Philippines typhoon victims need more help–UN

source: www.inquirer.net

MANILA, Philippines–The United Nations launched an appeal Friday for more international aid to help nearly a million people in the Philippines as they recover from last year’s deadliest typhoon in the world.

The UN said it needed another $48.6 million to give “immediate life-saving assistance” to survivors of Typhoon Pablo (International name: Bopha), which killed 1,060 people and left more than 800 others missing in the south of the country in December.

“The magnitude of this disaster demands more, and the funding and resources we have at present are not commensurate with the needs that we must meet,” UN resident and humanitarian coordinator Luiza Carvalho said in a statement.

The UN had appealed for $65 million shortly after Pablo struck, but the total amount needed has risen to $76 million, according to Carvalho. She said the UN had so far raised just $27.36 million.

More than seven weeks after the typhoon smashed through mostly farming areas of Mindanao island, close to 850,000 people “remain displaced” and living typically in flimsy, temporary housing, Carvalho said.

“In the most affected municipalities, people are residing in spontaneous settlements, on the remains of their former homes, and some are living on the sides of roads,” she said.

About 6,000 people have been unable to move out from government-run typhoon shelters at all, and conditions worsened when the region endured fresh flooding this week, Carvalho told AFP in a separate interview.

Another nine people have died in the new floods, according to Philippine authorities.

“It’s a sort of a rolling emergency and it’s a matter of concern for all of us,” Carvalho said.

The extra funds would help build durable shelters, identify relocation sites safe from floods and landslides, provide water and sanitation services, and help the mostly rural communities get their farms running again, she said.

NKorea threatens war with SKorea over UN sanctions

source: Reuters through www.gmanetwork.com

SEOUL - North Korea threatened to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened U.N. sanctions, as Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.

In a third straight day of fiery rhetoric against regional powers, the North directed its verbal onslaught at its neighbor on Friday, saying: "'Sanctions' mean a war and a declaration of war against us."

The reclusive North has this week declared a boycott of all dialogue aimed at ending its nuclear program and vowed to conduct more rocket and nuclear tests after the Security Council censured it for a December long-range missile launch.

"If the puppet group of traitors takes a direct part in the U.N. 'sanctions,' the DPRK will take strong physical counter-measures against it," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said, referring to the South.

The committee is the North's front for dealings with the South. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea's December rocket launch on Tuesday and expanded existing U.N. sanctions.

On Thursday, the United States slapped economic sanctions on two North Korean bank officials and a Hong Kong trading company that it accused of supporting Pyongyang's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The company, Leader (Hong Kong) International Trading Ltd, was separately blacklisted by the United Nations on Wednesday.

Seoul has said it will look at whether there are any further sanctions that it can implement alongside the United States, but said the focus for now is to follow Security Council resolutions.

The resolution said the council "deplores the violations" by North Korea of its previous resolutions, which banned Pyongyang from conducting further ballistic missile and nuclear tests and from importing materials and technology for those programs. It does not impose new sanctions on Pyongyang.

The United States had wanted to punish North Korea for the rocket launch with a Security Council resolution that imposed entirely new sanctions against Pyongyang, but Beijing rejected that option. China agreed to U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang after North Korea's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

Nuclear test worry

North Korea's rhetoric this week amounted to some of the angriest outbursts against the outside world coming under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, who took over after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011.

On Thursday, the North said it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test, directing its ire at the United States, a country it called its "sworn enemy."

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the comments were worrying.

"We are very concerned with North Korea's continuing provocative behavior," he said at a Pentagon news conference.

"We are fully prepared ... to deal with any kind of provocation from the North Koreans. But I hope in the end that they determine that it is better to make a choice to become part of the international family."

North Korea is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States, although its December launch showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles), potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.

South Korea and others who have been closely observing activities at the North's known nuclear test grounds believe Pyongyang is technically ready to go ahead with its third atomic test and awaiting the political decision of its leader.

The North's committee also declared on Friday that a landmark agreement it signed with the South in 1992 on eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula was invalid, repeating its long-standing accusation that Seoul was colluding with Washington.

China, the North's sole remaining major diplomatic and economic benefactor, has urged calm to stop the situation from deteriorating further, but an unusually prickly comments in a state publication on Friday underlined its exasperation.

"It seems that North Korea does not appreciate China's efforts," said the Global Times in an editorial, a sister publication of the official People's Daily.

"Just let North Korea be 'angry' ... China hopes for a stable peninsula, but it's not the end of the world if there's trouble there. This should be the baseline of China's position." — Reuters

Japan envoy says territory disputes with China can be resolved

source: www.reuters.com

(Reuters) - Japan believes tensions with China fanned by a dispute over a group of uninhabited islands can be resolved, a special envoy from Tokyo said on Friday after meeting China's president-in-waiting, Xi Jinping.

Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of New Komeito, the junior partner in Japan's ruling coalition, said Japan will take a broad view in dialogue with Beijing to resolve the dispute between the world's second- and third-largest economies, which has escalated in recent weeks.

"Japan wishes to pursue ties with China while looking at the big picture," Yamaguchi told reporters after his meeting with Xi, the chief of China's ruling Communist Party who is set to take over as president in March.

"I firmly believe our differences with China can be resolved," Yamaguchi said, adding that he did not directly discuss the islands issue with Xi.

Japan's nationalization in September of some of the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, sparked violent anti-Japanese protests across China. Some Japanese businesses were looted and Japanese citizens attacked.

Japanese manufacturers reported considerably lower sales in China in the following months.

Japanese military planes have in recent weeks been scrambled numerous times against Chinese planes approaching airspace over the islands.

Chinese planes have been shadowing Japanese aircraft elsewhere over the East China Sea and patrol vessels from the two countries have played a game of cat-and-mouse near the islands.

Yamaguchi said he delivered a letter to Xi from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"We agreed that it is important to continue dialogue with the aim of holding a Japan-China summit between the two leaders," he said, though no specific details were given.

While Yamaguchi has no formal position in the government, he is leader of relatively dovish New Komeito, which joined the Liberal Democratic Party in its return to power last month. LDP leader Abe became prime minister.

China insists the islands are its territory and that it will brook no dispute over the matter.

The islands were put under Japan's control in 1895 and were part of the post-World War Two U.S. military occupation zone from 1945-72. They were then returned to Tokyo by U.S. authorities in a decision China and Taiwan later contested.

China has asked the United Nations to consider later this year the scientific validity of its claim over the islands as a natural extension of its continental shelf under a U.N. convention.

Japan says the world body should not be involved.

(Reporting by Terril Yue Jones, writing by Michael Martina,; editing by Jonathan Standing and Ron Popeski)

US to work with PHL in assessing damage to Tubbataha Reef

source: www.gmanetwork.com

The US will work with the Philippine government in assessing the damage to the Tubbataha Reef caused by the grounding of USS Guardian, according to a statement the US Embassy in Manila issued Friday.

Ambassador Harry K Thomas Jr. also said in the statement the US will take steps to address the environmental issues that have arisen from the incident.

Moreover, Thomas expressed “profound regret” for the damage the USS Guardian, a 68-meter-long Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship, has inflicted on a UNESCO heritage site.

“I recognize the legitimate concerns over the damage caused to a unique and precious wonder of nature, internationally recognized for its beauty and biological diversity,” he said.

He also emphasized that the US embassy, along with the military, are working in commitment with their Philippine counterparts to remove the ship immediately to prevent further damage to the reef.

On January 17, The USS Guardian, ran aground on Tubbataha Reef after canceling a scheduled fuel stop at Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.

The Guardian was en route to Indonesia after a one-day port call at the Subic Bay, a former US Naval Base in Luzon.

No one was injured during the incident but both the ship and the Tubbataha Reef sustained damage.

The ship was described to be “badly” damaged as the reefs left several puncture holes to its hull, causing water to flood in.

Meanwhile, the full extent of damage to the 97,030-hectare Tubbataha Reef is to be determined upon the removal of the ship.

Authorities are inclined to the idea of extricating the ship through a crane ship, among other options such as dismantling it.

The Philippine Coast Guard and naval forces are also investigating the incident, even as park officials are determined to fine the US Navy after total damage to the reef shall have been determined. — LBG, GMA News

US 'Asia pivot' to help defend Philippines - DFA chief

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

MANILA - The Obama administration's decision to focus the deployment of US military forces  to Asia will help secure the Philippines, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Albert del Rosario said.

In a briefing on Wednesday for US and Philippine businessmen led by former US Ambassador to the Philippines John Negroponte and tycoon Manuel Pangilinan, del Rosario said that as the sole treaty ally of the Philippines, the US is the country's strongest partner in defense and security.

The Obama administration's "Asia Pivot" assures peace and stability in the region, the DFA said in a statement Thursday after the briefing.

It added that the Philippine-US alliance allows Manila to develop a "minimum credible defense posture" involving maritime awareness and deterrence through joint training exercises between troops of the 2 countries.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Cesar Purisima (Finance) and Gregory Domingo (Trade and Industry) also attended the briefing for US-Philippines Society chairpersons Negroponte and Pangilinan.

Del Rosario said the Aquino administration has 3 foreign policy objectives: enhancing national security, promoting economic diplomacy and protecting Filipinos overseas.

The briefing also discussed the latest developments in the West Philippine Sea, specifically the "notification and statement of claim" filed by the Philippines against China.

Del Rosario expressed hope that "the peaceful and friendly approach to the legal option would provide the durable solution to this dispute."

The DFA did not say if specific questions were made by Pangilinan, who chairs Philex Mining that has a contract to explore for oil and gas in disputed waters of the West Philippine Sea.

North Korea to target US with nuclear, rocket tests

source: Reuters through www.gmanetwork.com

SEOUL - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "enemy."

The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the United Nations Security Council agreed a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction the country for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.

"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.

North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul as KCNA released its statement.

"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."

The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

The concern now is that Pyongyang, whose only major diplomatic ally, China, endorsed the latest U.N. resolution, could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.

Its previous tests have been viewed as limited successes and used plutonium, of which the North has limited stocks.

North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions.

Its long-range rockets are not seen as capable of reaching the United States mainland and it is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying. — Reuters