Fox News VS. New York Times

North Korea announces end to missile testing as Trump cites 'big progress'

By Elizabeth Zwirz | Fox News

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced Friday that his country will be suspending missile testing and closing a nuclear test site, several reports said.

"From April 21, North Korea will stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles," the Korean Central News Agency said, according to Yonhap News. "The North will shut down a nuclear test site in the country's northern side to prove the vow to suspend nuclear test."

The announcement comes amid preparations for a meeting later this year between President Trump and the North Korean dictator. During the summit, Trump said he expected to talk with Kim about denuclearizing the hermit kingdom.

“North Korea has agreed to suspend all Nuclear Tests and close up a major test site,” Trump tweeted following the announcement. “This is a very good news for North Korea and the World - big progress! Look forward to our Summit.”

News of the testing suspension follows the revelation earlier this week that Mike Pompeo, the current CIA director and secretary of state nominee, met with Kim in North Korea over Easter weekend to lay the groundwork for the prospective meeting with Trump. The meeting, Trump said, could occur by early June.

Trump said Pompeo's meeting "went very smoothly" and said a "good relationship was formed."

"Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea," he said.

However, Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he would walk away from talks with Kim if he thought they were "not going to be fruitful."

"I hope to have a very successful meeting," Trump said during a joint news conference alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "If we don't think it's going to be successful, we won't have it. If I think it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we're not going to go. If the meeting when I'm there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting."

North Korea's decision Friday was made in a meeting of the ruling party's Central Committee, during which Kim, according to the Korean Central News Agency, said, "Nuclear development has proceeded scientifically and in due order and the development of the delivery strike means also proceeded scientifically and verified the completion of nuclear weapons.

"We no longer need any nuclear test or test launches of intermediate and intercontinental range ballistics missiles and because of this the northern nuclear test site has finished its mission," he said.

North Korea also vowed to actively engage with regional neighbors and the international community to secure peace in the Korean Peninsula and create an "optimal international environment" to build its economy.

The country's diplomatic outreach in recent months came after a flurry of weapons tests, including the underground detonation of a possible thermonuclear warhead and three launches of developmental intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to strike the U.S. mainland.

Fox News' Christopher Jones, Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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We No Longer Need’ Nuclear or Missile Tests, North Korean Leader Says

By CHOE SANG-SUN APRIL 20, 2018

A photograph released by North Korea’s state news agency shows the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, center, at a ruling party meeting in the capital, Pyongyang, on Friday. CreditKorean Central News Agency

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, announced early Saturday that his country no longer needed to test nuclear weapons or long-range missiles and would close a nuclear test site.

“The nuclear test site has done its job,” Mr. Kim said in a statement carried by North Korea’s state media.

Mr. Kim’s announcement came just days before a scheduled summit meeting with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea; Mr. Kim is also planning to meet with President Trump soon. It was the second time in two days that he made what appeared to be a significant concession to the United States but in reality, cemented the status quo. North Korea already had stopped testing its weapons.

Mr. Kim made no mention in his latest remarks of dismantling the nuclear weapons and long-range missiles North Korea has already built. On the contrary, he suggested he was going to keep them.

Still, Mr. Trump welcomed what Mr. Kim said. “North Korea has agreed to suspend all Nuclear Tests and close up a major test site,” the president said in a Twitter message. “This is very good news for North Korea and the World — big progress! Look forward to our Summit.”

Mr. Moon’s office also praised the announcement. “We view the North’s decision as a significant step toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula the world has wished for,” said Yoon Young-chan, a spokesman for Mr. Moon.

Despite the enthusiasm, American officials have watched Mr. Kim with a mix of satisfaction and wariness.

The North Korean leader’s move could be tactical — putting the United States on the defensive in advance of talks on its nuclear arsenal. By extending an olive branch, American officials said, North Korea is putting pressure on the United States to accept a deal before Mr. Kim agrees to give up North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

Mr. Kim could also be trying to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea since President Moon has put great emphasis on ending more than six decades of conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

On Thursday, Mr. Moon said Mr. Kim had made a similar gesture, saying the North no longer insisted on the withdrawal of American troops from the Korean Peninsula. But White House officials privately dismissed the remarks, saying removal of the troops was never on the table.

Caution toward Mr. Kim’s peace overtures also punctuated the reaction of officials from Japan, which North Korea has long threatened with missile strikes. The defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, who was visiting Washington when Mr. Kim announced the suspension of nuclear and missile tests, said the move was “not sufficient” because it did not clearly state whether the suspension included the short and midrange missiles that could hit Japan.

Mr. Onodera also emphasized that a suspension was far short of denuclearization. “What the international community expects is that North Korea abandon all weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in a complete verifiable and irreversible manner,” he said. “It is not a time to relax pressure by the international community, but we must keep applying pressure with an aim that they abandon their nuclear weapons and missiles.”

In a statement after a meeting of the Central Committee of his ruling Workers’ Party, Mr. Kim said his country required no further nuclear and long-range missile tests because it had already achieved a nuclear deterrent. It was now time to focus on rebuilding the economy, he said.

“From April 21, North Korea will stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles,” the Korean Central News Agency said, quoting Mr. Kim.

An arms announcement from North Korea came one day after North and South Korea installed what officials said was the first-ever hotline between their top leaders. CreditSouth Korean Presidential Blue House

It also said the North would “shut down a nuclear test site in the country’s northern side to guarantee transparency in suspending nuclear tests.”

To officials and analysts in South Korea, Mr. Kim’s decision to shut down his country’s only known nuclear test site, in Punggye-ri in northeastern North Korea, and his moratorium on long-range missile tests, are some of the “trust-building steps” that they have hoped Mr. Kim would take to help improve the mood for dialogue in Washington.

Mr. Kim spent last year conducting a series of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, raising tensions and a risk of war with the United States. But he has initiated a dramatic about-face since January with a sequence of diplomatic maneuvers, including a summit meeting with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing last month in his first trip abroad as leader, and his invitations to Mr. Moon and Mr. Trump for summit talks.

Analysts in the region are deeply divided over Mr. Kim’s motives. Some argue that Mr. Kim just wanted to use negotiations to buy time and ease international sanctions, never intending to abandon his nuclear weapons. But others say that Mr. Kim would eventually give up his nuclear arsenal if he were provided with the right incentives, such as security guarantees, like a peace treaty and normalized ties with Washington, and the economic aid he needs to rebuild his economy.

His latest announcement came one day after North and South Korea installed what officials said was the first-ever hotline between their top leaders, another sign of improving relations on the divided Korean Peninsula.

Mr. Moon was expected to use the hotline, which was installed in his office, to talk with Mr. Kim before the two leaders hold their summit meeting on the Korean border next Friday. But no date has been set for their first call.

The two Koreas have run a telephone hotline at the so-called truce village of Panmunjom — the site for the inter-Korean meeting — for years. Duty officers from both sides man their telephones at Panmunjom daily in case one side calls the other. The line has been cut off at times when bilateral relations have soured, but communications there have been restored.

But the two countries have never run a direct hotline linking their top leaders’ offices, officials said.

The hotline telephones were installed on Mr. Moon’s desk in Seoul, the South’s capital, and in the State Affairs Commission in Pyongyang, the North’s capital.

When Mr. Moon’s special envoys met with Mr. Kim in Pyongyang last month, the two Koreas agreed to install the hotline and arrange for Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon to use the phone before their summit meeting. In the same meeting, Mr. Kim said he was willing to negotiate with the United States on abandoning his country’s nuclear weapons.

President Trump recently dispatched the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, to meet with Mr. Kim to lay the groundwork for their meeting, which will be the first-ever summit meeting between the two nations.

South Korean officials hope the hotline will improve communications between the top leaders and pave the way for improved ties between the two Koreas. The hotline could also be used to avert unintended armed clashes between the sides, they said.

“Now, if working-level talks are deadlocked and if our officials act like arrogant blockheads, President Moon can just call me directly and the problem will be promptly solved,” Mr. Kim was quoted as telling the visiting South Korean envoys last month.

On Friday, aides to Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim officially opened the line and checked the connection for about four minutes, said Youn Kun-young, director for the government situation room at Mr. Moon’s presidential Blue House.

During the line check, a South Korean and a North Korean caller briefly discussed the weather, according to Mr. Moon’s office.

“The connection was very good,” Mr. Youn said. “It was as if talking to a neighbor right next door.”

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Though these two articles are talking about the exact same event, the North Korean announcement to end missile testing, the two very different news outlets have contrasting ways of presenting the same issue. Fox News focuses consistently more on statements from Mr. Trump, and also on the fact that Trump is extremely trusting of the promise of North Korea. Fox News seems to take the announcement as truth, in part because Trump is taking the announcement as truth, and also because the article does not go into any depth behind the announcement. This article consistently uses positive quotes and words, with "vowed", "diplomatic outreach", "secure peace" when referring to North Korea, not including the use of positive language that Trump used in his tweets. The picture that the article uses is also a very interesting choice. The usage of the three previous North Korean leaders against the backdrop of the flag makes it seem like propaganda, so much so that it could be used by the leaders of North Korea to spread their own agenda. This is an interesting choice when talking about working towards peace with the country. The main source in this article is Trump and a vague usage of Korean sources. As seen in every article on Fox News, Trump's word is taken as a credible source and the only opinion that matters on this issue.

  On the other hand, the New York Times examines the announcement from nearly every possible point they can, and discredits Trump and the announcement itself enormously. The New York Times specifically mentions that North Korea is going to keep the missiles it had already made, something that Fox News failed to mention when it was falling over itself trying to back up Trump's claims. The New York Times also examines the different points analysts made about the North Korean announcement, but not only analysts that believe the announcement is a tactic, but also analysts that truly believe the announcement is a step towards peace on North Korea's part. Trump is seldom mentioned in the article, rather, the South Korean president and Korean analysts are mentioned much more frequently. In addition, Trump is referred to as "Mr. Trump" rather than the "President Trump" that Fox News used as his title.