North Korea, which is reported to have fired up a key nuclear reactor, now looks set to raise tensions further by preparing to start reprocessing plutonium and test a ballistic missile, officials and reports said yesterday.
As South Korea's new government expressed worries about suspect activity at the Yongbyon reactor, reports from Tokyo and Washington indicated the North might be moving to cross what experts call critical "red lines" in the nuclear standoff.
In Washington, US officials and congressional sources said on Thursday North Korea was continuing to prepare a spent fuel reprocessing plant and could have it operating as a source of weapons-grade plutonium within a month.
Although the diplomatic tensions are apparently unnoticed on the streets of South Korea, the nuclear developments are likely to increase the drumbeat of calls from Seoul, Beijing and Moscow for the US to talk directly to North Korea.
Washington has resisted this in favour of multilateral diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov offered a rare criticism of old ally North Korea yesterday, telling reporters in Beijing: "We think threatening methods are not a solution to the problem."
Ivanov was responding to questions about fresh signs of North Korean brinkmanship. A major Japanese daily reported yesterday that US satellite photographs and other intelligence indicated North Korea had tested a rocket booster in January for a Taepodong ballistic missile capable of hitting Tokyo.
Japan's defense minister, Shigeru Ishiba, told reporters he had no information about the report, in the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun, but said Japan did not believe North Korea was about to launch a ballistic missile.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi spoke to her South Korean and Chinese counterparts by telephone yesterday, urging close coordination between Seoul and Tokyo and calling on Beijing to use its influence with Pyongyang to resolve the crisis.
"It is important to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons," a Japanese official quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan as saying in reply. "We will play a role so a peaceful and diplomatic resolution can be achieved."
The South Korean Foreign Ministry indirectly confirmed media reports that the Yongbyon reactor had been restarted.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)