South Korea said yesterday that it wants better relations with North Korea under its new leader, despite Pyongyang’s fierce criticism of Seoul since the death of longtime North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il.
“The ball is in North Korea’s court now,” South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said, recalling that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak had seen a “window of opportunity” for dialogue after almost two years of high tensions.
The communist state proclaimed Kim Jong-un as “great successor” to his father, Kim Jong-il, who died aged 69 on Dec. 17, but warned the world its policy remains unchanged.
Photo: Reuters
In a statement it vowed never to deal “with the Lee Myung-bak group of traitors” and threatened unspecified retaliation for what it called insults by Seoul during mourning for Kim.
South Korean Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who handles cross-border ties, said yesterday the North “seems to be focused on solidifying the new leadership under difficult conditions,” but added: “We see no major problems in the process.”
The untested Kim Jong-un, in his late 20s, had barely three years to prepare for leadership of the impoverished nation, which suffers severe food shortages and is under international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs.
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell — the first US diplomat to make a Northeast Asian tour since news of Kim’s death — said he had urged China to stress the need for restraint to its North Korean allies.
Some analysts believe Kim Jong-un might be tempted to launch limited cross-border attacks to bolster his leadership credentials and rally his people against a perceived enemy.
Foreign Minister Kim said the North’s statement had contained strong criticism, “but I do not think we should respond to every single statement they release.”
The North in the past had held talks with the South despite such comments, he told a briefing.
Ties have been icy since the South accused the North of responsibility for two deadly border incidents in 2010.
Yu said separately that the South should play a leading role to help the North’s new leadership “make good choices about the future and bring about peace, prosperity and eventual reunification of the Korean peninsula.”
His ministry said it would set up a fund this year to help meet the potentially huge costs of eventual reunification.
Officially, both North and South are committed to reuniting after more than six decades of separation.
However, the impoverished North accuses the vastly richer South of trying to absorb it and destroy its system, a charge denied by Lee.
“South Korea neither seeks to achieve reunification through absorption nor to make the North collapse, and will never try to do so,” Yonhap news agency quoted the president as saying.
Campbell arrived in South Korea from China, the North’s sole major ally and its crucial economic prop.
He said he asked Beijing to consult closely with Washington on developments in the North.
“We also urge China to make clear the importance of restraint by the new North Korean leadership,” Campbell said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS