The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Ex-U.S. President Carter plans to visit North Korea - report
- Cambodian opposition rejects poll results, demands inquiry
- Japan's top diplomat heads for China seeking better ties
| Ex-U.S. President Carter plans to visit North Korea - report Posted: SEOUL (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is planning to visit North Korea soon to try to win the release of a U.S. citizen held for committing crimes against the reclusive state, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Monday. Carter has made contact with the North to arrange for the visit, and he is likely to make the trip in a personal capacity to secure the release of Kenneth Bae, the U.S. citizen, a source in Washington was quoted as saying by Yonhap. "The issue of Kenneth Bae who has been held in the North for nine months is becoming a burden for the United States," the diplomatic source was quoted as saying by Yonhap. "Even if Carter's visit materialises, it will be focused on the issue of Kenneth's Bae's release more than anything else." Bae, who is in his mid 40s, was sentenced in May to 15 years hard labour by North Korea's Supreme Court after being detained in November as he led a tour group through the northern region of the country. North Korea said Bae was participating in activities designed to overthrow the government, by infiltrating at least 250 students into the country. Bae has acknowledged to being a missionary and has said he had conducted services in the North. Bae said he had been moved by his faith to preach in North Korea, ranked the most hostile to Christianity by Open Doors International, a Christian advocacy and aid group, since the late 2000s. His arrest and conviction came as the North and the United States remain locked in a diplomatic standoff surrounding Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests and its claim that Washington was plotting to attack the country. In two months of daily verbal assault earlier this year prompted by annual drills by U.S. and South Korean militaries, Pyongyang threatened to attack the two allies using its nuclear weapons. Pyongyang has had a history of trying to use American captives as a bargaining chip to drag Washington into talks but the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has been reluctant to respond. Bae has sent letters to his family in the United States pleading for help because his health was failing, his sister said in a media interview last week. Carter has made trips to the North on diplomatic missions and in 2010 helped earn the release of another American, Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a Boston native who had been sentenced to eight years hard labour for illegally entering the country. Former President Bill Clinton flew to North Korea in 2009 and won the release of two American women media workers who had been sentenced to 12 years for illegally entering the country. (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) |
| Cambodian opposition rejects poll results, demands inquiry Posted: [unable to retrieve full-text content]PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's main opposition party on Monday rejected election results given by the government, which said long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen's party had won, and called for an inquiry into what it called massive manipulation of electoral rolls. |
| Japan's top diplomat heads for China seeking better ties Posted: TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki will visit China on Monday and Tuesday for talks with senior officials, the latest in a series of efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to improve relations soured by a bitter territorial row. The hawkish Abe, who cemented his grip on power in an upper house election last week, called on Friday for an unconditional meeting between Japanese and Chinese leaders. On Sunday, Isao Iijima, an adviser to the premier, told reporters that Abe could soon hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Often fragile Sino-Japanese ties have been seriously strained since September, when a territorial row over tiny islands in the East China Sea flared following Japan's nationalisation of the uninhabited isles. Concern that the conservative Japanese leader wants to recast Japan's wartime history with a less apologetic tone has added to the tension. "Vice Minister Saiki will visit China on July 29-30 and exchange views with Chinese officials," a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said. He did not give further details. China's Foreign Ministry responded to Abe's overture on Friday by saying its door was always open for talks but that the problem lay in Japan's attitude. "The crux of the matter at present is Japan's unwillingness to face up to the serious problems which exist in Sino-Japan relations and it is avoiding having earnest talks and consultations with China," the ministry said in a statement faxed to Reuters. Japan, it said, should "stop using empty slogans about so-called dialogue to gloss over disagreements". (Reporting by Linda Sieg and Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Paul Tait) |
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