SEOUL, March 20 (UPI) -- North Korea says now is only the beginning of inter-Korean relations as well as its ties with the United States, lashing out at skepticism from right-wing critics in South Korea.

On Tuesday, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency published a commentary warning against "misleading reports through ridiculous nonsense," mainly targeting conservative groups in South Korea, who remain skeptical of the North's sudden willingness to hold talks with Seoul and Washington, as well as its commitment to denuclearization.

Right-wing politicians have stressed that Pyongyang has lied time and time again about its nuclear weapons, pulling out of international agreements and continuing to pursue nuclear and missile development.

They have also accused the liberal Moon Administration of attempting to use the dialogue momentum as a means to sway voters ahead of the June local government elections.

"Their useless gossip is the same as lying down and spitting, only embarrassing authorities who accepted our peace-loving request," the KCNA said. "We cannot look on as they mislead the public with absurd claims."

It also reaffirmed the North's self-professed completion of nuclear forces, saying the regime had "created the miracle of history in constructing a strong socialist nation, firmly crushing the schemes of enemy forces such as the United States."

It emphasized that critics must stop their "immature obstruction of the truth" and open their eyes to the calls for peace on the Korean Peninsula as well as the improvement of U.S-North relations.

The news agency did not directly mention either of the regime's upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

The reason may be that the North hasn't yet initiated ideological education for its citizens as it has done in the past ahead of summits with South Korea, Hankook Ilbo reported.

However, there are slight signs of change in tone in North Korean media reports, as they appear to have refrained from directly mentioning the regime's nuclear development.

They have also began referring to U.S. President Donald Trump as the "U.S. leader," as opposed to "the lunatic" as they called him earlier this year. </s> North Korea has broken its silence on the diplomatic thaw with Washington and Seoul, saying it is driving the "peace offensive" and rejecting suggestions that sanctions forced it to the negotiating table.

The commentary from the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) came with a rapid rapprochement on the Korean peninsula underway, after a period of heightened tensions stoked by the missile and nuclear tests.

But as diplomats scurry to arrange two proposed summits - North-South talks followed by a face-to-face meet between President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un - the North's silence had raised concerns over its intentions.

AAP

The commentary in the North's official news agency KCNA late Tuesday did not directly mention the summits but noted the "dramatic atmosphere for reconciliation" with the South and "a sign of change" with the US.

But it said Pyongyang's overtures came from a position of strength, not from weakness, even as it confronts intense international pressure as well as biting economic sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme.

"The dialogue peace offensive of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) is an expression of self-confidence as it has acquired everything it desires," it said.

It also slammed hawks in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo for questioning the sincerity and motivation behind the North's willingness to step back from the brink.

"Such rubbish as 'result of sanctions and pressure'... spread by hostile forces is just as meaningless as a dog barking at the moon," it said, urging "prudence" for all parties involved.

AAP

"It is really an expression of small-mindedness for the riff-raffs to spoil the atmosphere and say this or that even before the parties concerned are given a chance to study the inner thoughts of the other side and are seated at a negotiating table," it said in typically colourful language.

Trump's announcement earlier this month that he was willing to meet with the North's young leader -after an invitation conveyed by envoys from the South - triggered a flurry of diplomatic activity.

The North's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho met his counterpart from Sweden, which represents Washington's interests in North Korea, in Stockholm over the weekend, with reports saying they discussed the release of three Americans detained in the North.

AAP

Choe Kang Il, a senior Pyongyang diplomat handling ties with the US, is currently in Finland for discussions with the retired former US ambassador to Seoul, Kathleen Stephens.

The South and the US announced Tuesday a plan to resume annual joint military exercises with its main drill shortened by a month - in an apparent conciliatory gesture over an event that infuriates the North. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea will suspend nuclear and missile tests effective immediately and abolish a nuclear test site in a bid to pursue economic growth and peace on the Korean peninsula, the North's state media said on Saturday, ahead of planned summits with South Korea and the United States.

 North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said his country no longer needed to conduct nuclear tests or intercontinental ballistic missile tests because it has completed its goal of developing nuclear weapons, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

 “To guarantee suspension of nuclear tests in a transparent manner, the republic’s northern nuclear test site will be abolished," the KCNA said after Kim convened this year's first plenary session of the Central Committee of the ruling Worker's Party on Friday.

 “The overall projects of the party and the country will be geared towards building of a socialist economy, and all our efforts will be made towards it,” the KCNA said.

 North Korea also said it would engage in talks with the international community, paving the way for the summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in planned for next week and a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in late May or early June.

 Trump on Friday welcomed the statement and said he looked forward to a summit with Kim.

 "North Korea has agreed to suspend all Nuclear Tests and close up a major test site. This is very good news for North Korea and the World - big progress! Look forward to our Summit," Trump said on Twitter.

 North Korea has defended its nuclear and missile programs in the face of worldwide condemnation and sanctions as a necessary deterrent against perceived U.S. hostility. 

 Tensions eased significantly after North Korea's Kim called in a New Year's speech for lower military tensions and improved ties with South Korea. 

 It sent a delegation to the Winter Olympics held in South Korea and agreed to meet with Moon and Trump to discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

 The ruling party's plenary meeting on Friday was convened to discuss "policy issues of a new stage" to meet the demands of the current "important historic period," the KCNA said.

 

 (Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Soyoung Kim; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Toni Reinhold) </s> North Korea has warned detractors to exercise “prudence” ahead of planned summits with the South Korean and American presidents, noting there is a “dramatic atmosphere for reconciliation” between the two Koreas and also a “sign of change” in the relationship between Pyongyang and Washington.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency did not directly mention the summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump scheduled for May, but this was still the first time it had even obliquely acknowledged that plans for the meeting are underway.

“We do like to remind that it is time for all to approach everything with prudence, with self-control and patience,” KCNA said in a commentary published Wednesday.

In a surprising turn of events linked to the Winter Olympics, held in South Korea in February, North Korea first invited South Korean President Moon Jae-in to a summit with Kim, planned for late next month in the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.

Then, through a South Korean envoy, Kim invited Trump to talks. South Korea has said that denuclearization will be on the agenda, but there has been no word from the Kim regime that it is willing to discuss giving up its prized nuclear program.

No location has been decided for the May talks.

There is considerable skepticism about both sets of talks, with some analysts and conservative politicians noting that North Korea has reneged on every deal it has ever signed.

The lack of North Korean confirmation that Kim was willing to meet Trump to talk about denuclearization has only exacerbated those doubts.

However, supporters of diplomacy say that even the prospect of talks is a welcome change from the saber-rattling of 2017, when North Korea tested a series of missiles and a huge nuclear bomb, and the Trump administration warned repeatedly of military options for making North Korea stop.

“Dishonest forces” in the United States, Japan and South Korea were now “peddling groundless stories about North Korea.

“Thanks to the proactive measure and peace-loving proposal made by the DPRK, dramatic atmosphere for reconciliation has been created in relations between the north and the south of Korea and there has been a sign of change also in the DPRK-U.S. relations,” the KCNA commentary said, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.

It hit out at “incumbent and former officials and experts of the U.S.” who have said that North Korea performed a U-turn without Washington having to make any concessions, and those who have said its willingness to talk is because American-led sanctions are crippling the North Korean economy.

“Such rubbish as ‘result of sanctions and pressure’… spread by the hostile forces is just as meaningless as a dog barking at the moon,” the commentary said.

North Korea’s economy was growing and Pyongyang’s willingness to talk was a sign of its strength, not its desperation, it said.

“It is really an expression of small-mindedness for the riff-raffs to spoil the atmosphere and say this or that even before the parties concerned are given a chance to study the inner thoughts of the other side and are seated at a negotiating table,” it said.

Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news. </s> Alwaght- North Korea says a pair of US bombers has practiced dropping a nuclear bomb, while flying over the Korean Peninsula in joint wargames with the South, rebuking Washington for pushing the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.

In a Tuesday report, the North’s official KCNA news agency slammed the US for deploying two supersonic B-1B Lancer bombers during a drill with the South Korean air force a day earlier.

It said the bombers conducted “a nuclear bomb dropping drill against major objects” in its territory at a time when US President Donald Trump and “other US warmongers are crying out for making a preemptive nuclear strike” on the North.

“The reckless military provocation is pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula closer to the brink of nuclear war,” the report added.

The US air force said in a statement that the bombers had flown from Guam to conduct training exercises with the South Korean and Japanese air forces.

The South Korean Defense Ministry also said Monday’s joint maneuvers were conducted to deter provocations by the North and to test readiness against another potential nuclear test.

The deployment of the US bombers comes as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have significantly spiked in recent weeks.

The United States has already sent an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean Peninsula for military exercises with South Korea and Japan.

Pyongyang has been subjected to international pressure, including US sanctions and Security Council resolutions, to abandon its arms development and nuclear programs. Yet, it says the programs are meant to protect the country from US hostility. </s> North Korea says it's developed a "super explosive" hydrogen bomb that fits on an intercontinental ballistic missile, according to multiple media reports citing the country's state news agency.

During a visit to the country's Nuclear Weapons Institute, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watched as the purported H-bomb was loaded into a new ICBM.

Photos released by the Korean Central News Agency show Kim observing a silver, bulbous metal casing. KCNA claims it's a "homemade" H-bomb with "super explosive power," according the Associated Press:



"The North said in its statement Sunday that its H-bomb 'is a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated even at high altitudes for super-powerful EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack according to strategic goals.' "Kim, according to the statement, claimed that 'all components of the H-bomb were homemade ... thus enabling the country to produce powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants.' "



In its report, KCNA (via Xinhua, China's official news agency) also said the North Korean leader "guided the work for nuclear weaponization on the spot," as part of "the final-stage research and development for perfecting the state nuclear force."

Following the country's claim of an accelerated nuclear arsenal, President Trump spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about efforts to maximize pressure on North Korea.

"The two leaders reaffirmed the importance of close cooperation between the United States, Japan, and South Korea in the face of the growing threat from North Korea," the White House says. "President Trump noted that he looks forward to continued trilateral coordination on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly."

The conversation on Saturday, as Trump was returning from flood-ravaged Louisiana, is the third time the two leaders have spoken since Tuesday, NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

The North test-fired two long-range missiles in July, driving the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution last month to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang.

In response to the heightened sanctions, Pyongyang said it was ready with "ultimate measures". A day later, President Trump threatened to meet North Korea with "fire and fury."

But as NPR's Elise Hu reported, Jenny Town, the assistant director of the U.S.-Korea Institute at John Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies says a policy of increasing pressure is misconstrued as "hostility," which, Town argues, "justifies its need for nuclear weapons."

As the Two-Way reported last month, U.S. intelligence analysts believe North Korea has already developed a warhead that can be placed on its ballistic missiles, including an ICBM capable of reaching U.S. territory. </s> The US has an "obligation" to pursue a diplomatic solution with North Korea, and there is a "real opportunity" for progress, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

"We have an obligation to engage in diplomatic discourse to try and find a peaceful solution so that Americans aren't held at risk by Kim Jong Un and his nuclear arsenal," Pompeo told ABC's "This Week."

America's top diplomat also said he and North Korean leader Kim held in-depth talks about a denuclearization "mechanism" when they met over Easter weekend.

"We talked a great deal about what it might look like, what this complete, verifiable, irreversible mechanism might look like," Pompeo said, according to a transcript released by ABC.

Pompeo told journalists on Sunday that he believes Kim is looking for "concrete" actions.

"I'm confident that Kim Jong Un is looking for more than a piece of paper," Pompeo said during a Middle East trip.

US National Security Advisor John Bolton said Libya's decision to give up its nuclear program through diplomacy was a "model" for efforts to get North Korea to do likewise.

"We have very much in mind the Libya model from 2003, 2004," Bolton told Fox News Sunday when asked if North Korea would have to fully give up its nuclear weapons, fuel and missiles before the US makes concessions.

"There are obviously differences, the Libyan program was much smaller. But that was basically the agreement that we made," Bolton said.

Libya announced in late 2003 that it was giving up any ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction and would allow UN inspections of its nuclear sites, following months of secret talks with London and Washington.

But Libya's move to scrap its nuclear program also serves as a model of what North Korea fears will happen: its government was later overthrown by rebel forces supported by Western air strikes in 2011.

Pyongyang regularly cites the fates of Saddam Hussein in Iraq -- whose government was toppled by a US-led invasion -- and Libya's Moamer Kadhafi, who was killed after his fall from power, as evidence of the need for nuclear arms.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with Kim in an historic summit, agreeing on Friday to pursue a permanent peace and the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

An armistice brought the fighting on the Korean peninsula to an end in 1953 but, 65 years later, a final peace agreement has still not been reached.

The Moon-Kim meeting has raised expectations for US President Donald Trump's own planned summit with the North Korean leader, the date and location of which have not yet been finalized.

Last year, Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test, by far its most powerful to date, and launched missiles theoretically capable of reaching the US mainland.

Its actions sent tensions soaring as Kim and Trump traded personal insults and threats of war.

Trump has demanded the North give up its weapons, and Washington is pressing for it to do so in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way.

Pyongyang is demanding as yet unspecified security guarantees to discuss its arsenal. </s> http://undergroundworldnews.com

 In his address to soldiers, Choe Ryong Hae, a close aide to Kim Jong Un, addressed the packed square with a characteristically bellicose warning to the United States. “If the United States wages reckless provocation against us, our revolutionary power will instantly counter with annihilating strike, and we will respond to full-out war with full-out war and to nuclear war with our style of nuclear strike warfare,” he said.

Earlier, state news agency KCNA said the Trump administration’s “serious military hysteria” had reached a “dangerous phase which can no longer be overlooked”. The United States has warned that a policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea is over. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence travels to South Korea on Sunday on a long-planned 10-day trip to Asia.

China’s Global Times newspaper also rattled some cages when it said North Korea must have felt the shockwave from the 11-ton “mother of all bombs” dropped by U.S. forces on Islamic State-linked fighters in Afghanistan on Thursday. “It would be nice if the bomb could frighten Pyongyang, but its actual impact may just be the opposite.”

North Korea on Friday denounced the United States for bringing “huge nuclear strategic assets” to the region as the USS Carl Vinson strike group with a flag-ship nuclear-powered aircraft carrier steamed closer. </s> "If there is any provocation against South Korea and its people, there should be a strong response in initial combat without any political considerations," South Korean President Park Geun-hye told the defence minister and senior officials at a meeting on Monday.

The United States, in the latest step taken in response to rising tensions, positioned in the waters off the Korean peninsula a Navy guided-missile destroyer used for ballistic missile defence.

In another development, North Korea appointed a reformer and career technocrat to the reclusive and impoverished communist country's ceremonial prime minister's job.

The appointment of former premier Pak Pong-ju, a key confidant of the leadership dynasty, to the post from which he was fired in 2007 appeared to further tighten the ruling family's grip on power. Pak previously was ousted from the job for failing to implement economic reforms.

North Korea says the region is on the brink of a nuclear war in the wake of U.N. sanctions imposed in response to its February nuclear test and a series of joint U.S. and South Korean military drills that have included a rare U.S. show of aerial power.

In Washington, the White House has said the United States takes seriously North Korea's war threats. But White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday: "I would note that despite the harsh rhetoric we are hearing from Pyongyang, we are not seeing changes to the North Korean military posture, such as large-scale mobilizations and positioning of forces."

North Korea further escalated its rhetoric on Saturday by saying it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea in response to what it termed the "hostile" military drills being staged in the South.

South Korea has changed its rules of engagement to allow local units to respond immediately to attacks, rather than waiting for permission from Seoul.

Stung by criticism that its response to the shelling of a South Korean island in 2010 was tardy and weak, Seoul has also threatened to target young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and to destroy statues of the ruling Kim dynasty in the event of any new attack, a plan that has outraged Pyongyang.

South Korea and its ally the United States played down Saturday's statement from the official KCNA news agency as the latest in a stream of tough talk from Pyongyang.

"We haven't seen actions to back up the rhetoric," Carney told reporters.

A South Korean defence ministry official also said last week there have been no signs of unusual activity in North Korea's military to suggest imminent aggression.

North Korea stepped up its rhetoric in early March, when U.S. and South Korean forces began annual military drills that involved the flights of U.S. B-2 stealth bombers in a practice run, prompting the North to puts its missile units on standby to fire at U.S. military bases in South Korea and in the Pacific.

The United States also deployed F-22 stealth fighter jets on Sunday to take part in the drills. The F-22s were deployed in South Korea before, in 2010.

The Pentagon said it was the fourth time F-22s were deployed to South Korea. They were on display at the Osan Air Base, in part to provide senior South Korean military leaders an "orientation to the aircraft," the Pentagon said.

A U.S. defence official said the USS McCain, an Aegis-class guided-missile destroyer used for ballistic missile defense, was being positioned to operate off the south-western coast of the Korean peninsula.

"This is a prudent move that provides greater missile defense options should (they) become necessary," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The ship was not expected to participate in any exercises, the official added.

North Korea has cancelled an armistice agreement with the United States that ended the Korean War and has cut all hotlines with U.S. forces, the United Nations and South Korea.

Park's remarks followed a meeting of North Korea's ruling Workers Party Central Committee where leader Kim Jong-un rejected the notion that Pyongyang was going to use its nuclear arms development as a bargaining chip.

"The nuclear weapons of Songun Korea are not goods for getting U.S. dollars and they are ... (not) to be put on the table of negotiations aimed at forcing the (North) to disarm itself," KCNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Songun is the Korean word for the "Military First" policy preached by Kim's father who used it to justify the use of the impoverished state's scarce resources to build a 1.2-million strong army and a weapons of mass destruction programme.

At the meeting, Kim appointed a handful of personal confidants to the party's politburo, further consolidating his grip on power in the second full year of his reign.

The most surprising move was the re-appointment of Pak as premier. Pak, believed to be in his 70s, is viewed as a key ally of Jang Song-thaek, the young Kim's uncle and also a protégé of Kim's aunt and is viewed as a pawn in a power game that has seen Jang and his wife re-assert power over military leaders.

Pak is a career technocrat who took the post of premier in 2003 to implement an ambitious economic reform policy that allowed autonomy in farm production and pricing liberalisation, introduced in July 2002.

He was removed in 2007 when it became clear the steps aimed at boosting the North Korean economy, gripped by devastating famine in the 1990s, were not producing desired results and the North's military began protests at the cabinet, wielding greater power on state matters.

Jang, Kim's uncle, was also purged and has since been rehabilitated.

Analysts said the move would not likely change North Korea's approach to a confrontation that appears to have dragged the two Koreas closer to war.
North Korean state media KCNA claims that, as a result of its nuclear weapons program, there has been "dramatic atmosphere for reconciliation" with South Korea, and "a sign of change" from the United States.