South Korean President Moon Jae-In speaks to the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, US, June 28, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] BEIJING - South Korea's newly elected President Moon Jae-in departed for Washington Wednesday for his first meeting with US President Donald Trump, making Seoul's traditional ally his first foreign destination since taking office in early May. The visit, which marked Moon's first meeting with a foreign leader as president, demonstrated Moon's determination to shore up US-South Korean military alliance, but under no circumstances should that come at the cost of tilting regional balance or disrupting stability in Northeast Asia. Moon has made it clear in earlier interviews ahead of his trip that Seoul and Washington share the common goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, establishing a peace regime on the peninsula, and building peace and security in Northeast Asia. Safeguarding regional peace and stability and realizing a denuclearized Korean Peninsula require all parties concerned to do their due part, step up communication and collaborate to remove misgivings and mistrust, rather than pursue a quick fix that might cause catastrophic consequences and jeopardize regional security in the long run. Moon, a liberal as opposed to his two predecessors that had ruled South Korea for 10 years, conceded in an interview with CBS This Morning that the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue cannot be resolved through only sanctions and pressure. To freeze and dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal, Moon has proposed a dual-track approach of pressuring Pyongyang to cease nuclear programs while seeking engagement with it, which showed greater flexibility in dealing with its the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Meantime, in a gesture of good will, DPRK's ambassador to India Kye Chun Yong reiterated an offer to negotiate a nuclear test moratorium in exchange for a halt to the annual military exercises jointly staged by the United States and South Korea, a proposal flatly rejected by Washington in January 2015. The large-scale war games, which Seoul claimed to protect South Korea from the DPRK's missile and nuclear threat, are considered by Pyongyang as a rehearsal for preemptive attacks. Pyongyang has repeatedly hinted that negotiations and dialogue would be possible on conditions that the US administration abandons its deep-seated hostilities against the DPRK. The Trump-Moon summit comes at such a critical moment where whether the Trump administration has the decisiveness to translate its promise of not seeking Pyongyang's subversion into a good-faith response may change the course of denuclearization on the peninsula, as well as peace and stability in the region at large. While the two allies are expected to highlight the special meaning of the South Korea-US alliance and strengthen their military bond, it is important to refrain from using military threats that would exacerbate the situation and rethink the controversial deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), an anti-missile shield that severely harms national security of neighboring countries including China and Russia. Moon has slowed down the delivery and installment of the rest of the four launchers and urged an environmental impact assessment before proceeding with the final deployment, after it turned out the South Korean military had hidden the arrival of the launchers from his office. But the president denied going through due procedures means a reversal in the THAAD decision. The THAAD, which comprises an X-band radar that enables the United States to snoop on half of China's territory and the southern part of Russia's Far East, breaks regional strategic balance and runs counter to the endeavor to achieve denuclearization on the peninsula as it merely adds complexity to the situation all the more. Since all eyes will be on the upcoming summit between the two leaders that will possibly work together for the next five years, it is desirable that both countries take a long vision to navigate through the quagmire and encourage positive effort toward the ultimate goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and maintaining regional peace and prosperity. custom rubber band braceletsthe wristband factoryfestival wristbands uk
A sample of cobalt-rich crusts collected from the seabed at a depth of about 5,300 meters off Minamitorishima Island is shown to the press at the Japanese science and technology ministry in Tokyo, Feb 9, 2016. [Photo/IC] TOKYO - Japanese researchers have mapped vast reserves of rare earth elements in deep-sea mud, enough to feed global demand on a semi-infinite basis, according to a fresh study. The deposit, found within Japan's exclusive economic waters, contains more than 16 million tons of the elements needed to build high-tech products from mobile phones to electric vehicles, according to the study, released on Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports. The team, comprised of several universities, businesses and government institutions, surveyed the western Pacific Ocean near Minamitorishima Island, Japan. In a sample area of the mineral-rich region, the team's survey estimated 1.2 million tons of rare earth oxide deposited there, the study said, conducted jointly by Yutaro Takaya, researcher with Waseda University and Yasuhiro Kato of the University of Tokyo, among others. The finding extrapolates that a 2,500-square-kilometer region off the southern Japanese island should contain 16 million tons of the valuable elements, and has the potential to supply these metals on a semi-infinite basis to the world, the study said. The area reserves offer great potential as ore deposits for some of the most critically important elements in modern society, it said. The report said there were hundreds of years of reserves of most of the rare earths in the area surveyed. The team has also developed an efficient method to separate valuable elements from others in the mud. The world relies heavily on China for rare earths, with Beijing producing most of the elements currently available on the market. The Japanese study stressed the importance of the efforts to develop efficient and economic methods to collect the deep-sea mud. The enormous resource amount and the effectiveness of the mineral processing are strong indicators that this new (rare-earth rich mud) resource could be exploited in the near future, the study said. Agence France-presse
