Australia's foreign minister pressed leaders in North Korea yesterday to remain involved in six-nation talks on its nuclear program, amid concerns that the Pyongyang administration might pull out of preparatory meetings for the next round of negotiations.
"I'd been, on arriving here, concerned that the six-party talks process was stalling, and I hoped that we'd been able to add some substantial momentum to that process," Alexander Downer said, according to Australian pool video of his visit received by Associated Press Television News.
Downer, who arrived in North Korea on Tuesday, met with the country's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam and Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun.
The US, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas had agreed in June to hold the next round of nuclear talks in Beijing before the end of next month.
Washington has also called for working meetings to prepare for those talks, but North Korea said on Monday that it wouldn't attend those lower-level meetings -- complaining the US wasn't interested in "making the dialogue fruitful."
In Seoul, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that efforts were being made to still hold the working talks, but participants had yet to reach an agreement.
"Our government believes that the main talks should open before the end of September, and we expect it to be opened and will make necessary preparations," he said.
China, which hosts the six-party talks, also yesterday appealed to North Korea to join the working meetings.
"We hope that all sides will maintain a calm, practical and flexible attitude, appropriately handle these disagreements and continue to push forward the peace talks process with great strides," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.
At the latest nuclear talks in June, North Korea offered to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for energy, lifting of US economic sanctions and removal from Washington's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
It said the freeze would be a step toward eventual dismantling of the program.
The US proposal required the North to go further by disclosing all its nuclear activities, helping to dismantle facilities and allowing outside monitoring.
Under the plan, some benefits would be withheld to ensure the North cooperates.
The nuclear dispute flared up in 2002 when US officials said North Korea had admitted that it was running a secret nuclear program in violation of international agreements.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS