Negotiators tried to work out a joint statement on eliminating North Korea's nuclear weapons program during a sixth day of talks yesterday, but differences remained over demands by the communist state for what it would get in return.
Deputy leaders of delegations from six governments met for five hours at a Chinese government guesthouse to examine a China-proposed draft statement, a South Korean official said on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing talks.
Discussions yesterday focused on "what corresponding measures other parties will take" in return for the North's agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, South Korea's chief envoy said.
"It was a place where we could listen to each party's opinions on the draft," said Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon.
"We are trying to come up with an agreed statement which contains all the key points that have been discussed so far, but how long it will take remains to be seen," he said. Song said more meetings were planned today.
The chief US envoy, Christopher Hill, has praised the Chinese proposal as a "good basis" for future negotiations but cautioned that differences remained with North Korea on a resolution of the 2 1/2-year-old nuclear standoff.
Hill, an assistant US secretary of state, has met five times with the North Koreans during the talks and it wasn't known if he met with them again yesterday.
No end date for the talks has been set, and Hill said "it's going to take a while" -- noting the process requires translating texts into the five languages of the nations at the talks: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and Russian.
"I want to caution everyone that it's a lot of work to look at a document and go line by line by line," Hill said yesterday afternoon at his Beijing hotel. "Things are moving, we have to see how it goes."
The draft calls for the abandonment of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and nuclear programs that could potentially produce such arms, Kyodo News agency reported yesterday, citing an anonymous source at the talks. The draft also calls for normalization of US and Japanese relations with the North.
The Japanese side is dissatisfied with the draft because it fails to include a mention of its citizens the North has admitted abducting, Kyodo said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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