WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that China has threatened to impose sanctions on North Korea if it conducts further nuclear tests.
“We know that China is in communications with the regime in Pyongyang,” Tillerson said on Fox News Channel. “They confirmed to us that they had requested the regime conduct no further nuclear test.”
Tillerson said China also told the US that it had informed North Korea “that if they did conduct further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions actions on their own.”
Earlier Thursday, the senior US Navy officer overseeing military operations in the Pacific said the crisis with North Korea is at the worst point he’s ever seen, but he declined to compare the situation to the Cuban missile crisis decades ago.
“It’s real,” Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of US Pacific Command, said during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Harris said he has no doubt that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un intends to fulfill his pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States. The admiral acknowledged there’s uncertainty within US intelligence agencies over how far along North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are. But Harris said it’s not a matter of if but when.
“There is no doubt in my mind,” Harris said.
The Trump administration has declared that all options, including a targeted military strike, are on the table to block North Korea from carrying out threats against the United States and its allies in the region. But a pre-emptive attack isn’t likely, US officials have said, and the administration is pursuing a strategy of putting pressure on Pyongyang with assistance from China, North Korea’s main trading partner and the country’s economic lifeline.
With international support, the Trump administration said Thursday it wants to exert a “burst” of economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea that yields results within months to push the communist government to change course from developing nuclear weapons.
Susan Thornton, the acting top US diplomat for East Asia, said there’s debate about whether Pyongyang is willing to give up its weapons programs. She said the US wants “to test that hypothesis to the maximum extent we can” for a peaceful resolution.
But signaling that military action remains possible, Thornton told an event hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies — the Washington think tank has advocated tougher US policies on Iran and North Korea — that the administration treats North Korea as its primary security challenge and is serious that “all options are on the table.”
“We are not seeking regime change and our preference is to resolve this problem peacefully,” Thornton said, “but we are not leaving anything off the table.”
Tillerson took a similar stand in the Fox News interview Thursday, saying: “We do not seek regime change in North Korea. ... What we are seeking is the same thing China has said they seek — a full denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”
In a separate interview with National Public Radio, Tillerson said the US remains open to holding direct negotiations with North Korea.
“But North Korea has to decide they’re ready to talk to us about the about the right agenda, and the right agenda is not simply stopping where they are for a few more months or a few more years and then resuming things,” he said, according to excerpts of an interview that will air Friday morning. “That’s been the agenda for the last 20 years.”
Multi-nation negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear program stalled in 2008. The Obama administration attempted to resurrect them in 2012, but a deal to provide food aid in exchange for a nuclear freeze soon collapsed.
Harris told the committee that the financial sanctions imposed against the North Korean regime by the US and other countries have done nothing to slow North Korea’s quest for weapons of mass destruction. He also said he’s been skeptical of China’s willingness to exert its influence over Pyongyang. But Harris said he’s become “cautiously optimistic” following recent talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“It’s only been a month or so and it’s too early to tell,” Harris said. “I wouldn’t bet my farm on it.”
The House GOP leadership announced late Thursday that it would vote next week on new sanctions against North Korea that would target its shipping industry and those who employ North Korean slave labor abroad.
“The time for waiting on North Korea to get its act together is over. Congress has led the effort to institute tough and far-reaching sanctions against Pyongyang,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
In a show of military might, the US has sent a massive amount of American weaponry to the region. A group of American warships led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is in striking range of North Korea “if the president were to call on it,” Harris told the committee. A US missile defense system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense is being installed in South Korea.
Harris said he has adequate forces to “fight tonight” against North Korea if that were to become necessary. But the admiral also said he lacks all the attack submarines he needs and has no capable defense against the thousands of artillery pieces North Korea has assembled near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. There are about 28,500 US military personnel serving in South Korea.
Tillerson says China asked North Korea to stop nuclear tests
Tillerson says China asked North Korea to stop nuclear tests
Russia jails lawyer for 7 years for criticizing Ukraine campaign
- Dmitry Talantov, 63, was arrested in July 2022 after describing the acts of the Russian army in the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Bucha as being reminiscent of “Nazi practices“
- Safronov is now serving a 22-year sentence on treason charges
MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday sentenced a senior lawyer who had defended a jailed journalist in a high-profile case to seven years in prison for denouncing Moscow’s Ukraine offensive on social media.
Dmitry Talantov, 63, was arrested in July 2022 after describing the acts of the Russian army in the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Bucha as being reminiscent of “Nazi practices.”
Talantov was for many years president of the Udmurtia lawyer association and in 2021 was the defense lawyer for Ivan Safronov, a journalist covering military affairs whose arrest shook Russia’s media community.
Safronov is now serving a 22-year sentence on treason charges.
A court in the Udmurt Republic found Talantov guilty of actions aimed at spreading hatred and of knowingly distributing “fake” information on the Russian army — charges made possible with a censorship law adopted shortly after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.
In an emotional speech in court, Talantov said he feared he would not survive the prison term, but also stood by his convictions.
“I am 64 and it is hard for me to imagine that I will come out of prison alive,” Talantov said, according to an audio of the speech published by rights group Perviy Otdel.
Talantov has been in pre-trial detention for two and a half years and has spent two years in an isolation cell, saying the Russian national anthem blasts out there in the evening and at dawn, before a staunchly pro-Kremlin radio show is played.
“I am waiting for words of peace. They do not come,” he said.
He described his conditions as a “Middle-Ages cell with only a (toilet) hole and a tap,” saying “time kills a person” in isolation.
His voice breaking, he addressed his wife saying: “Olga, forgive me, I love you.”
According to a letter he sent to Perviy Otdel, Talantov was arrested while at his summer home in the summer of 2022.
More than 300 lawyers had signed a petition calling for his release at the time.
Germany offers re-deployment of Patriot air defense units to Poland
- The units could be deployed for up to six months, the ministry said
- From January to November 2022, Germany had already deployed 300 troops
BERLIN: Germany has offered to re-deploy Patriot air defense systems to NATO ally Poland at the start of the new year, the German defense ministry said on Thursday.
The units could be deployed for up to six months, the ministry said in a statement.
“With this we will protect a logistical hub in Poland which is of central importance for the delivery of materials to Ukraine,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.
From January to November 2022, Germany had already deployed 300 troops together with three Patriot units to Poland.
They were based in the town Zamosc, about 50 km (31 miles) from the Ukrainian border, to protect the southern town and its crucial railway link to Ukraine.
The deployment was triggered by a stray Ukrainian missile that struck the Polish village of Przewodow in November 2022, in an incident that raised fears of the war in Ukraine spilling over the border.
Putin says Russia would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kyiv gets nuclear weapons
Putin says Russia would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kyiv gets nuclear weapons
- Putin said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon
ASTANA: President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would head off any attempt by Ukraine to acquire nuclear weapons and would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if such a scenario unfolded.
The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.
Putin, speaking in Astana, Kazakhstan, said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon, but that it might be able to make some kind of “dirty bomb.”
One year on, daily ‘stop genocide’ protests target Israel’s embassy in Korea
- South Korea observes significant growth in the Palestine solidarity movement— Embassy protests held by members of over 200 Korean civil society organizations
SEOUL: Across from the Israeli embassy in Seoul, Lee Hyun-ah was holding a big red banner, as she stood in a lone daily protest calling for an end to Israel’s onslaught, massacres, and occupation of Palestine.
The banner, with writing in Korean, Arabic, and bold English letters reading “Stop Genocide Against Palestinians,” has appeared in front of the embassy every workday since November last year, when UN experts and international rights groups began warning that Israel’s mass killings in the Gaza Strip were unfolding into a genocidal campaign.
The one-person protests have been organized by Urgent Action by Korean Civil Society in Solidarity with Palestine — also known as People in Solidarity with Palestinians — a coalition of 226 South Korean civil society organizations whose members have been volunteering to rally on specific days.
Lee, a 20-year-old student in Seoul, was taking part for the first time.
“I finally found the courage and decided to participate,” she told Arab News, recalling how she began to learn about the decades of Israeli occupation of Palestine only last year.
“I was appalled. There are fundamental virtues, ethics, and values in this world. I cannot believe one group can just attack, invade, and commit genocide. I felt compelled to act.”
Lee’s protest on Monday was the 267th lone demonstration held by Urgent Action in front of the Seoul embassy.
The coalition was established in October 2023, soon after Israel launched its war on Gaza, in which its military has since killed over 44,000 people and injured more than 100,000. The real death toll is believed to be much higher, with estimates by medical journal The Lancet indicating that, as of July, it could be more than 186,000.
The Korean civil society coalition, which includes BDS Korea — a group affiliated with the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement — has also been organizing mass protests, film screenings, and boycott campaigns tailored specifically for South Korea.
Their efforts to raise awareness are bearing fruit, as the number of people joining is rapidly increasing. From just a handful of activists, the movement has grown significantly, with over 2,000 people participating in its Palestine solidarity rally last month.
“Our group was very small. It was about five to seven people working together. There were limitations on what we could do because it was so small,” BDS Korea leader Deng Ya-ping told Arab News.
“Before October 2023, there were very few organizations in South Korea that were acting in solidarity with Palestine ... But after forming People in Solidarity with Palestinians, more civic groups joined, and individuals unrelated to any organization have started participating as well.”
The group is advocating for a change in the South Korean government’s stance on Israel’s occupation and demanding that it stop Korean companies from selling weapons to the Israeli military.
“In July, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must halt its military occupation and that all nations have a responsibility to make Israel comply. So, the Korean government is also responsible ... the most obvious way to do that is to ban arms trade. That is the biggest request we have toward the Korean government,” Deng said.
“Other than that, Korea is a part of the UN Security Council. Korea voted in favor of the resolution that the US vetoed, which called for an end to the genocide and a ceasefire. Therefore, Korea should act accordingly, pressuring Israel to stop.”
The sentiment that the South Korean government is not doing enough is common among those joining Seoul protests — as is their resolve to persist, even when the embassy staff try to stop them.
While the embassy denies the claims, one of the protesters, Lee S., who has been involved in the Palestine solidarity movement since 2016, recalled its attempts to harass them.
“Sometimes embassy workers would come out during our protests to complain or try to provoke physical confrontations. But we never got into the fights. And they would systematically tear down our posters,” Lee said.
“But the South Korean civil society will continue to speak out loudly until the genocide in Gaza ends. We will not stay silent.”
Presidential aide says Ukraine ready to host second peace summit soon
- Ukraine held its first “peace summit” in Switzerland in June
- “Thanks to active work with our partners, a joint peace framework has already been developed,” Yermak said
KYIV: Ukraine is ready to host a second global summit aimed at ending Russia’s invasion in the “nearest future,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Thursday, local media outlets reported.
Ukraine held its first “peace summit” in Switzerland in June, bringing together over 90 countries to draft a resolution based on Ukraine’s proposed conditions to end the war.
However, Russia was not invited to that summit and dismissed its deliberations as meaningless without Moscow’s participation. It has also said it would not take part in any follow-up summit organized by Ukraine.
“Thanks to active work with our partners, a joint peace framework has already been developed, which will become the basis for the Second Peace Summit, and Ukraine is ready to hold it in the near future,” Yermak told a conference, according to Ukrainian media.
China also stayed away from the June summit, while other major non-Western powers including India, Saudi Arabia and Mexico withheld their signatures from the summit communique, underlining the diplomatic challenge Kyiv faces in marshalling broader global support for its cause beyond its Western allies.
Yermak’s comments came as Russian forces continue to make steady territorial gains in eastern Ukraine while also pounding energy infrastructure in Ukrainian cities and towns.
Kyiv and its European allies are also waiting to see how US President-elect Donald Trump will handle the Ukraine issue. He has criticized the scale of US financial and military support for Ukraine and has said he could end the war in a day, without saying how.
