Tag Archives: North Korea

Wall Street opens flat as North Korea tensions fade

Wall Street opens flat as North Korea tensions fade

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks opened flat on Tuesday after North Korea’s leader delayed a decision on firing missiles towards Guam, pointing to receding tensions between the United States and North Korea.

Pyongyang’s plans to fire missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory prompted a surge in tensions in the region last week, with President Donald Trump saying the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” if North Korea acted unwisely.

“I think it is a bit of a follow through on North Korea that has stepped back, things are back to somewhat normal”, said Mark Spellman, portfolio manager at Alpine Funds in New York.

“U.S. companies and the markets have also been benefiting from the global economic expansion. For the first time in many years, you’ve got a lot of economies through out the world doing better,” Spellman added.

At 9:42 a.m. ET (1342 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was up 29.01 points, or 0.13 percent, at 22,022.72, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 1.17 points, or 0.05 percent, at 2,467.01.

The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 1.12 points, or 0.02 percent, at 6,341.35.

Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, with telecom sector’s <.SPLRCL> 0.70 percent fall leading the decliners.

Data showed U.S. retail sales recorded their biggest increase in seven months in July as consumers boosted purchases of motor vehicles as well as discretionary spending.

The data helped the dollar touch its highest level against a basket of major currencies <.DXY> in nearly three weeks.

Among stocks, Home Depot <HD.N> was down 2.6 percent, despite the U.S. home improvement chain reporting quarterly profit and comparable sales that topped estimates. The stock weighed the most on the Dow and the S&P 500.

Coach <COH.N> was off more than 6 percent after the handbag maker issued full-year sales forecast that missed analysts’ estimates.

Dick’s Sporting Goods <DKS.N> hit near seven-year lows after the sportswear retailer’s quarterly same-store sales and profit missed estimates.

Advance Auto Parts <AAP.N> touched near four-year low after the company lowered its 2017 comparable store sales forecast.

Synchrony Financial <SYF.N> rose 3.4 percent after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway <BRKa.N> said it had added a 17.5-million share stake in the credit card issuer.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,432 to 1,122. On the Nasdaq, 1,354 issues fell and 1,001.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)

North Korea holds off on Guam missile plan as China urges ‘brakes’ on rhetoric

North Korea holds off on Guam missile plan as China urges 'brakes' on rhetoric

By Christine Kim and Idrees Ali

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea’s leader has delayed a decision on firing missiles towards Guam while he waits to see what the United States does next, the North’s state media said on Tuesday, as South Korea’s president said Seoul would seek to prevent war by all means.

Signs of an easing in tension on the Korean peninsula helped stock markets rally for a second day running even as the United States and South Korea prepared for more joint military drills, which infuriate the North, and experts warned it could still go ahead with its provocative plan.

In his first public appearance in about two weeks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected the command of the North’s army on Monday, examining a plan to fire four missiles to land near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, the official KCNA said in a report.

“He said that if the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity, testing the self-restraint of the DPRK, the latter will make an important decision as it already declared,” the report said.

The DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In photos released with the KCNA report, Kim was seen holding a baton and pointing at a map showing a flight path for the missiles appearing to start from North Korea’s east coast, flying over Japan towards Guam. North Korea has often threatened to attack the United States and its bases and released similar photos in the past but never followed through.

Pyongyang’s plans to fire missiles near Guam prompted a surge in tensions in the region last week, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” if North Korea acted unwisely.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday there would be no military action without Seoul’s consent and his government would prevent war by all means.

“Military action on the Korean peninsula can only be decided by South Korea and no one else can decide to take military action without the consent of South Korea,” Moon said in a speech to commemorate the anniversary of the nation’s liberation from Japanese military rule in 1945.

“The government, putting everything on the line, will block war by all means,” Moon said.

Speaking to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it was urgent the United States and North Korea “put the brakes” on mutually irritating words and actions to lower temperatures and prevent an “August crisis”, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

NUCLEAR DETERRENT

Japan will be seeking further reassurance from Washington in meetings between Japan’s defense chief and foreign minister and their U.S. counterparts on Thursday.

“The strategic environment is becoming harsher and we need to discuss how we will respond to that,” a Japanese foreign ministry official said in a briefing in Tokyo.

“We will look for the U.S. to reaffirm it defense commitment, including the nuclear deterrent.”

The Liberation Day holiday, celebrated by both North and South, will be followed next week by the joint U.S.-South Korean military drills.

North Korea has persisted with its nuclear and missile programs, to ward off perceived U.S. hostility, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions and sanctions.

China, North Korea’s main ally and trading partner, has repeatedly urged Pyongyang to halt its weapons program and at the same time urged South Korea and the United States to stop military drills to lower tensions.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the crisis was approaching a critical juncture and urged all sides in the standoff to help “put out the flames” and not add fuel to the fire.

Hua said she noted comments by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about using diplomacy to resolve the issue, saying China hoped these words can be put into action.

“We also call on North Korea to echo this in response,” Hua told a daily news briefing.

Asian shares rose for a second day on Tuesday and the dollar firmed after Kim’s comments further eased tension and prompted investors to move back into riskier assets after a sharp selloff last week. [MKTS/GLOB]

Kim Dong-yub, a professor and a military expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, urged caution in assuming North Korea was bluffing with its missile threats.

“There is no stepping back for North Korea. Those who don’t know the North very well fall into this trap every time (thinking they are easing threats) but we’ve seen this before.”

The United States and South Korea remain technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

North Korea is currently holding three U.S. citizens it accuses of espionage or hostile acts but now was not the right time to discuss them, KCNA cited a foreign ministry spokesman as saying in a separate report.

Pyongyang has in the past used detainees to extract concessions, including high-profile visits from the United States, which has no formal diplomatic relations with North Korea.

U.S. officials have in recent days played down the risk of an imminent conflict while stressing their preparedness to respond militarily to any attack from North Korea.

Mattis said on Monday the U.S. military would know the trajectory of a missile fired from North Korea within moments and would “take it out” if it looked like it would hit the U.S. Pacific territory.

“The bottom line is, we will defend the country from an attack; for us (U.S. military) that is war,” Mattis said.

On Guam, home to a U.S. air base, a Navy installation, a Coast Guard group and roughly 6,000 U.S. military personnel, residents expressed some relief at the lessening of tensions.

“I’m reading between the lines that I don’t see an imminent threat,” Guam Lieutenant Governor Ray Tenorio told a media briefing in the island’s capital of Hagatna.

For an interactive on North Korea’s missile capabilities, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010041L63FE/index.html

(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim and Jane Chung in Seoul, Tim Kelly in Tokyo, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Joseph Campbell in Guam; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Michael Perry and Nick Macfie)

Korea tensions ease slightly as U.S. officials play down war risks

A South Korean soldier stands guard at a guard post near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, August 14, 2017.

By Christine Kim and Ben Blanchard

SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) – Tension on the Korean peninsula eased slightly on Monday as South Korea’s president said resolving North Korea’s nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully and U.S. officials played down the risk of an imminent war.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has caused tension to spike in recent months.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned last week that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” if North Korea acted unwisely after threatening to land missiles in the sea near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

“There must be no more war on the Korean peninsula. Whatever ups and downs we face, the North Korean nuclear situation must be resolved peacefully,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a meeting with senior aides and advisers.

“I am certain the United States will respond to the current situation calmly and responsibly in a stance that is equal to ours,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a conciliatory message to North Korea in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

“The U.S. has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea. We do not seek an excuse to garrison U.S. troops north of the Demilitarized Zone,” the officials said, addressing some of Pyongyang’s fears that Washington ultimately intends to replace the reclusive country’s leadership.

The article took a softer tone on North Korea than the president, who warned Pyongyang last week of “fire and fury” if it launched an attack.

Mattis and Tillerson underlined that the United States aims “to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a dismantling of the regime’s ballistic-missile programs.”

“While diplomacy is our preferred means of changing North Korea’s course of action, it is backed by military options,” they said.

The United States is adopting a policy of “strategic accountability” towards North Korea, the officials wrote, but it is not clear how this significantly differs from the “strategic patience” Korea policy of former President Barack Obama.

A global index of stocks rose, after fears of a U.S.-North Korea nuclear standoff had driven it to the biggest weekly losses of 2017, while the dollar also strengthened.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might conduct another missile test but talk of being on the cusp of a nuclear war was overstating the risk.

“I’ve seen no intelligence that would indicate that we’re in that place today,” Pompeo told “Fox News Sunday”.

However, North Korea reiterated its threats, with its official KCNA news agency saying “war cannot be blocked by any power if sparks fly due to a small, random incident that was unintentional”.

“Any second Korean War would have no choice but to spread into a nuclear war,” it said in a commentary.

The United States and South Korea remain technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

MISSILE DOUBTS

South Korean Vice Defence Minister Suh Choo-suk agreed North Korea was likely to continue provocations, including nuclear tests, but did not see a big risk of the North engaging in actual military conflict.

Suh again highlighted doubts about North Korea’s claims about its military capability.

“Both the United States and South Korea do not believe North Korea has yet completely gained re-entry technology in material engineering terms,” Suh said in remarks televised on Sunday for a Korea Broadcasting System show.

Ukraine denied on Monday that it had supplied defense technology to North Korea, responding to an article in the New York Times that said North Korea may have purchased rocket engines from Ukrainian factory Yuzhmash.

Tension in the region has risen since North Korea carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July, tests it often conducts to coincide with important national dates.

Tuesday marks the anniversary of Japan’s expulsion from the Korean peninsula, a rare holiday celebrated by both the North and the South. Moon and Kim, who has not been seen publicly for several days, are both expected to make addresses on their respective sides of the heavily militarised border.

Trump has urged China, the North’s main ally and trading partner, to do more to rein in its neighbor, often linking Beijing’s efforts to comments around U.S.-China trade. China strenuously rejects linking the two issues.

Trump will issue an order later on Monday to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force U.S. firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property, senior administration officials said on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing has said many times the essence of China-U.S. trade and business ties is mutual benefit and that there is no future in any trade war between China and the United States.

“The (Korean) peninsula issue and trade and business issues are in a different category from each other,” Hua added. “On these two issues, China and the United States should respect each other and increase cooperation. Using one issue as a tool for exerting pressure on another is clearly inappropriate.”

China’s Commerce Ministry issued an order on Monday banning imports of coal, iron ore, lead concentrates and ore, lead and sea food from North Korea, effective from Tuesday.

The move followed the announcement of U.N. sanctions against North Korea this month which have to be enforced within 30 days by member states.

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford told South Korea’s Moon in a meeting on Monday that U.S. military options being prepared against North Korea would be for when diplomatic and economic sanctions failed, according to Moon’s office.

(Writing by Lincoln Feast and Alistair Bell; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and James Dalgleish)

 

Minutes from missiles, Guam islanders get to grips with uncertain fate

By Martin Petty

GUAM (Reuters) – Fourteen minutes is not long to prepare for a potential catastrophe. That’s the estimated time taken from a launch of a mid-range ballistic missile in North Korea until impact on Guam, where residents seem resigned to the belief that their fate is out of their control.

The local government of this tiny U.S. Pacific island issued preparation guidance to its 163,000 people on Friday on how best to hide and deal with radiation after threats by Pyongyang to strike Guam, or test its missiles in its surrounding waters.

But islanders don’t seem in a hurry to get ready.

Mike Benavente, 37, who maintains air conditioners, said he saw the advisory on Facebook, but preferred family time at a beach barbecue to stocking up on supplies and thinking about suitable shelter options.

“Preparation for attack? I’m doing it!” he said, pointing to a grill he was readying for burgers and hot dogs. “If we have a big missile coming here, everyone’s gonna die. How can I prepare for a missile?”

In a guidance note titled “Preparing for an Imminent Missile Threat”, Guam Homeland Security advised seeking out in advance windowless shelters in homes, schools and offices, with concrete “dense enough to absorb radiation”.

It said if an attack warning came, residents should seek shelter and stay there for at least 24 hours. Those caught outside should lay down, cover their heads and “not look at the flash or fireball” to avoid going blind.

Plush hotels along Guam’s Tumon beach didn’t seem in a rush to prepare either. Staff at several hotels and resorts said they knew guidelines had been issued but already had procedures in place for emergencies.

“We have an evacuation plan for typhoon, tsunami, terrorism, but we don’t have anything for a North Korean missile attack,” said a supervisor at one resort, who asked that neither he nor his hotel be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

A manager at a hotel nearby had a printed copy of the guidelines, but said there was no instruction yet to distribute it to guests.

 

TIME LIMITED

North Korea on Thursday said plans would be completed by mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles to land near Guam, some 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) away, after U.S. President Donald Trump said any threat would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Guam, an island half the size of Hong Kong and some 7,000 km from the U.S. mainland, is a target because of its naval base and air force base, from which two B-1B supersonic bombers were deployed close to the Korean peninsula on Tuesday.

It is also a permanent home to a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor.

Local authorities have been reassuring residents and tourists that a “strategic defense umbrella” across the Western Pacific can counter any missile attacks, and the chance of a successful North Korean strike on Guam was minimal.

“Our confidence is it’s point zero zero, zero zero, zero – that’s five zeros – and a one,” the governor’s homeland security advisor, George Charfauros, said on Friday.

“The threat level has not changed. It’s business as usual.”

That was the case on Saturday in Guam’s malls and along its pristine beaches, where children played in the turquoise sea as parents drank beer and prepared picnics.

“I haven’t really thought about preparation. We really don’t know what to do if there’s a missile attack,” said Marlene, 37, an accountant.

“We get just 14 minutes. The military says they’ll be ready, so we’re banking on them.”

Auto parts seller Mitch Aguon, 51, spent his day off fishing and said preparation was pointless.

“By the time we hear about it, it’ll be too late and there’s no room for us ordinary Joes in the bomb shelters. We’re dead meat,” he said.

 

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

 

Canadian pastor returns home after release from N. Korean prison

FILE PHOTO - South Korea-born Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim stands during his trial at a North Korean court in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang, North Korea on December 16, 2015. REUTERS/KCNA/File Photo

By Jim Finkle

TORONTO (Reuters) – A Canadian pastor who was imprisoned in North Korea for more than two years has arrived home in Canada, where he was resting after being reunited with his family on Saturday, a family spokeswoman said.

Hyeon Soo Lim, formerly the senior pastor at one of Canada’s largest churches, had disappeared on a mission to North Korea in early 2015. He was sentenced to hard labor for life in December 2015 on charges of attempting to overthrow the Pyongyang regime.

North Korea’s KCNA news agency said on Wednesday that the 62-year-old Lim had been released on humanitarian grounds, suggesting his health was poor. His family later said he was not in critical condition.

Lim’s release comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, though authorities have not said there is any connection between his release and efforts to defuse the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program.

Family members will hold a Saturday afternoon press conference at his church, Light Presbyterian Church in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, said spokeswoman Lisa Pak.

It was not clear if Pastor Lim would appear at the press conference, according to Pak, who said he would attend Sunday services at his church.

The Canadian government issued a statement on Saturday, saying it joined Lim’s family and congregation in celebrating his homecoming.

“Canada has been actively engaged on Mr. Lim’s case at all levels, and we will continue to support him and his family now that he has returned,” the statement said.

Lim’s family in June urged the Canadian government to bolster efforts to seek Lim’s release, following the death of Otto Warmbier, an American student who died days after being released from a North Korean prison in a coma.

Footage from Japan’s ANN television showed Lim walking on a tarmac next to Canada’s national security adviser, Daniel Jean, at the Yokota Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo, in a stop en route to his home.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Mary Milliken)

In call with Trump, China’s Xi urges restraint over North Korea

FILE PHOTO: Navy vessels are moored in port at the U.S. Naval Base Guam at Apra Harbor, Guam March 5, 2016. Major Jeff Landis,USMC (Ret.)/Naval Base Guam/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS

By James Oliphant and Ben Blanchard

BEDMINSTER, N.J./BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s President Xi Jinping said there needs to be a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue, and in a telephone call with U.S. President Donald Trump he urged all sides to avoid words or action that raise tensions.

Xi’s comments came hours after Trump warned North Korea that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused the U.S. leader of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.

The Pentagon said the United States and South Korea would proceed as planned with a joint military exercise in 10 days, an action sure to further antagonize North Korea.

In a statement, China’s foreign ministry said Xi told Trump that a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue was essential, and urged calm.

“Concerned parties must exercise restraint and avoid remarks and actions that escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula,” it cited Xi as saying.

In their phone call, Trump and Xi “agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior,” the White House said in a statement, and reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. It added the relationship between Trump and Xi was “extremely close” and “will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem.”

Trump, vacationing at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort, earlier took to Twitter to warn North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that U.S. “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely”.

Again referring to Kim, Trump added, “If he utters one threat … or if he does anything with respect to Guam or any place else that’s an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast.”

In remarks to reporters after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Trump said the situation with North Korea was “very dangerous and it will not continue”.

He added, “We will see what happens. We think that lots of good things could happen, and we could also have a bad solution.”

Despite the tough rhetoric, Trump insisted that “nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump.”

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said in a statement on Saturday the United States and China were working to resolve the North Korea crisis, and it hoped the two leaders’ phone call “will be able to resolve the peak of tension and act as a catalyst for the situation to move on to a new dimension.”

(To view an interactive package on North Korea’s missile capabilities, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2t0oSv7)

TRUMP TO GUAM: “YOU’RE SAFE”

Guam, the Pacific island that is a U.S. territory and home to a U.S. air base, a Navy installation, a Coast Guard group and around 6,000 U.S. military personnel, posted emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack.

North Korean state news agency KCNA said on Thursday the North Korean army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land in the sea 18 to 25 miles (30 to 40 km) from Guam.

Japan’s government decided to deploy its Patriot missile defense system to four locations in the west of the country, media reported. No one at Japan’s defense ministry was available to comment on Saturday.

The governor of Guam, Eddie Baza Calvo, posted a video on Facebook of himself speaking with Trump. “We are with you a thousand percent. You are safe,” Trump told Calvo.

Washington wants to stop Pyongyang from developing nuclear missiles that could hit the United States. North Korea sees its nuclear arsenal as protection against the United States and its partners in Asia.

Trump said he was considering additional sanctions on North Korea, adding these would be “very strong.” He gave no details and did not make clear whether he meant unilateral or multilateral sanctions.

U.S. officials have said new U.S. steps that would target Chinese banks and firms doing business with Pyongyang are in the works, but these have appeared to be put on hold to give Beijing time to show it is serious about enforcing new U.N. sanctions.

BACK CHANNELS

Trump said he did not want to talk about diplomatic “back channels” with North Korea after U.S. media reports that Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, had engaged in diplomacy for several months with Pak Song Il, a senior diplomat at Pyongyang’s U.N. mission, on the deteriorating ties and the issue of Americans imprisoned in North Korea.

But Daniel Russel, until April the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, said this so-called New York channel had been a relatively commonplace means of communication with North Korea over the years, and was not a forum for negotiation.

“It’s never been a vehicle for negotiations and this doesn’t constitute substantive U.S.-DPRK dialogue,” he said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Both Moscow and Berlin expressed alarm over the rise in rhetoric over North Korea, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a joint Russian-Chinese plan by which North Korea would freeze missile tests and the United States and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises. Neither the United States nor North Korea has embraced the plan.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is no military solution, adding that “an escalation of the rhetoric is the wrong answer.”

The French presidency said North Korea was engaged in a “dangerous escalation” of tensions.

President Emmanuel Macron “calls for all parties to act responsibly and prevent any further escalation in tensions,” the Elysee palace said in a statement.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said blame for problems lay with North Korea, and that the international community was “shoulder to shoulder” in efforts to stop North Korean aggression.

“We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end,” he tweeted.

As the rhetoric has ratcheted up, South Koreans are buying more ready-to-eat meals for emergency use, and the government aims to expand nationwide civil defense drills planned for Aug. 23. Hundreds of thousands of troops and huge arsenals are arrayed on both sides of the tense demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali in WASHINGTON, Dahee Kim, Haejin Choi and Christine Kim in SEOUL, Dustin Volz in SAN FRANCISCO, Tim Kelly in TOKYO, Martin Petty in GUAM, Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS, Dmitry Solovyov in MOSCOW, Joseph Nasr and Paul Carrel in BERLIN; Writing by Will Dunham, Eric Beech and Ian Geoghegan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Minutes from missiles, Guam islanders get to grips with uncertain fate

A hotel receptionist reads a local newspaper in Tamuning, Guam, a U.S. Pacific Territory, August 12, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

By Martin Petty

GUAM (Reuters) – Fourteen minutes is not long to prepare for a potential catastrophe. That’s the estimated time taken from a launch of a mid-range ballistic missile in North Korea until impact on Guam, where residents seem resigned to the belief that their fate is out of their control.

The local government of this tiny U.S. Pacific island issued preparation guidance to its 163,000 people on Friday on how best to hide and deal with radiation after threats by Pyongyang to strike Guam, or test its missiles in its surrounding waters.

But islanders don’t seem in a hurry to get ready.

Mike Benavente, 37, who maintains air conditioners, said he saw the advisory on Facebook, but preferred family time at a beach barbecue to stocking up on supplies and thinking about suitable shelter options.

“Preparation for attack? I’m doing it!” he said, pointing to a grill he was readying for burgers and hot dogs. “If we have a big missile coming here, everyone’s gonna die. How can I prepare for a missile?”

In a guidance note titled “Preparing for an Imminent Missile Threat”, Guam Homeland Security advised seeking out in advance windowless shelters in homes, schools and offices, with concrete “dense enough to absorb radiation”.

It said if an attack warning came, residents should seek shelter and stay there for at least 24 hours. Those caught outside should lay down, cover their heads and “not look at the flash or fireball” to avoid going blind.

Plush hotels along Guam’s Tumon beach didn’t seem in a rush to prepare either. Staff at several hotels and resorts said they knew guidelines had been issued but already had procedures in place for emergencies.

“We have an evacuation plan for typhoon, tsunami, terrorism, but we don’t have anything for a North Korean missile attack,” said a supervisor at one resort, who asked that neither he nor his hotel be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

A manager at a hotel nearby had a printed copy of the guidelines, but said there was no instruction yet to distribute it to guests.

TIME LIMITED

North Korea on Thursday said plans would be completed by mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles to land near Guam, some 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) away, after U.S. President Donald Trump said any threat would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Guam, an island half the size of Hong Kong and some 7,000 km from the U.S. mainland, is a target because of its naval base and air force base, from which two B-1B supersonic bombers were deployed close to the Korean peninsula on Tuesday.

It is also a permanent home to a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor.

Local authorities have been reassuring residents and tourists that a “strategic defense umbrella” across the Western Pacific can counter any missile attacks, and the chance of a successful North Korean strike on Guam was minimal.

“Our confidence is it’s point zero zero, zero zero, zero – that’s five zeros – and a one,” the governor’s homeland security advisor, George Charfauros, said on Friday.

“The threat level has not changed. It’s business as usual.”

That was the case on Saturday in Guam’s malls and along its pristine beaches, where children played in the turquoise sea as parents drank beer and prepared picnics.

“I haven’t really thought about preparation. We really don’t know what to do if there’s a missile attack,” said Marlene, 37, an accountant.

“We get just 14 minutes. The military says they’ll be ready, so we’re banking on them.”

Auto parts seller Mitch Aguon, 51, spent his day off fishing and said preparation was pointless.

