North Korea | Pakistan

Elite United States Navy SEALs launched an audacious operation in 2019 to plant a listening device in North Korea to spy on the country’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong Un, The New York Times (NYT) reported on Friday, but the mission quickly unravelled and culminated in the deaths of multiple civilians. The operation came in the first administration of US President Donald Trump during sensitive nuclear talks with Kim, whom the US leader met three times. The mission was considered so risky that it required direct presidential approval, the NYT said, but Trump insisted on Friday he had no knowledge of the operation. “I don’t know anything about it. I’m hearing it now for the first time,” the president told journalists. Despite months of practice, the mission still went horribly wrong, the * NYT* reported. The SEALs — from the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 — approached North Korea in mini-submarines that exposed them to frigid water for hours, then swam ashore, according to the newspaper, which inter...

China defended on Thursday its decision to invite the leaders of Russia and North Korea to World War II commemorations, which President Donald Trump accused them of using to conspire against the United States. Trump wrote a testy Truth Social post addressing his Chinese counterpart after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin flanked Xi Jinping at a massive parade in Beijing showcasing Chinese military hardware. “Give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump wrote. Asked about Trump’s post, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Thursday “foreign guests” had been invited to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II. “It is to work together with peace-loving countries and peoples to remember history, cherish the memory of the martyrs, cherish peace, and create the future,” spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters. “China’s development of diplomatic relations with any country is never directed against any third party...

US President Donald Trump said Monday he hoped to meet again with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, possibly this year, as he held White House talks with South Korea’s dovish new leader that got off awkwardly. Hours before President Lee Jae Myung arrived for his long-planned first visit to the White House, Trump took to […]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Moscow his full support for its war in Ukraine during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pyongyang state media said on Sunday. Lavrov’s visit to North Korea was the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials as both countries deepen military and political ties amid Russia’s offensive against Kyiv. Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Russia’s Kursk region to oust Ukrainian forces and has also provided the Russian army with artillery shells and missiles. Moscow said Lavrov’s talks with Kim were held in a “warm comradely atmosphere”. Lavrov expressed “sincere gratitude to Pyongyang” for its role in Kursk and support of Russia’s operation, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Moscow also said the two sides “agreed” that the West was to blame for “the growing tension” on the Korean peninsula. The ministry earlier posted a video on Telegram of the two men shaking hands and greeting each other with a hug. It said the talks w...