美国务卿克里开始亚洲之旅

 　　美国务卿克里开始亚洲之旅

　　US Secretary of State John Kerry is now in South Korea, on his fifth trip to Asia as America's top diplomat¹.

　　He will also be visiting China and Indonesia.

　　Su Yi has more.

　　During his first stop, in Seoul, Kerry is set to meet his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se, and is expected to express deep concerns over the recent spike² in tensions between US allies South Korea and Japan.

　　South Korea is angry over a recent visit by Japan's prime minister and other top officials to a controversial war shrine³ in Tokyo.

　　The Yasukuni Shrine honours Japan's war dead, including 14 convicted Class-A war criminals.

　　Japan is not on Kerry's itinerary⁴.

　　He is also expected to probe Seoul's thoughts on ways to accelerate cooperation between Washington, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo on bringing North Korea back to the nuclear negotiating table.

　　His arrival in Seoul comes one day after senior North and South Korean officials held their highest-level talks in years.

　　The two Koreas have also just announced another round of talks, to be held this Friday.

　　After South Korea, Kerry will fly to China, and then onto Indonesia, where he plans to meet with the chief of regional bloc⁵ ASEAN in Jakarta.

　　Meantime, the White House has announced U.S. President Barack Obama is planning to visit Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines in late April.

　　Spokesman Jay Carney says the upcoming trip is part of Obama's "ongoing⁶ commitment to increase U.S. diplomatic, economic and security engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

　　Obama had to cancel a scheduled trip to Asia in October due to a 16-day government shutdown caused by a budget impasse⁷ in Congress.

　　For CRI, I'm Su Yi.

1 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

2 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

3 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

4 itinerary   

n.行程表，旅行路线；旅行计划

参考例句：

• The two sides have agreed on the itinerary of the visit.双方商定了访问日程。
• The next place on our itinerary was Silistra.我们行程的下一站是锡利斯特拉。

5 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

6 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

7 impasse   

n.僵局；死路

参考例句：

• The government had reached an impasse.政府陷入绝境。
• Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.谈判似乎已经陷入僵局。