North Korean and Japanese officials arrived in northeast China for talks seen as aimed at normalizing diplomatic ties, a diplomat and reports said yesterday.
An Asian diplomat confirmed talks between the two sides were scheduled in Shenyang and were likely to last just one day.
Song Il-ho, North Korea's chief envoy in bilateral talks with Japan, and Shigeo Yamada, head of the Northeast Asia section of Japan's foreign ministry, arrived in Shenyang on Saturday, the Japanese business daily Nikkei Shimbun reported, without citing sources.
The talks follow reports suggesting an apparent shift away from confrontation by both Tokyo and Pyongyang.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who took over last month, is seen as more moderate than his hardline predecessor Shinzo Abe, who campaigned throughout his career for a tough line against the communist nation.
The North Korean diplomat, accompanied by several officials, refused to elaborate on his visit.
Japan and North Korea have held normalization talks this year under the framework of six-party denuclearization talks.
No breakthrough in an emotional row over kidnappings was made at the last round of talks in Mongolia last month. Both sides, however, agreed to keep talking.
Japan also insists that North Korea release all Japanese citizens believed to have been kidnapped decades ago.
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