North Korea yesterday set a June 4 trial date for two detained American journalists, further straining relations soured by its rocket launch and threatened nuclear test.
“The Central Court of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea decided to try American journalists on June 4 according to the indictment of the competent organ,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The one-sentence report gave no details of the charges against the two women, who were detained on March 17 along the narrow Tumen River which marks the border with China.
The North has previously said it would go on trial for “hostile acts” and illegally entering the country. Their trial would be held “on the basis of the confirmed crimes committed by them,” it has announced.
Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling (凌志美), a Taiwanese-American, were working on a story about refugees fleeing the hardline communist North.
International rights and media freedom groups have urged Pyongyang to release the reporters, who are employed by Current TV in California. Reporters Without Borders has said they face up to 10 years’ forced labor if convicted of “hostile acts.”
Analysts said Pyongyang was using the pair as a bargaining chip to open direct talks with Washington and may be following the lead set by Tehran.
US-born reporter Roxana Saberi walked free from an Iranian jail on Monday after a court reduced her prison term for spying to a two-year suspended sentence, from the original eight years.
“As Iran did, North Korea may try and release them through diplomatic contacts,” said Cheong Seong-chang of Seoul’s Sejong Institute think tank. “North Korea may use such contacts for discussion on pending issues and demand Washington ease sanctions. It has been using the case as a bargaining chip.”
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,”
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.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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