Previously, South Korea’s spy agency said the top military official was being punished at a co-operative farm because of water leakage at a newly built hydro-electric power station.
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Japan will send Fukushiro Nukaga, head of the Japan-South Korea parliamentarians’ league, as its special representative to a state funeral for former South Korean President Kim Young-sam scheduled for Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
The budget carrier hopes to launch four fights a week from its hub, Shanghai’s Pudong airport, in early February 2016, although the proposal is pending approval from both the North Korean authorities and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), a Spring Airlines spokesman said.
Ban said there has been a “positive signal” from North Korea and the two sides are in talks to determine when is the best time to visit, but no decision has been made yet.
The secretary-general revealed that North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong visited the United Nations headquarters and met with Mr. Ban twice, discussing Mr. Ban’s possible role in promoting peace on the bitterly divided Korean Peninsula.
Seoul has offered to resume the talks multiple times since the inter-Korean deal was reached, and Pyongyang accepted the offer last week. Jang had served as the bridge between Pyongyang and Beijing, handling most dealings between the two capitals.
The North Koreans were detained by the Vietnamese police on October 22 in Mong Cai, near the Chinese border, after the bus they were on was stopped for a random check, according to Human Rights Watch, which cited accounts from the North Koreans’ relatives in South Korea.
There have been high tensions between the rival Koreas, including threats of war by the North and a military standoff in August.
The countries agreed to the revised treaty in April after spending several years arguing over whether South Korea should have the right to enrich and reprocess U.S.-origin nuclear fuel for commercial purposes.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Patriots and Vetran Affairs held a memorial at the War Memorial of Korea in honor of the two late Marines who were killed in the shelling five years ago.
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South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported earlier this month that Ban would visit North Korea last week.
