China announced today (Wednesday) that it is “ready to continue working” with the United States after the midterm elections in which the Republican Party, led by President Donald Trump, lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a regular press briefing: “The midterm elections are an American internal matter. China is ready to continue working with the United States to uphold and implement the important understandings reached by the presidents of the two countries, enhance communication, properly manage differences, expand cooperation, and build strategically constructive and stable Chinese-American relations, based on the principles of respect, fairness, and reciprocity,” according to Agence France-Presse.
The Democrats achieved a victory that gave them control of Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate, in a decisive rejection of the Republicans’ performance in governance in Washington, and marking the beginning of a new phase of opposition within Congress to President Donald Trump.
Tuesday's midterm elections revealed voters' deep dissatisfaction with rising prices, the war in Iran, and concerns about government corruption.
Democrats achieved landslide victories over their rivals across the country, seizing states that had been voting Republican for decades, and which Trump had won just two years ago by a margin of more than 10 percentage points.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to build “the most advanced and powerful warships,” during an inspection tour of a shipyard, according to North Korean Central News Agency, while the South Korean army announced today (Wednesday) that North Korea had fired an unspecified projectile into the sea off its eastern coast.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a brief statement: “North Korea fired an unspecified projectile towards the East Sea,” referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
North Korea's Central Agency reported that Kim inspected the Namphu Shipyard on Monday, where North Korea is working to build a new warship.
North Korea, which possesses nuclear weapons, is working to modernize its naval forces at an accelerated pace, bringing into service destroyers weighing 5,000 tons and conducting tests on ship-launched missiles. Kim also pledged to arm the fleet with nuclear weapons, and to build larger warships, weighing up to 10,000 tons.
Pyongyang says this expansion is necessary to confront threats from the United States and South Korea, at a time when it is developing weapons aimed at expanding the scope of its military influence beyond the capabilities of its traditional coastal navy.
The Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying that “the recently emerging geopolitical environment and the hostile actions carried out by opponents” confirm “the need to possess the most advanced and powerful warships.”
He added that the warship under construction is equipped with “a combat system that has operational capabilities that no other country in the world possesses,” stressing the necessity of “defending the homeland, ensuring sovereignty, and deterring all threats.”
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, warned that her country will respond strongly to Washington's "consistent hostile policy" toward Pyongyang, according to North Korean Central News Agency.
Today (Wednesday), the agency quoted Kim Yo Jong as saying: “In light of the current reality, in which the hostile policy of the United States towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is escalating, it is natural that our countermeasures will rise to similar levels.”
Her statement came after Pyongyang rejected accusations by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of being behind a hacking operation targeting the Binance cryptocurrency platform, which resulted in the theft of $6.3 billion, at a time when North Korea continues to showcase its military capabilities.
Kim Yo Jong believed that the Binance hacking incident constitutes “an extension of the consistent hostile policy pursued by the United States towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”
She added: “It is clear that the United States’ malicious attempt to achieve political and strategic gains by exploiting this issue is having adverse political consequences.”
On Saturday, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation accused North Korea of being behind the theft, blaming a group of North Korean hackers known as Trader Traitor.
North Korea's Central News Agency reported that Pyongyang conducted tests on strategic cruise missiles on Monday.
In her new statement, Kim Yo Jong indicated that her country sees no point in resuming the diplomatic track with the United States.
She said: “Our position is clear. There is no need for us to sit face to face with unreliable and hostile people who refuse to abandon the policy of confrontation while talking about dialogue.”
She added: “The option for peace includes dialogue, of course, but that does not necessarily mean that it is compatible with our national interests.”
