SEOUL: South Korea, the US and Japan called for stronger international support of efforts to ban North Korea from sending workers abroad and curb the North’s cybercrimes as a way to block the country’s means to fund its nuclear program.
The top South Korean, US and Japanese nuclear envoys met in Seoul on Friday in their first gathering in four months to discuss how to cope with North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal. The North’s recent weapons tests show it is intent on acquiring more advanced missiles designed to attack the US and its allies, rather than returning to talks.
Despite 11 rounds of UN sanctions and pandemic-related hardships that have worsened its economic and food problems, North Korea still devotes much of its scarce resources to its nuclear and missile programs. Contributing to financing its weapons program is also likely the North’s crypto hacking and other illicit cyber activities and the wages sent by North Korean workers remaining in China, Russia and elsewhere despite an earlier UN order to repatriate them by the end of 2019, experts say.
In a joint statement, the South Korean, US and Japanese envoys urged the international community to thoroughly abide by UN resolutions on the banning of North Korean workers overseas, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.
The ministry said a large number of North Korean workers remains engaged in economic activities around the world and transmits money that is used in the North’s weapons programs. It said the three envoys tried to call attention to the North Korean workers because the North may further reopen its international borders as the global COVID-19 situation improves.
“We need to make sure that its provocations never go unpunished. We will effectively counter North Korea’s future provocations and cut their revenue streams that fund these illegal activities,” Kim Gunn, the South Korean envoy, said in televised comments at the start of the meeting.
Sung Kim, the US envoy, said that with its nuclear and missile programs and "malicious cyber program that targets countries and individuals around the globe,” North Korea threatens the security and prosperity of the entire international community.
South Korea’s spy agency said in December that North Korean hackers had stolen an estimated $1.2 billion (1.5 trillion won) in cryptocurrency and other virtual assets in the past five years, more than half of it last year alone. The National Intelligence Service said North Korea’s capacity to steal digital assets was considered among the best in the world because it has focused on cybercrimes since UN economic sanctions were toughened in 2017 in response to its nuclear and missile tests.
Friday’s trilateral meeting will likely infuriate North Korea, which has previously warned that the three countries’ moves to boost their security cooperation prompted urgent calls to reinforce its own military capability.
North Korea has long argued the UN sanctions and US-led military exercises in the region are proof of Washington’s hostility against Pyongyang. The North has also said it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to cope with US military threats, though US and South Korean officials have steadfastly said they have no intention of invading the North.
Earlier this week, the United States conducted anti-submarine naval drills with South Korean and Japanese forces in their first such training in six months. The US also flew nuclear-capable bombers for separate, bilateral aerial training with South Korean warplanes.
North Korea hasn’t performed weapons tests in reaction to those US-involved drills. But last month, it carried out a barrage of missile tests to protest the earlier South Korean-US military training that it sees as an invasion rehearsal.
There are also concerns that North Korea could carry out its first nuclear test in more than five years, since it unveiled a new type of nuclear warhead last week. Foreign experts debate whether North Korea has developed warheads small and light enough to fit on missiles.
South Korea, US, Japan call for support of ban on North Korean workers
https://arab.news/r3q4f
South Korea, US, Japan call for support of ban on North Korean workers
- North Korea still devotes much of its scarce resources to its nuclear and missile programs
- North Korean workers remain in China, Russia and elsewhere despite an earlier UN order to repatriate them
Fossils of ‘Java Man,’ first known Homo erectus, return to Indonesia
- Netherlands to repatriate more than 28,000 items in Dubois collection in 2026
- Fossils excavated in Indonesia were ‘removed against will of people’
JAKARTA: Prehistoric bones belonging to “Java Man” — the first known fossil evidence of Homo erectus — went on display at Indonesia’s National Museum on Thursday, more than 130 years after they were taken to the Netherlands during Dutch colonial rule.
The parts of the skeleton — a skull fragment, molar and thigh bone — were uncovered along the Bengawan Solo River on Java island in the late 19th century by Dutch anatomist and geologist Eugene Dubois.
The three items, and a related shell that was scratched by early Homo erectus, are the first in the planned repatriation of more than 28,000 fossils and natural history objects originating in Java and Sumatra that Dubois had removed.
“Repatriation is a national priority,” Indonesian Culture Minister Fadli Zon said during an official handover ceremony in Jakarta.
“We bear the responsibility to protect cultural heritage, restore historical narratives and ensure public access to the cultural and scientific heritage that belongs to Indonesia.”
Fossils of the Java Man, which was hand-carried in a GPS-tracked, climate-controlled suitcase with a diplomatic seal, were some of the first pieces of evidence showing links between apes and humans.
The fossils are part of the larger Dubois collection that was managed by Naturalis Biodiversity Center, a 200-year-old scientific institution in Leiden.
The rest of the collection will be transferred to Indonesia in 2026, the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta said in a statement, adding that Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency will take a lead role in preserving and managing the items.
“This handover marks the beginning of the next phase. We intend to repatriate thousands of items excavated in Indonesia over 130 years ago,” said Marcel Beukeboom, general director of Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
“This fossil bears witness to an important link in human evolution, while also representing part of Indonesian history and cultural heritage,” he said.
Jakarta started to campaign for the Dutch government to return stolen Indonesian artifacts after declaring independence in 1945, but the Netherlands started to return stolen items only in small numbers in the 1970s.
Recent efforts by the Indonesian Repatriation Committee have brought back home hundreds of artifacts since 2023, bringing the number to more than 2,000 items so far.
The repatriation of the Dubois collection was first announced in September, following recommendation by the Netherlands’ Colonial Collections Committee.
“The Colonial Collections Committee has concluded … that the Dutch state never owned the Dubois collection,” the Dutch government said in a news release issued at the time.
“The committee believes that the circumstances under which the fossils were obtained means it is likely they were removed against the will of the people, resulting in an act of injustice against them.
“Fossils held spiritual and economic value for local people, who were coerced into revealing fossil sites.”
The returned fossils are now a centerpiece of “Early History,” a new permanent exhibit at the National Museum in Jakarta that opened to the public on Thursday.
It explores the history of human civilization throughout Indonesia, with displays including a replica of one of the world’s oldest cave paintings from South Sulawesi and inscriptions from the 4th-century Hindu Kutai Martadipura Kingdom in East Kalimantan.
