Report: North Korea Shakes Up Military Leadership Ahead of Trump-Kim Summit

North Korea reportedly removed three top military officials from their posts just eight days ahead of the summit meeting between dictator Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Analysts see the shakeup as an effort to demonstrate Kim’s mastery over hardline elements in his military and send a positive signal to the United States.

According to South Korea’s Yonhap News, the entire military high command has effectively been replaced:

No Kwang-chol, first vice minister of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, replaced Pak Yong-sik as defense chief, while Ri Myong-su, chief of the KPA’s general staff, was replaced by his deputy, Ri Yong-gil, according to the source.

These changes are in addition to Army Gen. Kim Su-gil’s replacement of Kim Jong-gak as director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army. The replacement was confirmed in a North Korean state media report last month.

Earlier in the day, a Japanese newspaper carried a similar report.

“The North appears to have brought in new figures amid the changes in inter-Korean relations and the situation on the Korean Peninsula as the previous officials lacked flexibility in thinking,” the source said. “In particular, No Kwang-chol has been classified as a moderate person.”

Another intelligence source speculated to Yonhap that North Korea is swapping out older officers for younger models, signaling a generational shift away from senior officials who might have difficulty reconciling themselves to denuclearization and greater openness to South Korea and the West.

http:// www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/06/04/north-korea-shakes-up-military-leadership-ahead-of-trump-kim-summit/

Google and Cuba close to finalizing agreement to expand internet access on the island

Washington, D.C.

Google is close to reaching an agreement with the Cuban government to expand internet access on the island, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake told el Nuevo Herald.

“Yes, I think they are closer,” Flake said after he returned to Washington this week from a trip to Havana with Google's former Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, as well as Brett Perlmutter and Susanna Kohly, Google's executives in charge of relations with Cuba.

The group met Monday with Miguel Díaz-Canel, the island's recently appointed new leader, who showed interest in working with Google to increase internet access and connecting Cuba to a new submarine cable, a source knowledgeable about the conversations told el Nuevo Herald.

Google has invested in several submarine cables to expand connectivity and its services around the world. Flake said the Cuban government has “planned” for an increase in access.

Díaz-Canel, recently named president of the Council of State, has spoken publicly about the need to expand internet services on the island, and mentioned it in the meeting with the U.S. visitors.

Díaz-Canel “spoke about education on the island, the internet and what they are doing, but he also acknowledges the need for increased connectivity. That was clear,” said Flake, an Arizona Republican.

“Something that was significant was that [Díaz-Canel and Schmidt] speak different languages but they both … speak engineering,” said the senator.

Photographs of the meeting show a relaxed and smiling Díaz-Canel in his first encounter with U.S. politicians and business leaders since he succeeded Raúl Castro in April. The U.S. visitors also met with officials from the Ministries of Communications and Foreign Relations.

Google offered to expand the island's connectivity through wireless technology in 2015, but the plan was rejected by the Castro government because of concerns over using U.S. technology. Cuba largely connects to the internet through a submarine cable from Venezuela, but speeds and quality are poor even though the government's ETECSA telecommunications monopoly charges high fees for the access.

Google continued to push despite the initial rejection, but reduced the scale of its projects. It established a cybercafe, and in 2017 Perlmutter negotiated an agreement to store Google content on servers on the island, allowing for faster service on popular websites such as YouTube.

Increased access to the internet is one of the main demands of Cuban youths. But an agreement with a U.S. company to improve connectivity would be a test for the Díaz-Canel administration and his power to make decisions is likely to upset hard-line government leaders like Ramiro Valdés and José Ramón Machado Ventura. They hold key posts in the government and ruling Communist Party even though they are nearly 90 years old.

On the U.S. side, the main concerns could focus on censorship by the Cuban government, which tries to tightly control the internet content that Cubans can access. The agreement for establishing the Google Global Cache servers in Cuba has a “freedom of expression” clause in which ETECSA promises not to restrict the content. Additionally, the content is encrypted.

Some Google services, such as Project Shield, are not available on the island because of the U.S. embargo, despite broad exceptions for the telecommunications sector. Schmidt said at a news conference in Havana that he shares Flake's opposition to the embargo. The senator has submitted several bills in Congress to eliminate the embargo and end all restrictions on travel to Cuba.

http:// amp.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article212660549.html

>>1715447

I think it has been done already, Do you remember Jeff Flake, being loud a few weeks ago? I believe this is why.

>>1715360

No doubt, he also, understood, you can't move forward until you stop walking backward. These generals would have had him continue the backward path.

>>1715118

I mentioned yesterday, we should give them the shovels, lets see how far they go! IMO, They'll never get back out!

>>1715599

Brb, and we will know for sure, digging it!

In sign of tougher policy shift, Trump appoints Cuba 'hardliner' to lead Radio and TV Martí

President Donald Trump appointed Miami’s former mayor and self-described Cuba “hardliner” Tomás Regalado to run Radio and TV Martí, a sign that tougher U.S. policies could be in store for the island regime and its Latin American allies.

Regalado’s appointment to lead the U.S.-funded broadcast network, which counters Cuba’s state-run media, follows months of advocacy by Miami’s four Cuban-American Republican members of Congress, and it helps solidify Sen. Marco Rubio’s role as a key player in the Trump administration’s Latin America policy.

Rubio (R-Fla.), who recommended Regalado for the post and worked closely with the administration on recent Venezuela sanctions, had joined with Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) in shaping Trump’s 2017 rollback of former President Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba’s government, a policy announced in Miami when Regalado — a significant voice of Cuban exiles for decades — was mayor.

“This is a message to the Cuban government, it’s appointing a hardliner because I am hardliner regarding Cuba. I don’t believe in doing steps just to hope that there will be change in Cuba for the better, for democracy,” Regalado told POLITICO.

“The White House understands Cuba is a priority and that the Cuban government will see this as a reaffirmation that there is a different policy toward Cuba coming from the Trump administration,” Regalado said.

Regalado's first day leading the Office of Cuba Broadcasting was Tuesday, he said. A ceremony designating his appointment is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Washington.

Regalado said the need for the U.S. to confront Cuba is clearer than ever because the island’s government has a close relationship with the dictatorship in Venezuela and has ties to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, whose country is experiencing violent unrest.

Rubio, Diaz-Balart and Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Florida Republicans, “seem to be optimistic that they can advance stronger policies” concerning Cuba and its allies, Regalado said. He said the president’s focus recently has been on nuclear disarmament issues in North Korea and Iran.

“I feel very strongly that after the situation in North Korea and in Iran, there’s going to be more attention paid to Cuba because Cuba is part of the crisis in Venezuela and the crisis in Nicaragua,” Regaldo said. “I feel that there’s eventually going to be more sanctions and more implementation of the sanctions the president announced in Miami.”

In tapping Regalado for the post, Trump also signaled his support for Miami’s old-guard Cuban exile community, where support for the president is high. Regalado’s son, Tomás Regalado Jr., works for Radio and TV Martí.

https:// www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/06/06/in-sign-of-tougher-policy-shift-trump-appoints-cuba-hardliner-to-lead-radio-and-tv-marti-452075