The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has destroyed sections of inter-Korean roads on its side, said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) on Tuesday.
This follows Pyongyang's recent announcement to sever all road and rail links with the Republic of Korea (ROK). The announcement made on Oct. 9 indicated a sharp escalation in tensions between the two sides.
The DPRK and ROK are linked by roads and railways along the western Gyeongui line connecting South Korea's border city of Paju to the DPRK's Kaesong and the Donghae line along the east coast.
In response, the South Korean military fired shots in areas south of the military demarcation line, the JCS noted.
The top leader of the DPRK on Monday convened a consultative meeting on national defense and security in the latest move by the country to address the escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.
DPRK blows up parts of inter-Korean roads, rail links; ROK military fires
To leverage the role of the China Import and Export Fair, or the Canton Fair, as a trade promotion platform, the China Foreign Trade Center has continued its efforts like holding global trade promotion and matchmaking events to help companies gain insights into industry trends and international market dynamics, thereby enabling precise trade collaborations that align with business needs. Xing Hongyan, vice president of the Huaihai Holdings Group that specializes in environmentally friendly transportation solutions, found a large buyer from Albania thanks to such a matchmaking event at the biannual trade fair that opened Tuesday in south China's Guangzhou City. "We have many conjunctions of interests because we are both engaged in the field of new energy. They are building an ecological platform. We want to go abroad and build factories there. We hope that through this matchmaking meeting with the Albanian side, we'll fill the gap in our market. We also hope that the two sides can have in-depth cooperation, not just trade," said Xing.
"We had five companies and each company we gave enough time to talk through all the main details of these strategic cooperation. For us they are potential partners, so we are going to follow with next rounds of visit in their factories and so on and so forth. Matchmaking meetings, those play a very significant role in our efficiency of selecting our good suppliers," said Ilirjan Koxhioni, a purchaser from Albania.
The fair will host over 750 trade promotion events, marking a new milestone. Furthermore, it will partner with global entities and leading multinational corporations to organize over 250 Trade Bridge matchmaking events across 65 countries and regions, including the United States, France, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya and Australia to help companies to secure more orders and expand markets on a regular basis.
"To better leverage the role of the Canton Fair as a trade promotion platform and ensure the normal operation of the Canton Fair online platform, we hold a series of high-quality Trade Bridge matchmaking activities throughout the year on a regular basis for global purchasers and Chinese quality suppliers. We provide matching services through four methods: face to face, screen to screen, face to screen, and the combination of face to face and screen to screen to help companies get orders and explore new markets," said Huang Changjie, head of the external liaison office with the China Foreign Trade Center.
Covering a total exhibition area of 1.55 million square meters, the 136th session of the Canton Fair will be held in three phases between Oct. 15 and Nov. 4, with the first phase lasting five days.
It features approximately 74,000 booths organized into 55 exhibition sections. Over 30,000 companies are participating in the onsite exhibition, including 29,400 export companies, an increase of nearly 800 from the previous session. Among them, nearly 4,600 are first-time exhibitors.
The China Foreign Trade Center, established in 1955, is an organization responsible for organizing and hosting the Canton Fair, as well as other trade fairs and exhibitions in China. Operating under the Ministry of Commerce, it plays a significant role in promoting foreign trade and investment in China.
Canton Fair enables precise trade collaborations via matchmaking events
