IN BRIEF (Page 12)

China Daily | Updated: 2019-03-26 07:05

Korean Peninsula

Some DPRK officials return to liaison office

Officials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Monday made a surprise return to the joint liaison office with the Republic of Korea in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong, Seoul's Unification Ministry said. The ministry said in a statement that some DPRK staff came to the liaison office for shift work as usual early Monday morning. On Friday the DPRK had announced it would withdraw all of its staff from the liaison office. Officials from the two sides had a meeting in the morning, according to the ministry. The liaison office, which opened in September for the round-the-clock communications between the two neighbors, is now operating as usual, the ministry said.

Venezuela

Russian planes land for military cooperation

Russian aircraft arrived in Caracas during the weekend as part of ongoing military cooperation between the two countries, a Venezuelan official said on Sunday. Russian military officials are visiting to discuss equipment maintenance and training, and strategy, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Russian state news agency Sputnik reported on Sunday that two Russian planes arrived in Venezuela on Saturday "with equipment and personnel to fulfill technical military contracts". It gave no other details but quoted an unnamed official from the Russian embassy in Caracas saying "there is nothing mysterious" about the flights.

Norway

Passengers, crew safe as cruise ship docks

A cruise liner that ran into trouble in stormy seas off Norway reached port under its own steam on Sunday after hundreds of passengers were winched to safety by helicopter in a spectacular rescue operation. Escorted by tugboats, Viking Sky arrived in the port of Molde at around 4:15 pm. Nearly a third of its 1,373 passengers and crew had already been airlifted off the ship. The cruise liner lost power and started drifting on Saturday afternoon two kilometers off a stretch of Norwegian coastline notorious for shipwrecks. The captain sent out a help call, prompting authorities to launch the airlift in difficult conditions.

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(China Daily 03/26/2019 page12)