North Korea postponed talks with U.S. because not ready - Haley

[webfact]

North Korea postponed talks with U.S. because not ready - Haley

By Michelle Nichols

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks at a press briefing at U.N. headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

 

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea postponed talks with the United States on Thursday "because they weren't ready," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said as she urged Pyongyang to take action to implement a June deal between the two countries.

 

Speaking to reporters before and after a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting on North Korea sanctions, Haley said it is now North Korea's turn to act. She also criticized Russia for trying to lift banking restrictions that are intended to curb the Asian nation's nuclear program.

 

"There's no time to stall or no time to delay or try and get past not going through with what was agreed in Singapore," said Haley, who will step down at the end of the year.

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to work toward denuclearisation at their landmark June summit in Singapore. But the agreement was short on specifics and negotiations have made little headway.

 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been due to meet North Korean officials in New York on Thursday, but the State Department said on Wednesday it would be postponed to a later date. It gave no reason for the delay.

 

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Describing the relationship between Washington and Pyongyang as "cordial," Haley said she did not think there was a "major issue" and she believed the talks would be rescheduled.

 

The U.N. Security Council met to discuss sanctions on North Korea on Thursday at the request of Russia. Haley has accused Russia of cheating on U.N. sanctions on North Korea.

 

After the short meeting, she told reporters Russia is looking to lift banking restrictions, which she said they are not following appropriately.

 

"We're concerned about the humanitarian situation in North Korea, but the truth always comes out," she said. "So now we know what their agenda is, we know exactly why they're trying to do it and we're not going to let it happen."

 

Russia's envoy did not speak to reporters after exiting the meeting.

 

AID IN LIMBO

Several requests by humanitarian groups for approval to ship aid goods to North Korea have been in limbo for months after the United States repeatedly asked for more time to consider them, an issue some diplomats had planned to raise in Thursday's meeting, according to documents seen by Reuters.

 

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously backed sanctions since 2006 to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Aid groups, however, can request exemptions to send humanitarian assistance to the impoverished, isolated Asian state.

 

Requests are made to the 15-member Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee, which operates by consensus.

 

China and Russia have said the Security Council should reward Pyongyang for "positive developments" this year. But the United States and other Western powers say sanctions must be enforced until there is full denuclearisation.

 

"We have given a lot of carrots up until now. We're not going to get rid of the stick because they have not done anything to warrant getting rid of the sanctions yet," Haley said.

 

According to committee documents, a September request by a U.S.-based charity and August requests by an Ireland-based aid group and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have yet to be given the green light.

 

"Our goal is to make sure that we don't do anything if it's going to be compromised and not go to the people," Haley said. "If it can be used in a different way, if we think they'll use if for another purpose, we are taking our time in vetting that very carefully."

 

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert in Washington; editing by Alistair Bell, Dan Grebler and Diane Craft)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-11-09

[Silurian]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to work toward denuclearisation at their landmark June summit in Singapore. But the agreement was short on specifics and negotiations have made little headway.

 

Shocker!

 

That Noble Peace Prize for the Reality TV Prez is slip, slidin', away. Where is that great deal maker? Pfft.

 

 

[Srikcir]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

"We have given a lot of carrots up until now. We're not going to get rid of the stick because they have not done anything to warrant getting rid of the sanctions yet,"

Finally figured that out did they at the State Department?

[Tug]

Oh I think they are getting around the sanctions rite smartly now that the orange Buffon screwed it up and presented them to the world stage 

[bristolboy]

WINNING!!!

 

In North Korea, Missile Bases Suggest a Great Deception

North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images, a network long known to American intelligence agencies but left undiscussed as President Trump claims to have neutralized the North’s nuclear threat.

The satellite images suggest that the North has been engaged in a great deception: It has offered to dismantle a major launching site — a step it began, then halted — while continuing to make improvements at more than a dozen others that would bolster launches of conventional and nuclear warheads.

The existence of the ballistic missile bases, which North Korea has never acknowledged, contradicts Mr. Trump’s assertion that his landmark diplomacy is leading to the elimination of a nuclear and missile program that the North had warned could devastate the United States.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/us/politics/north-korea-missile-bases.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Undeclared North Korea: The Sakkanmol Missile Operating Base

November 12, 2018, by Joseph Bermudez, Victor Cha and Lisa Collins

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Key Findings

• Sakkanmol (삭간몰) is an undeclared operational missile base for short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs).
• It is one of 13 out of an estimated 20 undeclared North Korean missile operating bases identified by Beyond Parallel research.
• Sakkanmol currently houses a unit equipped with SRBMs but could easily accommodate more capable medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs).

https://beyondparallel.csis.org/undeclared-north-korea-sakkanmol-missile-operating-base/

 

 

[bristolboy]

Apparently, the pressure on North Korea is not nearly so effetive as the Trump administration would have us believe:

Fake Signals and Illegal Flags: How North Korea Uses Clandestine Shipping to Fund Regime

Freighters loaded with coal and oil use an array of tactics to keep trade flowing and dodge U.S. pressure

https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-evades-u-s-pressure-with-fleet-of-illicit-ships-crisscrossing-the-seas-1543334189

 

 

[Srikcir]

6 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Apparently, the pressure on North Korea is not nearly so effetive as the Trump administration would have us believe:

Fake Signals and Illegal Flags: How North Korea Uses Clandestine Shipping to Fund Regime

Freighters loaded with coal and oil use an array of tactics to keep trade flowing and dodge U.S. pressure

https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-evades-u-s-pressure-with-fleet-of-illicit-ships-crisscrossing-the-seas-1543334189

 

 

Such subterfuge is not as necessary now.

China has reopened legal and illegal trade with North Korea, flouting sanctions by buying North Korean coal. Sep. 5, 2018

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/china-eases-economic-pressure-north-korea-undercutting-trump-admin-n906166

Russia resumes coal supplies via North Korea

Sept. 05, 2018

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/coal/russia-resumes-coal-supplies-via-north-korea/65686140