Sabtu, 04 Mei 2019
Fareed Zakaria: North Korea played Trump from the start - CNN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXH-q4jwR90
2019-05-04 15:20:44Z
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Pompeo announces new sanctions on Iran's nuclear power complex - Washington Examiner
Saturday brought new sanctions on Iran's nuclear reactor and power plant complex aimed at blocking the nation's development of nuclear weapons.
"Starting May 4, assistance to expand Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant beyond the existing reactor unit will be exposed to sanctions," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced late in the evening on Friday.
The tightening on sanctions on Iran's nuclear power complex is meant to curb its ability to refine uranium and mitigate its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Pompeo said Iran would not be able to return to the negotiating table until it ceases all activities related to, or associated with, the construction of a nuclear weapon.
The new sanctions would mean that any country that assists Iran in its completion of the nuclear power plant will be subject to punitive measures enforced by the U.S. government.
The original Bushehr power plant was designed and built by Russia over a decade ago. Iran is now looking to expand the plant with an additional reactor. It is not clear if Russia is looking to assist in the construction of the project.
The new sanctions would also cover any involvement in transferring enriched uranium out of Iran in exchange for mined uranium from the Islamic Republic.
"The United States has been clear that Iran must stop all proliferation-sensitive activities, including uranium enrichment, and we will not accept actions that support the continuation of such enrichment," Pompeo said in a statement.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/pompeo-announces-new-sanctions-on-irans-nuclear-power-complex
2019-05-04 14:12:00Z
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New North Korea Weapons Test Threatens Trump’s Diplomatic Achievement - The New York Times
JEJU, South Korea — When North Korea launched a volley of projectiles off its east coast on Saturday, it sought to escalate the pressure on President Trump to return to the negotiating table with a compromise on easing sanctions, analysts said, by signaling that it could scuttle his biggest diplomatic achievement with the North.
Saturday’s weapons tests were the most serious by the North since the country launched its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missiles in November 2017. Although North Korea has not gone so far as to renege on its moratorium on nuclear and ICBM tests, which its leader, Kim Jong-un, announced last year, the Saturday launch indicated that Mr. Kim was toying with the idea of lifting the moratorium, analysts said.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly described the moratorium as his biggest achievement on North Korea, citing it as proof that his diplomacy with Mr. Kim has been working. The leaders have met twice: first in Singapore in June and again in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February.
“Today’s provocation means that Kim Jong-un is becoming increasingly pessimistic” that he could work out a settlement with Mr. Trump, said Lee Byong-chol, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.
“There may be some minor adjustments in the North’s behavior depending on how the U.S. responds, but in the long term, it seems increasingly clear that Kim has decided to go his own way.”
American and South Korean authorities were analyzing flight data from the tests to identify what types of weapons were launched, the office of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said. South Korean officials said the “short-range” projectiles flew only 42 to 124 miles off the North’s east coast, ruling out the possibility that the country had resumed tests of intermediate- or intercontinental-range ballistic missiles.
Those tests had prompted Mr. Trump to threaten to rain “fire and fury” down on the North and had raised the chance of military conflict on the Korean Peninsula in 2017.
South Korean officials said they were also looking into the possibility that the projectiles were short-range Scud missiles or rockets from multiple-launch tubes — or both.
The potential implications of any short-range missile tests could be far-reaching. The short-range weapons were developed mainly to target South Korea and United States military bases there. North Korea also tested weapons in November last year and again last month. But those weapons were largely considered tactical types with very small ranges.
By gradually increasing the ranges of weapons tests in recent weeks, Mr. Kim appeared to be carefully calibrating his options with Mr. Trump. Firing short-range weapons may be an attempt to force a breakthrough in the stalled negotiations with Washington while not provoking Mr. Trump too far, analysts said.
