Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has boasted of ending either six or seven wars — a matter of much dispute — and has been pushing with mixed success to bring peace to Ukraine.One hotspot not yet on his second-term radar has been North Korea, despite Trump’s unusually personal diplomacy during his first term when he met leader Kim Jong Un.Trump could find a chance to pivot on Monday as he welcomes to the White House South Korea’s new President Lee Jae Myung, an advocate of outreach with the North.Trump, who did not secure a deal on Ukraine during an August 15 summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has an “appetite for big news,” said Victor Cha, a top advisor on Asia to former president George W. Bush.”Having the Alaska summit not go as well as he wanted may make the president much more interested in seeing this meeting with South Korea come off very well,” said Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Trump had expressed striking fondness for Kim after their three meetings, once offering that he and the young totalitarian “fell in love.”But Trump could find a new Kim this time, one emboldened since their diplomatic love affair.North Korea, one of the most sanctioned and isolated countries, has cashed in with Russia by supplying more than 10,000 troops plus weapons to Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, according to Western and South Korean intelligence.”If there is one reason why North Korea’s not interested in any of these dialogues with the South Koreans and the Americans, it’s because of all they’re getting from Russia,” Cha said.Former US president Joe Biden also offered dialogue with North Korea, albeit among lower-ranking officials, but Pyongyang rebuffed him.- Cautious start for Lee -Lee won election in June after a leadership gap due to the impeachment of his conservative predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol for briefly imposing martial law.The transition was awkwardly timed as Trump was taking office, although the new South Korean administration managed to secure a deal similar to other US allies on tariffs.Lee, a former labor lawyer, hails from the left but paradoxically may share more common ground with Trump than South Korea’s conservatives on some issues.Lee and Trump have both in the past questioned the US military commitment to South Korea, where some 28,500 US troops are stationed.But since taking office, Lee has stressed consistency, including by going ahead with joint exercises with the United States that angered North Korea. In a highly symbolic step, Lee traveled before Washington to Japan, reaffirming his commitment to a three-way alliance despite the South Korean left’s historic criticism of Japan over colonial history.His trip comes as tensions spike on the Korean peninsula, with Pyongyang on Saturday test-firing two new air defense missiles, according to the country’s state news agency.Earlier in the week, South Korean troops fired warning shots at several North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the heavily militarized border separating the two countries.- ‘Nuclear power’ flexes -North Korea has always refused to get rid of its nuclear program, a stance likely only to have hardened following US and Israeli bombing of Iran’s sensitive sites.Since January, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have both broken precedent by calling North Korea a “nuclear power,” although it did not appear they meant to recognize its right to nuclear weapons.Lee has spoken of a three-step approach of freezing, reducing and then dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear program.Rachel Minyoung Lee, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center’s Korea program, said that Lee’s stance “likely will resonate with President Trump, who is keen to engage North Korea.””From the South Korean government’s point of view, getting the Trump administration’s buy-in on its North Korea policy would be a big diplomatic win, as it would not only put the two countries on the same page but also decrease the possibility of Seoul being sidelined from US efforts to engage North Korea,” she said.But she doubted North Korea would back diplomacy with an ultimate goal of denuclearization, phased or not.”It has no reason to be receptive to such a proposition given that the geopolitical situation is working in its favor and it sees longer-term opportunities in its relationship with Russia,” she said.

