The US and China yesterday piled pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear missile program after the UN Security Council approved tough sanctions which could cost Pyongyang US$1 billion a year.
One day after council members voted unanimously for a partial ban on exports aimed at slashing Pyongyang’s foreign revenue by a third, top diplomats from the key powers in the dispute met in Manila.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was encouraged by the vote, but officials said that Washington would closely watch China — North Korea’s biggest trade partner — to ensure sanctions are enforced.
Photo: AP
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) met his North Korean counterpart Ri Hong-yo before a major regional security forum being hosted by ASEAN.
He urged the North to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
“It will help the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to make the right and smart decision,” Wang told reporters, speaking through a translator, after talks with Ri — referring to the sanctions and to Ri’s presence in Manila.
Pyongyang’s top envoy has so far avoided the media in Manila.
However, in a characteristically fiery editorial before the latest sanctions were approved, the North’s ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun warned against US aggression.
“The day the US dares tease our nation with a nuclear rod and sanctions, the mainland US will be catapulted into an unimaginable sea of fire,” it said.
Tillerson also met Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov yesterday and was to see Wang later.
“It was a good outcome,” Tillerson said of the UN vote, before he met with South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha.
Senior US envoy Susan Thornton said Washington was “still going to be watchful” on the implementation of sanctions, cautioning that previous votes had been followed by China “slipping back.”
However, she added that China’s support for the UN resolution “shows that they realize that this is a huge problem that they need to take on.”
The urgency of the situation was underlined by US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, who told MSNBC news that the US leader was reviewing plans for a “preventive war.”
“He said he’s not going to tolerate North Korea being able to threaten the United States,” McMaster said. “It’s intolerable from the president’s perspective. So of course we have to provide all options to do that. And that includes a military option.”
Saturday’s UN resolution banned exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state. If fully implemented it would strip North Korea of a third of its export earnings — estimated to total US$3 billion per year despite successive rounds of sanctions since the North’s first nuclear test in 2006.
The resolution also prevents North Korea from increasing the number of workers it sends abroad.
It prohibits all new joint ventures with North Korea, bans new investment in current joint companies and adds nine North Korean officials and four entities, including the North’s main foreign-exchange bank to the UN sanctions blacklist.
Trump hailed the vote — saying in a tweet that the sanctions will have “very big financial impact!” — and thanked Russia and China for backing a measure that either could have halted with their UN veto.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA