Travellers from Japan line up to go through a screening gate as staff from Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council monitors the radiation level on them at Taipei’s Songshan airport March 17, 2011. Taiwan authorities started to screen travellers from Japan at airports on Wednesday and Taiwan’s anti-chemical troops joined in the effort today, according to local media.
South Korean officials detected unusually high levels of radiation on three passengers arriving from Japan today on the first day of such checks at the country’s main Incheon airport, news reports said.
A Japanese man in his 50s who is believed to have lived in the Fukushima prefecture had a reading exceeding 1 microsieverts from his hat and coat, which is several times the normal reading, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
Kan speaks at a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo today, August 10, 2010 where he apologised for the suffering caused under Japan’s colonisation of the Korean peninsula
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologised today for Korea’s suffering under colonisation, despite concern the gesture could reignite calls for wartime compensation.
Kan is seeking to prevent ties with major trading partner South Korea from being dragged back into periodic disputes stemming from Japan’s often-brutal 1910-1945 colonisation of the peninsula and a territorial row over nearby islets.
Salvage team members and rescue workers put a part of a sunken naval vessel on a barge after they lifted it with a giant crane, off Baengnyeongdo island near the maritime border with North Korea, northwest of Seoul April 15, 2010.
South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young raised the possibility that a mine or torpedo may have hit the Cheonan
North Korea on Saturday denied involvement in the recent sinking of a South Korean warship that left 38 sailors confirmed dead and eight others still missing, claiming such suspicions have been fabricated by the South Korean government.
There has been growing speculation in the South that the ship had been hit by a North Korean torpedo, killing 46 sailors and raising fears it could trigger conflict on the divided peninsula.
South Korea, which has already brought some of the wreck to the surface, has said the blast that sank the vessel was caused by an external explosion.
A South Korean military diver searching for survivors from a navy ship that sank off North Korea has died.
The diver lost consciousness as he searched wreckage of the Cheonan warship which sank after an explosion on Friday, the military said.
Rescuers have been working to get inside the ship, split in two by the blast. Forty-six sailors are missing.
The cause of the explosion is not yet clear, but a senior official has said it could have been a North Korean mine.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited the scene of the wreck on Tuesday, flying in by helicopter to Baengnyeong island near the disputed inter-Korean border.
He also ordered the military onto alert, saying: "Since the sinking took place at the front line, the military should thoroughly prepare for any move by North Korea."
Dangerous waters
Fifty-eight crew members were rescued when the Cheonan went down late on Friday.
Officials say they believe that some of the 46 sailors still missing could have survived in water-tight cabins in the stern of the ship.
More than a dozen South Korean ships are involved in the rescue effort, plus a US vessel.
The diver who died was one of dozens brought in to try to gain access to the wreckage. The cause of death is not known.
Another diver was also been taken to hospital, military officials said.
A navy spokesman said the divers were working in "a very vicious environment" with swift currents and murky visibility.
"Our goal is to get into the ship and find any survivors but at the moment it is extremely hard to do so," the navy spokesman said.
On Monday, teams used a hose to inject oxygen into the stern via a crack, but divers who knocked on the hull received no response.
The cause of the blast that sank the ship remains unclear.
Defence Minister Kim Tae-young has said it could have been caused by a mine laid by the North during the 1950-53 Korean War.
He said it could also have been a mine that the communist state intentionally sent floating towards the South Korean vessel.
But an internal malfunction has not been ruled out and military officials said establishing the cause of the blast might have to wait until the ship is salvaged.
Pyongyang has made no official comment on the incident.
It does not accept the maritime border, known as the Northern Limit Line, which was drawn unilaterally by the US-led United Nations Command at the end of the Korean War.
The area has been the scene of deadly clashes between the navies of the two Koreas in the past.
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South Korea's defense minister says North Korea may have intentionally floated a mine to damage a naval ship that exploded and sank this week.
Forty-six crew members are missing and believed trapped within the wreckage of the ship, which went down Friday. Fifty-eight were rescued
While the cause of the explosion is unknown, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told lawmakers in Seoul on Monday that rival North Korea may have floated a mine toward the ship. He also said the explosion could have been caused by a mine placed during the Korean War.
