http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...in-south-korean-presidential-election-8817338
Early voting begins in South Korean presidential election
Soldiers wait in a line to vote in advance at a polling station in Yongsan station in Seoul on May 4, 2017, ahead of next week's South Korean presidential election. (Photo: AFP / JUNG Yeon-Je)
04 May 2017 12:49PM
(Updated: 04 May 2017 04:08PM)
Share this content
SEOUL: South Koreans began casting their ballots in early voting for the presidential election on Thursday (May 4).
The election is scheduled for May 9, but for the first time in a presidential vote, early voting has been introduced.
More than 3,500 polling stations have been installed across the country.
A Korean voter taking part in early voting for the presidential election. (Photo: Lim Yun Suk)
This includes Incheon International Airport and major train stations.
Advertisement
The National Election Commission expects the early voting rate to be around 15 per cent.
Public interest in the election is high as it is being held after a political scandal involving ousted president Park Geun-hye.
Early voting at #SouthKorea's Incheon International Airport for presidential election as @JulieYooCNA touches down https://t.co/c5aggKgCbn pic.twitter.com/k8nsv66TbX
— Channel NewsAsia (@ChannelNewsAsia) May 4, 2017
Park was impeached in December on accusations she colluded with a friend to collect bribes from big conglomerates. The Constitutional Court upheld the parliamentary motion, making her South Korea's first democratically elected president to be forced out of office.
Park went on trial on criminal charges of corruption on Tuesday and could face more than 10 years in prison if convicted of receiving bribes.
Source: CNA/Agencies/mn
http://www.news.com.au/world/asia/m...t/news-story/d3504fd695e52c53f1dcc8aaaeb02e88
Monitor group 38 North warns North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear weapons test
May 4, 20176:53pm
Video
Image
Staff writers, wiresNews Corp Australia Network
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Google+
Share on Reddit
Email a friend
NORTH Korean and Chinese media were at loggerheads after Pyongyang’s official news agency issued a rare and stinging denunciation of its chief ally and diplomatic backer.
Beijing should be grateful to Pyongyang for its protection, said a bylined commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), warning of “grave consequences” if China tests its patience further.
China’s Global Times newspaper retorted that the nuclear-armed North was in the grip of “some form of irrational logic” over its weapons programs.
Beijing and Pyongyang have a relationship forged in the blood of the Korean War, and the Asian giant remains its wayward neighbour’s main provider of aid and trade.
But ties have begun to fray in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by the North’s nuclear antics and fearful of a regional crisis. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has yet to visit Beijing, more than five years after taking power.
The rival texts are a sign of the level to which ties between the two have deteriorated. KCNA regularly carries vivid denunciations of the US, Japan, and the South Korean authorities, but it is rare for it to turn its ire on China.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un waving from a balcony of the Grand People's Study house. Picture: AFP
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un waving from a balcony of the Grand People's Study house. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
Beijing regularly calls for parties to avoid raising tensions -- remarks that can apply to both Washington and Pyongyang -- and in February it announced the suspension of coal imports from the North for the rest of the year, a crucial foreign currency earner for the authorities.
Chinese state-run media have called for harsher sanctions against the North in the event of a fresh atomic test, urged Pyongyang to “avoid making mistakes”, and spoken of the need for it to abandon its nuclear programmes.
The KCNA commentary denounced the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist party, and the Global Times, which sometimes reflects the thinking of the leadership, as having “raised lame excuses for the base acts of dancing to the tune of the US”.
Chinese suggestions that the North give up its weapons crossed a “red line” and were “ego-driven theory based on big-power chauvinism” said the article, bylined “Kim Chol” -- believed to be a pseudonym.
Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea as tensions rise. Picture: AP
Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea as tensions rise. Picture: APSource:AP
“The DPRK will never beg for the maintenance of friendship with China, risking its nuclear programme which is as precious as its own life,” it said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Pyongyang had acted as a buffer between Beijing and Washington since the Korean War in the 1950s and “contributed to protecting peace and security of China”, it said, adding that its ally should “thank the DPRK for it”.
Beijing should not try to test the limits of the North’s patience, it said, warning: “China had better ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK-China relations.”
A submarine missile is paraded across the Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade, in Pyongyang. Picture: AP
A submarine missile is paraded across the Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade, in Pyongyang. Picture: APSource:AP
’NATIONALISTIC’ PASSION
In its response Thursday, the Global Times -- which can sometimes stridently espouse what it sees as China’s interests -- dismissed the KCNA article as “nothing more than a hyper-aggressive piece completely filled with nationalistic passion”.
“Pyongyang obviously is grappling with some form of irrational logic over its nuclear programme,” it added.
Beijing “should also make Pyongyang aware that it will react in unprecedented fashion if Pyongyang conducts another nuclear test”, it said.
“The more editorials KCNA publishes, the better Chinese society will be able to understand how Pyongyang thinks, and how hard it is to solve this nuclear issue,” the Global Times said.
The Korean People's ballistic missiles being displayed through Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in Pyongyang. Picture: AFP
The Korean People's ballistic missiles being displayed through Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in Pyongyang. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
Washington is meanwhile pushing Beijing -- which says its influence is less than believed -- to put more pressure on Pyongyang.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week warned the UN Security Council of “catastrophic consequences” if the international community -- most notably China -- failed to pressure the North into abandoning its weapons programme.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi brushed aside Tillerson’s comments, saying that “the key to solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula does not lie in the hands of the Chinese side”.
CHINA: GET OUT OF N KOREA
CHINA has called for all of its citizens to return from North Korea immediately as a US citizen is detained for allegedly trying to overthrow the country’s regime.
The Korea Times reports that the Chinese embassy in North Korea began advising Korean-Chinese residents to return to China.
A Korean-Chinese citizen told Radio Free Asia he was advised to ‘stay a while’ in China, and stated: ‘The embassy has never given such a warning. I was worried and left the country in a hurry.’
But he said most Chinese citizens in North Korea had opted not to heed the warning.
It comes as North Korea confirmed the detention of another American citizen for alleged acts of hostility aimed at overthrowing the country.
Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang Duk, was detained for hostile acts to North Korea. Picture: Facebook
Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang Duk, was detained for hostile acts to North Korea. Picture: FacebookSource:Supplied
Kim Sang Dok, or Tony Kim, an accounting instructor at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, was “intercepted” at Pyongyang International Airport on April 22, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
It said he was being detained while authorities conduct a detailed investigation into his alleged crime.
The school’s chancellor Park Chan-mo and the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang earlier gave the information about Mr Kim’s detention but couldn’t provide the reason for his arrest.
He is now the third American being detained in North Korea.
The other US detainees are Otto Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term with hard labour for alleged anti-state acts, and Kim Dong Chul, serving a 10-year term with hard labour for alleged espionage.
IMAGES SHOW RESUMPTION AT NUCLEAR SITE
Meanwhile satellite images indicate activity has resumed at North Korea’s nuclear test site, US-based analysts said Tuesday, as tensions remain high over fears of an sixth atomic test by the reclusive state.
Images of the Punggye-ri site captured on April 25 appear to show workers pumping out water at a tunnel believed to have been prepared for an upcoming nuclear test, monitoring group 38 North said.
It also noted that a large number of personnel were seen throughout the facility, with some groups possibly playing volleyball, in what is very likely a propaganda scene.
RELATED: North Korean missile ‘headed for Russia’
Activity resumes at North Korea's nuclear site. Picture: 38 North
Activity resumes at North Korea's nuclear site. Picture: 38 NorthSource:Supplied
Satelitte image showing movement at North Korean nuclear site. Picture: 38 North
Satelitte image showing movement at North Korean nuclear site. Picture: 38 NorthSource:Supplied
“It is unclear if this activity indicates that a nuclear test has been cancelled, the facility is in standby mode or that a test is imminent,” said the researchers from the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
Workers were also observed playing volleyball at the guard barracks and two other areas at the site in satellite pictures taken on April 19 and 21.
38 North said the latest images were “unusual and almost assuredly a component of an overall North Korean deception and propaganda effort” and the result of media reporting on the earlier volleyball sightings.
North Korea say U.S. bombers push tension 'to the brink of nuclear war'
North Korea is on a mission to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
Punggye-ri is a complex of tunnels and testing infrastructure in the mountains in the northeast of the country.
38 North said last month that Punggye-ri was “primed and ready” to conduct a test, amid mounting speculation that Pyongyang would act to coincide with major anniversaries including the birthday of regime founder Kim Il-sung.
A nuclear test has yet to happen, but North Korea’s failed ballistic missile launch last week marked the hermit state’s latest show of defiance.
On Monday it said it would carry out a nuclear test “at any time and at any location” set by its leadership.
US President Donald Trump said this week he would be “honoured” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un under the right conditions, dialling down earlier threats of military action.
Washington is now exploring options at the UN Security Council to ramp up pressure on the North, with diplomats saying it was in discussion with China on possible sanctions.
Over the past 11 years, the Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions on Pyongyang, including imposing a cap on coal exports among other measures in November.
N.Korea, Trump meeting subject to pre-conditions: White House
Leave a comment
Early voting begins in South Korean presidential election
Soldiers wait in a line to vote in advance at a polling station in Yongsan station in Seoul on May 4, 2017, ahead of next week's South Korean presidential election. (Photo: AFP / JUNG Yeon-Je)
04 May 2017 12:49PM
(Updated: 04 May 2017 04:08PM)
Share this content
SEOUL: South Koreans began casting their ballots in early voting for the presidential election on Thursday (May 4).
The election is scheduled for May 9, but for the first time in a presidential vote, early voting has been introduced.
More than 3,500 polling stations have been installed across the country.
A Korean voter taking part in early voting for the presidential election. (Photo: Lim Yun Suk)
This includes Incheon International Airport and major train stations.
Advertisement
The National Election Commission expects the early voting rate to be around 15 per cent.
Public interest in the election is high as it is being held after a political scandal involving ousted president Park Geun-hye.
Early voting at #SouthKorea's Incheon International Airport for presidential election as @JulieYooCNA touches down https://t.co/c5aggKgCbn pic.twitter.com/k8nsv66TbX
— Channel NewsAsia (@ChannelNewsAsia) May 4, 2017
Park was impeached in December on accusations she colluded with a friend to collect bribes from big conglomerates. The Constitutional Court upheld the parliamentary motion, making her South Korea's first democratically elected president to be forced out of office.
Park went on trial on criminal charges of corruption on Tuesday and could face more than 10 years in prison if convicted of receiving bribes.
Source: CNA/Agencies/mn
http://www.news.com.au/world/asia/m...t/news-story/d3504fd695e52c53f1dcc8aaaeb02e88
Monitor group 38 North warns North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear weapons test
May 4, 20176:53pm
Video
Image
Staff writers, wiresNews Corp Australia Network
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Google+
Share on Reddit
Email a friend
NORTH Korean and Chinese media were at loggerheads after Pyongyang’s official news agency issued a rare and stinging denunciation of its chief ally and diplomatic backer.
Beijing should be grateful to Pyongyang for its protection, said a bylined commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), warning of “grave consequences” if China tests its patience further.
China’s Global Times newspaper retorted that the nuclear-armed North was in the grip of “some form of irrational logic” over its weapons programs.
Beijing and Pyongyang have a relationship forged in the blood of the Korean War, and the Asian giant remains its wayward neighbour’s main provider of aid and trade.
But ties have begun to fray in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by the North’s nuclear antics and fearful of a regional crisis. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has yet to visit Beijing, more than five years after taking power.
The rival texts are a sign of the level to which ties between the two have deteriorated. KCNA regularly carries vivid denunciations of the US, Japan, and the South Korean authorities, but it is rare for it to turn its ire on China.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un waving from a balcony of the Grand People's Study house. Picture: AFP
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un waving from a balcony of the Grand People's Study house. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
Beijing regularly calls for parties to avoid raising tensions -- remarks that can apply to both Washington and Pyongyang -- and in February it announced the suspension of coal imports from the North for the rest of the year, a crucial foreign currency earner for the authorities.
Chinese state-run media have called for harsher sanctions against the North in the event of a fresh atomic test, urged Pyongyang to “avoid making mistakes”, and spoken of the need for it to abandon its nuclear programmes.
The KCNA commentary denounced the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist party, and the Global Times, which sometimes reflects the thinking of the leadership, as having “raised lame excuses for the base acts of dancing to the tune of the US”.
Chinese suggestions that the North give up its weapons crossed a “red line” and were “ego-driven theory based on big-power chauvinism” said the article, bylined “Kim Chol” -- believed to be a pseudonym.
Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea as tensions rise. Picture: AP
Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea as tensions rise. Picture: APSource:AP
“The DPRK will never beg for the maintenance of friendship with China, risking its nuclear programme which is as precious as its own life,” it said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Pyongyang had acted as a buffer between Beijing and Washington since the Korean War in the 1950s and “contributed to protecting peace and security of China”, it said, adding that its ally should “thank the DPRK for it”.
Beijing should not try to test the limits of the North’s patience, it said, warning: “China had better ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK-China relations.”
A submarine missile is paraded across the Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade, in Pyongyang. Picture: AP
A submarine missile is paraded across the Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade, in Pyongyang. Picture: APSource:AP
’NATIONALISTIC’ PASSION
In its response Thursday, the Global Times -- which can sometimes stridently espouse what it sees as China’s interests -- dismissed the KCNA article as “nothing more than a hyper-aggressive piece completely filled with nationalistic passion”.
“Pyongyang obviously is grappling with some form of irrational logic over its nuclear programme,” it added.
Beijing “should also make Pyongyang aware that it will react in unprecedented fashion if Pyongyang conducts another nuclear test”, it said.
“The more editorials KCNA publishes, the better Chinese society will be able to understand how Pyongyang thinks, and how hard it is to solve this nuclear issue,” the Global Times said.
The Korean People's ballistic missiles being displayed through Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in Pyongyang. Picture: AFP
The Korean People's ballistic missiles being displayed through Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in Pyongyang. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
Washington is meanwhile pushing Beijing -- which says its influence is less than believed -- to put more pressure on Pyongyang.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week warned the UN Security Council of “catastrophic consequences” if the international community -- most notably China -- failed to pressure the North into abandoning its weapons programme.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi brushed aside Tillerson’s comments, saying that “the key to solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula does not lie in the hands of the Chinese side”.
CHINA: GET OUT OF N KOREA
CHINA has called for all of its citizens to return from North Korea immediately as a US citizen is detained for allegedly trying to overthrow the country’s regime.
The Korea Times reports that the Chinese embassy in North Korea began advising Korean-Chinese residents to return to China.
A Korean-Chinese citizen told Radio Free Asia he was advised to ‘stay a while’ in China, and stated: ‘The embassy has never given such a warning. I was worried and left the country in a hurry.’
But he said most Chinese citizens in North Korea had opted not to heed the warning.
It comes as North Korea confirmed the detention of another American citizen for alleged acts of hostility aimed at overthrowing the country.
Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang Duk, was detained for hostile acts to North Korea. Picture: Facebook
Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang Duk, was detained for hostile acts to North Korea. Picture: FacebookSource:Supplied
Kim Sang Dok, or Tony Kim, an accounting instructor at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, was “intercepted” at Pyongyang International Airport on April 22, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
It said he was being detained while authorities conduct a detailed investigation into his alleged crime.
The school’s chancellor Park Chan-mo and the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang earlier gave the information about Mr Kim’s detention but couldn’t provide the reason for his arrest.
He is now the third American being detained in North Korea.
The other US detainees are Otto Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term with hard labour for alleged anti-state acts, and Kim Dong Chul, serving a 10-year term with hard labour for alleged espionage.
IMAGES SHOW RESUMPTION AT NUCLEAR SITE
Meanwhile satellite images indicate activity has resumed at North Korea’s nuclear test site, US-based analysts said Tuesday, as tensions remain high over fears of an sixth atomic test by the reclusive state.
Images of the Punggye-ri site captured on April 25 appear to show workers pumping out water at a tunnel believed to have been prepared for an upcoming nuclear test, monitoring group 38 North said.
It also noted that a large number of personnel were seen throughout the facility, with some groups possibly playing volleyball, in what is very likely a propaganda scene.
RELATED: North Korean missile ‘headed for Russia’
Activity resumes at North Korea's nuclear site. Picture: 38 North
Activity resumes at North Korea's nuclear site. Picture: 38 NorthSource:Supplied
Satelitte image showing movement at North Korean nuclear site. Picture: 38 North
Satelitte image showing movement at North Korean nuclear site. Picture: 38 NorthSource:Supplied
“It is unclear if this activity indicates that a nuclear test has been cancelled, the facility is in standby mode or that a test is imminent,” said the researchers from the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
Workers were also observed playing volleyball at the guard barracks and two other areas at the site in satellite pictures taken on April 19 and 21.
38 North said the latest images were “unusual and almost assuredly a component of an overall North Korean deception and propaganda effort” and the result of media reporting on the earlier volleyball sightings.
North Korea say U.S. bombers push tension 'to the brink of nuclear war'
North Korea is on a mission to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
Punggye-ri is a complex of tunnels and testing infrastructure in the mountains in the northeast of the country.
38 North said last month that Punggye-ri was “primed and ready” to conduct a test, amid mounting speculation that Pyongyang would act to coincide with major anniversaries including the birthday of regime founder Kim Il-sung.
A nuclear test has yet to happen, but North Korea’s failed ballistic missile launch last week marked the hermit state’s latest show of defiance.
On Monday it said it would carry out a nuclear test “at any time and at any location” set by its leadership.
US President Donald Trump said this week he would be “honoured” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un under the right conditions, dialling down earlier threats of military action.
Washington is now exploring options at the UN Security Council to ramp up pressure on the North, with diplomats saying it was in discussion with China on possible sanctions.
Over the past 11 years, the Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions on Pyongyang, including imposing a cap on coal exports among other measures in November.
N.Korea, Trump meeting subject to pre-conditions: White House
Leave a comment
