Monday 24 June – DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za)
Page 1 – African Cities Sustainability Conference begins at home Page 2 – Gauteng still SA’s hijacking capital
Page 2 – Joburg looks at releasing abandoned factories to private sector Page 11 – SA-China trade ties get R27 billion boost
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 9 – Trump writes to Kim (Seoul)
Page 14 – Players welcome Ramaphosa promise Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za)
Page 2 – MPs will have nine hours to dredge through state of the nation address
Page 2 – Spotlight to fall on PPI and jobs numbers Citizen (www.citizen.co.za)
Page 3 – Appeal court gets new judges
News24 (www.news24.co.za)
WATCH: First look at the SA-bound Kia Seltos
Kim and Xi in Pyongyang talks as both face standoffs with Trump
North Korean leader receives ‘excellent’ letter from Trump, reports KCNA North Korea’s Kim receives ‘excellent’ letter from Trump (Bloomberg) 연합뉴스 (www.yonhapnews.co.kr)
대마초 3 만명분 20kg 제주 밀반입한 외국인 적발 구속기소
WATCH: First look at the SA-bound Kia Seltos
2019-06-21 11:00
Image: NDTV
The all-new Kia Seltos is expected to make its South African debut early in 2020.
The new Kia Seltos brings sophistication, assertiveness and cutting-edge technology and safety features to the global compact SUV segment. Kia has revealed the Seltos for the first time globally today at a special event in Delhi, India.
The Seltos will be manufactured for different regions at two of KIA’s production facilities – in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India, and Gwangju, Korea.
The all-new Kia Seltos is characterised by distinctive design details, lending the compact SUV an air of understated sportiness.
It combines forward-looking technical features, class-leading space and a suite of world- class safety features, and is powered by a choice of highly-efficient Smartstream petrol and diesel engines, while providing outstanding value for money.
Kim and Xi in Pyongyang talks as both face standoffs with Trump
2019-06-22 07:27
Play Video 48s
Beijing residents praise strong Xi-Kim ties
Beijing residents say that China-North Korea ties are mutually beneficial as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Pyongyang for his first state visit to North Korea, becoming the first Chinese leader to visit in 14 years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their meeting in North Korea's capital Pyongyang. (CCTV, AFP)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang Thursday during a historic visit to burnish an uneasy alliance, as the two men each face challenges of their own with US President Donald Trump.
While the North's nuclear negotiations with the US are at a standstill, Kim told his country's key diplomatic supporter and main provider of trade and aid that he was "willing to be patient", Chinese state media reported, but wanted "the parties concerned" to meet him halfway.
Xi is the first Chinese president to visit North Korea in 14 years, after relations between the Cold War-era allies deteriorated over Pyongyang's nuclear provocations and Beijing's subsequent backing of UN sanctions.
But Kim ensured that Xi was the first head of state he met when he embarked on a flurry of diplomacy last year, and has now visited his ally four times in China.
Play Video 1m 13s
China's Xi arrives for state visit to North Korea
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived Thursday in Pyongyang for a two-day state visit to North Korea. China's state broadcaster CCTV showed huge crowds of people at the airport, waving flowers and chanting slogans to welcome Xi.
Pyongyang has been increasingly keen for Xi to reciprocate, while according to diplomats, Beijing has been biding its time to see how nuclear talks between Kim and Trump play out.
But China's own trade negotiations with Washington hit a wall last month and analysts say Xi is now looking for leverage ahead of his meeting with Trump at next week's G20 summit in Japan.
At their formal talks, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Kim told Xi that the North had taken "many positive measures to avoid a tense situation" over the past year, "but has not received positive responses from the relevant parties".
"This is not what the DPRK wants to see," CCTV cited him as adding.
Pyongyang wants to demonstrate to Trump that it has China's support after Trump and Kim's second summit in Hanoi in February broke up without a deal.
Xi told Kim that he "positively evaluated" the North's efforts and was "willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the DPRK and all relevant parties".
China has fretted over being sidelined by diplomatic developments since last year. Trump went as far as declaring he had fallen "in love" with Kim.
"Xi wants everyone to remain acutely aware that he can influence Kim, and that no
comprehensive, durable deal with North Korea can occur without China's assistance - and approval," Scott Seaman, Asia director of the Eurasia Group consultancy, said in a research note.
But Robert Wood, US Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, told AFP the US was not concerned.
"What we hope is that President Xi is making the point to Kim Jong Un that we need to move forward on denuclearisation, again something that Kim Jong Un has agreed to."
21-gun salute
Kim met Xi at Pyongyang airport as he began a two-day state visit with his wife Peng Liyuan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and other officials, television images showed.
Portraits of the two leaders stood outside the terminal, pictures showed, and a 21-gun salute was fired before the pair drove into the capital together, standing in a convertible Mercedes- Benz as they went past tens of thousands of cheering residents lining the streets and more waving from their windows.
Pyongyang always puts on an impressive show when a foreign leader visits, but in an
unprecedented move, Xi was welcomed at the Kumsusan Palace, the mausoleum where the preserved bodies of the North's founder Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il - the grandfather and father of the current leader - lie in state.
Xi and his wife also watched "a large group calisthenics and art performance" with Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju at a stadium in Pyongyang, China's state-run Global Times reported on its Twitter account. It carried a picture of the two smiling leaders surrounded by a crowd waving Chinese and North Korean flags.
The show of amity belies a sometimes strained relationship - Kim did not visit Beijing to pay his respects for more than six years after inheriting power.
Beijing sees the North as a strategic buffer, keeping the 28 500 US troops in South Korea far from its borders. Xi's trip was to include a stop at Pyongyang's Friendship Tower, which commemorates the millions of Chinese troops who saved Kim Il Sung's forces from defeat during the Korean War.
North Korean leader receives 'excellent' letter from Trump, reports KCNA
2019-06-23 13:28
Play Video 48s
Beijing residents praise strong Xi-Kim ties
Beijing residents say that China-North Korea ties are mutually beneficial as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Pyongyang for his first state visit to North Korea, becoming the first Chinese leader to visit in 14 years.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received a personal letter of "excellent content" from US President Donald Trump, the country's state media said on Sunday, amid a nuclear
deadlock between Pyongyang and Washington.
Talks have been stalled since the collapse of a second summit between the two leaders in February after they failed to agree on what the North would be willing to give up in exchange for sanctions relief.
The two sides have blamed each other for the breakdown but both have expressed a willingness to meet again, with Trump saying earlier this month that he had received a
"beautiful letter" from Kim.
On Sunday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Trump had written to Kim, who "said with satisfaction that the letter is of excellent content".
Play Video
2m 30s
Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un hold summit in Pyongyang
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and China's Xi Jinping meet in Pyongyang on Thursday for a summit, as tensions flare between the US and North Korea over efforts to get the North to stop its nuclear weapons program.
"Appreciating the political judging faculty and extraordinary courage of President Trump, Kim Jong Un said that he would seriously contemplate the interesting content," KCNA said.
The report gave no further detail about the content of the letter or when it was sent and received.
The front page of North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a photo of Kim holding Trump's letter as he read it in his office.
The White House declined to confirm whether Trump had sent a letter to the North Korean leader.
But South Korea's presidential Blue House said it was aware of the correspondence through its communication with Washington, and described the exchange as "positive".
The KCNA report came just two days after Kim hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping, who wrapped up a highly symbolic visit to nuclear-armed North Korea on Friday.
North Korea's Kim receives ‘excellent’ letter from Trump
Jun 23 2019 15:55 Maria Jose Valero
Play Video
2m 30s
Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un hold summit in Pyongyang
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and China's Xi Jinping meet in Pyongyang on Thursday for a summit, as tensions flare between the US and North Korea over efforts to get the North to stop its nuclear weapons program.
Kim Jong Un (KRT via APTN, AP)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received a personal letter from U.S. President Donald Trump, state media KCNA reported.
The letter has “excellent content” and Kim, along with his military, read it with “satisfaction,”
KCNA reported. Correspondence between Trump and Kim "has been ongoing," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement, confirming the letter was sent by the president.
The correspondence emerged as China’s President Xi Jinping told Kim that the world wanted him to make progress in nuclear talks with the US, underscoring Beijing’s key role in negotiations. The Chinese president said during a landmark visit to Pyongyang on Thursday that he is willing to play a “positive and constructive role” toward achieving the
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Xi traveled to North Korea a week ahead of a planned meeting with Trump on the sidelines the Group of 20 summit in Japan, in what’s shaping up to be a possible turning point in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. China’s role as North Korea’s vital trading partner and sole security backer gives Xi leverage in his talks with Trump.
