Japan expressed concern Wednesday about Chinese military activity around Taiwan during U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the self-ruled island, stressing the need for a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues amid heightened tensions. Japan's top government spokesman Hiroakazu Matsuno said peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is important not only for the security of Japan but also the world.
"We hope issues concerning Taiwan will be resolved peacefully through dialogue," Matsuno told a press briefing. Tokyo conveyed its concern to China over the planned military drills near Taiwan, saying the affected area overlaps with Japan's exclusive economic zone. The military exercises, including live-fire drills, are expected to take place in six locations around Taiwan from Thursday to Sunday. Japan is closely watching the Taiwan visit, the first by a House speaker in 25 years, to gauge its impact on regional security. Asked if Japan supports Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, Matsuno said, "We are not in a position to comment." The high-profile visit has led to a spike in tensions between China and the United States. Beijing had warned that the Chinese military would "never sit idly by," while Washington said the visit would not signal a change in its policy on Taiwan. Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. Japan has maintained close economic ties with Taiwan since severing diplomatic relations with Taipei and establishing them with Beijing in 1972. Heightened cross-strait tensions -- and the risk of a contingency -- are a concern for Japan due to its proximity to Taiwan. Japan and China are at loggerheads over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, uninhabited islets that are administered by Japan but claimed by China. "It's in our neighborhood. We should avoid a situation in which (the drills) would affect Japan in any way," a senior government official said. As part of her tour of Asia, Pelosi is scheduled to visit Japan later this week and could meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Matsuno said the government "welcomes" her first visit to Japan in seven years as an opportunity to promote bilateral exchanges.
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Scientists at Japan’s RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) say they have developed a way to create artificial neural networks that learn to recognize objects faster and more accurately. Andrea Benucci, team leader at RIKEN CBS’s Laboratory for Neural Circuits and Behavior, has published a study in the scientific journal PLOS Computational Biology, which focuses on all the unnoticed eye movements that we make, and shows that they serve a vital purpose in allowing us to stably recognize objects. These findings can be applied to machine vision, for example, making it easier for self-driving cars to learn how to recognize important features on the road.
Despite making constant head and eye movements throughout the day, objects in the world do not blur or become unrecognizable, even though the physical information hitting our retinas changes constantly. What likely makes this perceptual stability possible are neural copies of the movement commands. These copies are sent throughout the brain each time we move and are thought to allow the brain to account for our own movements and keep our perception stable. In addition to stable perception, evidence suggests that eye movements, and their motor copies, might also help us to stably recognize objects in the world, but how this happens remains a mystery. Benucci developed a convolutional neural network (CNN) that offers a solution to this problem. The CNN was designed to optimize the classification of objects in a visual scene while the eyes are moving. First, the network was trained to classify 60,000 black-and-white images into 10 categories. Although it performed well on these images, when tested with shifted images that mimicked naturally altered visual input that would occur when the eyes move, performance dropped drastically to chance level. However, classification improved significantly after training the network with shifted images, as long as the direction and size of the eye movements that resulted in the shift were also included. In particular, adding the eye movements and their motor copies to the network model allowed the system to better cope with visual noise in the images. “This advancement will help avoid dangerous mistakes in machine vision,” says Benucci. “With more efficient and robust machine vision, it is less likely that pixel alterations—also known as ‘adversarial attacks’—will cause, for example, self-driving cars to label a stop sign as a light pole, or military drones to misclassify a hospital building as an enemy target.” Bringing these results to real world machine vision is not as difficult as it seems. Benucci explains, “The benefits of mimicking eye movements and their efferent copies implies that ‘forcing’ a machine-vision sensor to have controlled types of movements, while informing the vision network in charge of processing the associated images about the self-generated movements, would make machine vision more robust, and akin to what is experienced in human vision.” The next step in this research will involve collaboration with colleagues working with neuromorphic technologies. The idea is to implement actual silicon-based circuits based on the principles highlighted in this study and test whether they improve machine-vision capabilities in real-world applications. For years, there's been a cardinal rule for flying civilian drones: Keep them within your line of sight. Not just because it's a good idea — it's also the law. But some drones have recently gotten permission to soar out of their pilots' sight. They can now inspect high-voltage power lines across the forested Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. They're tracking endangered sea turtles off Florida's coast and monitoring seaports in the Netherlands and railroads from New Jersey to the rural West.
Aviation authorities in the U.S. and elsewhere are preparing to relax some of the safeguards they imposed to regulate a boom in off-the-shelf consumer drones over the past decade. Businesses want simpler rules that could open your neighborhood's skies to new commercial applications of these low-flying machines, although privacy advocates and some airplane and balloon pilots remain wary. For now, a small but growing group of power companies, railways and delivery services like Amazon are leading the way with special permission to fly drones “beyond visual line of sight.” As of early July, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had approved 230 such waivers — one of them to Virginia-based Dominion Energy for inspecting its network of power plants and transmission lines. “This is the first step of what everybody’s expecting with drones," said Adam Lee, Dominion's chief security officer. "The first time in our nation’s history where we’ve now moved out into what I think everyone’s expecting is coming.” That expectation — of small drones with little human oversight delivering packages, assessing home insurance claims or buzzing around on nighttime security patrols — has driven the FAA's work this year to craft new safety guidelines meant to further integrate drones into the national airspace. The FAA said it is still reviewing how it will roll out routine operations enabling some drones to fly beyond visual line of sight, although it it has signaled that the permissions will be reserved for commercial applications, not hobbyists. “Our ultimate goal is you shouldn’t need a waiver for this process at all. It becomes an accepted practice,” said Adam Bry, CEO of California drone-maker Skydio, which is supplying its drones to Dominion, railroad company BNSF and other customers with permission to fly beyond line of sight. “The more autonomous the drones become, the more they can just be instantly available anywhere they could possibly be useful,” Bry said. Part of that involves deciding how much to trust that drones won't crash into people or other aircraft when their operators aren't looking. Other new rules will require drones to carry remote identification — like an electronic license plate — to track their whereabouts. And in the aftermath of Russia's war in Ukraine — where both sides have used small consumer drones to target attacks — the White House has been pushing a parallel effort to counter the potential malicious use of drones in the U.S. At a gas-fired plant in Remington, Virginia, which helps power some of Washington's suburbs, a reporter with The Associated Press watched in June as Dominion Energy drone pilots briefly lost visual line of sight of their inspection drone as it flew around the backside of a large fuel tank and the top of a smoke stack. That wouldn't have been legally possible without Dominion's recently approved FAA waiver. And it wouldn't have been technically possible without advancements in collision-avoidance technology that are enabling drones to fly closer to buildings. Previously, “you would have to erect scaffolding or have people go in with a bucket truck,” said Nate Robie, who directs the drone program at Dominion. “Now you can go in on a 20-minute flight.” Not everyone is enthused about the pending rules. Pilots of hot air balloons and other lightweight aircraft warn that crashes will follow if the FAA allows largely autonomous delivery drones the right of way at low altitudes. "These drones cannot see where they are flying and are blind to us," said a June call to action from the Balloon Federation of America. Broader concerns come from civil liberties groups that say protecting people’s privacy should be a bigger priority. “There is a greater chance that you’ll have drones flying over your house or your backyard as these beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations increase,” said Jeramie Scott, a senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center who sat on the FAA's advisory group working to craft new drone rules. “It’ll be much harder to know who to complain to.” EPIC and other groups dissented from the advisory group's early recommendations and are calling for stronger privacy and transparency requirements — such as an app that could help people identify the drones above them and what data they are collecting. “If you want to fly beyond visual line of sight, especially if you are commercial, the public has a right to know what you’re flying, what data you are collecting,” said Andrés Arrieta, director of consumer privacy engineering at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It seems like such a low bar.” When the Cold War ended, the nuclear threat diminished. But.....
Termination of the superpower standoff generated hope for a world in which cooperation would prevail over competition and conflict. In 1991, the Doomsday Clock, which provides an easily understood assessment of the risk of a nuclear war, was reset and the minute hand moved from 10 to 17 minutes before midnight. Only eight years earlier, in 1983, the world was gripped by fears of nuclear war and the clock registered 23:57. Tensions are again growing. So too are nuclear arsenals. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), after a marginal decrease in the number of warheads in 2021, nuclear arsenals are expected to grow over the coming decade. SIPRI estimates that there were 12,705 nuclear warheads worldwide at the start of 2022, with over 90% of them — 11,405 — in the United States and Russian stockpiles. Some 2,000 warheads, virtually of them U.S. or Russian, are in a state of high operational alert, meaning that they can be used at a moment’s notice. All nuclear-armed states — the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — are modernizing their arsenals, and several continue to grow the number of their weapons. China’s nuclear development program appears set to yield a qualitative shift in its capabilities while North Korea is reckoned to have assembled up to 20 warheads — and has sufficient fissile material for 45 to 55 warheads. Not only are the numbers expanding, but governments appear committed to making nuclear weapons more usable, a new capability that is increasingly reflected in nuclear policy and doctrine. Talk of fighting a war with nuclear weapons is more and more common. Russia has made repeated reference to its nuclear capabilities throughout the war in Ukraine, an especially ominous sign. Those weapons represent a ghastly diversion of resources. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons estimated that the nuclear powers spent $82.4 billion on those weapons in 2021, an increase from $76 billion in 2020. That massive spending failed to deter a war in Europe. These disturbing and dangerous developments make even more important the forthcoming Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, or RevCon, that is scheduled to be held in August in New York City. The RevCon is held every five years to assess progress toward the goals of the NPT: continuing nonproliferation by states without nuclear weapons; the availability of peaceful nuclear technology to those same states; and the movement toward nuclear disarmament by states with those awesome weapons of mass destruction. This meeting was supposed to have been held in 2020 but was postponed because of the pandemic. The SIPRI report makes clear that the five states allowed by the NPT to possess nuclear-weapons — the U.S., Russia, China, France and the U.K. — are not honouring their part of the bargain in which the nuclear “have-nots” commit to not acquiring those weapons in exchange for progress toward nuclear disarmament among the nuclear weapon states. The failure to follow through is not new. Frustration and disappointment prevented the last RevCon, held in 2015, from reaching consensus and producing a final report. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to attend the RevCon, the first Japanese prime minister to do so. (His attendance depends on the outcome of the Upper House election scheduled for July.) He joined the 2015 RevCon as foreign minister. Kishida’s interest in a world free of nuclear weapons also reflects his family’s Hiroshima origins; that city’s tragic history as the first city in the world to experience a nuclear bombing has reinforced his commitment to nuclear disarmament. Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will boost that effort with his attendance at the ministerial meeting of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative, a 12-member coalition committed to promoting those two prongs of the NPT. The group will convene prior to RevCon to help generate momentum for a successful conclusion to that meeting. There is a new instrument in the disarmament toolkit: the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in January 2021. It’s an ambitious document that prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as assistance and encouragement to prohibited such activities. Nuclear armed states that join the treaty have a time-bound framework for negotiations leading to the verified and irreversible elimination of their nuclear weapons program. Impressive as it sounds, its effectiveness is limited: No nuclear weapon state has signed up. Neither has Japan, despite its unique historical experience with and knowledge of the effects of these weapons. Kishida said that Japan will not even take part as an observer in the first meeting of parties to the treaty that will be held in Vienna later this month, noting that no nuclear powers have acceded to the convention. Kishida’s reticence reflects the dilemma faced by Japan and other U.S. allies. In the abstract, disarmament is an appealing goal. Facing a potential adversary with a modern military, its own nuclear forces, a long and contentious history with Japan as well as an ongoing territorial dispute, the maintenance of a nuclear capability makes a great deal of sense. As Kishida argued when he explained why his government would not send a representative to the Vienna meeting, “Japan should promote nuclear arms control and nonproliferation realistically based on its relationship of trust with the United States, our only ally.” His logic makes sense. But Japan must remain committed to the goal of disarmament: because it is enshrined in the NPT, because nuclear weapon states have committed to that objective and because rising tensions make the possession of those weapons even more fraught. Japan can help by building up its conventional military forces to reduce the need to rely on U.S. nuclear weapons. It will take time but every contribution to the cause of disarmament is to be valued and pursued. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN on Sunday that an embargo on Russian gold exports will strip Moscow of around $19 billion in annual revenue. Pressed over the West’s failure to hurt the Russian economy with sanctions thus far, Blinken predicted that the effects will be seen next year. The US, UK, Canada, and Japan will announce a ban on the import of Russian gold during the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Germany on Sunday, according to a statement from the British government.
Gold is “the second most lucrative export that Russia has, after energy,” Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “It’s about $19 billion per year, and most of that is within the G7 countries. Cutting that off, denying access to about $19 billion of revenue a year, that’s significant.” Blinken's statement was factually incorrect. In reality, Russia's second most valuable export is food. Foreign sales of agriculture products were worth over $37 billion in 2021, according to Moscow. It is unclear whether the rest of the G7 nations will sign on to the ban, with European Council President Charles Michel saying on Sunday that the EU would first need to determine whether it would be “possible to target gold in a manner that would target the Russian economy and not in a manner that would target ourselves.” US President Joe Biden has said that a gold ban would impose “unprecedented costs on Russian President Vladimir Putin,” and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed that it will “strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine.” However, both leaders said the same about the multiple rounds of sanctions imposed on Russia by their countries and their EU allies. Yet, while Biden promised in March to “crater” the Russian economy, Moscow is reporting record profits from oil and gas sales, and the Russian ruble currently stands at a seven-year high against both the dollar and the euro. Meanwhile, inflation is at its highest level in 40 years in the EU and the US, and customers on both sides of the Atlantic are paying record high fuel prices. Despite agreeing on a Russian oil embargo last month, the EU is reportedly importing more Russian crude now than at any point over the last two months. Russia will also still have the option to sell its gold to refiners, or to look for new buyers in China, India, or the Middle East, as it has done with its fossil fuels. “The US said that Western sanctions against Russia would devastate its economy but that doesn’t seem to be happening. When are these sanctions going to start having the effect that the West and President Biden has promised?” Tapper asked Blinken. The most densely populated city on Earth had only one postman. His round was confined to an area barely a hundredth of a square mile in size. Yet within that space was a staggering number of addresses: 350 buildings, almost all between 10 and 14 stories high, occupied by 8,500 premises, 10,700 households, and more than 33,000 residents.The city’s many tall, narrow tower blocks were packed tight against each other—so tight as to make the whole place seem like one massive structure: part architecture, part organism. There was little uniformity of shape, height, or building material. Cast-iron balconies lurched against brick annexes and concrete walls. Wiring and cables covered every surface: running vertically from ground level up to forests of rooftop television aerials, or stretching horizontally like innumerable rolls of dark twine that seemed almost to bind the buildings together. Entering the city meant leaving daylight behind. There were hundreds of alleyways, most just a few feet wide. Some routes cut below buildings, while other tunnels were formed by the accumulation of refuse tossed out of windows and onto wire netting strung between tower blocks. Thousands of metal and plastic water pipes ran along walls and ceilings, most of them leaking and corroded. As protection against the relentless drips that fell in the alleyways, a hat was standard issue for the city’s postman. Many residents chose to use umbrellas.There were only two elevators in the entire city. At the foot of some of the high-rises, communal and individual mailboxes were nailed to the walls. But often the only option for the postman was to climb. Even several stories up, the maze of pathways continued: knotted arteries that burrowed into the heart of the city along interconnecting bridges and stairwells. Sometimes the postman would reach a top floor and climb out onto the roof. Gangways and rusting metal ladders let him move quickly from building to building, before he dropped back down into the darkness. While some alleys were empty and quiet, others overflowed with life. Hundreds of factories produced everything from fish balls to golf balls. Entire corridors were coated with the fine flour dust used for making noodles. Acrid, chemical smells filled the streets that lay alongside metal and plastic manufacturers. Unlicensed doctors and dentists clustered together, electric signs hanging over their premises to advertise their services. Many patients came from outside the city, happy to pay bargain fees in return for asking no questions. Shops and food stalls were strung along “Big Well” Street, “Bright” Street and “Dragon City” Road. For the adventurous, dog and snake meat were specialties of the city. Moving deeper, long corridors offered glimpses into smoke-filled rooms. The incessant click of mahjong tiles echoed along the walls. Gambling parlors lined up alongside strip clubs and pornographic cinemas. Prostitutes—including children—solicited in the darkness, leading clients away to backroom brothels. And everywhere there were bodies lying in the gloom. At Kwong Ming Street—known as “Electric Station”—wooden stalls sold cheap drugs. Addicts crouched down to inhale heroin smoke through tubes held over heated tinfoil. Bare rooms, enticingly referred to as “divans” were filled with prone men and women, all sunk in opium stupors. Many of the city’s rats were addicts too, and could be seen writhing in torment in dark corners, desperate for a hit. There was no law to speak of. This was an anarchist society, self-regulating and self-determining. It was a colony within a colony, a city within a city, a tiny block of territory at once contested and neglected. It was known as Kowloon Walled City. But locals called it something else. Hak Nam—the City of Darkness.
Japan can expect a freezing cold winter with lots of snow due to an apparent La Nina weather phenomenon likely to last until the season's end, the Japan Meteorological Agency announced on Nov. 10.
La Nina causes abnormal weather worldwide and occurs when a lower-than-average surface sea temperature is observed for a prolonged time in an area stretching from the Peruvian coast to the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean. With La Nina, the winter-type pressure pattern--high to the west and low to the east--becomes more intense in Japan, and tends to bring temperatures down due to cold air flowing in. One recently hit Japan from summer 2020 through the spring of 2021, resulting in temperatures tending to be lower than average across the country in the first half of last winter. Some local authorities are even giving properties away for free to solve their empty house – or ‘akiya’ – problem. Struggling to get on the property ladder? In search of adventure after months locked down in your poky little flat? Here’s a solution for you: move to Japan!
It may come as a surprise given the population density of the country as a whole, but Japan has a real problem with abandoned houses, which is great news for prospective homeowners. In a bid to fill some of these empty abodes – known as akiya – local authorities are offering people the chance to snap up a house for as little as $500 (£362). Some are even giving properties away for free, offering renovation grants or subsidising childcare for young families who move into the area. And to help prospective buyers to find the perfect property, many have also set up online ‘akiya banks’, databases that list all of the abandoned houses available in an area. Conducted every five years, Japan’s most recent Housing and Land Survey in 2018 recorded a massive 8.49 million empty homes across the country – or 13.6 percent of the total housing stock. The country’s ageing population is largely to blame. Many houses are being left empty as older inhabitants move into care homes or pass away, with fewer young people to take them on afterwards. The issue is particularly pronounced in the prefectures of Wakayama, Tokushima, Kagoshima and Kochi, where home vacancy rates are all above 18 percent. And it’s not just rural areas where the properties can be found, with plenty of empty houses available on the outskirts of major cities including Tokyo and Osaka too. Already researching overseas removal companies? There a dozens of websites and blogs that collate the various akiya banks and offer advice on relocating. You might need to brush up on your Japanese first, though! Linda Kim SEOUL, August 24 -- North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Saturday morning, the Japanese government said, with the launch coming a day after Seoul informed Tokyo of its decision to scrap a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact. South Korea's military said North Korea fired what were believed to be short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its eastern coast from Sondok in South Hamgyong Province in Pyongyang's seventh round of such launches since July 25. The missiles, fired at 6:45 a.m. and 7:02 a.m., flew about 380 kilometers at a top speed of Mach 6.5 and reached a maximum altitude of about 97 km, Yonhap News Agency quoted the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying. The missiles were unlikely to have landed in Japan's territory or exclusive economic zone, according to the Japanese government. The country's Defense Ministry said the two missiles flew some 350 km and 400 km, respectively. Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya criticized the launches as "a clear violation" of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban Pyongyang from testing such missiles. Tokyo has already lodged a stern protest against North Korea over the missile firings, Japan's parliamentary vice foreign minister Kiyoto Tsuji told ruling party lawmakers Saturday. However, U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed the latest launches, saying Washington and Pyongyang have a really good relationship and that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been "pretty straight with me." Pete McGee TOKYO, August 23 -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday some 90 percent of around 3,700 vehicles and mobility devices it will provide to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be electrified, as it seeks to showcase its advanced low-emission technology at the world event. Of the total, 1,350 units will be either electric or fuel-cell vehicles that produce no carbon dioxide when running, while the rest will be hybrids and plug-in hybrids powered by electric-gasoline engines, Toyota, a sponsor of the Summer Games, said. With the lineup to be used to transport athletes, officials and spectators to and within venues, Toyota said it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 50 percent compared with when the entire fleet was made up of conventional gasoline and diesel models. The official fleet will include more than a dozen box-shaped autonomous electric vehicles, 500 Mirai, the world's first mass-produced fuel-cell car, 200 cart-like EVs specially designed for the games that can be used by people with impairments, and 300 standing-type mobility devices for use by security and medical staff, Toyota said. Fuel-cell vehicles are powered by electricity generation through a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, a green system that Toyota has long been focusing on as a promising future technology. Linda Kim TOKYO, August 21 -- A bullet train running at a speed of 280 kilometers per hour had a door open during its journey from Sendai in northeastern Japan to Tokyo on Wednesday, but no passengers were injured, its operator East Japan Railway Co. said. The incident in the morning lasted 40 seconds, with the door being completely open at one point, and is a rare occurrence for the Japanese shinkansen known for its safety and punctuality. The problem was caused by a cleaner who forgot to close the car's device that manually opens and closes doors, the train operator said. The conductor of the Hayabusa No. 46 bullet train made an emergency stop inside a tunnel in Shibata, Miyagi Prefecture, after seeing indications the ninth car's door was open. The train resumed its journey 15 minutes later after a checkup. The crew did not notice the cleaner's mistake as the door was closed when the train left Sendai at 10:15 a.m. It is thought to have opened later. Around 340 passengers were aboard the train but nobody was standing near the door. The bullet train arrived at its final destination 19 minutes late. The problem delayed seven shinkansen services up to 28 minutes, affecting around 3,300 passengers. The transport ministry urged JR East, which initially said the door was closed, to prevent a similar incident. Linda Kim BEIJING, August 21 -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday asked Japan and South Korea to seek a solution to resolve their differences "through dialogue," amid concern that worsening relations between Tokyo and Seoul may threaten regional economic stability down the road. Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono also called on Beijing and Seoul to bolster trilateral cooperation even when respective bilateral ties sour, but his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung Wha lambasted Tokyo's moves to tighten export controls against her country. "While maintaining a constructive attitude, it is important (for Japan and South Korea) to find out an appropriate solution through dialogue," Wang said at the outset of a foreign ministerial gathering of the three nations in Beijing. Kono said, "Two countries sometimes face various difficulties respectively, but even under such circumstances, Japan, China and South Korea should work together trilaterally." A Japanese government official briefing reporters later in the day quoted Kono as telling Wang and Kang that the foreign ministers "should refrain" from raising issues related to bilateral relations during the trilateral meeting. Kang, however, told Kono and Wang that South Korea hopes that the three nations will stick to "free and fair" trade for prosperity in the region in an apparent jab at Japan, underscoring that strains between Tokyo and Seoul are unlikely to wane soon. She also said at a joint press appearance following the talks, "It is important to eliminate unilateral and arbitrary trade retaliatory steps and remove uncertainties" in East Asia. Kang did not single out Japan. The Japanese official said Wang did not make comments aimed at mediating in the row between Tokyo and Seoul. Recently, Japan-South Korea ties have plunged to the lowest