UNITED NATIONS: South Korea called on the divided UN Security Council on Thursday “to break the silence” over North Korea’s escalating missile tests and threats.
“It’s a big question,” South Korea’s UN Ambassador Hwang Joonkook told reporters after an emergency closed meeting of the council on the North’s first ballistic missile test of 2024 on Sunday. South Korea is serving a two-year term on the council.
The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in 2017. China and Russia vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches. Since then, the two veto-wielding permanent council members have blocked any council action, including media statements.
North Korea’s escalating test-launches in violation of the existing UN sanctions — five ICBMs, more than 25 ballistic missiles and three satellite launches using ballistic missile technology in 2023 – coupled with new threats from the North’s leader Kim Jong Un have raised regional tensions to their highest point in years.
On Monday, Kim declared North Korea would abandon its commitment to a peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered a rewriting of its constitution to eliminate the idea of a shared statehood between the war-divided countries. He said South Koreans were “top-class stooges” of America who were obsessed with confrontation, and repeated a threat that the North would annihilate the South with its nukes if provoked.
Before Thursday’s council meeting, US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters Kim’s provocations “are of great concern.”
He said the 15 council members need to be reminded that North Korea is violating sanctions and its obligations to the council, “and we have to insist that they adhere to those obligations, and for all Security Council members to enforce those resolutions.”
By contrast, China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun, whose country is a close ally of North Korea, called on all parties involved in the Korean Peninsula to stay calm and refrain from actions that would further raise tensions.
In a message clearly aimed at the United States and South Korea, Zhang expressed hope that while attention is mainly on North Korea, “other countries are also responsible to avoid further escalation.”
France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere told reporters that North Korea’s actions are “getting worse and worse,” with regular ballistic missile launches, continuing uranium enrichment, and advancement of its nuclear program.
“Everyone is focused on missile launches, but I think the biggest threat is their nuclear program which continues to grow again and again,” De Riviere said.
And he called it “a shame” that Russia is violating Security Council resolutions by “buying military stuff that they use in Ukraine” from North Korea. “It’s really bad,” he said.
South Korea’s Hwang said all 15 members of the Council are worried that North Korea’s rhetoric and actions are “getting more and more serious.”
But how to break the council’s silence and inaction?
“We will discuss and think about it, and how to move forward,” he said. “It’s a big question.”
As for Kim’s abandonment of peaceful reunification, Hwang called it “a big change” in their rhetoric, actions and policy. “The nuclear policy is highly, highly alarming,” he said.
South Korea calls on divided UN council ‘to break the silence’ on North Korea’s tests and threats
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South Korea calls on divided UN council ‘to break the silence’ on North Korea’s tests and threats
- North Korea’s escalating test-launches in violation of the existing UN sanctions have raised regional tensions to their highest point in years
- China and Russia vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of ICBM launches
Canadian warship in Taiwan Strait ‘undermines peace’, says China
- The US and its allies regularly pass through the 180-km strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering China
- Beijing views aiwan as a renegade province and claims jurisdiction over the body of water that separates the island from the Chinese mainland
BEIJING: A Canadian warship passing through the Taiwan Strait “undermines peace” in the sensitive waterway, China’s military said Monday.
Beijing views self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province and claims jurisdiction over the body of water that separates the island from the Chinese mainland.
The Canadian vessel passed through the strait on Sunday and was the first to do so this year, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said, coming days after two US ships made the passage.
Canada’s actions “deliberately stir up trouble and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Li Xi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said in a statement.
The army had dispatched its naval and air forces to monitor and guard the passage of the ship, Li said, adding that the troops will “resolutely counter all threats and provocations.”
The United States and its allies regularly pass through the 180-kilometer (112-mile) strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering China.
A US destroyer and an ocean survey ship traveled through the strait starting on February 10, drawing criticism from China’s military, which said it sent the “wrong signal and increased security risks.”
Washington’s latest passage through the strait was the first since US President Donald Trump took office in January.
Taiwan’s defense ministry, meanwhile, said it recorded 41 Chinese aircraft and nine warships near the island in the 24 hours to 6:00 am on Monday.
Beijing has never ruled Taiwan, but it claims the democratic island as part of its territory and has threatened to bring it under its control by force.
Russians risk reprisals to visit Navalny grave on death anniversary
- Putin's main opponent died last year in Penal Colony Number Three in Kharp, above the Arctic Circle
- Russia has still not fully explained the circumstances of his death — saying he died during a walk in the prison yard
MOSCOW: At least 1,500 Russians came to the grave of Alexei Navalny in Moscow on Sunday, risking reprisals and braving freezing temperatures to pay their respects to the opposition leader on the first anniversary of his death in prison.
Navalny — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main opponent declared “extremist” by Moscow — died on February 16, 2024 in Penal Colony Number Three in Kharp, above the Arctic Circle.
AFP saw hundreds come to Navalny’s grave at Borisovsky Cemetery, leaving flowers and forming a large queue by mid-afternoon.
Russia has still not fully explained the circumstances of his death — saying he died during a walk in the prison yard.
His mother Lyudmila Navalnaya told AFP that she was “doing everything” to push for an investigation and hoped those responsible would be punished.
“The whole world knows who ordered it,” she said, wearing dark sunglasses and holding back tears. “But we want them to know the perpetrators and the enablers.”
Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya — living in exile and also declared an “extremist” — said her husband “continues to unite people” after his death.
Having taken up her dead husband’s mantle from abroad, Navalnaya called on exiled Russians to take to the streets in place of those unable to back home.
The EU said Putin bore “ultimate responsibility” for Navalny’s death and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “His courage made a difference and reaches far beyond his death.”
Remembrance events were taking place with Russia’s exiled opposition movement still plagued by infighting and badly weakened since the loss of its figurehead.
Anybody in Russia who mentions him or his Anti-Corruption Foundation without stating that they have been declared “extremist” is subject to fines, or up to four years in prison for repeated offenses.
Moscow has led a huge crackdown on dissent during its Ukraine offensive, launched nearly three years ago, which Navalny had denounced from prison.
An Orthodox priest read out a prayer by his grave, covered in flowers, with many crying.
Pensioner Ivan said that coming to the grave was like a “little personal protest” for him.
The 63-year-old said he was initially cautious about Navalny’s politics, but after the opposition figure’s poisoning in 2020 and subsequent jailing his attitude “became very personal.”
Anna, a 30-year-old veterinarian, came to the grave with her two children saying people should “never forget” him.
She said she wanted to show her children “the grave of a man who was very dear and important to us.”
In Berlin, Navalny’s widow thanked supporters braving the risk of reprisals to pay respect to her husband back in Russia.
“We must come out (to protest) for those people in Russia who can’t,” Navalnaya said in a church in the German capital — where many Russian exiles have settled.
In Russia people “are afraid to come out,” she said, “because they are afraid of ending up in jail.”
“Here of course we can feel free but people in Russia are hostages of the regime.”
She urged her supporters to take part in an opposition march in Berlin on March 1 with the slogan “Russia against Putin,” which will come days after the third anniversary of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.
Around 40 people also gathered outside the Russian embassy in the city, laying flowers in the snow.
Yuri Korolyov, a 32-year-old Russian now living in Germany, recalled handing out leaflets in support of Navalny’s failed attempt to run for president in 2018.
“He’s a person who died for his idea,” Korolyov said, adding that Navalny had changed his life.
Russian pro-Kremlin Telegram channels warned supporters against going to the cemetery in Moscow.
“We give brief advice to those who plan to go there but are not yet sure — don’t go!” said a post shared by pro-Kremlin journalist Dmitry Smirnov and on other channels.
The message warns of “Big Brother and his ever-watchful eye” with a photo of a security camera sign at the cemetery gates.
Russia has not fully explained Navalny’s death, which came weeks before a presidential election that extended Putin’s more than two-decade rule.
Moscow has branded Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and the regional offices he set up as “extremist organizations.”
Participation in an extremist group is punishable by up to six years in prison and many who campaigned in support of Navalny have been jailed or fled the country.
Four independent journalists are currently on trial for “participating in an extremist group,” accused of preparing photos and video materials for Navalny’s social media channels.
Russia jailed three lawyers last month who defended Navalny, on an extremism charge for passing on his messages from prison, prompting international condemnation.
Navalny was arrested in 2021 after returning to Russia following medical treatment in Germany for poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent.
Trump administration tries to bring back fired nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal
- Teresa Robbins, the agency’s acting director, issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of those hundreds of fired staff members
- The hundreds let go at NNSA were part of a DOGE purge across the Department of Energy that targeted about 2,000 employees
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that DOGE’s blind cost cutting will put communities at risk.
Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were abruptly laid off late Thursday, with some losing access to email before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning to find they were locked out. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
One of the hardest hit offices was the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which saw about 30 percent of the cuts. Those employees work on reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise, with the highest levels of clearance.
The hundreds let go at NNSA were part of a DOGE purge across the Department of Energy that targeted about 2,000 employees.
“The DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, referencing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team. “They don’t seem to realize that it’s actually the department of nuclear weapons more than it is the Department of Energy.”
By late Friday night, the agency’s acting director, Teresa Robbins, issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of those hundreds of fired staff members.
“This letter serves as formal notification that the termination decision issued to you on Feb. 13, 2025 has been rescinded, effective immediately,” said the memo, which was obtained by the AP.
The accounts from the three officials contradict an official statement from the Department of Energy, which said fewer than 50 National Nuclear Security Administration staffers were let go, calling them “probationary employees” who “held primarily administrative and clerical roles.”
But that wasn’t the case. The firings prompted one NNSA senior staffer to post a warning and call to action.
“This is a pivotal moment. We must decide whether we are truly committed to leading on the world stage or if we are content with undermining the very systems that secure our nation’s future,” deputy division director Rob Plonski posted to LinkedIn. “Cutting the federal workforce responsible for these functions may be seen as reckless at best and adversarily opportunistic at worst.”
While some of the Energy Department employees who were fired dealt with energy efficiency and the effects of climate change, issues not seen as priorities by the Trump administration, many others dealt with nuclear issues, even if they didn’t directly work on weapons programs. This included managing massive radioactive waste sites and ensuring the material there doesn’t further contaminate nearby communities.
That incudes the Savannah River National Laboratory in Jackson, South Carolina; the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state, where workers secure 177 high-level waste tanks from the site’s previous work producing plutonium for the atomic bomb; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, a Superfund contamination site where much of the early work on the Manhattan Project was done, among others.
US Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and US Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, both Democrats, called the firings last week “utterly callous and dangerous.”
The NNSA staff who had been reinstated could not all be reached after they were fired, and some were reconsidering whether to return to work, given the uncertainty created by DOGE.
Many federal employees who had worked on the nation’s nuclear programs had spent their entire careers there, and there was a wave of retirements in recent years that cost the agency years of institutional knowledge.
But it’s now in the midst of a major $750 billion nuclear weapons modernization effort — including new land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, new stealth bombers and new submarine-launched warheads. In response, the labs have aggressively hired over the past few years: In 2023, 60 percent of the workforce had been there five years or less.
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the firings could disrupt the day-to-day workings of the agency and create a sense of instability over the nuclear program both at home and abroad.
“I think the signal to US adversaries is pretty clear: throw a monkey wrench in the whole national security apparatus and cause disarray,” he said. “That can only benefit the adversaries of this country.”
Ukraine, Europe will be part of ‘real’ peace talks, says Rubio, as US weighs Putin’s motives
- US talks with Russia this week were a chance to see how serious Putin is about peace, Rubio explains
- Delegations from the two world powers are to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said Ukraine and Europe would be part of any “real negotiations” to end Moscow’s war, signaling that US talks with Russia this week were a chance to see how serious Russian President Vladimir Putin is about peace.
America’s top diplomat played down European concerns of being cut out of the initial talks between Russia and the United States set to take place in Saudi Arabia in the coming days. In an interview with CBS, Rubio said a negotiation process had not yet begun in earnest, and if talks advanced, the Ukrainians and other Europeans would be brought into the fold.
Earlier on Sunday, Reuters reported that US officials had handed European officials a questionnaire asking, among other things, how many troops they could contribute to enforcing a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
“President Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin last week, and in it, Vladimir Putin expressed his interest in peace, and the president expressed his desire to see an end to this conflict in a way that was enduring and that protected Ukrainian sovereignty,” Rubio said on CBS’s “Meet the Press.”
“Now, obviously it has to be followed up by action, so the next few weeks and days will determine whether it’s serious or not. Ultimately, one phone call does not make peace.”
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and national security adviser Mike Waltz were due to leave for Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening, Witkoff said in a Fox News interview.
Rubio noted he was due to be in Saudi Arabia anyway due to previously arranged official travel. The composition of the Russian delegation had not yet been finalized, he said.
The planned talks in Saudi Arabia coincide with a US bid to cut a deal with Kyiv to open up Ukraine’s natural resources wealth to US investment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an NBC interview broadcast on Sunday, questioned if minerals in areas held by Russia would be given to Putin.
Trump, who held a call with Putin on Wednesday and said the Russian leader wants peace, said Sunday he was confident Putin would not want to try and take control of the entirety of Ukraine.
“That would have caused me a big problem, because you just can’t let that happen. I think he wants to end it,” Trump told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump added that Zelinsky would be involved in the conversations to end the conflict.
European role
Rubio and Witkoff rejected concerns that Ukraine and other European leaders would have no place at peace negotiations, despite Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, suggesting precisely that at this weekend’s Munich Security Conference.
Witkoff noted in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Ukrainian officials had met several US officials in recent days at the conference, while Trump had talked with Zelensky last week.
Rubio, for his part, said that Ukrainians and other Europeans would be included in any meaningful negotiations.
“Ultimately, it will reach a point — if it’s real negotiations, and we’re not there yet — but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved because they’re the ones that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well,” Rubio said.
“We’re just not there yet.”
French President Emmanuel Macron will host European leaders on Monday for an emergency summit on the Ukraine war, Macron’s office said, in the wake of Kellogg’s remarks.
European officials have been left shocked and flat-footed by the Trump administration’s moves on Ukraine, Russia and European defense in recent days.
Chief among their fears is that they can no longer count on US military protection and that Trump will attempt to ink a Ukraine peace deal with Putin that undermines Kyiv and broader European continental security.
Asked if he had discussed lifting sanctions on Russia during a Saturday phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Rubio declined to provide confirmation, saying only that they “did not go into any details.”
After the call, Moscow said that the two had discussed the removal of “unilateral barriers” set by the previous US administration in relations with Russia.
Rubio said he did address the “difficult” operating conditions of the US embassy in Moscow with Lavrov. If there was to be progress in Ukraine peacemaking, both Russia and the US would need properly functioning embassies in the other country, he added.
UK PM Starmer offers to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine
- “US support will remain critical and a US security guarantee is essential for a lasting peace, because only the US can deter Putin from attacking again,” Starmer said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday he was ready to send British troops to Ukraine as part of any postwar peacekeeping force as he tried to show the US that European nations should have a role in the talks on ending the conflict.
Starmer said he had not taken the decision to consider putting British servicemen and women “in harm’s way” lightly, but securing a lasting peace in Ukraine was essential to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from further aggression.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said Ukraine and Europe would be part of any “real negotiations” to end Moscow’s war, signalling that US talks with Russia this week were a chance to see how serious Putin is about peace.
The end of Russia’s war with Ukraine “when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again,” Starmer wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Starmer’s comments were the first time he has explicitly said he is considering deploying British peacekeepers to Ukraine. He has previously said that Britain was willing to help play a part in any peace deal that is negotiated.
In the article, Starmer said he was prepared to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by “putting our own troops on the ground if necessary.”
“I do not say that lightly,” he wrote. “I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way.”
Starmer is expected to join German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other European leaders in Paris on Monday after French President Emmanuel Macron convened talks on Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump stunned European allies in NATO and Ukraine last week when he announced he had held a call with Putin without consulting them and would start a peace process. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, then suggested Ukraine and other European leaders would have no place at peace negotiations.
US and Russian officials are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to start talks aimed at ending Russia’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
Starmer is expected to travel to Washington soon and he suggested on Sunday that Britain could play a “unique role” in the negotiations to end the war, acting as a bridge between Europe and the US during the peace process in Ukraine.
“Europe and America must continue to work closely together – and I believe the UK can play a unique role in helping to make this happen,” he said.
“We are facing a once in a generation moment for the collective security of our continent. This is not only a question about the future of Ukraine. It is existential for Europe as a whole.”
