World News Quick Take

A court yesterday ruled that North Korea should pay the South 44.6 billion won (US$32.5 million) for blowing up a joint liaison office between the countries in 2020 as their relations deteriorated following the collapse of nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington. The ruling by the Seoul Central District Court was symbolic, as the South has no clear way to force the North to pay amid a diplomatic breakdown. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the past few years has suspended all meaningful diplomacy with the South and declared it his most hostile enemy while advancing his nuclear weapons program and pursuing closer ties with Moscow and Beijing as part of what he has described as a “new Cold War.” While there have been cases of individuals suing the North Korean government over human rights abuses and other issues, the liaison office case was the first time the government sued Pyongyang. The Ministry of Unification, which handles affairs related to North Korea, said it respects the court’s ruling and called for a resumption of inter-Korean diplomacy so that “all issues between the South and North can be resolved through dialogue and cooperation.” North Korean state media did not immediately comment on the ruling. South Korea filed the suit in 2023, describing the North’s detonation of the building in the North Korean border town of Kaesong as an unlawful and violent act that breached previous agreements between the countries and severely damaged “mutual respect and trust.”

CHINA

Major canal opened

A major canal opened yesterday that provides landlocked areas with direct access to the sea, state media said, reducing transport times and costs as the country aims to bolster trade ties with regional neighbors. The 134km Pinglu Canal took four years to build and links Nanning, in the southern manufacturing region of Guangxi, to the Gulf of Tonkin. Goods from the nation’s southwest previously had to be transported to the southern metropolis of Guangzhou to reach the sea, but the new canal cuts the journey by more than 560km, Xinhua news agency reported. The canal also reduces transport costs by 18 to 30 percent, and would generate annual savings of more than 5 billion yuan (US$745 million) in the sector, it said. State broadcaster CCTV broadcast footage of the first barge to pass through the canal and aerial video of ships navigating its calm waters, describing the waterway as “the project of our century.” The canal “opens up the shortest, most economical and most convenient route” to Southeast Asia and will boost economic development, Xinhua said. The new route is particularly important to rural parts of Sichuan, Chongqing and Yunnan, among others, which are less well-connected than more prosperous regions in eastern China.

ECUADOR

State of emergency declared

A state of emergency was declared on Tuesday in eight provinces ravaged by violence linked to the drug trade. President Daniel Noboa imposed the emergency measures in seven coastal provinces, including Guayas, where the violence-wracked port city of Guayaquil is, and Pichincha, where the capital, Quito, is situated. Three towns in Azuay, Bolivar and Cotopaxi provinces are also covered by the measures, which the government said aimed to end “serious internal unrest.”