US Secretary of State Colin Powell called on North Korea to refrain from making military threats and to take seriously US proposals for ending the impasse over the country's nuclear weapons programs.
In Japan, a ferry linked to the nuclear program arrived at Niigata yesterday, defying protesters who want to stop the trips in which it takes back goods and cash seen as vital for the ailing communist state.
PHOTO: APN
Powell met for an hour Wednesday with South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan and then commented on last week's six-nation talks in China on East Asian security issues.
"We are looking for a diplomatic solution," Powell said. "We have no intention of invading North Korea or attacking North Korea."
In contrast, he said, North Korea has engaged in "threats and truculent statements that are designed to frighten us. We will not be frightened, nor will we be caused by such threats to take actions that we do not believe are in our interests or the interests of our partners."
He expressed hope that North Korea will respond in a serious way to the US proposals that were spelled out at the meeting in Beijing.
Powell showed his irritation toward North Korea after being asked to respond to a statement by Pyongyang's chief delegate in Beijing, Kim Yong-il, that North Korea planned to carry out a nuclear test.
Kim also said his country has the means to deliver nuclear weapons, an apparent reference to its highly developed missile program.
At the same time, Kim told the gathering in Beijing that North Korea would be willing to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs if the US met a number of conditions.
The Bush administration hopes to cut a deal with North Korea that would involve economic benefits and security guarantees for North Korea in exchange for nuclear disarmament.
Powell declined to speculate on when the next round of six-nation talks will be held. In addition to the US and North Korea, other countries taking part in the process are South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
In recent days, Chinese officials have said that both the US and North Korea have to change their policies if there is to be forward movement.
Asked to respond to those comments, Yoon registered disagreement with Beijing's position. "Key policy-makers of the United States have already expressed that they don't have any intention to invade North Korea," he said. "They don't have any hostile policy."
Yoon's activities Wednesday also included a White House meeting with President George W. Bush.
In Japan, the Mangyongbong-92 arrived for the second time in 10 days at the northern port of Niigata, where it was awaited by protesters, pro-Pyongyang Korean residents and hundreds of police.
Over 100 protesters, many holding portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his late father Kim Il-sung with a big "X" over their faces, shouted "Go home" and ripped up the pictures.
The ethnic Koreans, meanwhile, welcomed the ship by singing Korean songs. The ferry's passengers lining the rail responded by waving small North Korean flags.
Anti-North Korean sentiment has flared up in Japan following Pyongyang's admission last September that it kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS