US Vice President Dick Cheney closed his Asia tour with a speech to American troops stationed in Seoul, telling a cheering audience their enthusiastic reception was a highlight of the weeklong trip.
"Together ... we will destroy the remnants of violent, oppressive regimes -- and together, we will win this essential victory in the war on terror," Cheney said yesterday in an address to several thousand loudly cheering and chanting troops.
"That made the whole trip worthwhile," Cheney said of his reception by the servicemen and women stationed at the Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul.
"Living on the border between freedom and tyranny, the people of Korea understand the urgency of our cause in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East," said Cheney.
After addressing the troops, Cheney boarded his jetliner for the long flight home to Washington.
At an earlier luncheon with South Korean leaders, Cheney saluted South Korea as "a nation that shares our values and shares part of our history."
"And again we are standing together," he said, calling South Korea "a valued and vital part of our coalition."
South Korea has troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq and the vice president said the US applauds "your brave decision to support the cause of freedom."
Cheney visited as South Koreans voted in parliamentary elections that produced a victory for impeached President Roh Moo Hyun.
Cheney said the election showed "democracy is strong in the Republic of Korea."
During an earlier leg of his trip, Cheney said in a foreign policy speech in China that letting North Korea's weapons program go unchecked could spark a new arms race in the region and create a weapons bazaar for terrorists.
That speech was carried by China's state television without deletions or blackouts, which US officials took as an encouraging sign of change.
Cheney praised China for setting up six-way talks to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program, but he prodded Chinese leaders to be more aggressive in bringing pressure to bear on Pyongyang.
"We'll do our level best to achieve this objective through diplomatic means, and through negotiations," Cheney said. "But it is important that we make progress in this area."
The negotiations involve the US, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas.
He suggested that North Korea represented a double threat -- it could stock its own nuclear arsenal and sell weapons to the highest bidder, including al-Qaeda and other terror organizations.
Cheney said recent information gleaned from a top former Pakistani nuclear scientist provided compelling evidence that Pyongyang has an active atomic weapons program.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
SECRETIVE SECT: Tetsuya Yamagami was said to have held a grudge against the Unification Church for bankrupting his family after his mother donated about ￥100m The gunman accused of killing former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe yesterday pleaded guilty, three years after the assassination in broad daylight shocked the world. The slaying forced a reckoning in a nation with little experience of gun violence, and ignited scrutiny of alleged ties between prominent conservative lawmakers and a secretive sect, the Unification Church. “Everything is true,” Tetsuya Yamagami said at a court in the western city of Nara, admitting to murdering the nation’s longest-serving leader in July 2022. The 45-year-old was led into the room by four security officials. When the judge asked him to state his name, Yamagami, who
DEADLY PREDATORS: In New South Wales, smart drumlines — anchored buoys with baited hooks — send an alert when a shark bites, allowing the sharks to be tagged High above Sydney’s beaches, drones seek one of the world’s deadliest predators, scanning for the flick of a tail, the swish of a fin or a shadow slipping through the swell. Australia’s oceans are teeming with sharks, with great whites topping the list of species that might fatally chomp a human. Undeterred, Australians flock to the sea in huge numbers — with a survey last year showing that nearly two-thirds of the population made a total of 650 million coastal visits in a single year. Many beach lovers accept the risks. When a shark killed surfer Mercury Psillakis off a northern Sydney beach last
‘NO WORKABLE SOLUTION’: An official said Pakistan engaged in the spirit of peace, but Kabul continued its ‘unabated support to terrorists opposed to Pakistan’ Pakistan yesterday said that negotiations for a lasting truce with Afghanistan had “failed to bring about a workable solution,” warning that it would take steps to protect its people. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been holding negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, aimed at securing peace after the South Asian neighbors’ deadliest border clashes in years. The violence, which killed more than 70 people and wounded hundreds, erupted following explosions in Kabul on Oct. 9 that the Taliban authorities blamed on Pakistan. “Regrettably, the Afghan side gave no assurances, kept deviating from the core issue and resorted to blame game, deflection and ruses,” Pakistani Minister of
RSS