Top US and North Korean nuclear envoys meet in Singapore today to seek a deal in which the North delivers an overdue declaration on its nuclear programs.
US officials have said they do not expect the actual declaration to come out of the meeting between US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korea’s Kim Kye-gwan, who last met about a month ago in Geneva.
Hill has said time was running out for the North to make the declaration, which it was supposed to deliver at the end of last year, and answer US suspicions of having a secret program to enrich uranium for weapons and proliferating nuclear technology and material.
North Korea, which has ratcheted up tensions in the past few days with missile tests and threats to reduce the South to ashes, said it had already made the declaration and the US suspicions were “fictions.”
Moon Chung-in, an expert on North Korea at Yonsei University, said perhaps the best that can be expected from the meeting is a commitment from North Korea to return to the nuclear talks with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US.
If the North makes the declaration, it stands to be removed from a US terrorism blacklist and be better able to tap into international finance that could boost its basket case economy.
Meanwhile Pyongyang said yesterday that South Korea’s new government won’t last if it continues to allow its US-led policy to ruin reconciliation efforts on the Korean Peninsula.
The North’s official Rodong Shinmun newspaper criticized South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s government for “following the US imperialists” and driving inter-Korean relations to catastrophe.
Those who “dance to the whistle of outside forces will only suffer a collapse,” it said in a commentary.
The commentary is the latest in a barrage of North Korea’s criticism of the Lee government, which was inaugurated in February with a pledge to take a tougher line on the North.
Since late last month, the North expelled South Korean officials from a shared industrial complex, test-fired missiles and threatened to suspend reconciliation talks with the South.
Last week, Rodong Shinmun called Lee a “political charlatan.” The newspaper also said Pyongyang has no choice but to build up a nuclear deterrent to protect itself from the US.
Also See: Waiting for North Korea to act rationally could mean a long wait
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