SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the country’s new defense pact with North Korea on Friday, as border tensions continued to rise with vague threats and brief, seemingly accidental incursions by North Korean troops.
Earlier Friday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a vague threat of retaliation after South Korean activists flew balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border, and South Korea’s military said it had fired warning shots the previous day to repel North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the rivals’ land border for the third time this month.
That came two days after Moscow and Pyongyang reached a pact vowing mutual defense assistance if either is attacked, and a day after Seoul responded by saying it would consider providing arms to Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to protest the deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and called for Moscow to immediately halt its alleged military cooperation with Pyongyang.
Kim, the South Korean diplomat, stressed that any cooperation that directly or indirectly helps the North build up its military capabilities would violate UN Security Council resolutions and pose a threat to the South’s security, and warned of consequences for Seoul’s relations with Moscow.
Zinoviev replied that he would convey Seoul’s concerns to his superiors in Moscow, the ministry said.
Leafletting campaigns by South Korean civilian activists in recent weeks have prompted a resumption of Cold War-style psychological warfare along the inter-Korean border.
The South Korean civilian activists, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it sent 20 balloons carrying 300,000 propaganda leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks with South Korean pop songs and TV dramas, and 3,000 US dollar bills from the South Korean border town of Paju on Thursday night.
Pyongyang resents such material and fears it could demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken Kim Jong Un’s grip on power, analysts say.
In a statement carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, called the activists “defector scum” and issued what appeared to be a threat of retaliation.
“When you do something you were clearly warned not to do, it’s only natural that you will find yourself dealing with something you didn’t have to,” she said, without specifying what the North would do.
After previous leafletting by South Korean activists, North Korea launched more than 1,000 balloons that dropped tons of trash in South Korea, smashing roof tiles and windows and causing other property damage. Kim Yo Jong previously hinted that balloons could become the North’s standard response to leafletting, saying that the North would respond by “scattering dozens of times more rubbish than is being scattered on us.”
In response, South Korea resumed anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts with military loudspeakers installed at the border for the first time in years, to which Kim Yo Jong, in another state media statement, warned that Seoul was “creating a prelude to a very dangerous situation.”
Tensions between the Koreas are at their highest in years as Kim Jong Un accelerates his nuclear weapons and missile development and attempts to strengthen his regional footing by aligning with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a standoff against the US-led West.
South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped military backed by the United States, says it is considering upping support for Ukraine in response. Seoul has already provided humanitarian aid and other support while joining US-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not directly provided arms, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.
Putin told reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday that supplying weapons to Ukraine would be “a very big mistake,” and said South Korea “shouldn’t worry” about the agreement if it isn’t planning aggression against Pyongyang.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Minister Cho Tae-yul on Friday held separate phone calls with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa to discuss the new pact. The diplomats agreed that the agreement poses a serious threat to peace and stability in the region and vowed to strengthen trilateral coordination to deal with the challenges posed by the alignment between Moscow and Pyongyang, Cho’s ministry said in a statement.
North Korea is extremely sensitive to criticism of Kim’s authoritarian rule and efforts to reach its people with foreign news and other media.
In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting South Korea to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.
South Korea’s military said there are signs that North Korea was installing its own speakers at the border, although they weren’t yet working.
In the latest border incident, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said several North Korean soldiers engaged in unspecified construction work briefly crossed the military demarcation line that divides the two countries at around 11 a.m. Thursday.
The South Korean military broadcast a warning and fired warning shots, after which the North Korean soldiers retreated. The joint chiefs didn’t immediately release more details, including why it was releasing the information a day late.
South Korea’s military says believes recent border intrusions were not intentional, as the North Korean soldiers have not returned fire and retreated after the warning shots.
The South’s military has observed the North deploying large numbers of soldiers in frontline areas to build suspected anti-tank barriers, reinforce roads and plant mines in an apparent attempt to fortify their side of the border. Seoul believes the efforts are likely aimed at preventing North Korean civilians and soldiers from escaping to the South.
South Korea summons Russian ambassador as tensions rise with North Korea
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South Korea summons Russian ambassador as tensions rise with North Korea
- Earlier Friday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a vague threat of retaliation after South Korean activists flew balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border
- South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to protest the deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un
Appeals court allows part of Biden student loan repayment plan to go forward
- The ruling on Sunday means the department can move ahead with the reduced payments already calculated while it pursues an appeal
WASHINGTON: A federal appeals court has allowed the US Education Department to move ahead with a plan to lower monthly payments for millions of student loan borrowers, putting on hold a ruling last week by a lower court.
The ruling from the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals puts back on track a central part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to address student debt — a rule that lowers from 10 percent of discretionary income to 5 percent the amount that some borrowers qualifying for a repayment plan need to pay.
The reduced payment threshold was set to take effect July 1, but federal judges in Kansas and Missouri last week blocked much of the administration’s student loan repayment plan in two separate rulings. The ruling on Sunday means the department can move ahead with the reduced payments already calculated while it pursues an appeal.
The rulings have created a difficult environment for borrowers to navigate, said Persis Yu, deputy executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, which advocates for eliminating student debt. The stay granted by the 10th Circuit is temporary, Yu said, leaving many borrowers in the dark about future financial obligations.
“Borrowers are having to make decisions right now about their financial lives, and they don’t know the very basic information that they need in order to make informed decisions,” Yu said.
The Biden administration created the SAVE plan last year to replace other existing income-based repayment plans offered by the federal government. It allowed many to qualify for lower payments, and forgiveness was granted to borrowers who had made payments for at least 10 years and originally borrowed $12,000 or less.
US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the Biden administrations remains committed “to our work to fix a broken student loan system and make college more affordable for more Americans.”
The appeals court ruling does not impact the injunction issued by a federal judge in Missouri, which prevents the Education Department from forgiving loan balances going forward.
The injunctions are the result of lawsuits from Republican-led states seeking to invalidate the Biden administration’s entire loan forgiveness program, which was first available to borrowers in the summer of 2023, and at least 150,000 have had their loans canceled. The suing states argued that the administration’s plan was a workaround after the Supreme Court struck down the original plan for student loan forgiveness earlier that year.
Former Pakistan PM Khan arbitrarily detained: UN panel
- “The appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Khan immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law,” they added
GENEVA: A panel of UN experts have determined that the detention of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan was arbitrary and in violation of international law, calling for him to be released “immediately.”
In an opinion published Monday, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention raised serious concerns around multiple cases brought against Khan since he was ousted in April 2022.
It found that his deprevation of liberty violated a string of international laws and norms, and was “arbitrary.”
Khan’s “detention had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office,” the working group concluded.
“Thus, from the outset, that prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalized for a political purpose,” it said in the opinion, which was dated on March 25 but only made public on Monday.
The working group, made up of five independent experts, whose opinions are not binding but carry reputational weight, called on Pakistan’s government to “take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr. Khan without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms.”
“The appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Khan immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law,” they added.
Khan, who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been entangled in more than 200 legal cases since he was ousted, in what he says is a campaign to keep him from power.
He has been detained since August last year and barred from standing for office.
However, the former international cricket star and his wife had their 14-year prison sentences for graft suspended by a Pakistan high court in April.
Khan then had a 10-year sentence for treason overturned this month but remains in Adiala jail, south of the capital Islamabad, over an illegal marriage conviction.
He had been cleared for release before that trio of sentences in the days running up to Pakistan’s February 8 general elections.
Neither Pakistan’s interior nor information ministry immediately responded to a request for comment.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party meanwhile hailed the ruling as “a huge victory.”
“It has shown without any one percent of doubt that Imran Khan is innocent and has been thrown into prison illegally,” PTI spokesman Syad Zulfiqar Bukhari said in a statement.
Australia urged to provide ‘emergency uplift’ visa for Palestinians fleeing Gaza war
- Most refugees arrive in Australia on tourist visas and then apply for protection while they are on Australian soil
- Rights groups say ‘tourist visa is not fit for purpose in these circumstances’ and a specialist protocol is needed to make applying for protection easier
LONDON: Campaigners for refugee rights have called on the Australian government to create an “emergency uplift” visa for Palestinians fleeing the war in Gaza.
The number of Palestinians applying onshore for protection in Australia almost doubled during May compared with the figures for April, the Guardian newspaper reported on Monday. The Home Affairs Department said 119 people from the “Palestinian Authority” applied for protection visas, up from 66 in April, 110 in March, 88 in February and 33 in January.
The Refugee Advice and Casework Service, which is helping some of the Palestinians, said the “absolute humanitarian disaster in Gaza” had caused “an increase in arrivals from Gaza and Palestinians seeking protection.”
It continued: “RACS has long assisted hundreds of Palestinians … due to their history of persecution, discrimination and statelessness, which has only been exacerbated in recent times. When people fear for their lives, they will do whatever it takes to find safety.”
RACS said the majority of refugees who arrive in Australia do not enter the country on refugee visas but on other types, including tourist visas, and then apply for protection when they are already on Australian soil. An emergency protocol is needed to make the application process for protection easier, the organization added.
Though some visitors’ visas can allow those entering the country to bring with them family members who are also fleeing the war, and to remain in Australia for 12 months, holders are not permitted to work, study or access healthcare.
The numbers of onshore protection claims are being driven up by those with shorter, three-month visas whose duration of stay is about to expire, the Guardian reported.
“The tourist visa is not fit for purpose in these circumstances and, really, Australia should be considering an ‘emergency uplift’-type visa, similar to that of the 449 visa, which was used for those Australia evacuated from Afghanistan, where families, communities and individuals can apply for or request of the Australian government at such times of dire need,” RACS said.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Center, another rights organization in Australia, said: “The tourist visa was recommended by the Australian government to help people flee to Australia, and should not restrict that person’s options for what visas they can apply for once they are here.”
Greek prime minister warns of dangerous summer for wildfires
ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday the country faced a dangerous summer for wildfires, with a prolonged drought and unusually strong winds contributing to tinderbox conditions.
Wildfires are common in the Mediterranean country, but hotter, drier and windier weather that scientists link to the effects of climate change has increased their frequency and intensity.
This weekend, dozens of fires broke out across Greece, including two close to the capital, Athens.
“It is a summer which is expected to be particularly dangerous ... the most difficult times are still ahead of us,” Mitsotakis said as he addressed his Cabinet.
“We had a very difficult June in terms of weather conditions with high drought and unusually high gusts of wind for the season,” he said, praising firefighters for managing to contain the weekend fires.
Mitsotakis said less than 100,000 square meters of land had been burned in the two fires, and that the damage was contained due to the response by state emergency authorities.
Greece has scaled up its preparations this year by hiring more staff and increasing training, after forest fires last year forced 19,000 people to flee the island of Rhodes and killed 20 in the north of the country.
From Ukraine and Syria to Sudan and Gaza, a new era of violence and conflict unfolds
- Over a quarter of all battle deaths in the past 33 years occurred in the period between 2021 and 2023
- One report documents roughly 190 different state-based conflicts involving 95 countries since 1990
DUBAI: A recent conflict trend analysis has confirmed that with each passing year the world has steadily grown more violent. The last three years in particular have emerged as the most tumultuous in three decades, painting a concerning picture of escalating global unrest.
Last year, there was an alarming surge in worldwide, state-based conflicts, hitting a high not seen since 1946. According to the Peace Research Institute Oslo’s “Conflict trends: A global overview,” 2023 alone saw an unprecedented 59 conflicts, marking it one of the most violent years since the end of the Second World War.
The report analyzes global conflict trends from 1946 to 2023, aiming to enhance policymakers’ understanding of their operational contexts.
Siri Aas Rustad, research professor at the PRIO and lead writer of the report, said the findings indicate “the conflict landscape is becoming more complex,” with more actors involved in each country.
The report documented approximately 190 different state-based conflicts involving 95 countries since 1990.
The deadliest conflicts in recent memory highlighted by Rustad include the Tigray war in Ethiopia and the violence in Syria, with death tolls in each by most estimates exceeded 300,000.
Civil conflict in Afghanistan is thought to have caused more than 230,000 deaths, while the war between Russia and Ukraine is estimated to have claimed some 170,000 lives so far.
“When it comes to the longest conflicts, they are often not as deadly, with the two longest being the FARC insurgency in Colombia and the Israel-Palestine conflict,” she told Arab News.
While the civil war in Afghanistan spanned the past three decades, there were high fatalities during specific periods, including when American troops withdrew.
Nasr Arif, emeritus professor of political science at Cairo University and visiting professor at St Andrews University, describes the ongoing Palestinian conflict as among the deadliest in the past three years.
Nearly 40,000 people have been killed, 90,000 injured, and 15,000 are still missing and presumed dead, many buried under the wreckage of destroyed cities, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
“The ongoing conflict will set the whole region back to a pre-1977 situation, where societies in the Arab or Islamic world will reconsider peace deals with Israel,” he said.
Arif says that despite the willingness of several Arab states to normalize relations with Israel, the conduct of the Israeli army, as seen on social media, makes it impossible for governments to convince their societies otherwise.
“This will create a more hostile environment, and peace in the Middle East will require new approaches and leadership,” he said.
The only viable solution, according to Arif, is the establishment of a Palestinian state, without which the Middle East peace process will not survive.
INNUMBERS
• 59 Conflicts worldwide in 2023.
• 1.5m People killed in conflicts from 1990-2020.
• 190 Different state-based conflicts since 1990.
Source: Peace Research Institute Oslo
“Otherwise, the situation will resemble the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era, with the rise of extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and Daesh, leading to widespread individual acts of terrorism and retaliation,” said Arif.
Overall, he believes that identity politics and international intervention are to blame for the conflicts raging in Africa, Asia and Europe.
“These conflicts are often ignited and inflamed by international powers either from the same region or from a distance,” he told Arab News.
“Identity politics, whether ethnic, religious, or political, play a significant role, with international interventions supporting different parties, leading to higher casualties.”
Asif cites, as examples, NATO and the EU’s involvement in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and meddling by outside powers in the affairs of Sudan, Iraq and Lebanon.
He blames foreign military support for Israel’s actions, in the face of accusations that its troops are not adhering to humanitarian or international laws, for the Gaza’s war’s high human toll.
Hamdy Abdel-Rahman Hassan, a professor of political science at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, says the war in Gaza has intensified tensions in the Middle East, exacerbating regional instability.
“The conflict has led to widespread anger, with countries like Egypt and Jordan fearing a potential influx of Palestinian refugees,” he told Arab News.
Additionally, non-state actors in the Iran-led coalition known as the “Axis of Resistance” have expanded their attacks, targeting Israeli and American military positions and shipping lanes, prompting retaliatory strikes from Israel, the US and the UK, according to Hassan.
“This cycle of violence risks escalating into a broader conflict, which is why a ceasefire in Gaza (is) seen as crucial to mitigating the regional escalation.”
Even more worrying is the potential for the ongoing conflict to expand into a full-scale war and further destabilization, especially if it results in significant civilian casualties or more military confrontations, says Hassan.
As for the two-state solution widely cited as a possible antidote to conflicts in the Middle East, Hassan believes this may be further from reality than ever before.
On the other hand, Hassan attributes the increase in overall state conflicts to several interrelated factors, including advances in technology and unresolved regional tensions.
“Technological advancements have introduced new forms of warfare, such as cyberattacks and lethal autonomous weapons, making conflict resolution more complicated,” he said.
“Unresolved regional tensions and the breakdown of state institutions have fueled conflicts involving non-state actors, such as political militias and terrorist groups.”
Hassan also says that the increasingly evident effects of climate change are leading to more resource scarcity, thereby intensifying ongoing conflicts.
Examining the overall number of casualties between 2021 and 2023, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program documented around 600,000 battle deaths, a stark contrast to the preceding three years (2018-2020), which recorded approximately 180,000 deaths.
“The three preceding decades (1990-2020) saw a total of 1.5 million killed,” said the PRIO’s Rustad, meaning more than 25 percent of all battle deaths reported in the past 33 years occurred between 2021 and 2023.
Despite these shocking numbers, Rustad pointed out that a high number of conflicts does not necessarily translate to a high level of battle deaths, as the majority of fatalities occur in just a few conflicts.
In fact, most of the 59 conflicts recorded are relatively small in scale, according to Rustad. “What we see is that while the number of conflicts is increasing, the number of conflict countries is going down,” she said.
Conflicts were recorded in 39 countries in 2022, dropping to 34 in 2023, indicating a concentration in fewer nations.
In fact, nearly half of the countries experiencing conflict in 2023 were engaged in more than one ongoing conflict, and seven countries were simultaneously involved in more than three.
“Taking this together with the high number of internationalized civil wars and the relatively high number of extreme violent conflicts, we see that the global conflict landscape is becoming more complex and difficult to maneuver for states as well as organizations such as the UN, World Bank, and EU,” Rustad said.
Zayed University’s Hassan says a spike in levels of organized crime and urban violence has highlighted the fragility of the rule of law in many regions.
“The strain on international cooperation has diminished the global capacity to prevent and resolve conflicts, contributing to the complexity and persistence of modern violence,” he said.
According to him, the war in Gaza is not without significant repercussions for the global system, challenging peace and security on multiple fronts.
“The strategic rivalry among major powers has created opportunities for regional and middle powers to assert themselves, rejecting the current international order,” said Hassan.
He points to North Korea, saying that it has taken advantage of the war in Ukraine to enhance its missile capabilities and strengthen ties with Russia, complicating global security dynamics.
Similarly, according to him, Iran has leveraged international instability to bolster its regional influence, supplying military support to Russia and challenging Western hegemony.
“These actions underscore the broader impact of regional conflicts on the international system, where weakened mechanisms for conflict resolution and diminished US dominance have emboldened actors to pursue their agendas aggressively, further destabilizing global peace and security,” Hassan said.
Echoing this sentiment, Cairo University’s Arif says the trend over the last three decades signifies the end of the unipolar international system, which was dominated by the US after the collapse of the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1992.
“The American-led world order has failed to bring peace, as evidenced by the ongoing conflicts,” he said, echoing a commonly held view across the Middle East.
“The disregard for international law and organizations, highlighted by the US use of veto power to protect Israel during ceasefire negotiations, signals a collapse of the current international system.”
Ultimately, Arif says, the situation calls for a rethinking of the international order and organizations, starting with the UN Security Council, so that a new system capable of effectively addressing global conflicts can be developed.
