Two members of a US delegation were due to brief South Korean officials yesterday about their surprise tour of a nuclear complex in North Korea that is believed to be capable of making weapons.
John Lewis, a professor emeritus at Stanford University, and other experts were the first outsiders allowed into North Korea's Yongbyon facilities since UN inspectors were expelled a year ago.
Two members of the unofficial US delegation, Keith Luse and Frank Jannuzi, both Senate foreign relations committee aides, flew into Seoul on Sunday, but they declined to comment on their visit to Yongbyon.
They were scheduled to meet officials from South Korea's foreign ministry and unification ministry yesterday to brief them on their five-day visit to North Korea.
The US suspects North Korea may have resumed reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods into plutonium for use in nuclear weapons and has been trying, along with its allies, to resume six-way talks with North Korea to end the nuclear row.
North Korea said on Saturday it had shown a visiting US delegation its "nuclear deterrent" and hoped it would provide a basis for a peaceful settlement of the row with the US over its nuclear activities.
The six parties -- the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia -- met inconclusively in Beijing in August.
Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan (
Tang, a former Chinese foreign minister, told a delegation of senior Japanese ruling party officials, the talks looked likely next month because North Korea and the US appeared to be getting closer to overcoming their differences.
North Korea's state media marked the first anniversary of its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty with a commentary on Sunday blaming the US for ignoring Pyongyang's overtures for a resolution of the crisis.
"The world is now watching whether the US has a true will to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula on the principle of simultaneous actions and peaceful co-existence," the North's mouthpiece, news agency KCNA, reported on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Japan's NHK national television in an interview that aired on Sunday Washington was committed to the next round of talks and he was confident it would be held in the "not-too-far future."
Last week, North Korea offered to freeze its nuclear activities in a move that has raised hopes for a fresh round of talks.
The US said in October 2002 North Korea had admitted to a clandestine uranium enrichment program to build nuclear weapons, which US officials say violated a 1994 agreement by the North to freeze its 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
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