A top South Korean official said yesterday that he had relayed to North Korea the chief US nuclear negotiator's desire to visit the communist country for talks.
South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said he delivered US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's message during last week's inter-Korean Cabinet-level talks in Pyongyang.
"Should Hill's visit to the North be realized, it would serve as an opportunity to further solidify the outcome of the six-party talks," Chung told a parliamentary committee yesterday.
The latest six-party nuclear talks -- the fourth round since 2003 -- produced a landmark accord on Monday in which North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid, security assurances and improved ties with the US.
North Korea has since issued hardline rhetoric throwing that commitment into question. The country said on Tuesday that it won't dismantle its nuclear program unless Washington gives it civilian nuclear reactors to generate power.
Hill was in Seoul on Monday last week for last-minute strategy talks before flying to Beijing the following day for the latest round of six-nation negotiations. At the time he met Chung, who departed for the North the following day, as well as Song Min-soon, his South Korean counterpart at the Beijing meetings.
After the Beijing talks wrapped up, Hill said he was willing to visit North Korea to keep channels of communication open, but many factors would determine whether such a visit could be made.
The mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported yesterday that Hill's plan faced opposition from US officials with hardline views on the North. Should that be overcome, his visit could come next month ahead of the next scheduled round of six-nation talks, it said.
The paper cited an unidentified South Korean government official as saying that Hill showed a "strong desire" to visit the North and "consult directly" with its leader Kim Jong-il on efforts to get North Korea to disarm.
However, there would be no guarantee that Kim would meet with Hill and not demand to see a higher-ranking official.
US State Department spokeswoman Darla Jordan in Washington declined to comment on the report.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry suggested any visit by Hill would be positive for the ongoing efforts to get North Korea to disarm its nuclear weapons.
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS