North Korea plans to allow a US group to visit a nuclear complex to prove it is not bluffing about its progress toward making more atomic weapons, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper and source in Japan said yesterday.
The Jan. 6 to Jan.10 visit by a group that includes a nuclear scientist, congressional aides and a former diplomat comes as the US and its allies try to reopen talks with North Korea to end its nuclear programs.
The Tokyo-based People's Korea (Joson Sinbo) reported North Korea was expected to show the Yongbyon nuclear complex to the US, following through on an offer it had first made in October to US congressmen whose trip was later cancelled.
A diplomatic source close to North Korea said in Tokyo the Yongbyon visit was likely because Pyongyang wanted to "show how serious it is about nuclear development."
"It could be the last chance before North Korea decides whether to declare itself a nuclear state and negotiate with the United States," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Earlier this week North Korea offered to freeze its nuclear arms program and stop nuclear power generation. The US, South Korea and Japan welcomed the step and said it suggested the North was preparing for talks.
The People's Korea report repeated what North Korea had said in October, when a bipartisan congressional delegation led by Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican, was to visit Pyongyang. The trip was scrapped due to opposition from the Bush administration.
"North Korea said it was prepared to let the delegation visit the nuclear facility in Yongbyon, as desired by the delegation, so that it might watch on the spot the completed reprocessing and the switchover made in the use of plutonium obtained," it said.
"The congressional trip was cancelled because of opposition from the White House, but this time the tour of the Yongbyon nuclear facility is likely to be realized for the nuclear experts," the newspaper added.
The US delegation is headed by John Wilson Lewis, a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He told reporters before departing Beijing for Pyongyang on Tuesday he did not know whether the group would visit Yongbyon.
Washington has kept the delegation at arm's length, saying efforts to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons must concentrate on six-way talks involving China, Japan, Russia, the two Koreas and the US. It is unclear when the talks will take place.
In Tokyo, Japan's Kyodo news agency said China was set to propose that the next round of talks accept a freeze of the North's nuclear arms program as a first step.
Quoting sources in Washington, Kyodo said the Chinese proposal would serve as a compromise by backing off from the harder stance of the US, which calls for the "complete, verifiable and irreversible" dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear program.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS