Asean Summit, Malaysia on Nov 21, 1015

Asean Summit, Malaysia  on Nov 21, 1015
Asean Establishes Landmark Economic and Security Bloc
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - Text version)

“….. Here is the prediction: China will turn North Korea loose soon. The alliance will dissolve, or become stale. There will be political upheaval in China. Not a coup and not a revolution. Within the inner circles of that which you call Chinese politics, there will be a re-evaluation of goals and monetary policy. Eventually, you will see a break with North Korea, allowing still another dictator to fall and unification to occur with the south. ….”

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."
"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)









North Korean defector criticises China in rare Beijing talk

North Korean defector criticises China in rare Beijing talk
North Korean defector and activist Hyeonseo Lee, who lives in South Korea, poses as she presents her book 'The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story' in Beijing on March 26, 2016 (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

US under fire in global press freedom report

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

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Friday, January 26, 2018

North Korean Olympic ice hockey players arrive in South

Yahoo – AFP, Jung Ha-Won, January 25, 2018

Ice hockey players from North Korea arrived in the South to join a team made
up of players from both sides of the border (AFP Photo/KOREA POOL)

Seoul (AFP) - A dozen North Korean female ice hockey players joined their Southern counterparts Thursday to form a unified team -- the Koreas' first for nearly three decades -- at next month's Winter Olympics.

The Pyeongchang Winter Games have triggered an apparent rapprochement on the divided peninsula, where tensions have been high over the nuclear-armed North's weapons ambitions.

But the unified women's team has provoked controversy in the South, with accusations that Seoul is depriving some of its own players of the chance to compete at the Olympics for political purposes.

Wearing padded team jackets against the cold -- emblazoned "DPR Korea", the North's official name -- the 12 athletes crossed the land border near Kaesong.

Their new teammates presented them with bouquets of flowers when they arrived at the South's national ice hockey facility at Jincheon to start training.

"I am glad that the North and the South have got together to compete," reports cited the North's coach Pak Chol Ho as saying.

A bus carrying North Korea's women's ice hockey players, who will form a unified Korean 
team at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, drives near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing 
the two Koreas (AFP Photo/KOREA POOL)

Since the division of the peninsula the two Koreas have only competed as unified teams in 1991, when their women won the team gold at the world table tennis championship in Japan, and their under-19 footballers reached the world championship quarter-finals in Portugal.

The North is contributing 12 players to the ice hockey squad, in addition to the original 23 South Korean skaters, the two sides and the International Olympic Committee agreed at the weekend.

Concerns have been expressed in the South that the sudden addition of so many players so close to the competition -- for which South Korea qualified as hosts, rather than on merit -- will disrupt team chemistry.

Public anger has also been fanned by senior Seoul officials who sought to justify the decision on the grounds that the women's team had no real medal chances anyway.

The row has taken its toll on the popularity of dovish South Korean President Moon Jae-In, whose job approval ratings have dived to 60 percent -- the lowest since he took office last May.

The RealMeter survey blamed the controversy over the joint team and public perception that Moon's administration made too many concessions to the North to secure its participation at the Olympics.

Dovish South Korean President Moon Jae-in has pushed for a rapprochement with 
the North during the Olympic games, but it is not universally popular in the South (AFP 
Photo/KIM HONG-JI)

'All Koreans'

The joint ice hockey team is scheduled to have a warm-up match against Sweden in the western city of Incheon on February 4.

Pyongyang -- which boycotted the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul -- will have another 10 athletes taking part in the Winter Games: three cross-country skiers, three alpine skiers, two short-track speed skaters and two figure skaters.

A delegation from Pyongyang also arrived Thursday to prepare for their trip, Seoul's unification ministry said.

The figure skating pair, Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik, are the only North Korean athletes to have met the Winter Olympics qualifying standards.

The latest flurry of inter-Korea activities came after the North's leader Kim Jong-Un announced his willingness to take part in the Games in his New Year speech, after months of silence from Pyongyang in the face of repeated calls from the South to join in a "peace Olympics".

Pyongyang issued a rare statement to "all Koreans" on Thursday to rally support for Korean reunification -- the longed-for goal it sought to achieve by force when it invaded in 1950.

The North Korean ice hockey players were accompanied a sports delegation from
Pyongyang who will prepare for the arrival of its other athletes for next month's
Games (AFP Photo)

"Let us wage an energetic drive to defuse the acute military tension and create a peaceful climate on the Korean Peninsula!" said the statement carried by state-run KCNA, urging efforts to "remove mutual misunderstanding and distrust" by expanding civilian contact and exchanges.

Any civilian contact is banned between two Koreas, which technically remain at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.

The moves by Kim are seen as aimed at easing tension on the peninsula, where fears of renewed conflict grew last year after the North staged a series of nuclear and missile tests, earning itself new layers of UN Security Council sanctions, and Kim traded threats of war with US President Donald Trump.

Moon, who advocates engagement with Pyongyang, sought the North's participation in the Games in a bid to eventually open a door for talks for nuclear disarmament.

His office said that bringing the North to the event was an "investment for the future" and quelled concerns among many nations over whether it was safe to send athletes to the flashpoint peninsula.

But analysts question whether momentum for peace will be sustained once the Olympics are over, given the North has already proclaimed itself a nuclear state in defiance of international condemnation.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Millions gather to 'purify souls' in Hindu bathing ritual

Yahoo – AFP, January 23, 2018

Shiv Yogi Moni Swami is among some 10 million Hindus who participate in the
45-day religious festival (AFP Photo/Xavier GALIANA)

Allahabad (India) (AFP) - Millions of Hindu devotees are gathering in northern India for the Magh Mela -- one of the world's biggest religious festivals involving ritual bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges river.

An estimated 10 million Hindus descend on the city of Allahabad every January for the festival staged at the sacred meeting point of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers.

The 45-day Mela is currently underway, with pilgrims camping across Allahabad and joining the colourful throngs for dips in the venerated waters.

Among them is Shiv Yogi Moni Swami, a holy man smeared in sandalwood paste, carrying a trident and clad in nothing more than beads and a leopard-print wrap around his waist.

Swami demonstrates his devotion not by walking to the confluence of the rivers known as the Sangam but by rolling the roughly one-kilometre distance from his tent to the waters.

It is not an easy task, with his body collecting dust and grime before he arrives at the confluence where he submerges himself fully.

Swami's body collects dust and grime before he arrives at the confluence (AFP 
Photo/Xavier GALIANA)

The act "purifies the soul and washes away all sins", he told AFP, after scattering rose petals to the rising sun and performing his ablutions.

"As we bathe on this holy day in the Ganges we are praying not only for peace of our soul but for the welfare of the whole world," Swami added.

Fellow pilgrims, impressed by his piety and fortitude, bow to touch his feet and take blessings.

Some even lie prostrate before him as he passes in a sign of reverence.

Many Indians believe that holy men like Swami possess mystical powers and are capable of curing all manner of illnesses.

For the duration of the Mela, Swami says he eats just one simple meal of fruit a day, apparently enough to sustain him through a busy schedule of chanting prayers and performing yagna, a centuries-old Hindu fire ritual.

"I believe that if you all bow before the Ganges you will be blessed with eternal peace and happiness," he said, explaining his devotion to the holiest river in Hinduism.

"She (Ganges) is just like a mother. Just like a mother is kind to all, be it a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim or a Jain, the Ganges is all encompassing."

The annual ritual has been held in Allahabad for centuries and is a smaller version of the Kumbh Mela, a gigantic event attended by tens of millions that UNESCO describes as the largest peaceful gathering of pilgrims on earth.

Many Indians believe that holy men like Swami possess mystical powers and 
are capable of curing all manner of illnesses (AFP Photo/Xavier GALIANA)

Related Article:



Iranian woman skydiver looks to break down stereotypes

Yahoo - AFP, Siavosh GHAZI, 23 January 2018

For Iranian skydiving enthusiast Bahareh Sassani, her love of the sport is a way
of attempting to break down stereotypes in her deeply conservative homeland

For Iranian parachuting enthusiast Bahareh Sassani, skydiving is "a way to prove that women are just as capable as men" -- a small step from a big height for women's equality in her country.

The 35-year-old accountant has been skydiving less than two years but already has more than 220 jumps under her belt.

"I encourage all women to try this experience. It gives you the feeling you can do whatever you want. Women should not be excluded from anything," she said.

Sassani -- one of just a handful of female skydivers in her deeply conservative homeland -- refuses to describe herself as a "feminist".

But her motto is firmly "there is no difference between men and women and a woman can do anything she wants and succeed".

That still runs against the grain of Iranian society, where women have had a lower legal status than men since the Islamic revolution of 1979 even if they have battled to stay equal in daily life.

Her favourite pastime is still very much the preserve of men in Iran -- made more complicated by the fact there is no parachuting club so she must do it with the army.

"When they organise jumps, the army invites everyone, including civilians," she explained.

Liberating

There were a handful of women parachutists in pre-revolutionary Iran: archived images published recently by the ISNA news agency showed the first four female army skydivers from 1965.

Iranian Bahareh Sassani one of just a handful of female skydivers in her
deeply conservative homeland

But today, women are not permitted to join the army.

The police has an elite unit that does some parachuting practice, but Sassani says she knows only five other qualified women from the civilian population.

Unlike her friends who chose to buy a car, clothes or jewellery with their first pay cheques or savings, Sassani said she opted instead to invest in parachuting, despite the adventurous sport being a male bastion in Iran.

At the start, her motivation for taking up skydiving was to combat a fear of heights, she said. But now she loves the sense of liberation from everyday cares that it gives her, she added.

Male reactions can be rather extreme though, she says.

"Men often avoid women like me, thinking we aren't made for marriage because we are uncontrollable," she said, bursting into laughter.

"But a small number do show an interest in what I'm doing."

It can also generate interest abroad, said Sassani, who has jumped in Russia, Kenya, Thailand and the UAE.

"Even abroad, when I skydive, people are surprised. They think there are a lot of restrictions in Iran, but I explain to them that there are women doing motocross, flying planes and, yes, parachuting," she said.

A recent photo did the rounds in the Iranian media, showing Sassani jumping with an Iranian flag.

"I meet lots of cultures and beliefs abroad, but I'm a patriot and I love doing jumps in Iran more than anything," she adds.



Thursday, January 18, 2018

Two Koreas agree to march together at Winter Olympics opening

Yahoo – AFP, Hwang Sunghee, January 17, 2018

The two Koreas will march together under a unification flag -- a pale blue
silhouette of the whole Korean peninsula (AFP Photo/JUNG Yeon-Je)

Seoul (AFP) - The two Koreas agreed Wednesday to march together under a single flag at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony and field a united women's ice hockey team at the Games in a further sign of easing tensions on the peninsula.

North Korea also said it would send a 550-member delegation to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in the South, Seoul said, as the two sides met to discuss athlete numbers in the latest in a flurry of cross-border talks.

Nuclear-armed Pyongyang agreed last week to take part in next month's Pyeongchang Games which are taking place just 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the peninsula.

Seoul has long sought to proclaim the event a "peace Olympics" in the face of tensions over the North's weapons programmes -- which have seen it subjected to multiple UN Security Council sanctions -- and the discussions represent a marked improvement.

The two Koreas will march together under a unification flag -- a pale blue silhouette of the whole Korean peninsula -- at the opening ceremony for the February 9-25 Games, according to a press statement issued by the South.

They also agreed to form a unified women's ice hockey team.

North Korea, however, declined to discuss plans to send a high-level delegation to the Games when the issue was raised by Seoul, the South's vice unification minister Chun Hae-Sung said.

The statement additionally said that the South will send skiers to the Masikryong ski resort in the North for joint training with North Korean skiers. Chun clarified these would be non-Olympic skiers.

South Korea has long sought to proclaim the Pyeongchang Games a "peace 
Olympics" amid tensions with the North (AFP Photo/JUNG Yeon-Je)

IOC meeting

"The South and North must continue working on remaining issues on the basis of today's agreements," Chun told reporters following the meeting at the southern side of the border truce village of Panmunjom.

"We hope the South and North will be able to make the Pyeongchang Olympics a peace Olympics," he added.

Three officials from each side took part in the talks and the results will be discussed by both Koreas with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Saturday.

"This will then enable the IOC to carefully evaluate the consequences and the potential impact on the Olympic Games and the Olympic competitions," an IOC spokesperson said.

