Global Politics - China’s Dangerous Double Game in North Korea

A new administration in Washington faces a familiar problem: North Korea is once again testing missiles, including ballistic missiles, in contravention of a UN Security Council resolution. Rather than retread dead-end paths, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to think anew on North Korea, and it has already distinguished itself from its predecessor by signaling that it will consult with U.S. allies and partners to formulate a strong response to Pyongyang that does not rule out diplomacy.

Such a reorientation is welcome. But if the new administration really wants to move the needle on North Korea, it will need to rethink the assumptions it has inherited about China’s role there. So far, the Biden team has cleaved to the long-held view that the United States and China share a common interest in the nuclear disarmament of North Korea and that U.S. policy there must make use of Beijing’s tremendous influence over the government in Pyongyang. During his visit to Seoul last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted that “Beijing has an interest, a clear self-interest, in helping to pursue the denuclearization of [North Korea] because it is a source of instability.” Blinken further paid tribute to China’s “critical role" and “unique relationship" with North Korea.

Read more at: FSI - China’s Dangerous Double Game in North Korea

United Nations General Assembly: From North Korea to global terror threats, these are the issues on the agenda

Facing an escalating nuclear threat from North Korea and the mass flight of minority Muslims from Myanmar, world leaders will gather this week at the United Nations starting to tackle these and other tough challenges — from the spread of terrorism to a warming planet.

UN Secretariat New York

The spotlight will be on US President Donald Trump and France's new leader, Emmanuel Macron, who will both be making their first
appearance at the General Assembly, which begins tomorrow.

They will be joined by more than 100 heads of state and Government, including Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, one of Africa's longest-serving leaders who is said to be bringing a 70-member entourage.

These are the key issues to follow during the UN General Assembly, in no particular order1: 1. North Korea, 2. Myanmar, 3. Extreme weather events, 4. Global terror threats, 5. UN management reform, 6. Peacekeeping operations, 7. Improving international relations.

New York police and a host of federal agencies are preparing for the annual traffic and security nightmare known as the United Nations General Assembly, featuring a week of speeches by U.S. President Donald Trump and a parade of other dignitaries. 

The meeting of the world’s top leaders and diplomats, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, will bring street closures, thousands of police officers and hundreds of protesters to midtown Manhattan, an area already plagued with gridlock on an average weekday. 

“It’s the equivalent of the Super Bowl of security,” said J. Peter Donald, a spokesman for the New York City Police Department. 

Trump will be on hand on Monday and Tuesday, when he will address the body of world leaders for the first time. It was not immediately clear whether he would stay at his Manhattan penthouse about a mile away from United Nations headquarters or sleep at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Read more: United Nations General Assembly: From North Korea to global terror threats, these are the issues on the agenda - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

North Korea : China demands U.S. immediately withdraw North Korea sanctions

China urged the United States on Wednesday to immediately withdraw sanctions that Washington imposed on Beijing as part of its efforts to pressure North Korea into halting development of its missile and nuclear weapons program.

In a news conference, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters that the country "especially opposes any country conducting ‘long-arm jurisdiction' over Chinese entities and individuals."\

Hua added: "Measures taken by the United States are not helpful in solving the problem and unhelpful to mutual trust and cooperation. We ask the United States to correct its mistake immediately."

Read more: China demands U.S. immediately withdraw North Korea sanctions

USA: God has given Trump authority to take out North Korea's Kim Jong Un, evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress says - S. P. Bailey

Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, one of President Trump’s evangelical advisers who preached the morning of his inauguration, has released a statement saying the president has the moral authority to “take out” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“When it comes to how we should deal with evildoers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear: God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary — including war — to stop evil,” Jeffress said.

“In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un.”

Jeffress said in a phone interview that he was prompted to make the statement after Trump said that if North Korea’s threats to the United States continue, Pyongyang will be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Note EU-Digest: How crazy can you get? People like "Pastor" Robert Jeffress are the ones giving Christianity a bad rap.


Read more: God has given Trump authority to take out North Korea's Kim Jong Un, evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress says - The Washington Post

Alternative Energy: New technique for turning sunlight into hydrogen

A team of Korean researchers, affiliated with UNIST has recently pioneered in developing a new type of multilayered (Au NPs/TiO2/Au) photoelectrode that boosts the ability of solar water-splitting to produce hydrogen. According to the research team, this special photoelectrode, inspired by the way plants convert sunlight into energy is capable of absorbing visible light from the sun, and then using it to split water molecules (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen.

This study is a collaboration among scientists, including Prof. Jeong Min Baik (School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNIST), Prof. Jae Sung Lee (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST), Prof. Heon Lee (School of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University), and Prof. Jonghwa Shin (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology).

This multilayered photoelectrode takes the form of two-dimensional hybrid metal-dielectric structure, which mainly consists of three layers of gold (Au) film, ultrathin TiO2 layer (20 nm), and gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). In a study, reported in the January 21, 2016 issue of Nano Energy, the team reported that this promising photoelectrode shows high light absorption of about 90% in the visible range 380-700nm, as well as significant enhancement in photo-catalytic applications.

Many structural designs, such as hierarchical and branched assemblies of nanoscale materials have been suggested to increase the UV-visible absorption and to enhance water-splitting efficiency. However, through incorporation of plasmonic metal nanoparticles (i.e. Au) to TiO2 structures, their photoelectrodes have shown to enhance the photoactivity in the entire UV-visible region of solar spectrum when compared to the existing ones, the team reports.

Prof. Jeong Min Baik of UNIST (School of Materials Science and Engineering) states, “Several attemps have been made to use UV-based photoelectrodes for hydrogen production, but this is the first time to use the metal-dielectric hybrid-structured film with TiO2 for oxygen production.” Moreover, according to Prof. Baik, this special type of photoelectrode uses approximately 95% of the visible spectrum of sunlight, which makes up a substantial portion (40%) of full sunlight. He adds, “The developed technology is expected to improve hydrogen production efficiency.”

Read more: New technique for turning sunlight into hydrogen | Solid State Technology

USA - Killer Poison On The Loose: ‘No risk’ says Pentagon after anthrax error

A US military laboratory based in Utah is under investigation after mistakenly sending live anthrax bacteria to nine commercial labs and an air base in South Korea.

The shipments which were part of a military research project continued for a full year before the error was noticed.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims no one was at risk although four people have been started on preventative measures.

When anthrax becomes airborne, it can cause a deadly illness.That occurred in 2001, when anthrax sent through the US mail to government and media targets killed five people.

The mishap comes 11 months after scores of CDC employees were potentially exposed to live anthrax spores when the Center similarly mishandled samples.

Note EU-Digest: this is not only extremely incompetent but also dangerous to people around the world, not withstanding the assurances the Pentagon has been giving to the contrary, which do not have a record of always being accurate.  

Read more: ‘No risk’ says Pentagon after anthrax error | euronews, world news

Russia: Putin Family Values - Leonid Bershidsky

Russian President Vladimir Putin has always been extremely secretive about his two daughters, so much so that it's all but impossible to find their recent photos on the Internet. Now, however, the Kremlin seems to be doing little to stop a fast-spreading story that Putin's younger daughter Ekaterina lives in Moscow and heads a company that's involved in developing a $1.7 billion innovation center.

The Dutch press has long reported that Maria Putina lived with her Dutch boyfriend in a posh apartment building in Voorschoten, Netherlands. When a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine, apparently by pro-Russian rebels, the mayor of the city of Hilversum angrily demanded that Maria be deported: Two-thirds of the passengers were Dutch citizens. He later apologized, but tabloids were already reporting she had fled her Dutch home.

As for Katerina, she was linked -- originally by the Korean press -- to the son of a retired South Korean admiral who once worked at the country's Moscow embassy. The admiral denied the rumors.

Read more: Putin Family Values - Bloomberg View

Eurofighter to power Korean industries

A number of aircraft have arrived in Korea for the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX) with hopes of patrolling over the Korean Peninsula. Among them, the Eurofighter Typhoon, a multi-role fighter jet from the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), is making headlines at the biannual fair, being fully armed with cutting-edge weapons including air-to-ground Taurus, air-to-air Meteor and anti-tank Brimstone missiles.

Ahead of an expected re-tender of the country’s F-X III project to acquire 60 highly-advanced combat planes, the four-nation consortium EADS and its aircraft are set to offer a strategic partnership to address Korean needs in not only the defense sector but also industry.

In September, the government rejected Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle as the winner of the F-X III and is seeking various ways to complete the long-delayed fighter requirement program. In the competition, the Eurofighter Tranche 3 Typhoon is pitted against Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II and the Boeing product.

EADS, comprised of Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (U.K.), is stressing that its fighter jet is the only one in operation among the three bidders, having more than 200,000 flying hours, and being combat-proven in Syria.

Currently, Eurofighter has 719 aircraft on contract and since entry-into-service in 2004, more than 380 aircraft have been delivered to six countries ― the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Saudi Arabia ― and Oman will become the seventh customer to fly the Eurofighter from 2017.

The Tranche 3 that was offered to the Korean Air Force is seen as one of the most advanced new generation swing-role and multi-role combat aircrafts as it is equipped with the most-advanced active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, Helmet Mounted Symbology System (HMSS) and Meteor and Taurus missiles.

Read more: Eurofighter to power Korean industries

France - Korea: Park to seek futuristic economic cooperation in summit with France - by Chang Jae-soon

South Korean President Park Geun-hye was to meet with French President Francois Hollande on Monday for summit talks expected to focus on strengthening financial and high-tech cooperation as the two countries seek new engines to power future growth.

The summit is the highlight of Park's three-day visit to France, a global financial and technological power that officials say can be an ideal partner for her push to seek new growth engines for Asia's fourth-largest economy under her trademark "creative economy" drive.

The drive calls for blending information and communications technology with culture and other realms to create novel industries and more jobs. Park believes the existing paradigm of economic growth has reached its limit and that creative ideas should be thought up to develop new growth engines.

Read more: Park to seek futuristic economic cooperation in summit with France | GlobalPost

The Fiscal Cliff, Europe and the rest of the world

The so-called "fiscal cliff" has been dominating news headlines here in the US for weeks. Across the pond, Europeans have been paying close attention and having similar, just as heated, debates about spending and taxes.

Markets breathed a huge sigh of relief Wednesday that U.S. lawmakers finally agreed on a budget deal that will stop hundreds of billions of dollars in automatic tax increases and spending cuts that risked plunging the world's biggest economy into recession.

Stocks around the world started 2013 with hefty gains as investors welcomed the vote in the House of Representatives that made sure that the U.S. does not go over the so-called "fiscal cliff."

Though longer-term fiscal problems remain and President Barack Obama will likely face more battles with the Republican-dominated House, investors were relieved that the biggest near-term stumbling block to the world economy has been cleared.

"Investors are trading with a sense of relief after lawmakers in Washington agreed on a compromise to avoid the fiscal cliff that has been the dominant theme in equity markets since the Presidential elections back in November," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at stockbroker Interactive Investor.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares jumped 2.2 percent to 6,026, its first foray above the 6,000 mark since July 2011. The CAC-40 in France rose 2.4 percent to 3,728 while Germany's DAX was up 2.3 percent at 7,781.

Earlier, in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shot up 2.9 percent to close at 23,311.89, its highest finish since June 1, 2011. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 surged 1.2 percent to close at 4,705.90, its best finish in 19 months while South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.7 percent to 2,031.10.

EU-Digest

Soccer: Park not alone as United disappoints - by Joo Kyung-don

For many footballers, Wembley Stadium in London is a field of dreams, but for Manchester United Korean midfielder Park Ji-sung, the stadium seems to have become a place to avoid.

Park started in the UEFA Champions League final against FC Barcelona at Wembley Stadium on Saturday but suffered the “Wembley jinx” when his Manchester United team was beaten 3-1 by the Spanish giant.

The match was the Korean player’s second start in a Champions League final and even though he played for a full 90 minutes, in the end he wasn’t able to help deliver the result that he and the massed ranks of Red Devils fans were looking for.

For more: Park not alone as United disappoints - INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily

Korea - This is not the US quarrel - by Pat Buchanan

Fifty-seven years after that armistice, a U.S. carrier task force is steaming toward the Yellow Sea in a show of force after the North fired 80 shells into a South Korean village.

We will stand by our Korean allies, says President Obama. And with a US security treaty and 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, many on the DMZ, we can do no other. But why, 60 years after the first Korean War, should Americans be the first to die in a second Korean War if it happens? Unlike 1950, South Korea is not an impoverished ex-colony of Japan. She is the largest of all the ``Asian tigers,'' a nation with twice the population and 40 times the economy of the North. Why, when the Cold War has been over for 20 years, do all these Cold War alliances still exist?

Obama has just returned from a Lisbon summit of NATO, an alliance formed in 1949 to defend Western Europe from Soviet tank armies on the other side of the Iron Curtain that threatened to roll to the Channel. Today, that Red Army no longer exists, the captive nations are free, and Russia's president was in Lisbon as an honored guest of NATO.

Yet yhe US still have tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the same bases they were in when Gen. Eisenhower became supreme allied commander more than 60 years ago.

For more: This is not the US quarrel - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com

EU-Korea FTA remains stalled- by Pallavi Aiyar

Almost a year after the world’s biggest economy, the European Union, initialled a free trade agreement (FTA) with Asian heavyweight South Korea, the process of getting approval for the deal remains stalled. A hoped-for green light from the European Council, which comprises 27 member-states, was not forthcoming on Friday, as EU trade ministers met to try and break the deadlock.

However, officials said approval for the deal was “very close” and might be reached by Monday. Italy has emerged as the most vocal FTA opponent and has been demanding a delay in implementation to give its car sector more time to prepare for the stiffer competition.

Earlier in the month, the European Parliament postponed a decision over the deal after it was unable to agree on the level of safeguards for the automotive sector, in the event of “serious injury” to EU car makers from a surge in Korean exports.

For more: EU-Korea FTA remains stalled

Businessweek: EU not ready to sign South Korea free trade pact - by Malin Rising

For the complete report from BusinessWeek click on this link

EU not ready to sign South Korea free trade pact - by Malin Rising

The European Union is not yet ready to sign a free-trade agreement with South Korea because there could still be "outstanding questions" from some EU members, Sweden's prime minister said Monday. South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak had hoped to announce the conclusion of the free-trade talks during a visit to Sweden, which currently holds the rotating six-month EU presidency. But Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt suggested some EU capitals were not prepared to OK the agreement, despite a "breakthrough" in talks on Friday.

Te Korea Times: EU Proposes Growth Formula for Korea - by Jane Han

For the complete report from The Korea Times click on this link

EU Proposes Growth Formula for Korea - by Jane Han

The largest European business group here said Tuesday that it would like to accompany President Lee Myung-bak's ambitious ``747'' jumbo election pledge with its own``A380'' plan, a growth formula to help eliminate discriminatory practices against foreign investors. Modeled after Lee's plan ― which vows to deliver 7 percent annual economic growth, double the per capita income to $40,000 a year and make South Korea the world's seventh-largest economy ― the A380 initiative combines three principles, targeting eight projects with zero corruption. ``Our plan will carry South Korea toward more prosperity and growth,'' the new chairman of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea (EUCCK), Jean-Marie Hurtiger, told reporters at his first press conference since being appointed to the top post last week.

The European Union is South Korea's second-largest trading partner after China, with bilateral trade reaching $89.8 billion in 2007.

The Korea Times: Korean Auto Sales in Europe, China Slow Down - by Ryu Jin

For the complete report from The Korea Times click on this link

Korean Auto Sales in Europe, China Slow Down - by Ryu Jin

South Korean automakers showed poor performance in Europe and China last year amid fierce price competition, the latest report of an industry association showed Sunday.

European and American brands sold a total of 12.06 million cars to raise their combined market share from 81.4 to 81.6 percent year on year. Japanese carmakers also sold over 2 million, increasing the market share from 13.5 to 13.6 percent. Sales of South Korean-made cars in China also dropped from 405,011 units in 2006 to 332,573 last year, dragging down the market share from 7.8 percent to 5.3 percent. ``South Korean carmakers had a difficult time in Europe and China last year, as they lacked new models and lost competitiveness in terms of prices due to the unfavorable foreign exchange rates,’’ the KAMA official said.