Asia’s top diplomats on Saturday pressed North Korea to turn a pledge to completely dismantle its nuclear arsenal into reality amid concerns that it is proceeding with its programs.
However, North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong-ho hit the US in an Asian security forum in Singapore for certain “alarming” moves, including “raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against” the North.
Those moves, could make an agreement with the administration of US President Donald Trump, including the North’s commitment to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, “face difficulties,” Ri told fellow ministers.
Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano said the rapprochement between North Korea and the US, along with completion of a negotiating draft of the code of conduct for the South China Sea, are breakthroughs.
However, “like any other breakthrough in diplomatic negotiations, they may lead to something great, they may lead to nothing,” he added.
ASEAN foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, urged the US and North Korea “as well as concerned parties to continue working toward the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” in a communique they issued after their meeting on Saturday.
They “noted” — often a diplomatic subtlety for a reminder — the “stated commitment” of North Korea “to complete denuclearization and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests during this period.”
While North Korea has “initiated goodwill measures,” including a “moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground,” the US has gone “back to the old, far from its leader’s intention,” Ri said.
He made the remarks after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was at the meeting, warned Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions that North Korea continues to face.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the