US orders all American citizens to leave North Korea by September 1

The US has ordered that all US passport holders
should leave North Korea by September 1.

Also, Americans who want to travel to North
Korea will have to obtain special validation from
now on. US authorities said that the validation
will only be granted in "limited circumstances".

Ever since Donald Trump became president, US
relations with North Korea have deteriorated and
tensions between both countries have been
growing, with the US recently testing its ballistic
missile intercept system in Alaska. North
Korea's president also threatened that he could
strike the entire continental U.S. after test-firing
the regime’s second intercontinental ballistic
missile within a month. Kim Jong-un warned
the US it would not be safe from destruction if it
tries to attack.

Senator Lindsey Graham said Donald Trump has
told him there will be a war with North Korea if
the secretive nation does not end its missile
programme.
"He has told me that. I believe him," Senator
Lindsey Graham told TODAY.

North Korea Executes Prostitutes, Thieves

Some prostitutes and other offenders in North
Korea have been publicly executed by the
government, a new media report has alleged.
North Korea carries out public executions on river
banks and at school grounds and marketplaces
for charges such as stealing copper from factory
machines, distributing media from South Korea
and prostitution, a report issued on Wednesday
said.
A report by a Seoul-based non-government
group, Transitional Justice Working Group, said
extra-judicial decisions for public executions are
frequently influenced by “bad” family background
or a government campaign to discourage certain
behaviour.
The TJWG said its report was based on interviews
with 375 North Korean defectors from the isolated
state over a period of two years.
Reuters could not independently verify the
testimony of defectors in the report. The TJWG is
made up of human rights activists and
researchers and is led by Lee Young-hwan, who
has worked as an advocate for human rights in
North Korea.
It receives most of its funding from the U.S.-
based National Endowment for Democracy, which
in turn is funded by the U.S. Congress.
The TJWG report aims to document the locations
of public killings and mass burials, which it says
had not been done previously, to support an
international push to hold to account those who
commit what it describes as crimes against
humanity.
“The maps and the accompanying testimonies
create a picture of the scale of the abuses that
have taken place over decades,” the group said.
TJWG said its project to map the locations of
mass graves and executions has the potential to
contribute to documentation that could back the
push for accountability and future efforts to bring
the North to justice.
It said executions are carried out in prison camps
to incite fear and intimidation among potential
escapees, and public executions are carried out
for seemingly minor crimes, including the theft of
farm produce such as corn and rice.
North Korea rejects charges of human rights
abuses, saying its citizens enjoy protection under
the constitution and accuses the U.S. of being the
world’s worst rights violator.
However, the North has faced an unprecedented
push to hold the regime and its leader, Kim Jong
Un, accountable for a wide range of rights abuses
since a landmark 2014 report by a United Nations
commission.
UN member countries urged the Security Council
in 2014 to consider referring North Korea and its
leader to the International Criminal Court for
crimes against humanity, as alleged in a
Commission of Inquiry report.
The commission detailed abuses including large
prison camps, systematic torture, starvation and
executions comparable to Nazi-era atrocities, and
linked the activities to the North’s leadership.
North Korea has rejected that inquiry’s findings
and the push to bring the North to a tribunal
remains stalled due in part to objections by China
and Russia, which hold veto powers at the UN
Security Council.

North Korea launches ballistic missile days before G20 summit

NORTH Korea said on Tuesday it successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which flew a trajectory that an expert said, could allow a weapon to hit the United States state of Alaska.

The launch comes days before leaders from the Group of 20 nations are due to discuss steps to rein in Pyongyang’s weapons programs, which the North has pursued in defiance of United Nations Security Council sanctions.

The launch, which North Korea’s state media said was ordered and supervised by leader Kim Jong Un, sent the rocket 933 km reaching an altitude of 2,802 km.(580 miles) over a flight time of 39 minutes.

Officials from South Korea, Japan and the United States said the missile landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) after being launched near an airfield in Panghyon, about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the North’s capital, Pyongyang, Reuters stated.

“The test launch was conducted at the sharpest angle possible and did not have any negative effect on neighbouring countries,” North Korea’s state media said in a statement.

The North also said its missiles were now capable of striking anywhere in the world.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who convened a national Security Council meeting, said the missile was believed to be an intermediate range type, but the military was also looking at the possibility it was an ICBM.

Stock markets in both South Korea and Japan fell after the missile launch, with the Kospi ending down 0.6 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei share average ending down 0.1 per cent.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday he will ask the presidents of China and Russia to play more constructive roles in efforts to stop the Pyongyang’s arms program.

“Leaders of the world will gather at the G20 meeting. I would like to strongly call for solidarity of the international community on the North Korean issue,” Abe told reporters.

Japan said on Monday the United States, South Korea and Japan will have a trilateral summit on North Korea at the G20. China’s leader Xi Jinping will also be at the July 7-8 meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

U.S. President Donald Trump, responding to the latest launch, wrote on Twitter: “North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?” an apparent reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“Hard to believe South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”, Trump said in a series of tweets.

China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called for calm and restraint after the launch.

Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said United Nations Security Council resolutions had clear rules on North Korean missile launches and China is opposed to Pyongyang violating those rules. He was speaking at a daily news briefing.

North Korea has conducted nuclear and missile tests to show defiance in the face of international pressure and to raise the stakes when Pyongyang sees regional powers getting ready for talks or sanctions, analysts say.

White House officials said Trump was briefed on the latest launch, which took place hours before Independence Day celebrations in the United States. North Korea has previously fired missiles around this holiday.