"There are many considerations with regard to the impact of these proposals on the other participating (nations) and athletes," with final decisions to be made on Saturday.

The IOC must approve extra Olympic slots for the North's athletes after they failed to qualify or missed deadlines to register.

The North agreed to send 230 cheerleaders to support athletes from the two Koreas during the Olympics and to form a joint cheering squad with the South.

A 30-strong North Korean taekwondo delegation will also visit the South next month for demonstrations in Pyeongchang and Seoul.

Pyongyang also said it will send a separate 150-member delegation of supporters, athletes, performers, journalists and delegates to the Paralympics in March.

The statement said Seoul will "guarantee the safety and convenience of North Korea's delegation", which Chun said referred to transportation, accommodation and other necessary facilities.

South Korea will need to find ways to accommodate the North Korean delegation without violating UN Security Council sanctions, which block cash transfers to Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-Un announced his willingness to take part in the Pyeongchang 
Games in his New Year speech (AFP Photo)

Any blacklisted officials in the North's high-level delegation could be another potential stumbling block.

A North Korean delegation will visit the South next Thursday to inspect the facilities at Pyeongchang.

In another meeting on Monday, the two reached an agreement over a trip by a 140-member North Korean orchestra to the South to hold concerts in the capital and in Gangneung, one of the Games' venues.

Frosty reception

The talks come after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un abruptly announced his willingness to take part in the Games in his New Year speech.

The move was seen as a bid to ease searing tensions on the peninsula and was rapidly welcomed by Seoul.

Last year, the nuclear-armed North tested missiles it said are capable of reaching the US -- its "enemy" -- and Kim traded threats of war with President Donald Trump.

Seoul's proposal for a unified team in women's ice hockey has met a frosty reception in South Korea, where critics accused the government of robbing some of its own players of the opportunity to compete at the Olympics for the sake of politics.

Tens of thousands have signed dozens of online petitions on the presidency's website urging President Moon Jae-In to scrap the plan.

Chun emphasised the need for IOC approval but added: "I think it is quite meaningful to show the South and North in harmony."

South Korea only qualified for the ice hockey tournament as hosts, rather than on merit, and are not seen as medal contenders.


Tuesday, January 16, 2018

N. Korea orchestra to perform in S. Korea during Winter Games

Yahoo – AFP, Jung Ha-Won, January 15, 2018

This handout photo provided by the South Korean Unification Ministry shows South
 Korea's chief delegate Lee Woo-Sung (front L) and his delegation crossing the border
 line to attend the talks (AFP Photo/Handout)

Seoul (AFP) - A 140-member North Korean orchestra will perform in South Korea during next month's Winter Olympics, the two sides announced Monday, amid a tentative rapprochement after months of tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

The North agreed last week to send athletes, high-level officials and others to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

The two sides agreed an artistic troupe would be part of the delegation, and four officials from each country met Monday at the border truce village of Panmunjom to thrash out details of that visit.

The 140 members of the Samjiyon Orchestra will hold concerts in the capital Seoul and the eastern city of Gangneung close to Pyeongchang which is hosting the Games, said a joint statement after the talks.

"The South will ensure the safety and convenience of the North's performing squad to the utmost extent," it said, without elaborating on the dates for the concerts.

The concerts, if they go ahead, would mark the first time that a North Korean artistic troupe has performed in the capitalist South since 2002, during a previous rare period of rapprochement.

The North's then-leader Kim Jong-Il sent dozens of state singers, dancers and musicians to Seoul to perform at a political event when South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, known for his reconciliation policy, was in office.

The North's delegates at Monday's meeting included Hyon Song-Wol, the leader of Pyongyang's famed all-female Moranbong music band, raising expectations the band would perform in the South.

Monday's joint statement however did not mention it.

The South's delegates to Monday's talks included senior officials from the state-run Korean Symphony Orchestra, raising the prospect of groups from both sides of the border performing together.

The two nations also agreed on Monday to hold talks at Panmunjom on Wednesday on logistics and details for the visit by the North's athletes.

The Koreas are set to hold talks with the International Olympics Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Saturday over the number of the North's athletes.

