South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday promised economic assistance for the communist North if it ends its suspected nuclear weapons program -- an incentive Washington refuses to offer.
Roh's comments on the 58th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japan at the end of World War II came ahead of Aug. 27-29 multilateral talks in Beijing aimed at defusing the nuclear tension.
"North Korea should not miss this opportunity," Roh said. "When the North gives up its nuclear programs, the South is willing to take the lead in helping develop its economy."
Roh's offer came a day after US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington is not offering economic assistance as an incentive for North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
The US, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas will take part in the Beijing talks.
Roh also stressed the need for US troops in South Korea, as well as a strong military defense.
"Things will not work out simply by crying out against the withdrawal of the American troops," Roh said. "Self-reliant national defense by no means contradicts the Korea-US alliance. They are mutually complementary."
Hours after Roh's speech, however, 3,000 activists and students, some beating gongs and drums, marched in downtown Seoul, chanting anti-US and anti-Japanese slogans.
"Let's drive out US troops!" the protesters shouted, carrying banners emblazoned with similar slogans.
They also demanded a nonaggression treaty between North Korea and the US, echoing a key demand of Pyongyang which accuses Washington of plotting an invasion.
The demonstrators accused Japan of trying to revive its past militarism.
"Japan should repent!" they chanted.
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS