North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Saturday issued its first official statement on President Donald Trump's trip to Asia, slamming Trump for trying to denuclearize the North.
The ministry said that Trump's trip ``is a warmonger's trip for confrontation with our country, trying to remove our self-defensive nuclear deterrent.''
It accused Trump of trying to demonize North Korea, keep it apart from the international community and undermine its government.
The ministry said, ``Reckless remarks by an old lunatic like Trump will never scare us or stop our advance. On the contrary, all this makes us more sure that our choice to promote economic construction at the same time as building up our nuclear force is all the more righteous, and it pushes us to speed up the effort to complete our nuclear force.''
North Korea is not known to have tested any of its missiles or nuclear devices since Sept. 15, a relative lull after a brisk series of tests earlier this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is brushing off recent reports that the US commerce secretary had interest in a company that does business with a major Russian company with possible ties to Putin relatives.
Reports this week said Wilbur Ross is a shareholder in a shipping company that relies on the Russian company Sibur for much of its revenue. A man reported to be one of Putin's sons-in-law is believed to be a major Sibur shareholder.
Putin said Saturday that ``This is nothing more than business. It never had and does not have any relation with politics.''
Putin also rejected any Russian connection to the recently indicted former campaign manager of President Donald Trump, Paul Manafort.
Manafort is charged with offences including failing to register as a foreign agent while advising the party of Viktor Yanukovych, the Russia-friendly Ukrainan president who was ousted amid massive street protests in 2014.
Putin says the lack of a formal meeting with President Donald Trump at a conference in Vietnam reflects continuing tense relations between their countries.
Putin and Trump had several brief exchanges Friday night and Saturday as world leaders gathered for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. They did not have a formal, one-on-one meeting.
Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying that the lack of a formal meeting shows that U.S.-Russia relations have ``not yet emerged from the state of crisis.''
But he was also quoted as blaming the absence of a sit-down on scheduling conflicts and ``certain matters of the protocol'' that couldn't be worked out.
President Donald Trump says he didn't see Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh AH'-bay) take a tumble on the golf course.
But he says, if it was Abe, ``I'm very impressed because (Abe is) better than any gymnast I've ever seen.''
Trump made the remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One as it headed toward Hanoi, Vietnam, for meetings and a state banquet.
Japan's TV Tokyo aired footage of a player identified as Abe trying repeatedly to hit his ball out of a steep bunker. As he finally made the shot, Trump began walking away, and Abe ran up the side of the bunker to catch up.
But just as the 63-year-old prime minister stepped onto the grass, he slipped, making a backward flip down into the sand. He quickly stood up and picked up his cap.
President Donald Trump says Russia President Vladimir Putin once again denied meddling in the 2016 election during their conversations Saturday at a summit in Vietnam.
And Trump still won't say definitively whether he believes Putin.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that every time Putin sees him he says: ``I didn't do that.''
Says Trump: ``And I believe, I really believe that when he tells me that he means it.''
Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election to try to help Trump win. Multiple investigations are also under way to determine whether Trump campaign officials colluded with them.
Trump dismissed the heads of those agencies as ``political hacks.'' He says there's plenty of reason to be suspicious of their findings.
Trump is blaming Democrats for creating an ``artificial barrier'' to U.S.-Russian relations by accusing Russia of meddling in the 2016 election.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Hanoi that the allegations, which he's dismissed as a witch hunt in the past, are damaging his ability to work with Russia. And he says that's putting lives at stake.
He says the ``artificial barrier'' gets in the way of putting global pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Without that obstacle, Trump says, ``we could really be helped a lot, tremendously with Russia having to do with North Korea.''
He goes on to say that, ``If we can save many, many, many lives by making a deal with Russia having to do with Syria, and then ultimately getting Syria solved and getting Ukraine solved and doing other things, having a good relationship with Russia's a great, great thing. And this artificial Democratic hit job gets in the way,'' he says, adding that, ``people will die because of it.''