North Korea yesterday fired what appeared to be multiple short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea’s military said, a week before a key Asia-Pacific leaders’ meeting in South Korea.
It was the first launch of ballistic missiles since May by Pyongyang, which has defied a UN Security Council ban on the weapons.
It was also the first such launch since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung was elected, with a platform of engagement with North Korea.
Photo: Reuters
Lee and US President Donald Trump are expected to meet in South Korea next week at an APEC summit. Trump is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
South Korea detected several projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles fired from an area near North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, in a northeasterly direction early yesterday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
Lee and Trump have discussed the idea of trying to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un when the US president visits the South, but Pyongyang has not publicly responded to the idea.
US officials considered, but never confirmed, a trip to the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, a person familiar with the discussions said.
South Korea has suspended tours of the Joint Security Area at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom until early next month, but has not confirmed any plans for a meeting with Kim.
Trump and Kim held three summits during Trump’s 2017 to 2021 term and exchanged a number of letters that Trump called “beautiful,” before the unprecedented diplomatic effort broke down over US demands that Kim give up his nuclear weapons.
Kim last month expressed “fond memories” of Trump, saying there was no reason to avoid talks with the US if Washington stopped insisting his country give up nuclear weapons, but he would never abandon the nuclear arsenal to end sanctions.
“It is not at all inconceivable that Donald Trump could here in Washington, D.C., say: ‘Denuclearization, that’s our goal, that’s our policy’ and then go up to Panmunjom and say: ‘Oh, you know, Kim Jong-un is a nuclear power,’” Center for Strategic and International Studies Korea chair Victor Cha said.
“Even if it’s a short meeting, in the broader scheme of things, with all that the United States has to deal with these days, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing,” he said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS