The US threatened to freeze North Korean assets if Pyongyang did not toe the line in talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program, but a new proposal from China raised hopes for progress.
The six-party talks in Beijing looked in jeopardy yesterday -- their fourth day -- as Pyongyang hung tough, rejecting a South Korean offer of electricity in return for renouncing nuclear arms and insisting on its right to nuclear energy.
"We will never give up our nuclear" program before the US nuclear threat is removed from the Korean Peninsula, North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak-bong told reporters.
"We will just do it our way. For us, we cannot stop our way of peaceful nuclear activities for one minute," Hyun said, reading from a written statement.
But China, hosting the negotiations, put forward a revised draft statement which was thought to acknowledge North Korea's right in principle to an atomic energy program, offering a potential way out of the stalemate.
"We think that this new document is balanced in character, and it includes North Korea's right to peaceful atomic energy and the possibility in the long term of building a light-water nuclear reactor," Russian news agencies quoted Russian chief negotiator Alexander Alexeyev as saying.
The proposal contains "compromise wording which could satisfy both sides," Alexeyev said, referring to the US and the North.
China has asked all parties for a response on its draft by this afternoon, a South Korean official said.
Washington has insisted the North can't be trusted with any nuclear program given its history of pursuing atomic bombs. But North Korea has demanded it be given a nuclear reactor for generating electricity before disarming.
Hyun said Pyongyang would be willing to see the nuclear reactor co-managed and that it would be open to international inspections.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill had said at the start of the day that the talks were at a standstill over the North's demands for a reactor in exchange for its weapons programs. But he said later he had "good" discussions with the North's chief delegate.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US was taking measures to stop the spread of nuclear technology regardless of what happens at the talks, through intelligence sharing and freezing of assets of those involved.
"We're not sitting still, you know, we're working on anti-proliferation measures that help to protect us," Rice told the New York Post in an interview released on Thursday by the State Department.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
RSS