A Japanese woman applied for political asylum in North Korea while she was on a trip to China, the official North Korean news agency and Japan's foreign ministry officials said yesterday, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind.
"A Japanese woman, Kazumi Kitagawa, illegally entered the DPRK [North Korea] recently while making a sightseeing tour of a third country and sought asylum," said the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in a dispatch monitored in Tokyo.
"She is now undergoing investigation by the competent organ," it said.
A foreign ministry official in Tokyo told reporters North Korea's embassy in Beijing had informed Tokyo's mission there on Monday that a Japanese woman had entered North Korea and that the "third country" was China.
The official did not identify the woman or give her age other than to say she was a Japanese national, although he said the foreign ministry had been in contact with her family.
Kyodo News agency said the woman was in her 20s.
The foreign ministry has no information on the woman's current whereabouts in North Korea, or whether she has any Korean ancestry, or affiliation to groups sympathetic to North Korea, the official said, stressing that she had broken no Japanese law and her family had not asked for help.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
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