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.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
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,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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.
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