South Korea expressed reservations yesterday about China’s proposal for an informal meeting between North Korea and the US ahead of any resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
China’s visiting top nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei (武大偉), has held a series of discussions with South Korean officials, briefing them on his trip to Pyongyang last week, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Wu, who arrived in Seoul on Thursday, said the North supported China’s three-step proposal for the resumption of the nuclear forum, which it quit in April last year.
China wants an informal dialogue between North Korea and the US and preliminary talks to take place before the full six-party session is resumed, the South Korean spokesman said.
“However, our side expressed reservations, saying North Korea should first show a strong willingness about denuclearization and a sincere attitude over the sinking of a South Korean warship,” he said.
North Korea expressed its willingness to resume the disarmament talks to former US president Jimmy Carter, who left the country yesterday after securing the release of a jailed man from the US, state media said.
Tensions have risen sharply on the peninsula since Seoul and Washington accused Pyongyang of torpedoing the ship in March with the loss of 46 lives, an accusation vehemently denied by the North.
South Korea believes the North’s overture for the talks are merely a ploy to dodge its responsibility for the sinking, Yonhap news agency said.
The six-way talks aimed at dismantling the North’s nuclear weapons program involve the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told Japanese reporters on Wednesday that the North should first disable its nuclear facilities and allow international monitors back to its nuclear complex.
Wu said on Thursday after talks with his South Korean counterpart Wi Sung-lac that six-party talks were still an “effective” tool to achieve peace in northeast Asia.
The Chinese envoy met South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo and senior presidential security secretary Kim Sung-hwan yesterday.
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
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
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition