SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday China should do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program and he would call on President Xi Jinping to lift measures against South Korean companies taken in retaliation against Seoul’s decision to host a US anti-missile defense system.
In an interview with Reuters ahead of his trip to Washington next week for a summit with US President Donald Trump, Moon said ‘strong’ sanctions should be imposed if North Korea tests an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or conducts a sixth nuclear test.
“It must be sufficiently strong enough that it would prevent North Korea from making any additional provocations, and also strong enough that it will make North Korea realize that they are going down the wrong path,” Moon said.
The comments mark the toughest warning yet by the liberal former human rights lawyer, who was elected in May after campaigning for a more moderate approach to the North and engaging the reclusive country in dialogue. As a candidate, he said, sanctions alone have failed to impede Pyongyang’s defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
North Korea will acquire the technology to deploy a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of hitting the mainland US“in the not too distant future,” Moon said.
“I believe China is making efforts to stop North Korea from making additional provocations, yet there are no tangible results as of yet,” Moon told Reuters at the sprawling Blue House presidential compound.
“China is North Korea’s only ally and China is the country that provides the most economic assistance to North Korea,” Moon said. “Without the assistance of China, sanctions won’t be effective at all.”
Moon’s remarks echoed that of US President Donald Trump, who said in a tweet on Tuesday Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to rein in its nuclear program have failed. Top US officials pressed China on Wednesday to exert more economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea-level in talks with their counterparts in Washington on Wednesday.
“Maybe President Trump believes that there is more room for China to engage North Korea and it seems that he is urging China to do more. I can also sympathize with that message,” Moon said.
China accounts for 90 percent of world trade with North Korea. Diplomats say Beijing has not been fully enforcing existing international sanctions on its neighbor, and has resisted tougher measures, such as an oil embargo and bans on the North Korean airline and guest workers.
Washington has considered imposing “secondary sanctions” against Chinese banks and other firms doing business with North Korea.
South Korea and the US agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in response to the growing missile threat from North Korea.
But the move has angered China, which says the system’s powerful radar will look deep into its territory and undermine regional security. China has pressured South Korean businesses via boycotts and bans, such as ending Chinese group tours to South Korea and closing most of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group’s Lotte Mart retail stores in China.
Lotte handed over a golf course it owned in southern South Korea so the THAAD battery could be installed there.
Moon said that while China has never officially acknowledged economic retaliation, many South Korean businesses face difficulties in China, and he hopes to hold talks with Xi at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany next month to address the issue.
“If I have the chance to meet President Xi, I will ask for him to lift these measures. This is the agenda that we cannot evade,” Moon said.
“If we were to link political and military issues to economic and cultural exchanges, this could lead to some hindrance to the development of our friendly relationship between our two countries.”
Moon said he wants to sit down with as many world leaders as possible in Hamburg — including Xi, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin — where he expects the North’s nuclear program will top the agenda.
Japan is an important partner in the effort to resolve the North Korean crisis but Tokyo’s refusal to fully own up to its wartime past, its claims to the disputed islands between the two countries as well as its growing military spending are concerning, Moon said.
“If Japan were to show its strong resolve in looking back on its past history and sending a message that such actions will never happen again... then I believe that this will go a long way in further developing its relations with not only Korea but also with many other Asian nations,” he said.
Moon has said many South Koreans did not accept a deal reached by his conservative predecessor and Japan’s Abe in 2015 to resolve the issue of Korean “comfort women” — a euphemism for women forced to work in the Japanese military’s wartime brothels.
“Japan does not make full efforts to resolve issues of history between our two countries, including the comfort women issue,” Moon said.
Moon said he has “high expectations” for the upcoming summit with Trump next week and said the priority the two leaders have placed on North Korea has raised the possibility the nuclear issue will be resolved.
“I’m very glad that President Trump has made the resolution of North Korea’s nuclear issue as top of his priority list on his foreign affairs agenda.”
S. Korea president calls on China’s Xi to do more on North Korea nuclear program
S. Korea president calls on China’s Xi to do more on North Korea nuclear program
The world begins welcoming 2025 with light shows, embraces and ice plungess
- More than a million people gathered at the Sydney Harbor for the celebration
- Much of Japan has shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday
From Sydney to Mumbai to Nairobi, communities around the world began welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.
Auckland became the first major city to celebrate, as thousands thronged downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point. A light display recognized Indigenous people.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean are the first to ring in the New Year, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York.
Conflict muted acknowledgements of the new year in places like the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
Earliest fireworks
Fireworks blasted off the Sydney Harbor Bridge and across the bay. More than a million Australians and others gathered at iconic Sydney Harbor for the celebration. British pop star Robbie Williams led a singalong with the crowd.
The celebration also featured Indigenous ceremonies and performances that acknowledged the land’s first people.
Asia prepares for Year of the Snake
Much of Japan shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent a thorough cleaning.
The upcoming Year of the Snake in the Asian zodiac is heralded as one of rebirth — alluding to the reptile’s shedding skin. Other places in Asia will mark the Year of the Snake later with the Lunar New Year.
In South Korea, celebrations were cut back or canceled during a period of national mourning following the Sunday crash of a Jeju Air flight at Muan that killed 179 people.
In Thailand’s Bangkok, shopping malls competed for crowds with live musical acts and fireworks shows. A fireworks display in Indonesia’s Jakarta featured 800 drones.
China and Russia exchange goodwill
Chinese state media covered an exchange of New Year’s greetings between leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between the leaders who face tensions with the West.
Xi told Putin their countries will “always move forward hand in hand,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China has maintained ties and robust trade with Russia since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022, helping to offset Western sanctions and attempts to isolate Putin.
Seaside celebrations and beyond
In India, thousands of revelers in the financial hub of Mumbai flocked to the city’s bustling promenade facing the Arabian Sea. In Sri Lanka, people gathered at Buddhist temples to light oil lamps and incense sticks and pray.
In Dubai, thousands are were attending a fireworks show at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. And in Nairobi, Kenya, scattered fireworks were heard as midnight approached.
A Holy Year begins
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve festivities have an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
On Tuesday, Francis will celebrate a vespers at St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by Mass on Wednesday, when he is expected to again appeal for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Jan. 1 is a day of obligation for Catholics, marking the Solemnity of Mary.
Paris recaptures the Olympic spirit
Paris was capping a momentous 2024 with its traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the Champs-Elysées.
The Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games hosted in the French capital from July to September had transformed the city into a site of joy, fraternity and astonishing sporting achievements.
Frank and Rowena Klar from San Francisco visited the French capital to celebrate 31 years together. “If you start it big, we think we’re going to have a great year,” he said.
Wintry weather, for good and bad
London was due to ring in the New Year with a pyrotechnic display along the River Thames. With a storm bringing bitter weather to other parts of the United Kingdom, however, festivities in Edinburgh, Scotland, were canceled.
But in Switzerland and some other places people embraced the cold, stripping and plunging into the water in freezing temperatures.
Rio expects 2 million revelers
Rio de Janeiro will throw Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana Beach, with ferries offshore bearing 12 straight minutes of fireworks. Thousands of tourists in cruise ships will witness the show up close.
More than 2 million people were expected at the Copacabana, hoping to squeeze into concerts by superstar Brazilian artists such as pop singer Anitta and Grammy-award winner Caetano Veloso.
American traditions, old and new
In New York City, the organization managing Times Square has tested its famous ball drop and inspected 2025 numerals, lights and thousands of crystals as part of a tradition going back to 1907. This year’s celebration will include musical performances by TLC, Jonas Brothers, Rita Ora and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Las Vegas’ pyrotechnic show will be on the Strip, with 340,000 people anticipated as fireworks are launched from the rooftops of casinos. Nearby, the Sphere venue will display for the first time countdowns to midnight in different time zones.
In Pasadena, Rose Parade spectators were camping out and hoping for prime spots. And some 200,000 people were flocking to a country music party in Nashville, Tennessee.
American Samoa will be among the last to welcome 2025, a full 24 hours after New Zealand.
Panama celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Panama Canal handover as Trump wants to take it back
- “There are no hands involved in the canal other than Panama’s,” Mulino said. “Rest assured, it will be in our hands forever”
PANAMA CITY: Panama on Tuesday celebrated the 25th anniversary of the US handover of the Panama Canal, which president-elect Donald Trump has threatened to take back.
The commemoration was made more poignant by the death on Sunday of former US President Jimmy Carter, who negotiated the 1999 handover deal.
“On this, such a special day ... a mix of happiness for this 25th anniversary of having the canal in Panamanian hands, and the sadness we feel for the death of former president Jimmy Carter,” said Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino.
The ceremony included a moment of silence for Carter, who reached the handover deal with former Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos.
Speaking at the main anniversary celebration in Panama City, Mulino said the two men “had the vision and nobility to take the road of justice.”
Meanwhile, Trump is decrying increased fees Panama has imposed to use the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He has said if things don’t change after he takes office in late January, “we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question.”
Trump has asserted that a 1977 treaty “foolishly” gave the canal away. He hasn’t said how he might make good on his threat.
During Tuesday’s ceremony, Mulino did not refer specifically to Trump’s statements. He did, however, try to deflect accusations that China may have too much influence over the waterway.
“There are no hands involved in the canal other than Panama’s,” Mulino said. “Rest assured, it will be in our hands forever.”
The deal involved two treaties. One was for the handover. The other, which continues in perpetuity, gives the US the right to act to ensure the canal remains open and secure. It gives the US the right to act if the canal’s operation is threatened due to military conflict — but not to reassert control.
Jorge Luis Quijano, who served as the canal’s administrator from 2014 to 2019, has said that “there’s no clause of any kind in the neutrality agreement that allows for the taking back of the canal.”
“There’s very little wiggle room, absent a second US invasion of Panama, to retake control of the Panama Canal in practical terms,” said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
Traffic on the canal increased 17 percent between fiscal years 1999 and 2004. Panama’s voters approved a 2006 referendum authorizing a major expansion of the canal to accommodate larger, modern cargo ships. The expansion took until 2016 and cost more than $5.2 billion.
Shipping prices have increased because of droughts last year affecting the canal locks, forcing Panama to drastically cut shipping traffic and raise usage rates. Though the rains have mostly returned, Panama has said future fee increases might be necessary as it undertakes improvements to accommodate modern shipping needs.
Canal administrator Ricaurte Vásquez has said the canal “has demonstrated that Panamanians are people who can face challenges” including the effects of climate change, world economic cycles and international conflicts.
Patients brave mental health desert in Mauritania
The 1970s is the decade when Dr. Dia Al Housseynou first brought mental healthcare to Mauritania, an arid, predominantly Muslim country deeply attached to the Sahara, both geographically and culturally.
As a young man, he studied abroad in Senegal, completed internships in several European countries and wrote his thesis on family therapy before returning to Mauritania in 1975 and convincing authorities of the importance of mental healthcare.
He set up the traditional desert tents known as “khaimas” in the courtyard of the national hospital, where families could bring their loved ones for doctor’s appointments.
Three years later, the hospital opened a dedicated psychiatric service. The Center for Specialized Medicine was inaugurated in 1990.
But Housseynou said he was nostalgic for the days of tents.
“Architecture is key in caring for the ill. When we build closed wards, everyone in their own room, it becomes a prison,” he said, adding that Mauritania did not need “Western-style psychiatry.”
Inside the psychiatric ward, many patients deemed violent are chained to their beds.
“It’s not hospital policy, but it’s up to families whether to restrain their loved one or not,” said chief security officer Ramadan Mohamed.
How questions of sovereignty and security are fueling instability in the Sahel
- Chad ended military cooperation with France in November, marking another major shift in the regional power balance
- Withdrawal of Western forces could lead to greater sovereignty, but might also leave states vulnerable to insurgencies
LONDON: As a piece of geopolitical theater, the timing was hard to beat. Chad’s foreign minister announced the end of military cooperation with France just hours after his French counterpart left the country.
That it took place on Nov. 28, as Chad celebrated its Republic Day—a key date in its move away from French colonial rule—only added to the symbolism.
On the same day, Senegal also suggested French troops should leave.
It was a seminal moment in post-colonial relations between France and the Sahel—the belt of nations south of the Sahara that stretches across Africa.
The departure of French troops from Chad and Senegal means France will no longer have a military presence in a region where it has long held sway.
The political dynamics of the Sahel have been rapidly shifting in recent years, and 2024 was no exception.
Chad’s decision to end its defense pact with France was one of the most significant events in a year that saw a continuation of the shift away from Western influence.
In the past three years, France has withdrawn troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, as a wave of coups brought military regimes hostile to French influence into power.
These governments have looked elsewhere—to Russia, China, and Turkiye—for defense cooperation, dealing a major blow to Western hopes of maintaining a security presence in a region that has become a melting pot for extremist groups.
The year began with Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger announcing they would leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)—a regional bloc established to help maintain financial and political security.
There is widespread concern that the shrinking of this influential bloc of nations will lead to further instability.
Indeed, the backdrop for the past year of turmoil has been an ever-deteriorating security situation across the Sahel, with a growing number of civilians maimed and killed amid extremist insurgencies.
Chad’s decision to end its defense cooperation with France came in stark contrast to the ambitious Sahel security policy it enacted more than 10 years earlier.
In 2012, northern Mali was overrun by militants allied to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. As they expanded south toward the capital, Mali appealed to its former colonizer for help. In early 2013, France deployed 1,700 troops as part of Operation Serval.
The initial mission appeared to work as the militants fled northern towns. But the insurgency soon spread to neighboring countries.
In response, France expanded the operation in 2014 to include five states—Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. It deployed more than 5,000 soldiers and rebranded it Operation Barkhane.
Meanwhile, the insurgency grew, with militant factions aligning into two main groups: the Al-Qaeda offshoot Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin and the Sahel branch of Daesh.
The failure to suppress the militants in Mali in the long term was one of the reasons for the 2020 coup that led to a deterioration in relations with France. In 2022, President Emmanuel Macron withdrew French troops from Mali as Russian mercenaries increased their presence.
A similar pattern followed in Burkina Faso and Niger, where populations turned against the French presence, military coups ensued, and France had to withdraw its troops.
FASTFACTS
• Chad ended military cooperation with France in November 2024, marking a major shift in the Sahel’s geopolitical landscape.
• Post-colonial resentment and France’s neo-colonial policies fueled public opposition, forcing troop withdrawals from Sahel nations.
• With Western powers withdrawing, Russia expanded its role in the Sahel, providing military advisers and forming alliances.
While Chad’s decision to evict French troops was not driven by a military coup, it came amid increasing hostility toward the French across the region.
“After 66 years since the independence of the Republic of Chad, it is time for Chad to assert its full sovereignty and redefine its strategic partnerships according to national priorities,” Abderaman Koulamallah, Chad’s foreign minister, said.
“This decision, taken after in-depth analysis, marks a historic turning point.”
Many analysts feel this was a turning point of France’s own making, stemming from its neo-colonial policies that limited the sovereignty of Sahel nations.
“Since independence, France has intervened in Chad and other former colonies, providing regime survival packages and interfering in domestic politics,” Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told Arab News.
There has been increasing hostility toward the region’s monetary system, which many view as a relic from the colonial era that allows France to maintain excessive control over their economies.
The African Financial Community (CFA) franc monetary zone applies across 14 countries in West and Central Africa and is pegged to the euro. Critics say it strips those countries of an independent national monetary policy.
This has fed growing resentment of the French presence in the region.
“The continued French interference in domestic affairs has created substantial anti-French sentiment in its former colonies,” said Laessing.
“No ruler in Africa can be seen close to France as they would face a public backlash. This was one of the reasons why Chad decided to end the military partnership with France.”
The deteriorating security situation has added to that resentment. An attack by the extremist group Boko Haram near the border with Nigeria in October killed at least 40 Chadian soldiers. Opposition parties said the French presence had failed to prevent the attack.
Reports preceding the French foreign minister’s visit in November suggested France was already planning a major troop reduction in African countries, including cutting numbers in Chad from 1,000 to 300.
However, the full withdrawal from Chad means that the last operational French base in Africa will be in Djibouti on the Red Sea coast, which Macron visited on Dec. 20.
For Chad, losing French military support is a significant concern for the multinational force battling Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin—an area that includes parts of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria.
“The withdrawal is good news for Boko Haram,” said Laessing. “I don’t think that the US and Britain will be able to contribute to the Lake Chad force without French logistical support.”
In 2019, French jets stopped a rebel column approaching the capital to topple then-President Idriss Deby. He was killed in 2021 in further clashes with militants and replaced by his son, Mahamat Deby Itno.
“Chad’s decision to expel French troops is a dangerous move for President Mahamat Deby because the main function of the French jets based in the Chadian capital is to protect the government against rebel attacks, which are frequent in this fragile country,” said Laessing.
The two Mirage 2000-D fighter jets left Chad for France on Dec. 10.
It was not just France that saw its position in the Sahel eroded in 2024. In March, Niger announced it would end military cooperation with the US.
By mid-September, the withdrawal of 1,100 American troops was complete, ending an extensive counter-terrorism operation run out of two air bases.
As the Americans left, the Russians moved in, with military advisers arriving from Moscow in May.
In 2024, the growing alliance of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger represented a seismic shift in the region’s balance of power.
As violence surged, a record 7,620 people were killed in the Sahel in the first six months of 2024—a 9 percent increase from 2023 and a staggering 190 percent rise from 2021.
Many fear the geopolitical changes in the region will make Sahel nations even more unstable.
With little hope of political or military solutions, the conflicts are likely to persist, leaving vulnerable populations in greater peril in the year ahead.
Thousands march in Bangladesh calling for Sheikh Hasina’s prosecution
- Last week, Bangladesh sent a formal request to India to extradite Hasina
- She faces many court cases over the deaths of protesters, including some on charges of crimes against humanity
DHAKA: Thousands of people led by students rallied in Bangladesh’s capital on Tuesday, calling for the prosecution of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and those responsible for hundreds of deaths in a mass uprising against her government in July.
The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement organized the “March for Unity” at the Central Shaheed Minar, a national monument in Dhaka. Protesters chanted slogans calling for Hasina’s trial and the banning of her Awami League party.
Hasina fled to India on Aug. 5 after weeks of violence in which authorities say hundreds of people were killed and thousands more injured on orders of her government. The uprising ended the 15-year-rule of the country’s longest-serving prime minister, who began a fourth consecutive term in January following an election boycotted by the major opposition parties.
Last week, Bangladesh sent a formal request to India to extradite Hasina. She faces many court cases over the deaths of protesters, including some on charges of crimes against humanity.
“Since August 5, we have no more enemies in Bangladesh. Our only enemy is the Awami League,” Hasnat Abdullah, convener of the student movement, said while addressing the crowd.
Protesters also urged the interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to issue a formal proclamation by Jan. 15 detailing the events of the uprising.
The student leaders want the proclamation to include two key demands: a new constitution after the 1972 charter, which was enacted under Hasina’s father, has been abolished, and a ban on the Awami League party.
Hasina’s Awami League had ruled Bangladesh for 15 years, since 2009.
The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal has already issued arrest warrants for Hasina and her close aides, and the government has sought help from the international police organization Interpol in seeking her arrest.
Speaking from the US, Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, has questioned credibility of the tribunal and called charges against her a “political witch hunt.”
Meanwhile, the interim government has promised to try Hasina and others in her administration for alleged crimes involving the deaths of protesters and has invited the United Nations to help investigate the killings.
Hasina also has called for an investigation, saying many deaths may have involved others beyond security agencies.
