Taiwan yesterday urged Seoul and Pyongyang to settle their differences through the use of peaceful means rather than confrontation, calling on the two to consider patterning their interactions after the recent thaw in cross-strait ties.
Tension on the peninsula has escalated in the last few weeks as North Korea plans to go ahead with a rocket launch next month disregarding appeals from the UN, the US, and neighboring countries not to do so. While Pyongyang claims it is launching a communication satellite, Seoul, Washington and Tokyo see it as a disguised long-range missile test.
“Although Taiwan is not a member of the six-party talks, we want to take the opportunity to urge both sides to [settle the dispute] with dialogue in lieu of confrontation,” said Victor Yu (于德勝), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s (MOFA) Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, adding that the situation in the Korean Peninsula greatly affects Taiwan’s security and economic development.
Despite an absence of a diplomatic ties since 1992, Taiwan and South Korea enjoy close commercial and cultural relations, said Yu, citing an annual bilateral trade volume of US$26 billion.
Yu said Taiwan is looking to launch a working holiday program for young adults with South Korea. The topic will be among the discussion items in trade talks to be held in South Korea later this year, he said.
The ministry yesterday also called on China to stop interfering in Taiwan’s efforts to expand trade relations with other countries, such as ASEAN members, saying Beijing remains the biggest obstacle to Taiwan forging closer economic ties with other nations.
Saying that Taiwan hopes to have more direct access to ASEAN, so far Taiwan has had to resort to a gradual “block building” method to negotiate with individual ASEAN members separately on a possible free trade agreement (FTA), Yu said.
He said that Taiwan is not waiting for approval from Beijing before launching FTA negotiations with other countries as such talks have been ongoing.
The ideal situation would be for Taiwan to become an ASEAN dialogue partner, he said, acknowledging that in the short term, the chances of Taiwan joining ASEAN plus three were extremely slim because of the organization’s refusal to accept any more dialogue partners and the current cross-strait rapprochement.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
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