North Korea lashes ally China over coal import ban

http://ift.tt/2kTrU3Z

This picture taken on February 22, 2017 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 23 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) visiting the People's Theatre to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State Merited Chorus in Pyongyang. / AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS / STR / South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT

North Korea denounced its chief ally and diplomatic protector China for “dancing to the tune of the US” after it banned coal imports in apparent punishment for a missile launch.

Beijing and Pyongyang have a relationship forged in the blood of the Korean War, but ties have begun to fray in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by its wayward neighbour’s nuclear antics.

Last week it announced the suspension of all coal imports from the North — a crucial foreign currency earner for Pyongyang — for the rest of the year.

It came days after a missile launch personally overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un in what was seen as Pyongyang’s first show of force against new US President Donald Trump.

A bylined essay carried by the North’s official Korea Central News Agency slammed Beijing’s move.

It did not identify China by name, referring instead to “a neighbouring country”.

“This country, styling itself a big power, is dancing to the tune of the US,” it said.

“It has unhesitatingly taken inhumane steps such as totally blocking foreign trade related to the improvement of people’s living standard,” it added.

“Righteous voices” had condemned the move, it said, while “the hostile forces are shouting ‘bravo’ over this”.

The format was unusual for KCNA, which tends not to carry editorials or commentaries of its own, preferring to reproduce those of Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers’ Party.

The tone was also more akin to Pyongyang’s denunciations of the US.

It was “utterly childish” to think that the North would stop its nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile programmes if a few pennies of money were cut off, said the KCNA essay.

Its scientists and technicians were “working hard in do-or-die spirit”, it added.

The latest launch — the first since Trump took office — showed some progress in Pyongyang’s missile technology, Seoul’s military said.

The North — barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology — staged two atomic tests and many missile tests last year in a quest to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the US mainland.

Trump has described the North as a “big, big problem” and vowed to deal with the issue “very strongly”.

The KCNA article came as the murder in Malaysia of Kim’s half-brother Kim Jong-Nam, in what is suspected to be a Pyongyang plot, dominates world headlines.

Jong-Nam — the eldest son of the late ruler Kim Jong-Il — died on February 13 after being attacked by two women at a Kuala Lumpur airport, with Malaysian authorities blaming a lethal nerve agent.

The North angrily denied involvement on Thursday, blaming Malaysia for “immoral” handling of the case and for plotting with Seoul to frame Pyongyang.

It did not confirm the dead man’s identity.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2mjwm9s

Democrats set to pick leader in new Trump era

http://ift.tt/2mjjkZr

Labor Secretary Thomas Perez (L) speaking to reporters about the minimum wage for federal contractors at the White House in Washington, DC, on Feburary 12, 2014; and Minnesota Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison (R) during a press conference about Islamophobia at the National Press Club on May 24, 2016 in Washington, DC. US Democrats, licking their wounds from last year's election debacle, will pick a new leader on February 25, 2017 to take the fight to President Donald Trump and his Republicans. The race to chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC) features front-runners Tom Perez, a Hispanic-American and former secretary of labor under Barack Obama who is the establishment pick, and Keith Ellison, a black Muslim congressman from the party's progressive wing who has left open the prospect of pushing to impeach Trump. / AFP PHOTO / Mandel NGAN AND Brendan SMIALOWSKI

US Democrats, licking their wounds from last year’s election debacle, will pick a new leader Saturday to take the fight to President Donald Trump and his Republicans.

With opposition Democrats preparing for crucial 2018 midterm elections and the nation’s next presidential race on the distant 2020 horizon, nothing less than the future of the party is at stake.

The race to chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC) features front-runners Tom Perez, a Hispanic-American and former secretary of labor under Barack Obama who is the establishment pick, and Keith Ellison, a black Muslim congressman from the party’s progressive wing who has left open the prospect of pushing to impeach Trump.

The race is narrowing — one of the second-tier challengers, South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jamie Harrison dropped out of the race Thursday and supported Perez — and culminates in a vote Saturday at a DNC meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

During a debate with several DNC candidates Wednesday night, Perez and Ellison expressed similar views about how they would run the party.

They acknowledged that it needs to take a solid economic message to working-class and middle-class Americans, many of whom said during last year’s campaign that they felt abandoned by Democrats.

Perez, 55, said Democrats need to “get back to basics” by making house calls in all 50 states and establishing a year-round organizing presence to remind American workers that the Democratic Party represents their values and interests.

“When we lead with our message, our message of economic opportunity, that’s how we win,” he said during the debate broadcast on CNN.

– Crisis of confidence –
Perez also warned that Democrats must reform their party’s presidential primary system, which he said has created “a crisis of confidence” because of its lack of transparency.

The current system includes the use of several hundred so-called “super-delegates” — DNC members, party grandees and lawmakers who can vote for whomever they choose in the primary, regardless of how citizens vote in the states.

Ellison, 53, is the insurgent in the race, a supporter of liberal Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries who, like Perez, has pledged to reclaim the party’s reputation of standing for fair trade, jobs, infrastructure investment and the preservation of Social Security.

“That’s what we do,” said Ellison, who was endorsed by Sanders. Trump “stole a Democratic message” by constantly reminding working-class and middle-class voters during the campaign that he was the candidate who listened to their concerns.

Trump no doubt is watching the DNC race closely. Earlier this week he tweeted that Ellison’s bid is notable because “he was the one who predicted early that I would win!”

Beyond Perez and Ellison, a dark horse has emerged: Pete Buttigieg, the charismatic 35-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

He has earned support from former presidential candidate Martin O’Malley, former DNC chair Steve Grossman, and Vermont ex-governor Howard Dean, himself a onetime presidential candidate and DNC chair.

“The wolf is through the gates and eating our sheep right now. We’ve got to take it to the real opposition, which is the Republicans,” Buttigieg said in the debate.

The falsehoods peddled by the Trump White House must be “met with fact and outrage,” he added. But at the same time, the focus has to return to struggling Americans.

“We’ve got to get back to talking to people and about people in terms of their everyday lives.”

The three candidates pledged to remain neutral should sitting Democrats be challenged by more liberal candidates in the 2018 midterm elections in the Republican-controlled Congress.

And they portrayed the Democrats as a party desperate for a reenergizing from the ground up.

Grossman, one of the former DNC chairs, said Trump was far more adept than Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate he defeated, at showing Americans that he could feel their pain.

“He did, and she didn’t, and that was the difference,” Grossman told CBS radio earlier this month, as he said the new DNC chair will be tasked with bringing that message home to voters.

Saturday’s winner needs a majority of the DNC’s 447 members. Roll Call newspaper reported a number of ballots would likely be needed for a candidate to emerge victorious.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2lfVkFx