The defense chiefs of North and South Korea began a rare meeting yesterday aimed at easing tension across their countries' disputed sea border.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo flew directly from Seoul to Pyongyang yesterday for three days of talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Il-chol -- the first defense ministerial talks between the Koreas in seven years.
"The South Korean delegation deeply understands the ardent wish of all compatriots to ease military tension, build up confidence and guarantee a permanent peace between South and North Korea," the South's Kim said after arriving in Pyongyang, according to reports.
This week's talks are aimed at fleshing out agreements to foster peace and cooperation between the Koreas signed by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last month, at only the second-ever summit between the countries.
Earlier this month, the prime ministers of the two Koreas also met and agreed to launch a cross-border train service and construction projects in the North, along with other reconciliation projects.
However, the defense talks were seen as crucial because the North's military has in the past put the brakes on burgeoning rapprochement between the two sides because of security concerns.
The Koreas remain technically at war because the Korean War ceasefire has never been replaced with a peace treaty.
Also yesterday, officials from the five nations trying to end the North's nuclear ambitions arrived in Pyongyang to observe the disablement of the country's main atomic facility, officials said.
The delegation, including senior US diplomat Sung Kim, will visit the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which is slowly being disabled in accordance with an agreement struck in February.
"We are pretty positive. I think we are making progress," Kim told journalists before departing Beijing along with officials from China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
Kim will also meet up with the team of eight US experts at Yongbyon who have been in and out of North Korea on a rotating basis since early last month as part of the inspection process, a US embassy spokeswoman in Beijing said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not