N. Korea’s Kim reaffirms relations with China in letter with Xi Jinping: KCNA Yonhap News Agency
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Far East Asia Watch
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claimed his nuclear-armed country could “completely destroy” South Korea if its security were threatened, reiterating his refusal to engage with Seoul, state media said Thursday. However, he left the door open to dialogue with Washington as he concluded a ruling party congress outlining his policy goals for the next five years.
from www.washingtontimes.com
For only the 9th time since the Kim’s took over North Korea in 1948, the Workers’ Party Congress convened. They affirmed Kim Jong-un as their supreme leader and promoted his sister, and right-hand lieutenant, Kim Jo-jong, from a deputy department director to a full department director.
Kim Jong-un’s sister takes major step up in North Korean leadership South China Morning Post
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The Workers’ Party Central Committee on Monday named Kim Yo-jong – previously a deputy department director – as a full department director, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Thousands of party elites have packed the capital for a once-in-five-years summit of the ruling Workers’ Party, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning.
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It is just the ninth time the Workers’ Party congress has convened under North Korea’s decades-spanning Kim rule.
Kim Jong Un’s inspections grow harsher ahead of party congress upi.com
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Pragmatist To Lam to lead Vietnam’s Communist Party gulftoday.ae
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fired his vice premier and railed against “incompetent” officials in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory, state media said Tuesday.
Vice Premier Yang Sung Ho was sacked “on the spot”, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials”.
“Please, Comrade Vice Premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said.
North Korea’s Kim shakes up security detail amid ‘decapitation’ fears inkl
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Thailand: Bombs detonated at 11 petrol stations, four injured vietnamnews.vn
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Monday that leader Kim Jong Un observed test-flights of hypersonic missiles and underscored the need to bolster the country’s nuclear war deterrent, as the country dials up weapons displays ahead of its major political conference.
North Korea reported on the drill a day after its neighbors said they detected multiple ballistic missile launches and accused the North of carrying out provocations. The tests came just hours before South Korean President Lee Jae Myung departed for China for a summit with President Xi Jinping.
The last time I reported on the hostilities between Cambodia and Thailand, President Donald Trump was planning to call officials from both nations to try to salvage the summer cease-fire.
Unfortunately, there was no deal, and the conflict appears no closer to ending; Cambodia officially closed its border to Thailand this weekend.
The move comes as border clashes between the Southeast Asian nations have continued, despite US President Donald Trump saying Friday that they had agreed to a ceasefire.
“The Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to fully suspend all entry and exit movements at all Cambodia-Thailand border crossings, effective immediately and until further notice,” the Cambodian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that his country would keep up military strikes on Cambodia until it no longer felt under threat from its neighbor, telling local media there was no ceasefire in place.
Cambodia: Government plans lawsuit against Thailand Table.Briefings
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President Donald Trump claimed to have brokered peace between Thailand and Cambodia following an outbreak of renewed violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
The president announced on Friday afternoon that he spoke with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet “concerning the very unfortunate reawakening of their long-running War.”
“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord made with me, and them, with the help of the Great Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim,” Trump said.
The Cambodian government has reported that over 300 000 Cambodian citizens have sought safety at camps for displaced people in border provinces, including Banteay Meanchey and Mongkol Borey.
The Thailand–Cambodia border conflict is part of a long-standing territorial dispute, driven by competing claims over several areas along the more than 800 kilometer frontier, including historical sites such as the Preah Vihear temple complex.
It is unclear if Trump will be able to secure an immediate cessation of the hostilities this time.
Thailand’s army has made clear it wants to cripple Cambodia’s military capability and Anutin has given the army his backing to fully implement operations he said have been planned by the armed forces.
A top adviser to Hun Manet told Reuters this week that Phnom Penh was “ready at any time” for dialogue, while Thailand has rejected mediation and said Cambodia must show sincerity before any bilateral negotiations can happen.
Thailand said on Friday its top diplomat, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, had spoken with US counterpart Marco Rubio and relayed that Bangkok was committed to peace, but expressed concern about Cambodia’s “repeated and escalating patterns of attacks”.
Thai prime minister gets royal approval to dissolve Parliament and hold elections early next year The Washington Post
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Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is suspending his ceasefire deal with Cambodia after he accused Cambodia of being behind a landmine explosion. The explosion killed 43 people. It is disputed if the landmine was laid before the ceasefire of after it. The PM said of his country’s decision, “The hostility towards our national security has not decreased as we thought it would.”
Thailand has suspended the implementation of a United States-brokered peace agreement with neighbouring Cambodia after a landmine blast near their border injured two of its soldiers.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said after Monday’s incident that all action set to be carried out under the truce will be halted until Thailand’s demands, which remain unspecified, are met.
SEOUL, South Korea — SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a ballistic missile in an eastward direction on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, the North’s first weapons testing activity in about five months.
A brief statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff gave no further details such as how far the weapon flew.
North Korea usually test-launches missiles in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, causing no damage in neighboring countries. But the Joint Chiefs of Staff statement only said the latest missile was launched in an eastward direction.
Trump says he’s open to talks with Kim Jong Un ‘without any preconditions’– www.foxnews.com
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President Donald Trump is open to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “without any preconditions,” a White House official said, as South Korea’s unification minister warned Pyongyang’s missiles could reach the U.S. mainland.
“President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula. U.S. policy on North Korea has not changed,” a White House official told Fox News Digital. “President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong Un, without any preconditions.”
South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young used blunt language in Berlin this week, telling reporters, “North Korea has become one of the three countries capable of attacking the U.S. mainland,” according to the Yonhap News Agency. “What needs to be acknowledged should be acknowledged rationally.”
The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Chung’s claim.
Thai king approves PM Anutin’s cabinet line-up, Royal Gazette shows – Reuters
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VIDEO: Indonesia gripped by anti-government protests – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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Cambodian and Thai officials meet in Malaysia to iron out ceasefire details– abcnews.go.com
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Thai and Cambodia n officials met in Malaysia on Monday for the first round of cross-border committee talks since a tense ceasefire was brokered last week after five days of deadly armed border clashes that killed dozens and displaced over 260,000 people.
The four-day General Border Committee meetings were initially due to be hosted by Cambodia, but both sides later agreed to a neutral venue in Malaysia, the annual chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has mediated the halt in hostilities last month.
The July 28 ceasefire followed economic pressure from President Donald Trump, who had warned the two warring nations that the U.S. would not conclude trade deals with them if the fighting persisted. Washington lowered tariffs on goods from the two countries from 36% to 19% on Aug. 1 following the truce.
Monday’s talks focused on ironing out details to avoid further clashes. Discussions of the decades-long competing territorial claims over the pockets of land near the shared border are not on the agenda.
Army condemns Cambodia for repeatedly breaking ceasefire agreement – bangkokpost.com
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The spokesman of the Royal Thai Army has denounced Cambodia for repeatedly breaking the Thai-Cambodian ceasefire agreement reached early this week.
Maj Gen Winthai Suvaree, spokesman for the army, told the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand that a Cambodian attack with rifles and hand grenades happened in Phu Makua in Thailand’s northeastern province of Si Sa Ket at about 9pm on Tuesday.
“The use of weapons was inappropriate because it is a time of ceasefire and a period that we must have mutual trust. The army must condemn this kind of action. This is the second time for the use of weapons during the ceasefire agreement,” the spokesman said.
“Cambodia has not observed the agreed rule,” Maj Gen Winthai said.
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The sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has rejected diplomatic talks with South Korea’s new liberal leader.
“We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither the reason to meet nor the issue to be discussed with the [Republic of Korea],” Kim Yo Jong, who speaks on behalf of her brother, said in a statement Monday.
Since taking office in June, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, has expressed a desire to improve relations with North Korea. In a gesture of goodwill, the new South Korean president has stopped loudspeaker broadcasts along the border and has also ended the dropping of leaflets by balloon into North Korea. But Kim Yo Jong says the actions don’t change the relationship between the neighboring countries.
Kim Yo Jong called the end of the “propaganda broadcasting” just “a reversible turning back of what they should not have done in the first place,” adding that because of this, the move “is not the work worthy of appreciation.”
Kim Yo Jong stressed that the relationship between North and South Korea has not changed even though a new president is in power, calling South Korea the “enemy.”
After fighting broke out between Cambodia and Thailand on Thursday, July 24, it appeared the border skirmish was headed to full-out war. Thailand launched airstrikes against Cambodia and promised more extensive operations would be coming. Cambodia sought an immediate ceasefire. The fighting was touched off after a land mine explosion at the border wounded five Thai soldiers.
Fortunately for the region, an immediate ceasefire has been announced an immediate ceasefire brokered by the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration is “committed to an immediate cessation of violence and expect the governments of Cambodia and Thailand to fully honor their commitments to end this conflict.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on X, “President Trump made this happen. Give him the Nobel Peace Prize.”