South Korea Proposes Talks with North Korea to Formally End War

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called for talks with North Korea to formally end the long-running Korean war amid growing nuclear and military tensions.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict, triggered by a North Korean attack, ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Lee made the proposal in his speech at a ceremony marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.

He called for the two Koreas to avoid unnecessary confrontation and establish mechanisms to manage issues and prevent crises.

The President pledged to work toward transforming the armistice agreement between the two sides into a permanent peace, and called for talks among directly concerned parties to end the war.

The discussions could also help find effective ways to halt further development in North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, he said.

South Korea will fulfill its role as a “peacemaker” and stakeholder in stable relations on the Korean Peninsula, Lee said.

Reference Sources

1. thesunmy - South Korea proposes talks with North Korea to formally end war
2. thestarmy - Lee proposes talks with North to formally end Korean War
3. rappler - South Korea’s Lee urges talks with North Korea to replace armistice with peace
4. bloomberg - South Korea’s Lee Proposes Talks With North in Pursuit of Peace
5. aawsat - South Korea Urges Talks with North Korea to Replace Armistice with Peace

Japan’s 10-Year Bond Yield Hits Three-Decade High

Japan's benchmark 10-year bond yield reached a Three-Decade high on Monday, approaching the closely watched 3% level as a weak yen fuels inflation concerns and investors bet on an interest rate rise next month.

The benchmark 10-year government bond yield touched 2.930% on Monday, reaching its highest point since 1996. Bond yields move inversely to prices. Traders and analysts said the rising yield reflected investors' belief that inflation would accelerate because of a weak yen and high oil prices from the war in Iran. Investors were also pricing in the assumption that the Bank of Japan would raise interest rates in September.

The Bank of Japan should raise its benchmark interest rate at every meeting, with the goal of taking the rate above 2% in order to narrow the rate differential with the US and ease pressure on the yen.

The Japanese economy eked out modest growth in the second quarter despite the impact of the Iran war, official data showed Monday, but the reading fell short of market expectations. Higher oil prices have swollen Japan's import bill and led to higher prices for consumers, a situation worsened by the weak yen and eroding Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's popularity.

Economists had expected stronger growth of 0.5%, according to a Bloomberg news survey, after expanding by the same amount in the first quarter.

Reference Sources

1. ft - Japan’s 10-year bond yield hits three-decade high
2. bloomberg - BOJ Should Raise Rates at Every Meeting, Ex-Currency Chief Says
3. thejakartapost - TheJakartaPost
4. nikkei - 10-year JGB yields slip past 2.9% on faster BOJ tightening expectations
5. cnbc - Japan second-quarter GDP grows 1.1% on an annualized basis, missing expectations

Alibaba AI Downloads Pass Three Billion

Alibaba Group’s open-weight models have accumulated more than three billion global downloads in the past six months, eclipsing Meta platforms Inc, Alphabet Inc and domestic peers to become the world’s no.1 Artificial-Intelligence (AI) model.

Alibaba’s family of AI models, Qwen, has open-sourced more than 460 models and its Ecosystem has spawned 300,000-Plus derivatives, the Chinese tech company said in an emailed statement. Open models can be downloaded, customised and used as building blocks for new ai products, making adoption a gauge of which technologies developers are choosing to build on. That has made download and derivative-model figures one measure of influence in the Us-China AI race, as Chinese developers including Alibaba push capable models that are relatively cheap and easy to adapt.

Qwen’s rise suggests that strategy is gaining traction beyond China.

Reference Sources

1. thestarmy - Alibaba AI downloads pass three billion
2. cnbc - Alibaba answers Meta’s AI challenge with new laptop-ready model

The CommonWealth English daily news digest is a service curated by CommonWealth English team with the help of AI tools.  

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