North Korea yesterday angrily reacted to a US-led move to suspend construction of two nuclear power plants in the impoverished country, saying it will seize all equipment and technical data for the US$4.6 billion project.
Pyongyang, however, did not revoke its earlier promise to return to six-nation talks aimed at resolving a standoff over its nuclear weapons program -- a scenario some US allies had feared when they agreed to halt work on the North Korean reactor project.
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), a US-led consortium based in New York, has been building two light-water reactors in Kumho, a remote village on North Korea's northeast coast, as part of a 1994 "agreed framework" deal between Washington and Pyongyang.
Halting the project looked inevitable yesterday, however, as all four members of KEDO's executive board said they favored suspending it for at least one year.
Washington led the initiative, suggesting that KEDO kill the project because North Korea has flouted the 1994 accord by running a secret nuclear weapons program.
The US and KEDO must fully compensate North Korea "under relevant articles of the light-water reactor agreement," an unidentified spokesman of North Korea's Foreign Ministry said.
KEDO's executive committee met earlier this week and discussed the fate of the reactor project. They said they would make a final announcement before Nov. 21.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
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