South Korea's foreign minister -- the next UN secretary-general -- arrived in China yesterday as Seoul and Beijing ponder how to sanction North Korea over its first-ever nuclear test.
Ban Ki-moon was scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (
The visit is part of Ban's tour of the five permanent member countries of the UN Security Council following his election earlier this month as the next UN chief, but his discussion in Beijing will also cover the North Korean nuclear issue, his ministry said.
PHOTO: AFP
Ban also plans to visit Russia and France next week.
His trip to Beijing comes a week after Tang, in his capacity as a Chinese presidential envoy, met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang for talks on the nuclear issue.
China announced this week that the North's leader told the Chinese envoy that he does not have a plan to carry out a second nuclear test, but will take further actions if necessary.
The US has been trying to muster international pressure against Pyongyang, seeking to enforce the UN Security Council resolution that calls for sanctions to punish the North for its Oct. 9 nuclear test.
The US State Department said on Thursday it was studying the imposition of additional sanctions against North Korea.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said on Wednesday that the Washington "is now obligated by law to adopt additional sanctions on North Korea under national legislation."
She mentioned the so-called Glenn Amendment, which bans US assistance to non-nuclear weapon states found to have exploded a nuclear device. US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said US "lawyers and the proliferation experts are taking a look at what the applicable sanctions might be, what is the possible universe."
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow yesterday stepped up pressure on Seoul to take stronger steps against the North to show that its "behavior is unacceptable."
"We have asked the [South Korean] government to join the international community in preventing proliferation of weapons from [North Korea], and I understand the government is considering the question of closer involvement in our proliferation security initiative," Vershbow told a breakfast meeting.
"I expect that the [South Korean] government ... will take appropriate steps," he said.
South Korea said on Thursday it would ban some Northern officials from traveling to South Korea, in line with a UN resolution passed in response to the North's nuclear test.
The travel ban marks its first real effort by Seoul to enforce the UN sanctions resolution that also seeks to ban the North's weapons trade.
The resolution calls for all member countries to state how they plan to implement sanctions on the North within 30 days of its Oct. 14 adoption. It also mandates intercepting ships believed to be carrying suspect material.
Along with the travel ban, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said Seoul will control transactions and remittances related to inter-Korean trade and investment with Northern officials, the South's Yonhap news agency reported.
It was unclear how tough the South will be in enforcing the new restrictions.
Seoul has hesitated in taking strong measures to support the sanctions, mindful of Pyongyang's massive armed forces poised at the border, its family and cultural ties with the North, and its wish to expand economic relations with its neighbor.
How to enforce the sanctions has also been an issue between the US and China, the North's last-remaining major ally.
Beijing voted for the UN resolution and says it will meet its obligations, but is concerned that excessive measures could worsen the situation.
The North's nuclear test continues to have repercussions across the border, where the head of South Korea's main intelligence agency has offered to resign, making him the third minister-level official to offer to submit his resignation since the North's test.
On Tuesday, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, in charge of reconciliation with North Korea, also offered his resignation, saying he wanted to take responsibility for the North's nuclear test because he was the main minister in charge of North Korean affairs. The country's defense minister offered to quit on Monday.
Roh plans to accept all those resignations, Yonhap news agency said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion