South Korean President Park Geun-hye is to travel to China next month to attend a ceremony marking the anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II, her office said yesterday.
China plans to hold a series of events to commemorate the anniversary, including a lavish military parade featuring aerial displays and its latest weapons.
Park’s office said in a statement she is to attend a Sept. 3 anniversary ceremony, but her aides said Park remains undecided on attending the military parade set for the same day.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend the Chinese celebrations though many Western leaders might not do so.
Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula and occupied parts of China before and during World War II. Many people in South Korea and China still harbor bitter resentment toward Japan.
China assisted North Korea and fought against South Korea during the 1950 to 53 Korean War, while American-led UN troops fought alongside South Korea. China and South Korea now have strong trade ties.
China is North Korea’s last major ally and biggest aid benefactor. It is not known if North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is to attend the Chinese ceremonies. If he attends, it would be his first known travel outside the country since taking power upon the death of his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011.
Earlier this year, there was speculation Kim Jong-un would attend May’s Victory Day celebration in Russia, but he did not go and sent his parliament head to the event that marked the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
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