South Korean leader to meet Kim Jong Un’s sister in nations’ highest-level contact in years
SEOUL, South Korea — In the highest-level contact betwee nthe two Koreas in years, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea plans to meet Saturday with the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the North’s nominal head of state, officials said Thursday.
Mr. Moon’s luncheon meeting with the North Koreans was announced on Thursday, as Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea carrying a message from Washington: not to waver from strong sanctions against North Korea.
The high-level North Korean delegation, headed by Kim Yong Nam, the North’s ceremonial head of state, will arrive in South Korea on Friday on a special plane to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics later in the day. The trip’s significance was underscored by the revelation on Wednesday that the delegation would include Kim Yo Jong, the only sister and a trusted aide of Kim Jong Un, the North’s supreme leader.
In North Korea’s dynastic system, which upholds the Kim family’s “bloodline” as a sacred leadership qualification, Ms. Kim wields a singular clout that cannot be matched by any nonrelative members of the elite, regardless of their official titles, according to North Korea analysts.
Ms. Kim would be the first member of North Korea’s ruling family to visit the South since the 1950-53 Korean War. In 2000, her father, Kim Jong Il, held a summit meeting in North Korea with Kim Dae-jung, then South Korea’s president, but did not keep his promise to visit the South for a second meeting.
Taiwan death toll hits 9
HUALIEN, Taiwan — Rescuers in Taiwan searched badly damaged buildings early Thursday, looking for scores of people missing after a powerful earthquake hit the island’s east coast.
The magnitude-6.4 quake struck at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday and was centered 14 miles northeast of the coastal city of Hualien. The shaking was felt across Taiwan, but in Hualien the force was disastrous, collapsing walls and leaving buildings resting at alarming angles.
On Thursday officials put the toll at nine dead and 62 missing. Many of the missing were believed to be trapped in the 12-story Yun Men Tsui Ti building. About 196 people have been rescued so far from that building and three others.
IS militants detained
U.S. partner forces in Syria are holding two suspected Islamic State militants believed to be the remaining members of a cell that held and, in some cases, executed Western hostages, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-dominated group that is the United States’ main military partner in Syria, captured the two men, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, in early January in eastern Syria, two U.S. officials said.
The men, who grew up in Britain before traveling to Syria to fight with Islamist militants, are suspected “in the detention, exploitation and execution of Western detainees,” said one official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive counterterrorism operations.
Saudi writer sentenced
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A criminal court in Saudi Arabia sentenced a columnist to five years in prison for insulting the royal court, the official body that represents the king and crown prince, according to state-linked media on Thursday.
It’s the latest case targeting critics of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who in September oversaw the arrest of dozens of prominent Saudi figures, including moderate clerics, for not publicly supporting or for criticizing his domestic and foreign policies. Rights groups have described the 32-year-old prince’s crackdown on dissent as authoritarianism.