China’s military chief arrived in Seoul yesterday for talks with senior South Korean officials amid rising tensions over North Korea’s planned rocket launch.
General Chen Bingde (陳炳德), chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, met South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee ahead of talks with his counterpart Kim Tae-young, the Joint Chiefs of Staff office said.
Seoul’s call for “a positive role and efforts by the Chinese military to help address inter-Korean tensions” was on the agenda, it said in a statement.
North Korea says it will launch a communications satellite between April 4 and April 8.
South Korea, the US and Japan have denounced what they see as a disguised long-range missile test. They say a launch for any purpose would breach a UN Security Council resolution passed after the North’s missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
A joint chiefs spokesman said the rocket issue was on the agenda but refused to elaborate.
“We plan to relay to the Chinese delegation our demand that North Korea heed international warnings and halt its preparations for the launch,” an unidentified Seoul defense official told Yonhap news agency.
“China is the closest country to North Korea. Its comments carry weight, and we hope it can more actively pressure Pyongyang,” the official said.
China, a traditional ally and major aid donor for North Korea as well as a permanent UN Security Council member, has not publicly urged it to halt the launch.
The North on Tuesday warned that six-party nuclear disarmament talks would collapse if new UN sanctions were imposed to punish the launch. The forum groups the US, Japan, Russia, the two Koreas and China.
South Korea’s chief envoy to the talks,Wi Sung-lac, returned yesterday from a meeting in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei (武大偉), on possible “countermeasures” after any launch.
Wi, quoted by Yonhap, indicated there was no agreement yet on a response.
In related news, Japan may order its military to prepare to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it threatens to hit the country, media reports said yesterday, ahead of a ministerial meeting to discuss the plan.
Tokyo, which has developed a missile defense system with the US, has warned it will shoot down any object — a missile or any debris — if it threatens to hit Japanese territory.
North Korea says it would regard a rocket intercept as an act of war.
Reports said Tokyo will likely issue an order tomorrow for its armed forces to prepare to intercept the rocket.
Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura were to meet yesterday to discuss Japan’s response.
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