South Korea has proposed a joint march for the opening ceremony and a unified women's ice hockey team, reports quoted a minister as saying last week.

This handout photo provided by the South Korean Unification Ministry shows North
 Korea's chief delegate Kwon Hyok-Bong (L) greeting South Korea's chief delegate 
Lee Woo-Sung (R) (AFP Photo/Handout)

'Corn without teeth'

The South Korean government and Olympic organisers have been keen for Pyongyang -- which boycotted the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul -- to take part in what they have been promoting as a "peace Olympics".

The North remained silent on the offer until current leader Kim Jong-Un said in his New Year's speech that it could participate, a move seen as aimed at easing military tensions with the US.

Tension has been high as the North staged a flurry of nuclear and missile tests since last year and Kim traded threats of war and personal attacks with US President Donald Trump.

Kim's declaration triggered a rapid series of moves, while Seoul touted talks last week -- the first inter-Korea meeting for two years -- as a potential first step to bringing the North into negotiations over its nuclear arsenal.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In, who advocates dialogue with the North but remains critical of Pyongyang's weapons drive, said last week he was willing to have a summit with Kim "under the right conditions", but added that "certain outcomes must be guaranteed".

In a setback for such hopes, Pyongyang on Sunday slammed Moon as "ignorant and unreasonable" for demanding preconditions -- possibly a step towards denuclearisation -- for a summit.

"The south Korean chief executive should not be dreaming," the state-run KCNA news agency said in an editorial, accusing Moon of "brownnosing" the United States.

KCNA added that the North could still change its mind about taking part in the Olympics. "They should know that train and bus carrying our delegation to the Olympics are still in Pyongyang," it said.

A spokesman for Seoul's unification ministry played down the editorial, attributing it to "internal reasons and circumstances".

But on Monday, a senior North Korean journalist warned the South's media against criticising Pyongyang

"Tongue may bring calamity and miswritten pen may become a sword beheading oneself," Kim Chol Guk said in an essay published by KCNA.

"The South Korean authorities may find the wedding ceremony turning into a mourning ceremony if they fail to hold tight control of media and of their own tongue."


Monday, January 15, 2018

Sri Lanka lifts 'sexist' 39-year ban on women buying alcohol

Yahoo – AFP, January 14, 2018

Sri Lanka president restores ban on women buying alcohol

Sri Lanka has lifted a 39-year ban on women buying alcohol or working in places that sell or manufacture liquor, an official said Sunday.

The 1979 law prohibiting the sale of any type of alcohol to women on the island of 21 million people was overturned in an effort to strike sexist bills from the statute books, said a spokesman for the finance ministry.

"The idea was to restore gender neutrality," Ali Hassen told AFP of the decision Wednesday to roll back the ban.

The move also repeals a ban on women working in places where alcoholic drinks are made or sold, like bars.

Liquor vendors are still forbidden to sell spirits to police or members of the armed forces in uniform, Hassen said.

Sri Lanka in its November budget unveiled steep tax rises on hard liquor, but greatly reduced tariffs on wine and beer.

Under new measures also passed by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, bars and pubs can remain open longer.

It was unclear why the ban on women was imposed in the first place, but a finance ministry official said he believed it was intended to appease the conservative Buddhist hierarchy at the time.

The relaxed laws on alcohol have provoked a backlash in some quarters of the majority-Buddhist nation.

The National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection accused the finance minister of encouraging drinking, and urged President Maithripala Sirisena to intervene and restore the restrictions.

Samaraweera has said that strict curbs on Sri Lanka's licenced liquor manufacturers only encourage a black market for spirits, and deprive the state of much-needed revenue.



Thursday, January 11, 2018

Trump, Moon signal openness for talks with N. Korea

Yahoo – AFP, Thomas Watkins with Hwang Sunghee in Seoul, January 10, 2018

A man watches a television screen broadcasting live footage of South Korean
President Moon Jae-In's New Year's speech, at a railway station in Seoul (AFP
Photo/JUNG Yeon-Je)

Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump is open to the US holding talks with North Korea "under the right circumstances," the White House said Wednesday after South Korean President Moon Jae-In signalled a willingness to sit down with Kim Jong-Un.

Signs of a potential cooling following months of red-hot tensions on the Korean Peninsula came the day after North Korea reached a landmark agreement to send athletes to the Winter Olympics that will be hosted by the South, a move the international community broadly welcomed.

In a phone call with Moon, Trump expressed his openness to talks with Pyongyang "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances," the White House said.

The two leaders also "underscored the importance of continuing the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders added in a statement confirming a South Korea account of the call.

The Olympics in Pyeongchang next month have long been overshadowed by extreme geopolitical tensions, with the North repeatedly test firing missiles capable of reaching the US mainland and detonating its most powerful nuclear device to date.

But Pyongyang -- which boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul -- agreed Tuesday to send athletes and officials to the Games as North and South held their first formal talks for two years at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone.

"It is only the beginning," Moon told a press conference. "Yesterday was the first step and I think we had a good start."

"Bringing North Korea to talks for denuclearization is the next step we must take."

He was willing to hold a summit "at any time," he said, "but it cannot be a meeting for meeting's sake. To hold a summit, the right conditions must be created and certain outcomes must be guaranteed."

Trump claims credit

Moon has long supported engagement with the North to bring it to the negotiating table over banned weapons programs that have alarmed the US and the global community, and seen Pyongyang subjected to multiple sets of United Nations sanctions.

But the US has said the regime must stop nuclear tests if negotiations with Washington are to take place.

"We have no difference in opinion with the US," Moon insisted, saying they shared an understanding about security, were working together and were both threatened by the North's nuclear weapons and missiles.

But he stressed the aim of sanctions was to bring Pyongyang to talks, and "stronger sanctions and pressures could further heighten tensions and lead to accidental armed conflicts."

Seoul had no plans to ease its unilateral sanctions at present, Moon said.

Trump, who has a much closer relationship with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe than he does with Moon, has claimed credit for the North-South talks.

"If I weren't involved, they wouldn't be talking about the Olympics right now, they'd be doing no talking," Trump said at the weekend.

Moon acknowledged his efforts Wednesday.

"I think President Trump's role in the realization of inter-Korean talks was very big," he said. "I would like to express my gratitude."

'Great step forward' 

The US cautiously welcomed the North-South talks but warned the North's attendance at the Games should not undermine international efforts to isolate the regime of Kim.

China -- the North's major diplomatic backer and trade partner -- and Russia, with which it also has strong ties, both welcomed the inter-Korean talks.

And Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo "highly valued" Pyongyang's expressed willingness to participate in the Olympics.

"But there is no change in our policy of exerting the maximum level of pressure on North Korea until they change their policy, in close cooperation with the US, South Korea, and also involving China and Russia," he added.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said the agreement was a "great step forward in the Olympic spirit."

Bach held talks with North Korea's IOC member Chang Ung on Wednesday on the practicalities of sending athletes to next month's Winter Olympics in the South.

They broached the question of whether the North Korean athletes would be housed in the Olympic village.

"It's an issue up for debate, but their presence in the Olympic village is not certain," a source close to the talks told AFP.

Officials from North and South Korea will meet at the IOC's headquarters January 20 to hammer out details of the North's participation at the Games, the IOC said.

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-Yon said the North was expected to send "a massive delegation of between 400-500 people" to Pyeongchang.

"Just as the 1988 Olympics contributed to dismantling the Cold War, we earnestly hope that the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics will improve the current state of the Korean Peninsula," he said, and "contribute to world peace by reducing security risks."

Though North Korea stayed away from that year's Games in Seoul, Soviet bloc states and China took part despite the absence of diplomatic ties with the South.


Wednesday, January 10, 2018

North Korea to attend Olympics in rival South

Yahoo – AFP, Park Chan-Kyong, January 9, 2018

The talks were held in Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone
that splits the Korean peninsula (AFP Photo/KOREA POOL)

Seoul (AFP) - North Korea will send its athletes to the Winter Olympics in the South, the rivals said Tuesday after their first formal talks in more than two years following high tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

The two sides also decided to hold military talks and to restore a military hotline closed since February 2016.

Seoul and Olympic organisers have been keen for Pyongyang - which boycotted the 1988 Summer Games in the South Korean capital -- to take part in what they repeatedly proclaimed a "peace Olympics" in Pyeongchang next month.

