A North Korean threat to test a nuclear device overshadowed six-way talks in Beijing yesterday after negotiators came up with a series of gestures aimed at resolving the crisis over the North's nuclear ambitions.
U.S. officials said the threat, made in a two-hour meeting between US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and North Korean negotiators in Beijing on Thursday, resembled those from Pyongyang in the past.
The move has raised doubts that even faint progress can be achieved as the third round of talks among North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China entered their third day. The previous rounds ended with agreement only to meet again.
China's Foreign Ministry cancelled the closing ceremony on Saturday. But the official Xinhua news agency said the negotiations would end as scheduled.
Negotiations have been focused on a US offer of conditional aid and security guarantees to try to break a 20-month-old deadlock in the nuclear crisis. North Korea has put forward its own plan demanding rewards in return for freezing its ambitions.
While few had expected a breakthrough, the US proposal was the most detailed offer since US President George W. Bush took office and branded the North as part of an "axis of evil" alongside Iran and pre-war Iraq.
North Korea has issued no formal statement on the US proposal and its test threat was another sign of the gulf dividing the US and North Korea, the protagonists in a crisis that has simmered since October 2002 when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted having a uranium enrichment program.
North Korea has since denied have any program beyond its plutonium-powered plant but has said fuel from that plant was being reprocessed into fissile material for bombs.
The North raised nuclear arms at the talks, US officials said
"In the course of that discussion, the North Koreans made a reference to testing and they made it as part of an argument why we should accept their proposal right away," said one Bush administration official.
Also see story:
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS