North Korea criticises 'alarming' US behaviour
AFP / MOHD RASFANAs ministers gathered for a photo at the meeting in the city-state, Pompeo went over to greet his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho
North Korea on Saturday said the US was acting with "alarming" impatience on the issue of denuclearisation, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang.
The contrasting comments at a security forum in Singapore came after a new UN report showed Pyongyang was continuing with its nuclear and missile programmes and evading sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transfers.
At historic talks with President Donald Trump in June, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.
While US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement, Pyongyang appears to have made little substantial progress and Washington has become concerned that some UN member states are easing sanctions.
At the ASEAN Regional Forum, North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho criticised US impatience on denuclearisation.
"What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," he said, according to a statement.
Since the June agreement, Pyongyang had taken "goodwill measures", including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and "dismantling a nuclear test ground", he said.
"However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," he said, using the initials of the North's official name.
"As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added.
Earlier at the same forum, Pompeo said he was emphasizing "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea" but also said that he was "optimistic" about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation.
At Saturday's meeting, the US delegation also delivered a letter from Trump intended for Kim, by passing it to Ri, said the State Department.
On sanctions, Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached sanctions by granting work permits to North Korean workers.
During meetings with other foreign ministers in Singapore, Pompeo said he had called specifically for sanctions to be enforced through halting ship-to-ship oil transfers.
Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang.
Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific.
Iran protesters attack religious school: Fars news agency
STR/AFP/File / STRIranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over the economy as well as wider anger at the political system
Iran protesters have attacked a religious school in Karaj province near Tehran, the conservative Fars news agency reported on Saturday.
"At 9 pm (1530 GMT on Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things," Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Ishtehad, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying.
It gave only his clerical rank -- Hojatoleslam -- not his given name.
"They were about 500 people and they chanted against the system but they were dispersed by the riot police and some have been arrested," Hindiani said.
Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over the economy as well as wider anger at the political system.
During past unrest, conservative outlets have focused on attacks against sensitive symbols such as religious buildings as a way of tarnishing the protests.
Videos on social media in recent days have shown people chanting "Death to the dictator", but these have been impossible to verify and the authorities have charged that they are promoted by emigre opposition groups funded by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Describing the attack on Friday evening, Hindiani said: "These people came with rocks and broke the sign and all the windows of the prayer house and they were chanting against the system."
Foreign media are barred from observing or filming "unauthorised" protests.
The videos on social media suggest protests in recent days are far from the scale of the unrest seen in December and January, when at least 25 people were killed in demonstrations that spread to dozens of towns and cities.
NKorea has not stopped nuclear, missile programs: UN report
AFP / SAUL LOEBAt a June 2018 summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula"
North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programs and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea, a UN report said Friday.
In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong Un's regime.
Pyongyang "has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," said the report, seen by AFP.
The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion" involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, it added.
The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions "ineffective" by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added.
At a historic June summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in the hope of getting UN and US sanctions relief.
Trump however has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that the sanctions must remain in place and could even be tightened as long as there is no progress on ending its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
- Arms sales via Syria -
North Korea also "attempted to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries" to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report.
It named Syrian arms trafficker Hussein Al-Ali who offered "a range of conventional arms, and in some cases ballistic missiles to armed groups in Yemen and Libya" that were produced in North Korea.
With Ali acting as a go-between, a "protocol of cooperation" between Yemen's Huthi rebels and North Korea was negotiated in 2016 in Damascus that provided for a "vast array of military equipment."
The panel continues to investigate such military cooperation that would be in violation of an arms embargo on North Korea.
North Korea continued to receive revenue from exports of banned commodities, for instance deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries that generated nearly $14 million from October to March.
"Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime," said the panel.
AFP/File / Ed JONESA petrol pump attendant is seen filling up a taxi with gasoline at a fuel station in Pyongyang in 2017; a UN report has found the transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion"
North Korean diplomats play a key role in sanctions evasion by setting up multiple bank accounts, it added.
Despite a ban on joint ventures with North Korea, the panel has uncovered more than 200 such jointly-run firms, many of which are involved in construction and other businesses in Russia.
The panel is tasked by the council with monitoring the implementation of the raft of sanctions imposed in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile tests.
The United States last month asked a UN sanctions committee to order a halt to all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after reporting that Pyongyang had exceeded the cap through the illegal ship supplies.
Russia and China however put a six-month hold on that request.
The report cited US figures estimating that North Korea had procured over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products in the first five months of 2018
copiado https://www.afp.com/fr/
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