(For full North Korea coverage, click [ID:nNORKOR])
SEOUL, June 27 (Reuters) – North Korea said on Sunday it was ready for direct military talk with South Korea to discuss the sinking of one of Seoul’s warships, but only if the armistice commission overseeing the Korean War truce does not get involved.
South Korea has accused the North of sinking the Cheonan, and killing 46 sailors, after a multinational investigation concluded that a North Korean submarine had torpedoed the corvette, an incident that has ratcheted up tensions on the peninsula.
North Korea has denied involvement, saying the investigation was a fabrication. It has also threatened military action if it is punished by the United Nations for the incident.
South Korea said this week it has not given up on trying to persuade the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution against North Korea over the navy ship’s sinking.
“If the South Korean authorities respond to our proposal, we will promptly come out for a working contact for the opening of the military talks,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said.
“The U.S. forces side should no longer meddle in the issue of the North-South relations under the name of the ‘UN Forces Command’,” it said.
A multinational team from the U.S.-led United Nations Command is probing whether North Korea violated the Korean War armistice by sinking the Cheonan, a probe the North has denounced as a “bogus mechanism”.
North Korea’s military has proposed sending a team of military inspectors to review the multinational investigation into the Cheonan’s sinking, but South Korea has rejected that call and demanded the North make an unconditional apology and a pledge to end provocations.
U.S. President Barack Obama said after meeting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders in Toronto that the North will face consequences for the incident, pressing for a Security Council condemnation. [ID:nN26218623] (Reporting by Jack Kim, editing by Miral Fahmy)
‘Two-faced’ UN criticised for being ‘utterly hypocritical’ over Fiji
New York, Apr.22 (ANI): The United Nations has been lambasted as “utterly hypocritical” for continuing to employ Fiji’s soldiers and hand money to the country’s power-hungry military regime.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully has joined a host of regional commentators in challenging the international organisation’s role in giving work to Fiji’s powerful military.
The military, led by army chief Frank Bainimarama, has ruled Fiji since overthrowing a democratic government in a December 2006 coup, despite widespread and growing condemnation from regional and world leaders.
Much of the government’s income comes from UN peacekeeping assignments.
The UN Security Council this week condemned the latest developments that have seen elections delayed five years, the media sanctioned, the constitution abrogated and several top officials sacked.
“It is very hard to see how they can justify using military people who have overthrown the rule of law in their own country as the agents to enforce the rule of law as peacekeepers somewhere else,” McCully told the New Zealand Herald on Wednesday.
“That seems utterly incongruous to me. It is utterly hypocritical.” (ANI)