SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea proposed talks with North Korea to clarify the rivals' border line and ease military tensions, saying Monday that North Korean soldiers' repeated border intrusions have raised worries about an armed clash.
South Korea's military says it has been firing warning shots to repel North Korean troops who violated the border's military demarcation line numerous times since they began works to boost front-line defenses last year. North Korea has denied its soldiers' alleged border breaches and threatened unspecified responses.
Kim Hong-Cheol, South Korea's deputy minister for national defense policy, said Monday that the country was offering military talks to prevent an accidental armed clash and lower tensions with North Korea.
He said that the North's border intrusions were likely caused by the rivals' different views on the border line, because many of the military demarcation line posts established at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War have been lost.
It's unclear if North Korea would accept South Korea's calls for talks, because it's been shunning all forms of dialogue with South Korea and the U.S. since its leader Kim Jong Un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to resume diplomacy with Kim, but the North Korean leader has suggested that he could meet Trump again only if Washington withdraws the denuclearization of North Korea as a precondition for talks.
Some observers say that South Korea's offer for talks was part of efforts by its liberal government led by President Lee Jae Myung to reopen communication channels with North Korea. In August, Kim's sister and senior official Kim Yo Jong called the Lee government's outreach a “sinister intention” to blame Pyongyang for strained relations.
Last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared that his country was abandoning its long-standing goals of a peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to mark the South as a permanent enemy. South Korea's military said that it has since detected North Korea adding anti-tank barriers and planting more mines at border areas.
The Koreas' 248-kilometer-long (155-mile-long), four-kilometer-wide (2½-mile-wide) border is one of the world’s most heavily armed frontiers. An estimated 2 million mines are peppered inside and near the border, which is also guarded by barbed-wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides. It’s a legacy of the Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
FILE - A North Korean military guard post, top, and South Korean army soldiers, bottom, are seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
FILE - A North Korean military guard post, top, and a South Korean post, bottom, are seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Since starting a war with Iran caused oil and gasoline prices to spike, President Donald Trump has pivoted from a focus on keeping energy prices low to painting high oil prices as a positive.
The about-face comes as Trump's team has struggled to offer a clear plan for opening up the critical Strait of Hormuz so that tankers full of oil and natural gas are no longer stranded.
“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” Trump said Thursday on his social media site.
It was only last month, in his State of the Union address, that Trump had bragged about gas prices at $2.30 a gallon, a figure that has since soared more than 50% to a national average of $3.60 a gallon, according to AAA.
The flip-flop shows Trump's political interests at home are suddenly at odds with his desire to flex America’s muscles on the global stage. It comes at a precarious time for Trump's party, ahead of November midterm elections. Trump has said that high gas prices helped him defeat his predecessor, Joe Biden. But he told reporters on Saturday that he had no worries about the rising costs that could influence voters this year, and create pressure for him to end the conflict prematurely.
The investment bank Goldman Sachs on Thursday said that based on its forecasts and historic experience, higher oil prices would cause inflation to be higher, growth to be slower and the unemployment rate to increase by the end of the year.
Benchmark oil prices have swung violently with Trump's shifting statements and as most tankers avoid traversing the Strait of Hormuz. On Thursday, the global crude oil benchmark price jumped to $100 a barrel.
“The swings in Brent crude oil prices over the past several days are eye-catching and odds are volatility will remain because of the absence of a timeline for when the conflict will deescalate and when the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively closed, will see traffic begin to recover,” analysts at the consultancy Oxford Economics concluded on Wednesday.
The president has given a series of contradictory messages about his plans to address this issue. He said in a Monday news conference that the Strait of Hormuz “is going to remain safe” well after it was identified as a danger zone, claiming that the presence of the U.S. Navy and insurance for tankers would keep things secure.
By Tuesday, he said on Truth Social that Iran would face “Military consequences” that would be “at a level never seen before” if it placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz, later stressing that the U.S. military was blowing up Iran’s mine-laying ships.
On Wednesday, Trump's Energy Secretary Chris Wright briefly posted that the U.S. Navy had escorted a tanker through the strait — later deleting the false claim.
After initially downplaying the need to tap strategic reserves, Trump by Wednesday said the U.S. would join with other countries and release oil to lower prices, with the administration later saying it would draw down 172 million barrels. The coordinated release among countries is unlikely to bring down oil prices, so much as stabilize the market.
“Such a move will slow rather than stop rising oil prices and offer a temporary salve to the searing burn of rising gasoline prices,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief U.S. economist at the consultancy RSM.
The White House also said it may waive Jones Act requirements to use U.S.-flagged ships to move goods between U.S. ports, a temporary move that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said could “ensure vital energy products and agricultural necessities are flowing freely to U.S. ports.”
Wright, the energy secretary, took to television on Thursday to acknowledge the conflict was causing “a significant disruption” in short-term gas prices, but sought to emphasize the long-term benefits of an Iran that no longer poses a threat to the U.S. and Middle Eastern nations.
Trump on Wednesday had said “the straits are in great shape” and said he thought oil companies should use them. But on Thursday, Wright could not provide a timeline on when the U.S. Navy might escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the bottleneck causing the price spike.
“It’ll happen relatively soon, but it can’t happen now,” Wright told CNBC. “We’re simply not ready. All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities."
Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump is seen in his limousine, known as "The Beast," for the motorcade to the White House after his arrival on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Energy Secretary Chris Wright walks to the White House following an interview with CNN, Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
