Miscellaneous News

Comrades made front headlines in all news servers I visited (and I do so in four languages); now Reuters article dated 2:01am EST which I read is still is in my tab so
North Korea tests ballistic missile; U.S. to avoid escalation
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North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea early on Sunday, the first such test since U.S. President Donald Trump was elected, and his administration indicated that Washington would have a calibrated response to avoid escalating tensions.

The test was of a medium- or intermediate-range missile that landed in the Sea of Japan, according to the U.S. defense department, not an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), which the North has said it could test at any time.

The launch marks the first test of Trump's vow to get tough on an isolated North Korean regime that last year tested nuclear devices and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate in violation of United Nations resolutions.

A U.S. official said the Trump administration had been expecting a North Korean "provocation" soon after taking office and will consider a full range of options in response, but these would be calibrated to show U.S. resolve while avoiding escalation.

The new administration is also likely to step up pressure on China to rein in North Korea, reflecting Trump's previously stated view that Beijing has not done enough on this front, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"This was no surprise," the official said. "The North Korean leader likes to draw attention at times like this."

The latest test comes a day after Trump held a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and also follows Trump's phone call last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"I just want everybody to understand, and fully know, that the United States of America is behind Japan, our great ally, 100 percent," Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, speaking alongside Abe. He made no further comments.

Abe called the launch "absolutely intolerable" and said North Korea must comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions.

China is North Korea's main ally but has been frustrated by Pyongyang's repeated provocations, although it bristles at pressure from Washington and Seoul to curb the North and its young leader, Kim Jong Un.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump and his aides are likely to weigh a series of possible responses, including new U.S. sanctions to tighten financial controls, an increase in naval and air assets in and around the Korean peninsula and accelerated installation of new missile defense systems in South Korea, the administration official said.

But the official said that given that the missile was believed not to have been an ICBM and that Pyongyang had not carried out a new nuclear explosion, any response will seek to avoid ratcheting up tensions.

"IT WON'T HAPPEN"

Trump has pledged a more assertive approach to North Korea but given no clear sign of how his policy would differ from Obama's so-called strategic patience. In January, Trump tweeted "It won’t happen!" after Kim said the North was close to testing an ICBM, but his aides never explained how he would do so.

The missile was launched from an area called Panghyon in North Korea's western region just before 8 a.m. (2300 GMT Saturday) and flew about 500 km (300 miles), the South's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

"Our assessment is that it is part of a show of force in response to the new U.S. administration's hardline position against the North," the office said in a statement.

A South Korean military source said the missile reached an altitude of about 550 km and was probably a medium-range Rodong, which the North has successfully test-fired numerous times in recent years, or a previously unknown new type, given the unusually high trajectory.

The North tried to launch an intermediate-range Musudan missile eight times last year but most attempts failed. One launch that sent a missile 400 km (250 miles), more than half the distance to Japan, was considered a success by officials and experts in the South and the United States.

Kim said in his New Year speech that the country was close to test-launching an ICBM and state media have said such a launch could come at any time.

The comments prompted a vow of an "overwhelming" response from U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis when he traveled to South Korea earlier this month.

Once fully developed, a North Korean ICBM could threaten the continental United States, which is about 9,000 km (5,500 miles) from North Korea. ICBMs have a minimum range of about 5,500 km (3,400 miles), but some are designed to travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles) or more.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and numerous missile-related tests last year and was seen by experts and officials to be making progress in its weapons capabilities, although until Sunday no ballistic missile launch attempt had been detected since October.

Its repeated missile launches prompted Washington and Seoul to agree to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile battery in South Korea later this year, which is strongly opposed by Beijing, which worries the system's powerful radar undermines its own security.

Sunday's launch comes at an awkward time for South Korea, where President Park Geun-hye has been stripped of her powers after a December parliamentary vote to impeach her. Her fate will be decided by the Constitutional Court, which is hearing arguments on whether to uphold or overturn the impeachment.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Michael Flynn Resigns as National Security Adviser


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FEB. 13, 2017

The White House said in the statement that it was replacing Mr. Flynn with retired Lt. General Joseph Keith Kellogg, Jr., a Vietnam War veteran, as acting national security adviser.

Mr. Flynn was an early and ardent supporter of Mr. Trump’s candidacy, and in his resignation he sought to the praise the president. “In just three weeks,” Mr. Flynn said, the new president “has reoriented American foreign policy in fundamental ways to restore America’s leadership position in the world.”

