Japan raised the stakes yesterday in a row with China over five North Korean asylum seekers dragged from its northeastern consulate by Chinese police with a decision to send a senior vice minister to Beijing.
News of the move came a day after an angry Japan dismissed Chinese reports that its diplomats had allowed police to enter the consulate in Shenyang last Wed-nesday to drag out the North Koreans who had rushed inside, apparently to seek asylum.
Senior Vice Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura was to be sent to Beijing as early as today to negotiate with China on the handover of the North Koreans -- two men, two women and a child, Japanese media reported quoting government sources.
"Although the decision is not 100 percent final, it is highly likely and we are moving in that direction," a Foreign Ministry official said.
"It would not be to investigate but more to negotiate with Chinese officials, to repeat Japan's basic stance that they must be handed over and that efforts must be made to prevent a recurrence," he said.
The vice minister would leave as soon as possible, he added.
The decision to send a high-ranking politician rather than a bureaucrat was intended to underscore Tokyo's anger over the incident, domestic newspapers quoted an unidentified senior Foreign Ministry official as saying.
Meanwhile, two North Koreans have sought refuge in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing and are asking for passage overseas, an embassy spokeswoman said yesterday.
The man and the woman appear to be in their late 20s or early 30s and got into the embassy together on Saturday, said spokeswoman Jennifer May. It was unclear if they are married, she said.
Canadian diplomats are negotiating their passage with Chinese officials and "would like to see them on their way as quickly as possible," May said. "They are in the embassy and we are looking after them."
The pair evaded Chinese police patrols and security that has increased dramatically in Beijing's embassy districts following the recent rash of asylum bids by North Koreans.
More than two dozen of them have barged past guards and clambered over walls of foreign missions in the Chinese capital in the past two months and won passage to South Korea.
Last week, three North Korean men climbed walls of the US consulate in Shenyang. They were still there yesterday while US diplomats negotiated with Chinese officials, a consulate spokeswoman said on customary condition of anonymity.
SECURITY: Taipei presses the US for arms supplies, saying the arms sales are not only a reflection of the US security commitment to Taiwan but also serve as a mutual deterrent against regional threats Taiwan is committed to preserving the cross-strait “status quo” and contributing to regional peace and stability, the Presidential Office said yesterday. “It is an undeniable fact that the Republic of China is a sovereign and independent democratic nation,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) reiterated, adding that Beijing has no right to claim sovereignty over Taiwan. The statements came after US President Donald Trump warned against Taiwanese independence. Trump wrapped up a state visit to Beijing on Friday, during which Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had pressed him not to support Taiwan. Taiwan depends heavily on US security backing to deter China from carrying
The subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in Kumamoto, Japan, turned a profit in the first quarter of this year, marking the first time the first fab of the unit has become profitable since mass production started at the end of 2024. According to the contract chipmaker’s financial statement released on Friday, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM), a joint venture running the fab in Kumamoto, posted NT$951 million (US$30.19 million) in profit in the January-to-March period, compared with a loss of NT$1.39 billion in the previous quarter, and a loss of NT$3.25 billion in the first quarter of
RESOLUTE BACKING: Two Republican senators are planning to introduce legislation that would impose immediate sanctions on China if it attempts to invade Taiwan US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday reaffirmed US congressional support for Taiwan, saying the US and “all freedom-loving people” have a stake in preventing China from seizing Taiwan by force. Johnson made the remarks in an interview with Fox News Sunday on US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last week. In an interview that aired on Friday on Fox News, just as Trump wrapped up a high-stakes visit to China, he said he has yet to green-light a new US$14 billion arms package to Taiwan and that it “depends on China.” “It’s a very good
US President Donald Trump yesterday said he would speak to President William Lai (賴清德) as his administration considers whether to move ahead with a US$14 billion weapons sale to Taiwan — a potential arms deal that has drawn criticism from China. “Well, I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody,” Trump told reporters yesterday when asked if he had any plans to call his counterpart, although he did not offer a time frame for when such a conversation could take place. Trump previously said he would speak to the person “that’s running Taiwan,” without specifying who he meant. “We have that situation very
RSS