Two North Korean naval boats briefly crossed the tense western sea border with South Korea in the first violation since a South Korean warship sank in the area following a mysterious explosion in March, the South’s military said yesterday.
A North Korean patrol boat sailed about 3km into South Korean waters on Saturday night, but quickly retreated after a South Korean navy ship broadcast warnings, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
In less than an hour, another North Korean patrol boat intruded across the border but returned to its waters after another transmission and two warning shots from the South Korean vessel, a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said on condition of anonymity citing department policy.
The first North Korean boat responded by radioing its own warning, accusing the South Korean vessel of violating the sea border before it sailed back to the North, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Meanwhile, Japan urged China to cut its nuclear arsenal or at least to stop stockpiling more atomic weapons, prompting a strong reaction from Beijing at their foreign ministers’ talks, officials said yesterday.
The demand came when Japanese foreign minister Katsuya Okada met his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) at talks in South Korea on Saturday, said Kazuo Kodama, the Japanese foreign ministry’s press secretary.
Okada and Yang arrived in Gyeongju on Saturday to attend the two-day foreign ministerial meeting with South Korean host Yu Myung-hwan.
The three foreign ministers discussed issues including the growing tension over the sinking of the Cheonan in March.
The Japanese minister said China was the only permanent five (P5) member of the UN Security Council that was still accumulating nuclear weapons.
“Amongst the P5, it is only China which is increasing its nuclear arsenal,” Okada told Yang during the talks.
“Therefore I would like to request the Chinese government either to reduce the number of nuclear arsenals or at least commit ourselves not to increase its nuclear arsenals from the current level,” he quoted Okada as saying.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said yesterday that Yang had repudiated Okada’s remarks and defended Beijing’s nuclear policy.
“Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi refuted the irresponsible remarks by Japan on the spot,” Ma said.
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
TALKS CONTINUE: Although an agreement has not been reached with Washington, lowering the tariff from 32 percent to 20 percent is still progress, the vice premier said Taiwan would strive for a better US tariff rate in negotiations, with the goal being not just lowering the current 20-percent tariff rate, but also securing an exemption from tariff stacking, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday. Cheng made the remarks at a news conference at the Executive Yuan explaining the new US tariffs and the government’s plans for supporting affected industries. US President Donald Trump on July 31 announced a new tariff rate of 20 percent on Taiwan’s exports to the US starting on Thursday last week, and the Office of Trade Negotiations on Friday confirmed that it
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