SEOUL: North Korea could be preparing another missile launch, Seoul said Monday as it stepped up its defenses following Pyongyang’s biggest-ever nuclear test and declaration it had a hydrogen bomb.
The South and the United States will deploy more of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile launchers that have infuriated Beijing, the defense ministry said.
The announcement came after Seoul fired an early morning volley of ballistic missiles in an exercise simulating an attack on the North’s nuclear test site.
Pictures showed South Korean short-range Hyunmoo ballistic missiles roaring into the sky in the pale light of dawn from a launch site on the country’s east coast.
Pyongyang said the device it detonated Sunday was a hydrogen bomb — far more powerful than the fission-based devices it is believed to have previously tested — and small enough to fit into a missile.
The blast laid down a new gauntlet to President Donald Trump, after the North in July twice tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that appeared to bring much of the US mainland into range, and threatened to send a salvo of missiles toward the US territory of Guam.
South Korean defense ministry officials estimated its strength at 50 kilotons — five times the size of the North’s previous nuclear test, and more than three times bigger than the US device which obliterated Hiroshima in 1945.
But they did not confirm whether it was a hydrogen bomb, saying only that “a variety of nuclear material” had been used.
Signs that North Korea was “preparing for another ballistic missile launch have consistently been detected since Sunday’s test,” the ministry said.
It did not give details, or indicate when a launch might take place, but said it could involve an ICBM being fired into the Pacific Ocean to raise pressure on Washington further.
After Sunday’s test the United States warned it could launch a “massive military response” to threats from North Korea that would be “both effective and overwhelming.”
“We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, but warned: “We have many options to do so.”
Trump called an emergency meeting of his national security advisers and had his second telephone call of the weekend with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
But he did not talk to South Korea’s Moon Jae-In for more than 24 hours — instead accusing Seoul of “appeasement,” raising jitters in Seoul about the two countries’ decades-old alliance.
Moon, who advocates engagement as well as penalties to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table, called for new United Nations sanctions to “completely isolate North Korea.”
But Trump criticized the US treaty ally on Twitter, saying: “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!“
The nuclear test prompted an international chorus of condemnation, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemning it as “profoundly destabilising.” The Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday.
At their summit in China, the North’s key ally, the five-nation BRICS grouping — taking in the host nation as well as Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa — said Monday it “strongly deplores” the test.
Moon and Abe agreed to work for stronger sanctions against the North, but seven sets of UN measures have so far done nothing to deter Pyongyang.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday his department was preparing measures to “cut off North Korea economically” and ensure anyone trading with it could not do business with the US.
That would impact Beijing, which is responsible for about 90 percent of the North’s commerce, but would also have dramatic consequences for the US as China is the world’s second-largest economy.
On Sunday US monitors measured a powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake near the North’s main testing site, felt in parts of China and Russia, with an aftershock possibly caused by a rock cave-in.
According to the South’s Yonhap news agency, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service said it was the fifth blast the North had conducted in the same No 2 tunnel at the Punggye-ri test site, and it was “likely to have collapsed.”
But it said the North had already completed construction of a third tunnel, so that it could carry out another test at any time it chose, and work was underway on a fourth.
The North hailed the test as “a perfect success,” with Pyongyang residents celebrating as a jubilant television newsreader hailed the “unprecedentedly large” blast.
Despite fears of a possible radioactive leak after the apparent collapse, Japanese and Chinese scientists said they had detected no radiation in the atmosphere.
Hours before the test, the North released images of leader Kim Jong-Un at the Nuclear Weapons Institute, inspecting a device it called a “thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power” entirely made “by our own efforts and technology.”
The respected 38 North website urged caution, saying “It is likely that an actual device will have a somewhat different design and that this was only a model mock-up.”
The North says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion, and analysts say it is seeking to build up its hand for any future negotiations with Washington.
But Trump has warned Pyongyang that it faces “fire and fury” and that US weapons are “locked and loaded.”
“The Americans need to open a direct channel at a high level with the North Koreans,” John Delury of Yonsei University in Seoul told AFP. “That’s the missing piece to all of this.”
N. Korea could be preparing new missile launch: Seoul
N. Korea could be preparing new missile launch: Seoul
International Criminal Court chief lashes out at US, Russia over threats and accusations
- Judge Tomoko Akane: ‘The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organization’
THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The president of the International Criminal Court lashed out at the United States and Russia for interfering with its investigations, calling threats and attacks on the court “appalling.”
“The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organization,” Judge Tomoko Akane, in her address to the institution’s annual meeting, which opened on Monday.
Akane was referring to remarks made by US Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose Republican party will control both branches of Congress in January, and who called the court a “dangerous joke” and urged Congress to sanction its prosecutor. “To any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” Graham said on Fox News.
This marks the first time the global court of justice calls out a sitting leader of a major Western all.
Graham was angered by an announcement last month that judges had granted a request from the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief for crimes against humanity in connection with the nearly 14-month war in Gaza.
The decision has been denounced by critics of the court and given only milquetoast approval by many of its supporters, a stark contrast to the robust backing of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin last year over war crimes in Ukraine.
Graham’s threat isn’t seen as just empty words. President-elect Donald Trump sanctioned the court’s previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, with a travel ban and asset freeze for investigating American troops and intelligence officials in Afghanistan.
Akane on Monday also had harsh words for Russia. “Several elected officials are being subjected to arrest warrants from a permanent member of the Security Council,” she said. Moscow issued warrants for Khan and others in response to the investigation into Putin.
The Assembly of States Parties, which represents the ICC’s 124 member countries, will convene its 23rd conference to elect committee members and approve the court’s budget against a backdrop of unfavorable headlines.
The ICC was established in 2002 as the world’s permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. The court only becomes involved when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute those crimes on their territory. To date, 124 countries have signed on to the Rome Statute, which created the institution. Those who have not include Israel, Russia and China.
The ICC has no police force and relies on member states to execute arrest warrants.
US President Joe Biden called the warrants for Netanyahu and the former defense minister “outrageous” and vowed to stand with Israel. A year ago, Biden called the warrant for Putin “justified” and said the Russian president had committed war crimes. The US is not an ICC member country.
France said it would “respect its obligations” but would need to consider Netanyahu’s possible immunities. When the warrant for Putin was announced, France said it would “lend its support to the essential work” of the court. Another member country, Austria, begrudgingly acknowledged it would arrest Netanyahu but called the warrants “utterly incomprehensible.” Italy called them “wrong” but said it would be obliged to arrest him. Germany said it would study the decision. Member Hungary has said it would stand with Israel instead of the court.
Global security expert Janina Dill worried that such responses could undermine global justice efforts. “It really has the potential to damage not just the court, but international law,” she said.
Milena Sterio, an expert in international law at Cleveland State University, told the AP that sanctions against the court could affect a number of people who contribute to the court’s work, such as international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Clooney advised the current prosecutor on his request for the warrants for Netanyahu and others.
“Sanctions are a huge burden,” Sterio said.
Also hanging heavy over the meeting in the Hague, are the internal pressures that Khan faces. In October, the AP reported the 54-year-old British lawyer is facing allegations he tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her.
Two co-workers in whom the woman confided reported the alleged misconduct in May to the court’s independent watchdog, which says it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan was never questioned. He has denied the claims.
The Assembly of States Parties has announced it will launch an external probe into the allegations. It’s not clear if the investigation will be addressed during the meeting.
The court, which has long faced accusations of ineffectiveness, will have no trials pending after two conclude in December. While it has issued a number of arrest warrants in recent months, many high-profile suspects remain at large.
Member states don’t always act. Mongolia refused to arrest Putin when he visited in September. Sudan’s former President Omar Al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC over accusations related to the conflict in Darfur, but his country has refused to hand him over. Last week, Khan requested a warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, for attacks against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Judges have yet to decide on that request.
“It becomes very difficult to justify the court’s existence,” Sterio said.
‘Stampedes’ kill 56 at Guinea football match: government
- Local media said the match in the southeastern city was part of a tournament organized in honor of Guinea’s junta leader
CONAKRY: Stampedes at a football match killed 56 people in Guinea’s second-largest city of N’Zerekore, the junta-controlled government said Monday.
“Protests of dissatisfaction with refereeing decisions led to stone-throwing by supporters, resulting in fatal stampedes” at Sunday’s match, the government statement said, which was published as a news ticker on national television.
“Hospital services have put the provisional death toll at 56,” it added.
Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah condemned the “incidents that marred the match between the teams of Labe and N’Zerekore,” in a post on Facebook.
“The government is following the situation and reiterates its call for calm so as not to impede hospital services from aiding the injured,” he added.
Local media said the match in the southeastern city was part of a tournament organized in honor of Guinea’s junta leader, Mamady Doumbouya, who seized power in a 2021 coup and has installed himself as president.
Such tournaments have become common in the West African nation as Doumbouya eyes a potential run in presidential elections expected next year and political alliances form.
Migrant arrests at US borders with Mexico and Canada fell in November, senior official says
- US Border Patrol arrested some 47,000 migrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in November
- At the border with Canada, about 700 migrants were caught crossing illegally, down from 1,300 in October
WASHINGTON: The number of migrants caught illegally crossing the US borders with Mexico and Canada fell in November, a senior US border official said, part of a months-long trend that undercuts President-elect Donald Trump’s claim illegal immigration is out of control.
US Border Patrol arrested some 47,000 migrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in November, according to a preliminary tally, the US Customs and Border Protection official said on Sunday, requesting anonymity to share unpublished data. The figure is a decrease from nearly 57,000 in October and the lowest monthly total since July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and when Trump was still in office.
At the border with Canada, about 700 migrants were caught crossing illegally, down from 1,300 in October, the official said.
Trump, a Republican who recaptured the White House last month, has promised to crack down on illegal immigration and criticized Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for record numbers of migrants caught illegally crossing during Biden’s administration. In a Truth Social post last week, Trump vowed to impose 25 percent tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada unless the countries stop migrants and illicit fentanyl from entering the US, a move that could trigger a trade war if Trump follows through when he takes office on Jan. 20. In response, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum warned the tariffs would have dire consequences for both countries and suggested possible retaliation. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Friday. US arrests of migrants at the Mexico border have fallen dramatically since Biden imposed restrictions in June that blocked most people crossing illegally from claiming asylum. At the same time, Mexico has stepped up immigration enforcement, stopping hundreds of thousands of migrants en route to the US since January.
“We really think these sustained reductions demonstrate the continued success of our work to strengthen international collaboration to address migration,” the official said.
In his Nov. 25 Truth Social post, Trump said a migrant caravan moving through Mexico appeared to be “unstoppable in its quest to come through our currently Open Border.”
However, the group, which had totaled several thousand migrants in southern Mexico, has seen its numbers and momentum decrease in recent days.
“Usually by the time they make it even 100 miles (161 km) north into Mexico, they’ve effectively been dissipated by the Mexican government,” the Customs and Border Protection official said.
Biden also has opened up new legal pathways in recent years that have allowed some 1.4 million migrants to enter by air or schedule an appointment to request entry at the US-Mexico border as of October. Trump has criticized Biden’s asylum restrictions, which mirror policies from Trump’s first term, as too lax and is expected to immediately roll back the legal entry programs.
The official said the US had taken steps in November to more quickly return migrants to Canada under an existing “safe third country” asylum agreement, which had led to a dropoff in illegal crossings.
Thailand, Malaysia brace for fresh wave of floods as water levels ease
- More than half a million households in the neighboring countries have been hit by torrential rain and flooding
KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK: Malaysia and Thailand are facing a second wave of heavy rain and potential flooding this week, authorities said on Monday, even as some displaced residents were able to return home and the worst floods in decades began receding in some areas.
Since last week, 27 people have died and more than half a million households in the neighboring Southeast Asian countries have been hit by torrential rain and flooding that authorities say have been the most severe in decades.
The immediate situation has improved in some areas and water levels have eased, according to government data on Monday.
In Malaysia, the number of people in evacuation shelters dropped to around 128,000 people, from 152,000 on Sunday, the disaster management agency’s website showed.
The northeastern state of Kelantan, which has been the worst hit, was expected to face a fresh deluge from Dec. 4, the chief minister’s office said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
“Although floodwater trends show a slight decrease, (the chief minister) stressed that vigilance measures must remain at the highest level,” the post said.
Meanwhile, in southern Thailand, 434,000 households remain affected, the country’s interior ministry said in a statement on Monday, down by about 100,000 from the weekend.
The government has provided food and supplies for those in the flood-hit areas, the ministry said, adding water levels in seven provinces were decreasing.
Thailand’s Meteorological Department said people in the country’s lower south should beware of heavy to very heavy rains and possible flash flooding and overflows, especially along foothills near waterways and lowlands, between Dec. 3-5.
Philippine groups seek impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte
- Complaint filed on grounds of grave misconduct and constitutional violations
MANILA: An alliance of civil society groups in the Philippines filed an impeachment complaint on Monday against Vice President Sara Duterte, on grounds of grave misconduct and constitutional violations.
The daughter of firebrand former President Rodrigo Duterte has been embroiled in a bitter row with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and is the subject of an enquiry into her spending by the House of Representatives. She denies wrongdoing.
Monday’s complainants included civil society and religious leaders, as well as former government officials critical of her father.
“The Vice President has reduced public office to a platform for violent rhetoric, personal enrichment, elitist entitlement and a shield for impunity,” Teresita Quintos Deles, one of the complainants, said in a statement.
A representative of the Akbayan opposition party endorsed the complaint in the Philippine House of Representatives.
Duterte’s office said requests for comment had been relayed to the vice president.
The impeachment bid is the latest twist in a high-profile row among three of the Philippines’ highest office-holders, after the collapse of a powerful alliance between their families led to Marcos’ landslide win in the 2022 election.
“This impeachment is not just a legal battle but a moral crusade to restore dignity and decency to public service,” said Leila de Lima, a spokesperson for the complainants and a staunch critic of an anti-narcotics campaign run by Duterte’s father.
The complaint accused Duterte of violating the Philippine constitution by refusing to attend hearings on her budget which violated the system of checks and balances, and graft, both as vice president’s office and when she was the education minister.
It also accused her of gross incompetence and dereliction of duty.
Sara Duterte recently said she had contracted someone to kill Marcos, his wife and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin, if she herself were to be killed. Later she said the remarks had been taken out of context.
On Friday, in remarks that drew criticism from some lawmakers, Marcos said any impeachment complaint against his estranged vice president would only distract Congress and not help people.
The Philippines’ lower chamber of congress is dominated by allies of Marcos, which could allow her impeachment to go through the lower chamber before an impeachment trial in the Senate.
