SEOUL: The United States has offered to send a special envoy to North Korea to win the release of a jailed missionary, but signalled that any meaningful talks with Pyongyang will require it to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Kenneth Bae, 45, has been held for more than a year by the North, which has convicted him of trying to overthrow the state and sentenced him to 15 years’ hard labour.
Koreans cancel credit cards
SEOUL: Tens of thousands of South Koreans flooded banks and call centres yesterday to cancel credit cards following the unprecedented theft of the personal data of at least 20 million people.
Since Monday, more than 1.15 million victims of the country’s largest-ever leak of private financial information have cancelled their credit cards permanently or requested new ones, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
The panic has its roots in the arrest earlier this month of an employee from personal credit ratings firm Korea Credit Bureau, on charges of stealing and selling data from customers of three credit card firms while working as a temporary consultant.
Taiwan to slash army by 20pc
TAIPEI: Taiwan has said it plans to slash its armed forces by up to 20 percent from 215,000 over the next five years, in the latest sign of warming ties with former rival China.
Defence Minister Yen Ming said the military would be cut to 170,000-190,000, but that defence capabilities would not be compromised in the project to build “smaller but leaner and more professional armed forces.”
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