Rare talks between North and South Korea fizzled yesterday with the rivals unable to even agree on a venue for the meeting, which had already been clouded by Pyongyang’s threat to restart its nuclear arms plant.
The problems with the talks could add to growing frustration among regional powers with North Korea, which defied South Korea, Japan and the US earlier this month to launch a rocket in what was widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test.
North Korea hurriedly requested the meeting last week over a joint industrial park located just north of the countries’ heavily armed border. The venture was once hailed as a model of economic cooperation, but has now increasingly been the focus of mounting tension.
The South Korean delegation crossed into the Kaesong Industrial Park yesterday, but failed to have formal talks because of differences over the venue and format, the South’s Unification Ministry said.
“If the discussions do not reach a conclusion, the two sides could meet again on Wednesday,” a ministry official said.
Seoul is trying to win the release of a South Korean worker held for nearly a month at Kaesong by the North on suspicion of criticizing North Korea’s communist system.
Pyonyang, angered by the decision of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak after he took office a year ago to cut a steady flow of aid to the North, has disrupted work at the Kaesong Industrial Park at times to put pressure on Seoul to drop its hard line.
North Korea has all but suspended dialogue with Lee’s government and dubbed him a traitor to the Korean nation for tying aid, which has helped prop up the North’s wobbly economy, to progress Pyongyang makes in giving up nuclear arms.
But the North may now be even more dependent on the money generated at Kaesong because the UN has called for tightened sanctions on Pyongyang after its defiant rocket launch earlier this month.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS