North Korea can only be persuaded to abandon its nuclear ambitions if partners in multilateral talks due to resume later this month address the state's motivations and the impact on its stability, Seoul said yesterday.
"The most important thing is North Korea giving up its nuclear development, but there are motives and reasons why the North wants to have nuclear programs," South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said on a KBS radio program yesterday.
Song also said the regional powers at the talks needed to take into consideration how any deal would impact on the North's economic and political stability.
Meanwhile, North Korea said yesterday in a commentary in its main newspaper that it didn't intend to permanently hold nuclear weapons, but sought them because of an alleged US threat.
"Our possession of nuclear weapons is not to threaten or pressure others or make a preemptive attack," the Rodong Sinmun wrote, according to the country's official Korean Central News Agency. "If the nuclear issue is to be solved, the US' nuclear threat toward Korea and hostile policies must be retracted. This is the key point for the resolution of the nuclear issue."
North Korea agreed on Saturday to return to six-nation nuclear talks in a few weeks after refusing to attend for more than a year, citing "hostile" US policies. US officials have repeatedly denied any intention to attack the North, and recently said they recognized it as a sovereign nation.
The breakthrough on the talks came after a meeting in Beijing between the top US and North Korean envoys to the negotiations, which also include South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
South Korea has said it has prepared a significant aid proposal for the North if it returns to the arms negotiations, but no details have been revealed.
Song said yesterday that the proposal would extend beyond financial aid.
"We are proceeding with the judgment that if we were building a house, this [proposal] can and will be an important cornerstone," Song told MBC radio.
South Korean security officials met yesterday to discuss the coming disarmament negotiations, and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is set to chair a National Security Council meeting on the issue today.
The North's return to the nuclear talks has renewed optimism that the crisis can be resolved, but officials are urging Pyongyang to engage in substantive discussions about giving up its atomic weapons.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper wrote in an editorial yesterday that the next round of the arms talks would be "the last chance to solve the nuclear dispute through dialogue" before possible sanctions at the UN Security Council.
"If the talks resume, their prospects are by no means bright. Nothing has changed in the basic positions of the US and North Korea," it wrote.
"Unless [the talks] achieve substantial progress, they will merely fuel the suspicion that they are a waste of time," it added.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
RSS