China Urges Restraint As US, South Korea Plan New Drills

China is appealing for all sides to avoid inflaming tensions with North Korea as the United States and South Korea conclude a major naval exercise in the Yellow Sea.

But South Korean Defense Ministry officials said Wednesday they are in talks for another major exercise with the United States to take place as early as this month.  South Korea is also planning its own live-fire artillery drills to take place next week.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted the military command saying one of the exercises would take place near Daecheong Island, located just south of the two Koreas' disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea. North Korea launched a deadly artillery attack on another island while South Korean forces were conducting a similar drill last week, firing into waters that both countries claim as their own.

In Beijing, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi saying all sides should "keep calm and exercise restraint." He is the highest ranking Chinese official to comment on the crisis.

Show of force

The joint naval exercise ending Wednesday was the largest in a series of drills staged by South Korea and the U.S. in recent months. It involved thousands of sailors, 75 aircraft and 10 warships including the nuclear-powered USS George Washington.

South Korean officials said they have not yet decided on the timing or nature of the next joint exercise. They said it would come later this month or early next year.

In New York, diplomats say China is blocking efforts at the United Nations Security Council to draw up a statement condemning North Korea for its attack on Yeonpyeong island and its development of a uranium enrichment facility.

Diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity told news services that China was unwilling to permit the use of the word "condemn" or say North Korea is in "violation" of U.N. resolutions.

Early last week, North Korea fired more than 100 artillery shells at a military garrison on the island, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians and causing widespread damage. South Korea since then has reinforced its garrison and evacuated most of the island's civilian residents.

North Korean nuclear buildup

Earlier this month, a U.S. scientist said he was shown a sophisticated uranium enrichment facility in North Korea and that he had seen more than 1,000 centrifuges in operation. Pyongyang has since claimed the facility has "thousands" of working centrifuges.

North Korea says the uranium is being enriched to power a light water reactor under construction, but foreign officials fear it could be used to make fuel for nuclear weapons.

Crisis talks

Diplomatic efforts to diffuse the tension continue on several fronts.

Foreign ministers from the United States, South Korea and Japan are to meet in Washington next week, and the issue could also come up with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at an international conference this week in Kazakhstan.

Choe Thae Bok, a close confidante of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, is in Beijing for talks, and Japan said Tuesday it was sending a senior official to China to exchange views on the situation.

China is pressing for an urgent conference to be attended by China, the United States, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas. But Washington and Tokyo have shown little interest, saying North Korea must first show it is serious about giving up its nuclear programs.

Read more »

Tata Motors' Nano Sales Plunge in November as Customers Lack Loan Options

Tata Motors Ltd.’s sales of Nano plunged 85 percent in November to 509 units, the lowest since the car’s debut last year, as customers faced difficulty in accessing loans to purchase the world’s cheapest car.

Tata Motors is hiring more sales people at dealerships and working with banks to help buyers get loans, the automaker said in an e-mail response to Bloomberg News today.

Chief Executive Officer Carl-Peter Forster said last month that that a lack of financing options available to buyers was causing a slump in Nano sales. Banks are reluctant to lend to many low-income customers on concern that they may default, while instances of some Nanos catching fire may have also deterred buyers, said Mahantesh Sabarad, a Mumbai-based analyst with Fortune Equity Brokers (India) Ltd.

“The product has had a difficult time in terms of its perception ever since those fire incidents came in,” Sabarad said. “A lot of people bought the car in the initial sales period for its novelty factor and didn’t go for loans.”

The automaker, also the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, increased the price of the Nano by 9,000 rupees ($198) in October, after raising as much as 4 percent in July. Sales of the car had begun at prices ranging from 123,360 rupees to 172,360 rupees in New Delhi.

“The profile of such customers who are desirous of the Tata Nano is that of a two-wheeler purchaser or those who do not own any personal mobility at all,” Ashmita Pillay, a corporate communications manager at Tata Motors, wrote in the e-mail. “Many of them do not know driving.”

Record Every Month

Demand for the Nano has declined since July’s dispatch of 9,000 cars while car sales in India, Asia’s second-fastest growing major economy, rose to a record every month since then through October.

Tata Motors sold more than 70,000 Nanos since deliveries began in July last year. The company selected the first 100,000 customers through a lottery from the 206,703 orders it got in the initial sales period in April the same year.

Total sales at Tata, also India’s biggest truckmaker, rose 1 percent to 54,622 vehicles in November, the company said in a statement today.

Tata Motors rose 4.2 percent to 1,286.75 rupees at the 3:30 p.m. close of trading in Mumbai today. The benchmark Sensitive Index of the Bombay Stock Exchange gained 1.7 percent.

Additional Protection

The company said last month it would retrofit Nano cars with additional protection in the exhaust and electrical systems after some of them caught fire earlier this year. Investigations concluded that the reasons for the fire were ‘specific’ to the cars involved in the incident, Tata said.

The automaker opened a new factory for the 624-CC Nano in the western Indian state of Gujarat in June. The plant with a capacity to build 250,000 cars a year is fully operational, Tata Motors said last month.

Tata Motors currently sells the car in 12 Indian states as it worked through the initial orders and ramped up production. The company had to abandon a near-complete factory in West Bengal in 2008 because of farmers’ protests over land acquisition.

Read more »

Fleets likely to drive early demand for electric cars

To Willy Morales, the little Leaf electric car sitting on the Nissan stand at this year’s Los Angeles auto show “looks like the future.”

It's “like the stuff I used to see on the Jetsons,” he said, referring to the futuristic cartoon series he loved to watch as a child.

But while Morales admits being impressed by the idea of never having to buy gasoline again, he’s far more concerned about the idea of running out of power one night with his kids in the back seat. And he isn’t alone. So-called “range anxiety” is unquestionably the biggest obstacle automakers like Nissan face as they begin to roll out a new generation of battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs.
More must-see stories

Hers & Mine Antiques Mall
Holiday classics

A look back at the must-have toys that turned normal parents into crazed scavengers. Oh, and what they cost now on eBay.
Your Career: Surviving the office holiday party
What $500K gets you in housing across U.S.
Life Inc.: Mittens may be new Tickle Me Elmo



Still, initial consumer interest in the Nissan Leaf has been strong. And General Motors reports solid demand for the new Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid that soon will hits showrooms in select U.S. markets. But George Peterson, head of the consulting firm AutoPacific, fears this initial demand reflects “greenies and early adopters.”

“Once those buyers have gotten what they want, we don’t expect sales to remain very strong,” he said.

A recent study by J.D. Power and Associates suggests that even by 2020, hybrids, plug-ins and pure electric vehicles like Nissan’s Leaf will likely account for no more than 7.3 percent of the global automotive market.

But senior J.D. Power analyst Dave Sargent said the one thing that could help kick-start the nascent market for electric propulsion — short of “a dramatic and sustained increase in gasoline prices” — is demand from corporations for electric vehicles in their fleets.

That means customers like Jeff Immelt, chairman of General Electric, which operates one of the world’s largest motor vehicle fleets. Over the next several years GE plans to convert half its vehicle fleet to battery power, including 15,000 Chevy Volts and perhaps 15,000 electric vehicles from other makers.

Read more »

Loans make up half of new EU climate aid for 2010

The European Union said on Tuesday it provided 2.2 billion euros ($2.87 billion) in extra aid in 2010 to help developing nations combat climate change and defended the use of loans for half the total.

The United Nations said a flow of new funds, promised at a summit in Copenhagen last year, could be a "golden key" to unlock progress at the Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 talks in the Caribbean resort of Cancun, Mexico, on measures to slow global warming.

A report issued on the sidelines of talks among almost 200 nations said EU nations, facing deep austerity at home, were on track to provide 7.2 billion euros for 2010-12 as part of a total $30 billion promised by rich nations in Copenhagen.

It said the cash went to projects, including a Danish scheme to help protect the coasts of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and a Dutch project to help Indonesia generate more hydro power.

"In 2010 the EU has mobilised fast-start funding of 2.2 billion euros," it said in a final report, built on a draft earlier this month [ID:nLDE6AE1MR].

The total just short of a planned 2.4 billion, partly after a shortfall from Italy. About 48 percent was in grants, the other 52 percent loans or equity investments.

The EU said the total comprised both grants and loans on easy terms and acknowledged there was no common definition of how the money met a promise in Copenhagen that it all be "new and additional" funds. Many developing nations say the cash is recycled from past promises. 

Read more »

China Repeats Call for Korean Calm as U.S. Carrier Patrols Sea

China repeated its call for calm and restraint on the Korean peninsula as a U.S. aircraft carrier patrolled its coast and a North Korean official visited Beijing.

“The parties concerned should keep calm and exercise restraint, and work to bring the situation back onto the track of dialogue and negotiation,” the official Xinhua News Agency cited Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi as saying today at a forum in Beijing.

The comments coincide with top North Korean official Choe Thae Bok’s meeting in Beijing today with a member of China’s legislature. China on Nov. 28 proposed "emergency consultations" with negotiators from the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the U.S. to defuse tensions following North Korea’s artillery attack on a South Korean island last week that killed four people.

A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier is now conducting exercises in the Yellow Sea off the Korean coast with the South Korean navy in a show of force meant to demonstrate solidarity between the two allies. Choe is chairman of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly.

Yang said holding six-nation talks in Beijing would "help ease the current tension," according to Xinhua. Japan has rejected the proposal, while White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Nov. 29 that the U.S. wasn’t interested “in stabilizing the region through a series of P.R. activities.” South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would consider China’s call for talks "very cautiously."

China is the host of the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. Last week Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special envoy for the Korean nuclear issue, said the negotiations won’t start up again until North Korea takes actions to curb its uranium-enrichment program. Yesterday North Korea confirmed it had such a program, though it said it was for peaceful energy use.

Read more »

BOJ's Suda Offers Grim Outlook

YAMAGATA, Japan—Bank of Japan policy board member Miyako Suda said Wednesday that Japan's economy may be in for a prolonged slowdown, with deflationary pressures continuing to drag on the economy well into next year.

"I think the possibility that on-year changes in the core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food prices, will come out of negative territory in the next fiscal year [ending March 2012] is not high, and improvement toward overcoming deflation will likely take some time," Ms. Suda said in a speech to business leaders in this northern Japan city.

Read more »

US, Japan, South Korea to meet soon over crisis

Seoul, South Korea -- Government ministers from the United States, Japan and South Korea will sit down in Washington early next month to grapple with the tensions in the Koreas, South Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry did not provide further details about the date of the meeting, but it comes as China continues to call for an emergency meeting of the six major powers involved in talks about the Korean peninsula.

This diplomatic activity reflects efforts to lower anxieties in the Koreas, which have been at a boiling point since last Tuesday, when four people died and 18 others were injured in a North Korean artillery barrage that targeted Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea's part of the Yellow Sea.

The war of words got louder when South Korea and the United States launched joint anti-submarine military exercises in the Yellow Sea on Monday, a move that drew North Korean ire.

Being North Korea's largest trading partner and strongest ally, China has been urged by the international community to confront the crisis. It has been meeting with both North and South Korea and it has engaged in diplomacy over the matter.

A top Chinese envoy met with South Korea's president on Sunday and a top North Korean official arrived in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, the first visit to China by a North Korean official since last week's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.

Choe Tae Bok, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, is on a five-day visit to China.

And over the weekend China called for an emergency meeting of the six major powers which have been involved in talks about North Korea's nuclear program to discuss the latest crisis. The six are China, Russia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and the United States.

Hong Lei, a spokesman for China's Foreign Affairs Ministry, told reporters Tuesday that such talks would be an important step in easing tensions.

"We made the proposal to ease the situation and to provide a platform for parties to have dialogue. ...To do this at an early date is in the common interest of all parties," he said.

But right now, the idea is up in the air.

South Korea said Sunday that it did not think the time was right for a resumption of the six-party talks but said it would "bear in mind" the Chinese proposal.

In Washington, a State Department official said that the United States is consulting with its allies but that resumed six-party talks "cannot substitute for action by North Korea to comply with its obligations."

The Japanese government said one of its envoys is in Beijing for discussions on the crisis.

Amid the international attempts to avert warfare, the strident and sabre-rattling rhetoric between the Koreas remained the region's background noise.

North Korea warned Tuesday that the continuing military drills by the United States and South Korea could lead to "all-out war any time."

The firmly-worded message was published by North Korea's state-run KCNA news service.

"If the U.S. and the south Korean war-like forces fire even a shell into the inviolable land and territorial waters of the DPRK, they will have to pay dearly for this," the news service report said. The DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's formal name -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

This comes after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak warned Monday that North Korea would face severe consequences if it launched another military attack across its southern border.

"If the North commits any additional provocations against the South, we will make sure that it pays a dear price without fail," Lee said in a nationally televised address. North Korea stepped up its threats recently on its southern rival, as well as the United States, warning that military activities must not infringe on what the communist nation considers its territory.

The crisis is top priority for Seoul.

On Tuesday, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported that Lee upbraided Cabinet members "for not having the right sense of crisis at a time when South Korea's national security is at stake."

"We should recognize that (South Korea) is confronting the world's most belligerent group," Lee was quoted as saying.

Citing the country's Defense Ministry Tuesday, Yonhap also reported that South Korea's military "plans to toughen its rules of engagement with North Korea in a way that gives its troops greater leeway to determine the intensity of a counterattack by the level of damage and threats received."

And, a government official quoted by Yonhap, said that owners of homes destroyed in the strike on Yeonpyeong Island will get more compensation than the standard amount paid by the government in the case of natural disasters.

"Due to the special circumstances of this matter, the amount of compensation will be more generous than usual," said an official of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. The official said that the amount will be determined after discussions with the Finance Ministry.

The agency said officials determined that "29 houses were completely wrecked, five destroyed partly and 80 others damaged slightly from artillery rounds."

As for the Yellow Sea exercises, Seoul and Washington postponed the exercises earlier this month because of a tropical storm.

The drills, which are to run through Friday, are "designed to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea," U.S. Forces Korea have said.

U.S. officials have said the exercises off the western coast of the Korean peninsula are in response to North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

In May, a report from South Korea blamed the North for sinking the Cheonan warship with a torpedo, killing 46 sailors.

North Korea denies sinking the ship and says South Korea and the United States are using it as a pretext to conduct the war games.

North Korea's nuclear program as well as its military have long caused jitters in the region, especially during times of crisis.

The country claimed Tuesday that it has "thousands of centrifuges" working to create nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but international powers are concerned about how the country's military would use such technology.

"The construction of (a) light water reactor is brisk in the DPRK and a modern factory for uranium enrichment equipped with thousands of centrifuges is operating to supply fuel to them. The development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes to meet the need for electricity will be stepped up in the future," the KCNA news service reported.

The North Korean news service report seemed to confirm parts of a statement made last week by Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University scientist.

In early November, the U.S. scientist said he visited a North Korean nuclear facility at the invitation of the government, which included 2,000 centrifuges, that was producing low-enriched uranium.

Hecker said he was told that facility was configured to produce low-enriched uranium but Hecker wrote that it could "be readily converted to produce highly-enriched uranium (HEU) bomb fuel."

Read more »