North Korea supports dialogue with United States under right conditions

The director of national intelligence says Russian Federation and other countries, including China, North Korea and Iran, are using cyberspace to target US and its allies, and will do so in future.

Last month, the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun claimed US-Australian military exercises in northern Australia were preparation for nuclear war against North Korea and threatened Darwin with a potential retaliatory strike.

The office said: “We urge the relevant authorities to immediately detect and arrest and hand over to the DPRK the masterminds of the ugly state-sponsored crime, accomplices and their followers”.

Lee is now leading the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and will be replaced by Suh Hoon if Suh’s appointment is approved by parliament.

Based on the DIA statements, “if talking about an ICBM capable of striking the continental USA, I would say it is “fast approaching, ‘ or a ‘near-term” threat, not ‘imminent,”‘ Michael Elleman, a missile defense analyst for 38 North, a website that focuses on North Korea, said in an email.

In statements for foreign distribution, North Korea often refers to its leader Kim Jong-un without naming him, instead using the phrase “supreme leadership” or “supreme dignity”.

Rights groups accuse the North of widespread abuses, including an absence of fair trials.

At the same time the South is embroiled in disputes with China over a United States missile defence system, and former colonial occupier Japan over wartime history.

It said on Friday it had no information about the North’s accusations and Lee had no separate comment to make. Choi said Pyongyang would be willing to meet with the Trump administration for negotiations “if the conditions are set”, briefly to reporters en route to Pyongyang.

But any attempt on Kim would be extremely hard to pull off due to supertight security around him and Pyongyang’s extensive surveillance of its own population.

The North Korean mission at the United Nations urged U.N. member states to “reconsider” applying sanctions adopted by the Security Council, arguing that their legality is questionable.

“The U.S. House of Representatives should think twice”, the committee said in its letter, a copy of which was published by the KCNA state news agency.

He said after he was sworn on Wednesday that he would be willing to go to North Korea “in the right circumstances”.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed Friday to boost their countries’ cooperation in dealing with various global issues while enhancing their bilateral trade relations, the Seoul government said.