North Korea admits having custody of U.S. soldier
North Korea admits having custody of U.S. soldier
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00:00 North Korea acknowledges custody of a black U.S. soldier seeking to defect.
00:05 Taiwan's vice president returns home from Paraguay and a controversial stopover in San
00:09 Francisco.
00:11 The U.S., South Korea and Japan huddle in Camp David and agree on increased defense
00:16 cooperation.
00:17 And Korean-American Jessica Kugula wins the Canadian Open that VOA's Chris Casquejo all
00:22 sums up in this Asian Weekly Digest.
00:28 The U.S., Japan and South Korea get set to mark a new milestone in trilateral cooperation.
00:33 Welcome to VOA Asia Weekly, I'm Chris Casquejo in Washington.
00:37 That story is coming up, but first making headlines.
00:39 North Korea officially confirmed it was detaining a U.S. soldier who crossed the demilitarized
00:43 zone last month.
00:45 North Korea state media said that Private Travis King did so because he harbored ill
00:49 feelings against inhuman mistreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army.
00:54 U.S. officials believe King crossed the border intentionally and have declined so far to
00:58 call him a prisoner of war.
01:01 The speaker of Indonesia's upper house of parliament said on Wednesday that it is important
01:05 for the country to discuss ways to delay elections during crises.
01:09 The country currently has no framework to delay an election.
01:12 Critics worry that the idea may be a move by allies of President Joko Widodo to extend
01:17 his time in office.
01:18 His second and final term ends next year.
01:21 A throng of supporters and protesters greeted Taiwan's Vice President William Lai in San
01:27 Francisco Wednesday.
01:29 He returned home Thursday after visits to Paraguay and layover stops in the United States.
01:34 Speaking Tuesday in Paraguay where he attended the new president's inauguration, Lai said
01:38 any Chinese military action in response to his stopovers in the U.S. would be an attempt
01:43 by Beijing to interfere in the self-ruled island's elections next year.
01:49 China's foreign ministry spokesperson said that China's economic recovery will be a bumpy
01:53 and tortuous process, but that Western critics would be proven wrong.
01:58 U.S. President Joe Biden said that China's mounting economic problems made it a "ticking
02:02 time bomb."
02:04 Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Maui next Monday in the aftermath of the
02:08 deadliest wildfires in the U.S. in more than a century, the White House announced Wednesday.
02:13 Japanese lawmakers visited a Tokyo shrine viewed by China and both Koreas as a symbol of wartime
02:18 aggression on Tuesday.
02:20 The trip comes as Japan marks the 78th anniversary of its surrender in World War II.
02:25 Historically frosty relations between Tokyo and Seoul have rapidly thawed over the last
02:30 year amid shared concerns about China's assertiveness in the Pacific and North Korea's nuclear threats,
02:35 setting the stage for the trilateral summit with the U.S. on Friday.
02:39 South Korea's President Yun Suk-hyeol said the summit at Camp David will be a new milestone
02:43 in trilateral cooperation.
02:45 Yun attended the 78th Liberation Day anniversary in Seoul on Tuesday.
02:50 Yun says the three-way cooperation with the U.S. and Japan for sharing intelligence and
02:54 North Korea missile data is crucial for defending against North Korea's nuclear and missile
02:58 threats.
02:59 VOA spoke with Ambassador Joseph Detroni, a former U.S. special envoy for negotiations
03:04 with North Korea.
03:05 "I think that's the front and centerpiece where South Korea and Japan and the United
03:12 States are committed to a strong allied position on deterring North Korea from doing something
03:21 of a provocative nature that could lead to accidental conflict."
03:26 Ambassador James Jeffrey, former Deputy National Security Advisor, on the message the three
03:31 countries are sending to China and Russia.
03:33 The very fact they're holding this meeting will send shivers down the spines of President
03:38 Xi and President Putin.
03:40 This is exactly what they don't want.
03:42 It will also make them think twice about taking new aggressive action, which is exactly what
03:46 we want.
03:47 Senior U.S. officials said the leaders of the three countries will launch a series of
03:51 joint initiatives on technology, education and defense.
03:56 Japan plans to spend more than $315 billion in the next four years on its defense program
04:00 due to China's increased aggression.
04:02 The ban on military equipment exports lifted in 2014 has limited international sales for
04:07 many Japanese defense companies.
04:10 More than 100 Japanese companies have left the defense sector over the past 20 years.
04:15 The Japanese defense companies, the self-defense forces, are the only buyer.
04:23 So it's not so easy for those companies to make profits by making weapons.
04:31 And because of that, several, particularly smaller companies are now going away from
04:39 those defense industries.
04:42 A recent poll shows slightly more than 40 percent of voters want to expand Japan's self-defense
04:47 forces, up from 29 percent five years ago.
04:50 Visit VOANews.com for the most up-to-date stories.
04:53 Thanks for watching VOA Age Weekly, I'm Chris Cascajo.