North Korea tested US patience yesterday, pressing on with a plan to reactivate a nuclear power plant at the center of a Cold War weapons crisis and demanding a US apology over the interception of a ship carrying Scud missiles.
But Washington, which has threatened to go to war with Iraq to rid it of weapons of mass destruction, insisted that each case was different and said it was looking for a diplomatic solution to keep the peace on the Korean peninsula.
In related developments, Iran brushed off US suggestions that two of its nuclear facilities might be used to build weapons, saying its nuclear energy program was strictly for civilian use. In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, UN weapons experts searched a missile plant.
US President George W. Bush, who in January branded North Korea, Iraq and Iran as members of an "axis of evil," made clear that Washington was not looking for a showdown with North Korea.
"Not every issue requires a potential military response. There's ways to keep the peace through diplomatic pressure, through alliance and that's what we're doing in the Korean peninsula," he said.
The US and its allies ratcheted up that pressure after North Korea said on Thursday that it would restart a reactor mothballed in 1994 after an international crisis over alleged production of weapons-grade plutonium there.
North Korea's latest move -- which it said had been forced on it by a US-led decision to suspend oil aid -- had the trappings of an attempt to force Washington to the negotiating table.
The crisis is the second this week to involve North Korea following the interception of a North Korean ship carrying Scud missiles for Yemen in the Arabian Sea on Monday. Yesterday, North Korea demanded a US apology for "unpardonable piracy."
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in Australia, echoed Bush's line.
"We believe that the situation on the Korean Peninsula lends itself to the possibility of a diplomatic solution given that the nations in the immediate area, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States, all share absolutely the same view that the peninsula must be denuclearized," he said in Sydney.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said North Korea's statement "flies in the face of international consensus that the North Korean regime must fulfil all its commitments, in particular dismantle its nuclear weapons program."
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique