The battle for Tripoli may have hit a turning point over the weekend with the capture of a key town. But with the future of the country at stake, fighting between the warring parties is likely to escalate, as VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Libya.
Month: July 2019
The sudden summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arose out of their common desire for “perpetuating the illusion of denuclearization” even though their divergent definitions of denuclearization remain unchanged, said experts.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday hailed Sunday’s summit at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, and reported the next step would be denuclearization talks with Washington, marking an about-face for Pyongyang.
“The top leaders of the two countries agreed to keep in close touch in the future, too, and resume and push forward productive dialogues for making a new breakthrough in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and in the bilateral relations,” said KCNA.
Trump tweets invitation
After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2019
Trump, whose schedule in South Korea included a visit to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) tweeted an invitation to Kim on Friday, suggesting they meet at the border separating the two Koreas. Kim greeted Trump on Sunday and invited him to the North Korean side of the border.
After crossing to the South Korean side of the DMZ, the two leaders spent an hour at Freedom House. Trump said at a press briefing with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that working-level talks with North Korea would resume within weeks. Talks between Trump and Kim stalled after their February summit in Hanoi.
That Kim’s meeting with Trump received a positive reception, as did the promise of future talks with Washington, marks a dramatic turnaround from remarks made by Kim to his top generals in April. In his speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim said he would not meet with Trump again unless Washington changes its position by the end of the year. At the Hanoi summit held in February, the U.S. conditioned North Korea’s request for sanctions relief on Pyongyang taking steps toward full denuclearization.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry also echoed Kim in its statement posted on its website on May 24 saying,”Unless the United States puts aside the current method of calculation and comes forward with a new method of calculation, the DPRK-U.S. dialogue will never be resumed and by extension, the prospect for resolving the nuclear issue will be much gloomy.”
North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
No change in U.S. position
Kim met Trump at the border even though Washington had made no public change to its position on how North Korea could obtain sanctions relief.
Kim shares a common interest with Trump in preserving the talks in order to perpetuate “the illusion of denuclearization” but for different reasons, according to Evans Revere, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the George W. Bush administration.
Revere said Kim is motivated to continue the denuclearization talks because they give him a cover under which he can build more weapons without having to face extreme measures from the U.S.
“For Kim, the goal is to keep the denuclearization illusion in play so that he can continue to build and deploy nukes and missiles, which he is doing,” said Revere.
“For Trump, who is overseeing an increasingly chaotic, feckless, and failing foreign policy agenda, the point is to convince American voters that at least one thing is working” ahead of his campaign for re-election for the 2020 presidential election,” Revere continued.
Lot to gain by both sides
Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said both Kim and Trump had a lot to gain by meeting at the border.
The North Korean leader “is reaping enormous gains from a relationship that bolsters Kim’s legitimacy and normalizes him as an international leader,” said Snyder. “Every Trump-Kim meeting distracts from Kim’s reputation for ruthlessness, demands for unquestioning political loyalty, and subjugation of his population, while taking North Korea one step closer to acceptance as a nuclear state.”
For Trump, the talks with Kim have political value by “maintaining the drama of the relationship with Kim as a foil,” said Snyder. “The relationship is valuable regardless of what it accomplishes because it keeps people interested in the plot line: Will Trump win over Kim to a big deal on denuclearization?”
Yet even as Trump and Kim speak of keeping the talks alive and extoll their “great relationship”, the official differences on denuclearization remain.
Revere said, “The reality, however, is that North Korea has not changed its position opposing the U.S. definition of denuclearization.”
North Korea’s concept of denuclearization has been to remove the U.S. nuclear umbrella over the Korean Peninsula while the U.S. defines it as dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons and facilities.
Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said, “For all the talks of great relationships, the word denuclearization’ was not spoken.” He continued, “And is not that the central point of diplomacy with North Korea? The U.S. and DPRK still do not have a common definition for denuclearization. So how can it happen?”
Protesters and riot police returned to the streets of Hong Kong early Monday to mark the 22nd anniversary of the city’s reunification with China.
Police fired pepper spray and used batons to keep thousands of protesters from charging an early morning flag-raising ceremony that marks every anniversary of the city’s handover from the United Kingdom in 1997.
A government spokesperson said that a total of 25 protesters and police had been injured.
By midmorning however, the tense scenes had died down with protesters occupying several large roadways near the government headquarters ahead of a march scheduled for later Monday afternoon.
Protesters also took down the flag of China and replaced it with a black version of Hong Kong’s flag, which features the white Bauhinia flower in the center.
The flag-raising ceremony draws a small number of protesters every year, but Monday’s rally was linked to a controversial legislative bill that would allow for criminal extradition to China.
The bill triggered massive protests for most of June, continuing after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said previously she would suspend the bill and apologized. The bill is set to expire next year with the legislative session.
On Monday, Lam said at a speech she had learned to be more “responsive to the aspirations, sentiments and opinions of the community.”
“The first and most basic step to take is to change the government’s style of governance to make it more open and accommodating,” Lam said. “We also need to reform the way we listen to public views.”
Lam, however, has failed to withdraw the bill permanently or meet other protest demands including an inquiry into police tactics at a violent demonstration June 12.
She is now facing her lowest popularity ranking since taking office in 2017, according to a survey by the University of Hong Kong.
Protester Leo Wong said many residents mistrust the government, which has promised to cancel unpopular initiatives in the past only for them to change their mind later.
“I understand that people may be saying suspension is the same as withdrawal … but why the protesters are still angry about this is people were tricked by the government for so many times over so many years,” Wong told VOA.
He and many other protesters also spoke of their fears that Hong Kong was losing its autonomy to China, promised until 2047. Citizens are currently protected by the Basic Law, a set of civil and political rights considered Hong Kong’s mini constitution, but they fear this may be eroded.
“There is an actual deadline of Basic Law until 2047, but we aren’t sure they will honor that deadline. Even though we are having one country two systems now. … They try to erode our freedom and encroach into Hong Kong,” Wong said.
The extradition debate has seen the government unwittingly reignite Hong Kong’s protest movement, and a desire for the direct election of its leader, five years after 2014’s so-called Umbrella Movement democracy protests came to an end.
The women mountaineers of Africa are reaching for new heights, following in the footsteps of the first black African woman to scale Mount Everest. Now four other South Africans are training to become the first all-female African team to climb the world’s tallest peak.
Deshun Deysel, Lisa Gering, Tumi Mphahlele and Alda Waddell are training on the sandstone cliffs of South Africa’s Drankensberg Mountains. They hope that next year, they can become the first team of African women to conquer Mount Everest.
Their inspiration
The women are inspired by South African business executive Saray Khumalo, who in May became the first black African woman to climb the world’s highest mountain, which stands at 8,848 meters tall.
Africa has few mountains to practice on, but Khumalo says that is not a problem.
“What excites me even more is that those coming behind us, behind me, effectively won’t have to struggle as much as I have had, you know,” she said. “Even though we’re not born in a place where there’re mountains, there’s ice and snow and more. So, when the ladies go next year, I think it’s going to open up even more doors.”
Each team member does her own intensive mental and physical training along with group sessions to prepare for the difficult climb.
Alda Waddell explains:
“There’s different elements that you need to train for. It is the technical, the equipment that you need to understand. It is the physical that you need to be able to do. And then also the cold. You need to be able to manage the cold. And then lastly, it’s the altitude,” she said.
Levels of experience
The women have different levels of experience in mountaineering.
In 1996, Deshun Deysel became the first black South African woman to set foot on Mount Everest.
While she wasn’t able to reach the summit, since then she’s scaled mountains on five continents.
“When I first started high-altitude climbing there was so few women in the mountains,” she said. “If I look around now, especially in the South African climbing community, that number definitely increased and because of that we have a greater pool of women to choose from. So why not have an all-female team?”
As South African women entrepreneurs, the team sees parallels with running a business in a male-dominated world and climbing the world’s tallest mountain.
They want their attempt to scale Mount Everest to inspire more African women to reach for the top.
Africa’s women mountaineers are reaching new heights. In May, South African businesswoman Saray Khumalo became the first black African woman to summit Mount Everest. Now four other South Africans are preparing to become the first all-women African team to climb the world’s tallest peak. Marize de Klerk reports from Waterval Boven, South Africa.
The third meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has drawn praise as well as criticism. Critics say Trump is showering attention on a dictator without getting any concessions on the North Korean nuclear development, while others see it as a ray of hope for a permanent peace on the Korean peninsula. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
A victim of domestic abuse while pregnant and now a mother of two, Miriam Gutierrez is a champion Spanish boxer and an elected official whose goal is to knockout those who challenge women’s rights. Arash Arabasadi has more.