Chinese and US diplomats met yesterday amid efforts to restart nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea after Washington and Seoul introduced a possible complication by saying they would refuse to treat the North as a nuclear state.
"We're very interested in talking about what we can do to defuse the problem of North Korea's nuclear ambitions and to work together, China and the United States, toward achieving denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," said US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns at the start of a meeting with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo (
Burns and Robert Joseph, a US undersecretary of state for arms control, met earlier with another Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (
PHOTO: AFP
Burns and Joseph were in Seoul on Tuesday and earlier visited Tokyo to coordinate strategy for renewed talks. Burns was due to meet later with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (
North Korea agreed last week to end a yearlong boycott of Chinese-organized disarmament talks that also include the US, South Korea, Japan and Russia. No date has been set.
The US and South Korean governments said on Tuesday they refused to treat the North as a nuclear power, a stance that could complicate the negotiations.
Seoul and Washington also agreed on the need for ``full and effective'' implementation of a UN sanctions resolution against the North for its Oct. 9 nuclear test.
The US-Chinese talks this week are the third round in a "strategic dialogue" that began last December.
Meanwhile, there were signs of disagreements between Seoul and Washington on how hard to press the North.
South Korea has been struggling to balance its obligations to punish the North under the UN sanctions resolution with concerns that aggravating its volatile neighbor could destabilize the region.
Deputy South Korean Foreign Minister Park In-kook said that both governments were trying to meet a Monday deadline to submit reports to the UN sanctions committee on how they are implementing the resolution against the North.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not