World News
New S.Korean president vows to address N.Korea, broader tensions “urgently” Argentines protest Supreme Court ruling on Dirty War sentences
SEOUL, (Reuters) - South Korea’s new liberal President Moon Jae-in was sworn in yesterday and vowed to tackle immediately the difficult tasks of addressing North Korea’s advancing nuclear ambitions and soothing tensions with the United States and China.
Moon said in his first speech as president he would begin efforts to defuse security tensions on the Korean peninsula and negotiate with Washington and Beijing to ease a row over a U.S. missile defence system being deployed in the South.
In a congratulatory phone call U.S. President Donald Trump agreed with Moon to cooperate on the North Korean nuclear issue and invited him to visit Washington, the South Korean presidential office said.
The White House said the two agreed to continue to strengthen the alliance between their countries.
The South Korean statement said Trump said North Korea’s nuclear problem was difficult, but one that could be resolved.
North Korea is believed to be preparing for a sixth nuclear test and is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States, presenting Trump with perhaps his most pressing security issue.
U.S. officials expressed concern Moon’s advocacy have that of engagement with North Korea could undercut U.S. efforts to increase pressure through further isolation and sanctions.
The Trump administration has also been dismayed by Moon’s questioning of deployment of a U.S. missile defence system in South Korea and expects some friction in ties, although U.S. officials say the new president may moderate his stances in office and the effect on the alliance will be limited.
In his first key appointments, Moon named two liberal veterans with ties to the 2000s “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with North Korea to the posts of prime minister and spy chief.
Suh Hoon, a career spy agency official who was instrumental in setting up two previous summits between the North and South, was named to head the National Intelligence Service.
Lee Nak-yon, a regional governor who was a political ally of two former presidents who held summits with North Korea in 2000 and 2007 was nominated as prime minister. His appointment requires parliamentary approval.
Moon was expected to fill the remaining cabinet and presidential staff appointments swiftly to bring an end to a power vacuum left by the removal of Park Geun-hye in March in a corruption scandal that rocked South Korea’s business and political elite.
“I will urgently try to solve the security crisis,” Moon said in the domed rotunda hall of the parliament building. “If needed, I will fly straight to Washington. I will go to Beijing and Tokyo and, if the conditions are right, to Pyongyang also.”
Suh said Moon could go to Pyongyang if it was clear the visit would help resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis and ease tensions.
North Korea is likely to welcome Moon’s election but its state media made no mention of his victory on Wednesday.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), meanwhile, chose the day after Moon’s election to announce it had established a Korea Mission Center “to harness the full resources, capabilities, and authorities of the Agency in addressing the nuclear and ballistic missile threat posed by North Korea.” BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Argentines protested yesterday against a Supreme Court ruling that could decrease jail time for those convicted of human rights abuses during the country’s 1976 - 1983 military dictatorship that killed as many as 30,000 people.
The ruling was widely criticized, including by President Mauricio Macri, and Congress passed a law earlier on Wednesday to block future reductions of sentences for killings, torture, kidnappings and other human rights violations during the so-called Dirty War.
“Judges: Never again. No free genocidists,” read banners in the Plaza de Mayo of Buenos Aires.
The Supreme Court’s May 3 decision ruled in favor of Luis Muiña, who was sentenced in 2011 to 13 years in jail for kidnapping and torturing five people during the dictatorship.
The court said a law known locally as “two for one” that allows every day spent in jail before a final sentence to count for two days when more than two years have been served, could apply for human rights cases.
“I would like to congratulate the Congress for the speed at which it resolved the legal vacuum left by this unfortunate 2-for-1 law,” Macri said in a press conference earlier on Wednesday. “I am against any tool that is in favor of impunity, more so when this tool is applied to crimes against humanity.”