The Hanoi meeting in February abruptly ended when Mr. Trump rejected Mr. Kim’s suggestion that Washington lift the most painful of sanctions imposed against his country since 2016 in return for a partial dismantlement of its nuclear weapons program. Mr. Trump wanted the quick rollback of the North’s entire nuclear weapons program.
After returning home without badly needed relief from sanctions, Mr. Kim said he would give Mr. Trump until the end of the year to offer a new proposal.
But any weapons test by North Korea increases uncertainty. Mr. Kim may be deliberately provoking Mr. Trump into lashing out with fiery rhetoric so that the North could use that as an excuse to resume nuclear or long-range missiles, analysts said.
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“Pyongyang is saying plainly that without progress in the talks, tests are likely to resume in full,” said Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. “While it’s clear that this is meant to send a more restrained signal than a return to tests of longer range missiles that Kim Jong-un voluntarily paused, what’s not clear is whether the president will draw that distinction.”
Mr. Trump’s initial response suggested that the tests had not dented his optimism on negotiations with North Korea.
“I believe that Kim Jong Un fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, & will do nothing to interfere or end it,” he wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “He also knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!”
Even so, the tests placed further strain on Mr. Moon’s flagship policy of facilitating dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
In Seoul, Mr. Moon’s office expressed “serious concern” that North Korea was violating the spirit of the inter-Korean agreement to ease military tensions that was signed when the South Korean president visited Pyongyang in September. It urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table with Washington.
Mr. Moon’s government had hoped to use the United Nations’ latest report of food shortages in North Korea to urge Washington to allow aid shipments to its neighbor, hoping that would help restart the stalled dialogue, said Woo Jung-yeop, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.
“It has become much more difficult for the South to push for food aid as an incentive for North Korea,” he said.
Japan’s initial response to the launches was muted, as the tests occurred just as the new emperor, Naruhito, was greeting the public for the first time on Saturday morning at the imperial palace in Tokyo. The Defense Ministry put out a notice saying that the projectiles had not landed in Japanese territorial waters.
Like the rest of the region, Japan was waiting to see how Mr. Trump reacted to the provocations. Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he would be willing to meet Mr. Kim on an “unconditional” basis, retreating from a more hawkish position in which the Japanese leader had indicated that he would meet with the North Korean dictator only once he had taken concrete steps toward denuclearization and agreed to resolve a dispute over Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and ’80s.
Other analysts warned against reading too much into the North’s tests on Saturday, calling them as much a sign of desperation as a show of force. Since 2016, Washington has led a campaign at the United Nations Security Council to strangle the North’s economy by banning all its key exports, including coal and textiles, as well as drastically cutting its oil imports.
“They are in such a desperate economic situation,” said Bonji Ohara, a senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Japan.
Mr. Kim’s message is “the U.S. must compromise, not North Korea. That’s why they fired relatively short-range rockets this time, ” said Hideshi Takesada, a professor of international relations and security issues with a focus on the Korean Peninsula at the Graduate School of Takushoku University.
The short-range weapons tested on Saturday were “more about repelling an invasion than starting a war,” said Melissa Hanham, a North Korean weapons expert at the One Earth Future Foundation. “Probably what is happening is some kind of testing of a unit to make sure that everyone is prepped and ready, and it is probably somewhat routine.”
Ankit Panda, an adjunct senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, which is based in Washington, said that while Mr. Kim was sending a message to Washington that “the door for diplomacy is not open forever,” he was also likely to be signaling strength to his domestic population.
“He was embarrassed in Hanoi,” said Mr. Panda, referring to the failed summit meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump. “So he needs to continue to show people in North Korea that he’s still a strong leader.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/04/world/asia/north-korea-missiles-trump.html
2019-05-04 13:25:20Z
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South Korea set to respond to North's launch of short-range 'projectiles' - New York Post
South Korea is poised to respond to additional missile launches after North Korea fired several short-range “projectiles” into the sea off its eastern coast.
The South Korean military issued a statement that the projectiles launched Saturday flew up to 125 miles before splashing into the sea.