South Korean officials had earlier said they did not believe the North was behind the explosion.
The two nations remain at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BAENGNYEONG ISLAND, South Korea (AP) — Divers finally reached the wreckage of a naval ship that sank nearly three days ago and rapped with hammers on the stern where 46 crew members are believed trapped, but got no response, military officials said Monday.
Military officials said time was running out for any navy crewmen who might still be alive and trapped inside watertight cabins aboard the Cheonan, which sank after an explosion late Friday split the 1,200-ton vessel apart. Fifty-eight others, including the captain, were rescued, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The ship has dozens of waterproof cabins, and authorities initially said that if crew members shut the doors quickly enough, some may have survived in the sunken vessel. However, the supply of oxygen in the cabins was estimated to last up to 69 hours — a deadline that passed Monday night.
The exact cause of the explosion — one of South Korea's worst naval disasters — remained unclear, and officials said it could take weeks to determine.
Rough waves and high winds over the weekend prevented military divers from gaining access the wreckage lying under water near Baengnyeong Island in the west.
With time running out, divers plunged back into the waters Monday, reaching the ship's front and rear segments. Most of the rescued crew members were in the front of the ship, while those missing were in the rear.
The divers knocked on the ship with hammers but there were no response, Rear Adm. Lee Ki-sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters. Cameras were also lowered to the site.
Divers were next preparing to make their way into the ship, Lee said.
The Cheonan was on a routine patrol Friday night when an explosion split the ship in a matter minutes, according to Capt. Choi Won-il.
There were initial concerns it was an attack from North Korea because the area has been the site of three bloody skirmishes in the past. The two Koreas remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
However, North Korea did not appear to be involved, and the communist country's official news agency has made no mention of the ship. The North Korean military's first comments since the ship went down warned the U.S. and South Korea on Monday against engaging in "psychological warfare" by letting journalists into the Demilitarized Zone.
Still, the North Korean military was keeping a close watch on the search operation, the Joint Chiefs of Staffs said in a defense committee report cited by the Yonhap news agency.
President Lee Myung-bak said rescuers "should not give up hope," according to a statement from the presidential Blue House after Lee met with a security ministers Monday.
No bodies have been retrieved from the ship, feeding families' hopes that their sons and husbands might still be alive, the navy said. However, sonar devices used to locate the ship have captured no sounds coming from within, naval officials said.
Four U.S. Navy ships and 16 divers joined the search Monday after getting a request from Seoul for assistance, said Lt. Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, based just south of Tokyo.
Grief-stricken relatives boarded a boat Sunday to see the spot where the ship went down.
"My son said he would defend the nation, but instead he ended up like this," one cried out as she clutched a framed photo of her son.
Tony Blair with Kyu-Sun Choi who has reportedly served a two-year prison sentence for corruption
Tony Blair faced fresh embarrassment over his secret dealings with a South Korean oil firm last night after reports the company's chief executive served two years in prison for corruption.
Kyu-Sun Choi, chairman and chief executive of UI Energy Corporation, was said to have been convicted of making illegal payments to influence the awarding of contracts to run a national lottery.
Following his release, Mr Choi, 49, is alleged to have been involved in a separate case of financial impropriety surrounding claims he tried to buy his company a place in an oil exploration consortium in Iraq.The report appeared in the online service of Korean newspaper JoonAng Daily.
It will be an embarrassment for Mr Blair, who is believed to have been personally recruited by Mr Choi to carry out a secret advisory role for the oil firm, which now has extensive interests in Iraq.
The revelations came as it emerged the former prime minister is to play a key role in Labour's election campaign.
Party strategists have asked Mr Blair to make a series of interventions in the run up to polling day in the hope he can persuade floating voters who backed Labour in 1997 to return.
His involvement is expected to include at least one high-profile appearance with Gordon Brown.
Some senior Labour figures fear the move could backfire because of Mr Blair's unpopularity as a result of the Iraq War.
Those fears are likely to be heightened by the latest reports about the former premier's business dealings, which are believed to have earned him at least £ 20million since leaving office in 2007.
Last week it emerged Mr Blair had cut a secret deal to advise UI Energy in 2008.
The Mail told on Friday how details of the deal and his fee remain secret and how its very existence was made public only after the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments lost patience with Mr Blair's continued demands for secrecy.
The committee, which vets the jobs of former ministers, also revealed Mr Blair had struck a £1million deal to advise the Kuwaiti royal family.
Mr Blair is believed to have been offered the UI Energy deal after meeting Mr Choi in the United States.
A spokesman said the former prime minister had 'no knowledge' of the allegations against Mr Choi. He added: 'Mr Blair met Mr Choi briefly in late July 2008.'
Yesterday it also emerged that Mr Blair's sideline in public speaking is going from strength to strength.
He will earn more than £200,000 addressing conferences in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur next month about how to be a success and make money.
For £5,000, VIP guests can have their picture taken with Mr Blair and 'engage in a dialogue' with him over lunch.
An official contract was signed by a consortium led by South Korea's state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. shortly after a summit between Lee and UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said the deal will lead to a significant boost in ties between the countries as it also marked the largest energy deal ever contracted either by his country or the UAE.Korea is now a major player in exporting Light Water nuclear plants technology.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday in a push to win one of the world's biggest nuclear power contracts.
Both countries want to strengthen economic ties in "peaceful nuclear energy" among other areas such as renewable energies or reducing carbon emissions, the official UAE news agency WAM said after Lee's arrival.
The UAE is expected to award the contract estimated to be worth $40 billion to build several nuclear reactors "possibly early next week," industry sources said.
A South Korean consortium of Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp, and Doosan Heavy Industries is in the running to win the largest-ever energy deal of the Middle East.
Other bidders include a consortium of General Electric Co and Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp, and a French consortium led by EDF and GDF Suez and including Areva and oil group Total.
Lee is scheduled to hold a summit meeting with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan during his two-day visit, the South Korean presidential Blue House said in a statement.
"It remains unclear whether South Korea will win the final contract to build nuclear power plants and President Lee's visit to the UAE is part of summit diplomacy to win the final ticket in the bidding," Lee's office said.
The French consortium was initially seen as a front-runner for the deal but it recently appeared to be losing ground to the Korean.
On the Korea Exchange earlier this week, shares of Korea Power Engineering and Doosan Heavy Industries rallied on expectations for the deal, analysts said.
IBK Securities analyst Yoon Jin-il said the contract is expected to be split in three stages with the initial order to be worth about $5 billion, but the first-phase winner is likely to take home the remaining two.
Work is expected to begin in 2012, UAE state news agency WAM has said. The UAE is the world's third-largest oil exporter, but it is planning to build a number of nuclear reactors to meet an expected need for an additional 40,000 megawatts of power.
South Korea's commerce and energy ministry said on Monday that it would focus on the nuclear power sector in 2010 and step up work on a plan to develop nuclear reactors with indigenous technology, as it outlined next year's policy objectives.
A consortium led by KEPCO on Sunday won a US$40 billion deal to build and operate four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest ever order won by the country, some six times the cost of a $6.3 billion canal project in Libya in the 1980s.
This is also the first time Korea is exporting its APR1400 light-water reactor since the country started operating its first nuclear power plant, Gori No. 1, with U.S. technology in 1978. With the contract, Korea has turned from an importer into an exporter of nuclear power technology.
President Lee Myung-bak helped clinch the deal in a meeting with his UAE counterpart Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Emirates Palace Hotel Abu Dhabi. The two also agreed to develop the two countries' relationship into a strategic alliance.
The consortium also involves Doosan Heavy and Engineering Co., Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp., Westinghouse Electric of the U.S., and Japan's Toshiba.
It landed the deal over a French consortium led by AREVA and a partnership of the U.S.' General Electric and Japan's Hitachi.
Under the deal, the KEPCO-led consortium will design and build four 1,400MW nuclear power units, one due for completion in 2017 and the other three by 2020. For the next 10 years, it will earn $20 billion for construction alone, the equivalent in money terms to exports of 1 million medium-sized cars or 180 300,000-ton oil tankers. By joining in the operation of the power plants during their 60-year life span, the consortium will make another $20 billion.
