South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will propose creating a permanent high-level diplomatic channel between the North and South, including establishing the first liaison offices in the nations’ capitals after nearly six decades of division, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
“Both North and South Korea must change their ways,” Lee said in an interview with the newspaper’s editors and reporters.
Lee embraced the recent US proposal to have North Korea “acknowledge” US concerns and evidence about its apparent efforts to enrich uranium and its suspected nuclear trading with Syria, rather than provide its own dossier on such activities, the Post said.
Lee said the solution would offer North Korea “an indirect way to being involved in these two activities,” therefore allowing the stalled negotiations to move forward.
Lee, a former construction chief executive nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his determination to get things done, took office this year after a decade of rule in which South Korea has sought to reconcile with the North.
North Korea has hurled a series of what Lee calls “belligerent and bellicose” statements about the South Korean president since he took office earlier this year.
Lee told the Post that his administration remained “calm and collected” about Pyongyang’s attacks.
To that end, he said, he wanted to establish a permanent channel so the nations could have a regular dialogue, rather than intermittent contacts elicited by crises.
He said that offices should be headed by officials with direct access to the leaders of each country.
Also see: FEATURE: Quirky Air Koryo survives and, increasingly, thrives
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique