North Korea resumes flights to Chinese city
Seoul, Sep 15 : North Korea has resumed flights between Pyongyang and the Chinese city of Dalian amid signs of improving ties between the allies, the media reported on Saturday.
According to local tourism agencies, a passenger plane of Air Koryo, the North's flag carrier, landed in the airport in Dalian on Thursday and returned to Pyongyang with nearly 70 people on board, Yonhap News Agency reported.
This marked the first North Korean airplane that had flown between the two cities since November 2006. There will be such flights every Thursday and Sunday.
The resumption of the Pyongyang-Dalian flights may reflect improving bilateral ties between North Korea and China after chilled relations over the North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping recently sent Li Zhanshu, Beijing's third-ranked official, as his special envoy to Pyongyang on the occasion of the North's 70th founding anniversary.
Li was seated next to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a military parade staged last week, and the North also hosted an art performance and banquet exclusively for Li and his delegation in an apparent bid to emphasize friendly ties between the two countries.
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PM Modi, RSS strengthening wall in path of SCs, STs, OBCs: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS were strengthening the wall standing in the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs, even as he acknowledged that the UPA took steps to weaken that wall but not to the extent it should have.
Addressing the 'Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan', Gandhi also referred to the function held on Constitution Day in Parliament and said that it is his guarantee, that "Modi has not read" the Constitution.
"If PM Modi would have read this book then what he does daily, he would not do it," Gandhi said, displaying a copy of the Constitution of India.
Gandhi said the country's whole system is pitted against Dalits, Adivasis and backward class people.
He said a wall obstructs the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs and Modi and the RSS are strengthening that wall by "adding cement to it".
"Slowly the wall (obstructing the path of SCs, STs, OBCs) is getting strengthened. Earlier, the UPA government gave MGNREGA, the land acquisition act, the right to food...those were ways to weaken that wall. Today, when I look back, I can say the UPA government did not weaken the wall to the extent it should have, it did not do it as strongly as it should have," Gandhi said.
"However, we used to make efforts to weaken that wall but they (the BJP) are strengthening that wall by adding concrete," the former Congress president said.
Gandhi said a caste survey being carried out in Telangana is a historic step and the Congress will do the same wherever it comes to power.
