North Korea’s top governing body yesterday proposed high-level nuclear and security talks with the US in an appeal sent days after calling off talks with South Korea.
The powerful North Korean National Defense Commission headed by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a statement through state media proposing “senior level” talks to ease tensions and discuss a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War.
There was no immediate response from Washington, but Glyn Davies, US President Barack Obama’s top envoy on North Korea, on Friday said that while the US is not averse to talking with Pyongyang, the bar for resuming engagement is higher in the wake of repeated nuclear threats.
The rare proposal for talks follows months of acrimony over North Korea’s defiant launch of a long-range rocket in December last year and a nuclear test in February, acts that drew tightened UN and US sanctions. The US and South Korea countered by stepping up annual military exercises.
However, as tensions subsided, Pyongyang has made tentative overtures for dialogue.
Earlier this year, Kim enshrined the drive to build a nuclear arsenal as a national goal. North Korea claims the need to build atomic weapons to defend the country against what it sees as a US nuclear threat.
North Korea will not give up its nuclear ambitions until the entire Korean Peninsula is free of nuclear weapons, a National Defense Commission spokesman said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang’s bid to reach out to Washington comes as South Korean President Park Geun-hye is to sit down for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing later this month.
“The fact that North Korea proposed talks ahead of the South Korea-China summit signifies its intent to keep China in check,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies of Dongguk University in Seoul.
Pyongyang is also sending a message to South Korea that if it does not try to improve relations, the North will go directly to Washington, sidelining Seoul, he said.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS