South Korea said yesterday it was considering a request by visiting North Korean officials to meet South Korean President Lee Myung-bak amid reports they were carrying a message from the communist country’s leader.
The six officials arrived in the South on Friday to mourn late South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, a champion of inter-Korean dialogue who died on Tuesday. It was the first time the North had sent a delegation to mourn a South Korean leader.
Any meeting with Lee would be significant because relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been tense since the conservative, pro-US former businessman took office in February last year.
An official dealing with inter-Korean affairs in Lee’s office said officials were considering the request for a meeting, but had not yet decided. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing a source it did not identify, said the delegation was carrying a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
The six North Koreans were originally scheduled to return home yesterday afternoon, but South Korea’s YTN television reported that they would stay another day and that Lee had no plan to meet the officials yesterday.
North Korean spy chief Kim Yang-gon, who also handles inter-Korean affairs, held an 80-minute meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek earlier in the day, the first such top-level meeting in almost two years.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS