HANOI: President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dove into the details of nuclear negotiations Thursday amidst speculations about what Kim will give up what and Trump may demand.
Trump is not in a mood to make decisions in haste. “Speed is not important,” Trump said. “What’s important is that we do the right deal,” Trump said.
Accompanied only by translators, the unlikely pair — a 72-year-old billionaire and a 35-year-old reclusive autocrat — displayed a familiarity with one another as they began the day’s negotiations.
After a 40-minute private meeting, the leaders went for a stroll on the Hotel Metropole’s lush grounds, chatting as they walked by a swimming pool before being joined by aides to continue talks, reported news agencies.
Possible outcomes could include a peace declaration for the Korean War that the North could use to eventually push for the reduction of U.S. troops in South Korea, or sanctions relief that could allow Pyongyang to pursue lucrative economic projects with the South.
Skeptics say such agreements would leave in place a significant portion of North Korea’s nuclear-tipped missiles while robbing the United States of its negotiating leverage going forward. Asked if this summit would yield a political declaration to end the Korean War, Trump told reporters on Wednesday: “We’ll see.”
(Agencies)
KATHMANDU: There has been an escalated tension between the two nuclear powers – India and Pakistan—after both the countries have claimed of shooting down one another’s aircraft on Wednesday, reports have said.
Pakistani army has claimed they have shot down two Indian aircraft on Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces tweeted that Pakistani army shot down two Indian aircraft inside Pakistani airspace. According to him, one of the aircraft fell inside AJ&K while other fell inside IOK.
Ghafoor claimed that one of the aircraft fell in Pakistan-controlled territory while the other fell in the Indian side, according to India media.
Meanwhile, India has claimed of shooting down Pakistan F-16 that violated the Indian space on Wednesday.
India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh is holding a high-level meeting in the Indian capital of New Delhi to discuss row between the two countries.
According to reports, two pilots are feared dead when an Indian Air Force helicopter – Mi-17V-5 — crashed in Budgam of Jammu and Kashmir this afternoon.
Tensions have escalated after Indian fighter jets crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and carried out “pre-emptive air strikes” targeting terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s camp in Pakistan.
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is currently in China, said the objective of the pre-emptive attack on the terrorist camp was based on attack on terrorism. India attacked the camp after Pakistani government refused to acknowledge and act against terror camps in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has called a meeting of the National Command Authority (NCA). It is a body that controls Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Indian army official said the Indian air-force jets intercepted three Pakistani warplanes that crossed into the Indian side of Kashmir. (Agencies)
Also read: Pak. claims of shooting down two Indian aircraft; India follow-suits
INDONESIA: At least 60 people are feared to have been buried by a landslide at a gold mine in the island of Sulawesi, Indonesian.
Rescue and search for survivors operations are on, agencies quoted officials as saying.
According to Indonesia’s disaster agency, one person had been found dead. At least 13 people have been rescued so far, according to news agencies adding that it has been estimated that as many as 60 people are buried under landslide.
Despite the ban on small-scale gold mining, it widespread in rural areas in Indonesia. (Agencies)
HANOI: American President Donald Trump says North Korea could thrive economically if it would give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
North Korea could thrive very quickly as the other developed countries if it would denuclearize, Trump tweeted before sitting down with Kim later Wednesday in Hanoi.
“North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. The potential is awesome, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong-Un,” Trump tweeted.
Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon – Very Interesting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2019
Meanwhile, he asked the democrats in Washington why they did not tell North Korea to denuclearize during the eight years of the Obama Administration.
American Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un are holding their second nuclear summit with a one-on-one discussion in the capital city Hanoi as the world is watching on curiously what negotiations will take place between the two.
The two leaders first met last June in Singapore, a summit that was long on historic pageantry but short on any enforceable agreements for North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal.
(With inputs from Agencies)
NEW DELHI: The Indian airstrike in Pakistani territory this morning killed at least 300 suspected militants, news agencies said quoting an unnamed senior Indian official.
The Indian strikes on a training camp of a Pakistani-based militant group this morning have escalated tensions between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars.
On Tuesday morning, Indian Air Force (IAF) jets crossed the Line of Control and destroyed terror camps in Pakistan, according to reports.
Reports said the IAF used laser-guided bombs in the air strike that lasted for 21 minutes. (Agencies)
BOGOTA: The United States has called on its allies to freeze the assets of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA.
The US on Monday targeted Venezuela’s government with new sanctions after violence blocked humanitarian aid from reaching the country.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions have been imposed on four Venezuelan state governors.
Colombia’s foreign minister has warned about “credible threats to the life” of Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has mounted pressure to the United Nations Security Council asking it to discuss Venezuela’s situation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Vietnam for the second round of summit with US President Donald Trump.
The second summit follows the first round of talks in 2018 in Singapore.
Ceremonial guards and flag-waving crowds welcomed him at the station, according to reports.
Likewise, US President Trump is due to arrive in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, on Tuesday evening.
The two leaders will meet for a one-on-one conversation on Wednesday evening, reports said. (Agencies)
KATHMANDU: Indian fighter jets have carried out surgical strikes on a terrorist camp across the Line of Control in Balakot, a town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan, on Tuesday, reported a news agency.
According to the report, a group of 12 Mirage 2000 jets of Indian Air Force dropped 1,000 kilograms of bombs on the major terrorist camp and destroyed it completely.
However, major general Asif Ghafoor of Pakistan, in a tweet, said Indian fighter jets violated an agreed border between the two countries. Balakot is about 50 kilometers from the LoC.
The attack comes 12 days after Pakistan-based terror group JeM carried out the deadly attack in Pulwama which left 40 Indian soldiers dead.
Major General Asif Ghafoorn Pakistan army spokesperson, has alleged that the Indian Air Force (IAF) had violated the Line of Control (LoC).
Pakistan’s claim came amid escalated tension between the two nuclear giants following the February 14 attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad that claimed lives of at least 40 Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Amid heightened tension, Prime Minister Naredra Modi had said the security forces were given a free hand to retaliate the evil attack.
Payload of hastily escaping Indian aircraft fell in open. pic.twitter.com/8drYtNGMsm
— Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) February 26, 2019
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said he would be ‘happy as long as North Korea maintains its pause on testing of its weapon. He also said he was in no rush to strike a nuclear deal with its leader, Kim Jong Un, during their second summit this week, reports have said.
Trump and Un are meeting in Vietnam’s Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday. The Hanio summit is being held eight months after their Singapore summit.
The two leaders have already pledged to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Kim has already made his way across China by train for the summit. Meanwhile, media reports have said that North Korean state media has warned Trump to refrain from listening to U.S. critics who were trying to “disrupt the efforts to improve ties”. (Agencies)
TEXAS: Authorities have said two bodies have been retrieved from the wreckage of an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that crashed into a bay outside Houston on Saturday.
All the three people aboard the Boeing 767 cargo jetliner died in the crash while it was approaching Houston’s George Bush International Airport, Atlas and Boeing Co said in a statement on Sunday.
Two bodies were recovered while the search continued for the third person, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne informed a press conference.
A five second security video from a local jail showed the fatal crash, US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Robert Sumwalt.
(Agencies)