SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s foreign minister says Seoul is considering lifting some of its unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang to create more momentum for diplomacy aimed at improving relations and defusing the nuclear crisis.
Kang Kyung-wha told lawmakers that the government is reviewing whether to lift sanctions South Korea imposed on the North in 2010 following a deadly attack on a warship that killed 45 South Korean sailors.
Seoul then effectively shut down all cross-border economic cooperation except for a joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, where business activities and investment were also scaled back. Seoul shut down the Kaesong factory park in February 2016 in retaliation of a North Korean nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
Seoul’s potential removal of unilateral sanctions would be a largely symbolic move as it’s virtually impossible for South Korea to resume joint economic projects with North Korea under U.S.-led international sanctions, which have been strengthened considerably since 2016 as the North accelerated its nuclear and missile tests.
ISTANBUL (AP) — A private Turkish television channel close to the country’s president has aired surveillance video of missing writer Jamal Khashoggi walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and a black van leaving later for the consul’s home.
News channel 24 aired the video, suggesting that Khashoggi was inside of the black Mercedes Vito. The channel said the van then drove some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to the consul’s home, where it parked inside a garage.
Turkish officials say they fear Khashoggi was killed at the consulate last week. Saudi Arabia has dismissed the allegations as “baseless.”
The kingdom did not respond to requests for comment.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An immigration case before the Supreme Court pits the government against immigrants it wants to deport following crimes they have committed in the United States.
The issue in the case has to do with when federal law gives immigration authorities the ability to hold immigrants in custody and deny them a hearing to argue for their release while they try to avoid being deported. The case before the Justices involved mostly long-term green card holders who have been convicted of a broad range of crimes that make them eligible to be deported.
Immigration law says that noncitizens convicted of certain crimes should be detained when they are released from federal or state custody and then held while an immigration court decides whether or not they should be deported.