Word: pyongyang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...governments involved in the six-party negotiations with North Korea have one chief aim: to get the hermit state to abandon its nuclear weapons program. In recent months, those nations - including the U.S., Russia, China and South Korea - have made some significant strides, including agreements from Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and to disclose its nuclear activities. But for Japan, the sixth party to the talks, these diplomatic successes are threatening another of its most tenaciously held foreign policy goals: discovering the fate of 17 Japanese civilians abducted by the North between...
...five Japanese citizens were returned to the country after being kidnapped and forced to instruct North Korean agents on Japanese culture and society; Pyongyang at the time said the rest were dead - a claim the victims' families dispute. Since then, the remaining abductees' fate has become a hot-button issue in Japan. "It's a heart-rendering story, and involves issues of sovereignty and human rights," notes Robert Dujarric, director of Temple University's Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies. "The issue has taken on a life of its own." The government has called the kidnappings "acts of terrorism"; former Prime...
...Regime change, however, is looking unlikely. Relations between the U.S. and North Korea have thawed since Washington agreed to unfreeze some $25 million in North Korean funds after Pyongyang agreed to dismantle the Yongbyon reactor; the U.S. is also considering removing the North from its blacklist of state sponsors of terror, an offer that previous Japanese leaders have insisted should be left off the table until the abductees issue is resolved...
...freshman year, Koh told the Harvard Independent’s annual sex survey that his greatest fantasy was to have sex with his cello. A native South Korean and a member of the newly founded Harvard Students for Human Rights in North Korea, Koh was supposed to travel to Pyongyang in North Korea last year to perform in the Isang Yun World Peace concert, which aimed to bring together musicians from the two Koreas. While North Korea’s nuclear testing led to the cancellation of Koh’s journey, he still links his playing with his desire...
Difficult it may be, but the President's new fondness for diplomacy is bearing some fruit. On North Korea, Bush approved talks led by a top Clinton negotiator, Christopher Hill, who eventually delivered a deal to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear reactors. And Robert Malley, a Clinton Middle East negotiator, argues that Bush stands a better chance than Clinton did of creating a Palestinian state. Says Malley: "The Israeli and Palestinian leaders share a personal bond and need for success, President Bush has more time left than Clinton did, and the Arab world is being actively courted...