Category: VOA

SEOUL, South Korea —  A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North’s official media said on Wednesday in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties. The minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, left Pyongyang on Tuesday by air leading a ministry delegation to visit Iran, the North’s KCNA news agency said. It gave no other details. North Korea and Iran have long been suspected of cooperating on ballistic missile…

washington —  The South Korean government says it will push ahead with its foreign policy agenda despite a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections at the hands of a liberal opposition party that promises to push back against President Yoon Suk Yeol’s foreign and security policies. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that the Yoon government will press on with its security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan in bilateral settings and in a trilateral framework. Seoul will “cooperate closely” with the U.S. and Japan to carry out agreements made…

WASHINGTON —  Myanmar’s ruling junta, the State Administrative Council, is criticizing a U.S. aid package that is being funneled through opponents of the regime, saying the United States should consider whether its actions amount to support for terrorism. The assistance marks the first implementation of the BURMA Act, part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act aimed at helping pro-democracy forces battling the SAC. Under the act, the aid is intended to strengthen federalism in Myanmar by providing nonlethal assistance to armed groups, helping pro-democracy organizations, assisting aid organizations operating…

Taiwan is looking to Southeast Asia as a pipeline to fill its shortage of high-tech talent. The numbers of foreign students coming to the island has been growing, especially from Vietnam and Indonesia. VOA Mandarin’s Peh Hong Lim reports from Hsinchu, Taiwan. Adrianna Zhang contributed. Voice of America

North Korea says it carried out its first-ever nuclear counterattack drills on Monday. The state-run Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised the drills of its nuclear weapons management and control system, which it calls its “nuclear trigger.” The drills included the firing of several “super-large” artillery rockets fitted with mock nuclear warheads from multiple rocket launcher units. KCNA says the rockets flew about 352 kilometers before successfully hitting an island target, and that Kim expressed “satisfaction” over the results. South Korean and Japanese military…

SYDNEY —  Scientists from Australia and the United Kingdom are developing genomic sequencing technology to save parrots caught in the illegal wildlife trade. They say their forensic methods are similar to a database used by INTERPOL, the international police organization. Parrots are among the most trafficked birds in the illegal international wildlife trade. By using samples from feathers or a speck of blood, researchers from the Australian National University and King’s Forensics in the United Kingdom are working to build a genetic database of threatened bird species. They hope to…