Josh Smith
@joshjonsmith
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@Reuters Korea Bureau Chief covering South & North Korea • Previously in Afghanistan • MA @warstudies • josh.smith @tr .com • DM for Signal • Personal account
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Joined January 2010
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BREAKING: KCNA says North Korea will "reconsider" summit with Trump if U.S. insists on it giving up nuclear program, says it will never give up its nuclear program in exchange for economic trade with the United States
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NEW: China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, three people familiar with the situation told
@Reuters
. The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about Kim's health.
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"If (Trump) intentionally uses again statements and expressions that ratchet up the atmosphere of confrontation, we can only diagnose it as the recurrence of a dotard's senility," said North Korea's Vice FM Choe Son Hui
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Not sure why but this one has much more of a "Narnia" vibe. I think I can see a lamppost behind him
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It's not about using an expletive. It's not about observing that some countries have it better than others. It's about making a value judgement on people because of where they were born.
Exclusive: Trump attacks protections for immigrants from "shithole" countries in Oval Office meeting
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NEW: A senior U.S. administration official on Saturday called North Korea's display of a previously unseen intercontinental ballistic missile "disappointing" and called on the government to negotiate to achieve a complete denuclearization.
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Protesters are making a desperate attempt to escape from Hong Kong’s polytechnic university, facing off with riot police.
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US Army Lt. Michael Behenna was supposed to transport Mansur back to his village. Instead the soldier stripped Mansur naked, interrogated him without authorization and then shot him twice, claiming he lunged for a gun.
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Now North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has weighed in on Trump's revival of the 'Rocket Man' nickname for Kim Jong Un, calling the remarks a "serious challenge", unless they were a mistake - KCNA
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KCNA's translation of North Korean official's comments on Trump now out: "If any language and expressions stoking the atmosphere of confrontation are used once again on purpose at a crucial moment as now, that must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a dotard."
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South Korean boyband BTS donates $1 million to Black Lives Matter - Reuters
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South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reports that North Korea has executed several officials involved in working level talks before the Hanoi Trump-Kim summit, including Kim Hyok Chol the former ambassador to Spain who (briefly now it seems) served as Steve Biegun’s counterpart
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Controlling the pandemic and protecting the economy go hand in hand
South Korea's economy will contract by just 1.1% in 2020, says Fitch. It'll be far better off than other advanced economies, Fitch says, thanks to an effective coronavirus containment strategy that limited the need for strict lockdowns.
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Photos of what South Korea says are likely part of the failed North Korean space launch vehicle fired today
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NEW: North Korea’s foreign ministry says it doesn’t want to talk to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo any more. If talks resume, they want someone “who is more careful and mature in communicating with us”
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BREAKING: The US military has charged Army Private Travis King, who fled to North Korea for 2 months, with desertion as well as assault against fellow soldiers and solicitation of child pornography, according to charging documents obtained by Reuters
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Or, you know, you could respond to emergency calls
South Korea's science ministry is considering to develop a system that could warn authorities of potential crowd crush accidents by using digital data and technology to predict risk elements and the route of crowd movements.
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On Friday, a South Korean source told Reuters their intelligence was that Kim Jong Un was alive and would likely make an appearance soon. The person said he did not have any comment on the North Korean leader's current condition or any Chinese involvement.
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North Korea unveils "monster" new intercontinental ballistic missile at military parade. Analysts say it could be one of the largest road-mobile ICBMs in the world, possibly designed to carry multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs)
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Shin Hye Yong, the interpreter for Kim Jong Un at the Hanoi meeting, is also said to have been detained in a political prison camp, for undermining the authority of Kim Jong Un by making a critical interpretation mistake, Chosun reported.
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"Kim Hyok Chol was investigated and executed at Mirim Airport with four foreign ministry officials in March," an unnamed North Korea source said, according to the Chosun Ilbo, adding that they were charged with spying for the U.S.
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@Reuters
A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday, two of the sources said.
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Kim Yong Chol, the official who oversaw much of last years talks and met with Trump at the WH, was sentenced to hard labor and political re-education, according to the paper
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FULL STORY: China sent team including medical experts to advise on North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, sources say.
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North Korea confirms it destroyed the inter-Korean liaison office today - KCNA
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Kim Jong Un has been conspicuously missing from some key events, and state media have not reported him attending any events since April 11
STILL NO SIGN: Kim Jong Un absent again from the Saturday edition of North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
Cabinet Premier Kim Jae Ryong gets a mention on page two, though, photographed in a face-mask while conducting inspection visits.
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BREAKING: North Korea's assembly has passed a law enshrining its status as a nuclear weapons state. Leader Kim Jong Un said its status as a nuclear weapons state is irreversible and would never be negotiated away, KCNA reports
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NEW: White House official confirms that VP Harris will visit the DMZ on the border with North Korea on Thursday. via
@TrevorNews
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An official familiar with U.S. intelligence said that Kim Jong Un was known to have health problems but they had no reason to conclude he was seriously ill or unable eventually to reappear in public.
