US and South Korean officials held more talks yesterday about tightening the sanctions on North Korea as Pyongyang’s military threatened to hit back at a South Korean naval exercise.
US officials, led by Robert Einhorn, State Department special adviser for non-proliferation and arms control, met senior finance ministry officials.
“The US side briefed us on financial sanctions against the North and Iran and they asked for Seoul’s help,” Kim Ik-ju, director of the ministry’s international finance bureau, told journalists. “US officials spent much of the time explaining about sanctions against Iran.”
Also at the talks was Daniel Glaser, a senior Treasury official overseeing efforts to combat terrorist financing and financial crimes.
During a visit to Seoul last month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced plans to tighten existing sanctions and impose new measures on the North to punish Pyongyang for the alleged sinking of the Cheonan and to pressure it to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
Seoul and Washington accuse Pyongyang of torpedoing the ship in March, with the loss of 46 lives, a charge it vehemently denies. South Korea and its US ally held a major naval and air exercise last week to deter cross-border aggression and Seoul will launch its own five-day anti-submarine drill tomorrow in the Yellow Sea.
The North’s military western command yesterday described the upcoming exercise as a “direct military invasion.”
“In view of the prevailing situation, the [western command] made a decisive resolution to counter the reckless naval firing projected by the group of traitors [South Korea’s government] with strong physical retaliation,” it said.
Pyongyang made similar threats against last week’s joint exercise in the Sea of Japan, which passed without incident.
Einhorn and Glaser on Monday announced plans that could cut off companies and individuals accused of sanctions-busting activities from the international financial system. Einhorn, in an apparent “name and shame” policy, said Washington would blacklist such entities and individuals and block any property or assets they possess in the US.
Kim Yong-hyun of Seoul’s Dongguk University said the new US sanctions would merely have a symbolic effect since China remains reluctant to hit the North hard.
“The US rhetoric sounds harsh, but Washington itself does not want to squeeze the North too hard ... When the dust whipped up by the sinking incident begins to settle in a month or two, the atmosphere will shift toward dialogue,” Kim said, predicting that six-party nuclear disarmament talks could resume in the autumn.
Meanwhile, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun called yesterday for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
“We are pressing for a peace treaty to get rid of the root of constant threats against peace and stability in the region and to ensure permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula,” he said in a speech in Jakarta.
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