North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly held talks yesterday with Chinese President Hu Jintao (
China's Foreign Ministry would not confirm Kim's arrival in Beijing and said it had "no information" on the meeting with the Chinese leader -- the first between the two since Hu became president last year. When Kim visited China in 2000 and 2001, neither side announced the trips in advance and released few details until his return to Pyongyang.
Kim and Hu talked over lunch about "how to end the North Korean nuclear issue," South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unidentified sources. The agency said the two met at the Zhongnanhai compound, where Chinese leaders live and work in central Beijing.
Hu briefed Kim on the US position, which was underscored last week during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, and listened to Kim's ideas on how to end the dispute, the agency said.
Washington has insisted on a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling" of all the communist North's nuclear facilities, but Pyongyang says it will do so only if the US provides economic aid and security guarantees.
Washington is hoping Beijing will use its leverage as North Korea's last major ally and the leading supplier of food and energy aid for its decrepit economy.
On Sunday, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman described Cheney as "mentally deranged."
The North "is seriously contemplating a measure to counter the US oft-repeated demand that it scrap its nuclear program first," the spokesman was quoted as saying by KCNA, the North's official news agency.
Such threats are frequently made by North Korea, which has vacillated on what it is willing to do to resolve the issue.
Yonhap said Hu and Kim also reaffirmed their "friendship and alliance" and discussed China's food and energy assistance along with Pyongyang's economic reform.
A special train carrying Kim and his entourage of about 40 senior party and government officials arrived in Beijing in the morning, Yonhap said.
Security was tight at the Chinese capital's main train station and reporters saw a convoy of heavily armored cars with tinted windows leave the area. Shortly after, the cars arrived at the Diaoyutai state guest house, where Chinese leaders usually receive visiting dignitaries.
Discussions about the nuclear issue could help to restart the process of determining when the next round of six-nation talks will be held and when lower level working groups can begin hammering out questions that might not be suitable for the high-level talks.
The last meeting, aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program, ended in February without much progress and the participants -- which also include South Korea, the US, Japan and Russia -- agreed to resume talks before July.
He is scheduled to meet former President Jiang Zemin (江澤民), who now heads China's powerful military commission, and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) during his four-day visit, South Korea's state-run KBS-TV said. Yonhap said that meeting will take place today. He will also see Wu Bangguo (吳邦國), the head of the legislature, and Vice President Zeng Qinghong (曾慶紅), and attend a dinner hosted by Hu, it said.
Since taking over power in 1994 from his late father President Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il has been struggling to revive the impoverished North's economy, learning from China's capitalist experiments.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
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
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS