Japan is considering sending aid to North Korea after a UN appeal following devastating floods in the impoverished nation, the new foreign minister in Tokyo said yesterday.
Nobutaka Machimura said Tokyo is "discussing whether to respond or not to respond" to an emergency international appeal for assistance.
"Nothing concrete has been decided. We are still discussing whether we will or we will not do it," Machimura told reporters.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has refused any assistance to Pyongyang under a six-nation accord on ending its nuclear drive because of a row over the communist regime's past kidnappings of Japanese civilians.
Machimura's comments came after he suggested in a media interview that he was inclined to offer help to victims of the floods, which killed hundreds of people and ravaged huge swathes of farmland.
The UN launched its US$14 million flash appeal on Tuesday to seek assistance for nearly 1 million North Koreans affected by the severe flooding.
"Given the magnitude of the disaster, we must consider if everything should be linked to the abduction issue," Machimura said in the group interview with Japanese media published on Tuesday.
"We are currently discussing it, and it's better to make a decision as soon as possible," he said of aid to North Korea, as quoted by the Nikkei Shimbun.
Machimura, a former foreign minister who was reappointed to the post on Monday, noted that in some past natural disasters, "Japan extended emergency aid regardless of the recipient's ideology and social system."
North Korea said on Saturday that at least 600 people were dead or missing following the floods, which relief agencies are calling the country's worst in the last decade.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS