The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- China formally charges former rail minister with graft
- South Korea increases surveillance as North moves missile
- South Korea raises surveillance as North moves missile
| China formally charges former rail minister with graft Posted: 09 Apr 2013 09:36 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China formally charged former railways minister Liu Zhijun with corruption and abuse of power on Wednesday, state media said, the latest step in a graft investigation into the scandal-plagued railways. Liu faces either a lengthy jail sentence or possibly death. How severely he is dealt with will be an indicator of how seriously new Chinese President Xi Jinping Xi takes his fight on corruption, one of the pillars of his new administration Liu "practiced favouritism and carried out malpractice, misused his power and caused big losses to public property and the interests of the state and the people", the official Xinhua news agency said. "The second intermediate Beijing court has already accepted the bribery and misuse of power case in accordance with the law and will chose a date for a trial," the news agency said. "As a worker for the state, Liu Zhijun used his position to help others seek gain, illegally accepted wealth and assets from other people. The numbers involved were huge and the circumstances very serious," Xinhua added. Liu took huge bribes and misused his position to help the chairman of an investment company get enormous illegal profits, according to previous accusations levelled by state media. He has not been given a chance to defend himself in public. China's sprawling railway system has faced numerous problems over the past few years, including heavy debts from funding new high-speed lines, waste and fraud. The government has pledged to open the rail industry to private investment on an unprecedented scale The ministry suffered a big blow to its image when a crash in 2011 between two high-speed trains killed 40 people. Liu was sacked in February last year for "serious disciplinary violations" and expelled from the Communist Party three months later, in May. He had spearheaded an investment drive into the rail sector over the past decade. Liu had successfully resisted a merger with the Ministry of Transport six years ago, but China announced in March that the ministry would be merged with the transport ministry. Xi has made fighting pervasive graft one of the pillars of his new administration, warning the issue threatens the party's rule, though so far appears to have made little progress aside from netting a few lower-level officials. While Liu's case attracted a lot of attention when it first broke, it has since been overshadowed by a much more salacious scandal involving the former party chief of Chongqing, the ambitious Bo Xilai. Bo's downfall last year amid lurid accusations of murder and diplomatic intrigue unleashed division and uncertainty months before the party met to formalise a transfer of power to a new generation of leaders. The government has yet to announce a trial date for Bo, or what charges he will face. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| South Korea increases surveillance as North moves missile Posted: 09 Apr 2013 08:31 PM PDT SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Korea said on Wednesday it has asked China, North Korea's only major ally, to rein in the hermit state and has raised its surveillance after the North moved at least one long-range missile in readiness for a possible launch.
Admiral Samuel Locklear, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region, said the U.S. military believed North Korea had moved an unspecified number of Musudan missiles to its east coast. An Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters "our working assumption is that there are two missiles that they may be prepared to launch". That was in line with South Korean media reports. The North has been threatening the United States and its "puppet" South Korea on an almost a daily basis in recent weeks, although the threats appear to be aimed partly at boosting internal support for young leader Kim Jong-un. The Combined Forces Command in Seoul raised its "Watchcon 3" status, a normal defence condition, by one level in order to step up monitoring and increase the number of intelligence staff, a senior military official told the Yonhap news agency in the South on Wednesday. "There are clear signs that the North could simultaneously fire off Musudan, Scud and Nodong missiles," Yonhap quoted an unidentified official as saying. South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told a parliamentary hearing in Seoul that he was working through diplomatic channels in an attempt to rein in Pyongyang. "Through close coordination with China and Russia, the Korean government has been continuing to make efforts to persuade North Korea to change its attitude," Yun said. China is North Korea's sole major ally, although it backed recent United Nations resolutions against Pyongyang, and Moscow was a supporter of North Korea as the Soviet Union. UNKNOWN QUANTITY Pyongyang has frequently tested short-range Scud missiles but the longer-range Musudan and Nodong missiles are an unknown quantity. The Musudan missiles are reckoned to have a range of roughly 3,000-3,500 km (1,865-2,175 miles). The North has said it would target American bases in the Pacific, although it is not known whether the untested missiles have the range to do so. "If the missile was in defence of the homeland, I would certainly recommend that action (of intercepting it). And if it was defence of our allies, I would recommend that action," Locklear told a Senate hearing in Washington. Pyongyang has turned up its shrill rhetoric in recent weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions for the impoverished state's third nuclear weapons test in February. It has threatened a nuclear strike on the United States - something it does not have the capacity to carry out - and "war" with South Korea. On Tuesday, it told foreigners in South Korea to leave the country to avoid being dragged into a "thermonuclear war". It previously warned diplomats in Pyongyang to prepare to leave. The streets of Seoul, a city of 10 million people, bustled as normal on Wednesday morning as commuters travelled to work in sunny, spring-time weather. Foreign embassies in the capital of Asia's fourth-largest economy have played down the latest North Korean threats as rhetoric. The North closed a money-spinning joint industrial park it operates with South Korean companies this week, putting at risk a venture that is one of its few sources of hard cash. Analysts say the current tensions will likely last until the end of April, when joint U.S.-South Korean military drills end. The harsh rhetoric also precedes the first anniversary of Kim's formal ascent to power in Pyongyang. The North has termed the drills "hostile" preparation for invasion by Seoul and Washington, who say the drills are regular annual exercises. (Writing by David Chance; Editing by Paul Tait)
Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| South Korea raises surveillance as North moves missile Posted: 09 Apr 2013 08:06 PM PDT SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Korea has raised its surveillance of North Korea after the reclusive state moved one or more long-range missiles in readiness for a possible launch, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.
Admiral Samuel Locklear, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region, said the U.S. military believed North Korea had moved an unspecified number of Musudan missiles to its east coast. An Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters "our working assumption is that there are two missiles that they may be prepared to launch". That was in line with South Korean media reports. The North has been threatening the United States and its "puppet" South Korea on an almost a daily basis in recent weeks, although the threats appear to be aimed partly at boosting internal support for young leader Kim Jong-un. The Combined Forces Command in Seoul raised its "Watchcon 3" status, a normal defence condition, by one level in order to step up monitoring and increase the number of intelligence staff, a senior military official told Yonhap on Wednesday. "There are clear signs that the North could simultaneously fire off Musudan, Scud and Nodong missiles," Yonhap quoted an unidentified official as saying. Pyongyang has frequently tested short-range Scud missiles but the longer-range Musudan and Nodong missiles are an unknown quantity. The Musudan missiles are reckoned to have a range of roughly 3,000-3,500 km (1,865-2,175 miles). The North has said it would target American bases in the Pacific, although it is not known whether the untested missiles have the range to do so. "If the missile was in defence of the homeland, I would certainly recommend that action (of intercepting it). And if it was defence of our allies, I would recommend that action," Locklear told a Senate hearing in Washington. Pyongyang has turned up its shrill rhetoric in recent weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions for the state's third nuclear weapons test in February. It has threatened a nuclear strike on the United States - something it does not have the capacity to carry out - and "war" with South Korea. On Tuesday, it told foreigners in South Korea to leave the country to avoid being dragged into a "thermonuclear war". It previously warned diplomats in Pyongyang to prepare to leave. The streets of Seoul, a city of 10 million people, bustled as normal on Wednesday morning as commuters travelled to work in sunny, spring-time weather. Foreign embassies in the capital of Asia's fourth-largest economy have played down the latest North Korean threats as rhetoric. The North closed a money-spinning joint industrial park it operates with South Korean companies this week, putting at risk a venture that is one of its few sources of hard cash. Analysts say the current tensions will likely last until the end of April, when joint U.S.-South Korean military drills end. The harsh rhetoric also precedes the first anniversary of Kim's formal ascent to power in Pyongyang. The North has termed the drills "hostile" preparation for invasion by Seoul and Washington, who say the drills are regular annual exercises. (Writing by David Chance; Editing by Paul Tait)
Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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