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."
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
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