UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Monday opened an emergency meeting to agree to a response to North Korea’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test as calls mounted for a new raft of tough sanctions to be imposed on Pyongyang.
The United States, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea requested the urgent meeting after North Korea on Sunday detonated what it described as a hydrogen bomb designed for a long-range missile.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the council to impose the “strongest possible measures” against North Korea.
“Only the strongest sanctions will enable us to resolve this problem through diplomacy,” she said.
With Seoul warning that Pyongyang could be preparing another missile launch, Japan’s UN representative called for a raft of tough new sanctions.
“We cannot waste any more time,” Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho told reporters shortly before the Security Council meeting.
“We need North Korea to feel the pressure,” Bessho said. “If they go down this road there will be consequences.”
South Korea’s defense ministry said Pyongyang may be preparing another missile launch after two tests in July of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that apparently brought much of the US mainland into range.
Adding to already sharp tensions, the United States warned Sunday that it could launch a “massive military response” to any threats from North Korea and said it might cut off all trade with any country doing business with North Korea — a step that would keenly affect China, biggest trading partner of both the North and the United States.
Bessho said Monday that as Japan and the United States study next steps with their international partners, China, Russia and South Korea must be “on board as well.”
Meanwhile the UAE has condemned North Korea for the nuclear test, deeming it a “clear violation of the will and decisions of the international community,” state news agency WAM reported.
Every permanent member of the council — including Russia and China — on Sunday strongly condemned the blast, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried as “profoundly destabilizing.”
Nor was there much prospect for a lessening of tensions soon.
South Korea’s defense ministry said it was already strengthening its national defenses, in part by deploying, in cooperation with the US military, more Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile launchers.
That 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 missiles roaring into the sky in the pale light of dawn from a launch site on the east coast.
Pyongyang said the device it detonated Sunday was a hydrogen bomb small enough to fit into a missile.
The blast threw down a new gauntlet to US President Donald Trump. He met Sunday with his national security advisers, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued an extraordinarily tough-sounding warning to the North, saying that any new aggression against the US or its allies could lead to its “total annihilation.”
South Korean defense ministry officials estimated the strength of the blast at 50 kilotons but did not confirm whether it was a hydrogen bomb, saying only that “a variety of nuclear material” had been used.
But Defense Minister Song Young-Moo said Seoul believed Pyongyang had succeeded in miniaturising its nuclear weapons to fit into an ICBM.
The South had requested the US deploy strategic assets such as aircraft carriers and bombers to the peninsula, he said, but denied reports Seoul was seeking the return of US tactical nuclear weapons.
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 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.
Trump 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!“
At a 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.
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.”
Hours before the test, the North released images of leader Kim Jong-Un 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 was likely the item pictured 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 strengthen its hand for any future negotiations with Washington.
UN Security Council convenes emergency meeting on North Korea
UN Security Council convenes emergency meeting on North Korea
On Ukraine’s front and in Kyiv, hope and pragmatism compete when it comes to Trump’s election
- It was under Trump that the United States first sent weapons to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, in 2017
- Zelensky was among the first world leaders to publicly congratulate Trump
KYIV: Soldiers in a Ukrainian artillery battery on the front lines of the country’s east were only vaguely aware of American election results pointing to Donald Trump’s victory Wednesday — but firm in their hopes for the next president of the United States.
Their entrenched artillery battery fires on Russian forces daily — and takes fire nearly as often. Just the other day, one of their overhead nets snared a Russian drone.
“I hope that the quantity of weapons, the quantity of guns for our victory will increase,” the unit’s 39-year-old commander, who goes by the name Mozart, said in the hours before Trump’s win was confirmed. “We don’t care who is the president, as long as they don’t cut us off from help, because we need it.”
Though Trump’s election throws into doubt American support for Ukraine — and ultimately whether Kyiv can beat back Russia’s invasion — the soldiers who use their Starlink connection to the Internet sparingly learned of the results from Associated Press journalists.
Mozart — who other soldiers Wednesday did not give his name in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol and has given musical monikers to the battlefield positions — is among many Ukrainians who hope that Trump will hold the line on American support for their country. Russian forces have recently made gains in the east, although the commander described the front-line situation as “static.”
It was under Trump that the United States first sent weapons to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, in 2017. Those Javelin anti-tank missiles were crucial to Ukraine’s ability to fend off the full-scale invasion in 2022. But Trump overall is wary of US involvement in foreign conflicts.
Trump, who has touted his good relationship with President Vladimir Putin and called the Russian leader “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine, has repeatedly criticized American backing of Ukraine. He characterized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “the greatest salesman on Earth” for winning US aid.
Zelensky was among the first world leaders to publicly congratulate Trump and said the two discussed how to end “Russian aggression against Ukraine” when they met in September.
“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together,” he wrote on in a message on the social platform X.
Trump has said repeatedly he would have a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia within a day if elected, although he has not said how. During his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he twice refused to directly answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to win — raising concerns that Kyiv would be forced to accept unfavorable terms in any negotiations he oversaw.
In Kyiv, which comes under attack from Russian drones near daily, 18-year-old Viktoriia Zubrytska was pragmatic about her expectations for the next American president. She thinks Ukraine will be forced to give up territory in exchange for peace under a Trump presidency. But she said she preferred that to what she called the false hope that the Biden administration offered.
“We will live in a world of facts where we will be certain on what awaits us,” said the law student. “Certainty and objective truth is much better than lies and life in illusions.”
According to VoteCast, 74 percent of voters who supported Harris favored continuing aid to Ukraine, while only 36 percent of Trump’s voters did. AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.
On the front lines in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, Andriy, who goes by “Rodych” or “Relative,” was resigned to the fact that he has no power to influence the American vote.
“We will come up with something” whatever happens, he said.
“We are a shield between Europe and Russia,” he added. “Other countries do not understand what is happening here, they see it on TV and for them it is far away.”
America’s NATO allies were also closely watching the election. France and Germany arranged a last-minute, top-level defense meeting Wednesday in Paris to discuss the results, and Ukraine is likely to be central to the meeting. The two leading powers in the European Union provide significant support to Ukraine to defend it against Russia’s war.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, citing a “more aggressive Russia,” also invoked Trump’s motto of “peace through strength.”
Rutte praised Trump for his work during his first term to persuade countries in the alliance to ramp up defense spending.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no information on whether Putin plans to congratulate Trump but emphasized that Moscow views the US as an “unfriendly” country.
Peskov reaffirmed the Kremlin’s claim that the US support for Ukraine amounted to its involvement in the conflict, telling reporters: “Let’s not forget that we are talking about, the unfriendly country that is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state.”
Still, he noted Trump’s promise to end the war swiftly once elected.
“The US can help end the conflict,” Peskov said, adding that “it certainly can’t be done overnight.”
Italian ship heads back to Albania with eight migrants
- Italy sent an initial group of 16 migrants to Albania last month, but they were all brought back within days
- Only eight migrants were dispatched toward Albania on Wednesday from where they had been rescued near the island of Lampedusa
ROME: An Italian navy ship set sail for Albania on Wednesday carrying a second small group of migrants, with Rome looking to salvage a controversial plan to process asylum seekers abroad after a first attempt hit legal hurdles.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government hopes that taking boat migrants to guarded camps in Albania rather than letting them enter Italy will act as a deterrence to others considering making the dangerous sea crossing to Europe.
Italy sent an initial group of 16 migrants to Albania last month, but they were all brought back within days, the majority of them after a Rome court ruled they could not be held in the Balkan country due to concerns over their legal status.
Only eight migrants were dispatched toward Albania on Wednesday from where they had been rescued near the island of Lampedusa, suggesting the government was treading softly, testing to see if it could overcome the October impasse.
The first group of migrants came from Egypt and Bangladesh, two of 22 countries that Italy had classified as safe, meaning the government believed they could be rapidly repatriated.
However, the Rome judges questioned this, pointing to a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which said a country outside the EU cannot be declared safe unless its entire territory is deemed free of danger.
As a result, all those in Albania were brought to Italy, where they were put in unguarded reception centers.
Infuriated by the decision, Meloni’s cabinet upgraded the legal status of its list of safe countries, making it an act of law rather than a lesser ministerial decree, believing this means it will be harder for courts to challenge its validity.
The military did not say where the new group of asylum-seekers came from. Italian newspapers had speculated at the weekend that the government might focus on Tunisians, because their country was deemed more stable than many others.
Italy has built two reception centers in Albania, in the first scheme by a European Union nation to divert migrants to a non-EU country. The facilities in Shengjin and Gjader are staffed by Italian personnel.
Under the deal with Tirana, the total number of migrants present at one time in Albania cannot be more than 3,000.
Italy has said only “non-vulnerable” men from safe countries would be sent to there, imposing a limit of 36,000 a year.
Bangladesh records rise in skilled migration with Saudi Arabia as top destination
- Out of 700,000 Bangladeshis going abroad for work this year, 374,000 chose the Kingdom
- KSA launched a new employment scheme in Bangladesh last year to upgrade workers’ skills
DHAKA: The migration of skilled Bangladeshi workers abroad has been on the rise since the beginning of the year, with most seeking employment in Saudi Arabia’s giga-projects.
Out of almost 700,000 who sought employment abroad this year, more than 374,000 went to Saudi Arabia, which since 2017 has been the preferred destination among Bangladeshi expats.
The Kingdom was followed by Malaysia and Qatar, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.
“Due to several ongoing giga-projects, Saudi Arabia is in high demand for migrant workers,” BMET additional secretary Shah Abdul Tarique told Arab News.
“Recently, we noticed an increase in the export of skilled migrants. Many of our construction workers go to Saudi Arabia under skilled categories. There are many drivers and electricians also employed as skilled workers.”
Saudi Arabia has launched a number of giga-projects under its Vision 2030 transformation plan, including the multibillion-dollar NEOM smart city that is overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi officials launched the Workers’ Recruitment and Skill Verification Program in Bangladesh last February, aimed at advancing the professional competence of employees in the Saudi labor market.
It focuses on several professions, including plumbers, electricians and construction workers.
BMET had set up at least 150 technical centers upon the program’s launch, offering free training to support prospective Bangladeshi migrant workers seeking employment in the Kingdom.
“We are also focusing on preparing the training centers more with market-driven equipment and logistics,” Tarique said.
“Our private sector recruiting agents are working sincerely to be attached more with the Saudi giga-projects. If this trend continues, I think our skilled manpower exports to the Kingdom will increase in the coming period.”
Friendly ties between the two countries have also driven Bangladeshi migrant workers to choose Saudi Arabia, said Shariful Hasan, head of the migration program at the country’s largest development organization, BRAC.
“They feel much more comfortable while working in the Kingdom. It’s a diversified market for us as both skilled and unskilled migrants are being employed together,” Hasan told Arab News.
“Starting from construction to many other job fields, Saudi Arabia is now looking for skilled workers from Bangladesh. That’s why our number of skilled workers increased in the Kingdom.”
Hasan said that skilled Bangladeshi migrants are also being employed in the IT and financial sectors, as the Kingdom seeks to establish itself as a global investment powerhouse with sophisticated digital infrastructure.
“It will be an excellent approach if we can prepare our technical training centers in line with the demands of the Saudi giga-projects,” he said. “These migrants will be able to earn better in the kingdom and eventually send better remittances to Bangladesh.”
Russia’s grain policies help Ukraine secure sales
- Egypt’s state grains buyer GASC bought 290,000 metric tons of wheat
- Russia was kept out of the sale due to unofficial policies to prevent a price spike at home as the country seeks to combat inflation partly fueled by military spending
HAMBURG/CAIRO: Russia’s curbs on wheat exports have inadvertently helped Ukraine secure lucrative sales to Egypt this week while also inflating prices for the world’s top importer, traders said.
Egypt’s state grains buyer GASC bought 290,000 metric tons of wheat in an international tender on Monday. The purchase included 120,000 tons from Ukraine as well as 120,000 tons from Romania and 50,000 tons from Bulgaria.
Russia, the world’s top wheat exporter and Egypt’s most important supplier, was kept out of the sale due to unofficial policies to prevent a price spike at home as the country seeks to combat inflation partly fueled by military spending.
The restrictions, mostly not officially announced, include a minimum export price, export taxes and limiting sales of Russian grain by foreign trading houses.
“Had Russian exporters been allowed to offer realistic market prices, which would be much lower, I think they would have pretty much wiped up the Egyptian sale,” one trader said.
“The Russian moves are making Ukrainian supplies look more attractive, especially to importers in a difficult financial state like Egypt,” the trader added.
Russia’s agriculture ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether government grain export policies had led to the loss of business to Ukraine at this week’s Egyptian tender.
A trader in Ukraine said the Russian restrictions had provided more opportunites although the country had already realized about 60 percent of its potential sales this year.
“The cheapest supplier is leaving, so it’s probably not who wins but who loses,” the trader said, referring to how Russian policies could raise the cost of wheat for importers.
Hesham Soliman, a trader in Egypt, said Russia was holding off waiting for prices to rise and profitability to increase.
“This isn’t just about Russian export restrictions. Russia knows it controls the market and is acting accordingly,” he said, adding Egypt’s state buyer had pushed back by purchasing Black Sea wheat from other sources.
Noamany Nasr, a former adviser to Egypt’s supply ministry, said Russia frequently introduced subtle barriers to curb its own exports, whether to raise prices or for internal reasons.
“Ironically, this benefits Russia’s competitors.”
Egypt’s supply ministry said on Tuesday that after the purchase it now has strategic reserves for five months of consumption although traders expect it will need to secure additional supplies in coming months.
“There’s still supply in Romania where farmers have been holding onto a lot of their crop,” another European trader said.
“In Bulgaria, supply is gradually getting tighter. In Ukraine, there’s not a huge amount left, though they haven’t been shipping as vigorously as the Russians.”
Kashmir assembly demands restoration of special status revoked by Modi in 2019
- Kashmir lost semi-autonomy when PM Narendra Modi’s government repealed Article 370 of Constitution
- All parties in the assembly supported the move except for lawmakers from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party
NEW DELHI: The newly elected assembly of Jammu and Kashmir passed on Wednesday a resolution requesting the Indian government to start talks for the restoration of the region’s special status.
Kashmir lost its semi-autonomy in August 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government repealed Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and downgraded it from state to union territory.
Article 370 acknowledged the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in terms of autonomy and its ability to formulate laws for its permanent residents.
The region has been under direct control of New Delhi since, with India’s Parliament as its main legislator, but last month the territory elected its local legislative assembly, with voters choosing representatives in opposition to Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
The election was the first in 10 years, with the restoration of statehood being a main promise of all contenders, including the BJP.
The National Conference, the oldest party in Kashmir, won the polls and formed a government led by Omar Abdullah, who had earlier served as the chief minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir between 2009 and 2014.
Wednesday’s resolution was filed by Abdullah’s deputy, Surinder Kumar Choudhary.
“This assembly upon the Government of India to initiate dialogue with elected representatives of people of Jammu and Kashmir for restoration of special status, constitutional guarantees and to work out constitutional mechanisms for restoring these provisions,” the resolution read.
“This Legislative Assembly reaffirms the importance of the special status and constitutional guarantees, which safeguarded the identity, culture, and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and expresses concern over their unilateral removal.”
All parties in the 90-member assembly supported the resolution except for 29 BJP lawmakers.
After the revocation of Article 370, a series of administrative changes followed, with the Indian government removing protections on land and jobs for the local population, which many in the Muslim-majority region likened to attempts at demographically altering it.
While the restoration of Kashmir’s statehood was on the table, with the region’s New Delhi-appointed lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha bringing it up earlier this week, the assembly’s call to restore the special status and protections came as a surprise.
“It was a surprise, but it was expected. It was not expected that this would happen quickly. The NC in its manifesto was committed to do it,” Prof. Noor Ahmad Baba, political science lecturer from the University of Kashmir, told Arab News.
“That is implied that the with the special status statehood, too, would be restored.”
The wording of the resolution, which did not mention Article 370 of the Constitution, allowed room for negotiation with New Delhi.
“They have not asked for the restoration of Article 370 they have asked for the safeguarding of culture, identity and rights of the people,” Baba said.
“On the face of it, it looks difficult for New Delhi to accept the demand for special status. But there is also a window open here. It can be a negotiated kind of relationship, which can be symbolically different from Article 370.”
An agreement could also help improve India’s relationship with Pakistan, he said, and become a “basis for that.”
Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir is part of the larger Kashmiri territory, which has been the subject of international dispute since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Both countries claim Kashmir in full and rule in part. Indian-controlled Kashmir has, for decades, witnessed outbreaks of separatist insurgencies to resist control from the government in New Delhi.
