Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has urged both North and South Korea to open talks and avoid steps that could inflame tensions on the peninsula.
The Chinese Foreign Finistry said Yang made the comments in a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
New South Korean defense minister Kim Kwan-jin says Seoul is prepared to bomb North Korea if Pyongyang again hits the South with artillery.
Speaking at his confirmation hearing in the national assembly Friday, he firmly stated that if attacked again, South Korea would not hesitate to protect itself.
A White House spokesman is calling on China to press North Korea to end what he calls that state’s “belligerent behavior.” Robert Gibbs said Tuesday Beijing has an “obligation” to send such a message to Pyongyang. China is the main diplomatic and economic supporter of its impoverished neighbor.
China has warned America and South Korea not to stage military acts near its coast, ahead of joint naval drills due to start on Sunday in the Yellow Sea.
The U.S. military says the exercises, planned long before last week’s attack by North Korea, are designed to deter Pyongyang and are not aimed at China.
North Korea warned Friday that planned U.S.-South Korean naval exercises are pushing the peninsula to the brink of war. The North’s state Korean Central News Agency said drills involving a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier are a reckless plan by “trigger-happy elements” aimed at North Korea. Pyongyang has used such language frequently in the past to condemn military exercises in South Korea.
The U.S. said Wednesday North Korea’s lethal artillery strike on a South Korean island was premeditated and a violation of the 1953 Korean War armistice. But U.S. officials do not believe Pyongyang is preparing for an extended military campaign.
While North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is a madman, and while North Korea was the first to kill anyone in today’s skirmish, it was actually the South Koreans who fired first.As AP notes:The skirmish began when Pyongyang [i.e. North Korea] warned the Sou…
Laura Ling has signed on to host a new series for entertainment-centric cable network E!, The Hollywood Reporter said Monday. The former journalist with Al Gore’s Current TV Network will host a new E! series — E! Investigates — set to premiere in December. In the Spring of 2009, Ling and her Current colleague Euna [...]
Chinese President Hu Jintao has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and the country’s new ruling line-up to visit China, Chinese media said. The invitation was made during a meeting between Zhou Yongkang, the ruling Communist Party’s ninth-ranking leader, and Kim Jong Il on Monday in Pyongyang.
South Korea’s government denies reports of recent contacts with the North Korean government about holding a summit meeting. Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo says South Korea has not held talks with Pyongyang about a meeting of the two governments’ leaders.
North Korea says it will use its “nuclear deterrent” in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend. Pyongyang was ready to launch a “retaliatory sacred war” at any time, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The U.S. and South Korea’s plans to hold joint military exercises pose a major danger to the region, Pyongyang says. Some 20 ships and submarines and 100 aircraft are to take part in four days of manoeuvres in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) from Sunday.
North Korea is trying to fend off growing criticism after an international team of investigators accused Pyongyang of sinking a South Korean warship. North Korean officials rejected the team’s findings Thursday, calling its report a “fabrication” and a “farce.” North Korea’s National Defense Commission also threatened to respond to any potential retaliation with “all out war.”
Evidence that North Korea torpedoed the Cheonan puts it—and China—on the spot
WHOEVER failed to erase the words “Number One” in blue Korean script etched inside the propulsion shaft of a deadly torpedo may well be in deep trouble in Pyongyang. On May 15th a ship dredging the site of the attack on a South Korean warship in March that killed 46 seamen made a spectacular find: propellers, motors and a steering section that international investigators say “perfectly match” those of a CHT-02D torpedo that North Korea sells abroad. What’s more, the blue marking was similar to one on a previously captured North Korean torpedo. This was as close to a smoking gun as the South Koreans could have hoped to find.
The discovery, combined with intelligence reports indicating North Korean submarines were out of port during the attack, allowed the investigators to conclude on May 20th that the Cheonan “was sunk as the result of an external underwater explosion caused by a torpedo made in North Korea.” Or as one person close to the investigation succinctly put it: “It was either the North Koreans, or it was the Martians.” …
North Korea’s leader visits China, hoping for more goodies
THE timing could hardly have been more conspicuous. After weeks of speculation, early on Monday May 3rd Kim Jong Il, the not-so-endearing Dear Leader of North Korea, arrived in China by armoured train (he prefers not to fly). The trip, his first in more than four years, comes at a time of high tension on the Korean peninsula. The sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, in disputed waters in March is widely suspected to have been the result of a North Korean attack. After laying to rest the 46 sailors who perished, in a solemn ceremony on April 29th, South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak, wasted no time in flying to meet his Chinese counterpart the following day on the sidelines of the Shanghai World Expo.he It must be galling for Mr Kim to trundle along behind him.
It is little surprise that both Koreas are courting China. As North Korea’s staunchest ally, China is probably the only country that can rein in the worst of its troublemaking. China is also the host of the stalled six-party talks that are aimed at ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. …
Pyongyang accused Seoul yesterday of plotting to topple its regime, souring relations again as a top Chinese official visited North Korea in a new drive to bring it back to nuclear disarmament talks. In another blow for inter-Korean ties the two sides failed to agree on restarting a tourism
The US on Wednesday insisted that the six party talks is the way forward to achieve the goal of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and it is working in this regard with its key international partners.
“We are focused on with North Korea is getting to the point where we can re-launch the Six-Party Talks [...]
Chinese President Hu Jintao has formally invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-II to visit Beijing, state media reported on Thursday, amid efforts to bring Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks.
Hu extended the invitation for a visit “at a convenient time” during a meeting on Wednesday with Choe Thae-Bok, a visiting secretary of the North’s [...]
