Military retrieves F

The military has found and retrieved the flight data recorder of an F-16V jet that disappeared off eastern Taiwan in January and is to send it to its manufacturer in the US to decode the data. Air Force Command Headquarters in a statement yesterday said that the salvage company responsible for the mission successfully retrieved the flight data recorder, better known as the black box, in waters off Taiwan on Monday. The air force did not disclose the exact location where the black box was found, but it said the device had been moved ashore and would be sent for decoding to determine the cause of the plane’s disappearance. Photo: Taipei Times The single-seat fighter jet, tail number 6700, piloted by Captain Hsin Po-yi (辛柏毅), went missing on Jan. 6 after taking off from Hualien Air Base at 6:17pm on a nighttime training mission and heading south. Hsin soon reported that the aircraft was losing altitude, the air force said. Hsin at 7:28pm reported that he was about to eject from the aircraft. Eight seconds later, the jet’s signal disappeared from radar while it was flying off the coast of Fengbin (豐濱) in Hualien County, the air force said. The air force subsequently set up an emergency response center, and launched a search-and-rescue operation, but it has not been able to find Hsin. It has since speculated that there might have been a malfunction in the aircraft’s main onboard computer, but an investigation to pinpoint the cause continues. North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if ‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and