A ship carrying South Korean rice aid was set to leave for North Korea yesterday, amid heightened optimism that Pyongyang would fulfill a pledge to shut down its nuclear reactor.
The Vietnam-registered ship was to arrive today at the North's eastern Nampo port with 3,000 tonnes of rice -- the first batch of 400,000 tonnes promised by South Korea in April.
The delivery was initially set to begin in late May, but it was put on hold as Seoul used the food aid as leverage to pressure Pyongyang to act on a February pledge to shut down its main reactor.
PHOTO: AP
South Korea decided to start the delivery after the North renewed its commitment to keep that pledge, following the resolution of a banking dispute with the United States that stalled the disarmament process.
The entire shipment -- worth some 165 billion won (US$179 million) -- was expected to take up to five months to be completed, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.
North Korea and international nuclear monitors recently agreed on how to monitor and verify the shuttering of the nuclear reactor.
The agreement -- announced on Friday in Pyongyang -- came during a visit to the North by an International Atomic Energy Agency delegation. It was the UN nuclear watchdog's first trip to the Yongbyon reactor since inspectors were expelled from the country in late 2002.
North Korea's 5megawatt reactor is believed to have the capacity to produce enough plutonium to make one nuclear bomb a year.
North Korea, which carried out its first nuclear test last October, was to receive economic aid and political concessions in return for giving up the reactor.
The impoverished North has relied on outside handouts to feed its 23 million people since its economy was devastated by natural disasters and mismanagement in the mid-1990s. Famine is believed to have killed 2 million people.
In recent years, South Korea has sent some 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes of rice to the North annually.
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