Top U.S. diplomat in China to discuss North Korea

(CNN) -- A top U.S. diplomat will arrive in Beijing on Tuesday at the start of a tour around Northeast Asia, which is still adapting to the change of leadership in North Korea following the death of Kim Jong Il last month.
During the four-day visit, Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is stopping off in China, South Korea and Japan, all close neighbors of nuclear-armed North Korea.
Relations on the Korean peninsula have been tense since Kim's death fueled doubts about the secretive regime's stability and future direction.
Funeral and memorial services for Kim in Pyongyang last week served to cement the rise of his son and chosen successor, Kim Jong Un, as the nation's "supreme leader."
President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea on Monday called the transitional period following the elder Kim's death a "window of opportunity" to improve relations across the world's most heavily fortified border.
But Pyongyang has so far dismissed the notion that a new leader will bring about any shift in its stance toward its neighbor to the south.
"The South Korean puppets and foolish politicians around the world should not expect any change," the North Korean National Defense Commission warned in a statement last week, labeling Lee's government a "group of traitors."
Against that backdrop, Campbell's visit aims to cover "a range of important bilateral, regional and global issues" including North Korea, according to the State Department. He begins Tuesday by meeting senior officials in China, a key ally and economic partner of North Korea.
Campbell will then leave Wednesday for South Korea, where nearly 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed. His last stop is in Japan, another key U.S. military ally.
All three countries that Campbell is visiting have participated in the so-called six-party talks over ending North Korea's nuclear program. The other participants are the United States, Russia and North Korea itself.
In October, U.S. officials held a "positive" meeting with a North Korean delegation in an effort to restart these long-stalled discussions, U.S. Ambassador Stephen Bosworth said at the time.
Kim's death has left the future prospects of that initiative uncertain.
As well as North Korea, Campbell's meetings will address the topic of Myanmar, which has seen rapid political change -- including the legalization of famed dissident Aung Sang Suu Kyi's political party -- since the election of a new president in March.
China has been one of Myanmar's key supporters and trading partners during the Southeast Asian nation's decades of military rule.

UN team finds Congo troops raped 121 women, pillaged village in restive east

GENEVA — Government troops in Congo raped at least 121 women over a three-day period, then pillaged their village in the restive east of the country, the U.N. human rights office said Friday.
A spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the incident allegedly occurred June 11-13 in the village of Nyakiele in South Kivu province.
A U.N. team that visited the area “have confirmed that large-scale rape, pillaging and cruel and degrading treatment were committed in Nyakiele,” spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.
He said U.N. investigators would return to the restive region next week to gather more information on the incident, which was first reported by medical aid group Medicins Sans Frontieres last week.
Armed groups in eastern Congo have frequently used rape as a weapon of war. The region has been wracked by violence since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide spilled conflict across the border. Hutu militias that participated in the massacres of more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus sought refuge in Congo.

Yemeni VP: Saleh's return date is 'a decision up to the doctors'

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- The Yemeni government has lost control over five provinces, and security in the country is deteriorating, the nation's acting president told CNN in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
In his first interview with a Western TV network, Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansoor Hadi detailed how U.S. drones are using voice recognition to target al Qaeda leaders and help the government win back control.
Hadi has been Yemen's acting president since June 3, when President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded in an attack on the mosque at the presidential palace.
During Wednesday's hour-long meeting, Hadi said Saleh's wounds from what he described as an assassination attempt were so severe that he has no idea when the president will return from medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

RELATED TOPICS

Hadi said he saw Saleh immediately after the bomb attack. The 68-year-old ruler's chest had been pierce by a piece of wood and his face, arms and upper body had been burned, Hadi said. But, he added, the president's health was improving daily.
The interview in the sprawling and heavily defended defense ministry underlined the many challenges facing the vice president, who many in the opposition consider to be a weak placeholder until the president returns from Saudi Arabia.
He acknowledges that his house is surrounded by opposing forces, but he challenges claims that he is unable to use the presidential palace. Hadi says he calls Saleh's son, commander of the powerful Republican Guard at the palace, whenever he wants to give him orders.
He countered opposition accusations that he has no power, saying he has been given full authority to sign a new, U.N.-sponsored peace proposal. He outlined plans that are even less favorable to Saleh's opponents than a Gulf Cooperation Council initiative he has already turned down.
Hadi said the new deal would have Saleh stepping down only when a new president has been elected, a far cry from the Gulf Council proposal that would have Saleh handing power to Hadi after 30 days with new elections within 60 days.
At times, Hadi -- who lived in Britain during the 1960s -- shifted uncomfortably in his seat, even joking at the end of the interview that he felt he'd been through an interrogation. Nevertheless, he gave a robust defense of Saleh, challenging the widely held view that the embattled leader is now part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. Saleh still has 3 million supporters, Hadi said.
"He is part of the political balance here in Yemen. He has been an expert in dealing with all differences, and with all political and tribal differences," Hadi said.
When asked how al Qaeda may have been taking advantage of deteriorating security, Hadi said government forces were targeting them aggressively. He detailed an ongoing operation in the southern Abyan province, where the capital recently fell to al Qaeda.
He also gave an account of how U.S. spy planes eavesdrop on al Qaeda conversations, running voice recognition analysis that is shared with Yemeni authorities, the CIA and the FBI before targets are attacked.
Hadi said there are two types of drones.
"One is taking pictures and collecting information, and the other one is carrying missiles. Drones carrying missiles, actually these missiles could not be fired ... unless the voice of the enemy himself is recorded," he said.
Often, he said, the United States provides the targeting information and Yemeni military forces carry out the attacks.
Hadi offered few insights into how he plans to end Yemen's spiraling economic hardships, growing fuel and power shortages and rising food prices -- issues that have sparked massive anti-government protests over the past several months and have worsened sharply since the president left for treatment in Saudi Arabia.
But he said he expected Saleh to make a speech to the nation in the coming hours that will help change the situation.
And he said the U.N.-sponsored peace proposal will create a new, parliamentary political system in Yemen, "so it will wipe out or vanish any grievances, any complaints."
Saleh went to Saudi Arabia for treatment after doctors examined him shortly after the attack in early June. They recommended he get attention from specialists, including an eye doctor. Since arriving there, he said, the president had been improving and fully intends to return.
But when asked when that would be, he said he did not know.
"It could be months. This is a decision up to the doctors. ... I have no idea about the exact date when he is coming," Hadi said.
In Washington, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said the chaos in Yemen has been a source of concern to the United States for years. "Al Qaeda, the federated group that's in Yemen, is an incredibly dangerous group that has taken full advantage of the chaos that has been in that country," he told the National Press Club.

But, he added, the military cannot provide the whole answer. "The security piece is a necessary condition, but it is insufficient in and of itself and it's taken us a long time to figure that out."