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Groton Daily Independent
Friday, May 17, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 3088 ~ 31 of 55
committee and announced his decision to suspend nuclear tests and ICBM launches. The committee is comprised of more than 100 senior party members and a roughly equivalent number of alternates whose task is to make sure that party policies are understood and implemented throughout the country.
Outside of North Korea, the announcement was widely reported as a major pre-summit concession. But that wasn’t the way it was presented to the party by Kim.
Kim’s pitch was that under his leadership the country had in just five years completed its development of nuclear weapons, which he called a “miraculous victory” that meant there was no more need for testing and paved the way for the country to turn its attention to economic growth.
North Korea, Kim announced, would never use nuclear weapons or transfer nuclear weapons or nuclear technology “unless there are nuclear threats and nuclear provocations” against it. He added that the North’s nuclear weapons are “a powerful treasured sword for defending peace” that guarantee future generations “can enjoy the most dignified and happiest life in the world.”
Kim’s message to his own people so far, in other words, sounds a lot like the opposite of denuclearization.
And that’s a position Trump probably won’t want to take credit for if Kim decides to bring it with him to Singapore.
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Talmadge has been the AP’s Pyongyang bureau chief since 2013 and has traveled to the North dozens of times. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter: @EricTalmadge
Ex-boyfriend of blast victim arrested on explosives charge By MICHAEL BALSAMO and AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Spa owner Ildiko Krajnyak was opening a package that had piled up with mail during her recent trip to her native Hungary when it exploded.
News reports of the blast quickly reached Stephen Beal, her ex-boyfriend and a partner in the Southern California business.
At the urging of his new girlfriend, Beal phoned police and then let them search his house. They found more than 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of explosive material and charged him Thursday with possessing an unregistered destructive device.
While not charged with the fatal explosion, the arrest puts Beal in custody as authorities investigate what they believe was a targeted bombing.
Beal, a model rocket hobbyist, told investigators he had not made any bombs and did not have material for an explosion as powerful as the one he saw in news coverage.
Beal, 59, did not enter a plea during his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and his case was continued to Monday. His public defender refused to comment.
The criminal complaint was accompanied by an affidavit from an FBI special agent that briefly described the relationship between Beal and Krajnyak, as well as the grisly blast.
The two had met online in June 2016 and dated about a year and a half. Photos on his Facebook page showed them living it up in far-flung places: a beach in Cuba, restaurants in Portugal, and riding jet skis in Mexico.
The romance cooled earlier this year after disputes over exclusivity and finances, FBI Special Agent Evan Jesch wrote.
They remained business partners, with Beal serving as spa manager, and the two operated a separate cosmetics firm. State records show Beal and Krajnyak were officers in a skin care business called I&S Enterprises.
Beal was listed on the spa’s lease because Krajnyak and her estranged husband had filed for bankruptcy, he said. Beal paid the $1,500 monthly rent and half the spa’s operating costs. He had to loan Krajnyak money some months to cover her costs.
Beal was once an investment banker who turned to acting after his wife’s death several years ago, said friend and neighbor Steven Young. Beal appeared in several small films.