Talks between North Korea and a US-led team of experts were "businesslike" and "positive," an official said, raising hopes for a firm deal on how to disable the North's nuclear facilities at upcoming arms talks.
South Korea's No. 2 nuclear negotiator, Lim Sung-nam, made the remark on Saturday after he was briefed by the US nuclear experts following their return from a five-day trip to North Korea.
"The talks between the US and the North this time were conducted in a businesslike manner in a very positive atmosphere," Lim told reporters. "Additional consultations and a decision are expected at next week's six-party talks."
Lim's comments suggested the upcoming six-country nuclear disarmament talks in Beijing are expected to produce a concrete agreement with North Korea on how to disable its nuclear facilities by year's end so they no longer produce material for bombs.
The nuclear negotiations bring together China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the US. South Korean and US officials have said the talks would resume this coming week.
In North Korea, the US experts teamed up with Chinese and Russian specialists to survey the North's main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.
They also held talks with North Korean officials in Pyongyang. The discussions produced a "detailed plan" on disabling the Yongbyon facilities, China's Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Chinese member of the three-nation team.
North Korea is required to disable Yongbyon in exchange for economic aid and political concessions under a February deal. In July, it shut down its sole functioning reactor at Yongbyon, as well as other facilities.
North Korea's invitation to the US experts was the latest sign that it is serious about disarming.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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