North Korean officials arrived in Seoul yesterday to discuss economic issues with their South Korean counterparts amid Pyongyang's refusal to accept international demands that it give up its nuclear weapons.
At high-level meetings last month, officials from the two Koreas agreed in Seoul to a series of reconciliation moves but failed to set a date for a resumption of international talks on the North's nuclear ambitions. The North's delegation, headed by Choe Yong-gon, vice-minister of Construction and Building Materials Industries, will be in Seoul through Tuesday to discuss restoring transport links across the two Koreas' heavily fortified border among other issues.
The North's request for 450,000 tonnes of rice aid to feed its impoverished population is also expected to be on the agenda. The economic talks were last held in June 2004.
"Let's cooperate with new forces from a new angle," Choe said upon meeting South Korea's Vice Finance Minister Bahk Byong-won, who heads the Seoul delegation.
Contacts between the Koreas resumed in May following a 10-month freeze after the North was angered by mass defections of its citizens to the South.
The economic talks between the Koreas are the tenth such discussions since a landmark 2000 summit between leaders of the countries. The two Koreas remain technically at war since a 1953 ceasefire, not a peace treaty, ended the Korean War, but South Korea has reached out to its communist rival in recent years in the belief that engagement will encourage reform.
In the past five years, the Koreas have opened a joint economic zone just north of their border that combines cheap North Korean labor with South Korean know-how and marketing. Trade between the two Koreas is increasing and totaled US$690 million last year.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS