The US and South Korea on Friday signaled they would not ease pressure on North Korea’s government, saying Pyongyang must show it had changed its ways before resumption of stalled nuclear talks could take place.
“While we remain open to direct engagement with North Korea, we remain firm in our resolve and our shared position that Pyongyang must improve its relations with the Republic of [South] Korea,” US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said after a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan.
Kim said both sides agreed that Pyongyang and Seoul should first hold bilateral talks before any move to resume so-called six-party talks, which also involve the US, China, Japan and Russia.
Those talks, dormant for more than two years, aim to offer Pyongyang aid and diplomatic recognition in return for scrapping its nuclear program, which Washington, Seoul and Tokyo regard as a serious threat to the region.
CONCRETE ACTIONS
“The six-party talks, once resumed, should yield substantial progress in denuclearization. To this end, we reaffirmed that North Korea must demonstrate its sincerity toward denuclearization through concrete actions,” Kim said.
The US and South Korean statements appeared to put to rest suggestions that China — North Korea’s main international backer — could persuade Washington and Seoul to rejoin nuclear talks soon despite their -suspicions of Pyongyang’s motives.
The talks have been on hold since 2009, when Pyongyang walked out of the process after a new round of UN sanctions.
North Korea agreed in 2005 to abandon its nuclear programs in return for aid, but that deal collapsed and the North subsequently conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. It is also blamed for two deadly attacks on the South last year.
Clinton said the US had made no decision on resuming food aid to North Korea, which a UN report said earlier this year was lurching into serious crisis with more than 6 million people in need of help.
Critics of the aid say the North has siphoned off the food in the past to feed its million-strong army, and South Korea says the North’s food stocks are at the same levels as last year.
Officials in Seoul also accuse North Korea of trying to hoard food ahead of a third nuclear test, which would likely provoke a further tightening of international sanctions.
The US suspended food supplies to the North in 2008 over a monitoring dispute, and has said it will only resume assistance with Seoul’s agreement.
LEGITIMATE NEEDS
While a US assessment team visited North Korea last month to gauge the situation, Clinton said there were still concerns about how Pyongyang might handle any influx of aid.
“Of course the United States is deeply concerned about the well-being of the North Korean people, but we have made no decision about providing food aid to North Korea at this time,” Clinton said.
She said any future food assistance would be weighed on legitimate humanitarian needs, competing needs elsewhere in the world and “our ability to ensure and monitor that whatever food is provided actually reaches the people who are in need.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number