Senior officials from Japan, the US and South Korea yesterday agreed to step up pressure on North Korea as they stuck to their goal of persuading the communist state to abandon its nuclear weapons.
Their pledge comes just two days after US National Intelligence Director James Clapper publicly called that goal a “lost cause.”
He said the best hope is capping its capability instead.
The deputy foreign ministers who held talks in Tokyo made it clear that North Korea now poses a new level of threat, and requires broader international pressure and tougher sanctions.
US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, said their policy has not changed.
“We will not accept North Korea as nuclear state; we will not accept North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons, period,” Blinken said. “We are focused on increasing the pressure on North Korea with one purpose: to bring it back to the table to negotiate in good faith. Denuclearization. That is the objective.”
Getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program has long been a headache in multilateral diplomacy with Pyongyang.
Japanese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Shinsuke Sugiyama, who hosted the talks, cited North Korea’s recent tests showing that its missile and nuclear capability had entered a new level of threat.
“We need to respond differently than in the past,” Sugiyama said.
Officials cited the sanctions and missile defense that have already been put in place, but did not elaborate on their different approaches other than fresh sanctions pending at the UN and possible separate additional measures by the three countries.
Meanwhile, South Korea said it plans to restart talks with Japan on a military intelligence sharing agreement to better cope with threats from North Korea.
Information from Japan’s network of satellites and other intelligence-gathering systems would be critical in monitoring and preparing against the North’s fast-developing nuclear weapons and missile programs, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said.
The US, South Korea and Japan signed a joint intelligence-sharing pact in 2014, but under the framework Seoul and Tokyo only share intelligence about North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs via Washington.
A bilateral agreement between South Korea and Japan would enable a quicker transfer of information between the two countries in urgent situations.
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