The South has bolstered its surveillance, and is working with the US to analyze the weapons, the Associated Press reported. If they find that the North fired banned ballistic missiles, it would be the first such launch since November 2017.
That year, President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un were lurching toward possible war, but tensions cooled and the two met for the first time in Singapore last year, with a vague agreement promising “denuclearization” the result.
A second meeting in Vietnam earlier this year was less successful. Some see the latest missiles as a sign of Pyongyang’s growing frustration at the stalled talks with Washington meant to provide coveted sanctions relief in return for nuclear disarmament.
Experts say the North may increase these sorts of low-level provocations to apply pressure on the United States to agree to reduce crushing international sanctions.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that the United States was aware of North Korea’s actions and would continue to monitor the situation.
With Post wires
https://nypost.com/2019/05/04/south-korea-set-to-respond-to-norths-launch-of-short-range-projectiles/
2019-05-04 12:57:00Z
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Hostilities flare up as rockets hit Israel from Gaza - BBC News
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Militants in the Gaza Strip have fired more than 150 rockets into Israel, the army says, prompting air strikes and tank fire on the Palestinian territory.
Sirens went off as people rushed to shelters in southern Israel. Two Israelis were wounded and a Palestinian man was killed in the exchange.
Four Palestinians, including two Hamas militants, were killed on Friday after an attack injured two Israeli soldiers.
The flare-up followed a truce in the run-up to Israeli elections in April.
It marks yet another increase in hostilities despite attempts by Egypt and the United Nations to broker a longer-term ceasefire, says the BBC's Tom Bateman in Jerusalem.
What happened on Saturday?
The rocket barrage sent Israelis scrambling for safety. Media showed pictures of damage to homes about 10km (six miles) north of Gaza.
The injured include a man in Ashkelon and an elderly woman in Kiryat Gat, further east.
The country's Iron Dome missile-defence system shot down dozens of the rockets, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
The IDF said war planes targeted at least five sites in Gaza belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. Tanks were also targeting militants, it said.
Palestinian officials say a 22-year-old man has been killed and several injured.
What triggered the upsurge?
It began during weekly Friday protests in Gaza against Israel's blockade of the area. A Palestinian gunman shot and wounded two Israeli soldiers at the boundary fence.
The Israeli air strike in response killed two Hamas militants. Another two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire at the fence.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, accuses Israel of failing to implement last month's truce deal, which was brokered by Egypt. Israel says the blockade is needed to stop weapons reaching Gaza.
Saturday's rockets attacks coincided with Palestinians burying the two militants.
"The resistance will continue to respond to the crimes by the occupation and it will not allow it to shed the blood of our people," Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua said in a statement on Saturday. He made no explicit claim for Hamas firing the rockets.
About two million Palestinians live in Gaza, which has suffered economically from the Israeli blockade as well as recent foreign aid cuts.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48160098
2019-05-04 12:23:51Z
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North Korea sends a message with launch of short-range projectiles - CBS This Morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJauWEZOrlE
2019-05-04 11:24:24Z
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90 rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel: IDF - CNN
The Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepted dozens of the incoming rockets, the IDF added.
It also says an IDF aircraft has targeted two rocket launchers in northern Gaza, and that IDF tanks targeted a number of Hamas military posts.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health says one person has died as a result of the Israeli strikes Saturday, and three others are wounded.
There are no reports of any casualties in Israel from the rocket fire.
Saturday's rocket barrage comes less than a day after two militants from Hamas's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, were killed in an Israeli strike on Hamas posts in Gaza.
Israel launched airstrikes Friday after two Israeli soldiers were wounded by sniper fire along the Gaza border.
Two further Palestinians died in Gaza Friday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health -- both men succumbing to their wounds after being shot by Israeli troops during protests along the Gaza fence, according to health officials.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/04/middleeast/israel-gaza-rockets-intl/index.html
2019-05-04 10:47:00Z
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