Sharp differences over North Korea's nuclear programs were back in the spotlight yesterday as the US held its line at the opening of another round of six-nation disarmament talks.
The talks are aimed at implementing a September agreement for North Korea to scrap its nuclear programs in exchange for energy and other aid, but the North later demanded an atomic reactor for energy purposes before disarming.
"First, they have got to disarm [and] create a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," chief US delegate Christopher Hill told reporters before the talks got under way in the Chinese capital.
PHOTO: AP
"It is very clear in the agreement what they need to do," Hill said, holding the US position on Pyongyang.
Delegates from China, North Korea, South Korea, the US, Russia and Japan opened their fifth round of talks with little outward sign of a breakthrough in the impasse.
The chief of the Chinese delegation Wu Dawei (
"This result has not come easily and therefore all the parties should highly cherish it and treat it seriously," Wu said.
North Korea has said little about its intentions but adopted a typically angry stance on the eve of the meeting by claiming Bush had slandered its leader Kim Jong-il this week as a "tyrant."
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
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