Wednesday, January 3, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Rohingya Crisis Makes Top 10 List of Conflicts to Watch in 2018

Posted: 03 Jan 2018 03:57 AM PST

YANGON — The International Crisis Groups (ICG) has picked the Rohingya crisis for its ignominious list of the top 10 conflicts around the world to watch in the coming year, warning of persistent risks for both Myanmar and Bangladesh.

More than 650,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled Buddhist majority Myanmar for Bangladesh to escape what the Belgium-based think tank calls the military's "brutal and indiscriminate" response to a late August attack on security force posts in Rakhine State by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

Rights groups and journalists have collected a litany of reports of mass rape, arbitrary killings and arson from the refugees, prompting the UN to call the military's behavior "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing." Myanmar's military absolved itself of any wrongdoing following an internal investigation.

In picking the crisis for its list, published Tuesday, the ICG warns that it has entered "a dangerous new phase, threatening Myanmar's hard-won democratic transition, its stability, and that of Bangladesh and the region as a whole."

It says the government has heavily restricted humanitarian aid to northern Rakhine and continues to hold onto a "hardline stance" toward the Rohingya, albeit with broad popular support stoked by racist rhetoric from Buddhist nationalists and state and social media. The West's moves to revive sanctions sent the right signal, it adds, but were unlikely to do much good.

Last month, Social Welfare Minister U Win Myat Aye told the Irrawaddy that Bangladesh and Myanmar had agreed to start bringing refugees back home by the end of January.

But the ICG says most refugees were unlikely to return "unless Myanmar restores security for all communities, grants the Rohingya freedom of movement as well as access to services and other rights, and allows humanitarian and refugee agencies unfettered access."

In private, it says, Bangladesh admits the plan is doomed but has done little to prepare for the refugees' stay, raising the risks of conflict between the newcomers and outnumbered locals facing rising prices and falling wages.

As for Myanmar, the ICG warns that a regrouped ARSA or other transnational groups could use the refugee camps as fertile recruiting grounds and launch cross-border attacks that would likely ratchet up already tense Muslim-Buddhist relations in Rakhine and even spark outbreaks of violence elsewhere should the attacks reach beyond the state.

"Acknowledging the crisis, implementing recommendations of the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, and disavowing divisive narratives would put the Myanmar government — and its people — on a better path," it concludes.

As reluctant bedfellows in the Rohingya crisis, Myanmar and Bangladesh share the ICG's list of conflicts to watch in 2018 with Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sahel, Syria, North Korea, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen and the US-Saudi-Iran rivalry.

The post Rohingya Crisis Makes Top 10 List of Conflicts to Watch in 2018 appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Rewards of Independence Remain Elusive

Posted: 03 Jan 2018 02:32 AM PST

Seven decades after Burma freed itself from colonial rule, true freedom, prosperity and independence remain elusive for Myanmar, as foreign powers compete for influence and powerful military rulers continue to exert their grip. On the 70th anniversary of independence, we reexamine these issues by revisiting our cover story, originally titled "Independence Lost", from The Irrawaddy's January 2008 issue.

When Gen Sir Harry North Dalrymple Prendergast led his gunboats up the Irrawaddy River to Mandalay in November 1885, King Thibaw and his army were ill-equipped to defend the city, let alone protect the nation.

The last Burmese monarch, who was 28 years old and had hardly ever been outside the confines of his palace, was quickly shipped into exile. Burma, a country that had in its recent history expanded to conquer neighboring countries, had lost not only its king, but its independence.

Thibaw and his queen were quietly escorted onto the steamer Thooreah by British troops and sent to Rangoon. Burmese subjects were later shocked to learn that king had been captured and exiled by the British colonialists to Madras. He never returned.

To the British and Gen Prendergast, invading Mandalay was like picking fruit from a low-hanging tree. The locals, however, refused to condone the kidnapping and resentfully determined not to welcome the self-styled "deliverers from tyranny," as the British liked to consider themselves.

King Thibaw was pathetically weak and had not been a visionary in any way—prior to the British invasion, he received bad press in the West. He was portrayed as a monster, a mass murderer who killed princes and princesses, a womanizer and a drunkard.

Newspapers in Rangoon financed by British merchants had often called for an invasion or annexation of upper Burma. The British colonizers sought regime change and Thibaw was deposed.

Thant Myint-U, the author of "The River of Lost Footsteps," suggested that Mandalay was a stepping stone to unopened markets in Asia for the British merchants.

The Burmese historian wrote: "Years of British machinations had also produced a lively exiled opposition, and more than one of Thibaw's brothers were plotting to overthrow him from beyond the kingdom's borders. That Burma was a potentially rich country no one seemed to doubt, certainly not the increasingly vocal Scottish merchants in Rangoon, eager for unfettered access to the teak forests, oil wells, and ruby mines of the interior. What seemed even more tempting was the prospect of a back door to China's limitless markets."

Burma fought back, but Burma is a land of love and goodwill, the land of Buddhism, and in battle, love and goodwill could not resist cold steel. Brave Burmans fell in resisting the invaders, many feats of daring were displayed to the wonder-struck British soldiers; the Burmese warriors brandishing "dahs" would rush at British gun nests and cannon posts, bullets would cut down the brave comrades, but still the survivors would come on. At times even British military science was puzzled by the lightning manoeuvres and tactics of the defenders. At times the "dahs" silenced the cannons.

The article, “Rewards of Independence Remain Elusive”, as it appeared in The Irrawaddy Magazine's January 2008 issue under original title 'Independence Lost.'

But the fight was unequal from the beginning. British bayonets shed Burmese blood on Burma's soil, and slowly, the guns moved in.

When the Third and last Anglo-Burmese War was fought, the organized resistance of Burma had become very feeble and there were almost no severe engagements. It was not a war really; It was just a coup d'etat, a sudden storm that came down on the puzzled Burmese and blew away before they could realize what had happened. When the people recovered from the shock and surprise, King Thibaw and his Queen had been taken away by General Prendergast of the British invading troops. A brass tablet fixed on an outer wall of the Palace at Mandalay reads, "King Thibaw sat at this opening with his two Queens and the Queen-mother when he gave himself up to General Prendergast on the 30th November, 1885."

November 30, 1885: Burma's King had been taken away. Burma's throne had tumbled down. Burma had become "part of Her Majesty's Dominions and will during Her Majesty's pleasure be administered by such officers as the Viceroy and Governor-General of India may from time to time appoint."

But Burma woke up, though too late in fact. The people shook off their shock and went into action. Organized resistance became impossible since the King was gone and a leader to consolidate all the forces of the country was wanted. But undaunted, patriots formed themselves into small groups and waged their own war under their own leaders. For years the war went on. In the British Gazette of January 1886, it was said that peace was in Burma and order had been regained. On paper there was peace. But in the country the battle grew fierce within months. Guerrilla bands often expelled British garrisons and administered the towns and districts. The people hailed their coming, helped them, and hid them during their movements in times of difficulty. The occupation troops were kept busy all the time and at one point a Military Force of 32,000 men with two Major-Generals and six Brigadier-Generals commanding was actually brought into the field against the Burmese patriots. Vigorous offensive operations were launched, but still the patriots fought on. The exasperated British called the patriots "dacoits" and "gangsters" but it was worthy of notice that the "dacoits" did not plunder the villages they could hold, that the villagers were happy whenever the "dacoits" came, that the "dacoits" were only bent on fighting the British.

It was during those long years of determined resistance that such Generals like Bo Min Yaung became famous. Bo Min Yaung was the terror of the British garrisons in Middle Burma and it is interesting to see that General Aung San, Burma's war leader and front line fighter for freedom was a descendant of the famous Bo Min Yaung.

The article, “Rewards of Independence Remain Elusive”, as it appeared in The Irrawaddy Magazine's January 2008 issue under original title 'Independence Lost.'

The claim that Burma had swung back to normalcy soon after the occupation was complete, could not hide the fact that when the Viceroy visited Mandalay, "the members of the Hlutdaw, preserved a defiant attitude, presented no address of welcome, took no part in the proceedings and sat with their shoes on in the Viceroy's presence." Sitting in the Viceroy's presence with shoes on was but the mildest form of defiance which Burma showed to the usurpers.

Mopping up operations were intensified, the Military Force was strengthened, and systematic disarmament of the whole country was carried out. The patriots with no proper organization, no one leader to unite them, no set aims to inspire them, gradually became tired and disillusioned. Resistance thus ebbed slowly, but it was only in 1890, five years after the annexation, that the British could, with an approach to correctness, claim that law and order had been restored.

Burma resigned to her fate and gave up the struggle. It was not, however, a peace—it was but a truce. The storm had lulled, not died. Burma's fight for freedom was to be resumed again.

The invasion of Mandalay did not bring peace to the region.

Disquiet grew in the rural areas—subtle signs of resistance were detected; officials who worked at the court in Mandalay became increasingly uncooperative with their British masters.

The insurgency that followed was put down ruthlessly by the British—summary executions were rampant and often held in public, as were the beheadings of prisoners or "dacoits."

However, the unrest could not be quashed. The Burmese were too eager to restore their monarchy and establish independence.

Saya San, who named himself "King of Burma," led a revolt against the British in 1930, forcing the government to deploy 8,000 fresh soldiers, equipped with machine guns, to quell the year-long peasant revolt.

Monks, farmers, students, workers from oil fields in central Burma and political activists joined in the struggle to regain independence.

A grassroots civil campaign was born—the "Thakin" movement. Thakin, meaning "We the masters," an expression the British colonists used to denote themselves, was adopted by the young Burmese nationalists. Social welfare organizations and the Young Men's Buddhist Association all joined the fray in the independence struggle. Nowadays, one can draw many parallels between the civic movements, such as the "White Campaign," the "Open Heart Campaign" and the "Signature Campaign," which were launched by students and activists to oppose the military regime, to those early nationalist movements in Burma.

But it was the domino effect of events far away that would ultimately lead to the demise of British rule in Burma—the outbreak of World War II.

The golden land of Burma became a battlefield. In 1942, the Japanese had taken away and trained a group of young Burmese, including Aung San, to liberate the country from the British. That group would later become known as the "Thirty Comrades."

"Fifty-six years after Harry Prendergast's overthrow of King Thibaw, British rule in Burma collapsed like a house of cards, its soldiers and officials tossed out together with hundreds of  thousands of panic-stricken refugees by the elegantly mustached Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida and his Fifteenth Imperial Army. The Burmese had nothing to do with the war, but it destroyed their country," wrote Thant Myint-U.

After the British retreated, it didn't take long for the Burmese to realize that what the Japanese had granted them was no more than a "gold-plated independence."

Enter Aung San, an eccentric, short-tempered law student from Rangoon University, raised by his grandfather, rebel leader Bo Min Yaung, who was later beheaded by the British.

Aung San's single-mindedness, sincerity and straightforward speech won him friends and enemies alike. He realized that it would take nothing less than armed struggle to finally satisfy Burmese desires for independence once and for all.

Employing military tactics he had learned from the Japanese, Aung San led the Thirty Comrades in driving out the British. Ironically, a few years later, Aung San found himself allied with British battalions in bloody battles against the fascist Japanese army.

By age 32, Aung San had developed statesmanlike qualities and a readiness to lead his country. But this time the fight for independence would take place at the negotiating table.

During a stopover in India on his way to London to meet Prime Minister Clement Attlee in January 1947, Aung San delivered a speech, in polished English, declaring that Burma demanded "complete independence" with no question of dominion status.

Aung San also told the assembled press that his countrymen would have no inhibitions about contemplating either a violent or non-violent struggle, or both, if their demands were not satisfactorily met.

However, in July 1947, Aung San and the members of his cabinet—comprised of national and ethnic leaders who were ably equipped to lead the new union of Burma—were gunned down by rivals. U Saw, prime minister in 1940-42, ordered the assassinations, believing that he would naturally succeed as leader of Burma once more.

To this day, colleagues of Aung San who are still alive, in Burma and in exile, still believe that the British conspired with U Saw in the assassination plot.

In January 1948, Aung San's promise of "independence within one year" was honored, though without his presence.

Burma's independence was hailed by the international and local press, and a rosy picture was painted by most, including The New York Times, Le Monde, the Daily Telegraph and the London Times.

London's Daily Telegraph wrote: "Though she is the first country to detach herself from the British Commonwealth, Burma's future will be watched with goodwill and full sympathy."

The New York Times heaped praise on the new nation: "Burma, last of the Asiatic nations to be swept by force into the British Imperial domain, now becomes the first to withdraw peacefully from the British Commonwealth."

But trouble lay ahead.

After Aung San's assassination and the British withdrawal, Burma plunged into turmoil and civil war, despite a plea by newly appointed prime minister U Nu on Independence Day, January 4, 1948: "On this auspicious day, there is no room for disunity or discord—racial, communal, political or personal—and I now call upon all citizens of the Burma Union to unite and to labor without regard to self and in the interest of the country to which we all belong."

His message was not well-heeded—a full-blown multi-ethnic insurgency erupted.

Soft-spoken U Nu and his cabinet did not serve for long. However, many Burmese who lived in his era recall economic prosperity and the country's potential to become one of the "tigers" of Southeast Asia.

In March 1962, another member of the "Thirty Comrades," Gen Ne Win, stepped in and staged a military coup, claiming to save the nation from the abyss. The charismatic leader's coup was well-received with few street protests. The newspapers of the day offered little in the way of criticism in their headlines.

However, students at Rangoon University foresaw trouble and became vocal opponents. Ne Win demonstrated his ruthlessness by demolishing the union building in July of the same year and killing scores of students.

Ne Win's hands were now stained with blood and, like Shakespeare's Macbeth, he was compelled to retain the throne at any cost.

Ne Win died at the age of 92. He lived long enough to see his kingdom of 26 years fall from being Asia's rice bowl to Asia's basket case—one of the least developed nations in the world. Burma had not been saved—it had been ruined and left in a shambles.

In 1988, Ne Win resigned in disgrace, his socialist government facing mass protests. Before he left office he made what is now a famous speech. If the army shoots, he stated, it has no tradition of shooting into the air. It would shoot to kill. The speech was the green light to quell the uprising—about 3,000 street demonstrators were gunned down. Burma was a killing field yet again.

At the same time, Aung San's daughter, Suu Kyi, who had returned from London to nurse her ailing mother, also gave an unforgettable speech, saying: "This national crisis could, in fact, be called the second struggle for national independence."

Although Ne Win's "Burmese Way to Socialism" program was thrown out, his dynasty and the military dictatorship went on. Snr-Gen Saw Maung, Gen Khin Nyunt and Snr-Gen Than Shwe, all emerged, not as saviors of Burma, but as ghosts of Prendergast who had stolen the nation's independence.

The country is now colonized by a junta—this time, the invasion of our country was not by foreign colonialists but by its own home-grown military dictators who penetrate every corner of the country.

If Aung San were alive today, he would be shocked by his country's standing in the world. He might even look on with envy at Burma's neighbors who were also colonized by the British—India, Singapore and Malaysia.

In 1957, ten years after Burma proclaimed its sovereignty, Malaysia (then Malaya) declared independence, followed by Singapore in 1965. Today, the two nations enjoy the strongest economies in Southeast Asia and have promising futures. India is the largest democracy in the world and a growing superpower. Burma, for its part, lacks democracy, prosperity and stability.

Today, Burmese are not proud to call themselves people of Burma, a country identified with poverty, political conflict and military dictatorship. While Burmese citizens fight back to overthrow the regime, others flee the country. Burma is a pariah state and a troubled child in the eyes of the world.

Since the day Gen Prendergast arrived in Mandalay with his gunboats, Burma's freedom, prosperity and independence have been suppressed and denied, first by foreign invaders and then by various military regimes.

Sixty years later the fight for true independence in Burma is still not over. The September uprising was a manifestation of Burma's long struggle for independence and a reminder to the world community that the fight goes on.

This article originally appeared in the January 2008 issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

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116 Casualties on ‘Death Highway’ Last Year

Posted: 03 Jan 2018 01:10 AM PST

NAYPYITAW — There were 116 casualties on the Yangon-Mandalay Highway in 2017, according to the highway traffic police force.

There were a total of 555 road accidents in which 116 people were killed and 863 were injured. Private cars were responsible for most of the traffic accidents, according to traffic police.

The number of road accidents and casualties, however, has declined compared to 2016, which saw 774 road accidents with 170 fatalities and 1,304 people injured.