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When I reported from Tikrit, Iraq, as it was being liberated from ISIS in 2015 I saw the sites of mass graves and blood stains pooled along the Tigris River. But the photo I took there that has haunted me most was a school yard mural where the girls had been blacked out
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Japan's government estimates North Korea's new Hwasong-17 ICBM has a range of at least 15,000 km. This circle shows where you'd need to move to be outside its range
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We hear a lot about rhinos and elephants, but giraffe populations have also plummeted in a "silent extinction"
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BREAKING: North Korea's foreign ministry has said Pyongyang will "never yield" to US demands, says to be considering breaking off denuclearisation talks, Russia's TASS news agency reports
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BREAKING: North Korea fired two projectiles, Yonhap reports
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South Korea's biggest ever arms deal will make it a major supplier of weapons flooding into Europe since the Ukraine war began, with sales to NATO-member Poland involving more than 1,600 tanks and howitzers, and nearly 50 fighter jets.
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NEW: South Korea's military says it is conducting operation to salvage what it believes are parts of North Korea's space launch rocket
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When there were only 4 coronavirus cases in South Korea, health officials met w/ executives at a meeting at a train station and delivered an urgent message: S.Korea needed an effective test immediately, and promised the companies swift regulatory approval
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BREAKING: North Korea has fired an "unidentified projectile" off its east coast, South Korea's military says. Usually means a missile of some kind
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Japan saying the missile launched by North Korea is expected to land any minute now, would be a flight time of nearly an hour
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Three more (blurrier) photos just released of operation to salvage North Korean rocket parts
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Japan's defense minister says the North Korea missile may have flown as high as 600 km, to a range of 300 km
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BREAKING: Japan Coast Guard says North Korea may have launched a ballistic missile
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South Korea says the North Korean missile it recovered from off its coast was a 1960s-designed Soviet surface to air missile, the SA-5. Suggests that along with the SCUDs, many of the missiles fired last week were not North Korea’s latest designs.
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It's the big one, according to South Korea: North Korea used an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in today's test, Yonhap reports. Could be first full-range ICBM test since 2017
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Breaking: North Korea launched what are believed to be multiple short-range cruise missiles into the sea between it and Japan on Tuesday morning, South Korea's JCS says.
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"It is disappointing to see the DPRK continuing to prioritize its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile program over working towards a brighter future for the North Korean people," the official said.
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NEW: South Korea plans to send 600,000 coronavirus testing kits to the United States government on Tuesday in the first such shipment following a request from U.S. President Donald Trump. Scoop via
@HeeShin
&
@sangmi_cha
.
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South Korean and Japanese authorities both confirm they detected a launch of an unidentified projectile by North Korea
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South Korea says North Korea has accepted its proposal for talks on January 9. Discussion will include winter Olympics and other "issues of mutual interest"
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Do I get extra honorary Korean points if I used part of my
#coronavirus
time at home to finally finish my badass model of a 거북선 (Turtle Ship)?
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Just struck me that I was 15 on
#Sept11
. I've literally lived another 15-yr lifetime since, and now Im in Kabul still covering the aftermath
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Some professional news: Excited to have been appointed
@Reuters
Korea Bureau Chief, and looking forward to at least a few more years in Seoul covering North and South Korea.
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“I cannot forget that moment of history when I firmly held Your Excellency's hand at that beautiful and sacred location”
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This is why South Korean authorities are so nervous about easing social distancing guidelines. One or two unlucky cases can reverse weeks of progress...
A man in Busan now confirmed with COVID19, voted in the election and went to an Easter service while having symptoms. Church is closed for 2 weeks. His daughter, a nurse, is also infected. The hospital she works in is now under cohort quarantine. 296 others have been isolated.
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BREAKING: Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting after a “runaway” to South Korea allegedly came back with COVID-19, KCNA reports. Would be the first officially confirmed case in North Korea, which so far has said it had none
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North Korea said on Monday it was willing to restart nuclear talks with the United States, but warned that chances of a deal could end unless Washington takes a fresh approach. The apparent missile launches would seem to emphasis their warning
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South Korea has released surveillance footage of North Korea blowing up the inter-Korean liaison office today. South Korean military officials told us they watched it live
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Wild story out of Spain: A group of unidentified men entered North Korea's embassy in Madrid last Friday, bound and gagged staff, and drove off four hours later with computers,
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According to the 37-count criminal indictment, the documents include some of the most sensitive U.S. military secrets, including information on the U.S. nuclear program and potential domestic vulnerabilities in the event of an attack.
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BREAKING: North Korea says its second attempt to launch its first spy satellite failed on Thursday, about three months after its first attempt also crashed. Space agency says they will try again in October
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BREAKING: Vice foreign minister says North Korea is willing to hold talks with the US in late September: KCNA
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"The United States... calls on the DPRK to engage in sustained and substantive negotiations to achieve complete denuclearization," the official said.
