South Korean Moon Jae-in yesterday called for the creation of road and rail links between his nation and North Korea by the end of the year.
Moon proposed creating a “northeast Asian railroad community” between the two Koreas, the US and four unnamed parties, in a speech marking the 73rd anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule on the Korean Peninsula.
The Blue House later said the other partners would include China, Russia, Japan and Mongolia.
However, the proposition is complicated by international sanctions meant to punish the North for its nuclear program.
Moon pointed to the early days of the EU as a model, when the trade and political bloc began as a steel and coal-trading community.
He also said that increased contacts and potential economic cooperation could be a driving force toward denuclearization.
“Even though a political unification may be a long way from here, establishing peace between the South and the North and freely visiting each other, and forming a joint economic community is true liberation to us,” Moon said according to a translation by the South’s Yonhap news agency.
“This community will lead to an energy bloc and economic bloc in northeast Asia by expanding our economic area to the northern continent and becoming the foundation of coexistence and prosperity in northeast Asia,” he said. “This will mark the start to a multilateral security system in northeast Asia.”
However, he added that economic cooperation could not be fully realized as long as North Korea maintained its nuclear arsenal.
Moon is expected to travel to Pyongyang by the end of next month to hold a third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
South Korea is increasingly pursuing its own diplomatic efforts with its neighbor as talks between the North Korea and the US have stalled.
Shortly after Moon and Kim’s first meeting in April, officials from the two Koreas began exploring how the nations could link their rail systems.
A common joke among young South Koreans has been that the most tangible outcome of better relations would be the ability to take a train all the way to Europe.
However, Moon’s plan might be complicated by UN sanctions designed to limit trade with North Korea. US officials have said that the North has not taken steps to dismantle its nuclear program and Pyongyang has reportedly rebuffed multiple suggestions to hand over nuclear warheads.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS