North Korea offered yesterday to refrain from testing and producing nuclear weapons as a "bold concession" to rekindle six-nation talks on the standoff over its arms programs.
The move came as the US, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas scrambled to arrange a new round of negotiations on the topic, with South Korea and Russia saying they are unlikely this month.
In addition, a delegation of Americans left Beijing for North Korean yesterday to possibly tour the communist country's disputed nuclear plant at Yongbyon.
A South Korean Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity they were to stay in the North from yesterday to Saturday. Another pair of Americans, both congressional staffers, are also scheduled to visit Pyongyang this week.
The Yongbyon complex is at the heart of the standoff, and there has been no outside access to the facility since North Korea expelled UN nuclear inspectors at the end of 2002.
John Lewis, professor emeritus of international relations at Stanford University, said before leaving China that he hoped their trip would "clarify some issues" at stake in the nuclear dispute. But members of the group refused comment on reports that they might visit the Yongbyon complex.
North Korea has said before it is willing to freeze its "nuclear activities" in exchange for US aid and being delisted from Washington's roster of terrorism sponsoring nations.
Yesterday it specified it was "set to refrain from test and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose as first-phase measures of the package solution."
In a commentary carried by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea called the offer "one more bold concession."
Washington has said it wants North Korea to verifiably begin dismantling its nuclear weapons programs before it delivers any concessions.
Yesterday, North Korea said its first-step proposal should be the focus of preparations for new talks.
"If the United States keeps ignoring our efforts and continues to pressurize the DPRK to scrap its nuclear weapons program first while shelving the issue of making a switchover in its policy toward the DPRK, the basis of dialogue will be demolished and a shadow will be cast over the prospects of talks," KCNA said.
DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with North Korea, says North Korea has at least three nuclear reactors.
Last year, it restarted a five-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon. An unfinished 50-megawatt reactor also stands at Yongbyon, and a 200-megawatt one is located just northeast of the site at Taechon.
A US-led international consortium had been building two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors on the country's east coast. But that project was suspended last month amid the nuclear standoff.
North Korea's neighbors were suspicious of the intent behind North Korea's other nuclear reactor and agreed to help build the light-water ones because they are more difficult to convert to weapons use. North Korea's offer to suspend all nuclear activities, even those for peaceful purposes could be aimed at easing those suspicions.
Chinese and Russian officials met in Moscow on Monday to try smoothing a way toward a new session of six-nation talks. A first round of talks in Beijing in August ended with little progress.
Russia and China are working on a compromise that assumes the liquidation of the North Korean nuclear program may take more than one year. Agreement to a "freeze" of nuclear work by Pyongyang would be the first step toward dismantlement, according to ITAR-Tass.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
RSS