North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly dispatched his top nuclear envoy to Beijing yesterday to discuss restarting nuclear disarmament talks, a day after pledging Pyongyang’s commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
Kim made the disarmament pledge during a meeting on Monday with a high-level envoy from Beijing at the start of a week of diplomacy designed to get the six-nation nuclear talks back on track. A high-level UN envoy also flew to Pyongyang yesterday for a four-day trip.
North Korea walked away from the talks last year during a standoff over its nuclear and missile programs. The disarmament process includes the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the US.
Pyongyang, however, has been reaching out to Washington, Seoul and Beijing in recent months, and has taken tentative steps toward discussing how to get the process going again. Analysts say the about-face shows the regime is feeling the pinch from sanctions taken after its May nuclear test.
“The sincerity of relevant parties to resume the six-party talks is very important,” Kim said during a meeting with top Chinese Communist Party official Wang Jiarui, (王家瑞) China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported from Pyongyang. Kim reiterated his country’s “persistent stance to realize the denuclearization” of the peninsula, the report said.
Wang delivered to Kim a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) saying Beijing also is ready to enhance cooperation and work with North Korea to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula, Xinhua said. Hu also invited Kim to visit China, the report said.
Later yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) confirmed Kim’s denuclearization pledge, saying the leader “expressed the view that [North Korea] remains in favor of realizing the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”
Yesterday, South Korean media reports said North Korea’s top nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, landed in Beijing with Wang, who was returning home after a four-day trip to Pyongyang. The North Korean envoy was expected to discuss the nuclear talks with Chinese officials, the Yonhap news agency said, citing unidentified diplomatic sources in Beijing.
Ma said he had no information on the envoy’s reported trip.
“This is a sign that the resumption of the six-party talks is imminent,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. “Kim Kye- gwan is expected to tell Chinese officials about North Korea’s disarmament plan in a more concrete manner” — probably in return for aid from Beijing, he said.
UN political chief B. Lynn Pascoe, meanwhile, embarked on a trip to the North, with footage broadcast by APTN in Pyongyang showing him stepping off an airport shuttle, shaking hands and chatting with North Korean officials.
Pascoe said the talks are to find “ways we can cooperate better,” according to the footage. “So it should be quite useful.”
Pascoe’s trip will be the first there by a high-level UN official since 2004, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry. The envoy is reportedly bearing a letter from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Pascoe’s role is to try negotiating a breakthrough on the nuclear talks, said analyst Paik Hak-soon of the private Sejong Institute think tank in South Korea.
North Korea has made clear it wants UN sanctions lifted and a peace treaty with Washington formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean War before it returns to the disarmament talks. Pyongyang cites the US military presence in South Korea as its main reason for building up its nuclear weapons program.
Washington says Pyongyang must come back to the talks first before any discussion about political and economic concessions.
Paik predicted that North Korea and the US would meet soon for “final coordination” to reopen the six-party talks.
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
RSS