North Korea warned the US and South Korea yesterday to call off military exercises scheduled for this weekend and to back off any new sanctions against Pyongyang or risk placing the entire region in danger.
The warning issued on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Hanoi came as tensions simmer over the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. The North denies any responsibility.
“Amid growing concerns by the international community, South Korea and the United States have announced they would hold joint naval exercises,” said Ri Tong-il, a North Korean spokesman, according to Yonhap news agency. “Such a move presents a grave threat to the peace and security not only to the Korean Peninsula, but to the region.”
The US announced on Wednesday it would impose new sanctions aimed at stifling the North’s nuclear activities. Ri said any new sanctions would be in violation of a UN Security Council statement approved earlier this month that condemned the sinking but stopped short of directly assigning blame.
“If the US is really interested in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, it should halt the military exercises and sanctions that destroy the mood for dialogue,” Ri told reporters.
Later he said the North was willing to meet the US and Japan on the sidelines of today’s security meeting if they request it, but no such proposals have come, Yonhap reported.
Seoul has said there will be no one-on-one meetings with the North until an apology is issued for the sinking of the Cheonan, and though US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and representatives of the other countries involved in nuclear talks will be in Vietnam, diplomats have said a meeting was unlikely.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates struck back at the criticism of the military drills.
“My response to that is that I condemn their sinking of the Cheonan,” Gates said to reporters in Jakarta yesterday.
Military officers from the UN command and North Korea were to meet at the border today.
ASEAN is caught in the middle of a diplomatic tug-of-war, with the two Koreas battling over the exact wording of one paragraph in a regional security statement about the Cheonan sinking. The statement will be issued today.
The North and China are pushing to avoid any terse wording, while South Korea and the US want tough language condemning the attack and nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula.
PATROL PARTNERS: The ‘Chiayi’ and the ‘Penghu’ departed for a two-day joint patrol of Palau’s exclusive economic zone, the CGA’s second diplomatic visit to the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) set a record for its southernmost deployment of a coast guard vessel as the vessels Chiayi and the Penghu reached Palau’s Pulo Anna Island on Saturday in a cooperative exercise between the two countries. The island, about 217 nautical miles (401km) southwest of Koror in the Palauan state of Sonsorol and 1,220 nautical miles from Taiwan’s southernmost point, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), is the furthest south a CGA vessel has sailed. The two vessels are in Palau for the coast guard’s second diplomatic visit to the country. They docked at Malakal Harbor on Tuesday last week. The coast guard
The government is monitoring online rumors that a pneumonic plague outbreak has spread from Russia into China, and it might enhance quarantine measures, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During a legislative meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that rumors had circulated that the disease had spread across several Chinese provinces. He asked Cho whether the government was prepared to prevent the disease spreading to Taiwan, given the volume of traffic between the two sides, and how concerned the government was about the alleged outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Welfare had implemented border quarantine measures after briefing the Executive
EAST OF GUAM: Tropical Storm Champi is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon, but its effect on Taiwan is uncertain due to the presence of a high-pressure system Tropical Storm Champi formed yesterday and has the potential to increase in strength, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Forecasters are closely monitoring a Pacific high-pressure system that would dictate whether the storm turns north or moves toward Taiwan next week, the CWA said. The most likely scenario is that it turns northward after passing the Ryukyu Islands, CWA forecaster Cheng Chieh-jen (鄭傑仁) said. As of 8pm yesterday, Champi was east of Guam moving west-northwest at 20kph, CWA data showed. It had maximum sustained winds near the center of 72kph and gusts of up to 101kph, the data showed. If the Pacific high-pressure system
BATCH 1: The military has plans to assign the weapons to the army to defend Taiwan proper, as well as outlying islands and the navy for the Marine Corps, the official said Taiwan is to receive 500 Stinger missiles and 178 launchers from the US by the end of the year, the first batch under a planned two-stage acquisition totaling 2,621 missiles and 763 launchers, a defense official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The portable missiles would play a vital role in the nation’s air defense capabilities, the source said. The army plans to deploy 2,235 missiles and 657 launchers to defend Taiwan proper and outlying islands, they said, citing military documents. The navy is allotted 295 missiles and 85 launchers to arm the Marine Corps and some surface vessels that lack air defense
RSS