SEOUL: South Korea said on Tuesday an agreement with the US to scrap a weight limit on its warheads would help it respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat after it conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test two days ago.
South Korean officials believe more weapons tests by the reclusive state are possible, despite international outrage over Sunday’s nuclear test and calls for more sanctions against it.
South Korea’s Asia Business Daily, citing an unidentified source, reported that North Korea had been observed moving a rocket that appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward its west coast.
The rocket started moving on Monday and was spotted moving only at night to avoid surveillance, the newspaper said.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry, which warned on Monday that North Korea was ready to launch an ICBM at any time, said it was not able to confirm the report.
Analysts and South Korean policymakers believe North Korea may test another weapon on or around Sept. 9, when it celebrates its founding day.
North Korea’s fifth nuclear test fell on that date last year, reflecting its tendency to conduct weapons tests on significant dates.
North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as US aggression.
South Korea, after weeks of rising tension, is talking to the US about deploying aircraft carriers and strategic bombers to the Korean peninsula, and has been ramping up its own defenses.
US President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, agreed on Monday to scrap a warhead weight limit on South Korea’s missiles, South Korea’s presidential office said, enabling it to strike North Korea with greater force in the event of war.
The White House said Trump gave “in-principle approval” to the move.
The US and South Korea signed a pact in 1979, a year after the South successfully tested a ballistic missile, with Washington expressing the need for limits on ballistic missile capability over concern that tests could undermine regional security.
South Korea and the US are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
Both sides have thousands of rockets and artillery pieces aimed at each other across the world’s most heavily armed border, but the North’s rapid development of nuclear weapons and missiles has altered the balance, requiring a stronger response from South Korea, officials say.
“We believe the unlimited warhead payload will be useful in responding to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats,” South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a briefing.
Under current guidelines, last changed in 2012, South Korea can develop missiles up to a range of 800 km (500 miles) with a maximum payload of 500 kg (1,102 lb).
Most of North Korea’s missiles are designed to carry payloads of 100-1,000 kg (220-2,205 lb), according to Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a US-based think thank.
South Korea’s navy held more exercises on Tuesday, a naval officer told a Defense Ministry briefing. .
“Today’s training is being held to prepare for maritime North Korean provocations, inspect our navy’s readiness and to reaffirm our will to punish the enemy,” the official said.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said on Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was “begging for war” and urged the 15-member Security Council to impose the “strongest possible” sanctions to deter him and shut down his trading partners.
Haley said the US would circulate a new Security Council resolution on North Korea this week and wanted a vote on it on Monday.
Trump has repeatedly warned that “all options were on the table” regarding North Korea, including military options.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said threats of military action were counterproductive.
“Russia condemns North Korea’s exercises, we consider that they are a provocation,” Putin told reporters after a summit of the BRICS countries in China.
“(But) ramping up military hysteria will lead to nothing good. It could lead to a global catastrophe.
While referring to more sanctions as a “road to nowhere,” Putin said Russia was prepared to discuss “some details” around the issue. He did not elaborate.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said she believed her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, was open to more sanctions.
“I cannot tell you exact details as the minister asked me not to disclose the content of our discussion, but I could sense that China could be open to more sanctions,” Kang told lawmakers in parliament, referring to a phone call with Wang on Monday.
China’s Foreign Ministry said it would take part in security council discussions in “a responsible and constructive manner.”
Diplomats have said the Security Council could consider banning North Korean textile exports, banish its national airline and stopping supplies of oil to the government and military.
Other measures could include preventing North Koreans from working abroad and adding top officials to a blacklist aiming at imposing asset freezes and travel bans.
Sanctions imposed after missile tests in July were aimed at slashing North Korea’s $3 billion annual export revenue by a third by banning exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood.
China accounted for 92 percent of North Korea’s trade in 2016, according to South Korea’s government trade promotion agency.
S. Korea seeks bigger warheads, N. Korean ICBM reportedly on the move
S. Korea seeks bigger warheads, N. Korean ICBM reportedly on the move
3 men charged in the UK with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service
- The men will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged under the National Security Act
LONDON: Three men have been charged with allegedly assisting Hong Kong intelligence services and with foreign interference, London’s Metropolitan Police said Monday.
The men will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged under the National Security Act.
Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, have each been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service.
“While these offenses are concerning, I want to reassure the public that we do not believe there to be any wider threat to them,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.
“This investigation remains ongoing, but now that charges have been brought, I urge people not to speculate or comment further in relation to this case.”
Hong Kong’s security bureau, Hong Kong police and the office of China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong did immediately respond to requests for comment.
Floods kill 43 in Indonesia’s West Sumatra, 15 missing
- Torrential rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow in three districts in West Sumatra province
- Around 400 personnel, including rescuers, police, and military, were deployed to search for the missing people on Monday
TANAH DATAR: Flash floods and mud slides in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province killed at least 43 people over the weekend while a search for 15 missing people continued, authorities said on Monday.
Torrential rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow — a mud-like mixture of volcanic ash, rock debris and water — in three districts in West Sumatra province, Abdul Malik, chief of the provincial rescue team, said.
The cold lava flow, known in Indonesia as a lahar, came from Mount Marapi, one of Sumatra’s most active volcanoes.
In December, more than 20 people were killed after Marapi erupted. A series of eruptions has followed since.
“The heavy rain swept materials such as ash and large rocks from the Marapi volcano,” said Abdul Malik, who later added in a statement that 43 people had died and 15 remained missing.
“Cold lava flow and flash floods have always been threats to us recently. But the problem is, it always happens late at night until dawn,” he said.
Abdul said around 400 personnel, including rescuers, police, and military, were deployed to search for the missing people on Monday, helped by at least eight excavators and drones.
The national disaster and management agency BNPB said in a statement almost 200 houses were damaged and 72 hectares (178 acres) of lands, including rice fields, were affected. At least 159 people from Agam district were evacuated to nearby schools.
Footage shared by BNPB showed roads and rice fields covered by mud. Video also showed the wreckage of damaged homes and buildings, while the floods brought logs and large rocks into settlements.
Eko Widodo, a 43-year-old survivor, said: “The flooding was sudden and the river became blocked which resulted in the flow of water everywhere and it was out of control.”
German court backs intelligence agency’s designation of far-right party as suspected extremist case
- The party could still seek to appeal the verdict at a federal court
BERLIN: Germany’s domestic intelligence agency was justified in designating the far-right Alternative for Germany as a suspected case of extremism, a court ruled Monday, rejecting an appeal from the opposition party.
The administrative court in Muenster ruled in favor of the BfV intelligence agency, upholding a 2022 decision by a lower court in Cologne, German news agency dpa reported. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has rejected the designation strongly.
The party could still seek to appeal the verdict at a federal court.
AfD was formed in 2013 and has moved steadily to the right over the years. Its platform initially centered on opposition to bailouts for struggling eurozone members, but its vehement opposition to then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow in large numbers of refugees and other migrants in 2015 established the party as a significant political force.
AfD has been polling strongly in Germany in recent months as discontent is high with center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government.
However, its support declined somewhat following a media report in January that extremists met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, and that some figures from the party attended. The report triggered mass protests in the country against the rise of the far-right.
Two Americans, one Russian citizen among 20 detained in Georgia, Russia’s TASS reports
- 20 people detained at protests in Tbilisi while Georgian lawmakers were debating a “foreign agents” bill
Tbilisi: Some 1,000 protesters stood firm outside parliament in Georgia on Monday, vowing not to back down in their fight against a Russia-styled “foreign agent” bill, a day before it’s due to be adopted.
Protests have gripped the small Caucasus nation for weeks over the bill, which critics say will erode democracy and derail the ex-Soviet republic’s long-held ambition of joining the European Union.
Critics say the measure, which resembles one Russia has used to crack down on dissent, will steer Tbilisi back under Moscow’s influence.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has portrayed it as necessary for Georgia’s sovereignty, saying it will boost transparency of civil groups’ funding.
The bill is due to go for a third and final reading in parliament on Tuesday.
On Monday, it passed a committee vote, a final step before it goes for a vote in parliament.
The bill targets NGOs that receive foreign funding, with Georgian Dream’s billionaire backer Bidzina Ivanishvili accusing them of working on foreign orders and plotting a revolution.
Part of Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue was closed off around parliament on Monday.
Hundreds of riot police officers lined a street behind parliament, and some scuffles broke out between them and protesters.
Authorities a day earlier warned that they would arrest people who blocked parliament, but thousands defied the warning and came to the parliament’s gates anyway.
“We are planning to stay here for as long as it takes,” 22-year-old Mariam Kalandadze told AFP.
“This law means not joining Europe,” she said, adding that “this is something that I have wanted my whole life.”
Russia downs 16 Ukraine-launched missiles, 31 drones
- Russian defense ministry: 12 guided missiles were launched from a Ukrainian Vilkha multiple rocket launcher
- Four Storm Shadow aircraft guided missiles and seven drones were downed over Crimea
The Russian defense ministry said on Monday its air defense systems destroyed 16 missiles and 31 drones that Ukraine launched at Russian territory overnight, including 12 missiles over the battered border region of Belgorod.
Five houses were damaged in Belgorod, but according to preliminary information, there were no injuries, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
On Sunday, 15 people were killed in Belgorod when a section of an apartment block collapsed after being struck by fragments of a Soviet-era missile, launched by Ukraine and shot down by Russian forces, Russia said.
The Russian defense ministry said on Monday the 12 guided missiles were launched from a Ukrainian Vilkha multiple rocket launcher.
The ministry also said four Storm Shadow aircraft guided missiles and seven drones were downed over Crimea, eight drones were destroyed over the Kursk region and four were intercepted over the Lipetsk region.
A drone sparked a short-lived fire at an electrical substation in the Kursk region, Igor Artamonov, the governor of the region in Russia’s south, wrote on Telegram.
“There are no casualties. The fire in the territory of the electrical substation is being extinguished,” Artamonov said.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv says that targeting Russia’s military, transport and energy infrastructure undermines Moscow’s war effort and is an answer to the countless deadly attacks by Russia.
