SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA North Korea human rights advocates are considering more practical ways to reform the repressive practices of the Kim Jong Un government, as denuclearization talks continue to end the country's economic and diplomatic isolation. Rights activists hold out hope that U.S. President Donald Trump will confront Kim at their expected Singapore meeting in June about ongoing atrocities in North Korea, including a network of political prison camps and widespread government sanctioned abuses in the country. Benedict Rogers, with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a religious freedom oriented organization, urges President Trump to emulate former President Ronald Reagan who once publicly called on the leader of the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall that separated democratic West Germany and the Communist East. "Mr. Trump's message should be, Mr. Kim if you seek peace, come to the gates of the prison camps, open the prison camps, tear down the walls of the prison camps," said Rogers at a North Korea human rights conference in Seoul on Thursday. It is unclear if human rights will be part of the agenda at the U.S.-North Korea nuclear summit, if it happens. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and high-ranking North Korean official Kim Yong Chol have been meeting this week in New York to overcome the main obstacle to the summit; the gap between the U.S. demand for rapid and complete denuclearization and North Korea's more phased in approach that would provide early sanctions relief. Brad Adams, the Asia director at the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Thursday, "Whatever the outcome of nuclear talks, human rights-related sanctions should remain in effect until North Korea changes the way it treats its people." The United Nations has passed 13 resolutions addressing human rights abuses in North Korea, most recently in March of this year at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. How long will the Singapore Summit last? A. a few minutes. B. a few days. C. a few weeks D. not enough information
B

Randy Poskin, a soybean farmer in rural Illinois, voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But ask him now he feels about that decision, and you get a tepid response. "I'm not sure," Poskin said. Like many farmers in the Midwest, Poskin is concerned about getting caught in the middle of a trade war, as Trump ramps up economic pressure on China. Those fears were heightened after Trump announced plans Thursday to impose tariffs on as much as $60 billion worth of Chinese imports. "I'm fearful they will retaliate on those tariffs," Poskin said. "Soybean exports, wheat, poultry, chicken, beef [there are] any number of products that we export to their country that they could retaliate with." The announcement has unnerved many in Trump's base of supporters in U.S. agriculture. The trade tensions have also rattled global markets, which until recently had performed strongly. Trump's tariff decision was meant to punish Chinese companies that benefit from unfair access to U.S. technology. U.S. businesses have long bristled at Beijing's requirement that they transfer technology to Chinese companies as a condition of entering the Chinese market. U.S. businesses have also had their technology stolen through cyberattacks. "We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on," Trump said during the signing ceremony Thursday. Some U.S. companies in China cheered the move and suggested that concerns about a trade war were overblown. William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, dismissed the "hair on fire" concern that Trump's proposed moves would hurt the global economy. "That the U.S. is willing to risk these disruptions indicates how serious the U.S. administration finds China's forced technology transfer, cybertheft and discriminatory industrial policies," he said in a statement to VOA. Zarit pointed to a recent survey suggesting members of his organization wanted the White House to "advocate more strongly for a level playing field and for reciprocal treatment to... How long did it take to enact the tariffs? A. 3 months B. 6 months C. not enough information D. a year
B

Q: Dark meat in the can--brown, oily, and flecked with mucus--gave off a repellent, fishy smell, and the taste of it rose in his throat, putrid and bitter, like something from a dead man's stomach. George Jordan sat on the kitchen floor and vomited, then pushed himself away from the shining pool, which looked very much like what remained in the can. He thought, No, this won't do: I have wires in my head, and they make me eat cat food. The snake likes cat food He needed help but know there was little point in calling the Air Force. He'd tried them, and there was no way they were going to admit responsibility for the monster in his head. What George called the snake, the Air Force called Effective Human Interface Technology and didn't want to hear about any postdischarge problems with it. They had their own problems with congressional committees investigating "the conduct of the war in Thailand." He lay for a while with his cheek on the cold linoleum, got up and rinsed his mouth in the sink, then stuck his head under the faucet and ran cold water over it, thinking, Call the goddamned multicomp, then call SenTrax and say, "Is it true you can do something about this incubus that wants to take possession of my soul?" And if they ask you, "What's your problem?" you say "cat food," and maybe they'll say, "Hell, it just wants to take possession of your lunch" A chair covered in brown corduroy stood in the middle of the barren living room, a white telephone on the floor beside it, a television flat against the opposite waIl--that was the whole thing, what might have been home, if it weren't for the snake. He picked up the phone, called up the directory on its screen, and keyed TELECOM SENTRAX. How long did George lay on the floor? A. A day. B. Several minutes. C. Two weeks. D. not enough information
A: B

He had apparently spaced out for a second or two. When he came to, a large, annoyed woman was leaning in toward him. "Mister? Mister, are you even listening to me?" He looked at the receding rows of fluorescent lights on the struts of the cavernous ceiling, the gleaming linoleum floors, the pallets of sale-priced plastic coolers and Special K and motor oil, and then he looked at the rack of merchandise at his back and understood that he was in a Wal-Mart, behind the returns counter. He heard his own voice saying, as if by reflex, "Do you have your receipt?" * At the first opportunity, he locked himself in a bathroom stall and dug out his wallet. His driver's license showed the right name, birthdate, and photo, but it had been issued by the State of North Carolina, and it listed an address he'd never heard of. He scrubbed his face at the sink. It was him in the mirror, a tanned and healthy 56, hair mostly gray but still all there. He felt groggy, as if he'd woken prematurely. It was only the numbness, he thought, that kept the panic at bay. If he didn't push, he found he knew the answers to some questions. He was due to clock out in an hour. When he left the parking lot he would go under the highway, turn left, and merge. * He found his way to a battered white Toyota pickup in the employee section. The key in his pocket started the engine. He forced himself not to think too hard as he drove, taking the turns that seemed to have a certain inevitability. He wound up on a dirt road near someplace called Pittsboro, in front of a small brick house surrounded by high yellow grass, pines, and live oaks. After he scrubbed his face with water in the sink, what did he do? A. not enough information B. Spaced out C. Asked the woman for the receipt. D. Found his way to a battered Toyota pickup in the parking lot.
D