SEOUL: North Korea on Saturday reported no new fever cases for the first time since it abruptly admitted to its first domestic COVID-19 outbreak and placed its 26 million people under more draconian restrictions in May.
There have been widespread outside doubts about the accuracy of North Korean statistics as its reported fatalities are too low and its daily fever cases have been plummeting too fast recently. Some experts say North Korea has likely manipulated the scale of illness and deaths to help leader Kim Jong Un maintain absolute control amid mounting economic difficulties.
The North’s anti-epidemic center said via state media it had found zero fever patients in the latest 24-hour period, maintaining the country’s total caseload of about 4.8 million. Its death count remains at 74, with a mortality rate of 0.0016 percent that would be the world’s lowest if true.
Despite the claimed zero cases, it is unclear whether and how soon North Korea would formally declare victory over COVID-19 and lift pandemic-related curbs because experts say it could face a viral resurgence later this year like many other countries. North Korea’s state media has recently said it’s intensifying and upgrading its anti-epidemic systems to guard against coronavirus subvariants and other diseases like monkeypox that are occurring in other countries.
“The organizational power and unity unique to the society of (North Korea) is fully displayed in the struggle to bring forward a victory in the emergency anti-epidemic campaign,” the official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday.
North Korea’s claimed zero cases could have symbolic significance in its efforts to establish Kim’s image as a leader who has suppressed the outbreak much faster than other countries. Kim would need such credentials to garner greater public support to surmount economic hardships caused by pandemic-related border closings, UN sanctions and his own mismanagement, observers say.
“In North Korea, public health care and politics can’t be separated from each other, and that aspect has been revealed again in its COVID-19 outbreak,” said Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea. “Since they began with manipulated data, they’re now putting an end to the outbreak with manipulated data.”
North Korea had been widely expected to claim zero cases as its daily fever caseload has been nosediving in recent days — there were three reported cases on Friday and 11 on Thursday — from a peak of about 400,000 a day in May. The country, which lacks test kits, has identified only a fraction of its 4.8 million fever patients as confirmed COVID-19 cases.
“Realistically speaking, hundreds of thousands of daily fever cases becoming zero in less than three months is something impossible,” said Lee Yo Han, a professor at Ajou University Graduate School of Public Health in South Korea.
Many outside experts earlier worried the North’s outbreak would have devastating consequences because most of its people are believed to be unvaccinated and about 40 percent are reportedly undernourished. But now, activists and defectors with contacts in North Korea say they haven’t heard about anything like a humanitarian disaster happening in the North. They say the country’s outbreak has also likely peaked.
In an indication of an easing outbreak, North Korea this week held massive no-mask public events in its capital, Pyongyang, where thousands of aged Korean War veterans and others gathered from across the country to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 war. During an anniversary ceremony, Kim hugged and exchanged handshakes with some veterans before he took group photos with other participants. No one wore masks, according to state media photos.
Shin Young-jeon, a professor of preventive medicine at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said North Korea would know that zero cases don’t mean it has no COVID-19 patients because there are likely asymptomatic cases. He said North Korea won’t likely announce it has officially beaten the pandemic anytime soon because of worries about a resurgence.
“North Korea’s state media has already used expressions like it’s winning its anti-virus fight. The only other expression they can use now is declaring the coronavirus has been completely eliminated from its territory,” Shin said. “But if new cases emerge again, North Korea would lose its face.”
The only route for North Korea’s fresh viral spread from abroad is likely China, its main ally which shares a long, porous border with the country, and North Korea would likely find it difficult to announce victory over the pandemic until China does so, Lee said.
The North Korea-China border has been largely shut for more than 2 ½ years, except for a few months when it reopened earlier this year.
Some observers say the North’s elevated pandemic response has provided Kim with a tool to boost his authoritarian rule amid public complaints over long-running restrictions. They say North Korea could report a small number of fever cases again in the coming days.
Foreign experts struggle to assess the true number of fatalities in North Korea. They note the North’s shortage of test kits would also make it virtually impossible for the country to determine whether aged people or others with underlying diseases died of COVID-19 or something else.
Shin, the university professor, stood by his earlier study that predicted North Korea would likely suffer 100,000-150,000 deaths. He said he used South Korean data showing its mortality rate of unvaccinated people for the omicron variant, whose outbreak North Korea admitted in May, was 0.6 percent.
Other experts say the North’s fatalities would be several thousand at the maximum. They said bigger death tolls must have been detected by North Korea monitoring groups.
North Korea claims no new fever cases amid doubts over COVID-19 data
https://arab.news/6cyuz
North Korea claims no new fever cases amid doubts over COVID-19 data
- Despite the claimed zero cases, it is unclear whether and how soon North Korea would formally declare victory over COVID-19
- Foreign experts struggle to assess the true number of fatalities in North Korea
Fourteen years in prison for US soldier who sought to aid Daesh
- According to court documents, Bridges, who joined the army in 2019, went from consuming online terrorist propaganda to trying to provide information to aid Daesh, which once held swathes of Iraq and Syria
WASHINGTON: A US soldier who pleaded guilty to trying to provide information to the Daesh group to help it attack American troops in the Middle East was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday.
Cole Bridges, 24, pleaded guilty in June of last year to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder US military service members.
Bridges, a private first class from Ohio, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday and 10 years of supervised release, the Justice Department said in a statement.
According to court documents, Bridges, who joined the army in 2019, went from consuming online terrorist propaganda to trying to provide information to aid Daesh, which once held swathes of Iraq and Syria.
In October 2020, Bridges began communicating with an FBI employee who was posing as an Daesh supporter, the Justice Department said.
“During these communications, Bridges expressed his frustration with the US military and his desire to aid Daesh,” the department said.
Bridges provided “training and guidance” to purported Daesh fighters, including advice about potential targets in New York City, it said, and information on “how to attack US forces in the Middle East.”
In January 2021, Bridges, who was based at Fort Stewart in Georgia, sent a video to the covert FBI employee of himself in body armor standing in front of a flag used by Daesh fighters.
Russia’s Putin cements ties with Iranian president in Central Asia meeting
- Putin invites Pezeshkian to Russia for official visit
- US concerned over closer Iran-Russia ties
MOSCOW: Russia’s Vladimir Putin held talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday in Turkmenistan, where the two leaders hailed their countries growing economic ties and similar views on world affairs, an entente viewed with concern by the United States.
At odds with Washington and the European Union over Russia’s war in Ukraine, something he casts as part of a wider existential struggle against an arrogant and self-interested West — Putin is keen to deepen ties with what he calls the Global East and Global South.
Putin, whose country is hosting a summit of the BRICS nations in Kazan on Oct. 22-24, invited Pezeshkian to come to Russia on an official visit, a proposal the Iranian leader accepted according to Russia’s state RIA news agency.
“Economically and culturally, our communications are being strengthened day by day and becoming more robust,” Pezeshkian was cited as telling Putin by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
“The growing trend of cooperation between Iran and Russia, considering the will of the top leaders of both countries, must be accelerated to strengthen these ties,” he said.
In a later report from Dubai, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted the Iranian president, in a video issued by his office, as saying the two sides had agreed to boost cooperation in a number of areas.
“Our talks with the Russian president lasted about an hour. And we talked again about agreements that we have concluded,” the report quoted him as saying.
“We have constructive interaction. We agreed to speed up the completion of projects in the gas sectors, in road and rail construction, desalination and other projects linked to energy, petrochemicals and electricity.”
Pezeshkian last month committed his country to deeper ties with Russia to counter Western sanctions. The two countries say they are close to signing a strategic partnership agreement, something Pezeshkian said on Friday he hoped could be finalized at the BRICS summit in Russia later this month.
The United States regards Moscow’s growing relationship with Tehran with concern. It has accused Iran of supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in the conflict in Ukraine, something Tehran has denied.
Russia says cooperation with Iran is expanding in all areas.
“We actively work together in the international arena, and our assessments of current events in the world are often very close,” TASS cited Putin as telling Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the conference in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat.
Pezeshkian, according to IRNA, noted that Iran and Russia had significant complementary capacities and could assist each other. “Our positions in the world are much closer to each other than to others,” he was quoted as telling the Russian leader.
Pezeshkian said earlier that Israel should “stop killing innocent people,” and its actions in the Middle East were backed by the US and EU. Russia has also criticized Israel, which says it is protecting its own security, for bombing civilian areas.
Putin was cited by TASS as telling Pezeshkian that economic ties between Moscow and Tehran were on the up.
In comments released by the Kremlin earlier on Friday, Putin told the conference in the Central Asian country that a new world order was being formed and that new centers of economic growth and financial and political influence were emerging.
Russia supported “the broadest possible international discussion” on the emerging multipolar world and was open to discussing it within various fora, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and BRICS, said Putin.
US expands sanctions on Iran in response to its ballistic attack on Israel
- Increasingly, however, escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regional war
WASHINGTON: The US on Friday announced new sanctions on Iran’s energy sector in response to its Oct. 1 attack on Israel when it fired roughly 180 missiles into the country.
Iran said the barrage was retaliation for a series of devastating blows Israel has landed in recent weeks against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began.
Included in Friday’s sanctions are blocks on Iran’s so-called “ghost fleet” of ships and associated firms that span the United Arab Emirates, Liberia, Hong Kong and other jurisdictions that allegedly obfuscate and transport Iranian oil for sale to buyers in Asia.
Additionally, the US State Department designated a network of companies based in Suriname, India, Malaysia and Hong Kong for allegedly arranging for the sale and transport of petroleum and petroleum products from Iran.
Current US law authorizes sanctions targeting Iran’s energy sector as well as foreign firms that buy sell and transport Iranian oil. But energy sanctions are often a delicate issue as restricting supplies could push up prices for global commodities that the US and its allies need.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security advise, said the new sanctions “will help further deny Iran financial resources used to support its missile programs and provide support for terrorist groups that threaten the United States, its allies, and partners.”
The penalties aim to block them from using the US financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them.
Israel and Iran have fought a shadow war for years, but rarely have they come into direct conflict. Increasingly, however, escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regional war.
Iran launched another direct attack on Israel in April, but few of its projectiles reached their targets. Many were shot down by a US-led coalition while others apparently failed at launch or crashed in flight.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday that the United States “will not hesitate to take further action to hold Iran accountable.”
Scholz, Erdogan to discuss Middle East conflict in Istanbul
- Migration and economic policy issues will be on the agenda, German official says
BERLIN: Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Turkiye next week to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with the escalating conflict in the Middle East and migration on the agenda, German officials said Friday.
Scholz will hold talks with Erdogan on Oct.19 in Istanbul, followed by a press conference, government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner told a media briefing in Berlin.
The German chancellor last visited Turkiye in March 2022, a few months after taking office.
“The war in Ukraine will be the subject of the talks, as will the situation in the Middle East. Migration and bilateral and economic policy issues will also be on the agenda,” Buechner said.
FASTFACT
Germany is home to Europe’s largest Turkish diaspora of some 3 million people.
Germany’s relations are sensitive with Turkiye, a fellow NATO member.
Germany is home to Europe’s largest Turkish diaspora of some 3 million people. In recent years, German officials have raised hackles in Turkiye by criticizing what they see as growing authoritarianism under Erdogan.
The outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in Gaza has further strained ties.
Erdogan has frequently attacked Israel over its actions in Gaza, labeling them “genocide.” Berlin, meanwhile, is a strong supporter of Israel and has defended the country’s right to self-defense, although it has also increasingly called for restraint.
When the Turkish leader visited Germany last year, he traded barbs with Scholz over the conflict.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
According to the territory’s Health Ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, mostly civilians. There have also been tensions between Berlin and Ankara over immigration.
Berlin announced at the end of September that it had agreed a plan with Turkiye under which Berlin would step up deportations of failed Turkish asylum seekers — only for Turkiye to deny any such deal had been struck swiftly.
The Scholz government has been under heightened pressure after a series of violent crimes and extremist attacks committed by asylum seekers. When it comes to Ukraine, Germany has strongly supported Kyiv in its fight against Moscow since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and is Ukraine’s second-biggest military backer.
Turkiye has sought to balance ties between its two Black Sea neighbors, Russia and Ukraine, since the outbreak of the war. Ankara has sent drones to Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Blinken says Asia concerned about spread of Middle East conflict
- “We are seeing escalation after escalation, a regionalization of the conflict that is becoming a threat to global peace and security”
VIENTIANE LAOS: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday there was deep concern in Asia about the prospect of conflict spreading in the Middle East, as the UN chief called for everything possible to be done to avoid “all-out war” in Lebanon.
The conflict in the Middle East was a central issue during Friday’s East Asia Summit in Laos, where Blinken said Washington was dedicated to using diplomacy to try to control the situation in the face of what he called an Iranian-led axis of resistance.
“The intense focus of the United States, which has been the case going back a year... (is) preventing these conflicts from spreading. And we’re working on that every day,” Blinken told a press conference.
FASTFACT
US is dedicated to diplomacy to stop escalation, Blinken says.
“We’re working very hard through deterrence and through diplomacy to prevent that from happening. There’s also obviously deep concern that we share about the plight of children, women, and men in Gaza.”
The US has stressed to Israel the importance of meeting the humanitarian needs of people in Gaza, Blinken said, adding it was in Israel’s interest that people forced from their homes by hostilities in Lebanon are able to return.
The annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also included meetings with leaders and top diplomats from India, China, Japan, the US, Russia, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, as well as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Friday’s discussions included the war in Ukraine, Myanmar’s civil war, climate change, tensions in the Taiwan Strait and concern about confrontations in the South China Sea, a key conduit for at least $3 trillion in annual ship-borne trade.
‘Escalation after escalation’
Guterres condemned an attack by Israeli forces on a watchtower that wounded two UN peacemakers from Indonesia, an incident he said violated international law and must not be repeated.
He said any spread of fighting in the Middle East would have dramatically negative impacts on the whole world and called for maximum restraint from all sides.
“I have never seen in my time as secretary-general any example of death and destruction as dramatic as what we are witnessing here,” he told a press conference.
“We are seeing escalation after escalation, a regionalization of the conflict that is becoming a threat to global peace and security.”
“We see an enormous tragedy in Lebanon. And we must do everything to avoid an all-out war,” he added.
Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. made a plea before the regional leaders for all parties to be genuinely committed to managing disputes over the South China Sea, where his country has been embroiled in more than a year of confrontations with China.
The row has sparked fears those could spiral out of control, as US defense ally the Philippines accuses China of aggression, and Beijing expresses outrage over what it calls provocations and territorial infringements by Manila.
His remarks come a day after he called for ASEAN and China to urgently speed up negotiations on a code of conduct.
“These kinds of behavior cannot be ignored, and demand of us concerted and serious efforts to truly manage our disputes,” Marcos said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose country takes over the ASEAN chair next year, said violence must be avoided and that Chinese Premier Li Qiang had given assurances that matters would be handled peacefully.
“This is an issue that affects all countries but the solution we propose, that is agreed upon by all, including China, is to avoid violence, use diplomatic channels, have negotiations,” he told a press conference.
Intensely focused
ASEAN and China on Friday issued a statement recognizing the proliferation of online gambling crimes and telecommunications network fraud, more commonly known as scam centers, for which hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked in Southeast Asia by criminal gangs, according to the UN.
Blinken and the ASEAN leaders on Friday agreed to cooperate on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and strengthen its safety, security and trustworthiness, including developing compatible approaches to AI governance.
Blinken gave reassurances about Washington’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, regardless of the outcome of next month’s US presidential election.
“Even with everything else going on, our focus has remained intensely on this region,” he said.