"The main cause of road accidents is speeding," said police officer Soe Win of the highway police force.

As of June 1 last year, traffic police have required drivers and passengers of either private vehicles or express buses to wear seat belts while driving on the highway.

More than 20,000 vehicles use the some 400-mile highway daily and there are around seven road accidents a day, said the highway traffic police force.

The highway, which connects commercial hub Yangon, administrative capital Naypyitaw and the second largest city Mandalay, came into service in 2009 and is dubbed by local road users as the 'death highway' due to high number of accidents.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has offered to provide a loan of more than $100 million to upgrade the highway, Deputy Minister for Construction U Kyaw Lin told reporters in November.

If the government approves the proposal, it will upgrade 40 miles of the highway by 2020 as a pilot project, he said.

The post 116 Casualties on 'Death Highway' Last Year appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Govt Denies Rumors of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Paralysis

Posted: 02 Jan 2018 11:43 PM PST

NAYPYITAW — The President's Office on Tuesday denied rumors that State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had been paralyzed and said it was investigating the source of the claims.

"She is not paralyzed. She is performing her duties healthily. She has recently undergone a medical checkup," U Zaw Htay, spokesman for the President's Office, told The Irrawaddy Tuesday evening.

"Except for her eye operation [in April], everything is good. And she is always careful with her lifestyle to keep healthy," he added.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi hosted a public peace talk, the fifth of its kind, in Karenni State on Friday and returned to Naypyitaw the same day. She has not been seen in public since.

The Myanmar Herald reported that rumors that the state counselor had been paralyzed started to spread among astrologers and some politicians on Sunday evening.

U Zaw Htay said she was back at her office on Tuesday, after the New Year's holiday.

By Wednesday morning, the State Counselor's Office posted photos of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi arriving at the president's residence for a regular meeting, a move apparently intended to counter the rumors about her health.

Dr. Tin Myo Win, who has served as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's family doctor for years, told The Irrawaddy that she was in fair health and that a press release would be issued if she fell ill.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi underwent a medical checkup in September at the Grand Hantha Hospital in Yangon. The 72-year-old also reportedly undergoes regular medical checkups in Naypyitaw.

Political analyst Yan Myo Thein said that rumors were not unusual in Myanmar's political history. But because Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was critically important to Myanmar's democratization process, he added, rumors about her had to be handled with great care.

"If the government informs the public about the health of leaders in real time, it will help control rumors and fake news to a certain extent," he said.

U Zaw Htay said he believed that some people were spreading rumors about the health of government leaders with bad intentions and that the President's Office had launched an investigation.

In early December, rumors circulated that President U Htin Kyaw's health had deteriorated and that he would soon resign. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi soon quashed the speculation.

"I have a suspicion that certain people are spreading rumors about the health conditions of important leaders to create political instability. If we knew who was spreading such rumors, we would know their intentions. But we have yet to find out who they are," the spokesman said.

Translated from Burmese by That Ko Ko.

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Irrawaddy Natural Resources Minister Resigns, Cites Poor Health

Posted: 02 Jan 2018 11:29 PM PST

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — The Irrawaddy regional minister for natural resources, environment, agriculture and livestock has decided to submit his resignation on health grounds.

"My health is not good. I am no longer physically fit to perform my duties. So, I'll submit my resignation," minister U Ba Hein told The Irrawaddy.

The agriculturalist and author on agricultural science was appointed to the current ministerial position as of April1 last year in the Irrawaddy regional government led by Mahn Johnny.

During his tenure, the minister helped groups of small-scale fishermen win tenders at low prices for fishery ponds that were otherwise monopolized by rich fishery businesspeople for years.

As a result, wealthy fishery businesspeople in the Irrawaddy Region filed complaints in 2016 against him with President U Htin Kyaw, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and chairman of the parliamentary Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission U Shwe Mann, and U Ba Hein had to explain.

On May 31 last year, around 300 fishermen staged a protest against U Ba Hein, alleging that the minister abolished fishery pond leases granted in line with the law by the previous government, and that he violated the standard procedures and directly sold fishery pond leases to unlawfully-formed groups of fishermen.

U Ba Hein is a reformist, and his proposed resignation is due to the fact that he is restricted to undertake reforms, suggested director U Tin Lin Aung of Green Peasant Institute, an agricultural training school based in Pathein, the capital of the Irrawaddy Region.

