The funeral yesterday of former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, whose efforts to reconcile the divided Korean Peninsula won him the Nobel Peace Prize, was marked by the rival Koreas’ first top level talks in nearly two years.
Kim, who died on Tuesday aged 85, was a driving force in South Korea’s shift to democracy and initiated the “Sunshine Policy” to try to coax the North out of its shell, leading in 2000 to the first ever summit of the two Korean leaders.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a delegation to the South for the mourning of the former president and, with them, a message to the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, whose 18 months in office have seen a sharp deterioration in relations.
PHOTO: EPA
The delegation, headed by a top aide to Kim Jong-il, met Lee in the latest sign the impoverished North is softening its tone after a nuclear test in May and missile launches were met with tightened UN sanctions and further international isolation.
Yonhap news agency quoted a senior presidential Blue House official as saying the meeting was a new beginning, but “it’s too early to expect a thaw in inter-Korean relations.”
The meeting lasted about 30 minutes. The Blue House would not disclose the content of the message to Lee.
The reclusive North, furious at Lee’s policy of ending aid until Pyongyang starts to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, has all but cut ties with its far wealthier neighbor.
“President Lee said if South and North Korea solve problems through dialogue and in a sincere manner, there is nothing we cannot resolve,” presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said. “[The North] expressed its gratitude for allowing the meeting and suggests both sides can cooperate and resolve [problems].”
North Korea’s KCNA news agency announced the meeting with Lee, but said only that the two had discussed “issues of developing relations between the North and South.”
The KCNA report was notable, however, for referring to Lee without any of the derisory labels it usually attaches to his name.
The delegation was the North’s first to the South in nearly two years. It flew home just before the state funeral.
Yonhap said about 20,000 mourners gathered by the National Assembly to mark the death of the man who was a towering figure in the fight to bring democracy to what is now Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Popularly referred to by his initials “DJ,” the former president spent much of his political life behind bars or under house arrest. He was once sentenced to death and the target of a number of assassination attempts.
“My husband underwent painful suffering to keep democracy during his lifetime ... he never gave in,” said his widow Lee Hee-ho, who partnered him in his fight against autocratic rule. “I sincerely ask you to keep a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness and to love peace and neighbors in difficulty. This is my husband’s message.”
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