Trump, Abe at odds on launches

N. Korea tests new ‘super-large’ multiple rocket launcher

BIARRITZ, France, Aug 25, (Agencies): US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe showed their differences over the seriousness of North Korea’s series of short-range missile launches on Sunday, while maintaining that they would remain in synch on the issue.

Trump, who prizes his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jongun, said the launches did not violate an agreement and were in line with what others were doing.

Asked if he was concerned about North Korea’s missile launches, Trump said: “I’m not happy about it, but again, he’s not in violation of an agreement.”

Abe said the launches breached UN resolutions.

Launches of short-range ballistic missiles on Saturday were the seventh by North Korea since Trump and Kim met at the border between the two Koreas in June.

The launches have complicated attempts to restart talks between US and North Korean negotiators over the future of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

Meanwhile, North Korea said Sunday leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of a “newly developed superlarge multiple rocket launcher,” another demonstration of its expanding weapons arsenal apparently aimed at increasing its leverage ahead of a possible resumption of nuclear talks with the US.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency said Saturday’s weapons test was successful and cited Kim as saying the rocket launcher is “indeed a great weapon.”

Kim underscored the need to “continue to step up the development of Korean-style strategic and tactical weapons for resolutely frustrating the ever-mounting military threats and pressure offensive of the hostile forces,” according to the KCNA.

The “hostile forces” likely referred

Opp’n barred from Kashmir visit:

India’s government on Saturday barred several opposition leaders from visiting Indian-administered Kashmir to assess the situation created by a massive security crackdown in the region that started early this month.

Authorities sent the opposition leaders back to New Delhi after they waited for several hours at the airport in Srinagar, the main city in the region, said Vineet Punia, an official with the opposition Congress to the United States and South Korea, whose recently ended regular military drills infuriated North Korea. The North has called the drills an invasion rehearsal and conducted a slew of missile and rocket tests in response.

Some experts said North Korea aims to show off its weapons to try to get an upper hand ahead of a possible restart of nuclear negotiations, which remain largely stalemated since the second summit between President Donald Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February fell apart due to squabbling over US-led sanctions on North Korea. The two leaders met again at the Korean border in late June and agreed to resume talks.

Trump downplayed the latest launch, saying “Kim Jong Un has been, you know, pretty straight with me . ... He likes testing missiles but we never restricted short-range missiles. We’ll see what happens.”

South Korea’s military said North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday morning and that they flew about 380 kilometers (236 miles) at the maximum altitude of 97 kilometers (60 miles). It was the seventh known weapons test by North Korea in about a month.

North Korea has been pushing to develop powerful multiple rocket launch systems, whose projectiles resemble short-range missiles, some experts said. On Aug 1, North Korea said it tested a large-caliber multiple rocket guided system, a day after South Korea said the North fired two short-range ballistic missiles.

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North Korea’s foreign minister on Friday called US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a “poisonous plant of American diplomacy” and vowed to “shutter the absurd dream” that sanctions will force a change in Pyongyang.

The North’s blistering rhetoric

party. He said the opposition leaders had returned to New Delhi.

On the Pakistani side of Kashmir, police stopped hundreds of journalists from symbolically trying to cross the highly militarized border into Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The Indian opposition leaders, representing nine political parties, flew to Srinagar from New Delhi nearly three weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked Muslim-majority Kashmir’s may dim the prospect for an early resumption of nuclear negotiations between the countries. A senior US diplomat said earlier this week that Washington was ready to restart the talks, a day after US and South Korean militaries ended their regular drills that Pyongyang called an invasion rehearsal.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho made the comments to protest Pompeo’s remarks in an interview in which he said that Washington will maintain crippling sanctions on North Korea unless it denuclearizes.

Ri said he couldn’t just let the “reckless remarks” by Pompeo pass by him because they came amid a possible restart of the nuclear talks. Ri said Pompeo is a “brazen” man because he “had begged for” North Korean denuclearization and improved bilateral ties when he visited Pyongyang and met leader Kim Jong Un several times.

In April, North Korea demanded President Donald Trump remove Pompeo from the nuclear negotiations.

Ri said North Korea is ready for both dialogue and confrontation. But he warned that North Korea will try to remain “America’s biggest threat” if the United States continues to confront the North with sanctions.

Ri likely referred to comments by Pompeo during an interview with the Washington Examiner earlier this week. During the interview, Pompeo said that the US will “continue to keep on the sanctions that are the toughest in all of history and continue to work towards convincing Chairman Kim and the North Korean leaders that the right thing to do is for them to denuclearize.”

North Korea is notorious for crude and fiery diatribes against the United States and South Korea, although it lately focused its anger on South Korea rather than the US, particularly over the allies’ military drills.

decades-old special status guaranteed under India’s constitution. The government followed the move with an intense crackdown including a media blackout and backed by thousands of troops.

The opposition leaders included Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sharad Yadav of Janata Dal (United) and Majeed Memon of the National Conference.

Authorities on Friday had advised them against visiting the region, citing a sensitive law and order situation. But there was no official comment on Saturday on disallowing the opposition leaders from visiting Srinagar and other parts of the region. (AP)

US, Taleban resume talks:

A United States envoy and the Taleban resumed negotiations Thursday on ending America’s longest war after earlier signaling they were close to a deal.

A Taleban member familiar with, but not part of, the talks that resumed in Qatar said US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad also met oneon-one Wednesday with the Taleban’s lead negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The Taleban member spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with reporters.

Baradar is one of the Taleban’s founders and has perhaps the strongest influence on the insurgent group’s rank-and-file members. Some in Afghanistan fear that Taleban fighters who reject a deal with the US could migrate to other militant groups such as the brutal local affiliate of the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Kabul wedding over the weekend that killed at least 80 people. (AP)