South Korea will not provide any medical aid to North Korea over a reported outbreak of scarlet fever in the impoverished country, a government official said yesterday.
The isolated communist regime has not publicly acknowledged the outbreak of the disease, but South Korean media and a civic group have reported the disease broke out in northern Ryanggang Province in October and has spread to other parts of the North.
The South's government has suspended regular humanitarian aid to North Korea in protest over the North's missile tests in July. The decision angered the North, bringing high-level inter-Korean talks to a deadlock. Relations worsened further following the North's nuclear test in October.
Seoul had earlier indicated that it would consider sending medical aid to the North once it gets confirmation of the new outbreak.
But Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said the South will not provide medical aid to Pyongyang as scarlet fever is not fatal.
"We believe that North Korea can resolve this issue on its own," said Lee, who handles reconciliation efforts with the North.
His remarks came a day after a South Korean private relief agency sent penicillin and other medicines worth 5 billion won (US$5.3 million) to North Korea.
South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said scarlet fever is not usually a serious disease and can be easily treated with antibiotics. But it could become a problem in North Korea because the country lacks medicine.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS