KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait has ordered North Korea’s ambassador to leave within a month as the Gulf country downgraded diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, a North Korean diplomat in the Gulf region said on Sunday.
The United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions after North Korea’s sixth and largest nuclear test this month, and the United States called on countries to sever diplomatic and financial ties with it.
The diplomat, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the ambassador, So Chang Sik, will leave following Kuwait’s decision to downgrade the North Korean diplomatic representation to charge d’affaires level.
However, Chang Sik was planning to leave at the end of September because he has ended his term, the diplomat added.
Kuwaiti officials did not immediately respond when asked to comment.
Kuwait, where around 3,000 North Koreans live, has been hosting North Korea’s sole diplomatic mission in the Gulf region.
Kuwait’s announcement comes after US President Trump met with the Gulf state’s ruler in Washington earlier this month.
Last month the Gulf country stopped direct flights to and from Pyongyang as well as halting entrance visas and commercial licenses, state news agency KUNA reported, citing an official at the foreign ministry.
The Kuwait foreign ministry said at the time it was committed to implementing Security Council resolutions on North Korea, adding that it had stopped loans to the Asian state, banned imports and cut the numbers of its diplomats in the country.
(Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy)
Kuwait orders North Korea’s ambassador to leave within a month
Kuwait orders North Korea’s ambassador to leave within a month
’We can’t make ends meet’: civil servants protest in Ankara
- Some 800 civil servants from the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions joined a march to the labor ministry
- “The increase in rents is almost three times higher than the pay rise we received,” Kocak told demonstrators
ANKARA: Hundreds of angry civil servants marched through Ankara Wednesday demanding a realistic pay rise as they battle poverty amid the soaring prices and double-digit inflation.
Some 800 civil servants from the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions (KESK) joined a march to the labor ministry in the Turkish capital, carrying banners demanding an immediate pay rise.
“The increase in rents is almost three times higher than the pay rise we received, meaning our salaries are not even enough to cover the rent increases alone,” Ayfer Kocak, KESK’s co-chair, told demonstrators outside the ministry.
“We are experiencing growing poverty and insecurity.”
Turkiye’s annual inflation rate fell to 30.89 percent in December from 44.38 percent a year earlier, official figures showed, but independent economists and unions say real numbers remain much higher.
According to December figures released by the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TURK-IS), the absolute minimum needed to feed a family of four was just over 30,000 liras ($690).
At the same time, Turkiye’s poverty threshold — the sum required to cover the basic needs for a family of that size — had risen to 98,000 liras ($2,270), it said.
Food inflation approached 43 percent annually, it added.
- ‘We can’t make ends meet’ -
“The government is condemning civil servants to live in degrading conditions by relying on misleading data” from the official statistics agency TUIK, Tulay Yildirim, head of a local teachers’ union branch, told AFP.
“We workers’ voices to be heard, saying we can no longer make ends meet and want to receive our fair share of a budget created through taxes paid by all citizens,” she added.
Earlier this month, public sector wages were hiked by 18.6 percent for the next six months, an increase unions said was insufficient.
“There are not only workers here, but also pensioners. The salary increase granted falls below the poverty line,” said Osman Seheri, head of a local branch of the municipal workers’ union.
“We cannot even afford proper clothes to go to work, let alone a suit and tie. With such wages, it is impossible to live in a major city.”
According to the independent Inflation Research Group (ENAG), which challenges the official data, annual inflation in Turkiye reached 56.14 percent in December 2025, with prices rising 2.11 percent in December alone.
