Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
September 3, 2018
Nissan launches China-focused electric car
GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — A Nissan electric sedan that is the first in a
wave of dozens of planned lower-cost electric models being developed by global
auto brands for China will soon roll off an assembly line. The Sylphy Zero
Emission has started production at a factory operated by Nissan Motor Co. and a
Chinese partner, Dongfeng Motor Group. Automakers, including General
Motors and Volkswagen, plan to release electric models designed for China
starting this year. The government is pressing the industry to accelerate
development of the technology. Brands including Nissan, Tesla, GM, and Audi
sell imported electrics in China but their high price limits their appeal. The
Sylphy is based on Nissan’s electric Leaf. The Sylphy costs 166,000 yuan
($25,850) after government subsidies, or just more than half the sticker price of
the Leaf.
Indonesian officials defend parade of veiled kids with guns
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian officials are defending a street
parade that involved veiled kindergarteners carrying replica weapons, but
police say they’ll arrest the person who uploaded a viral video of the event to
Facebook. The video of children dressed head-to-toe in black marching with
wooden guns has caused a sensation in Indonesia, which in May suffered one of
its worst attacks in years when militants used their children as suicide bombers
in the second-largest city, Surabaya. The parade was one of the thousands held
across Indonesia to mark independence. Probolinggo police chief Alfian Nurrizal
told The Associated Press that police are investigating who uploaded the video.
He said it may have been edited to convey the wrong impression. Local media
reported that education minister Muhajir Effendy said the parade was
misinterpreted.
China’s Didi suspends one carpooling service after killing
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has fired two
executives and will suspend one of its carpooling services nationwide after a
woman was allegedly raped and killed by a driver in eastern China, the company
said. The moves come as the country’s largest online ride-hailing platform
scrambles to address public complaints it isn’t doing enough to ensure the safety
of its users, who it says book 30 million rides daily. The killing of the female
passenger was the latest violent crime involving a Didi driver, only three
months after another Didi driver allegedly killed a flight attendant. Police in the
city of Yueqing in Zhejiang province said they arrested a Didi driver who
admitted to raping and killing the 20-year-old woman. A day later, Didi Chuxing
apologized, saying it has “inescapable responsibility” for the incident. The
victim had used the carpooling service in the afternoon and after getting into a
car, sent a text message to her friends calling for help, police said. Didi Chuxing
halted its “Hitch” service, it said, referring to a carpooling service, one of several
ride-hailing options available on Didi’s platform.
Duterte faces new “crimes against humanity” complaint
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — Relatives of several people slain in the
Philippine president’s anti-drug campaign have asked the International
Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute him for alleged crimes against humanity, in
the second such request for a ruling on thousands of deaths that have occurred
during the crackdown. Lawyer Edre Olalia said a complaint against President
Rodrigo Duterte was sent to an ICC prosecutor by e-mail that accuses him of
ordering, inciting, or tolerating the drug killings from the start of his presidency
in mid-2016 to August. Olalia said a similar complaint against Duterte filed by a
Filipino lawyer before the ICC last year focuses on killings during an earlier
crackdown by Duterte when he was a mayor. Duterte denies condoning
extrajudicial killings and has moved to withdraw the Philippines from the
ICC.
China denies visa for BuzzFeed writer in likely retaliation
BEIJING (AP) — China has refused to renew the journalist visa for an
American correspondent for BuzzFeed News in what appears to be punishment
for her reporting on topics considered sensitive by the authorities. Megha
Rajagopalan tweeted that the foreign ministry declined to issue her a new visa
in May. She said the ministry indicated it was a procedural issue and that it was
unclear why. Asked about Rajagopalan’s case, the ministry responded with a
statement saying only that it handled such matters “according to laws and
regulations.” During her six years in China, Rajagopalan had reported
extensively on human-rights abuses and the plight of China’s Uighur
(pronounced WEE-gur) Muslim minority, among other subjects. China’s
government sometimes delays or refuses to issue or renew visas for journalists if
it is displeased with their reporting, their media outlets, or both. Those include a
reporter for the Al Jazeera television network who was forced to leave the
country in 2012 when her visa expired, and a correspondent for France’s L’Obs
magazine who had to leave in 2015. Rajagopalan has taken up a new position
with BuzzFeed reporting on technology and human-rights based in the Middle
East. In a statement, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said it found
Rajagopalan’s treatment “extremely regrettable and unacceptable for a
government that repeatedly insists it welcomes foreign media to cover the
country.” The club further said, “We are attempting to get clarity from the
Foreign Ministry on its reasoning for effectively ejecting a credentialed foreign
journalist from China.”
CURSORY CATCH-UP. Identification cards for Ham Sung-chan, left, and his wife Kim Hyung-ae for the Separated
Family Reunion meeting are shown by Ham during an interview at his house in Dongducheon, South Korea. After nearly 70
years of a separation forced by a devastating 1950-1953 war that killed and injured millions and cemented the division of
the Korean Peninsula into North and South, Ham, 93, and his North Korean brother only got a total of 12 hours together.
(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
“Way too short” — A 93-year-old
meets his North Korean brother
By Kim Tong-Hyung
The Associated Press
ONGDUCHEON, South Korea —
Ninety-three-year-old Ham Sung-
chan’s eyes widen with excitement as
he describes the shock and euphoria of reu-
niting with his baby brother, now 79, during
three days of family reunions in North Korea.
But there’s a deep and bitter regret, too, and
it stems from a simple bit of math: After nearly
70 years of a separation forced by a
devastating 1950-1953 war that killed and
injured millions and cemented the division of
the Korean Peninsula into North and South,
Ham and his North Korean brother only got a
total of 12 hours together.
Ham was one of the 197 South Koreans who
visited North Korea’s scenic Diamond
Mountain resort for the first set of rare
reunions with relatives in the North. The
heart-wrenching images of elderly Koreans
embracing each other for the last time
continued in a second set of reunions involving
around 300 South Koreans days later.
“There’s a large sense of dejection that has
set in,” said Ham, who described the details of
his trip in an Associated Press interview in his
home in Dongducheon, north of Seoul. “The
time we spent together was too short, way too
short. It wasn’t a week; it wasn’t 10 days. Just
after we met, we had to depart.”
Here’s how Ham described the brief but
intense time he spent with his North Korean
brother after so many decades apart:
Sleepless in Sokcho
Born in eastern North Korea, Ham was in
D
his 20s, selling fish and cosmetics in the South
when war broke out in June 1950 and pre-
vented him from returning to his hometown.
Ham thought his mother was still in the
North until he met her in the South in 1983,
several years before her death. But he did not
expect any of the three brothers he’d left in
North Korea to be alive. If they weren’t killed
by the war or North Korea’s devastating
1990s-era famine, he thought they would have
died of old age.
One of his brothers, however, 79-year-old
Ham Dong Chan, was frail but still alive and
eager to meet his oldest brother. But Ham’s joy
when he learned of this soon gave way to
anxiety. His mind raced with endless
questions.
Who’s this person they say is my brother?
Will he resemble the skinny, quiet kid I
remember? What if I don’t recognize him? Did
he have a difficult life? Does he have grand-
children?
Ham’s two daughters and son bought gifts
for their uncle, filling four large bags with
underwear, long johns, duck-down parkas,
medicine, vitamins, sugar, candy, instant
noodles, and five boxes of “Choco Pies,” a brand
of South Korea-made chocolate-covered cakes
known to be popular among North Koreans.
The day before the reunions, Ham, his wife,
and younger daughter drove to a resort in the
South Korean coastal town of Sokcho where
the South Korean participants spent a night
before crossing into North Korea by bus.
Red Cross officials arranged health check-
ups for the participants, who were told not to
Continued on page 4
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83.85
4051.9
6.8298
2.0944
7.8484
70.982
14801
42018
110.99
8503.9
4.1316
113.84
122.18
3.263
53.466
67.646
3.7693
1.3712
1116.2
161.49
30.848
32.736
23312