South Korea is planning to engage with China at the senior level and also seek opportunities for diplomacy aimed at trilateral cooperation with Japan and China, South Korean Ambassador to the US Cho Hyun-dong said on Thursday.
Cho told an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the COVID-19 pandemic had prevented high-level exchanges with China and there was a need for a new foundation of relations with its neighbor and No. 1 trading partner.
“Now we have a much-
Photo: EPA-EFE
improved situation of the pandemic, then we’re going to engage with China at the senior level and also, we are going to seek some opportunity of diplomacy in the context of trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing,” he said.
Cho said China probably had some “unhappy reaction” to Seoul’s heavy diplomatic engagement with the US and Japan, particularly the Washington Declaration agreed at a summit last week between US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
“But we’ll definitely engage with China,” he said. “We have to maintain a good relationship with China.”
Economic leaders of Japan, South Korea and China said in a joint message after a meeting this week that they recognize the importance of strengthening economic and trade relations to secure post-pandemic growth and prepare for future shocks.
China last week voiced its “strong dissatisfaction” to South Korea over Yoon’s joint summit statement with Biden about the need for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS