Top envoys from North Korea declined to meet South Korea's pleas to set a date for returning to international nuclear disarmament talks but returned home yesterday with a pledge of food aid and accords to foster family reunions and other cooperation across their tense border.
During Cabinet-level reconciliation talks that ended on Thursday, the two Koreas agreed to a series of reconciliation meetings in coming months. But the nuclear impasse continued, with the North lashing out anew at US President George W. Bush for meeting a prominent North Korean defector, saying it was counterproductive in efforts to resume nuclear talks.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il raised hopes last week when he told a visiting South Korean minister of a possible return to the table as early as next month, if the North gets appropriate respect from the US.
The South tried to get the North to commit to that timeframe, but got no "definite answer" this week, said Kim Chun-shick, a spokesman for the South's delegation. However, both sides agreed to resolve the nuclear dispute peacefully.
"The South and the North have agreed to take real measures for peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue through dialogue, as the atmosphere is created, with the ultimate goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," the South's Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said.
Washington has dismissed Kim Jong-il's recent comments, saying Pyongyang needs to set a firm date to return to the negotiations and talk substantively about giving up its nuclear program.
The talks' failure to make concrete progress on the nuclear issue drew criticism yesterday from South Korea's conservative media, which called on the government to consider its continued aid to the North in light of Pyongyang's refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons.
"North Korea, in reality, has not taken one step forward from the stance that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il elucidated recently in Pyongyang," the main Chosun Ilbo daily wrote in an editorial.
Three rounds of talks have failed to yield notable progress, but Washington has insisted the nuclear dispute be resolved in that forum and spurned the North's requests for direct talks.
North Korea boasted in February that it had atomic weapons, and has moved in recent months to potentially harvest more radioactive material to add to a supply believed enough for a half-dozen bombs.
The North's propaganda machine launched another tirade on Thursday at the US, criticizing Bush for hosting Kang Chol Hwan, a North Korean defector now working as a journalist in South Korea who has written a memoir detailing a decade of abuses he suffered at a North Korean prison camp. The North's Korean Central News Agency said the meeting was "an act of throwing a wet blanket on the efforts to resume" the nuclear talks.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS