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[ad_1] WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday that it will increasingly restrict civilian nuclear exports to China as President Donald Trump vowed a hard line on trade, bluntly warning not to think Americans are "stupid." The US Energy Department said it would make it more difficult to ship nuclear technology to China, one of the few growing markets for new plants as the Asian economy tries to meet rising electricity demand through low-carbon sources. "The United States cannot ignore the national security implications of China's efforts to obtain nuclear technology outside of established processes of US-China civil nuclear cooperation," Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a statement. The measures are the latest salvo in a widening US drive to pressure China, with the Trump administration recently slapping $250 billion in tariffs. The Energy Department said it would not end exports to China but would show greater scrutiny and that there "will be a pre...

[ad_1] SEOUL: US ecretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was ready to allow international inspectors into the North's nuclear and missile testing sites, one of the main sticking points over an earlier denuclearisation pledge. Pompeo, who met Kim during a short trip to Pyongyang on Sunday, said the inspectors would visit a missile engine test facility and the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site as soon as the two sides agree on logistics. "There's a lot of logistics that will be required to execute that," Pompeo told a news briefing in Seoul before leaving for Beijing. The top US diplomat also said both sides were "pretty close" to agreement on the details of a second summit, which Kim proposed to US President Donald Trump in a letter last month. Trump and Kim held an historic first summit in Singapore in June. Pompeo's trip to Pyongyang, his fourth this year, followed a stalemate as North Korea resisted Washington...

[ad_1] SEOUL: US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Sunday he met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his trip to Pyongyang , aimed at breaking a stalemate in nuclear negotiations between the two countries. Shortly after arriving in South Korea following the visit, Pompeo posted a photo of himself walking along with Kim on Twitter, saying: "Had a good trip to #Pyongyang to meet with Chairman Kim. We continue to make progress on agreements made at Singapore Summit. Thanks for hosting me and my team @StateDept." [ad_2]

[ad_1] CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE: Ukraine unveiled a solar plant in Chernobyl on Friday, just across from where a power station , now encased in a giant sarcophagus, caused the world's worst nuclear disaster three decades ago. Built in a contaminated area, which remains largely uninhabitable and where visitors are accompanied by guides carrying radiation meters, 3,800 panels produce energy to power 2,000 apartments. In April 1986, a botched test at reactor number 4 at the Soviet plant sent clouds of nuclear material billowing across Europe and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. Thirty-one plant workers and firemen died in the immediate aftermath of the accident, mostly from acute radiation sickness. Thousands more later succumbed to radiation-related illnesses such as cancer, although the total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate. "It's not just another solar power plant," Evhen Variagin, the chief executive of Solar Cher...

[ad_1] Ukraine launches its first solar plant in the abandoned area around the former nuclear power station. [ad_2]

[ad_1] SEOUL: A South Korean minister told lawmakers that North Korea is estimated to have up to 60 nuclear weapons, in Seoul's first public comment about the size of the North's secrecy-clouded weapons arsenal. Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told parliament Monday the estimates on the size of North Korea's nuclear arsenal range from 20 bombs to as many as 60. He was responding to a question by a lawmaker, saying the information came from the intelligence authorities. The National Intelligence Service, South Korea's main spy agency, couldn't immediately comment. Cho may have unintentionally revealed the information. His ministry said Tuesday Cho's comments didn't mean that South Korea would accept North Korea as a nuclear state, suggesting Seoul's diplomatic efforts to rid the North of its nuclear program would continue. The South Korean assessment on the North's arsenal is not much different from various outside civilian estimates largely base...

[ad_1] SEOUL: South Korea says North Korea is estimated to have up to 60 nuclear weapons. Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told parliament the estimates on the size of North Korea's nuclear arsenal range from 20 bombs to as many as 60. His comment Monday was the first time a senior Seoul official publicly talked about the size of the North's secretive weapons arsenal. Cho was responding to a question by a lawmaker, saying the information came from the intelligence authorities. Cho's ministry said Tuesday his comments didn't mean that South Korea would accept North Korea as a nuclear state, suggesting Seoul's diplomatic efforts to rid the North of its nuclear program would continue. The National Intelligence Service, South Korea's main spy agency, couldn't immediately comment on his comments. [ad_2]