Top South Korean, US and Japanese military officers urged North Korea to cease all unlawful activities that threaten regional security, as the three nations flew advanced warplanes for a joint exercise in a show of force against the North.
The development came yesterday, as Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov was to travel to North Korea amid booming military and other cooperation between the two countries that have raised concerns among their neighbors.
During their regular meeting in Seoul yesterday, the chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff from South Korea, the US and Japan discussed North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine and Russia’s potential transfer of military technology to North Korea in return.
Photo: The South Korean Ministry of National Defense via AP
“They urged the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] DPRK to immediately cease all unlawful activities to destabilize the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific and beyond, and pledged to continue working together to respond to the DPRK’s threats,” the three top military officers said in a joint statement.
North Korea and Russia have grown sharply closer in recent years, with North Korea supplying thousands of troops and ammunitions to Russia in return for economic and military assistance.
Seoul, Washington and their partners worry Moscow might provide Pyongyang with sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs as well.
The three joint chiefs of staff — South Korea’s Kim Myung-soo, the US’ Dan Caine and Japan’s Yoshida Yoshihide — discussed various ways to deepen their cooperation to ensure peace and stability in the region, the joint statement said.
Also yesterday, the three countries staged a trilateral aerial drill in international waters off South Korea’s southern Jeju Island. The training, which involves the US’ nuclear-capable B-52H bomber, is meant to improve deterrence and response capabilities against North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile programs, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said.
Over the past few years, South Korea, the US and Japan have been expanding or restarting their regular military training exercises to cope with North Korea’s enlarging nuclear arsenal. North Korea views such US-led drills as invasion rehearsals and often responds with missile tests.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS