The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Moon Jae-in

  • Korean President congratulates Buhari on re-election

    President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea has congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari on his re-election.

    Writing to the Nigerian leader on behalf of the Government and people of the Republic of Korea, President Jae-in said, “I hope that under your leadership, Nigeria will continue to achieve political stability and economic prosperity.”

    READ ALSO: UK congratulates Buhari on re-election

    He also noted: “Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1980, our two countries are maintaining friendship and cooperation in various areas. I would like to closely cooperate with you to develop the relationship to a more mutually beneficial and future-oriented one.”

    President Jae-in, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, also wished President Buhari “good health as well as the everlasting prosperity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

  • Koreas make nuclear pledge after summit

    The leaders of North and South Korea have agreed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons, after holding a historic summit.

    The announcement was made by the North’s Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in of South Korea after talks at the border, the BBC reports.

    The two also agreed to push towards turning the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 into a peace treaty this year.

    The summit came just months after warlike rhetoric from North Korea.

    Speaking at a banquet after Friday’s talks, Mr. Kim hailed the progress he said had been made.

    “We bade farewell to the frozen relationship between North and South Korea, which was a nightmare. And we announced the beginning of a warm spring to the world,” he said.

    Details of how denuclearisation would be achieved were not made clear and many analysts remain skeptical about the North’s apparent enthusiasm for engagement.

    An issue for the North is the security guarantee extended by the United States, a nuclear power, to South Korea and Japan and its military presence in both countries.

    Previous inter-Korean agreements have included similar pledges but were later abandoned after the North resorted to nuclear and missile tests and the South elected more conservative presidents.

    Mr. Kim said the two leaders had agreed to work to prevent a repeat of the region’s “unfortunate history” in which progress had “fizzled out.”

     

  • 100 volunteers quit Olympics because they didn’t like assigned jobs

    100 volunteers quit Olympics because they didn’t like assigned jobs

    The PyeongChang Organising Committee says around 100 volunteers have quit working at the Pyeongchang Olympics because they didn’t like their assigned jobs.

    Organising committee spokesperson Nancy Park said Monday that the absences didn’t harm the running of the Games.

    “This is because we selected more than we needed, with 14,000 volunteers in action from 90,000 applications from around the world,” she said.

    The spokeperson said the 100 “came, didn’t like it and left again.”

    Park acknowledged that volunteers had complained about issues such as “snacks and transportation” and also voiced them to the Blue House, the residence of the nation’s President, Moon Jae In.

    READ ALSO: Buhari sends goodwill message to Team Nigeria at Winter Olympics

    Volunteers, who are not paid apart from accommodation and receiving the official uniform, are crucial for the running of any Games.

    “We are trying to take care of their needs. They are the face of the Games and very important for us,” Park said.

    NAN

  • Court sentences Samsung heir to five years in prison for bribery

    Court sentences Samsung heir to five years in prison for bribery

    A court on Friday sentenced the billionaire head of South Korea’s Samsung Group, Jay Lee, to five years in prison for bribery.

    After a six-month trial over a scandal that brought down the then president, Park Geun-hye, a court ruled that Lee had paid bribes in anticipation of favors from Park.

    The court also found Lee guilty of hiding assets abroad, embezzlement and perjury.

    Lee, the 49-year-old heir to one of the world’s biggest corporate empires, has been held since February on charges that he bribed Park to help secure control of a conglomerate that owns Samsung Electronics,.

    Lee, who re-emerged stony-faced from the courtroom in a dark suit, but without a tie, and holding a document envelope, was escorted by justice ministry officials back to his detention center.

    “This case is a matter of Lee Jae-yong and Samsung Group executives, who had been steadily preparing for Lee’s succession … bribing the president,” Seoul Central District Court Judge Kim Jin-dong said, using Lee’s Korean name.

    Kim said that as the group’s heir apparent, Lee “stood to benefit the most” from any political favors for Samsung.

    Lee denied wrongdoing, and one of his lawyers, Song Wu-cheol, said he would appeal.

    “The entire verdict is unacceptable,” Song said, adding that he was confident his client’s innocence would be affirmed by a higher court.

    The five year-sentence, one of the longest given to a South Korean business leader, is a landmark for South Korea, where the family-run conglomerates, known as chaebols, have long been revered for helping transform the once war-ravaged country into a global economic powerhouse.

    They have more recently been criticized for holding back the economy and stifling small businesses and start-ups.

    Samsung, a symbol of the country’s rise from poverty following the 1950 to 1953 Korean War, has come to epitomize the cosy and sometimes corrupt ties between politicians and the chaebols.

    “The ruling is a turning point for chaebols,” said Chang Sea-jin, a business professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

    “In the past, chaebols weren’t afraid of laws because they were lenient.

    Now, Lee’s ruling sets a precedent for strict enforcement of laws, and chaebols should be wary.”

    Under South Korean law, sentences of more than three years can not be suspended.

    The third-generation de facto head of the powerful Samsung Group, Lee has effectively directed operations since his father, Lee Kun-hee, was incapacitated by a heart attack in 2014.

    Some investors worry a prolonged leadership vacuum, with no one to make big decisions, could slow decision-making at the group, which has more than five dozen affiliate companies and assets of 363.2 trillion won (322.13 billion dollars).

    Its listed companies make up about 30 per cent of the market value of South Korea’s KOSPI stock index.

    Many tycoons, including Lee’s father, were convicted of crimes in the past, ranging from bribery, embezzlement and tax evasion, only to get presidential pardons, as both the government and the public feared going too hard on them would hurt the economy.

    South Korea’s new liberal president, Moon Jae-in, who won a May election, has pledged to rein in the chaebols, empower minority shareholders and end the practice of pardoning tycoons convicted of white-collar crime.

  • South Korea proposes military talks with North

    South Korea proposes military talks with North

    South Korea has proposed military talks with the North, after weeks of heightened tension following Pyongyang’s long-range missile test.

    If they were to go ahead, they would be the first high-level talks since 2015, the BBC reports.

    A senior official said talks should aim to stop “all hostile activities that raise military tension” at the fortified border between the Koreas.

    South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in, has long signalled he wants closer engagement with the North.

    North Korea has not responded to the South’s proposal yet.

    In a recent speech in Berlin, Mr. Moon said dialogue with the North was more pressing than ever and called for a peace treaty to be signed.

    He said such dialogue was crucial for those who seek the end of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

    However, the North’s frequent missile tests, including the most recent one of an intercontinental ballistic missile, are in consistent violation of United Nations resolutions and have alarmed its neighbours and the United States.

    South Korea’s Vice Defence Minister, Suh Choo-suk, told a media briefing that talks could be held at Tongilgak, a North Korean building in the Panmunjom compound in the demilitarised zone between the two countries, which was used to host previous talks.

    He proposed that the talks be held on July 21, and said: “We expect a positive response from the North.”

    South Korea’s Unification Minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, also urged the restoration of communication hotlines between the two Koreas, cut last year after a North Korean nuclear test.

     

  • Trump to try engagement with North Korea on conditions

    Trump to try engagement with North Korea on conditions

    U.S. President, Donald Trump told South Korea’s presidential envoy that Washington was willing to try to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis through engagement, but under the right conditions, South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.

    Trump has said “a major, major conflict” with North Korea is possible and all options are on the table but that he wanted to resolve the crisis diplomatically, possibly through the extended use of economic sanctions.

    South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office on May 9, has campaigned on a more moderate approach towards the North but he has said it must change its attitude of insisting on arms development before dialogue can be possible.

    Moon’s envoy to Washington, South Korean media mogul Hong Seok-hyun, said Trump spoke of being willing to use engagement to ensure peace, Hong said in comments carried by television on Thursday.

    Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck in a regular media briefing said: “the fact that Trump said he will not have talks for the sake of talks reiterated our joint stance that we are open to dialogue but the right situation must be formed.”

    Cho added that South Korea and the U.S. agreed during a visit to Seoul by Trump’s national security advisers on Monday to formulate a “bold and pragmatic” joint approach.

    The North has vowed to develop a missile mounted with a nuclear warhead that can strike the mainland U.S., saying the programme is necessary to counter U.S. aggression.

    The U.S. which has 28,500 troops in South Korea to guard against the North Korean threat, has called on China to do more to rein in its neighbor.

    North Korea conducted its latest ballistic missile test on Sunday in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, saying it was a test of its capability to carry a “large-size heavy nuclear warhead”.

    A senior North Korean diplomat has said Pyongyang is also open to having talks with Washington under the right conditions.

    Moon’s envoy to China, former prime minister Lee Hae-chan, left for Beijing on Thursday with a letter from Moon to deliver to China President Xi Jinping.

    Before leaving, Lee said a summit between Xi and Moon could happen as soon as July on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Germany.

    A separate summit could also be held the following month, Lee said.

    Moon has sent envoys to the United States, China, Japan and the European Union this week in what the government has called “pre-emptive diplomacy”.

     

  • N. Korea missile programme progressing faster than expected, says South

    N. Korea missile programme progressing faster than expected, says South

    North Korea’s missile programme is progressing faster than expected, South Korea’s defence minister said on Tuesday, hours after the UN Security Council demanded the North halt all nuclear and ballistic missile tests and condemned Sunday’s test-launch.

    The North, which has defied all calls to rein in its weapons programmes, even from its lone major ally, China, has been working on a missile, mounted with a nuclear warhead, capable of striking the U.S. mainland.

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has called for an immediate halt to Pyongyang’s provocations and has warned that the “era of strategic patience” with North Korea is over. U.S.

    Disarmament Ambassador Robert Wood said on Tuesday China’s leverage was key and that it could do more.

    South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo told parliament Sunday’s test-launch was “successful in flight”.

    “It is considered an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM of enhanced caliber compared to Musudan missiles that have continually failed,” he said, referring to a class of missile designed to travel up to 3,000 to 4,000 km (1,860 to 2,485 miles).

    Asked if North Korea’s missile programme was developing faster than the South had expected, he said: “Yes.”

    The North’s KCNA news agency said Sunday’s launch tested its capability to carry a “large-size heavy nuclear warhead”.

    Its ambassador to China said in Beijing on Monday it would continue such test launches “any time, any place”.

    The missile flew 787 km (489 miles) on a trajectory reaching an altitude of 2,111.5 km (1,312 miles), KCNA said.

    Pyongyang has regularly threatened to destroy the U.S., which it accuses of pushing the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war by conducting recent military drills with South Korea and Japan.

    Trump and new South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Washington in June, with North Korea expected to be high on the agenda, the South’s presidential Blue House said.

    Moon met Matt Pottinger, overseeing Asian affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, on Tuesday and said he hoped to continue to have “sufficient, close discussions” between Seoul and Washington, the Blue House press secretary said at a briefing.

    In a unanimously agreed statement, the 15-member UN Security Council said it was of vital importance that North Korea show “sincere commitment to denuclearisation through concrete action and stressed the importance of working to reduce tensions”.

    “To that end, the Security Council demanded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea conduct no further nuclear and ballistic missile tests,” the council said, adding that it was ready to impose further sanctions on the country.

    The statement also condemned an April 28 ballistic missile launch by Pyongyang.

    Following that launch, Washington began talks with China on possible new UN sanctions.

    Traditionally, the U.S. and China have negotiated new measures before involving remaining council members.

    The Security Council first imposed sanctions on North Korea in 2006 and has strengthened the measures in response to its five nuclear tests and two long-range rocket launches.

    Pyongyang is threatening a sixth nuclear test.

    Trump warned in an interview with Reuters this month that a “major, major conflict” with North Korea was possible.

    In a show of force, the United States sent an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean peninsula to conduct drills with South Korea and Japan.

     

  • Liberal Moon Jae-in wins South Korea presidential poll

    Former human rights lawyer, Moon Jae-in, has been elected new South Korean president, an exit poll predicted after polls closed on Tuesday.

    It put Mr. Moon on 41.4 per cent, with his nearest challenger, conservative Hong Joon-Pyo, on 23.3 per cent, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Moon favours greater dialogue with North Korea, in a change to current South Korean policy.

    The early election was called after a corruption scandal led to the impeachment of the former president.

    Park Geun-hye is accused of allowing a close friend to extort money from companies. She denied all wrongdoing.

    If Mr. Moon’s victory is confirmed, he is likely to be sworn in on Wednesday.