“By the time we hear about it, it’ll be too late and there’s no room for us ordinary Joes in the bomb shelters. We’re dead meat,” he said.

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

North Korea details plan to fire missiles over Japan, near Guam

A view shows a Pyongyang city mass rally held at Kim Il Sung Square on August 9, 2017, to fully support the statement of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) government in this photo released on August 10, 2017 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. KCNA/via REUTERS

By Christine Kim and Martin Petty

SEOUL/GUAM (Reuters) – North Korea said on Thursday it was completing plans to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam in an unusually detailed threat that further heightened tensions with the United States.

North Korea’s army will complete the plans in mid-August, when they will be ready for leader Kim Jong Un’s order, state-run KCNA news agency reported, citing General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army. The plans called for the missiles to land in the sea only 30-40 km (18-25 miles) from Guam.

The reclusive communist country, technically still at war with the United States and South Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty, is known for making bellicose threats.

But experts in the United States and South Korea said North Korea’s plans ratcheted up risks significantly, since Washington was likely to view any missile aimed at its territory as a provocation, even if launched as a test. North Korea has carried out a series of missile and nuclear bomb tests in defiance of the international community.

North Korea announced the plans following U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on Tuesday that any threats by Pyongyang would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” remarks that KCNA called “a load of nonsense.”

North Korea’s apparently rapid progress in developing nuclear weapons and missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland has fueled tensions that erupted into a war of words between Washington and Pyongyang this week, unnerving regional powers and global investors.

World stocks fell for a third day, with shares in Seoul slumping to a seven-week low.

The rising tensions between North Korea and the United States — the biggest foreign policy crisis Trump has faced in his six-month-old presidency — spurred a broad market sell-off in U.S. stocks. By midday, the benchmark S&P 500 stock index <.SPX> fell 1 percent. The index has had just two days so far this year where it has closed with losses of more than 1 percent.

If Pyongyang carries out its threat and launches missiles toward Guam, it would represent an unprecedented milestone in the already fraught relations between the United States and North Korea.

As announced by North Korea, which added detail to a plan first unveiled on Wednesday, the planned path of the missiles would cross some of the world’s busiest sea and air traffic routes.

Guam, a tropical island more than 3,000 km (2,000 miles) to the southeast of North Korea, is home to about 163,000 people and a U.S. air base, Navy installation that includes a submarine squadron, a Coast Guard group and roughly 6,000 U.S. military service members.

“The Hwasong-12 rockets to be launched by the KPA (Korean People’s Army) will cross the sky above Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi Prefectures of Japan,” the North Korean report said. “They will fly 3,356.7 km (2,085.8 miles) for 1,065 seconds and hit the waters 30 to 40 km away from Guam.” The report did not mention any threat of the use of nuclear missiles near Guam.

“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him,” KCNA said of Trump.

Speaking to reporters in to New Jersey, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that “certainly nothing has changed in the president’s thinking” on North Korea given the latest developments. The White House said Trump would receive a security briefing later in the day.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a key Republican voice on foreign policy, said that based on his conversations with Trump he believes the president would be willing to launch a pre-emptive strike to prevent Pyongyang from launching a nuclear attack on the U.S. homeland.

“If negotiations fail, he is willing to abandon ‘strategic patience’ and use pre-emption,” Graham said of Trump during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I think he’s there mentally. He has told me this.”

“So I’m 100 percent confident that if President Trump had to use military force to deny the North Koreans the capability to strike America with a nuclear-tipped missile, he would do that,” Graham added.

Korea expert and former CIA analyst Robert Carlin, a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, said announcing a specific target was unusual for North Korea, although it had previously mentioned targeting specific South Korean military facilities.

“We’ve seen them talk in specific terms before, just not something as sensitive … as an American military base,” Carlin said.

For an interactive graphic on North Korea’s missile capabilities – http://tmsnrt.rs/2t6WEPL

Graphic on North Korean missile trajectories – http://tmsnrt.rs/2vLMdVm

‘ENJOY THE BEACHES’

Visitors and residents on Guam appeared to be taking things in their stride. The main beach front on the island was packed with tourists dozing under trees or on the sun loungers of five-star hotels lined up before a calm sea.

Governor Eddie Calvo said Guam had experienced a Japanese invasion in World War Two and countless earthquakes and super-typhoons, and there was no U.S. community better prepared to meet the North Korean threat.

“We are concerned about these threats but at the same time we also want to make sure people don’t panic and go on with their lives. Enjoy the beaches,” Calvo said.

Major airlines that fly over the region said they had so far made no plans to change flight paths.

The U.S. Seventh Fleet currently has six Aegis ballistic missile defense ships in the region capable of targeting North Korean missiles, and Japan has a further four. Guam also has a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, similar to one recently installed in South Korea.

Japan could legally intercept a North Korean missile headed towards Guam, its defense minister said on Thursday, but experts believe Japan does not currently have the capability to do so.

Angered as the United States and its allies ignore Chinese calls to calm tensions over North Korea, and distracted by domestic concerns, China is largely sitting out the crisis.

Tension in the region has risen since North Korea carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and the intercontinental missile tests, all in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Trump has said he will not allow Pyongyang to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States.

Washington has warned it is ready to use force if needed to stop North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs but that it prefers global diplomatic action. The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Bases in New York, David Brunnstrom in Washington, Soyoung Kim in Seoul, William Mallard, Tim Kelly, Kiyoshi Takenaka and Linda Sieg in Tokyo, Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina in Beijing, Jamie Freed in Singapore and John Ruwitch in Shanghai; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Will Dunham; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alistair Bell)

Simmering North Korea tensions knock back Wall Street

Simmering North Korea tensions knock back Wall Street

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) – U.S. indexes were trading at session lows on Thursday afternoon, with the Dow and the Nasdaq posting triple-digit point declines, as investors fretted over escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea.

North Korea said it was completing plans to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam in an unusually detailed threat.

The threat followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning on Tuesday that any threats by Pyongyang would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”.

“Markets are looking for any reason at all for a reset. That reset is being triggered by North Korea geopolitical concern and stretched valuations,” said Peter Kenny, senior market strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group, New York.

Trump’s comments on Tuesday ended the Dow’s nine-day streak of record closes.

Investors on Thursday scampered to safe-haven assets such as gold and the Swiss franc, helping the precious metal hit a more two-month high.

The CBOE Volatility Index <.VIX>, the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term stock market volatility, rose to a near three-month high of 15.36.

At 12:36 p.m. ET (1636 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was down 158.98 points, or 0.72 percent, at 21,889.72 and the S&P 500 <.SPX> was down 27.37 points, or 1.11 percent, at 2,446.65.

The last time the S&P 500 fell over 1 percent was on May. 17.

The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was down 115.35 points, or 1.82 percent, at 6,236.98. Apple <AAPL.O> was down 2.3 percent, weighing most on the index.

Shares of Macy’s <M.N> tumbled 9.5 percent and Kohl’s <KSS.N> 6.7 percent after the department store operators reported a drop in quarterly same-store sales that stoked concerns that their turnaround may still be a long way off.

Retailers’ results are being keenly watched by investors to gauge the companies’ strategy to counter No. 1 online retailer Amazon.com’s <AMZN.O> growth.

Data showed U.S. producer prices unexpectedly fell in July, recording their biggest drop in nearly a year, while another set showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week.

“This inflation data for the month was not good. Wall Street was expecting more inflation. Every August we have some reason to run up the alarm”, Kenny said.

However, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley suggested on Thursday that the central bank was on track to raise interest rates once more as he expects sluggish inflation to rise over the next several months.

Blue Apron <APRN.N> slumped as much as 19.1 percent to a record low after the meal-kit delivery service provider reported a bigger-than-expected loss in its first quarterly report as a public company.

Perrigo <PRGO.N> surged 17.6 percent after the drugmaker raised its full-year adjusted profit forecast. Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 2,461 to 444. On the Nasdaq, 2,303 issues fell and 567 advanced.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)