North Korea signalled yesterday that it was ready for talks on its suspected atomic program after confusion over whether it tried to scupper negotiations by saying it was reprocessing fuel rods to make nuclear bombs.
The US said an English-language statement on Friday from the North Korean Foreign Ministry might have been mistranslated to say Pyongyang was reprocessing the 8,000 nuclear rods rather than on the verge of reprocessing them.
Reprocessing would be the most provocative step North Korea has taken since the dispute flared in October, when Washington said Pyongyang admitted to a covert nuclear program.
"As far as I know, there is no change in the plans for the talks to take place in Beijing next week," said Lee Ji-hyun, South Korean presidential spokeswoman for foreign media.
South Korea is not included in the planned three-way talks in Beijing between the US, China and the North but has a major stake in the outcome on the divided peninsula.
North Korea's KCNA news agency said Jo Myong-rok, first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission headed by leader Kim Jong-il, would visit Beijing from April 21 to 23.
Its one-sentence report did not say whether Jo, the military number two to Kim, would prepare for the three-way talks or explain the reprocessing. But the South's Yonhap news agency quoted Chinese sources as saying his trip was seen aimed at fine-tuning its talks stance with China.
Jo visited Washington in October 2000, the most senior Pyongyang official to do so.
In Washington, a Bush administration official said the US might cancel the talks, but South Korean media quoted others as saying they were likely to go ahead.
Yonhap said Japan and South Korea had urged US officials to go ahead with the talks, expected to start on April 23.
In a further sign Pyongyang wants to engage the outside world, albeit for different reasons, Seoul said the North had proposed holding bilateral ministerial talks on April 27 to 29.
Pyongyang cancelled previously scheduled cabinet-level talks with Seoul on economic and other matters after the South decided to send non-combat troops to help in the US-led war in Iraq.
"The North sent us this morning a telegram, saying it wants ministerial talks in Pyongyang," the South Korean Unification Ministry said. KCNA said it proposed the talks to "settle the issue of inter-Korean relations through national cooperation".
A ministry spokesman said the South would "positively consider accepting". An official reply was likely next week.
The North asked Seoul this week for rice and fertilizer.
US satellites can detect activity at the nuclear complex where the reprocessing plant is located, but it is not clear whether they can discern reprocessing and, if so, how quickly.
The South Korean Defense Ministry said a review of South Korean and US intelligence had found no sign the North Koreans had begun reprocessing.
Japan, like South Korea, said it had no information to back up the North's original statement, which could fit into a past Pyongyang pattern of raising the stakes ahead of major talks.
In Seoul, more than 1,000 activists and army veterans burned an effigy of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in a protest against the North's suspected nuclear arms program.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS