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South Korean President Moon Jae-in travels to Pyongyang this week for his third summit with Kim Jong Un, looking to break the deadlock in nuclear talks between North Korea and the United States. Moon -- whose own parents fled the North during the 1950-53 Korean War -- flies north on Tuesday for a three-day trip, following in the footsteps of his predecessors Kim Dae-jung in 2000 and mentor Roh Moo-hyun in 2007. No details of the programme have been announced but Pyongyang is likely to pull out all the stops to create a good impression, with tens of thousands of people lining the streets to welcome him. The visit comes after the North staged its ‘Mass Games’ propaganda display for the first time in five years. The new show featured imagery of Kim and Moon at their first summit in April in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula -- prompting the unusual sight of tens of thousands of North Koreans in the May Day Stadium applauding pictures of Seoul's leader. One diplomatic source predicted the visit would see ‘Kim and Moon together receiving the same sort of applause’. But while the summit at the Panmunjom border truce village was high on headline-grabbing symbolism, with Moon stepping briefly into the North and the two sharing an extended one-to-one woodland chat, pressure is mounting for substantive progress. Moon, who met Kim again in May, was instrumental in brokering the historic summit the following month between US President Donald Trump and Kim in Singapore, when Kim backed denuclearisation of the ‘Korean peninsula’. But no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have sparred since over what that means and how it will be achieved. At the same time the US and South have sometimes moved at radically different speeds in their approach to the North. Moon will try again to ‘play the role of facilitator or mediator’, said his special adviser on foreign affairs Moon Chung-in. ‘He believes that improved inter-Korean relations have some role in facilitating US-DPRK talks as well as solving the North Korean nuclear problem,’ he told reporters, using the North's official acronym. Last month Trump abruptly cancelled a planned visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang, after the North condemned ‘gangster-like’ demands for what it called its unilateral disarmament. Washington has been adamant that the North carry out a ‘final, fully verified denuclearisation’ first, while Pyongyang is demanding a formal declaration from the US that the Korean War is over. But Kim has since sent Trump a letter seeking a second summit and held a military parade for his country's 70th birthday without showing off any intercontinental ballistic missiles, prompting warm tweets from the US president. - Special guests - North Korea will want to exploit Trump's eagerness to declare progress before the US mid-term elections in November to secure concessions, said Go Myong-hyun, an analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, and will view ‘every meeting as a viable political opportunity’ towards that goal. But whether Pyongyang is willing to offer something concrete in return is yet to be seen. Moon may try to convince the North Korean leader to verbally commit to providing a list of the country's existing nuclear programme, said Shin Beom-cheol, another analyst at the Asan Institute. ‘It won't be South Korea that inspects and verifies, so if we can get something out of Kim Jong Un's mouth, that will be significant,’ Shin said, adding the next step could be a summit between Kim and Trump sometime in October. Despite the deadlock in denuclearisation talks, since the Panmunjom summit the two Koreas have sought to pursue joint projects in multiple fields. But North Korea is under several different sets of sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes, complicating Moon's desire to promote cross-border economic schemes. The dovish South Korean president is taking several South Korean business tycoons with him to the North, including Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong and the vice chairman of the Hyundai Motor Group, whose founder was a wartime refugee from the North. ‘He is sending a message to the North to speedily complete denuclearisation, conclude talks with the US so that South Korea can begin full-fledged economic cooperation,’ said analyst Go. And special advisor Moon Chung-in added that the South Korean president could look to persuade Kim to come up with a ‘somewhat radical and bold initiative’, such as dismantling some nuclear bombs, and press the US for reciprocal measures. ‘And the United States should be willing to come up with major economic easing of economic sanctions,’ he said.

South Korea launched its first ever missile-capable attack submarine yesterday, despite a recent diplomatic thaw with the nuclear-armed North.  The $700mn, 3,000-tonne Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine is capable of firing both cruise and ballistic missiles and the first of three planned diesel-electric boats to go into service in the next five years.  It represented a “leap forward in the country’s” defence industry, President Moon Jae-in told a launch ceremony at the Daewoo shipyard where it was designed and built. “Peace through power is the unwavering security strategy of this government.”  Moon will head to Pyongyang next week for a third summit with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, as US-led efforts to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons have stalled. “We have set off on a grand journey toward the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” Moon said.   “But peace is not given gratuitously,” he added. The new submarine is fitted with six vertical launch tubes and features indigenous sonar and combat management systems.  Aside from the new vessels, South Korea has an existing fleet of 18 smaller submarines, all built in co-operation with Germany.  According to the defence ministry, the North has 70 ageing submarines and submersibles, and Yonhap news agency reported that it has also developed a new 2,500-tonne submarine fitted with a vertical launch system.

North and South Korea opened a joint liaison office in the Northern city of Kaesong yesterday as they knit closer ties ahead of President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Pyongyang next week.  “A new chapter in history is open here today,” South Korean unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a ceremony, calling the office “another symbol of peace jointly created by the South and the North”.  The nuclear-armed North’s chief delegate Ri Son-gwon responded in kind, calling it a “substantial fruit nourished by the people of the north and south”.  The two Koreas have sought to pursue joint projects in multiple fields since the April summit between Moon and the North’s leader Kim Jong-un in the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, even as US efforts to secure concrete progress towards Pyongyang’s denuclearisation have stalled. Moon will fly to the North’s capital on Tuesday to meet with Kim as he seeks to rekindle the process.  The leaders’ first meeting as well as key events during the three-day visit will be shown live on television, Moon’s office said after a working-level meeting with the North yesterday.   Moon’s trip will mark his third summit with Kim this year after he orchestrated a rapid diplomatic thaw on the peninsula and brokered June’s Singapore summit between the North Korean leader and US President Donald Trump.  There Kim backed denuclearisation of the “Korean peninsula”, but no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have sparred since over what that means and how it will be achieved. The North was “willing to denuclearise”, Moon said on Thursday, while the US was willing to “end hostile relations” and provide security guarantees, “but there is a blockage as both sides are demanding each other to act first”. Last month, Trump abruptly cancelled a planned visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang, after the North condemned “gangster-like” demands for what it called its unilateral disarmament.   But Kim has since sent Trump a letter seeking a second summit and held a military parade for his country’s 70th birthday without showing off any intercontinental ballistic missiles, prompting warm tweets from the US president and raising hopes of progress.  The liaison office stands in a city that was initially part of the South after Moscow and Washington divided Korea between them in the closing days of World War II, but found itself in the North after the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.  The four-storey building includes separate Northern and Southern offices and a joint conference room, and Seoul’s unification ministry said it would become a “round-the-clock consultation and communication channel” for advancing inter-Korean relations, improving ties between the US and the North, and easing military tensions.  It will be manned by some 20 officials each from both sides, headed by a vice minister-level appointment. But critics have questioned whether the supplies provided to set it up are a violation of the multiple sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.  Around 50 people from each side attended the ceremony, reports said, including Southern businessmen who used to run companies in the now-shuttered Kaesong industrial zone.  The project, where South Korean firms employed Northern staff, opened in 2004, when it was hailed as a symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation and exchanges.  But then conservative President Park Geun-hye’s government shuttered it in 2016 in response to the North’s nuclear and missile tests.  It was the first time the businessmen had set foot in Kaesong for more than two years, but the unification ministry said their presence did not mean Seoul was seeking to reopen the park as sanctions were still in effect.

South Korea's foreign minister said Thursday that making progress on denuclearisation talks with North Korea is a ‘daily concern’, as she called for fresh momentum at a joint Korean summit next week. The meeting will be the third between the leaders of North and South Korea this year and comes as talks between Washington and Pyongyang over dismantling the North's nuclear arsenal have stalled. US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for a historic Singapore summit in June and pledged to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. However, no details were agreed, and Washington and Pyongyang have sparred since on what that means and how it will be achieved. Last month, Trump abruptly cancelled a planned visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang in a major setback. The new US envoy for the North, Stephen Biegun, said in August Kim had promised ‘final, fully verified denuclearisation’ at the Singapore summit. But Pyongyang has slammed Washington for its ‘gangster-like’ demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha Thursday urged progress on the talks and said the issue was a central issue for Seoul. ‘Getting traction on the denuclearisation and peace process that is very much now in motion -- it's a daily concern to get movement on this,’ she told a regional economic forum in Hanoi. She added that she hopes that the September 18-20 summit in Pyongyang ‘will be a significant step forward in denuclearisation and peace’. Speaking on the sidelines of the forum, Kang called for ‘openness’ from the North about their weapons programme and added a second Trump-Kim summit should deliver ‘concrete’ results. ‘A second summit has to be something that really significantly moves the agenda forward... there has to be concrete deliverables,’ she said. Her comments come ahead of the September 18-20 meeting in Pyongyang between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who brokered the Kim-Trump summit in June. Moon has called for a ‘bold decision’ from Trump and Kim to successfully denuclearise the peninsula and urged a follow-up meeting between both sides. The White House said earlier this week Trump had received a ‘very positive’ letter from Kim seeking a follow-up meeting, since adding it is in the process of coordinating a possible second meeting between the two leaders.

Thousands of North Korean troops followed by artillery and tanks paraded through Pyongyang on Sunday as the nuclear-armed country celebrated its 70th birthday, but it refrained from displaying the intercontinental ballistic missiles that have seen it hit with sanctions. Instead leader Kim Jong Un showed off his friendship with China, raising the hand of President Xi Jinping's envoy as they saluted the crowd together afterwards. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as the North is officially known, was proclaimed on September 9, 1948, three years after Moscow and Washington divided the peninsula between them in the closing days of the Second World War. Such set-piece dates are a mainstay of the North's political calendar, and have for years been opportunities to demonstrate progress in its quest for a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the United States. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and China's Li Zhanshu wave while attending a military parade in Pyongyang on Sunday. But too militaristic a display this time might have risked upsetting the recent diplomatic dalliance on the peninsula, after Kim's Singapore meeting with US President Donald Trump in June and his third summit with the South's President Moon Jae-in due in Pyongyang later this month. After a 21-gun salute, dozens of infantry units marched through Kim Il Sung Square, some in night-vision goggles or wielding rocket-propelled grenade launchers, as the current leader -- the founder's grandson -- looked on from a rostrum. Li Zhanshu, one of the seven members of the Chinese Communist party's Politburo Standing Committee, the country's most powerful body, sat next to him, the two of them occasionally exchanging comments. Armoured personnel carriers, multiple rocket launchers and tanks followed, with biplanes flying overhead in a '70' formation.  At one point jets trailing red, white and blue smoke -- the colours of the North Korean flag -- roared above the Juche Tower, the stone monument to Kim Il Sung's political philosophy. Finally came the missiles, the traditional climax of the parades. But the only ones on show were short-range battlefield devices, the Kumsong-3 anti-ship cruise missile, and the Pongae-5 surface-to-air weapon. There was no sign of the Hwasong-14 and -15 rockets that can reach the mainland United States and changed the strategic balance when they were first tested last year. "It looks like the North Koreans really tried to tone down the military nature of this," said Chad O'Carroll, managing director of Korea Risk Group. Any display of longer-range missiles would have cast doubt on North Korea's commitment to denuclearisation, he added. 'Long live'   Pyongyang has not publicly stated a willingness to give up the weapons it has spent decades developing at huge political and financial cost, but it has been on a diplomatic charm offensive for months. In April, Kim declared that the North's nuclear programme had been successfully completed and "socialist economic construction" was the new strategic priority. In a speech on Sunday, ceremonial president Kim Yong Nam lauded the country and its army as "the strongest in the world", but did not mention nuclear weapons. And immediately after the parade thousands of citizens rallied through the square, alongside floats displaying economic themes and calls for Korean reunification -- the peninsula has remained split since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Thousands of accompanying citizens waved bouquets and flags, chanting "Long live" to the leader. Honoured guest  Diplomatic invitations for the anniversary went out around the world, but the only head of state who attended was Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz -- although AFP spotted French actor Gerard Depardieu seated in a section below the main tribune. Afterwards Kim and Li saluted the cheering crowd, the North Korean raising his guest's hand into the air. Beijing is its neighbour's key diplomatic protector and trade partner, and after years in the deep freeze over the North's weapons ambitions ties have warmed rapidly this year, with Kim visiting China three times to meet President Xi Jinping. Speculation that Xi might reciprocate for the anniversary did not come to pass -- Hu Jintao remains the last Chinese president to visit in 2005 -- but O'Carroll said Pyongyang appeared to want to promote its friendship with Beijing. "China is still a very important player and its presence here with such a high level delegation is intended in some way to remind the US of that," he said. Washington is seeking the "final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea", while Pyongyang has only publicly affirmed its commitment to working towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, a euphemism open to interpretation on both sides. The process has become bogged down in recent weeks, with the North demanding a formal declaration that the Korean War is over, and the South's Moon caught between his neighbour and his ally. "Apparently Kim Jong Un thought that now was not time to unnecessarily provoke Trump," said Kim Yong-hyun, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. But some things do not change. Many of the tanks and other vehicles at the parade still bore a slogan on the front: "Destroy the US imperialist aggressors, the sworn enemy of the DPRK people!"

South Korea reported its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in three years, health officials said on Saturday. A 61-year-old businessman was diagnosed with the highly contagious viral respiratory illness, according to officials at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). He returned to South Korea on Friday from a business trip in Kuwait where he stayed for three weeks, the KCDC said a statement. "Authorities have traced and separated 20 people who have come in close contact with the infected person," KCDC head Chung Eun-gyeong told journalists. They include medical staff, flight attendants and passengers of the plane the man flew back to South Korea on, she said.  He was hospitalised with fever and phlegm and has been quarantined at a university hospital, she added. It is the first case of MERS diagnosed in South Korea since 2015, when an outbreak killed 38 people and triggered widespread panic.

The leaders of the two Koreas will hold a summit in Pyongyang in September, Seoul said yesterday, as Kim Jong-un renewed his commitment to the denuclearisation of the flashpoint peninsula.  The announcement of the September 18-20 summit – the third between the North’s leader Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in this year – comes as US efforts to dismantle Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal have stalled.  The two leaders will meet in the North Korean capital to discuss “practical measures to denuclearise” the peninsula, South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong told reporters.  Chung on Wednesday flew to Pyongyang where he handed over a personal letter from Moon to Kim, as Seoul seeks to kick start the diplomacy that led to the landmark June summit between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.  The two pledged to denuclearise the Korean peninsula at the Singapore meeting but no details were agreed, and Washington and Pyongyang have sparred since on what that means and how it will be achieved.  However, in his meeting with Chung, Kim renewed his commitment to that goal, North Korean state media said yesterday.  The two Koreas “should further their efforts to realise the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA.  “It is our fixed stand... to completely remove the danger of armed conflict and horror of war from the Korean peninsula and turn it into the cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat.”  Moon, who brokered the historic summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore, said he had “high hopes” for his next meeting with the North’s leader to achieve a similar feat.  “I have come to hope that it will kick-start dialogue between the US and North Korea for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” Moon said during meeting with his aides.  The pledge comes after Trump, frustrated with a lack of progress on disarmament, last month cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to Pyongyang after the North reportedly sent a belligerent letter to the US leader.  Stephen Biegun, newly-appointed US envoy for the North, said last month Kim had promised “final, fully verified denuclearisation” at the Singapore summit.   Kim emphasised that his “trust in Trump remains unchanged” despite the difficulties, Chung said, and expressed his intention to work closely with the US to achieve denuclearisation “in the first official term of President Trump.”  But the North Korean leader also expressed a “sense of frustration” with the international community for not appreciating what he called Pyongyang’s “very significant and meaningful” steps, Chung said.  Kim noted the North had dismantled its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, where nuclear tests “have been made impossible for good”, according to the South Korean envoy.  “Chairman Kim asked us to convey the message to the US that the US (should) help create situations where he would feel his decision to denuclearise was a right move”, Chung said. The upcoming summit between Kim and Moon may help break the months-long deadlock after the Singapore summit, said Lim Eul-chul, professor at Kyungnam University’s Graduate School of North Korean Studies.  “There is a still big gap between what the North considers sufficient goodwill gestures, like destroying its missile test stand or a nuclear test site, and what the US wants, including on-site verification by experts,” he said.  Narrowing the gap and rebuilding trust between Kim and Trump is key in the dialogue – if any – ahead, he said. North Korea has demanded that Washington agree to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, and accused it of failing to reciprocate “goodwill measures”.  But American officials and conservatives in the South are concerned such a declaration would weaken the US-South Korea alliance and deprive the 28,000 US forces stationed on the peninsula of their deployment rationale.  Kim dismissed such worries, Chung said, and told the South Korean delegation that a formal end of the Korean War would not be linked to the withdrawal of the US troops. Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies said Kim sees the US agreeing to a formal end to the war as a “litmus test” to determine whether Washington is sincere in moving forward. “But the US... does not seem to be ready to accept the North’s demand”, he told AFP.

South Korean envoys held talks in North Korea on Wednesday to finalise details on a third North-South summit to be held this month amid stalled talks on denuclearisation between the North and the United States. South Korean officials hope the one-day visit will revive momentum after a broad but unspecific agreement on denuclearisation between the United States and North Korea at a Singapore summit in June. Those talks have stalled since US President Donald Trump cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea last month. South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoys were led by the national security chief at the presidential Blue House, Chung Eui-yong, and included director of the National Intelligence Service spy agency, Suh Hoon. The envoys were greeted in Pyongyang by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of a North Korean committee in charge of cross-border affairs, who has steered high-level inter-Korean talks, according to Blue House press secretary Yoon Young-chan. They held a 20-minute meeting with Ri and Kim Yong Chol, who played a key role with Pompeo in arranging the Singapore summit, Yoon said without elaborating. Additional talks are expected to take place between the Seoul and Pyongyang officials, but it was not certain that the envoys would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Yoon said. Kim met the South's delegation on their previous trip in March. "The delegation was on the way for an official meeting but they did not inform whom they'll meet and where," Yoon said in a statement. The United States and North Korea are at odds over whether denuclearisation or a step towards the normalisation of North Korea's international status by declaring the end of the 1950-53 Korean War should come first. The war was ended by an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning US-led United Nations forces, including South Korea, are technically still at war with the North. Chung said on Tuesday he wanted to discuss with Pyongyang officials ways to achieve the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Seoul would also continue to push for a joint declaration with the United States of an end to the Korean war this year, Chung said. The North's Kim made his first public appearance in 16 days to pay respects at the funeral of Dr. Ju Kyu Chang, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Wednesday. Ju was a leading contributor to North Korea's successful development of its nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and space programme, according to 38 North, a website that specialises in analysis of North Korea. The United States wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons without condition. North Korea has said in previous, failed talks years ago that it could consider giving up its nuclear arsenal if the United States provided security guarantees by removing its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan. North Korea is preparing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the regime's founding on Sunday.  

South Korean police raided German carmaker BMW's Seoul headquarters Thursday in connection with dozens of engine fires. An official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's white collar crime unit said officers were investigating whether the company covered up vehicle defects and had confiscated documents and other materials. He declined to give further details but Yonhap news agency said a team of 30 investigators were involved. There was no immediate comment from BMW Korea.  "We will conduct a thorough investigation to reveal the truth," Yonhap quoted a police official as saying. The move came after reports more than 40 BMW vehicles have burst into flames so far this year, with some parking lots refusing to accept the cars because of fears they could catch fire. South Korea this month temporarily banned from the streets BMW cars that had not yet passed safety checks and dozens of BMW owners filed complaints seeking a criminal investigation into the firm, its local unit and their nine top officials. BMW Korea last month started recalling 106,000 vehicles with an exhaust gas recirculation module, which it says caused the recent fires. The recall applies to 42 models, all with diesel engines. The company is facing a series of legal actions over the issue in the country, and has said the problem was "not Korea specific". In South Korea, six out of 10 imported cars are from Germany, with BMW selling nearly 39,000 in the first six months of this year, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.

A long-serving South Korean police dog killed in the line of duty -- by a snake -- will be honoured with a rare ceremony next month in a country where a million of his fellow canines are estimated to be eaten every year. Larry, a seven-year-old German shepherd, was searching for a missing person on a mountain in North Chungcheong province when the reptile bit him on his left hind leg in July. He is the first police dog to die "in the line of duty" anywhere in the country, the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency said in a statement. Highly trained in tracking evidence through scent, Larry helped officers with 39 felony cases and took part in searches for more than 170 missing people since first being deployed in 2012. Larry is the first police dog to die in the line of duty. He provided a key clue to an unsolved murder last year after detecting the body of a woman buried 70 centimetres underground near a hiking trail. An officer told AFP that the carcass was cremated and a funeral service held after Larry's death last month. "Roam freely in heaven," read a caption on a photograph of Larry in front of flowers, pictures showed. Police have commissioned a bronze plaque "in honour of Larry" listing his achievements, which will be hung in the regional police headquarters at a ceremony in September, the officer added. It is a marked contrast to the fate of many dogs in South Korea, where their boiled meat has long been a part of the cuisine and remains a delicacy for some, with about one million dogs believed to be eaten annually.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named Ford Motor Co executive Stephen Biegun as the US special representative to North Korea on Thursday and said they would both travel next week to the country to try to persuade it to abandon its nuclear weapons. "Steve will direct US policy towards North Korea and lead our efforts to achieve President Trump's goal of the final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea as agreed to by Kim Jong Un," Pompeo told reporters at the State Department, referring to the North Korean leader. "He and I will be traveling to North Korea next week to make further diplomatic progress towards our objective," Pompeo said. It will be Pompeo's fourth trip this year aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon a nuclear weapons programme that threatens the United States and his second since an unprecedented June summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim that produced much fanfare but little obvious progress. Commenting on the North Korea situation, Biegun said the "issues are tough, and will be tough to resolve" but added that Trump had created an opening and the opportunity had to be seized to ensure a peaceful future for the North Korean people. Biegun served as vice president of international governmental affairs for Ford Motor Co. for 14 years. The company announced his retirement earlier on Thursday. Before joining Ford, Biegun served as national security adviser to then Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Prior to that, he worked in former President George W. Bush’s White House from 2001-2003 as executive secretary of the National Security Council. He served as a senior staff member to Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. His name was floated earlier this year among a list of contenders to replace Trump’s then-national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, who was ultimately succeeded by John Bolton. 

North and South Korea agreed yesterday to hold a summit in the North in September, another step towards boosting co-operation between the old rivals, even as doubts grow over efforts to end the North’s nuclear weapons programme.  Officials from both sides meeting in the truce village of Panmunjom, in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, reached an agreement on a September summit between the countries’ leaders in the North’s capital of Pyongyang. No date was announced for what will be the third meeting this year between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. They first met in April in Panmunjom, a remarkable thaw in ties after more than a year of rising tension and fears of war over the North’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. There they agreed that Moon would visit the North’s capital in the autumn, though the pair met again in May in an unannounced meeting at Panmunjom. No details on an agenda for next month’s talks were announced, but the two Koreas have been discussing a range of issues, from a possible peace declaration to joint economic and infrastructure projects. The progress between the two Koreas comes as North Korea and the United States are struggling to agree on how to bring about the North’s denuclearisation, after Kim vowed to work toward that goal at a landmark summit in June in Singapore with US President Donald Trump. US officials have told Reuters that North Korea had yet to agree to a timeline for eliminating its nuclear arsenal or to disclose its size, which US estimates have put at between 30 and 60 warheads. After yesterday’s talks, Ri Son-gwon, the chairman of a North Korean committee aiming for the “peaceful reunification” of the peninsula, told his South Korean counterpart, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, it was important to clear “obstacles” preventing inter-Korean relations from moving forward. “If the issues that were raised at the talks aren’t resolved, unexpected problems could emerge and the issues that are already on the schedule may face difficulties,” Ri said, without giving details. One issue that has angered North Korea recently has been the case of a dozen North Korean restaurant workers who came to the South in 2016 via China.  The North says they were abducted by the South and should be returned, and has raised the possibility of the issue creating an obstacle to the reunion of some families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War, planned for next week. Cho did not say if North Korea had raised the case of the restaurant workers yesterday, merely saying it had not brought up new issues. “There were mentions that if there are problems to be resolved by both sides, on humanitarian issues or for the development of inter-Korean relations, we should do it,” the minister told reporters. Cho said the two sides had exchanged views on the North’s denuclearisation and on a peace mechanism to replace the armistice that ended fighting during the Korean War. Moon and Kim agreed during their first summit to push for a declaration of an end to the Korean War together with the United States this year, but Washington has said it would only be possible after the North abandons its nuclear programme. Last month, the North’s state media criticised the South accusing it of only caring only about the views of the United States and failing to take practical steps to advance inter-Korean relations. South Korea hopes to restart efforts on a cross-peninsula railway and a joint industrial park but has been cautious about major projects due to international sanctions chiefly engineered by Washington over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes.  The North has urged the United States to end the sanctions, saying it had made goodwill gestures, including a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, the dismantling of a nuclear site, and the return of the remains of some US soldiers killed in the Korean War. “The North is asking the South to play a bridging role as they want the United States to speed up progress in declaring an end to the war officially,” said Seo Yu-seok, a researcher at the Institute of North Korean Studies in Seoul. Christopher Green, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said the North could try to increase pressure on the South to deliver on economic promises made at the April summit, while widening the distance between Seoul and Washington. Ri said the two sides had agreed on a date for the summit, but he declined to elaborate. Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman of South Korea’s presidential office, said it would be difficult for the summit to happen before the September 9 anniversary of North Korea’s founding, a major holiday there.

* September summit will be third between Kim, Moon * Latest talks held in Panmunjom border peace village * North Korean leader has held a flurry of summits this year * Doubts remain over North's denuclearisation pledge North and South Korea agreed to hold a summit in Pyongyang in September, the latest step forward in cross-border ties this year after more high-level talks on Monday, the South's Unification Ministry said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in April and May at the border truce village of Panmunjom, within the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, and agreed that the next summit in autumn would be held in the North Korean capital. The two Koreas held a fresh round of talks at the DMZ on Monday to discuss the third summit, led by the South's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North's reunification committee. Ri said both sides agreed on specific details, including the date for the summit, but declined to elaborate. However, again without giving details, he said it was important to clear "obstacles" that prevent inter-Korean relations from moving forward as planned. "If the issues that were raised at the talks aren't resolved, unexpected problems could emerge and the issues that are already on the schedule may face difficulties," Ri said at the end of the meeting. Cho also refused to specify the problems raised by Ri but said there was talk of humanitarian issues and ways to improve inter-Korean relations. He said the next summit in Pyongyang would help improve cross-border ties by allowing the two leaders to discuss the North's denuclearisation and how to establish peace on the Korean peninsula. North Korea's Kim has a held a flurry of diplomatic summits with the leaders of South Korea, China, and the United States this year. Moon, the only South Korean leader to have met a North Korean leader twice, will become the first leader to visit Pyongyang this year. The North has been heavily sanctioned over its pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles but Kim and US President Donald Trump agreed at their landmark summit in Singapore in June to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. North Korea has denounced US-led efforts to maintain sanctions despite what Pyongyang says are goodwill gestures, including halting its weapons testing and returning the remains of U.S. troops killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War. US officials familiar with the talks, however, told Reuters that North Korea had yet to agree to a timeline for eliminating its nuclear arsenal or to disclose its size, which US estimates have put at between 30 and 60 warheads. 

A group of BMW owners in South Korea filed a criminal complaint against the German automaker Thursday over alleged delays in recalling more than 100,000 cars after a spate of engine fires, their lawyer said. The timing of the recall, which was issued last month, is already the subject of a government probe, after more 30 BMW cars -- mostly the 520d sedan model -- caught fire this year in South Korea. BMW apologised Monday for the fires, blaming a faulty component that was aimed at reducing emissions from diesel engines, but that has done little to allay the concerns of angry consumers, who say the firm should have issued the recall sooner. Johann Ebenbichler, vice head of BMW in charge of quality, told reporters the carmaker became aware of a problem with the component in 2016 but managed to identify the root cause of the fires only in June this year. He did not provide further details. Lawyer Ha Jong-sun said he had filed a criminal complaint against six people including Ebenbichler on behalf of 20 BMW owners and one victim of a BMW vehicle-related fire. ‘It is hard to believe that BMW took two years to determine the cause of the car fires.... A criminal investigation is necessary to secure evidence of a cover-up,’ Ha told AFP. The offence carries a prison term of up to 10 years or a fine of up to 100 million won ($89,400) under South Korean law. Images of BMW vehicles bursting into flames have made headlines in the South recently, with some parking lots refusing to accept the cars because of fears they could catch fire. BMW has blamed a faulty component called the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler that generated excessive sediment and caused engines to catch fire, and said the problem was ‘not Korea specific’. The company also issued a recall for 323,700 cars across Europe this week due to the same problem. Apart from the criminal complaint, the beleaguered automaker is also facing a class action lawsuit in the South, filed by 17 owners who are demanding compensation from the company, Ha said. In South Korea, six out of 10 imported cars are from Germany. BMW sold nearly 39,000 cars in the first six months of this year, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.

North Korean state media on Monday urged the United States to drop sanctions, as South Korea said it was investigating nine cases of coal shipments that potentially violated UN resolutions. Pyongyang had demonstrated good faith by ending nuclear weapons testing and returning the remains of US troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, and the resolutions had lost a reason to exist, said the Rodong Sinmun, a mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party. The statements came days after a confidential United Nations report concluded that North Korea had not halted nuclear and missile programmes, in breach of UN resolutions, and continued illegal trade in oil, coal and other commodities. South Korea is examining nine cases in which coal from North Korea disguised as Russian products was possibly brought in, Seoul's foreign ministry and customs officials said. They declined to detail the number of ships or identify the companies involved, saying the investigation was in the final phase following raids and forensic analysis, but some cases might prove lawful. North Korea and the United States vowed to work to end Pyongyang's weapons programmes at a landmark summit in June in Singapore, but have struggled to reach a pact to meet that goal. The Rodong Sinmun accused Washington of "acting opposite" to its plan to improve ties, despite goodwill gestures by Pyongyang, such as a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, the dismantling of a nuclear site, and the return of the remains of US soldiers killed in the Korean War. "There have been outrageous arguments coming out of the US State Department that it won't ease sanctions until a denuclearisation is completed, and reinforcing sanctions is a way to raise its negotiating power," it said in an editorial. "How could the sanctions, which were a stick the US administration had brandished as part of its hostile policy against us, promote the two countries' amity?" The editorial, which accompanied front-page articles and photographs of leader Kim Jong Un's visit to a catfish farm, was a fresh sign of Pyongyang's frustration over the slow-moving nuclear talks. Under President Donald Trump, the United States pushed the United Nations to impose tough sanctions on North Korea as Kim conducted a string of missile and nuclear tests last year. At a security forum on Saturday, the two sides sparred over the Singapore pact, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling for sanctions against Pyongyang to be maintained, and his North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, criticising Washington for "retreating" from ending the war. Pompeo suggested the North's continued work on its weapons programmes was inconsistent with Kim's commitment to denuclearise, but expressed optimism it would be achieved. Returning to Washington, Pompeo played down the exchange with Ri, saying the tone was far different from last year. "The minister made very clear of their continued commitment to denuclearize," Pompeo told reporters travelling with him. "I probably don't have his words exactly right, but it's pretty close. Compare the anger, frankly, over years and years, and hatred, as spewed by the North Koreans; his comments were different." North Korea's propaganda websites on Monday also urged the United States to drop sanctions and build trust. One of them, Uriminzokkiri, lambasted the sanctions and pressure campaign as "anachronistic" and a hurdle to better relations, urging efforts to officially declare an end to the Korean War. The Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the US-led United Nations forces, including South Korea, technically still at war with the North. The State Department has said it is committed to building a peace mechanism to replace the armistice, but only after the North abandons its nuclear programme. Maeri, another North Korean website, stressed the need for US action to build confidence in response to the North's moves to end weapons programmes and send back the remains. "It takes two to tango," it said. Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for South Korea's presidential Blue House, said on Monday the government was asking the North to hasten denuclearisation and the United States to show sincerity over the North's demands for reciprocal steps.

North Korea and the United States traded blows over implementing a disarmament deal adopted at a landmark summit in June, as Washington called for maintaining sanctions pressure against the North which in turn said it was alarmed at US intentions. The discord was the latest reminder of the difficulties that have long impaired efforts to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes, despite the June commitment made in Singapore by the leaders of the North and the United States. "The DPRK stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing the DPRK-US Joint Statement in a responsible and good-faith manner," North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told a regional forum held in Singapore on Saturday. DPRK refers to his country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "What is alarming however is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," Ri said. Ri made the statement after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had left the conference for Indonesia, a State Department spokeswoman said. At the summit on June 12, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is seeking relief from tough sanctions, committed to work towards denuclearisation, but Pyongyang has offered no details on how it might go about this. Pompeo pressed Southeast Asian nations in Singapore this week to maintain sanctions on North Korea but said he was optimistic that the deal to end the North's nuclear programme would work out. "We have initiated goodwill measures of, inter alia, a moratorium on nuclear tests and rocket launch tests and dismantling of nuclear test ground," Ri said in a statement delivered to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum. "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of the war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean peninsula." Pompeo suggested on Friday that continued work on weapons programmes by North Korea was inconsistent with Kim's commitment to denuclearise. On Saturday, he stressed diplomatic and economic sanctions on the North must be maintained in order to achieve a complete end to the nuclear programme, carried out in defiance of UN Security resolutions. He also said Washington took very seriously any relaxation of UN sanctions, calling out Russia for possibly violating a UN resolution by issuing work visas to North Korean workers. "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow," he said. "We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea." Russia has denied a report by the Wall Street Journal that said Moscow was allowing thousands of fresh North Korean labourers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N sanctions. Russia's ambassador to North Korea also denied Moscow was flouting UN restrictions on oil supplies to North Korea. Trump letter Pompeo attended meetings of the foreign ministers of ASEAN as well as China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Ri attended one of a series of conferences. At a group photo session, Pompeo walked up to Ri and shook hands and exchanged words and smiles. He told Ri: "We should talk again soon," according to the State Department. "I agree, there are many productive conversations to be had," Ri replied, according to the State Department. US Ambassador Sung Kim handed Ri a letter from Trump for North Korean leader Kim in Singapore, the State Department said. Pompeo, who has been leading the US negotiations to get the North to abandon its nuclear programme, had primarily engaged with Kim Yong Chol, a top North Korean party official and former spy agency chief, and not Ri. Following his trip to Pyongyang in July, the North accused Pompeo of "gangster-like" diplomacy, casting doubts about the future of the discussions, but Trump later hailed progress after receiving a note from Kim. Sung Kim, who has long been a key negotiator on the nuclear issue, said earlier he had no plans to meet the North Koreans in Singapore. On Monday, a senior US official said US spy satellites had detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. According to a confidential UN report seen by Reuters on Friday, North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through increased ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products as well as coal transfers conducted at sea. On Saturday, Pompeo was more upbeat about making progress on the denuclearisation agreement, saying: "We've been working since then to develop the process by which that would be achieved."

The remains of US servicemen killed in North Korea decades ago left for home on Wednesday after a solemn ceremony at an American military base in South Korea. Two US military aircraft took the 55 sets of remains to Hawaii, where historians and scientists will begin a long and complex process of identification. Pyongyang last week returned the remains from the 1950-53 Korean War, in line with an agreement between US President Donald Trump and its leader Kim Jong Un at their historic summit in Singapore in June. Trump has praised Kim for "keeping his word" about the handover and said Vice President Mike Pence would meet families when the remains arrive back in the US. The process of identification could take years, according to experts. But John Byrd, director of scientific analysis at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), said preliminary findings suggested that "they are likely to be American remains". "The remains are consistent with remains we have recovered in North Korea... in the past," Byrd told reporters at Osan US Air Base in South Korea. The cases had been kept there since Friday, awaiting their repatriation to Hawaii for further forensic analysis. "There's no reason at this point to doubt that they do relate to Korean War losses," he added. Around 500 officials from the United Nations Command (UNC), the United States and South Korea attended the formal repatriation ceremony at the airbase on Wednesday. The cases, each draped with a white and blue UN flag, were lined up in rows as the ceremony got under way. "This is a solemn reminder that our work is not complete until all have been accounted for, no matter how long it takes to do so," said General Vincent Brooks, the Commander of the UNC and of United States Forces Korea. After the ceremony uniformed soldiers carefully deposited each case into two C-17 cargo planes, which later took off for Hawaii. Byrd told reporters that "there was a single dog tag (US soldier's identity tag) provided with the remains". "The family of that individual has been notified," he said. "But I would caution... that it's not necessarily the case that the dog tag goes with the remains... in the box," he added, underscoring the challenges of identifying the recovered remains. The returned material also included military hardware and uniforms, including helmets, water bottles and boots, he said. DNA, bones, dental records Former DPAA official Jeong Yang-seung, who previously worked on identifying US remains from the North, said it was unusual to locate dog tags during the search and recovery process. "It's once in a blue moon that dog tags are recovered," Jeong, now professor of forensic anthropology at the Middle Tennessee State University, told AFP. "I don't think North Korea is refusing to give dog tags when it has more but it probably doesn't have dog tags lying around," he said. "So when... only one dog tag was provided, it's probably not to tease the US but rather that it was sent because it could offer clues to the remains." DNA analysis, skeletal studies of bones, dental records and details of where the remains were found play a key role in such investigations, he said. "It's a very thorough process with many, many procedures so it takes a long time," he said. "If it's identified quickly, it would be around five to six months, but if not, it could take decades." More than 35,000 Americans were killed on the Korean Peninsula during the war and around 7,700 of them are still considered missing, including 5,300 in North Korea alone. Between 1990 and 2005 229 sets of remains from the North were repatriated, but those operations were suspended when ties worsened over Pyongyang's banned nuclear weapons programme.

* North Korea transfers remains of soldiers from 1950-53 Korean War * Transfer seen as positive gesture after landmark June summit * US aircraft takes remains to South Korea North Korea transferred 55 small, flag-draped cases carrying the suspected remains of US soldiers killed in the Korean War on Friday, officials said, a first step in implementing an agreement reached in a landmark summit in June. The repatriation of remains of US soldiers missing in the 1950-53 conflict is seen as a modest diplomatic coup for US President Donald Trump because it was one of the agreements reached during his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore. "After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong Un," Trump wrote on Twitter. A White House statement about two hours earlier said: "We are encouraged by North Korea's actions and the momentum for positive change." A US military transport plane flew to an airfield in North Korea's northeastern city of Wonsan to bring the remains to Osan air base in South Korea, the White House statement said. Soldiers in dress uniforms with white gloves were seen slowly carrying 55 small cases covered with the blue-and-white United Nations insignia, placing them one by one into silver vans waiting on the tarmac in Osan. A soldier carries a casket containing the remains of a US soldier at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.  Straight-backed officers looked on next to the flags of the United States, South Korea and the United Nations. A formal repatriation ceremony would be held at Osan on Wednesday, the White House said. The remains would then be flown to Hawaii for further processing under the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the UN Command said in a statement. The transfer of the remains coincided with the 65th anniversary of the 1953 armistice that ended fighting between North Korean and Chinese forces on one side and South Korean and US-led forces under the UN Command on the other. The two Koreas are technically still at war because a peace treaty was never signed. Kim paid tribute to the North's Korean War "martyrs" and to Chinese soldiers killed in the conflict, while attending a gathering of war veterans to mark the anniversary, state media KCNA said. More than 7,700 US troops who fought in the Korean War remain unaccounted for, with about 5,300 of those lost in what is now North Korea. Goodwill gesture The pledge to transfer war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim at the June summit and, while it has taken longer than some US officials had hoped, the handover will rekindle hopes for progress in nuclear talks. Kim committed in a broad summit statement to work towards denuclearisation but Pyongyang has offered no details about how it might go about this. South Korea welcomed the return of the remains, calling it "meaningful progress that could contribute to fostering trust" between Pyongyang and Washington. The two Koreas agreed to hold general-level military talks on Tuesday to discuss ways to implement their own summit in April in which they vowed to defuse tensions, Seoul's defence ministry said on Friday. Pyongyang has renewed calls for a declaration of the end of the Korean War, calling it the "first process for peace" and an important way Washington can add heft to security guarantees it has pledged in return for North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons. The US State Department says Washington is committed to building a peace mechanism to replace the armistice when North Korea has denuclearised. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has led the US negotiating effort, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs despite of its pledge to denuclearise, even as he argued that the United States was making progress in talks with Pyongyang. Pompeo said North Korea had begun to dismantle a missile test site, something Kim also promised in Singapore, and called it "a good thing, steps forward". However, he said Kim needed to follow through on his summit commitments to denuclearise. The UN Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, banning luxury goods said to include recreational sports equipment. The United States has blocked a request by the International Olympic Committee to transfer sports equipment to North Korea so its athletes can participate in the Olympic Games, United Nations diplomats said on Thursday. Before Friday's transfer of remains, the United States and North Korea had worked on so-called joint field activities to recover Korean War remains from 1996-2005. Washington halted those operations, citing concerns about the safety of its personnel as Pyongyang stepped up its nuclear programme. More than 400 caskets of remains found in North Korea were returned to the United States between the 1990s and 2005, with the bodies of some 330 other Americans also accounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Pentagon officials have said discussions with North Korea have included resuming field operations in the North to recover remains. The programme helped bring in vital hard currency to North Korea, which has been under US-led sanctions for decades. However, reviving it could complicate US efforts to persuade countries around the world to maintain economic pressure on Pyongyang over its ballistic and nuclear programmes.

A prominent South Korean lawmaker who was being probed over a bribery scandal has committed suicide, police said yesterday.  Roh Hoe-chan, a three-term lawmaker of the left-leaning Justice Party had been under investigation for allegedly receiving $44,300 (50mn won) from a powerful political blogger linked to many top politicians.  The blogger, widely known by his online nickname “Druking”, is currently on trial for using illegal hacking programmes to sway public opinion on Naver, the South’s top online portal.  “Druking” is accused of artificially increasing the number of positive responses-the equivalent of Facebook’s “Like” function-to tens of thousands of online comments on Naver that attacked or supported politicians or political parties in a bid to win personal favours. In a suicide note left in a Seoul apartment, Roh admitted he had received money from the blogger, but denied he had offered any favour in return, the Yonhap news agency said.  He had been expected to be summoned soon by prosecutors for questioning.  Police said Roh was found dead at the gate of the same apartment building and that it appeared he had jumped to his death. Roh was a prominent labour rights activist before becoming a lawmaker in 2004. The South’s presidential Blue House offered condolences over the “heartbreaking event.” “I express my deepest condolences over his death from the depths of my heart,” Huh Ik-bum, a senior prosecutor leading the probe over the scandal, told reporters.  “I personally admired him as a politician,” he said.  South Korea has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, and suicides of public figures - from politicians to businessmen - embroiled in humiliating scandals  make frequent headlines.

Disgraced South Korean president Park Geun-hye was convicted of charges including illegally receiving funds from the country's spy agency on Friday and given eight more years in prison, on top of her current term. Park, the South's first female president, was impeached last year after huge street protests over a sprawling scandal, and was jailed for 24 years for corruption and abuse of power in April. Friday's penalty - issued in her absence after she refused to attend the Seoul Central District Court - came after a separate trial for pocketing money from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and improperly intervening in 2016 in the selection of her ruling party's parliamentary candidates. The Seoul Central District Court gave Park six years for taking 3.3 billion won ($2.9 million) from the spy agency, and two years for the electoral offence. The penalties apply consecutively, meaning the 66-year-old now faces a total of 32 years in prison. "The accused received some three billion won over three years from the three NIS chiefs. Through this crime, the accused incurred a considerable amount of loss to the state treasury," said senior judge Seong Chang-ho at the Seoul Central District Court. Three former NIS chiefs testified they had funnelled the funds to Park on her orders, the court said. The judge rebuked Park, who denied the charges, for being "un-cooperative" throughout the court hearing and questioning by prosecutors.  Park allegedly squandered the taxpayer money on maintaining her private house, financing a boutique where her secret confidante Choi Soon-sil - the central figure in the corruption scandal - had Park's clothes made and other private purposes, including massage treatment. Choi was found to have taken advantage of her "long private ties" with Park to extort bribes worth millions of dollars from businesses including telecommunications giant Samsung and retail conglomerate Lotte. She is serving a 20-year sentence for abuse of power, bribery and meddling in state affairs.