Kyodo news summary -12-

0 Comments | Asian Political News, August 1, 2005

TOKYO, July 27 Kyodo

---------- Typhoon hits eastern Japan in evening

TOKYO - Typhoon Banyan landed in eastern Japan Tuesday evening, after causing downpours in the Tokyo and Nagoya areas and disrupting air, land and sea traffic, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The season's seventh typhoon is the first to make landfall on the Japanese archipelago this year and is expected to head north-northeast to reach waters off Hokkaido on Wednesday, the agency said, adding it will be reduced to an extratropical depression Thursday.

---------- N. Korea responds to U.S. proposal as two meet again on nuke issue

BEIJING - North Korea responded Tuesday to a U.S. proposal presented in June last year, as chief delegates of the two sides at six-nation nuclear talks in Beijing met for the second straight day in hopes of resolving disputes over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, the top U.S. envoy said.

Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, declined to characterize the response as either positive or negative. But he said the North Korean delegation discussed its view of the proposal aimed at getting North Korea to scrap its nuclear arms development programs.

---------- Panel offers conflicting proposals on imperial succession in report

TOKYO - A government panel on imperial succession has ended up including two conflicting proposals on the issue in its interim report released Tuesday, despite its earlier enthusiasm to make history.

The advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said in the report that Japan should accept female monarchs or should allow male members of former imperial branch families to return to imperial status through adoption or marriage to ensure ''stable succession,'' given that no male heir has been born into the royal family for the last 40 years.

---------- ASEAN sets E. Asia Summit, resolves Myanmar impasse

VIENTIANE - Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have agreed that 16 countries, including Australia, will take part in the inaugural East Asia Summit to be held in December this year, according to a joint communique they issued at the end of their meeting in Vientiane on Tuesday.

The other participants will be the 10 ASEAN member countries, Japan, China, South Korea, India and New Zealand. The decision on Australia was made at this meeting after Australia rescinded its hesitation to accede to ASEAN's nonaggression pact, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, which is one of three conditions set by the group for entry into the summit.

---------- Japanese, N. Korean chief delegates talk briefly in Beijing

BEIJING - The top Japanese and North Korean delegates to the six-party nuclear talks in Beijing met briefly Tuesday on the sidelines of the multilateral forum, said a Japanese official who declined to disclose further details.

Kenichiro Sasae, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan exchanged words while standing following the opening session of the fourth round of the six-way talks, the official said.

---------- Discovery blasts off, carrying Japanese astronaut Noguchi

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - The space shuttle Discovery lifted off Tuesday morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the first shuttle flight in almost two and a half years since the Columbia disaster.

Carrying a crew of seven astronauts, including Japan's Soichi Noguchi, Discovery launched at 10:39 a.m.

---------- ASEAN says 16 countries to take part in 1st E. Asia Summit

VIENTIANE - Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have agreed that 16 countries, including Australia, will take part in the inaugural East Asia Summit in December this year, according to a joint communique issued at the end of their meeting in Vientiane on Tuesday.

The other participants will be the 10 ASEAN countries, Japan, China, South Korea, India and New Zealand. The decision on Australia was made after Australia rescinded its hesitation to accede to ASEAN's nonaggression pact, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, which is one of three conditions set by the group for entry into the summit.