"The minister tried to help small-scale fishermen get leases for fishery ponds. He also wants to handle land confiscation cases. But, there are legal loopholes and the overall authority is not in his hands, but in the hands of the chief minister," said U Tin Lin Aung.

"So, there must be a lot of difficulty for him to do what it takes to make those reforms. He gave the excuse of ill health for his resignation to avoid offending anyone, I think," he suggested.

The previous regional government of the Union Solidarity and Development Party led by U Thein Aung had two separate ministries—the forestry and natural resources ministry and the mines, agriculture and livestock ministry. But the National League for Democracy government combined them into one.

In February, the Mon State Chief Minister U Min Min Oo resigned from his post amid a scandal regarding his performance. In November 2016, U Htun Win, the deputy minister for agriculture, livestock and irrigation, was sacked by President U Htin Kyaw, after a dispute with his chief minister Dr. Aung Thu.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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US Warns North Korea Against New Missile Test, Plays Down Talks

Posted: 02 Jan 2018 08:12 PM PST

UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL — The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned North Korea on Tuesday against staging another missile test and said Washington would not take any talks between North and South Korea seriously if they did not do something to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

Haley told reporters the United States was hearing reports that North Korea might be preparing to fire another missile.

"I hope that doesn’t happen. But if it does, we must bring even tougher measures to bear against the North Korean regime," Haley said.

South Korea on Tuesday offered talks with North Korea next week, amid a tense standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a New Year's Day speech that he was "open to dialogue" with Seoul.

Kim also said he was open to the possibility of North Korean athletes taking part in Winter Olympics South Korea hosts next month.

At the same time, he stressed that his country would push ahead with "mass producing" nuclear warheads in defiance of UN sanctions and that he had a nuclear button on his desk capable of launching missiles at the United States.

US President Donald Trump responded to Kim in a Twitter post on Tuesday: "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

Haley said the United States would not take talks seriously if they did not take steps toward banning North Korea's nuclear weapons.

"North Korea can talk to anyone they want, but the US is not going to recognize it or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have," she said.

Haley gave no details of the missile test preparations.

Another US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were indications that could point toward a potential missile launch "sooner rather than later," but cautioned that such signs had been seen in the past and no test had resulted.

'Drive a Wedge'

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said North Korea might be "trying to drive a wedge of some sort" between the United States and South Korea and added that while it was up to Seoul to decide who it talked to: "We are very skeptical of Kim Jong Un's sincerity in sitting down and having talks."

Trump, who has led a global drive to pressure North Korea through sanctions to give up development of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States, earlier held back judgment on Pyongyang's offer to talk, saying on Twitter:

"Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time."

"Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!"

Trump has frequently derided Kim as "rocket man." The US president said sanctions and other pressures were starting to have a big impact on North Korea.

Kim and Trump have exchanged fiery barbs in the last year and the US president has warned that the United States would have no choice but to "totally destroy" North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies.

North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United States, South Korea and Japan and tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile in November, which it said was capable of delivering a warhead anywhere in the United States.

South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon said the offer for high-level talks next Tuesday had been discussed with the United States. Nauert said she was not aware if the matter had been discussed in advance of the South Korean response.

Cho suggested the talks be held at the border village of Panmunjom and said they should be focused on North Korea's participation at the Olympics, but other issues would likely arise, including the denuclearization of North Korea.

"I repeat: The government is open to talking with North Korea, regardless of time, location and form," Cho said.

Should the talks be held, it would be the first such dialogue since a vice-ministerial meeting in December 2015.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in welcomed Kim's New Year address and asked his government to move as quickly as possible to bring North Korea to the Olympics, but he stressed that an improvement in inter-Korean relations "cannot go separately with resolving North Korea's nuclear program."

China, which has persistently urged a return to talks to ease tensions, said recent positive comments from North and South Korea were a good thing.

"China welcomes and supports North Korea and South Korea taking earnest efforts to treat this as an opportunity to improve mutual relations, promote the alleviation of the situation on the Korean peninsula and realize denuclearization on the peninsula," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.

The post US Warns North Korea Against New Missile Test, Plays Down Talks appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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