North Korea has ordered UN inspectors to leave the country, apparently following through on a decision to restart its nuclear weapons program despite US criticism of “provocative threats.”
Pyongyang announced on Tuesday it would never again take part in six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and would restore the plants at Yongbyon which produced weapons-grade plutonium.
It was responding angrily to a UN Security Council statement on Monday that condemned North Korea’s April 5 rocket launch and vowed tougher enforcement of existing missile-related sanctions.
Hours after the announcement, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its inspectors had been ordered out.
North Korea “informed IAEA inspectors in the Yongbyon facility that it is immediately ceasing all cooperation with the IAEA,” said Marc Vidricaire, spokesman for the UN nuclear watchdog.
“It has requested the removal of all containment and surveillance equipment, following which IAEA inspectors will no longer be provided access to the facility. The inspectors have also been asked to leave the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] at the earliest possible time,” he said.
They were overseeing the disabling of the Yongbyon plants as part of a February 2007 six-nation deal that Pyongyang says it will no longer observe.
The six-nation forum, which has been working since 2003, groups the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the inspectors’ expulsion an “unnecessary response” to a legitimate Security Council statement.
“Obviously we hope that there will be an opportunity to discuss this with not only our partners and allies but also eventually with the North Koreans,” she said.
Seoul analysts said North Korea was serious in its threats and the US may have to offer direct talks to woo it back.
Still, US President Barack Obama’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said North Korea was making a serious mistake.
“We call on North Korea to cease its provocative threats and to respect the will of the international community and to honor its international commitments and obligations,” Gibbs said.
“North Korea’s announced threat to withdraw from the six-party talks and restart its nuclear program is a serious step in the wrong direction,” he said.
Meanwhile, Seoul said yesterday it will soon announce plans to curtail North Korea’s suspected trade in illicit weapons.
South Korea is poised to reveal in the next few days that it would join US-led interception of shipments suspected of carrying parts or equipment for weapons of mass destruction.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
SECURITY: The New Zealand and Australian navies also sailed military vessels through the Strait yesterday to assert the right of freedom of navigation The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on Wednesday made its first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait in response to the intrusion by a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft into Japan’s sovereign airspace last month, Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. The Japanese news platform reported that the destroyer JS Sazanamisailed down through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, citing sources in the Japanese government with knowledge of the matter. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on the reports at a regular briefing because they concern military operations. Military vessels from New Zealand and Australia also sailed through the Strait on the same day, Wellington’s defense ministry
SOVEREIGNTY EMPHASIZED: President William Lai said that Taiwan ‘absolutely will not sign’ an agreement with Beijing implying that the nation is part of China Taiwan hopes to join like-minded nations under the democratic umbrella and jointly counter authoritarian aggression, President William Lai (賴清德) said in a prerecorded speech during the annual Concordia Summit in New York on Tuesday. Lai addressed the summit via video at Concordia’s invitation, using the opportunity to speak on the issue of Chinese aggression toward Taiwan and Beijing’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758. Lai’s comments came on the heels of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, which opened on Tuesday. China has “distorted” UN Resolution 2758 “in support of its ‘one China’ principle,” he said. Through its misinterpretation