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Japan and South Korea agree to mend ties as leaders meet following years of dispute | CNN

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Japan and South Korea agree to mend ties as leaders meet following years of dispute | CNN



CNN
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The leaders of South Korea and Japan promised to renew ties in a fence-mending summit – the primary such assembly in 12 years – as the 2 neighbors search to confront threats from North Korea and rising considerations about China.

“Any longer, I wish to open a brand new chapter in Japan-South Korea relations by way of frequent visits by either side that aren’t tied down by formality,” Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida mentioned in Tokyo after assembly with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Mutual visits by Japanese and South Korean leaders have been suspended for 12 years as ties soured over a number of points, together with a wartime labor dispute.

The shared safety challenges going through each nations have been on stark show simply hours earlier than the journey when North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile into the waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula – the fourth intercontinental ballistic missile launch in lower than one 12 months.

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Throughout the joint assertion on Thursday, Kishida mentioned that Japan and South Korea had agreed to renew bilateral safety talks within the face of North Korean nuclear and missile threats and had confirmed the significance of the “free and open Indo-Pacific” and dealing collectively to guard the worldwide rules-based order.

And Yoon mentioned he agreed to “fully normalize” its army intelligence-sharing settlement with Japan.

“I consider the 2 international locations ought to have the ability to share info on North Korea’s nuclear missile launches and trajectories, and reply to them,” he mentioned.

In 2019, South Korea scrapped its army intelligence-sharing settlement with Japan amid a long-running dispute over compelled labor by Japan throughout its occupation of Korea, which plunged ties to their lowest level in a long time.

The summit between Yoon and Kishida is a vital step to fix frayed relations after a long time of disputes and distrust dogged the 2 essential US allies in Asia.

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Yoon’s workplace has hailed it “an vital milestone” within the improvement of bilateral relations.

The 2 leaders are anticipated to share a dinner of sukiyaki and “omurice” or omelet rice in English, based mostly on Yoon’s request that he likes these dishes, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported.

The 2 East Asian neighbors have an extended historical past of acrimony, courting again to Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula a century in the past.

The 2 normalized relations in 1965, however unresolved historic disputes have continued to fester, specifically over colonial Japan’s use of compelled labor and so-called “consolation girls” intercourse slaves.

In recent times the customarily fraught relations have undermined efforts by the US to current a united entrance in opposition to North Korea – and the rising assertiveness of Beijing.

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Now, the area’s two most vital allies for the US seem prepared to show a brand new web page.

In one other signal of goodwill, earlier than the summit Japan and South Korea agreed on Thursday to drop a commerce dispute that has strained relations for years.

Japan will carry export controls on high-tech supplies used for semiconductors and show panels to South Korea, whereas Seoul will withdraw its grievance over these restrictions to the World Commerce Group.

A lot of the 2 neighbors’ rapprochement is pushed by deepening safety considerations about Pyongyang’s ever extra frequent missile assessments, China’s more and more aggressive army posturing and tensions throughout the Taiwan Strait – an space each Tokyo and Seoul say is significant to their respective safety.

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Commenting on the summit, China’s International Ministry mentioned Beijing opposes what it calls “the closed and unique circle of particular person international locations,” including it hopes “Japan-South Korea relations will develop within the route of regional peace, stability and prosperity.”

The warming ties are welcome information to Washington which has been pushing the detente.

“Our working collectively not solely on the political entrance, however on the strategic entrance, on the deterrence entrance, is what North Korea is scared about. It’s additionally what China doesn’t need to see occur,” Rahm Emanuel, US ambassador to Japan, instructed CNN Thursday.

Emanuel mentioned the US, Japan and South Korea held over 40 trilateral conferences at totally different ranges over the previous 12 months – greater than the continuing 5 years mixed.

“That familiarity, that institutionalized dialogue and dialog, the constructing of belief, was in all probability the best contribution” to the thawing of ties, he mentioned.

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Beneath Yoon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s relationship with Japan was “brazenly combative,” mentioned Joel Atkinson, a professor specializing in Northeast Asian worldwide politics at Hankuk College of International Research in Seoul.

“So this go to is important, sending a powerful sign that beneath the Yoon administration, either side are actually working rather more cooperatively,” Atkinson mentioned.

The thaw in relations comes after South Korea took a significant step towards resolving a long-running dispute that plunged ties to their lowest level in a long time.

Final week, South Korea introduced it will compensate victims of compelled labor beneath Japan’s occupation from 1910 to 1945 by way of a public basis funded by personal Korean corporations – as an alternative of asking Japanese corporations to contribute to the reparations.

The transfer was welcomed by Japan and hailed by the White Home.

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Yoon has been striving to enhance relations – even when it means pushing again in opposition to home public strain on contentious, extremely emotional points just like the compensation plan.

Aside from the rising North Korean nuclear risk, China seems to have been a giant consider Yoon’s willingness to face the home backlash over the compensation deal, mentioned Atkinson, the knowledgeable in Seoul.

“The administration is making the case to the South Korean public that this isn’t nearly Japan, it’s about participating with a wider coalition of liberal democracies,” he mentioned.

“What South Koreans understand as Beijing’s bullying, boastful therapy of their nation, in addition to its crushing of the Hong Kong protests, threats towards Taiwan and so forth, have positively ready the bottom for that.”

Even earlier than the pivotal transfer to settle the historic dispute, Seoul and Tokyo had signaled their willingness to place the previous behind them and foster nearer relations.

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On March 1, in a speech commemorating the 104th anniversary of South Korea’s protest motion in opposition to Japan’s colonial occupation, Yoon mentioned Japan had “reworked from a militaristic aggressor of the previous right into a associate” that “shares the identical common values.”

Since taking workplace, the 2 leaders have launched into a flurry of diplomatic actions towards mending bilateral ties – and deepening their joint cooperation with Washington.

In September, Yoon and Kishida held the primary summit between the 2 international locations since 2019 in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations Basic Meeting, the place they agreed to enhance relations.

Nearer alignment among the many US, Japan and South Korea is an alarming improvement to China, which has accused Washington of main a marketing campaign to comprise and suppress its improvement.

However Emanuel argued it was Beijing’s personal actions that pushed the international locations collectively.

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“If China wasn’t in a confrontation with India twice on the border, or the Philippines twice with the coast guard, or capturing missiles into Japan’s (unique financial zone), no one can be like this,” he mentioned.

“It is a current improvement in response to China’s fixed confrontation with others.”

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Saying ‘No’ to Musk

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Saying ‘No’ to Musk

They have laid off their own workers. They have reshuffled their departments’ priorities. They have taken aim at D.E.I.

But, after weeks of walking in lock step with the White House, some cabinet officials and other high-level Trump appointees have balked at a directive from Elon Musk.

The episode — which began on Saturday with a demand by Musk, posted on X, that federal employees either sum up a week’s worth of their accomplishments by email or resign — morphed into a rare display of defiance in the highest ranks of the administration. And it became something of an effort to rein in Musk’s power in real time.

Senior officials at the State Department, the F.B.I., the Energy Department and other agencies told their employees to hold off on responding to Musk’s message. Some of the agencies refusing to comply are run by close Trump allies like Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard and Pam Bondi.

Those officials didn’t specifically confront Musk. A note that went to some employees at the Justice Department said they should ignore the request “due to the confidential and sensitive nature of the department’s work,” according to an email obtained by my colleague Cecilia Kang.

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And the spat over an email is far less intense than the dissent from some rank-and-file workers that my colleagues Nicholas Nehamas, Ryan Mac and Nikole Hannah-Jones covered over the weekend.

But inherent in those agency leaders’ refusal to comply was a clear message: My agency reports to me, not to Elon Musk.

Trump, who sometimes encourages his advisers to duke it out in public, has done little to settle the matter. He praised Musk’s message today, and said employees who don’t answer would be “sort of semi-fired, or you’re fired.” But around the same time, my colleague Michael Shear wrote, the Office of Personnel Management told agencies that responding to the email is now voluntary.

Is that clear?

As we’ve noted before, Musk has been benefiting from the confusing, amorphous nature of his role. He was not confirmed by the Senate and he has no job description. It is not clear whether or not he will attend Trump’s first cabinet meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday.

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But the internal resistance to his message suggests there is at least some willingness among cabinet members to define his role by saying what he can’t do.

  • Elon Musk personally called the leader of the hard-right Alternative for Germany party to congratulate her on the party’s gains in last weekend’s election — but she slept through the call.

  • Some of the voters flooding Republicans’ town halls to complain about the Trump administration’s early moves are specifically citing Musk.

  • Meanwhile, he lost a battle in the fight over access to government data. A federal judge barred his team from student loan databases.

  • And it is not just a court throwing up roadblocks. After Musk told federal workers to send an email explaining their work or resign, several members of President Trump’s cabinet told their employees to ignore it. We’ve got more on the confusion and division below.


MEANWHILE on X

Musk’s X feed suggests he is feeling the pushback. My colleague Kate Conger explains.

On Monday, Musk shared posts that pointed to a poll showing Americans broadly support a “full-scale effort” to eliminate waste and fraud in government.

Musk claimed this was an endorsement of his work: “Polls show that @DOGE is overwhelmingly POPULAR and that government spending should be reduced by at least $1 trillion!!” he wrote.

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Polls that ask specifically about Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, however, are far more mixed.

Musk also tried to brush off his controversial missive to workers across the federal government as overblown. “Absurd that a 5 min email generates this level of concern!,” he posted, along with a video featuring Ron Paul, the former Texas congressman, talking about slashing the ranks of the federal government.

Musk also seemed concerned with showing off his support from the one voter who matters most: Trump. He shared clips from today’s news conference, in which the president praised Musk’s work.

“Great President,” Musk wrote in response.

Kate Conger

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AGENCY STATUS REPORT

On Friday, we told you about layoffs at the Food and Drug Administration that set back the agency’s recent efforts to keep up with medical technology. My colleague Christina Jewett reports that many of those specialized workers — people involved in food safety, review of medical devices and other areas — have already been reinstated.

It’s unclear why F.D.A. officials reversed themselves. Christina notes the layoffs may not have saved the government much money. Several of the employees’ salaries are funded by fees companies pay the F.D.A., not taxpayers.

  • Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts warned the commerce secretary that Musk’s team could gain access to trade secrets and other data from his competitors held by the department.

  • A fake video of Musk and Trump appeared on televisions at the federal housing agency this morning as employees there returned to the office full time.


the partnership that wasn’t

When the idea for the Department of Government Efficiency was born, it was supposed to be a buddy movie starring two entrepreneurs: Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the businessman and former long-shot presidential candidate.

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Ramaswamy rankled Trump after publicly clashing with some of his supporters over immigration, and he saw himself out of the federal government and set about planning to run for governor in Ohio, which he officially announced tonight.

It’s difficult now to imagine Musk sharing the spotlight. And the buddy movie playing on repeat in Washington is, of course, about Musk and Trump.

Ramaswamy’s ties to Trump have given him a leg up in the race, my colleague Charles Homans recently reported. But his campaign could turn on the question of whether or not Trump — and maybe Musk — endorses him.


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EU and UK in talks about Europe-wide defence funding amid fear of US pullback

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EU and UK in talks about Europe-wide defence funding amid fear of US pullback

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Britain will this week join EU leaders in groundbreaking talks about setting up Europe-wide defence funding arrangements, as the continent struggles to beef up its military amid fears of a disappearing US security blanket.

UK chancellor Rachel Reeves will hold talks with other European finance ministers at a G20 meeting in Cape Town this week, as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year.

“It could be a fund or a bank. For example, there is the concept of the Rearmament Bank, which we are also considering,” Polish finance minister Andrzej Domanski said.

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Domanski told the Financial Times that discussions had been taking place with the UK for months, adding: “Without Great Britain, the defence of Europe is difficult to imagine.”

The UK Treasury confirmed that Reeves would “raise defence financing proposals with her European counterparts” at the G20, but said talks were at an early stage.

Donald Trump has demanded European Nato allies increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, from an existing 2 per cent target that some still do not reach, or risk losing US protection. 

The US president’s rapid re-engagement with Russia, a country that most European countries see as an existential threat, has sparked frantic discussions on how to collectively bolster Europe’s defensive capabilities and reduce reliance on American troops and weapons.

Friedrich Merz speaking on Sunday © Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images

On Sunday Germany’s incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that Germany had to fundamentally remake its security arrangements and end a decades-long reliance on Washington, saying Trump was “largely indifferent” to Europe’s fate and the continent needed to “achieve independence”.

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Collective European defence spending was broadly discussed during a call this weekend between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and a separate call between von der Leyen and Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, according to a person briefed on the discussions. 

European countries are looking for ways to increase defence capabilities at a time of tightly constrained national budgets. By leveraging national guarantees, a bank would allow countries to boost spending without increasing their balance sheets upfront.

The UK is seeking ways of increasing defence spending from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent, costing at least £5bn extra a year, when its ability to boost outlays is heavily constrained by its self-imposed fiscal rules. 

General Sir Nick Carter
General Sir Nick Carter served as Chief of the UK Defence Staff from June 2018 to November 2021 © Andrew Matthews/PA

Among the proposals is one from General Sir Nick Carter, former head of the British military, who has suggested a “rearmament bank” to tap into Europe’s savings pool, modelled on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development — the lender set up after the fall of the Iron Curtain to support central and eastern Europe. 

“The Treasury is interested in it,” said one person involved in discussions with Reeves’ team. However, Treasury officials said there were many models of multilateral financing on the table and that Reeves had an open mind on the next steps.

Experts said a benefit for Reeves of Carter’s “rearmament bank” was that it would mitigate the impact of extra defence spending on the fiscal rules.

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Andy King, a former UK official who is now at Flint Global, a consultancy, said such a bank had the potential to raise “significant resources for defence without materially impacting the fiscal rules”. He added: “That’s not a certain outcome: the detail would matter in terms of how the entity was structured and how it used its lending capacity.”

The EU leaders meeting in late March will discuss common defence needs, and Poland’s goal would be to make progress on the funding needs at an EU finance ministers gathering in April, ahead of a decision by leaders in June. 

The European Commission said this month it would partially lift EU fiscal rules to allow countries to invest in defence, a move that would allow countries to borrow without incurring sanctions.

Von der Leyen has also opened the door to “common European financing” on common defence projects, and is expected to detail funding options in March.

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DHS memo lays out plans to detain migrants at Fort Bliss and other U.S. bases

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DHS memo lays out plans to detain migrants at Fort Bliss and other U.S. bases

An immigrant prepares to board a military removal flight last month at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas.

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas J. De La Pena/U.S. Department of Defense via Getty Images


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U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas J. De La Pena/U.S. Department of Defense via Getty Images

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration is developing plans to build immigration detention facilities on U.S. military bases around the country, according to an internal memo obtained by NPR.

The Department of Homeland Security is asking the Department of Defense for help detaining immigrants without legal status, according to the DHS memo, a step that could significantly expand the military’s role in immigration enforcement.

The memo sent earlier this month from Juliana Blackwell, the acting executive secretary at DHS, lays out a plan to use Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas, to “stage detainees for removal from the United States.”

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The request is still in the planning stages, according to a Defense Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly. But if activated, the plan could dramatically expand detention capacity to support President Trump’s push for mass deportations.

Fort Bliss would initially detain up to 1,000 immigrants during a 60-day evaluation period, the memo states, and could eventually hold as many as 10,000 immigrants while serving as a “central hub for deportation operations.”

Fort Bliss could then serve as the model for as many as 10 other holding facilities on military bases nationwide, including Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey; Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station near Buffalo, N.Y.; Hill Air Force Base in Utah; and Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami.

There is some precedent for using U.S. military bases to house immigrants. The Biden administration stood up a temporary shelter for unaccompanied migrant children at Fort Bliss, and also housed tens of thousands of Afghans at military bases in Wisconsin, New Jersey and elsewhere after the fall of Kabul.

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On Friday, the Trump administration removed the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid dissatisfaction with the pace of arrests and deportations.

A lack of detention space may be one obstacle. ICE’s existing detention facilities are at full capacity, with more than 41,000 immigrants in custody, according to the most recent data from DHS.

At a White House press briefing last week, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller pledged to use “every element and instrument of national power” to accelerate deportations of immigrants with criminal convictions and final orders of removal.

“We are shortly on the verge of achieving a pace and speed of deportations this country has never before seen,” Miller said.

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