point since normalization in 1965 over Japanese imposition of export control measures in the wake of a string of South Korean court rulings last year ordering compensation for wartime labor. At a three-way meeting in Bangkok earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged his Japanese and South Korean counterparts to make efforts to ease their confrontation, but no resolution has been in sight. Although Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul agreed Wednesday to accelerate negotiations to reach regional free trade agreements, Japan-South Korea trade spats would make it more difficult for them to be realized, foreign affairs experts say. Linda Kim SEOUL, August 16 -- North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles into the Sea of Japan early Friday, South Korea's military said, in its sixth round of such launches in just over three weeks. The projectiles were launched around 8:01 a.m. and 8:16 a.m. from Tongcheon County in Gangwon Province, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They both flew about 230 kilometers, reaching a maximum altitude of about 30 kilometers and flying at a top speed of Mach 6.1, the JCS said in a statement, adding that South Korean and U.S. authorities are analyzing the specification of the projectiles. It was the sixth launch of projectiles by the country since July 25, with the previous one occurring on Saturday when it fired what were believed to be short-range ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan. South Korea's National Security Director Chung Eui Yong held an emergency meeting with his council members, where they urged North Korea to stop such moves as they could escalate military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The latest launches are likely another warning against a South Korea-U.S. joint military drill that started last week and runs through late this month. The Japanese government said that it has not confirmed any projectiles flying into Japan's exclusive economic zone and that the projectiles posed no immediate security threat. "We will do all we can to ensure the safety of the people by working closely with the United States among others," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters after North Korea's latest launches. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said, "The advancement of missile-related technology by North Korea is a very serious issue for the entire region and the international community. We will take all possible measures toward vigilance and surveillance." North Korea did not immediately comment on the latest launches. However, earlier in the day, a North Korean state organ issued a statement harshly criticizing South Korean President Moon Jae In's appeal for inter-Korean cooperation and dialogue in a speech the previous day. A spokesperson for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, a body that manages Inter-Korean relations, said in the statement Pyongyang has "nothing to talk any more with the south Korean authorities," according to the Korean Central News Agency. "Even at this moment, there go on in south Korea joint military exercises against the DPRK. Does he have any face to talk about dialogue atmosphere, peaceful economy and peace-keeping mechanism," the statement said, reiterating the leadership's criticism of the exercises. DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Linda Kim SEOUL, August 15 -- South Korean President Moon Jae In called on Thursday for a dialogue with Japan amid frayed bilateral relations over wartime history and trade policy, saying Seoul will "join hands" if Tokyo chooses the path of talks. "Better late than never. If Japan chooses the path of dialogue and cooperation, we will gladly join hands," Moon said as he spoke at a ceremony in Cheonan, south of the capital Seoul, to mark the end of Japanese colonial rule 74 years ago. Moon also made a conciliatory gesture to Tokyo, saying Seoul has "not dwelt on the past" and expressed "hope that Japan will play a leading role together in facilitating peace and prosperity in East Asia while it contemplates a past that brought misfortune to its neighboring countries." His speech came as ties between the two Asian neighbors sank to the lowest point in recent years after South Korean court decisions last year that ordered Japanese companies to compensate plaintiffs who claim to have been conscripted as laborers during World War II. The compensation issue, which Tokyo claims to have already been settled by a 1965 bilateral accord, has recently escalated into tit-for-tat tightening of export controls. Moon said his country aims to become an economic powerhouse despite Japan's tightened export controls. "In the face of Japan's unwarranted export restrictions, we will continue our determined march toward a responsible economic powerhouse," he said. The president emphasized that the normal flow of trade could be disrupted if a country uses its comparative advantage in a sector, referring to Japan's move that requires manufacturers of semiconductor-related materials to seek approval each time before shipping to Seoul. "If any country weaponizes a sector where it has a comparative advantage, the peaceful free trade order will inevitably suffer damage. A country that achieved growth first must not kick the ladder away while others are following in its footsteps," he said. He explained that his government would channel efforts into improving competitiveness of domestic materials, parts and equipment industries, while enhancing cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises and conglomerates to build "an economy that will never be shaken." South Korea calls Japan's recent tightening of export controls "an economic retaliation" as Tokyo views that Seoul has failed to deal with months-long disputes over wartime labor. As for inter-Korean relations, Moon also highlighted his government's efforts to help keep a dialogue going between North Korea and the United States. "In spite of a series of worrying actions taken by North Korea recently, the momentum for dialogue remains unshaken," he said, adding that Seoul is committed to denuclearization and bringing about peace on the Korean Peninsula during his term as president. North Korea has recently fired a series of short-range ballistic missiles, which it claims to be "new-type tactical guided missiles," as a warning against South Korea-U.S. joint military drills that started on Aug. 5 and run through late this month. U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed displeasure at the military exercise in a letter to him and that the two leaders would have another meeting. With ongoing provocative actions by Pyongyang, Moon may be well aware of people's concerns over forming a "peace economy" with North Korea as he suggested. Moon reiterated that his government's intention is not to give unilateral aid to North Korea, but to promote mutual benefits. "Both Koreas will be able to reduce not only huge defense expenditures but also the invisible cost of the division, the so-called 'Korea Discount,'" said Moon. Pete McGee TOKYO, August 14 -- Japan's weather agency said Wednesday that powerful Typhoon Krosa is set to make landfall in the west of the country the following day, warning of potential record rainfall, mudslides and floods. Airlines and railway operators announced reduced services in regions near the storm's path, possibly disrupting millions of travelers returning to major cities following Bon holidays visits to their hometowns. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the typhoon, traveling at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, had weakened from the day before but could still dump around 1,200 millimeters of rain on some eastern and western areas facing the Pacific. Japan Airlines Co. and All Nippon Airways Co. have decided to cancel a total of more than 300 domestic and international flights on Thursday. Low-cost carrier Peach Aviation Ltd. canceled 35 domestic flights on Thursday, as well as 13 international flights departing from and arriving at Tokyo's Haneda airport and Kansai International Airport. West Japan Railway Co. will suspend almost all of its shinkansen bullet train services. Services between Shin-Osaka and Kokura will be canceled, while those between Kokura and Hakata in Kyushu will be significantly reduced, the company said. Central Japan Railway Co., an operator of shinkansen services between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, and Kyushu Railway Co. said they will also cut their bullet train services. Shikoku Railway Co. said it plans to entirely suspend services in its area on the western main island. The season's 10th typhoon with an atmospheric pressure of 965 hectopascals at its center was packing winds of up to 144 kph as of 9 p.m. Wednesday, the agency said. In a valley in Kusu, Oita Prefecture, a group of 18 people including children were stranded following the rise of a river, local officials said. Rescuers headed to the scene where the group was apparently at a barbecue, the officials said, adding there were no reports of injuries. The typhoon is approaching as Japan on Thursday will mark the 74th anniversary of its surrender in World War II, with memorial services including those in Ehime, Fukuoka, Kumamoto and Oita prefectures already canceled. The government will hold an annual ceremony at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, but many relatives of the war dead from the Kyushu and Shikoku regions will be unable to attend the event. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon earlier than scheduled from his hometown in Yamaguchi Prefecture and attended a meeting on the typhoon with ministers at his office. |
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