But in doing so, he inadvertently illustrated the brevity of his tumultuous run at the National Security Council, and the chaos that has gripped the White House in the first weeks of the Trump administration — and created a sense of uncertainty around the world.

Officials said Mr. Pence has told others in the White House that he believes Mr. Flynn lied to him by saying he had not discussed the topic of sanctions on a call with the Russian ambassador in late December. Even the mere discussion of policy — and the apparent attempt to assuage the concerns of an American adversary before Mr. Trump took office — represents a
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The F.B.I. has been examining Mr. Flynn’s phone calls as he has come under growing questions about his interactions with Russian officials and his management of the National Security Council. The blackmail risk envisioned by the Justice Department would stem directly from Mr. Flynn’s attempt to cover his tracks with his bosses. The Russians knew what had been said on the call; thus, if they wanted Mr. Flynn to do something, they could threaten to expose the lie if he refused.

The Justice Department’s warning to the White House was first reported on Monday night by
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.

In addition, the Army has been investigating whether Mr. Flynn received money from the Russian government during a trip he took to Moscow in 2015, according to two defense officials. Such a payment might violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits former military officers from receiving money from a foreign government without consent from Congress. The defense officials said there was no record that Mr. Flynn, a retired three-star Army general, filed the required paperwork for the trip.

Earlier Monday, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, told reporters that “the president is evaluating the situation.” Mr. Spicer said Mr. Trump would be talking to Mr. Pence and others about Mr. Flynn’s future.

In a sign of the internal confusion over Mr. Flynn’s status, the statement from Mr. Spicer came shortly after the president’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway, said in an interview on MSNBC that Mr. Flynn had the “full confidence of the president.”

Mr. Trump ignored questions about Mr. Flynn’s fate that were shouted at him by reporters during an Oval Office swearing-in ceremony on Monday night for
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Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.

The White House has examined a transcript of a wiretapped conversation that Mr. Flynn had with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, in December, according to administration officials. Mr. Flynn originally told Mr. Pence and others that the call was limited to small talk and holiday pleasantries.

But the conversation, according to officials who have seen the transcript of the wiretap, also included a discussion about sanctions imposed on Russia after intelligence agencies determined that Mr. Putin’s government tried to interfere with the 2016 election on Mr. Trump’s behalf. Still, current and former administration officials familiar with the call said the transcript was ambiguous enough that Mr. Trump could justify both firing or retaining Mr. Flynn.

But current Trump administration officials and former Obama administration officials said that Mr. Flynn did appear to be reassuring the ambassador that Mr. Trump would adopt a more accommodating tone on Russia once in office.

Former and current administration officials said that Mr. Flynn urged Russia not to retaliate against any sanctions because an overreaction would make any future cooperation more complicated. He never explicitly promised sanctions relief, one former official said, but he appeared to leave the impression that it would be possible.

During his 2015 trip to Moscow, Mr. Flynn was paid to attend the anniversary celebration of Russia Today, a television network controlled by the Kremlin. At the banquet, he sat next to Mr. Putin.

Mr. Flynn had notified the Defense Intelligence Agency, which he once led, that he was taking the trip. He received a security briefing from agency officials before he left, which is customary for former top agency officials when they travel overseas.

Still, some senior agency officials were surprised when footage of the banquet appeared on RT, and believed that Mr. Flynn should have been more forthcoming with the agency about the nature of his trip to Russia.

The next month, the agency’s director, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, sent a memo to agency staff members saying agency officials should not provide briefings to former agency leaders during the presidential campaign.

James Kudla, an agency spokesman, said the memo was not directly the result of Mr. Flynn’s trip to Russia, but rather an effort by General Stewart to ensure that the agency was not becoming enmeshed in politics.

“Was the Russia trip one element of it? Yes,” he said. “But it was more broadly to ensure that other former senior officials and D.I.A. staff knew what the rules are to avoid the perception of taking sides.”

Defense officials said the White House would have to determine what penalty, if any, Mr. Flynn should face if he were found to have violated the Emoluments Clause. Capt. Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, declined to comment.

Correction: February 13, 2017
An earlier version of this article misstated the day on which the White House sent out a series of conflicting signals about Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser. It was Monday, not Tuesday.

Maggie Haberman reported from New York, and Matthew Rosenberg, Matt Apuzzo and Glenn Thrush from Washington. Mark Mazzetti, Eric Schmitt and Michael Schmidt contributed reporting from Washington.
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Trump to Honor the ‘One China’ Policy
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great news!!!

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Not good.
Linking these two, Flynn was the one who spoke with PRC officials before Trump's turn to the "One China". meaning things could change again.
 
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