MANILA: Philippine President Roridgo Duterte said on Sunday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom he had previously called a “fool,” is now the “hero of everybody,” after Kim pledged to work with Seoul for “complete denuclearization” of the peninsula.
Duterte said he would “congratulate” Kim, who just became his “idol,” if he gets a chance to meet him. He said he would tell the North Korean leader “I admire you. You know how to time (your moves).”
“For all of the time, he was pictured to be the bad boy of the community. With one masterstroke, he is now the hero of everybody,” Duterte said when asked to comment on the historic meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a news conference after he returned from an ASEAN summit in Singapore.
“He appear to be amiable, jolly good fellow, and very accommodating,” Duterte said of Kim.
Duterte has more than once criticized Kim over his nuclear ambitions. In April last year he questioned his sanity and urged the United States to show restraint and not be baited by a man who “wants to end the world.”
A few months later, Duterte called Kim a “fool” and held nothing back in rebuking Kim for “playing with dangerous toys.”
The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on a common goal of a “nuclear free” peninsula during a summit on Friday.
Meeting at the Demilitarized Zone that has divided the Koreas for more than six decades, Kim and Moon announced they would work with the United States and China this year to declare an official end to the 1950s Korean War, and establish a permanent peace agreement.
“He (Kim) can treat me as his friend ...The impact is really, there is less stress now in the Korean Peninsula. And maybe, just maybe, we can avoid a war which nobody can win anyway,” Duterte said.
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Philippines’ Duterte calls North Korea’s Kim ‘hero of everybody’
Philippines’ Duterte calls North Korea’s Kim ‘hero of everybody’
Number of UK young people not in work or education nears 1 million
- Rate of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is sometimes seen as a better guide to labor market difficulties
- The latest NEET rate is equivalent 12.8 percent of the workforce, up from 12.7 percent in the last quarter
LONDON: Nearly 1 million Britons aged 16-24 were not in employment, education or training at the end of last year, the second-highest level in more than a decade, according to official data released on Thursday.
The rate of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is sometimes seen as a better guide to labor market difficulties than the headline youth unemployment rate, which was the highest in 10 years in the last quarter of 2025.
Thursday’s data showed that the number of NEETs aged 16-24 rose to 957,000 in the last quarter of 2025 from 946,000 the quarter before — just short of 971,000 in the final quarter of 2024 which was the highest since 2014.
The latest NEET rate is equivalent 12.8 percent of the workforce, up from 12.7 percent in the last quarter but below a 10-year high of 13.2 percent a year earlier and compares to an unemployment rate of 16.1 percent for 16-64 year olds.
Earlier this week, Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill told a parliament committee that a rise in the minimum wage and employer social security charges had contributed to the difficulty young people face in getting a foothold in the job market.
This view is shared by many academic economists: 15 out of 19 in a poll by Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research and the London School of Economics’ Center for Macroeconomics judged that government policy had a were a “very” or “moderately important” driver of youth unemployment.
LSE economics professor Ricardo Reis said “government policy changes are the most likely proximate cause for such large movements in young joblessness,” though he added that there was not conclusive evidence, and others pointed to broader economic weakness and artificial intelligence as factors.
Louise Murphy, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said finance minister Rachel Reeves should use a fiscal statement next week to widen eligibility for work placements and to pause plans to narrow the gap between the minimum wage rates for 18-20 year olds and older workers.
The rate of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is sometimes seen as a better guide to labor market difficulties than the headline youth unemployment rate, which was the highest in 10 years in the last quarter of 2025.
Thursday’s data showed that the number of NEETs aged 16-24 rose to 957,000 in the last quarter of 2025 from 946,000 the quarter before — just short of 971,000 in the final quarter of 2024 which was the highest since 2014.
The latest NEET rate is equivalent 12.8 percent of the workforce, up from 12.7 percent in the last quarter but below a 10-year high of 13.2 percent a year earlier and compares to an unemployment rate of 16.1 percent for 16-64 year olds.
Earlier this week, Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill told a parliament committee that a rise in the minimum wage and employer social security charges had contributed to the difficulty young people face in getting a foothold in the job market.
This view is shared by many academic economists: 15 out of 19 in a poll by Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research and the London School of Economics’ Center for Macroeconomics judged that government policy had a were a “very” or “moderately important” driver of youth unemployment.
LSE economics professor Ricardo Reis said “government policy changes are the most likely proximate cause for such large movements in young joblessness,” though he added that there was not conclusive evidence, and others pointed to broader economic weakness and artificial intelligence as factors.
Louise Murphy, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said finance minister Rachel Reeves should use a fiscal statement next week to widen eligibility for work placements and to pause plans to narrow the gap between the minimum wage rates for 18-20 year olds and older workers.
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