The 69-year-old former photojournalist suffers from lung disease and knows he is going to die — but that has not stopped him pursuing his passion for photography.

He took black and white pictures of other patients at the Assisi Hospice happily involved in various activities, and put 19 of them on display in an exhibition.

Lee said he wanted to send a message that there is no reason to give up on life even in your dying days.

“I didn’t come here to die. I still want to take pictures, there is no reason for me to stop taking pictures,” said Lee, dressed in a hospital gown, speaking softly and haltingly.

“People come with the mindset that when you go to a hospice, you’re going to die. And I wanted to change that. The only way I can do it is through my pictures,” he said.

Lee used to work for magazines in the city-state and in his younger days covered major news events in Southeast Asia.

He is facing the inevitable with calm.

“There’s no point being afraid… If you’re afraid to die, you’re a sad man,” said the divorced father of two sons.

He added that he hoped people would remember him as “a crazy old man”.

The destruction revived horrific memories in Mexico on the anniversary of another massive quake in 1985, the disaster-prone country’s deadliest ever.

It struck just two hours after the country held a national earthquake drill, as it does every year on the anniversary of the 1985 quake, which killed at least 10,000 people.

One of the most gut-wrenching scenes was at the Enrique Rebsamen primary school on Mexico City’s south side, whose three floors collapsed into one, trapping students and teachers inside.

Twenty-one children and five adults were killed, said Major Jose Luis Vergara of the Mexican navy, who was coordinating a rescue effort that involved hundreds of soldiers, police, civilian volunteers and rescue dogs.

He said another 30 to 40 people remained trapped, while 11 children have been rescued so far.

Emergency workers found a teacher and a student alive beneath the rubble and are trying to get them out, he said.

But the situation was precarious. Late into the night, part of the wreckage collapsed as rescuers continued their search.

Local media reports said soldiers had administered oxygen to one trapped child through a tube.

President Enrique Pena Nieto, who rushed to the site, warned the death toll could rise.

“Unfortunately, many people have lost their lives, including children,” he said in a national address.

The devastation struck across a swath of central states and the death toll as of early Wednesday was 216, the head of the national disaster response agency, Luis Felipe Puente, said on Twitter.

In a sign of the ongoing confusion gripping the country, he had at one point put the death toll at 248.

In addition to Mexico City, people were also killed in Puebla, Morelos, Mexico state and Guerrero.

‘Nightmare’

Well after nightfall, rescue crews and volunteers in Mexico City — home to 20 million people — were still clawing through the rubble of dozens of collapsed buildings looking for survivors and bodies.

Rescue workers reported that families were getting WhatsApp messages pleading for help from desperate relatives trapped under debris.

Memories of the devastating 1985 earthquake surged to the surface on what was meant to be a low-key 32nd anniversary.

Adding to the national sense of vulnerability, the quake also came just 12 days after another temblor that killed nearly 100 people and left more than 200 injured, mainly in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

Many in the capital ran outdoors when walls around them swayed and cracked.

“I’m so worried. I can’t stop crying. It’s the same nightmare as in 1985,” Georgina Sanchez, 52, sobbed to AFP in a plaza in the capital.

The quake, which occurred in the early afternoon, caused massive damage in the bustling city centre.

“It was horrible,” said Leiza Visaj Herrera, 27. “I had to hold on to the ground.”

Scenes of chaos erupted in the quake’s aftermath. Traffic jammed to a standstill at blanked-out stop lights, and anxious people ran between vehicles as ambulances tried to make headway, sirens blaring.

In several locations, large crowds of people clambered on buildings that were now piles of stone and tangled metal, trying to pull people out.

Emergency workers held up signs commanding “Silence” so crews could listen for the sounds of any survivors.

Afraid to go home

Patients were evacuated from the capital’s hospitals, wheeled out on beds and wheelchairs.

At one collapsed building in the Roma district, dozens of people dug through rubble as they waited for the arrival of heavy machinery to move the massive chunks of stone. Officials called out for more volunteers, and for water.

Mexico City’s international airport closed for more than three hours following the quake. The stock market was forced to shut.

In Puebla, a picturesque colonial city near the quake’s epicentre, several churches were damaged and one collapsed, killing 11 people, officials said.

Fearful residents whose homes were damaged camped out for the night on the street or in parks.

On the clogged and darkened roads, muggers came out at night to assault motorists.

Trump’s prayers

Officials in several countries responded to the quake with offers of help.

Honduras sent a 36-strong rescue team.

US President Donald Trump, who has forged an antagonistic relationship with Mexico, tweeted: “God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: “Devastating news from Mexico City. My thoughts are with those affected by today’s earthquake — Canada will be ready to help our friends.”

Mexico sits atop five tectonic plates, making it prone to earthquakes, and has two long coastlines that are frequently battered by hurricanes.//AFP

London said it had “deep concern” about human rights abuses and would not be resuming the military courses unless there was an “acceptable resolution” to the ongoing Rohingya crisis.

Communal violence has torn through Myanmar’s western Rakhine state since Muslim minority Rohingya militants staged deadly attacks on police posts on August 25.

An army-led fightback has left scores dead and sent more than 420,000 Rohingya fleeing the mainly Buddhist country into neighbouring Bangladesh.

“In light of the ongoing violence in Burma’s Rakhine state, the growing humanitarian crisis it has caused, and our deep concern about the human rights abuses that are taking place, we have decided to suspend the educational courses provided to the Burmese military until there is an acceptable resolution to the current situation.

“We call on the Burmese armed forces to take immediate steps to stop the violence in Rakhine and ensure the protection of all civilians, to allow full access for humanitarian aid and to facilitate the civilian government’s implementation of the Rakhine Advisory Commission’s recommendations in full.”

The year-long commission, led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, tasked with healing divisions between the Rohingya and local Buddhists, urged immediate action to heal the divide.

Britain’s junior foreign minister Mark Field has said the UK armed forces provided vocational courses, focused on language training, governance, accountability, ethics, human rights and international law to the Myanmar military.

“Exposing them to how modern militaries operate in a democracy is more effective than isolating them,” he told parliament on September 5.

Britain did not provide combat training, Field said.

“The UK is, and will remain, a very strong supporter of continuing the EU arms embargo” on Myanmar, he added.

Some 150 members of parliament wrote to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on September 6 calling for the training programme to be suspended.

Britain is the former colonial power in Myanmar, which gained independence in 1948.//AFP

Appearing before the 193-member body that emerged from the ashes of World War II, Trump boasted of America’s military strength, signaled he is ready to rip up a nuclear accord with the “murderous regime” in Tehran, and berated US foes from Pyongyang to Caracas.

“The United States has great strength and patience,” Trump said, as he followed in the footsteps of US presidents from Harry Truman to Barack Obama, “but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

“Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime,” he said, using his Twitter-friendly new nickname for the North Korean dictator. “The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary.”

Throughout the 42-minute remarks, Trump did little to temper his trademark tough-guy language for the assembled statesmen and women, warning that swathes of the world were “going to hell” and declaring any trade with North Korea an “outrage.”

In language some commentators compared to former president George W. Bush’s “axis of evil” speech, Trump pilloried Iran as a corrupt “rogue state” and threatened to rip up the landmark international deal struck in 2015 to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.

“Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it,” Trump declared.

“Believe me. It is time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran’s government end its pursuit of death and destruction.”

But, the US leader added, the greatest threat to the Tehran regime was not the American military but the restless Iranian people.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif responded on Twitter: “Trump’s ignorant hate speech belongs in medieval times — not the 21st century UN — unworthy of a reply. Fake empathy for Iranians fools no one.”

‘America’s interests’

The packed General Assembly hall greeted Trump’s tough rhetoric and calls for nation states — rather than supranational bodies — to form the basis of the global order with some polite clapping.

But a few pauses for applause were met with stony silence.

Trump did not back away, suggesting his populist “America First” campaign rhetoric should be an example to other UN members: “Our respect for sovereignty is also a call for action. All people deserve a government that cares for their safety, their interests.”

“As long as I hold this office, I will defend America’s interests above all else, but in fulfilling our obligations to our nations, we also realize that it’s in everyone’s interests to seek the future where all nations can be sovereign, prosperous and secure.”

After decades in which America has led the drive toward a global rules-based order, Trump indicated his foreign policy would define the national interest much more narrowly.

“For too long the American people were told that mammoth, multinational trade deals, unaccountable international tribunals and powerful global bureaucracies were the best way to promote their success,” Trump said.

“But as those promises flowed, millions of jobs vanished and thousands of factories disappeared.”

The speech provoked strong responses almost immediately — drawing praise from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump notably made no mention of the Middle East peace process — nor of climate change, nor the crisis in Myanmar — during his remarks, and scarcely touched on relations with China and Russia.

But Trump’s tough talk on Iran delighted the Israeli leader who dedicated much of his own later speech to alternating praise for Trump with a promise to fight what he said was an “Iranian Curtain” descending across the Middle East.

In Washington, Trump’s speech was welcomed by many prominent Republicans, including Senator Orrin Hatch, who welcomed Trump’s stark challenge to North Korea’s Kim.

“Good for him,” Hatch told reporters. “It’s about time that somebody talked turkey to that little bastard over there.”

‘Irresponsible’

But foreign policy experts were less impressed, with some saying Trump was attempting to fashion an ad hoc policy doctrine to justify and unite a diverse series of campaign promises and impetuous Tweets.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the United States would forfeit the trust of the international community if it abandons the nuclear accord with Tehran.

“If the United States were not to adhere to the commitments and trample upon this agreement, this will mean it will carry with it the subsequent lack of trust of countries,” Rouhani, in New York to attend the UN General Assembly, told NBC.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in his own UN address, said ending the deal would be a “grave error, and not respecting it would be irresponsible.”

The report by the World Health Organization (WHO) found there is a lack of new treatments being developed to combat antibiotic-resistant infections, such as tuberculosis which kills around 250,000 people each year.

“There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including tuberculosis (TB), otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The report also identified 12 classes of deadly bacteria, such as those that cause pneumonia or urinary tract infections, which are increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics and urgently in need of new treatments.

While resistance to antibiotics is inevitable over time, it has been accelerated by the misuse of drugs, the WHO said.

When the most common antibiotics fail to work, more expensive types are prescribed, resulting in longer illness and treatment, often in hospital.

Cases are increasingly reported in which no existing drug works.

“Pharmaceutical companies and researchers must urgently focus on new antibiotics against certain types of extremely serious infections that can kill patients in a matter of days because we have no line of defence,” said Dr Suzanne Hill, the director of the agency’s department of essential medicines.

The WHO study found that new drugs in the clinical pipeline are modifications of existing medicines and are only short-term solutions.

Out of 51 new drugs under development, the agency classifies only eight as adding any value to current treatments.

There are also very few oral treatments in the works, which are essential for treating infections outside hospitals.

Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and the Wellcome Trust have pledged more than 56 million euros ($67 million) to help counter antimicrobial resistance.

But Dr Mario Raviglione, the head of the WHO’s global TB initiative, said more than $800 million each year is needed to fund research into drug-resistant TB alone.

The WHO warned however that new treatments alone would not be sufficient and stressed the importance of responsible use of antibiotics in people and animals.

AFTER MYANMAR’S leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in a national address yesterday that she did not fear global scrutiny over the Rohingya crisis, UN human rights investigators said they needed “full and unfettered” access to Rakhine state to investigate.

“It is important for us to see with our own eyes the sites of these alleged violations,” the head of the UN-backed fact-finding mission, Marzuki Darusman, told the UN Human Rights Council. “There is a grave humanitarian crisis underway that requires urgent attention.”

The mission was set up in March to investigate possible human rights violations across Myanmar, with a particular focus on alleged crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

In her live televised address from Nay Pyi Taw, Suu Kyi appealed for outside observers to visit Myanmar and see the situation for themselves – despite the severe restrictions her government has placed on access to the conflict zone in Rakhine state.

Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a national address in Naypyidaw on September 19, 2017. Aung San Suu Kyi said on September 19 she “feels deeply” for the suffering of “all people” caught up in conflict scorching through Rakhine state, her first comments on a crisis that also mentioned Muslims displaced by violence. // AFP PHOTO

“We invite you to join us, to talk to us, to discuss with us, to go with us to the problem areas, where we can guarantee security for you,” she said. “We would like you to join us there, see for yourself what is happening, think for yourself, what can you do to remove these problems?”

Conflict in Rakhine state has spiked since late last month after insurgents attacked security outposts, prompting a heavy-handed “clearance operation” by Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, that has forced more than 410,000 Muslim Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh, which had already sheltered more than 300,000 Rohingya who left Myanmar between 2005 and 2015.

“We feel deeply for the suffering of all the people who have been caught up in the conflict,” Suu Kyi said. “Those who have had to flee their homes are many. Not just Muslims and [ethnic] Rakhines, but also small minority groups,” she said, while avoiding using the term “Rohingya”.

Myanmar political elite and much of society have never recognised Rohingya as an ethnic group and have refused them citizenship rights.

Myanmar citizens hold the national flag and placards as they attend a public gathering held to listen to the live speech made by Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in front of City Hall in Yangon, Myanmar, 19 September 2017. // EPA-EFE

The national address was seen as a pre-emptive measure to forestall criticism at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, which Suu Kyi has refused to attend. She delivered her speech in English in front of diplomats and representatives from international organisations, while she called for patience and understanding regarding the unfurling crisis in her “fragile democracy”.

But she offered no solutions to what the UN has called “ethnic cleansing” in Rakhine state, where army-led operations are accused of atrocities and burning Rohingya homes, and she refused to point the finger at the military.

Rights group Amnesty International said the Nobel peace laureate was “burying her head in the sand” over documented army abuses and claims of rape, murder and the systematic clearing of scores of villages.

Inside Myanmar, Suu Kyi’s supporters say the 72-year-old leader lacks the authority to rein in the military, which ran the country for 50 years and only ceded limited powers to the civilian government.

“She is trying to claw back some degree of credibility with the international community, without saying too much that will get her in trouble with the [military] and Burmese people who don’t like the Rohingya in the first place,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

While the international community expressed disappointment, Suu Kyi’s address was widely welcomed at home as thousands of people gathered in public places in many major cities such as Yangon and Mandalay to show their support for the de facto national leader.

People hold the Myanmar national flag and placards as they attend a public gathering to listen to the live speech of Myanmar’s State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in front of City Hall in Yangon on September 19, 2017. // AFP PHOTO

Social media users, particularly on Facebook, changed their profile pictures to show support for Suu Kyi and the government’s stance on the crisis.

A Yangon-based intellectual, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Rohingya were not a Myanmar ethnic minority. He said “Bengalis” had crossed the porous border into Rakhine state over many years, adding that in towns close to the border, 98 per cent of the population were “Bengalis”, while ethnic Rakhine had been mistreated.

“This message has never been reported. Now as usual, western countries and media are using this to get attention and make the world know that they are doing great things. It is just one side of the coin, which I view as unfair,” he told The Nation.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, whose administration has aligned its stance with that of Myanmar’s government, said Thailand was ready to provide support on a humanitarian basis. “We have helped them all the time, tell us if they need more help,” he said, responding to reporters asking about Suu Kyi’s speech.

    “It is important for us to see with our own eyes the sites of these alleged violations”, the head of UN-backed fact-finding mission, Marzuki Darusman, told the Human Rights Council, asking for “full and unfettered access to the country.”

“There is a grave humanitarian crisis underway that requires urgent attention,” added Darusman, who is leading an investigation that Myanmar has vowed to reject. //AFP

The Federal Court in Malaysia has granted the final award to the Lao government, ending the case, the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment said in a press statement.

The government granted two separate concessions relating to coal mining and construction of a 700MW thermal power plant in the Hongsa region, Xayaboury province, in 1992 and 1994 respectively.

Nearly 13 years after the concessions were granted, the said investor had consistently failed to fulfill its commitment by never achieving the full development of the Hongsa thermal power project.

The government, therefore, was compelled to terminate the project concessions in 2007 in order to maintain the country’s development plan.

To avoid any further delay, the government requested potential investors including Banpu Public Company Limited to submit a proposal for the timely development of the power project.

The proposal submitted by Banpu Public Company Limited was later selected out of two other contenders due to Banpu’s proven experience in power plant development as well as its expertise in coal mining.

Banpu Public Company Limited immediately fulfilled its commitment and, as a consequence, three 600MW generators totalling 1,800MW, which are responsible for electricity production for sale to both Electricite du Laos and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, had been installed within the commercial operations schedule.

“The government of the Lao PDR is proud to have put the long delayed Hongsa power project into operation to serve the needs of both Thailand and the Lao PDR,” the ministry said in the statement. However, the disappointed Thai-Lao Lignite Co., Ltd. initiated an arbitration process in Kuala Lumpur against the Lao government, claiming breach of contract. Over the Lao government’s strong objections, Thai-Lao Lignite Co., Ltd. wrongfully sought damages from the two concession contracts initially granted to Thai-Lao Lignite Co., Ltd.

The arbitrators also erred in allowing the damages, which in their December 2009 ruling awarded over US$25 million to Thai-Lao Lignite Co., Ltd. with interest running at 9 percent per year. The Lao government refused the enforcement of the erroneous arbitration award and, simultaneously, requested the Malaysian court, where the arbiter was seated, to �set aside’ the award in 2013.

After reviewing the case, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur decided to set aside the arbitration award in its entirety. After almost three years of legal appeals by the investor, on August 17, 2017, the Federal Court in Malaysia denied the Thai-Lao Lignite Co., Ltd.’s appeal thus bringing the long case to an end, with a clear and important victory for the Lao governmentใ

Communal violence has torn through Rakhine state since August 25, leaving hundreds dead and driving more than 410,000 of the Rohingya minority from Myanmar into Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, has been decried for failing to speak up publicly for the stateless Rohingya or urge restraint from the military.

But in 30-minute televised speech Tuesday she reached out to her critics, deploying the soaring rhetoric that once made her a darling of the global rights community.

“Hate and fear are the main scourges of our world,” she said.

“We don’t want Myanmar to be a nation divided by religious beliefs or ethnicity… we all have the right to our diverse identities.”

While expressing her sorrow for “all” groups displaced by violence, she said her country stood ready “at any time” to take back refugees subject to a “verification” process.

It was not immediately clear how many of the estimated 410,000 Rohingya who have fled Myanmar would qualify to return.

But the subject of their claims to live Myanmar is at the heart of a toxic debate about the Muslim group.

Myanmar’s army has previously it will not take back people linked with “terrorists” — suggesting many came from the hundreds of Rohingya villages that have subsequently been burnt to the ground.

Inside Myanmar, supporters say the 72-year-old lacks the power to rein in the army, with whom she is in a delicate power-sharing arrangement.

The UN has accused Myanmar’s army of “ethnic cleansing” over a campaign of alleged murder and arson that has left scores of Rohingya villages in ashes.

The army denies that, insisting its operations are a proportional response to the late August raids by Rohingya militants, who they label “extremist Bengali terrorists”.

Since then just under half of Rakhine’s Rohingya population has poured into Bangladesh, where they now languish in one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

A further 30,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have also been displaced — apparent targets of the August 25 attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militant group.

Suu Kyi skipped this week’s UN General Assembly in New York to manage the crisis at home and deliver her televised address — the biggest yet of her time in office.

– Siege mentality –

===================

Analysts say Suu Kyi must walk a treacherous line between global opinion and Islamophobic anti-Rohingya views at home, where the military has curdled hatred for the Muslim minority.

While stories of weary and hungry Rohingya civilians streaming into Bangladesh have dominated global headlines, there is little sympathy for the Muslim group among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority.

Many reject the existence of a Rohingya ethnicity and insist they are “Bengalis” — illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

That narrative has justified the denial of citizenship for the estimated one million Rohingya who lived in Rakhine before the recent crisis.