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South Korea's Blue House: "North Korea has never promised to shut down this missile base. It has never signed any agreement, any negotiation that makes shutting down missile bases mandatory... There is no agreement, no negotiation that makes it necessary for it to be declared."
North Korea keeps undeclared missile bases up and running: U.S. think tank
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US officials say they will purchase 100,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery from South Korea that will be delivered to Ukraine, WSJ reports out of Washington. Would be first known South Korean weapons to Ukraine.
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NEW: North Korea's military appears to have fired a multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) this morning, South Korea's military says. The North has unveiled several new MLRS in recent years, and the South is pursing a $2.6-bln interception system, to counter such threats
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North Korea has said it won't attend the Tokyo Olympics, Yonhap reports
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South Korea distances itself from the G-7 meetings on China
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South Korea and Japan: We can definitely track and shoot down any missiles North Korea launches as us.
Also South Korea and Japan:
There were somewhere between 2 and 10 missiles launched today.
(URGENT) N. Korea fires various types of at least 10 missiles: S. Korean military
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After WH press were kicked out of Kim Jong Un's hotel, White House tried to exclude any print reporters from observing Trump's dinner with Kim, and only allowed one after protests. Said it was because of "sensitivities over shouted questions" (per pool report).
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Yonhap reports that South Korea’s first transgender soldier, Byun Hui-su, has been found dead at her home. She launched a landmark legal challenge against the military after being dismissed from service for undergoing gender reassignment surgery
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Trump and Kim are now in their meeting. At the top of the agenda: North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and the international sanctions imposed in response.
Breaking: first meeting between sitting US and North Korean leaders
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NEW: South Korea's JCS says 4 Chinese and 15 Russian military aircraft flew inside South Korea's air defense identification zone (KADIZ), possibly as a joint drill. Last year such a drill led S.Korean aircraft to fire warning shots when a Russian aircraft entered Korean airspace
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In Dec 2019, South Korea conducted an exercise simulating a mystery respiratory disease spreading from China.
@HeeShin
has new details on how that led to tools the country used less than a month later to manage the arrival and spread of the coronavirus
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NEW: The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier is deploying to the East Sea/Sea of Japan after North Korea shot a ballistic missile over Japan
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BREAKING: North Korean military chief says recent defense tests have provided "Valuable materials, experience and new techniques" that "will be applied in developing another strategic weapon that would clearly, firmly deter and subdue U.S. nuclear threats"
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NEW: North Korea confirms that KIm Jong Un oversaw test of "the super-large multiple launch rocket system" on Thursday - KCNA
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BREAKING: North Korea has fired another unidentified "projectile," according to South Korea's military. The weapon was launched from a location near Sino-ri in the NW, on a trajectory toward the east. Sino-ri has been identified in the past as the site of a missile operating base
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North Korea fired eight (8) short range ballistic missile from Sunan, near Pyongyang, South Koreas military says
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Caveat: Such South Korean reports have been proven wrong in the past
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IMPORTANT: Several people in the North Korea watching community have received emails purporting to be from a Reuters reporter and asking for an 800 word essay on various topics. THIS IS NOT FROM US, please treat with caution. We may bug you but will never ask for a whole essay!
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Statement from the board of directors of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club on South Korea’s presidential office blocking a broadcaster from boarding AF1 over coverage complaints
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You may have seen Swedish Ambassador
@jchmbrgstrm
practicing yoga poses in front of some of North Korea's most iconic landmarks. I spoke to him about how yoga has helped him endure the
#COVID19
lockdowns and connect with residents in isolated Pyongyang
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Just a day beofre North Korea's new satellite and rocket crashed into the sea, the US and South Korean militaries were practicing salvage operations...
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The law lays out when North Korea can use its nuclear weapons, including
- if attacked
- if imminent WMD attack detected
- if imminent attack against strategic assets
- as last resort to protect against invasion
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Japan's coast guard also saying the missile may land inside Japan's EEZ
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Exclusive image of South Korean and Russian military jets over Dokdo earlier today (not)
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In between hyperventilating over the
#WHCD
, we can perhaps spare a moment to contemplate what journalism is really about. At least 6 Afghan journalists killed today, trying to make their country a better place
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BREAKING: South Korea military confirms that North Korean troops shot and cremated a South Korean man found in North Korean waters, demand an explanation and punishment for those responsible. Details so far:
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Must be holiday time: Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and other celebrities visited US military bases in
#Afghanistan
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A group of Russian diplomats and family members - incl a 3 yr old girl - took 32 hours of train, 2 hrs of bus, then pushed a handcart for 1km along a railroad to leave North Korea and go home. N.Korea has banned most passenger travel over
#covid19
concerns
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NEW: Japan's foreign ministry calls the drills unacceptable and says it has lodged a protest with South Korea seeking their end
South Korea begins military drills around disputed island amid feud with Japan
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BREAKING: South Korea says it *will not* renew a military intelligence sharing pact it has with Japan
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