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Yoon says he feels responsibility to improve S.Korea-Japan ties

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Yoon says he feels responsibility to improve S.Korea-Japan ties

Seoul: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Sunday that he feels a responsibility to make South Korea-Japan relations even better than they were during their good times, as he held a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The two leaders met in Seoul for their second summit in less than two months, a highly symbolic meeting demonstrating the neighbouring nations are firmly on course to the full restoration of long-frayed relations, Yonhap news agency reported.

“The current of a good change is difficult to make at first, but once it is made, it often becomes the trend. I believe that the current of South Korea-Japan relations today is such,” Yoon added.

“In less than two months since I had a summit with you in Tokyo, South Korea-Japan relations are clearly showing improvements in earnest. I feel a responsibility to create a good period in our bilateral relations that is even better than the good times of the past,” he said.

Kishida thanked Yoon for his warm welcome, saying he is pleased to be fully restoring “shuttle diplomacy” between them and hopes to exchange opinions on ways to move the bilateral relationship forward, Yonhap news agency reported.

The South Korean President also extended his condolences over Friday’s earthquake in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture, and Japanese Prime Minister expressed his thanks.

Kishida arrived in Seoul earlier on Sunday for a two-day working visit and stopped at Seoul National Cemetery to pay his respects to Korea’s fallen independence activists and war veterans before heading to the presidential office.

Upon arrival, he was greeted by Yoon in an official arrival ceremony that included the playing of the two countries’ national anthems and a joint honour guard review.

Kishida’s visit comes as bilateral relations have warmed significantly following Seoul’s decision in March to compensate Korean victims of Japanese wartime forced labour without contribution from Japanese firms.

Yoon travelled to Tokyo 10 days after the decision was announced and held a summit with Kishida as the first South Korean president to pay a bilateral visit to Japan in 12 years.

Kishida’s visit is also the first bilateral visit by a Japanese leader in 12 years, marking the full-scale resumption of “shuttle diplomacy,” or regular mutual visits, as agreed between Yoon and Kishida during their summit in Tokyo in March.

Later in the day, Yoon and Kishida will hold a joint news conference, and then have dinner at the official presidential residence, where they will be joined by first lady Kim Keon Hee and Kishida’s wife, Yuko, according to diplomatic sources.

The summit was first held in a small group and then in an expanded format, covering issues such as security, high-tech industries, science and technology, and cooperation on youth and cultural affairs, according to the presidential office.

North Korea was expected to feature high on the agenda as South Korea pushes to strengthen cooperation with Japan and trilaterally with the US to counter the growing threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Yoon recently returned from a state visit to Washington, where he and US President Joe Biden agreed on a set of measures to support the US “extended deterrence” commitment to defending South Korea with all of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons.

A joint summit statement noted the two presidents also “emphasised the importance of US-South Korea-Japan trilateral cooperation, guided by shared values, driven by innovation, and committed to shared prosperity and security”.

Trade and economic issues were likely to be high on the agenda as well, given calls for South Korea and Japan to work more closely together to defend their interests in high-tech industries, such as semiconductors and batteries, as the US and the European Union move to protect their own industries.

South Koreans will be watching closely for any discussion of Japan’s plan to release contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant crippled by an earthquake and a tsunami in 2011.

South Korea hopes Japan will agree to a joint investigation of the contaminated water in addition to the monitoring currently under way by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The two countries are also in the process of restoring each other as trusted trading partners after having removed each other from their respective “white lists” of nations eligible for preferential export treatment amid the forced labour row in 2019.

The presidential office said the summit is unlikely to produce a joint statement, though the final decision will be made during the talks and the leaders will announce the outcome of the summit at a joint press conference.

South Koreans will be paying keen attention to whether Kishida goes beyond reaffirming the positions of past Japanese governments to issue an apology or express remorse for Tokyo’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

During the March summit, Kishida reaffirmed the Japanese government inherits on the whole the historical perceptions of past governments, including the 1998 joint declaration adopted by former President Kim Dae-jung and former Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

The 1998 declaration called for overcoming the past and building new relations, with Obuchi expressing remorse for the “horrendous damage and pain” Japan’s colonial rule inflicted on the Korean people.

On Monday, Kishida is scheduled to hold meetings with members of a South Korea-Japan parliamentarians’ association and chiefs of South Korea’s six business lobbies, including SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who is now heading the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, according to industry sources.

He will then depart to return to Tokyo.

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Nepal MP takes off clothes in House after not being allowed to speak

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Nepal MP takes off clothes in House after not being allowed to speak

Kathmandu:  An Independent MP in Nepal, Amresh Kumar Singh, on Monday took off his shirt and vest in the House in protest against not being given time to speak.

Singh, a former Nepali Congress leader, contested the elections last year as an Independent candidate from Sarlahi after the Nepali Congress did not give him a ticket.

Singh, who had done Ph.D from Jawaharlal Nehru University in the Indian capital of Delhi, took off his clothes after Devraj Ghimire, Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) did not allow him to speak.

Ghimire warned him that “action would be taken if he did not behave politely in the HoR meeting.

“I am ready to become a martyr for speaking against corruption,” said Singh before taking off his clothes.

Ghimire asked him to take care of “parliamentary dignity and decorum”.

Singh, however, refused to listen to any of the requests by the Speaker and began taking off his clothes.

Reacting to this, some lawmakers have demanded a medical test of Singh, who left the House after the episode.

This was the first-ever such incident to have happened in the history of Nepal’s Parliament.

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Woman injured following train station can explosion in Tokyo

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Woman injured following train station can explosion in Tokyo

Tokyo: A woman was injured following a coffee can exploding and splashing her with the contents at a train station in northern Tokyo, local media and police said on Monday.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, what was believed to be a can of coffee exploded just before 4:00 p.m. (local time) at Nishiarai Station in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward.

The police received an emergency call from an employee at the station operated by private railway operator Tobu Railway following the explosion, saying, “There was a sound like an explosion or a burst.”

The can was placed near a ticket vending machine and following its explosion doused the woman aged in her 20s or 30s in its liquid contents, Xinhua news agency reported.

As a result of the explosion and the contents hitting the woman, she said her forehead had been hurt and she had felt the heat from the liquid.

The police have since recovered the suspicious can and an investigation is underway as to the cause of the explosion and the exact contents contained in the suspicious can.

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Indian-American doctor indicted for sexually assaulting patients

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Indian-American doctor indicted for sexually assaulting patients

New York: An Indian-origin primary care physician in US’ Georgia has been accused of sexually assaulting four of his female patients during routine check-ups over a 12-month period.

Rajesh Motibhai Patel, 68, was indicted last week on multiple counts of violating his patients’ constitutional right to bodily integrity while acting under colour of law and for engaging in unwanted sexual contact, a Department of Justice release said.

According to information presented in court, between 2019 and 2020, Patel, a physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Decatur, allegedly assaulted four of his female patients by touching them improperly during routine exams. Investigators believe that Patel may have victimised additional patients.

“Patel allegedly sexually abused his female patients and violated his oath to do no harm to patients under his care,” US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said.

“Veterans and their families expect and deserve the highest quality of healthcare delivered in a safe and accountable setting,” Veteran Affairs Inspector General Michael J. Missal said.

He said that the department has been cooperating the law enforcement to ensure the safety of patients.

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China wants ‘new fields’ of cooperation with Pakistan military

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China wants ‘new fields’ of cooperation with Pakistan military

Beijing:  China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu on Monday told Pakistan’s Navy Chief Amjad Khan Niazi that their militaries, including their navies, should “expand into new fields of cooperation” to bolster the capability of the two neighbours in safeguarding security in the region, Pakistan media reported.

Ties between the two militaries stretch back years, with their navies and air forces holding bilateral exercises in each other’s territory.

Shangfu told Niazi, who was visiting Beijing, that the two countries’ military relationship was a key part of bilateral ties, Geo News reported.

“The two militaries should expand into new areas of exchanges, create new high points of cooperation to continuously enhance their ability to deal with all sorts of risks and challenges, and jointly maintain the security interests of the two countries and of the region,” said Li, according to a statement on China’s Ministry of National Defence website.

Niazi’s visit comes after Zhang Youxia, Vice-Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, said in late April that the Chinese military is willing to build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, Geo News reported.

“Chinese military is willing to work with the Pakistani military to further deepen and expand practical cooperation, continuously push mil-to-mil relationship to a higher level, and jointly safeguard the common interests of the two countries, as well as the regional peace and stability,” General Zhang said during a meeting with Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir.

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China using its currency to insulate against future sanctions

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China using its currency to insulate against future sanctions

Beijing:  In the wake of sanctions on Russia, China has pushed to conduct more trade using the yuan in an effort to reduce its reliance on the dollar, a UK newspaper reported.

In the last year, a drive to insulate China’s economy from dollar-based sanctions has emerged as possibly the most important incentive for decoupling from the dollar, as China looks to prepare for the possibility of conflict with Taiwan.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the most powerful tools for inflicting economic harm on Moscow was to essentially cut the country off from transactions based on US dollars, limiting its ability to trade with other countries, The Guardian reported.

But as well as punishing the Kremlin, there has been an unintended winner from West’s sanctions regime: the Chinese yuan. Last year the share of Russian imports paid for in yuan rose from 4 to 23 per cent. In February the yuan overtook the dollar as the most traded currency on the Moscow exchange for the first time in its history.

China’s push to boost the internationalisation of its currency predates the war in Ukraine and although the yuan is still far behind the dollar in terms of global activity, between March 2021 and March 2023 its share of the trade finance market — the multi-trillion dollar ecosystem that underpins 80 per cent of world trade — more than doubled, according to data from Swift, an interbank messaging platform, The Guardian reported.

China is also encouraging other countries to adopt the yuan for international transactions. Argentina and Brazil recently reached agreements to pay for Chinese imports in yuan rather than US dollars.

In April Bangladesh announced that it had approved a payment in yuan worth $318 million to settle part of a Russian loan that had been used to finance a nuclear power plant development. It is a rare example of the yuan being used for an international transaction that does not involve China, The Guardian reported.

In March, a Chinese company used yuan to buy 65,000 ton of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from TotalEnergies, a French multinational, the first time that China’s currency has been used in an international LNG transaction.

Beijing does not want to be dependent on the use of dollars for essential imports, so this is a key step in ensuring China’s energy security, The Guardian reported.

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