Loathing for the Rohingya has brought the public, including prominent pro-democracy activists, into an unlikely alignment with an army that once had them under its heel.

A siege mentality has emerged in Myanmar with the UN, international NGOs and foreign media the focus of ire for apparent pro-Rohingya bias.

Many Facebook users changed their profile picture on Tuesday to carry a banner with a photo of ‘The Lady’ and saying “We stand with you Daw Aung San Suu Kyi” — using an honorific.

Tensions over the status of the Rohingya have been brewing for years in Myanmar, with bouts of anti-Muslim violence erupting around the country as Buddhist hardliners fan fears of an Islamic takeover.

Although the military stepped down from outright junta rule in 2011, it kept control of security policy and key levers of government.

Any overt break from the army’s policy in Rakhine could enrage the generals and derail Suu Kyi’s efforts to prevent a rollback on recent democratic gains.

Observers say the military may be deliberately destabilising her government with one eye on 2020 elections.

Commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing has emerged during the crisis as an unexpectedly popular figure, pitching himself as a defender Myanmar’s territorial integrity and the Buddhist faith.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho is expected to deliver a defensive stance on his homeland’s current nuclear drive at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meeting that will be attended by global leaders.

The reclusive nation’s nuclear and missile provocations are likely to top the agenda of this year’s assembly, slated to launch Tuesday.

Ri is scheduled to take centre stage in New York on Friday to deliver a keynote speech, according to Yonhap News Agency, which cited unnamed sources from the world body. The speech, which comes after North Korea’s latest missile liftoff last week and its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, was initially expected to take place Monday.

The UN speeches by North Korea’s chief delegates have so far focused on defending Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes and have been peppered with criticism against the United States.

Possible signs of interaction between Ri and other global leaders at the meeting are expected to be closely scrutinized. South Korean President Moon Jae-in will deliver his maiden address Thursday, after his US counterpart Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday.

Ri’s South Korean and US counterparts Kang Kyung-wha and Rex Tillerson will also attend several back-to-back meetings, but it is unclear whether the two will meet with the Pyongyang official.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Kang is expected to engage in bilateral meetings and multilateral commitments in line with her key task of aiding President Moon throughout the trip.

However, despite the physical proximity of the foreign ministers of the two Koreas and the US, a UN source said it is “realistically difficult” for Tillerson and Ri to engage in a proper discussion under the current circumstances.

“It’s realistic to say that any form of contact between the US and North Korea is difficult at the moment with the North’s ongoing nuclear and missile provocations and its latest experiments,” said the source.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry also said there is no plan for official talks between Kang and Ri.

Kang shared a brief encounter with Ri at the Asean Regional Forum meeting in Manila in early August, when she mentioned she was “looking forward to a swift response” regarding the North’s silence toward the South’s proposal of military and humanitarian talks. Ri, however, expressed a skeptical response, insisting that Seoul’s offer to revive dialogue “lacks sincerity.”

Tillerson, on the other hand , as noticeably absent at the banquet for foreign ministers and did not show any signs of contact with the North Korean minister throughout the forum.

The US Secretary of State said Sunday that Washington would continue to carry out a “peaceful pressure campaign” against the North, but warned that the “military option will be the only one left” if all diplomatic efforts fail.

Kang and Tillerson reaffirmed the South Korea-US bilateral alliance during a phone conversation last Friday, agreeing to take “powerful” and “stern” measures to bring North Korea to dialogue and make the country relinquish its provocations against the international community.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government has decided to refrain from questioning the eligibility of North Korea’s UN membership this year, reflecting Seoul’s current approach of dialogue and sanctions toward the North.

“The execution of new sanctions drawn by the United Nations Security Council is top priority,” a government official said Monday.

“Even the US is not discussing the issue of North Korea’s UN membership at the moment,” he said.

Under the previous administration, South Korea’s former Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se publically accused North Korea of “ridiculing” the authority of the United Nations and claimed it was time to reconsider its place in the “peace-loving UN,” during last year’s address to the UN General Assembly.

The accusation closely followed Pyongyang’s fifth nuclear experiment last September.