South Korea Names 2 Envoys to Meet With Kim Jong-un
March 5, 2018 by admin
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By sending Mr. Chung and Mr. Suh to Pyongyang, Mr. Moon was reciprocating the visit by Mr. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, who attended the Games’ opening ceremony. Ms. Kim also hand-delivered an invitation from Mr. Kim to Mr. Moon to visit the North for an inter-Korean summit meeting.
In Pyongyang, “the special envoys will have comprehensive talks with the North on creating the environment for North Korean-United States dialogue for denuclearization, as well as on improving inter-Korean relations,” said Mr. Yoon, the spokesman.
After returning to Seoul on Tuesday, the South Korean delegates will travel to Washington to brief the Trump administration on their discussions with the North Koreans, he said.
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Mr. Moon has been eager to improve ties with North Korea since he took office last May. He has also appealed to the United States and North Korea to steer away from a collision course over the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programs and to ease tensions through dialogue.
But Washington and Pyongyang remained wide apart over the terms for starting such a dialogue, a gap that South Korea’s envoys will seek to narrow this week. Mr. Trump’s administration says it is determined not to repeat what it calls the mistakes of its predecessors, who tried both dialogue and sanctions but failed to stop the North’s nuclear program.
Administration officials have said that the United States will enter negotiations only after the North commits to discussing denuclearization. Even if talks begin, they say, the Trump administration will not relent in its campaign of “maximum” pressure until the North gives up its small nuclear arsenal.
But North Korea rejects any preconditions for talks. It says it will come to the negotiating table only if Washington treats it like an “equal” nuclear power. It also insists that any talks with Washington will have to deal not only with its nuclear program, but also with what it calls hostile American policies, such as joint military exercises with the South, which it says drove it to seek a nuclear deterrent in the first place.
South Korean officials said they have been in close consultations with their allies in Washington even as they have pursued talks with the North Koreans. This is seen in the choice of Mr. Chung, a retired diplomat, to lead the delegation to Pyongyang. As the South Korean counterpart to Gen. H.R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Mr. Chung has worked to coordinate American and South Korean approaches toward North Korea.
Mr. Suh, is a career intelligence officer who was involved in negotiations that led to the first inter-Korean summit meeting between Kim Jong-il, Mr. Kim’s father, and Kim Dae-jung, then the South Korean leader, in 2000. Mr. Suh was also involved in arranging a summit meeting in 2007 between the elder Mr. Kim, who died in 2011, and another previous South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun.
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Since inheriting power from his father six years ago, Kim Jong-un has met with envoys from allies like China and Cuba, as well as with personal guests, including the former American basketball star Dennis Rodman. But he has never met an envoy from South Korea.
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Mueller team looking into possible United Arab Emirates money into Trump campaign: report
March 5, 2018 by admin
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NYT: Mueller investigating UAE’s connection to 2016 election
The special counsel is reportedly looking into efforts by the United Arab Emirates to sway the 2016 U.S. election by putting money into the Trump campaign.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is now purportedly looking into whether the United Arab Emirates, with perhaps help from a top adviser, tried to gain political influence by putting money into Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — a tack that would indicate Mueller’s investigation continues to expand beyond whether campaign officials colluded with Russia.
Mueller’s investigators in recent weeks have questioned the adviser, Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, and asked witnesses for information about whether the UAE tried to buy political influence by giving money to the Trump campaign, according to The New York Times.
Nader has been a frequent visitor to the Trump White House. And the president has praised the UAE for the Persian Gulf nation’s efforts to work with the United States on economic issues and squashing terrorism in the region, thanking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed for his efforts just last week, according to the White House.
Nader has purportedly been an adviser to the crown prince. Axios first reported that Mueller investigators were talking to Nader.
Mueller took over the Justice Department investigation in May 2017. And in recent weeks, he has made several moves that suggest his probe has expanded beyond possible collusion, including charging former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort with alleged tax and bank fraud and indicting 13 Russians in connection with trying to sow political discord during the 2016 elections.
Nader was purportedly close to top Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, who in in August 2017 was forced from the White House.
(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
The Times story also states Mueller’s team is interested in how much influence Nader might have — or had — on White House policymaking and whether foreign money has recently flowed into the U.S. to impact Washington policy.
The Times also reports that it has a copy of a memo that Nader received about a private Oval Office meeting between Trump and Elliott Broidy, who purportedly has millions worth of private-security contracts with the UAE.