After six years under virtual house arrest in Seoul, Hwang Jang-yop, who proudly clings to his status as North Korea's highest-ranking defector, was to arrive in the US yesterday to talk with Washington's elite about the inner workings of North Korea's secretive government.
Hwang, who was North Korea's chief ideologue and served as tutor to North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong-il, has been eagerly awaited by American conservatives. He is to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, meet with Bush administration officials and give interviews.
In a recent interview in Seoul, Hwang, 80, made clear that he would oppose any deal in which Kim would give up his nuclear bombs but remain in charge in North Korea. But with the Bush administration now offering North Korea a regional security guarantee in exchange for dismantling its bombs and bomb factories, Hwang's message may be out of season.
"I absolutely oppose giving North Korea guarantees if the North withdraws its nuclear weapons program," he said. "I completely oppose any policy that will ensure maintenance of the North's dictatorship."
"It is necessary to put America in a leading role of a coalition of South Korea and Japan to eliminate the North Korean dictatorship," added Hwang.
For four decades, Hwang was part of North Korea's communist dictatorship, rising to become president of Kim Il-sung University and secretary of the governing Korean Workers' Party. He is said to have been the author of the nation's policy of juche, or self-reliance.
But in 1997, Hwang defected to Seoul. His family paid a steep price for this betrayal. His wife and one daughter are believed to have committed suicide. His son and another daughter, and his granddaughters, are believed to be in slave labor camps.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS