BEIJING/PYONGYANG: Military force cannot resolve tension over North Korea, China said on Thursday, while an influential Chinese newspaper urged the North to halt its nuclear program in exchange for Chinese protection.
With a US aircraft carrier group steaming to the area and tension rising, South Korea said it believed the US would consult it before any pre-emptive strike against the North.
Fears have been growing that the reclusive North could soon conduct its sixth nuclear test or more missile launches in defiance of UN sanctions and stark warnings from the US that a policy of patience was over.
China, North Korea’s sole major ally and benefactor, which nevertheless opposes its weapons program, has called for talks leading to a peaceful resolution and the denuclearization of the peninsula.
“Military force cannot resolve the issue,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing.
“Amid challenge there is opportunity. Amid tensions we will also find a kind of opportunity to return to talks.”
While US President Donald Trump has put North Korea on notice that he would not tolerate any provocation, US officials have said his administration was focusing its strategy on tougher economic sanctions.
Trump has diverted the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group toward the Korean peninsula, which could take more than a week to arrive, in a show of force aimed at deterring North Korea from conducting another nuclear test or launching more missiles to coincide with important events and anniversaries.
The possibility of US military action gained traction after the US Navy fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield last week in response to a deadly gas attack.
Wang warned that history would hold any instigator to account.
“Whoever provokes the situation, whoever continues to make trouble in this place, they will have to assume historical responsibility,” Wang said.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told Parliament in Seoul he believed Washington would consult Seoul if it was considering a pre-emptive strike. The US has about 28,500 troops in South Korea.
A Washington-based think-tank that monitors North Korea, 38 North, said satellite images on Wednesday showed activity around the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site on the east coast that indicated it was ready for a new test.
South Korean officials said there were no new signs to indicate a test was more likely, although they also said the North appeared ready to conduct a test at any time.
An influential state-backed Chinese newspaper said the best option for North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un, was to give up its nuclear program, and China would protect it if it did.
“As soon as North Korea complies with China’s declared advice and suspends nuclear activities ... China will actively work to protect the security of a denuclearized North Korean nation and regime,” said an editorial in the Global Times, which is published by the Communist party’s People’s Daily.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe underscored fears about threats from North Korea, telling Parliament in Tokyo that Pyongyang could have the capacity to deliver missiles equipped with sarin nerve gas.
A senior Japanese diplomat said the US was putting “maximum pressure” on North Korea to resolve issues peacefully while putting responsibility on China to sway its old ally.
“We will watch what action China takes,” the diplomat said.
While Japan did not see a high risk of military action, it expected to be consulted by the US if it decided to attack. North Korea has about 350 missiles that can hit Japan.
About 200 foreign journalists gathered in Pyongyang for North Korea’s biggest national day, the “Day of the Sun,” were taken to what officials billed as a “big and important event” early on Thursday.
It turned out to be the opening of a new street in the center of the capital, attended by leader Kim.
North Korea marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung on Saturday. In 2012, it tried but failed to launch a long-range rocket carrying a satellite to mark the date and tested a newly developed intermediate-range missile last year.
North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said early on Thursday that Kim Jong Un had guided training of the army’s special operation forces jumping from aircraft.
On Tuesday, North Korea warned of a nuclear attack on the US at any sign of American aggression. The North is technically at war with the US and South Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.
The North regularly threatens to destroy both countries.
US officials said Trump was considering sanctions that could include an oil embargo, banning North Korea’s airline, intercepting cargo ships, and punishing Chinese banks doing business with it.
“There’s a whole host of things that are possible, all the way up to what’s essentially a trade quarantine on North Korea,” one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters in Washington.
Customs data in Beijing on Thursday showed that China’s coal imports from North Korea had plunged 51.6 percent in the first three months in 2017 from a year ago.
China suspended issue of permits for coal imports from North Korea on Feb. 18 as part of its effort to implement UN sanctions.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by telephone on Wednesday, just days after they met in the US for the first time, underscoring the sense of urgency about North Korea.
Trump said on Twitter his call with Xi was a “very good” discussion of the “menace of North Korea.” He said later on Wednesday the US was prepared to tackle the crisis without China, if necessary.
Force against N. Korea will not resolve tension, China tells US
Force against N. Korea will not resolve tension, China tells US
China, Cambodia sign major canal deal
- The canal project, which was previously estimated to cost $1.7 billion — nearly 4 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product — and stretching 180 km, is now valued at $1.16 billion with a length of 151.6 km, the Cambodian government said in a
BEIJING: China and Cambodia have agreed to build safe and stable supply chains and strengthen cooperation in transportation infrastructure, they said in a joint statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday.
The two countries also signed a deal to construct a major canal, which Cambodia hopes will transform its economic fortunes.
The agreements came after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-nation tour of Southeast Asia, which included stops in Vietnam and Malaysia.
The trip was part of Beijing’s effort to consolidate economic and trading ties with close neighbors.
“China supports Cambodia in building the Funan Techo Integrated Water Conservancy Project in accordance with the principles of feasibility and sustainability,” the joint statement said.
The canal project, which was previously estimated to cost $1.7 billion — nearly 4 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product — and stretching 180 km, is now valued at $1.16 billion with a length of 151.6 km, the Cambodian government said in a separate statement.
The statement showed that it will be financed through a public-private partnership, with Cambodian investors holding a 51 percent stake and Chinese investors holding 49 percent.
China also commended Cambodia’s efforts in cracking down on illegal online gambling and telecom fraud in the joint statement, with the two countries agreeing to strengthen law enforcement cooperation further.
Before Xi’s visit, the Cambodian government said it had deported to China several “Chinese criminals,” including people from Taiwan, in a move that angered Taipei and was praised by Beijing.
The two countries also agreed to establish a ministerial dialogue between their foreign and defense ministers to facilitate coordination on major strategic issues.
Three tourists among 4 killed after Italian cable car crashes into a ravine south of Naples
- An Arab woman with Israeli citizenship was the third foreign victim to be identified following Thursday’s accident
- The fourth victim was the Italian driver of the cable car
ROME: Three tourists, including a brother and sister from Britain, were among four people who were killed when a mountain cable car plunged into a ravine south of Naples, an Italian official said Friday.
An Arab woman with Israeli citizenship was the third foreign victim to be identified following Thursday’s accident, said Marco De Rosa, a spokesperson for the mayor of Vico Equense.
The fourth victim was the Italian driver of the cable car. A fifth tourist, said to be the brother of the Israeli victim, is in a stable but critical condition at a Naples hospital, officials said.
Initial reports suggested that a traction cable may have snapped as the cable car ascended Monte Faito, in the town of Castellammare di Stabia. The cable car plunged into a ravine after stopping very close to the station at the top of the peak, at around 1,050 meters (3,400 feet).
Sixteen passengers were helped out of another cable car that was stuck mid-air near the foot of the mountain following the incident.
The accident happened just a week after the cable car, which is popular for its views of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, reopened for the season. It averages around 110,000 visitors each year.
The emergency services, including Italy’s alpine rescue, more than 50 firefighters, police and civil protection personnel, worked into the evening in severe weather conditions, with fog and strong winds making rescue operations difficult.
“The traction cable broke. The emergency brake downstream worked, but evidently not the one on the cabin that was entering the station,” Luigi Vicinanza, the mayor of Castellammare di Stabia, said on Thursday. He added that there had been regular safety checks on the cable car line, which runs 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the town to the top of the mountain.
Local prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter, which will involve an inspection of the cable stations, the pylons, the two cabins and the cable, officials said Friday.
The company running the service, the EAV public transport firm, said the seasonal cable car had reopened with all the required safety conditions.
“The reopening had taken place a week ago after three months of tests every day, day and night,” said EAV President Umberto De Gregorio. “This is something inexplicable.”
De Gregorio said technical experts believed there was no connection between the severe weather and the cause of the crash. “There is an automatic system. When the wind exceeds a certain level, the cable car stops automatically,” he said.
The Monte Faito cable car opened in 1952. Four people died in 1960 when a pylon broke.
Italy has recorded two similar fatal accidents involving cable cars in recent years.
A cable car crash in May 2021 in northern Italy killed 14 people, including six Israelis, among them a family of four. In 1998, a low-flying US military jet cut through the cable of a ski lift in Cavalese, in the Dolomites, killing 20 people.
Half a million weapons lost or smuggled after Taliban takeover in Afghanistan
- When Taliban swept through Afghanistan, they captured about 1 million pieces of US-funded military equipment
- Many weapons were abandoned by retreating Afghan soldiers or left behind by US forces
LONDON: Around half a million weapons seized by the Taliban after their 2021 takeover of Afghanistan have been lost, sold, or smuggled to militant groups, according to sources who spoke to the BBC.
Some of the missing weapons are believed to be in the hands of Al-Qaeda affiliates, UN officials say.
When the Taliban swept through Afghanistan, they captured about 1 million pieces of US-funded military equipment, including M4 and M16 rifles, according to the report published on Thursday.
Many weapons were abandoned by retreating Afghan soldiers or left behind by US forces, it added.
At a closed-door UN meeting in Doha last year, Taliban officials reportedly admitted that half of this equipment is now “unaccounted for.”
A UN report in February said groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were accessing Taliban-captured weapons or buying them on the black market.
The Taliban government denies the claims, insisting that all weapons are securely stored.
However, a 2023 UN report said local Taliban commanders were allowed to keep 20 percent of seized US arms, fueling a thriving black market.
Sources described an underground trade where US-made weapons are now sold via messaging apps like WhatsApp.
Oversight of US equipment in Afghanistan has long been criticized, and a US watchdog, Sigar, said tracking efforts were hampered by poor record-keeping across multiple agencies.
US President Donald Trump has vowed to reclaim the lost weaponry, though experts argue the cost of recovery would outweigh its value.
Meanwhile, the Taliban have used captured Humvees, rifles, and other simpler equipment to bolster their military strength, although they struggle to maintain more complex machinery like Black Hawk helicopters.
Concerns remain that the flow of advanced weaponry to militant groups will continue to destabilize the region.
Australian to stand trial in Russian-occupied Ukraine on mercenary charges
- Jenkins came to Ukraine in February 2024 from Melbourne
- Then fought against the Russian army between March and December 2024
MOSCOW: An Australian man will stand trial on mercenary charges in Russian-occupied Lugansk, the eastern region’s Moscow-installed authorities said on Friday, the latest foreign soldier fighting for Ukraine to appear before the court.
“The Prosecutor’s Office of the Lugansk People’s Republic approved the indictment in the criminal case against 33-year-old citizen of the Commonwealth of Australia Oscar Charles Augustus Jenkins,” the authorities said in a statement.
According to the investigators, Jenkins came to Ukraine in February 2024 from Melbourne and then fought against the Russian army between March and December 2024, for which he was paid around $7,000-9,000 a month.
Russia and its eastern Ukraine proxies typically consider foreigners traveling to fight in Ukraine as “mercenaries.”
This enables them to prosecute fighters under its criminal code, rather than treating them as captured prisoners of war with protections and rights under the Geneva Convention.
Most recently British man James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was charged with terrorism after he was caught in the Kursk region fighting on Ukraine’s side.
Prince Harry requested taxpayer-funded security after Al-Qaeda death threat
- The prince is in a legal battle with the Home Office over the level of protection he receives in Britain
- Terror group called for prince ‘to be murdered’ after 2020 decision to reduce his security, court told
LONDON: The UK’s Prince Harry, duke of Sussex, requested taxpayer-funded protection following a murder threat against him by Al-Qaeda, new court documents show.
The prince is in a legal battle with the UK Home Office over the level of taxpayer-funded personal security he receives when traveling back home from the US, and the documents were revealed following the duke of Sussex’s appearance at London’s Royal Courts of Justice last week, The Independent newspaper reported.
The Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC) ordered in 2020 that Prince Harry should receive a lower grade of security when in the UK.
He fought back against the decision, but the High Court dismissed his case against the Home Office last year, which he is now appealing.
Private evidence was heard in the case, showing that Prince Harry submitted a request for protection following the Al-Qaeda threat.
A court summary said the prince “confirmed that he had requested certain protection after a threat was made against him” by the terror organization.
Prince Harry previously claimed he faces a greater risk than Princess Diana, his late mother, with “additional layers of racism and extremism.”
After the RAVEC decision in 2020, Al-Qaeda called for Prince Harry “to be murdered,” written submissions in the prince’s appeal say.
Shaheed Fatima KC, for the prince, said that his security team was told that Al-Qaeda had released a document which said his “assassination would please the Muslim community.”
The RAVEC decision was made after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they would step back from public duties in early 2020.
The pair were later told that, while in the UK, they would no longer receive the full-scale police protection offered to the king and queen, the prince and princess of Wales, and their three children.
An alternative “bespoke” security detail was arranged for the duke and duchess of Sussex.
They are required to give 30 days’ notice of their arrival in Britain for officials to make threat assessments.
Prince Harry had been “singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment,” Fatima said, adding that he “does not accept that ‘bespoke’ means ‘better.’”
