South Korea yesterday questioned North Korea’s sincerity in offering peace talks and said the North could solve its food shortages by spending less on missiles and nuclear weapons.
The comments by South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan were in response to an offer from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to hold unconditional talks, including a summit with his southern counterpart.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, speaking on Thursday on his return from a peacemaking trip to Pyongyang, said the offer was made in a written “personal message” from Kim Jong-il, which was read to his delegation.
Photo: Reuters
“North Korea should first show sincerity about talks between South and North Korea, if it really wants to improve relations,” Kim Sung-hwan told a security forum.
The North, he said “has recently launched a peace offensive, including through former Western leaders ... but we still don’t see its sincere willingness to improve inter-Korean relations.”
The North should give up “its outdated tactic to win international assistance first, by opening talks itself,” the minister said.
Carter and three other retired leaders visited Pyongyang to try to ease cross-border tensions, assess food shortages and push for denuclearization.
Carter, at a Seoul press conference on Thursday, pressed for the resumption of food aid to the North to avert what he and the other ex-leaders called a crisis.
He also accused the US and South Korea of a “human rights violation” for, in his view, withholding the aid for political reasons.
The South suspended its annual shipment of 363,000 tonnes of rice in 2008.
Conservative newspapers accused Carter of siding with the North or acting as the regime’s mouthpiece. Kim Sung-hwan did not respond to Carter’s charge directly, but said Seoul is wary about sending food which could support the regime.
The food shortage is “a chronic and structural problem,” the minister said.
“North Korea is asking for international food assistance, while spending US$400 to US$500 million every year on nuclear and missile development, although its food shortages can be solved with only US$200 to US$300 million,” he said.
Cross-border relations have been icy since the South accused the North of sinking a warship in March last year with the loss of 46 lives.
The North denies involvement, but shelled a South Korean border island in November last year, killing four people including civilians. It says the attack was provoked by one of Seoul’s military drills.
The South says its neighbor should take responsibility for the two incidents before any substantial dialogue can take place.
Earlier yesterday activists floated leaflets attacking the North’s regime across the border, the first launch since the North threatened “merciless retaliation” against such protests.
At the Imjingak tourist site about 50 protesters, including defectors, launched 200,000 leaflets slung under 10 large gas-filled balloons.
Timing devices were attached to scatter the bundles of leaflets north of the heavily fortified border. They contained news of Arab uprisings and called for the overthrow of Kim Jong-il’s regime.
The balloons also carried hundreds of DVDs, USB flash drives and US$1 bills, an incentive for North Koreans to overcome fears of punishment and pick up the leaflets.
The North’s military last week stepped up threats against the launches, vowing to open fire at any place and at any time to halt what it calls a smear campaign.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was