Japan is expected to withdraw a proposal for the UN Security Council to adopt a binding resolution on North Korea’s rocket launch, Kyodo news agency reported, a day after Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso appeared to back off from insistence on a resolution.
Instead, Tokyo is expected to eventually accept a weaker draft presidential statement the US has circulated to the permanent council members and Japan to break the stalemate between Tokyo and Beijing, Kyodo said, citing diplomatic sources.
Japan was to notify the five permanent members — the US, Britain, France, Russia and China — of the plan when they resumed talks yesterday, Kyodo reported.
But Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said yesterday he had told his Chinese counterpart Japan still favored passing a resolution.
“As far as we are concerned, a resolution is desirable,” Nakasone told reporters in Pattaya, Thailand.
He said he had conveyed the message by telephone yesterday to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎), who is also in Pattaya for an Asian summit.
“If we are to have a strong, unified message from the international community, a resolution is desirable,” Nakasone said.
A trilateral meeting between Nakasone, Yang and South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on the sidelines of the summit in Thailand had to be called off yesterday after demonstrators blocked the entrance to the venue.
Japan on Friday extended economic sanctions on North Korea by a year to punish it for what was widely seen as a long-range missile test, and it has called for a legally binding resolution by the UN Security Council to declare Pyongyang in violation of a previous resolution banning the firing of ballistic missiles.
But Russia and China have opposed the move, unconvinced the launch was a violation.
After days of deadlock, diplomats said Japan’s close ally Washington had indicated it might be willing to accept a nonbinding statement rather than a resolution.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, in an interview with a Thai newspaper published yesterday, urged the UN Security Council to act quickly.
“I hope that the UN Security Council member states can agree on a response to the North’s rocket launch within two to three days,” he told the Nation.
“North Korea’s rocket launch came amid its ongoing ambition to develop nuclear weapons, adding to disturbing concerns around the world. From the perspective of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the North’s launch is raising more fears across the globe,” he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS