A senior Chinese official traveled to North Korea yesterday in what is seen as a mission to jump-start stalled international talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs.
Wang Jiarui (王家瑞), head of the liaison office of China’s ruling Communist Party, was to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and deliver a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported yesterday, citing unidentified South Korean presidential officials.
The four-day trip is part of a regular exchange of visits by the longtime allies, the report said.
Calls to the presidential office seeking comment went unanswered yesterday.
Other South Korean media carried similar reports, though they differed on the timing of his trip.
Wang met Kim during a trip to Pyongyang in January last year. Kim said then that North Korea was “dedicated to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” and wanted to move international talks forward, Beijing’s Xinhua news agency said.
China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner, a key aid donor and a longtime ally dating back to the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Its influence is seen as crucial in getting the North to return to the six-nation disarmament talks, which have remained stalled since late 2008.
In Beijing, staffer Yang Lei from the Communist Party’s international department refused to comment on Friday on reports of Wang’s, saying only “the whole thing has not been confirmed yet.”
UN ENVOY
Also yesterday, a special envoy for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Seoul and said he had an “excellent discussion” with South Korean officials ahead of a visit to North Korea.
During his trip to Pyongyang from Tuesday to Friday, UN political chief B. Lynn Pascoe will urge North Korea to rejoin the nuclear talks and discuss its relations with the world body, a UN official in New York said on condition of anonymity, citing policy.
“We expect to talk about the entire range of issues while we are up there [in North Korea],” Pascoe told reporters in Seoul, without elaborating.
He was to meet South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan later yesterday.
North Korea, which tested an atomic bomb last year and is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least a half dozen more, walked away from the disarmament talks last year.
The other participants, China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia, have been trying to get the talks back on track. North Korea, however, has pushed Washington for a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and a lifting of sanctions first.
This week, Assistant US Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said no discussion about political or economic sanctions can take place before the disarmament talks are back on.
TRIP TO BEIJING?
There also has been speculation in recent weeks that North Korean leader Kim may travel to China soon. Beijing extended an invitation to Kim last year to visit at his convenience. Kim has visited China and Russia, the North’s two major remaining allies, by train. He last traveled to China in 2006.
He had planned to travel to Beijing in late January but canceled his plans, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
Sanctions-hit North Korea wants Washington to agree to formal peace talks as a condition for returning to the stalled.
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
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
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
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel