US Urges North Korea to Cease Weapons Testing for Talks to be Held

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting, to discuss a North Korean missile program. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting, to discuss a North Korean missile program. (Reuters)
TT
20

US Urges North Korea to Cease Weapons Testing for Talks to be Held

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting, to discuss a North Korean missile program. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting, to discuss a North Korean missile program. (Reuters)

North Korea must carry out a “sustained cessation” of weapons testing to allow talks to be held between it and Washington, announced US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday at a United Nations Security Council meeting on the isolated country.

“North Korea must earn its way back to the table. The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved,” he added without specifying how long the lull should last.

He told reporters after the meeting that the United States would not accept any preconditions for talks with North Korea on its nuclear and missile programs.

Tillerson had raised hopes this week that the United States and North Korea could negotiate to resolve their standoff when he said that the United States was “ready to talk any time North Korea would like to talk.” But the White House distanced itself from those remarks by Tillerson and said that now is not the time for negotiations.

Asked Friday if he supported unconditional talks, US President Donald Trump did not answer directly.

"Well, we're going to see what happens with North Korea. We have a lot of support. There are a lot of nations that agree with us — almost everybody," Trump told reporters. He credited China — which accounts for about 90 percent of North Korea's external trade — with helping on pressuring North Korea, while Russia was not.

"We'd like to have Russia's help — very important," said Trump. He raised it in a Thursday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations on Friday made no mention of Tillerson’s call for a halt to testing when he addressed the same UN meeting.

Ambassador Ja Song Nam said his country would not pose a threat to any state, as long as its interests were not infringed upon.

He described the Security Council session as “a desperate measure plotted by the US being terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.”

North Korea has made clear it has little interest in negotiations with the United States until it has developed the ability to hit the US mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, something most experts say it has yet to prove.

North Korea conducted missile tests at a steady pace since April, then paused in September after firing a rocket that passed over Japan’s Hokkaido island. But it renewed tests in November when it fired a new type of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the Hwasong-15, which flew higher and further than previous tests.

China's deputy UN ambassador pushed back against US insistence that the Asian country holds the key to resolving North Korea's escalating nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Wu Haitao told the Security Council that "the current situation on the (Korean) Peninsula is not caused by any one party alone, and it is not possible to impose on any one party the responsibility of solving the problem."

Wu said: "The parties concerned should move towards each other instead of engaging in rhetoric blaming, and not shift responsibility to others."

He also criticized unilateral sanctions against North Korea — which the US, European Union, Japan and others have imposed — saying they undermine Security Council unity "and should be abandoned."

Wu added "the hope for peace is not totally obliterated" and urged all parties to "keep in mind the big picture of maintaining peace and stability" and end rhetoric that exacerbates tensions.

Japan's foreign minister urged the international community to maximize pressure on North Korea "by all means available," saying there is no other way to get Pyongyang to curb its escalating nuclear and missile programs.

Taro Kono announced that Japan has ordered the assets of 19 North Korean entities to be frozen, and he called on other countries to introduce or strengthen sanctions against the North.

Kono said last week's visit to Pyongyang by UN political chief Jeffrey Feltman "only reconfirmed the dire reality" that North Korea "is nowhere near ready" to abandon its nuclear and missile programs, "nor is it interested in returning to a meaningful dialogue."

He urged the Security Council not to backtrack from the demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear and missile programs "in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner."

Tillerson urged China and Russia on Friday to increase pressure on North Korea by going beyond the implementation of UN sanctions but the two countries were wary of the idea.

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow was committed to implementing UN sanctions on North Korea and echoed China’s concerns about unilateral sanctions.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council it was time to immediately re-establish and strengthen communication channels with North Korea, including inter-Korean and military-to-military channels, to reduce the risk of a misunderstanding escalating into conflict.



Netanyahu Survives Opposition Bid to Dissolve Parliament

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
TT
20

Netanyahu Survives Opposition Bid to Dissolve Parliament

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government survived an opposition bid to dissolve parliament on Thursday, as lawmakers rejected a bill that could have paved the way for snap elections.

Out of the Knesset's 120 members, 61 voted against the proposal, with 53 in favor.

The opposition had introduced the bill hoping to force elections with the help of ultra-Orthodox parties in the governing coalition angry at Netanyahu over the contentious issue of exemptions from military service for their community.

While the opposition is composed mainly of centrist and leftist groups, ultra-Orthodox parties that are propping up Netanyahu's government had earlier threatened to back the motion.

The results of the vote Thursday morning, however, showed that most ultra-Orthodox lawmakers ultimately did not back the opposition bill, with just a small number voting in favor.

The opposition will now have to wait six months before it can try again.

Before the vote, Yuli Edelstein, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, announced that after lengthy discussions, parties had agreed on the "principles on which the draft conscription law will be based".

Edelstein, who chairs the foreign affairs and defense committee, did not specify the terms of the agreement.

"As I said all along -- only a real, effective bill that leads to an expansion of the (Israeli military's) recruitment base will emerge from the committee I chair," he wrote on social media platform X.

"This is historic news, and we are on the path to real reform in Israeli society and strengthening the security of the State of Israel."

Edelstein had earlier put forward a bill aimed at increasing the number of ultra-Orthodox conscripted, and tightening the penalties for those who refuse to serve.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, said the government was seeing the beginning of the end.

"When coalitions begin to fall apart, they fall apart. It started and this is what it looks like when a government begins to collapse," he said.

Ultra-Orthodox parties had been given a choice between losing a law on their exemption from military service, or losing their place in the government, and they chose exemption, Lapid added.

"The government helped them... organize the exemption of tens of thousands of healthy young people," he said, referring to ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi hit back, saying the coalition government was "moving forward" and "stronger than ever".

Earlier on Wednesday, opposition leaders had said their decision to bring the dissolution bill to the Knesset for a vote was "made unanimously and is binding on all factions".

They said that all opposition parties would freeze their lawmaking activities to focus on "the overthrow of the government".

Netanyahu's coalition is one of the most right-wing in the country's history. It includes two ultra-Orthodox parties -- Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ).

The two parties had threatened to back the motion for early elections.

'Existential danger'

Military service is mandatory in Israel but, under a ruling that dates back to the country's creation when the ultra-Orthodox were a very small community, men who devote themselves full-time to the study of Jewish scripture are given a de facto pass.

Whether that should change has been a long-running issue.

Efforts to scrap the exemption have intensified during the nearly 20-month war in Gaza as the military looks for extra manpower.

Netanyahu is under pressure from his Likud party to draft more ultra-Orthodox men -- a red line for parties such as Shas, who demand a law guaranteeing their constituents permanent exemption from military service.

Ahead of the vote in the early hours of Thursday morning, Israeli media reported that officials from Netanyahu's coalition were holding talks with ultra-Orthodox leaders hoping to find common ground.

In an apparent bid to allow time for those negotiations, Netanyahu's coalition filled the Knesset's agenda with bills to delay the vote.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that bringing down the government during wartime would pose "an existential danger" to Israel's future.

"History will not forgive anyone who drags the state of Israel into elections during a war," Smotrich told parliament, adding that there was a "national and security need" for ultra-Orthodox to fight in the military.

Netanyahu's government is a coalition between his Likud party, far-right groups and ultra-Orthodox parties, whose departure would leave it without a parliamentary majority.