A senior US diplomat plans to visit North Korea this week in a bid to salvage a faltering international effort to get the communist country to give up nuclear weapons, US officials said on Saturday.
Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator in the six-nation talks, will leave for South Korea today and is expected to travel to the North shortly afterward amid growing concern the often-delayed disarmament negotiation is on the verge of collapse, the officials said.
US and North Korean diplomats met last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in a sign that talks were not entirely dead. Hill and a small team plan to continue those talks in the North Korean capital, an official said, but it is not clear that Hill is bringing a new proposal to break the latest impasse.
Hill also held strategy sessions last week with envoys from the other four nations that have offered the North economic and political rewards for giving up a nuclear stockpile believed to be equal to about six bombs, and the means to make more.
The US, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia are trying to persuade North Korea not to return its main nuclear complex to working order. The five nations bargaining with the North also want it to accept a plan to verify that it has fully accounted for all past atomic activities — the crux of the latest and potentially deal-killing impasse.
Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the US State Department, confirmed Hill would fly to Seoul today. He would not comment on any other stops Hill might make.
Other officials said Hill intended to visit North Korea to revive the six-nation process that has deteriorated since last month, when North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is believed to have suffered a stroke and his country edged closer to restarting the disabled nuclear reactor.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Hill’s plans have not yet been announced and his mission in North Korea has not yet been fully defined. The Washington Post first reported on the travel plans on its Web site on Saturday.
Also See: Beijing’s ‘North Korea’ card no ace
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
RSS