Pompeo heads back to North Korea with historic deal in play
Washington, Oct 5 : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads back this weekend to North Korea as the contours of a potentially historic deal begin to take shape, even if Kim Jong Un's regime publicly stays firm in demands.
The top US diplomat will pay his fourth visit this year to the one time US pariah as he looks to arrange another summit between Kim and President Donald Trump, who has declared himself "in love" with the strongman.
Pompeo arrives Saturday in Japan, a treaty-bound US ally which has been privately uneasy about Trump's rapid reconciliation with the totalitarian state, before he meets Sunday in Pyongyang with Kim.
Just a year after Trump threatened to wipe out North Korea, Pompeo is hopeful that diplomacy can coax Kim to give up the regime's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
"This is a long-term problem. This has been outstanding for decades. We've made more progress than has been made in an awfully long time," Pompeo told reporters on Wednesday.
Pompeo has repeatedly declined to be drawn out publicly on the shape of an eventual agreement. The United States has called for a comprehensive accord and rigorous enforcement of sanctions on North Korea in the meantime.
South Korea -- whose left-leaning president, Moon Jae-in, helped pave the way for Trump's diplomacy and who will meet Pompeo in Seoul after he visits Pyongyang -- gave a preview of what a deal may look like.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, in an interview with The Washington Post, said that the North could agree to dismantle Yongbyon, its signature nuclear site.
In exchange, the United States would declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War -- which closed with an armistice rather than a full-blown peace treaty -- but North Korea would stop short of delivering an exhaustive list of its nuclear facilities, she said.
Kang told the newspaper that the tradeoff would mark "a huge step forward in denuclearization." North Korea has publicly not budged on its positions. State media ahead of Pompeo's visit said a peace treaty "can never be a bargaining chip," saying an end to war "is not just a gift from one man to another."
Douglas Paal, a former senior US official on Asia policy, said the South Korean proposal could appeal to Trump, who has made clear his eagerness for a second summit soon with Kim.
"The package is something that Trump can announce after he lands in Pyongyang. That's my projected outcome at this point, although it has not been confirmed," said Paal, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Trump in June met Kim in Singapore in the first-ever summit between the countries. No sitting US president has visited North Korea, which according to human rights groups remains one of the most repressive countries on Earth.
Paal said Trump likely sensed political opportunity in a breakthrough with North Korea, with congressional elections seen as tough for his Republican Party due on November 6.
When the average US voter "no longer hears the president saying 'fire and fury' but hears him saying peace, they believe he has actually made progress towards it, even if arms control people say we've made no progress of a material nature at all," Paal said.
North Korea, ruled by three generations of Kims, has pursued both nuclear weapons and diplomacy with the United States for decades.
It reached an agreement in 1994 to freeze nuclear work in exchange for normalization with the president Bill Clinton's administration. The deal broke down a decade later, although George W. Bush also pursued talks late in his presidential term.
Pompeo closes his trip Monday in China, which is North Korea's political and economic lifeline.
The Beijing stop could be tense as it comes days after Vice President Mike Pence delivered a blistering speech accusing China of military aggression, commercial theft, rising human rights violations and electoral intervention against Trump.
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Commercial LPG hike: Delhi restaurant owners warn of higher menu rates, job losses
New Delhi (PTI) A day after a 50 per cent rise in commercial LPG cylinder prices, Delhi's food business, with restaurant owners and street vendors have warned of higher menu rates, financial strain and potential job losses if the trend persists.
The price of commercial LPG was hiked by a steep Rs 993 per 19 kg cylinder, marking the third consecutive monthly hike amid rising global energy prices linked to the West Asia conflict.
For many in the restaurant industry, the spike has been both sudden and steep.
Manpreet Singh, honorary treasurer of the National Restaurant Association of India, said that eateries are already grappling with supply challenges alongside rising costs.
"There is a huge difficulty in getting these cylinders, and black marketing is also increasing in many unregulated sectors," he said, noting that prices that were once around Rs 1,600, often dropping to nearly Rs 1,300 with discounts, have now surged to between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000 per cylinder.
He further added that a medium-sized restaurant typically uses between two and five cylinders daily, making the increase particularly burdensome as costs mount.
Singh further said that as costs mount, smaller establishments could struggle to stay afloat. Instead, the association has advised restaurants to shift towards piped natural gas connections through Indraprastha Gas Limited as a more sustainable alternative.
"If this problem continues, PNG is the only long-term solution," he said, adding that temporary measures like coal offer limited relief due to slower cooking times and that it can largely be used only for tandoors.
Echoing similar concerns, Kabir Suri, owner of Mamagoto in Khan Market, said the impact is already visible across the industry. "There has been almost a threefold increase in cylinder prices for restaurants," he said, adding that rising fuel and logistics costs are compounding the pressure.
"If this continues, it will become a significant financial burden, and food prices will inevitably go up. Adding to this burden, higher fuel costs are also affecting logistics and transportation, making a price rise unavoidable. The extent of the impact will vary between small eateries and large chains depending on their scale," he said.
Global oil prices have surged nearly 50 per cent following disruptions in energy supply chains due to the West Asia conflict, pushing up commercial fuel costs and transport expenses.
A West Delhi-based restaurateur said they are trying to manage rising costs while keeping their staff secure. "We are trying to ensure that our staff, from kitchen workers to waiters, are paid on time and do not face immediate hardship," the owner said.
"We are a small restaurant with seating for about 20 to 25 people at a time. But if this continues for long, we will have to take difficult calls. There is only so much we can absorb, and menu prices will have to go up. We hope this does not continue for a longer period," he said.
Another restaurant owner in North Delhi, who did not wish to be named, said operational adjustments alone may not be enough. "We are checking our costs very carefully and trying to cut wherever possible, but if fuel prices remain high, it will eventually affect how we run the business," the owner said.
"Coal helps in tandoor cooking, but it takes more time," the owner further added.
The strain is even more acute among street vendors, many of whom operate on thin margins. A vendor in Saket said he had recently expanded his business, moving from a mobile cart to a rented outlet.
"I have a family to feed and more responsibilities now. Earlier, I managed with a moving cart, but after renting the place, expenses increased," he said. "Whenever cylinders were unavailable, I had to buy them at higher rates in the black market. Now even regular supply is too expensive, and if this continues, we may have to shut down," he added.
In Laxmi Nagar, another vendor said they are struggling to keep the business running. "Sometimes we even used domestic cylinders from home when supply ran out because we had to keep the stall running," he said, adding that rising costs leave little choice but to increase prices or bear losses.
On April 1, the rates of commercial LPG cylinders were hiked by Rs 195.50 per cylinder, followed by a Rs 114.5 hike on March 1, taking the total increase over the past three months to Rs 1,303. With the latest revision, a 19 kg commercial LPG cylinder now costs Rs 3,371.5 in Delhi, up from Rs 2,078.5 earlier.
The prices of domestic LPG cylinders used for household cooking have remained unchanged. They were last increased by Rs 60 per 14.2 kg cylinder on March 7 and currently cost Rs 913 in Delhi.