Civil servants, housewives and retirees alike lined up in Venezuela’s capital Caracas on Saturday as thousands volunteered to join the country’s militia in case there is a US invasion.President Nicolas Maduro called on citizens to respond to the current US “threat” and sign up over the weekend to the Bolivarian Militia, a civilian corps linked to the South American country’s armed forces. The show of force is also intended to send a message to Washington, which has issued a $50 million bounty for Maduro — who is accused by the Trump administration of leading a drug cartel — and has stationed three warships off Venezuela’s coast for what the US says are anti-drug operations.Militia registration centers were set up in the capital’s squares, military and public buildings and even in the presidential palace Miraflores.Volunteers could also sign up in the Mountain Barracks, which is home to the mausoleum of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, in a densely populated area with large housing projects and crumbling brick houses.”Have you previously served?” a militia member dressed in camouflage asked Oscar Matheus.”I’m here to serve our country,” the 66-year-old auditor told AFP. “We don’t know what might happen, but we must prepare and keep resisting. “The homeland is calling us. Our country needs us,” said 51-year-old Rosy Paravabith.- ‘Long live the homeland!’ -Dubbed the Bolivarian Army by Chavez, the Venezuelan Armed Forces do not hide the militia’s political bent.”Chavez lives!” is now their official greeting. Former Venezuelan socialist president Chavez came to power in 1999 and died in office in 2013. Maduro has been in power since, though the US does not recognize the validity of his last two elections.It is unclear how many troops are in the Venezuelan militia.Maduro said this week that the militia alone has more than 4.5 million ready soldiers. However the most recent independent estimate tallied about 343,000 members in 2020, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.”I sign up for Venezuela, long live the homeland!” shouted the volunteers upon registration.Police officers and military reservists also lined up to reaffirm their commitments.After registering, volunteers were shown a documentary about the European blockade on Venezuela’s coast between 1902 and 1903, after then-president Cipriano Castro refused to pay a foreign debt. The 2017 film showed armed farmers, some shooting guns while others analyzed maps, as warships loomed in the distance. Next, the volunteers were taken through a room with weapons on display: a US-made machine gun, a Swedish grenade launcher, a Soviet RPG launcher and a Belgian machine gun. An army lieutenant explained how to use each weapon. “Can this be shot at the sky?” an attendee asked.”It’s better to shoot it straight,” the soldier replied.- ‘Immoral, criminal, illegal’ -The United States has sent armed forces to the Caribbean in the past. But this time, the deployment coincides with US President Donald Trump’s administration increasing pressure on Maduro by doubling its bounty on him to $50 million earlier this month.The US alleges Maduro is leading the Cartel of the Suns, a drug trafficking group that has been designated a terrorist organization. On Friday, Maduro described the US moves as an “illegal” attempt at regime change.”What they’re threatening to do against Venezuela — regime change, a military terrorist attack — is immoral, criminal and illegal,” Maduro said.On the streets of Venezuela, the topic prompted jokes and worries alike, though experts say it is unlikely the US would take direct action.Maduro’s opposition has called for people not to enlist — though many were anyway.”I want to defend the homeland,” said Jesus Borquez, 19.”I know that because of my age I’m not going to carry a rifle,” 78-year-old Omaira Hernandez said. “But I’m willing to help them.”

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is gearing up for the next test of its Starship megarocket on Sunday, after a string of recent failures that has prompted some observers to question its viability.The world’s most powerful launch vehicle is set to lift off from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT) for its tenth flight. The mission aims to put the upper stage through a series of trials as it flies halfway around the world before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.Unlike in recent attempts, SpaceX will not try to catch the booster stage with the launch tower’s giant “chopstick” arms.Starship is central to Musk’s ambition of colonizing Mars, while NASA is counting on a modified version to serve as the Artemis lunar lander for returning Americans to the Moon.But all three test flights so far in 2025 have ended in the upper stage exploding — twice in fiery cascades over Caribbean islands and once after reaching space. In June, another upper stage exploded on the ground during a “static fire” test.SpaceX’s “fail fast, learn fast” ethos has long been credited with its remarkable track record, giving it a commanding global lead in launches thanks to its Falcon rocket family. But the Starship setbacks have raised doubts over whether the company can repeat that success with the biggest and most powerful rocket in history.- ‘Lot of pressure’ -Dallas Kasaboski, a space analyst for consulting firm Analysys Mason, told AFP that the recent failures were beginning to take the sheen off SpaceX’s golden reputation. “I think there is a lot of pressure on this mission,” he said. “We’ve had so many tests and it hasn’t proven itself reliable — the successes have not exceeded the failures.”Will Lockett, a former engineer turned commentator went further, arguing on his Substack newsletter that the lack of heavy payload tests showed “the concept of Starship is fundamentally flawed.” He added: “SpaceX is building Starships that are lighter in an attempt to increase payload to usable levels but is therefore making them much weaker than they should be” — leading to structural failures seen during recent tests.Headlines such as “Is Elon Musk’s Starship Doomed?” in New York Magazine have amplified the scrutiny.Musk has staked the company’s future on Starship, planning to eventually retire its current generation of rockets and spacecraft in favor of the new system.Even if the tenth test succeeds, formidable technical hurdles remain — from making the system fully and rapidly reusable at low cost to proving it can refuel super-cooled propellant in orbit, a prerequisite for deep-space missions.Still, SpaceX is pressing ahead, increasing the frequency of launches despite criticism from environmental groups over ecological impacts, and building new facilities in Florida, including launch and landing pads at Kennedy Space Center.