South Korea outlined plans to intensify diplomatic pressure on North Korea yesterday, after its unpredictable communist neighbor said it would expel UN inspectors and press on with its nuclear program.
The US, keen to maintain its focus on Iraq, told North Korea it sought a peaceful end to the crisis on the world's last Cold War frontier, but insisted it would not negotiate under duress.
As Washington and its allies cast around for a way to stop the country restarting a reactor capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, North Korea's enigmatic leader, Kim Jong-il, relaxed at a concert where an army choir praised him in song.
The Bush administration, banking on diplomacy to bring Kim back into line, said the impoverished country's relations with the outside world hinged on an end to its nuclear weapons program.
"The United States will not negotiate in response to threats or broken commitments," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said after China and Russia called for dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
In Crawford, Texas, where US President George W. Bush is spending New Year at his ranch, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the use of force was not under consideration.
"We continue to seek a peaceful resolution of the situation ... ," McClellan said on Friday.
"We will continue our consultations with friends and allies."
Isolated since the end of the Cold War, North Korea has suffered economic collapse and food shortages that have killed two million people and left about a third of its 22 million population dependent on foreign food aid.
The North's Korean Central News Agency accused Washington on Friday of seeking to overthrow its political system. Yesterday it carried a report on Kim's concert.
"Kim Jong-il congratulated the artistes of the chorus ... and highly appreciated the feats they have performed in encouraging the army and people in their sacred struggle to defend the socialist system of the country," it said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
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IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
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