But the North had given no indication it would do so until leader Kim Jong-Un's New Year address last week, instead pursuing its banned weapons programmes in defiance of United Nations sanctions, launching missiles capable of reaching the United States and detonating its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.

"The North Korean side will dispatch a National Olympic Committee delegation, athletes, cheerleaders, art performers' squad, spectators, a taekwondo demonstration team and a press corps and the South will provide necessary amenities and facilities," they said in a joint statement.

Tuesday's talks were held in Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarised Zone that splits the peninsula.

The Panmunjom joint security area (AFP Photo/Laurence CHU)

The North's delegation walked over the Military Demarcation Line marking the border to the Peace House venue on the southern side, just yards from where a defector ran across in a hail of bullets two months ago.

Looking businesslike, the South's Unification minister Cho Myoung-Gyon and the North's chief delegate Ri Son-Gwon shook hands at the entrance to the building, and again across the negotiating table.

Ri wore a badge on his left lapel bearing an image of the country's founding father Kim Il-Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il, while Cho sported one depicting the South Korean flag.

"Let's present the people with a precious new year's gift," said Ri. "There is a saying that a journey taken by two lasts longer than the one travelled alone."

The atmosphere was friendlier than at past meetings, and Cho told Ri: "The people have a strong desire to see the North and South move toward peace and reconciliation."

But there was no mention in the joint statement of a proposal by Seoul to resume reunions of families left divided by the Korean War, or of an offer by the North to send a high-level delegation to the Games.

Ri also told South Korean journalists that denuclearisation was not on the table and not an issue for the two to discuss.

"The target of all our nuclear and hydrogen bombs and ICBMs and all other sophisticated weapons is the US," he said. "These weapons are not aimed at our brethren."

There were "many problems" to settle between the two sides, he added, warning of "unexpected obstacles" down the road.

The atmosphere was friendlier than at past meetings between North and South 
Korea (AFP Photo/Ed JONES)

'Peace Olympics'

Even so it was a radically different tone from the rhetoric of recent months, which have seen the North's leader Kim and US President Donald Trump trade personal insults and threats of war.

Olympic organisers welcomed the North's participation in Pyeongchang, just 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the DMZ, and a Unification ministry official said the Games would be "a Peace Festival for all the people in the world".

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Pyongyang's decision to take part in the Games was a "great step forward in the Olympic spirit".

Only two athletes from the North have so far qualified for the Olympics, but hundreds of young female North Korean cheerleaders have created a buzz at three previous international sporting events in the South.

According to South Korean reports any high-level delegation accompanying the team could include Kim's younger sister Yo-Jong, who is a senior member of the ruling Workers' Party.

Beyond the Games

According to the Unification ministry official, Tuesday's meeting "laid the foundation for restoring the severed inter-Korean ties and normalising them".

It came after Seoul responded to Kim's New Year speech with an offer of high-level dialogue, and last week a civilian hotline was restored after being suspended for almost two years.

But Pyongyang has snubbed previous attempts by Seoul to set up further family reunions -- one of the most emotive legacies of the Korean War -- saying it will not do so unless several of its citizens are returned by the South.

Both sides expressed the desire to address wider questions than the 
Games (AFP Photo)

It was unclear when the proposed military talks -- which would be the first of their kind since 2014 -- would be held.

"Having the North Korean athletes and delegations at Pyeongchang will help turn South Korean public sentiment about the North more favourable," said Lim Eul-Chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul.

Pyongyang would then probably seek to resume lucrative joint economic projects, such as the suspended Kaesong industrial complex, he added -- although it is not clear whether that would be in compliance with UN sanctions.

The North "appears to be trying to use the improvement in ties with the South as a springboard to resume talks with the US, which holds the key to controlling or possibly easing sanctions", Lim told AFP.

But Pyongyang's state media reiterated its condemnations of Trump on Tuesday.

The United States and South Korea agreed last week to delay their joint military exercises until after the Games, apparently to help calm nerves.

Trump said at the weekend he hoped the rare talks between the two Koreas would go "beyond the Olympics" and that Washington could join the process at a later stage.

But US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said there was "no turnaround" in the US stance: that the North must stop nuclear tests for talks with Washington.