Play Video
57s
N.Korean kindergarten in Hanoi hopes for Kim visit
The pupils and staff at a North Korean kindergarten in Hanoi are holding out hope for a visit by Kim Jong Un, who is in the city for a summit with US President Trump.
U.S. efforts to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear arsenal have made little progress since Trump and Kim agreed in their historic Singapore summit last year. In February, Trump rejected Kim’s offer to close some nuclear facilities in exchange for the elimination of the most severe United Nations sanctions on North Korea. The second Trump-Kim summit ended abruptly in Hanoi.
The South Korea government said in statement on Sunday it was aware of the letter and
“sees the exchange of letters between the heads of North Korea and the U.S. as the two countries continuing the momentum of talks, and judges it positively.”
대마초 3 만명분 20 ㎏ 제주 밀반입한 외국인 적발 구속기소
송고시간 | 2019-06-24 11:00
'대마초 합법화' 남아공서 부산·제주까지 당국 '긴장'
(제주=연합뉴스) 변지철 기자 = 대마초 사용 합법 판결이 난 남아프리카공화국에서 3 만명이 동시 투약할 수 있는 대마초 20 ㎏을 제주국제공항으로 밀반입하려던 외국인 남성이 적발돼 재판에 넘겨졌다.
대마초 밀반입(CG)[연합뉴스 TV 제공]
이번 적발은 제주공항으로 반입된 마약류 사건 중 최대 규모로, 2009 년 이후 뜸했던 남아공 대마초 밀수가 부산에 이어 제주까지 확대하고 있어 관계 당국이 긴장하고 있다.
제주지검은 마약류 관리에 관한 법률 위반 혐의로 남아공 국적 A(40)씨를 구속기소했다고 24 일 밝혔다.
검찰에 따르면 남아공에서 출발해 홍콩을 경유한 A 씨는 지난 2 일 낮 12 시 35 분께 비닐 포장된 대마초 약 20 ㎏을 여행용 가방에 몰래 숨겨 들어 오려다가 세관 검사과정에서 적발됐다.
대마초 20 ㎏은 3 만명이 동시 투약할 수 있는 양으로, 시가 20 억원 상당이다.
제주공항으로 밀반입된 최대 규모이자, 2017 년 국내에서 검찰이 압수한 대마초 40 ㎏의 젃반에 해당한다.
그동안 대규모 마약 밀수는 주로 인천공항에서 이뤄졌으나 지난해 10 월 김해공항에 이어 올해 제주공항까지 공항을 통한 밀수가 점차 증가하는 추세다.
제주공항서 압수된 대마초(제주=연합뉴스) 변지철 기자 = 대마초 사용 합법 판결이 난
남아프리카공화국에서 3 만명이 동시 투약할 수 있는 대마초 20 ㎏을 여행용 가방에 넣어 제주국제공항으로 밀반입하려던 외국인 남성이 적발돼 재판에 넘겨졌다. 사진은 제주지방검찰청에 압수된 대마초와 여행용
가방 등이 24 일 얶론에 공개된 모습. 2019.6.24 bjc@yna.co.kr
특히 남아공 루트를 통한 대마 밀수는 2008∼2009 년 인천공항에서 네 차례 적발된 이후 지난해 남아공 국적 백인 여성이 부산 김해공항을 통해 대마초 18.28 ㎏을 밀반입하려다 적발되면서 10 년 만에 재등장했다.
검찰은 세관과 공조 수사를 통해 남아공 남성이 접촉하려 한 국내 판매책을 찾는 데 주력했지만, 실패한 것으로 알려졌다.
남아공발 대마초 밀반입이 이어지는 데는 현지 사정과 밀접한 관렦이 있다.
지난해 9 월 남아공 헌법재판소는 대마초의 개인적인 소지나 사용은 합법이라는 판결과 함께 의회에 판결을 반영한 새로운 법 초안을 24 개월 안에 만들 것을 지시했다.
그동안 남아공에서 대마초를 재배하거나 소지·사용하다가 적발되면 징역형·벌금형 등 처벌을 받았지만, 해당 판결로 남아공에서 대마초 재배와 소비가 늘어날 것으로 보인다.
bjc@yna.co.kr
<저작권자(c) 연합뉴스, 무단 젂재-재배포 금지> 2019/06/24 11:00 송고
