A power struggle appears to be underway in North Korea over how to deal with the issue of nuclear weapons, North Korea's chief delegate has indicated, a report said yesterday.
Following a North Korean threat to test a nuclear weapon in bilateral talks with the US on Thursday, Pyongyang's top negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, was quoted as saying two factions were at play in the Stalinist nation.
"There is a separate group of people ... willing to build nuclear weapons ... and clamoring for nuclear testing," Yonhap news agency cited him as telling James Kelly, the US' head delegate.
"It is not an easy job to dissuade them from nuclear-weapons development. So we need justification and reasoning to convince them," he reportedly said.
However, experts and analysts believe Kim Jong-il, 62, is increasingly relying on the military to maintain his tight grip on power.
The leaders of North Korea's 1.1-million strong army are believed to represent the hawkish element in North Korea, while diplomats in the foreign ministry are less convinced that atomic weapons are the answer to the country's woes.
Though his father, Kim Il-sung, was revered by the North Korean people, the son who inherited power in 1994 lacks the charisma and widespread appeal enjoyed by the elder Kim, who founded the communist state in 1948. He has sought to court the armed forces, promoting an "army first," policy to keep military leaders loyal.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
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