Four South Korean legislators are demanding that China punish security agents who disrupted a news conference about North Korean refugees, but China yesterday said the politicians should apologize for breaking the law.
South Korea demanded an explanation from Beijing of the 11-hour standoff at a Beijing hotel Wednesday, where the agents shut off the lights, shoved some reporters out and prevented others from talking to the South Koreans.
The lawmakers had planned to discuss North Korean asylum seekers, a politically sensitive issue for China -- Pyongyang's closest ally.
The legislators demanded that Beijing punish the men who stopped the news conference, said a South Korean Embassy official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
"The legislators called it an unprecedented violation of human rights and freedom of speech,'' the official said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan (
"If the situation is true, why should we apologize to them?" Kong said at a regular briefing. "I feel on the other hand, they should make apologies to the Chinese side."
Hundreds of North Koreans fleeing their hardline communist homeland have been allowed to leave for the rival South after breaking into embassies, consulates and schools in China. While Beijing is obliged by treaty to send home the asylum seekers, it hasn't done so in cases that become public.
Chinese authorities insist they are economic migrants and refused to grant them refugee status.
The South Korean legislators, members of the opposition Grand National Party, "didn't come to China for friendship, for more understanding and for cooperation. They came here in support of activities which are in contradiction or in violation of China's laws and regulations," Kong said.
"These four persons are congressmen ... and if they want to further encourage these illegal entrants to do such things, we will not allow this," Kong said.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned China's Ambassador Li Bin and demanded China's explanation on the incident, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.
On Wednesday, the lawmakers and reporters sat in darkness for almost two hours. After the lights came back on, the men who broke up the news conference barricaded the door with chairs and sat on them.
Ambassador Li Bin (
The Grand National Party yesterday blamed the incident on China's "rudeness and arrogance."
"This is in one word an insult to the Republic of Korea, and a violence toward lawmakers who represent the people," it said.
In a statement issued before the conference, the lawmakers appealed to the Chinese government to allow North Koreans hiding in China to leave the country and to release Choi Young-hoon, a jailed South Korean activist.
The lawmakers departed yesterday morning for the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, where Choi is serving a five-year prison term on migrant smuggling charges, the embassy official said. He had been accused of helping North Korean asylum seekers, the lawmakers said.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s (黎智英) fraud conviction and prison sentence were yesterday overturned by a Hong Kong court, in a surprise legal decision that comes soon after Lai was jailed for 20 years on a separate national security charge. Judges Jeremy Poon (潘兆初), Anthea Pang (彭寶琴) and Derek Pang (彭偉昌) said in the judgement that they allowed the appeal from Lai, and another defendant in the case, to proceed, as a lower court judge had “erred.” “The Court of Appeal gave them leave to appeal against their conviction, allowed their appeals, quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences,” the judges
RSS