Kim Jong-un told South Korea’s Moon Jae-in in a New Year's letter that he wants to meet with Moon "frequently" next year and vowed to work on "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula together," Blue House spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said, per NK News.
The big picture: Kim often lays out pledges he fails to meet. Just this year, he failed to meet a series of his commitments, ranging from not traveling to meet Moon in Seoul before the year’s end to not following through on his denuclearization promises to President Trump in Singapore.
A new court established by the Chinese government will begin taking on intellectual property cases in January, the Singapore-based Straits Times reports.
Why it matters: China experts were skeptical when the government announced this month that it would begin punishing companies and individuals who steal intellectual property, a long-standing U.S. grievance that helped set off President Trump's trade war. But the establishment of the new IP court suggests China may be serious about addressing the Trump administration's complaints.
Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who claimed last month that he successfully created the first genetically engineered babies, is being kept under close guard while he remains under investigation by the Chinese government, the New York Times reports.
The big picture: Dr. He was spotted this week for the first time since the conference where he presented his findings at a university guesthouse in Shenzhen. The Times says he's currently under guard at the guesthouse by "a dozen unidentified men." The revelation that he used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to create genetically modified twins has sparked international outrage over the ethical questions of using the technology to engineer a human.
Many experts say China could be first to deploy autonomous vehicles at scale — and one indicator is how they've already taken the global lead in electric vehicles thanks to government policies and consumer attitudes.
The big picture: Sales of electric cars are growing quickly in China, where consumers are also open to innovations like car-sharing. By loosening regulatory guidelines and swinging open the door to autonomous vehicle testing, China is pulling away from other countries on disruptive new mobility initiatives, a recent study finds.
