On August 3, 2016 at 7:50 am local time, the United States Strategic Command recorded the launch of two North Korean medium-range Rodong missiles from the territory of South Hwanghae Province. One of the missiles exploded right after the takeoff and the second one travelled almost one thousand kilometres and fell into the Sea of Japan (in Korea: the East Sea) within Japan’s 250-kilometre Exclusive Economic Zone.
Several important developments in recent weeks give reason to continue assessing the nature of the development of relations between China and the EU, constituting the leaders of the global political arena.
A scandal that involved thirteen North Korean defectors—a restaurant manager and twelve waitresses, employees of a North Korean restaurant, which was already covered in our previous articles is gaining momentum. Following the public request, the waitresses were required to appear before court. After some details of their detention were disclosed, even the UN human rights authorities decided to step in and investigate the case.
A scandal that involved thirteen North Korean defectors—a restaurant manager and twelve waitresses, employees of a North Korean restaurant, which was already covered in our previous articles () is gaining momentum. Following the public request, the waitresses were required to appear before court. After some details of their detention were disclosed, even the UN human rights authorities decided to step in and investigate the case.
It’s hard to disagree with the majority of foreign experts that the ruling of Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which de facto rejected China’s claims over its historical ownership right for 80-90% of the South China Sea (SCS), has delivered a serious blow to China’s diplomacy. It undoubtedly strengthens the positions of Beijing’s opponents: both outside the region as well as within it, including the Philippines that filed its claim with the PCA in January 2013.
Reading Western media, one can get the impression that the sanctions introduced after the nuclear missile tensions of 2016 significantly hit the DPRK economy. That famine, followed by the “Maidan” and regime change, is already knocking at the door. Is this true?
No. The effects of any sanctions manifest themselves roughly in a year and a half, but even now, it is possible to note a few interesting developments.
In the previous article on this topic we already touched upon the problem that Ahn Cheol-soo faced when he tried to take on the role of a third player that could occupy an advantageous position between the right and left wing.
Our previous article, which was devoted to China-North Korea relations, dealt with the possibility of a new round of rapprochement between both states, and the interference of the decision with its strategic interests on the deployment of the U.S. ABM system in the Republic of Korea (ROK) will obviously affect China’s relations with both states of the Korean Peninsula.
At the beginning of April 2016, Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann went on a trip to China. In the course of his visit, he met with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping. The parties signed a number of documents reinforcing the Swiss-Chinese cooperation. At the press conference that followed the meeting, Mr. Schneider-Ammann and Mr. Jinping declared that the two countries turned a new page in their relations and established a strategic partnership.
