s position is that North Korea must show a real commitment toward ending its nuclear and missile programs before any talks can take place. The U.S. has applied a series of sanctions in what it says is a “maximum pressure campaign” to force North Korea to disarm.

On Saturday, the spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign ministry said the North would not accept preconditions for talks.

“In decades-long history of the DPRK-U.S. talks, there had been no case at all where we sat with the U.S. on any precondition, and this will be the case in future, too,” the spokesperson said in comments carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. “The U.S. attitude shown after we clarified our intention for DPRK-U.S. dialogue compels us to only think that the U.S. is not interested in resuming the DPRK-U.S. dialogue.”

North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“It is the consistent and principled position of the DPRK to resolve issues in a diplomatic and peaceful way through dialogue and negotiation,” the spokesperson said. “The dialogue we desire is the one designed to discuss and resolve the issues of mutual concern on an equal footing between states.”</s>March 4 (UPI) -- During a joke-filled speech at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner on Saturday night, President Donald Trump said that North Korea contacted the United States about possible talks.

"A couple days ago they said we would like to talk, and I said, so would we, but you have to de-nuke, you have to de-nuke. So let's see what happens," Trump said at the Renaissance Washington Hotel to more than 600 attendees, including journalists. "Maybe positive things are happening, I hope that's true ... We will be meeting and we'll see if anything positive happens."

Trump said: "I won't rule out direct talks with Kim Jong Un, I just won't. As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that's his problem not mine."

After the 35-minute talk, the White House didn't say whether the president was joking.

In the past, Trump has said he's willing to talk to the regime's leader but the nation must commit to getting rid of its nuclear arsenal.

In October after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed in Beijing that the United States had "lines of communication," but posted on Twitter: "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man. Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!"

South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced Sunday he will send a special delegation to North Korea on Monday to discuss inter-Korean relations and possibility of dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was planning a secret meeting with representatives of the regime at last month's Winter Olympics in South Korea, including Kim Jong Un's sister. But the North Koreans pulled out of the planned session.

"North Korea dangled a meeting in hopes of the vice president softening his message, which could have ceded the world stage for their propaganda during the Olympics," said Nick Ayers, Pence's chief of staff.

Pence attended the Gridiron Dinner, a white-tie affair, with several cabinet and family members.

Trump told the attendees that he calls Pence "the apprentice," and vice president "wakes up every morning and asks, has he been impeached yet."

Trump, returning from his resort Mar-a-Lago in South Florida on Saturday after a meeting with big Republican donors, poked fun of himself, saying "I told them not to worry, nobody does self-deprecating better than I do.

Hew also kidded about his wife Melania, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his former top adviser Steve Bannon and senior Democrats. Also on hand was his daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka.

"So, who's going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller, or Melania? That's terrible," Trump said. "But you love me right, honey? She said, behave! By the way she has been an incredible first lady."

He continued: "I want to apologize for running a little late, as Jared could not get through security."

And he said he offered Attorney General Jeff Sessions a ride to the dinner, but "he recused himself."

Sessions, who was criticized by the president this past week on Twitter, was seated at the head table near Trump.

All presidents since 1885, except for Grover Cleveland, have accepted the club's invitation to attend at least one annual dinner. The entertainment includes comedy/song sketches form media members.

Last year, Trump didn't attend the Gridiron Club nor the White House Correspondents Association annual event.

In Trump's first post Sunday on Twitter, he tweeted: "The Gridiron Dinner last night was great fun. I am accomplishing a lot in Washington and have never had a better time doing something, and especially since this is for the American People!"
U.S. President Donald Trump states North Korea was recently seeking talks with the United States.