Clinton pressing UN on North Korean launch
Clinton pressing UN on North Korean launch
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton extends sympathy to victims of the Italian earthquake as she and the foreign minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Stoere, hold a news conference following their meetings, Monday, April 6, 2009, at the State Department in Washington. (AP)
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she is lobbying key members of the U.N. Security Council to respond to North Korea's missile launch. Clinton said Monday that she spoke with the foreign ministers from the four other countries that have been involved in negotiations with North Korea to end its nuclear activities. They include Russia and China, which hold veto power in the Security Council.
Clinton called the launch "a provocative act that has grave implications."
But the United States appears to be struggling to achieve U.N. condemnation of Sunday's launch by Pyongyang.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
NKorea vows strong steps if UN censures launch
NKorea vows strong steps if UN censures launch
A TV grab from North Korea Television shows the launch of a rocket, bearing the word "Chosun" (Korea), on April 5 from an undisclosed location. (AFP Photo)
North Korea warned of "strong steps" if the United Nations censures its rocket launch, hours after releasing triumphal footage of what Pyongyang says is part of a peaceful space programme.
The United States and its allies are pushing for a strong Security Council response to what they see as a provocative long-range missile test in defiance of past resolutions, but face opposition from China, Russia and other members.
Pak Tok-Hun, North Korea's deputy UN ambassador, said that if the 15-member council "takes any kind of steps whatever, we will consider this infringes upon the sovereignty of our country. The next option will be ours."
He told reporters the communist state would take "necessary and strong steps" following any censure motion.
The North has warned previously that it will walk out of long-running six-nation nuclear disarmament talks in response to any UN action.
"Every country has the inalienable right to use outer space peacefully," Pak insisted, pointing out that many countries had already launched satellites into space several hundred times.
He said that if it was all right for them to launch satellites, "but we are not allowed to do that, that's not fair."
Pak insisted that the three-stage Taepodong-2 rocket launched Sunday carried a satellite and not a missile. "This is a satellite. Everyone can distinguish (between) a satellite and a missile," he added.
China, the North's sole major ally, earlier in the day said Pyongyang had the right to the peaceful use of space.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman urged other nations to respond calmly "so as to jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the region and promote the six-party talks."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said world powers should "avoid any hasty conclusions" over the launch.
With the world body split the United States has hinted it may not insist on a binding resolution.
As the diplomatic wrangling continued in New York, the impoverished North released film footage of what it terms an "historic" achievement -- despite a price tag of 500 million dollars put by one Seoul analyst on the satellite programme.
Analysts say North Korea timed the launch for maximum propaganda value ahead of Thursday's meeting of the new parliament, which will re-elect leader Kim Jong-Il to his most important post.
Kim was "choked with sobs" that the money spent on the launch could not be used for the people's basic needs but said they would understand, the North's communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported Tuesday.
Widespread reports that Kim, now 67, suffered a stroke last August have created lingering uncertainties about the eventual succession.
State television Tuesday broadcast the first video footage of Kim since last summer, which it said was taken in November and December. He was not shown walking briskly, according to Yonhap news agency which monitors the North's media.
While the North insists its satellite was placed in orbit and is beaming patriotic songs, South Kore, Japan and the US military say there is no sign of a satellite.
Foreign experts say the rocket's second and third stage failed to separate and it fell in the Pacific short of the designated landing zone.
US Vice President Joe Biden said prospective buyers of the North's missiles would now be put off.
"The North Koreans launching their missile, the third stage failed. So they're not going to be a very reliable seller to anybody who would want to buy their missiles," Biden told CNN, calling on China and Russia to get tough with the North.
South Korean media and analysts say that despite the partial failure, the Taepodong-2 missile still travelled some ,200 kilometres (2,000 miles) -- twice the range North Korea achieved with a Taepodong-1 in 1998.
NKorea launches long-range rocket
South Korean soldier watches a TV news program on the North Korean rocket launch at a train station in Seoul, Sunday, April 5, 2009. (Agencies)
SEOUL, April 5, 2009 - North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Sunday, defying months of pressure from the US and its allies over what they said was an illegal missile test and jangling nerves across the region.
US President Barack Obama swiftly condemned Pyongyang's "provocative" act, South Korea denounced it as a "reckless" threat to world security, and the UN Security Council set an emergency meeting for later Sunday.
For several tense minutes, the rocket flew through the airspace of Japan, which had given its military authority to shoot down any threat to its soil -- something the North Koreans had warned would be seen as an act of war.
But the Japanese government said the booster stages fell harmlessly into the waters off its coasts and that it did not move to intercept the rocket, which then kept soaring east out over the Pacific Ocean.
Hours after several other nations confirmed the launch, the DPRK's official KCNA news agency said it had succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit that was broadcasting "immortal revolutionary songs."
"The launch vehicle and satellite, developed by our own technology, is a proud fruit of our struggle to bring the nation's space technology to a higher level," it said.
"The success of the satellite launch gives great encouragement to the people."
What concerned the US and its allies was not so much the payload as the rocket carrying it, which Obama said was in fact a Taepodong-2 -- the North's longest-range missile which could in theory reach US soil in Alaska or Hawaii.
"With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations," Obama said.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan said the North "appeared to have attempted a satellite launch, but whether it was successful or not is a matter requiring additional judgement."
The North tested the Taepodong-2, which has an estimated range of 4,100 miles (6,700 kilometres), and an atomic bomb in 2006, while in the midst of six-nation disarmament talks.
The Security Council then passed Resolution 1718, which imposed sanctions on the North and warned against further nuclear or missile tests.
The Council was to meet later Sunday (1900 GMT) on the matter -- something the North has previously warned would all but the spell the end of the long-running disarmament negotiations.
The United States and North Korea have decades of hostility between them, dating back to the 1950-1953 Korean war which ended without a peace treaty, and Pyongyang's regime has often worried its neighbours.
"This is provocative activity which threatens stability and peace on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia," South Korea's Yu said. "North Korea's launch is a clear violation of (Resolution) 1718."
The other five nations in the disarmament talks had all called on North Korea to refrain from the launch, including China.
"We hope relevant parties will remain calm and restrained, handle the situation properly, and together maintain peace and stability in the region," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.
One of the poorest nations in the world, North Korea had given a window for the launch beginning on Saturday, and the actual launch came not long after official radio announced favourable weather conditions in the morning.
World leaders denounced the launch, which the North had been saying it would carry out since February.
"Such a launch is not conducive to efforts to promote dialogue, regional peace and stability," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.
The European Union, holding a summit in Prague on Sunday where Obama was giving a speech on weapons proliferation, called on North Korea to immediately suspend all missile activities.
China unveils health-care reform guidelines
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L, front) talks to a child at Beijing Children's Hospital in Beijing on September 21, 2008. [Xinhua]
BEIJING -- China Monday unveiled a blueprint for health-care over the next decade, kicking off the much-anticipated reform to fix the ailing medical system and to ensure fair and affordable health services for all 1.3 billion citizens.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, or China's Cabinet, jointly endorsed and issued the Guidelines on Deepening the Reform of Health-care System after more than two years of intense debate and repeated revision.
By 2020, China will have a basic health-care system that can provide "safe, effective, convenient and affordable" health services to urban and rural residents, according to the tone-setting document.
This will be supplemented by a more detailed implementation plan for the three years until 2011. The plan has yet been published, but the State Council announced earlier this year an investment plan of 850 billion yuan (US$124 billion) for the reform.
The core principle of the reform is to provide basic health care as a "public service" to the people, which requires much more government funding and supervision.
The document said the government role in "formulating policies and plans, raising funds, providing service, and supervising" must be strengthened in order to ensure the fairness and equity of the service.
The reform is aimed at "solving pressing problems that have caused strong complaints from the public," it said, referring to long-standing criticism that medical services are difficult to access and increasingly unaffordable.
The government will improve the public health network for disease prevention and control, health education, mother and infant health care, mental health and first aid service, according to the blueprint.
Public hospitals will continue to be dominant providers of medical services, while more priority will be given to the development of grassroots-level hospitals and clinics in cities and rural areas.
The government also plans to set up diversified medical insurance systems in order to have urban employees, urban residents who do not work and rural residents covered by some sort of insurance plan.
The reform is also aimed at improving the medicine supply system so that public hospitals and clinics are supplied with essential medicines with prices are regulated by the government, according to the blueprint.
Relics on auction amid trial
Relics on auction amid trial
Capital Normal University students sign a banner, reading, "China has unquestionable ownership of the looted relics", on Sunday. [Yi Bai]
Auctioneer Christie's brought a seven-member legal team to court yesterday to counter a motion to stop the firm from putting two bronze relics looted from China's Imperial Summer Palace under the hammer, one of the two lawyers supporting the motion told China Daily yesterday.
The hearing was ongoing at press time.
Association for the Protection of the Art of China in Europe president Bernard Gomez submitted the application to the court last Thursday, said Liu Yang, who orchestrated the transnational lawsuit and heads the 85 volunteer lawyers.
The bronze rat and rabbit heads are part of a zodiacal collection of 12 animals that decorated the palace in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). They were stolen when the palace was ransacked by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860. Five have been returned to China, while the whereabouts of the others are unknown.
The relics belong to the Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and are expected to raise as much as 30 million euros ($39 million), Christie's had said.
Ren Xiaohong, a Chinese attorney licensed in France, China and New York State, represented Gomez along with another French attorney.
"She is just the attorney we need," Liu said. "But I'm not optimistic about the seven-to-two face-off."
Gomez was the best plaintiff because his organization has worked closely with the Chinese government to restitute Chinese relics lost overseas, Liu said.
