Six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program entered a third day yesterday after US President George W. Bush authorized US$25 million in energy aid for the impoverished nation.
Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill said he expected the morning's talks to centre on fuel aid, while also making a surprise announcement that the talks could wind up in the afternoon, a day ahead of schedule.
"I think we're going to be discussing a lot of details, and today the details are probably more about fuel assistance," Hill told reporters before leaving his hotel for the morning's meetings.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said on Friday Bush had given the go-ahead for US$25 million in fuel aid for 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil.
The aid was in response to North Korea's progress on reporting and disabling its nuclear facilities as required in a February "Initial Actions" agreement aimed at halting Pyongyang's drive for nuclear weapons, he said.
The move came after Hill said on Friday that North Korea had agreed to take further steps toward ending its nuclear weapons programs.
But Hill also said on Friday that more needed to be done in pushing forward the negotiating process, and yesterday morning the US envoy suggested he was getting ready to go home.
"I've got a plane reservation for this afternoon. I've got to get back to New York. So I hope we can wrap things up today," he said.
Other delegates said they still expected another day of talks before concluding this round of meetings today.
"A flight reservation can be cancelled or rescheduled anytime," a member of the South Korean delegation said. "We, the South Korean delegates, still plan to head back home on Monday if the six-party talks wrap up on Sunday as scheduled."
The chief envoys from the six nations -- China, the two Koreas, the US, Japan and Russia -- were scheduled to meet yesterday morning.
North Korea had signaled ahead of this week's session that it was willing to continue pushing ahead with a landmark disarmament deal brokered in February in the six-nation forum.
That deal saw North Korea agree to abandon the nuclear weapons programs it has spent decades developing in return for 1 million tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent aid, as well as diplomatic and security concessions.
In July, North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and four other related facilities.
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
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
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
RSS