South Korea's foreign minister was to hold talks with Japanese officials beginning yesterday to discuss plans for an Asia-Pacific leaders' summit next month and efforts to convince North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program, officials said.
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was to arrive in Tokyo late yesterday. The South Korean government said in a statement, released on Tuesday, that Ban will discuss plans for next month's APEC forum, and how to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions, ahead of a multilateral talks, also scheduled for next month.
Ban was to meet with his counterpart Nobutaka Machimura yesterday and hold talks with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today.
His three-day trip comes as the relations between the two countries have soured over Koizumi's Oct. 17 visit to Yasukuni Shrine. South Korea and China have strongly urged Koizumi to stop his annual visits there saying that the shrine glorifies Japan's wartime invasions of East Asia.
Ban has said that a summit between the two countries was put on hold, and Tokyo's response will be taken into account in deciding whether to go ahead with the plan later this year.
It was unclear whether Ban's trip would lead to a meeting between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Koizumi. Roh's office has said a summit would be difficult "unless there is a significant change in the situation."
Since last year, the two leaders have met twice a year. It's Roh's turn to visit Japan before the end of this year. They may also meet on the sidelines of international conferences, including a summit of the 21-member APEC forum in the South Korean city of Busan on Nov 18-19.
South Korea and Japan are key trading partners and have closely cooperated in efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. A new round of multilateral talks on the North's nuclear issue is scheduled for early next month.
Meanwhile, North Korea said yesterday the US military presence in South Korea was a cancer, adding the withdrawal of US troops was needed to secure a deal at six-party talks aimed at curbing Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
North Korea has in the past attached conditions to implementing a deal such as demanding a civilian reactor up front before it scraps its atomic weapons programs.
In a report in its official media yesterday, North Korea said removing US troops from the Korean peninsula was fundamental for progress at the next round, saying the troops were part of Washington's plans to take North Korea by force.
There are about 32,500 US troops in South Korea. The North has demanded for years they be taken off the peninsula. Washington has pledged not to attack North Korea and is reducing its troop contingent but has no plans to pull out completely.
Last month, at six-party talks in Beijing, North Korea agreed in principle to dismantle its nuclear programs in exchange for economic assistance, security guarantees and greater diplomatic recognition. Washington and others said conditions, such as the civilian reactor up front, were not part of the outline deal.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS