Bedugul Coffee: Monday Morning Briefing: North Korea shakes up top military brass ahead of Trump summit

north korea

North Korea’s top three military officials have been removed from their posts, a senior U.S. official said, a move analysts said could support efforts by the North’s young leader to jump-start economic development and engage with the world.

Kim Jong Un is preparing for a high-stakes summit with President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12. Nobel Prize winning anti-nuclear campaign group ICAN has offered to pay for the cost of the historic summit, including the hotel bill for the impoverished state’s leader.

Gerry Doyle

@mgerrydoyle

A three-night stay at the fullerton would cost about $18,000, or roughly 3/100000th the price of a minuteman 3 icbm https://reut.rs/2Li25DA

8:27 AM - June 4, 2018

Reuters Graphics take a look at the diplomatic ups and downs in U.S.-North Korea relationship since March 9, when both parties agreed to meet.

Commentary: Libya is not North Korea. And those who think the "Libya model" is a precedent for either denuclearization or regime change in North Korea "are heading either for confusion or disappointment," writes Karl P. Mueller. Read more from Reuters columnists about the Korean peninsula.

World

Three people were airlifted to safety yesterday morning as lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano threatened an isolated area where they had become trapped, the National Guard said.

Meanwhile an estimated 25 people, including at least three children, were killed and nearly 300 injured yesterday in the most violent eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano in more than four decades.

A motorcycle suicide bomber killed at least eight people near a gathering of Muslim clerics in the Afghan capital after they had issued a fatwa against suicide bombings, officials said, in the latest in a series of attacks to hit Kabul.

Commentary: Italy’s political crisis is over – and has just begun, writes columnist John Lloyd. The populist government “now has to attempt to govern within the constraints of a heavily indebted country with high unemployment, low productivity, pervasive corruption and powerful organized crime networks."

Jamillah Knowles

@jemimah_knight

A Lebanese tourist was arrested at Cairo airport and is facing 3-5 years in prison for posting a Facebook video complaining about sexual harassment and conditions in Egypt. https://reut.rs/2J6SkeR

12:02 PM - June 4, 2018

Reuters

@Reuters

Two @Reuters journalists, Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone, have been detained in Myanmar since Dec. 12, 2017. Follow the case: https://reut.rs/2HhPIF3

9:59 AM - June 4, 2018

Sponsored by Barclays: Automation’s delayed economic impact Workplace automation is increasing, yet key economic indicators seem unaffected. Why aren’t unemployment, wages and productivity responding? Find out.