Politics

Bloomberg A senior North Korean official said his country would be willing to talk to the US government if conditions were right, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap. Choe Sun-hui, director general for North American affairs at North Korea’s foreign ministry, made the comment to reporters in Beijing, Yonhap reported on Saturday. The remarks follow comments by US President ...

Bloomberg The cyber-attack that spread rapidly around the globe was stifled when a security researcher disabled a key mechanism used by the worm to spread, but experts said the hackers were likely to return as many computers remain at risk. Hackers can still gain easy access to personal computers that lack a security update issued in March by Microsoft Corp. ...

Bloomberg State-led Russian hackers remain a “major threat” to the U.S. government and will keep up their attacks after seeking to influence the 2016 presidential vote, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said in an annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment.” Coats, in a statement prepared for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, stood by past intelligence community assertions that only ...

Bloomberg President Moon Jae-in told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that he’s aware of Beijing’s concerns over a U.S. missile shield installed on South Korean territory and will work to resolve the problem. In their first phone conversation since his election victory this week, Moon told Xi that it may become easier to settle differences over the Terminal High Altitude ...

Bloomberg Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called on his party to stay united ahead of a potential election within months, urging members to avoid complacency even as the opposition descends further into disarray. Surrounded by key lieutenants on stage at a 71st anniversary celebration of his United Malays National Organisation, the premier attacked detractors including former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, ...

  Bloomberg The Trump administration has begun its search for a replacement for ousted FBI Director James Comey, with the Justice Department holding interviews for an interim successor as Washington absorbed the shock of the president’s decision to fire the nation’s top law enforcement officer. The quest for a temporary director may pass over Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe, who ascended ...

  Bloomberg Turkey objected strongly to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to arm Kurdish forces in Syria, calling the plan unacceptable and amounting to support for terrorists. “This issue is a matter of existence or nonexistence for Turkey,” Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli told AHaber television on Wednesday. “It is a matter of survival for Turkey. Everyone should see it ...

  Bloomberg Hungary’s fight against European Union rules favoring a quota system to relocate refugees is being reviewed by the bloc’s top court in what could end up in a political blow to Prime Minister Viktor Orban and a boost to stalled efforts for a European asylum system. “Hungary can’t identify with a view purporting that the only or necessary ...

  Bloomberg Moon Jae-in declared victory in South Korea’s leadership race, pledging to unify the nation after nine years of conservative rule that culminated in the country’s biggest street protests since the 1980s. With 40 percent of ballots counted in Tuesday’s presidential election, Moon received 39.5 percent of votes, leading conservative Hong Joon-pyo, who had 26.5 percent. Centrist Ahn Cheol-soo ...

  GENEVA / WAM Some 250 people are feared dead or missing following two shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean, according to the UN refugee agency. ”In the last 24 hours we have received alarming information on two new shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean,” said UNHCR spokesperson Cecile Pouilly in a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. ”The first shipwreck took ...