SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday that a senior North Korea diplomat based in Cuba has fled to South Korea, the latest defection by members of the North’s ruling elite that likely hurt leader Kim Jong Un’s push to bolster his leadership.
The National Intelligence Service said media reports on the defection of a North Korean counselor of political affairs in Cuba were true. A brief statement by the NIS public affairs office gave no further details.
South Korea’s mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier Tuesday that diplomat Ri Il Kyu fled to South Korea with his wife and children in November.
Chosun Ilbo cited Ri as telling the newspaper in an interview that he had decided to defect because of what he called disillusionment with North Korea’s political system, an unfair job evaluation by Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, and the ministry’s disapproval of his hopes to visit Mexico to treat his neural damage. He said that hospitals in Cuba didn’t have the necessary medical equipment to treat his health problem due to international sanctions.
Other South Korean media outlets carried similar reports later Tuesday.
North Korea didn’t immediately respond to South Korea’s announcement of Ri’s defection. North Korea has previously expressed fury over some high-profile defections by accusing South Korea of kidnapping or enticing its citizens to defect. It has also described some defectors as traitors or criminals who fled to avoid punishment.
Ri defected before South Korea and Cuba established diplomatic ties in February, an event that experts say likely posed a political blow to North Korea, whose diplomatic footing is largely dependent on a small number of Cold War-era allies like Cuba.
The Chosun report said Ri had been engaged in efforts to block Cuba from opening diplomatic ties with South Korea until his defection. The report said Ri won a commendation from Kim Jong Un for his role in negotiations with Panama that led to the release of a ship detained in 2013 for allegedly carrying banned items like missiles and fighter jet parts. The report said Ri was then a third secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Cuba.
About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea to avoid economic hardship and political suppression, mostly since the late 1990s. A majority of them are women from the North’s poorer northern regions. But the number of highly educated North Koreans with professional jobs escaping to South Korea has steadily increased recently.
In 2023, about 10 North Koreans categorized as members of the country’s elite group resettled in South Korea — more than in recent years, according South Korea’s Unification Ministry. Ministry officials have said that an increase in high-level defections were likely caused by North Korea’s pandemic-related economic difficulties and its pushes to reinforce state control of its people. Those who had to stay abroad longer than initially scheduled due to COVID-19 curbs were exposed to freer foreign cultures for an extended period.
“This high-level defection adds insult to injury for North Korea, as Ri was instrumental in representing Pyongyang’s interests in Havana,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“The Kim regime is no doubt taking measures to make it more difficult for diplomats overseas to defect, but increased repression is likely to further isolate Pyongyang and may actually encourage more defections,” Easley said.
Moon Seong Mook, an expert with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said news of high-level defections like Ri’s would spread to North Korean diplomats and others, potentially dealing a big blow to Kim — though it won’t likely lead to a regime collapse anytime soon.
Few North Korea monitoring groups question Kim’s grip on power. But observers say Kim is grappling with chronic economic difficulties, the influence of South Korean pop cultures and the expansion of the US-South Korean military cooperation.
The most high-profile defection in recent years happened in 2016, when Tae Yongho, then a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, arrived in South Korea. He said that he decided to flee because he didn’t want his children to live “miserable” lives in North Korea as he also fell into “despair” over Kim’s execution of officials and his pursuit of nuclear weapons.
North Korea has called him “human scum” and accused him of embezzling government money and committing other crimes. Tae was elected to South Korea’s parliament in 2020.
In 2019, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil, arrived in South Korea. Also in 2019, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Kuwait came to South Korea with his family.
In recent months, tensions on the Korean Peninsula have soared over North Korea’s launches of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea and its continuation of missile tests. North Korea says its balloon campaigns were a tit-for-tat action against South Korean activists floating political leaflets via their own balloons.
On Tuesday, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, warned South Korea of unspecified “gruesome” consequences, saying that South Korean-sent leaflets were found again in the North. She issued a similar warning on Sunday. South Korea responded to North Korea’s earlier balloon activities by suspending a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea.
A North Korean diplomat in Cuba defected to South Korea in November, a possible blow to leader Kim
https://arab.news/g4qgt
A North Korean diplomat in Cuba defected to South Korea in November, a possible blow to leader Kim
- National Intelligence Service said media reports on the defection of a North Korean counselor of political affairs in Cuba were true
- Ri defected before South Korea and Cuba established diplomatic ties in February
US records first human bird flu death: health authorities
- The patient, aged over 65, had been hospitalized for a respiratory ailment, and was the first serious case of human infection of the H5N1 virus to be detected in the United States
WASHINGTON: The first human death linked to bird flu has been reported in the United States, health authorities in the state of Louisiana said Monday, adding that the patient was elderly and suffered from other pathologies.
The patient, aged over 65, had been hospitalized for a respiratory ailment, and was the first serious case of human infection of the H5N1 virus to be detected in the United States. Despite this death, the public health risk posed by bird flu remains “low,” the statement said.
Biden visits makeshift memorial in New Orleans where attack began that killed 14 and injured 30
NEW ORLEANS: President Joe Biden on Monday visited a makeshift memorial at the site of the deadly New Year’s attack in New Orleans, holding a moment of silence before meeting with grieving families and attending a prayer service.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden made their first stop in the city Monday evening at a memorial that sprung up on city’s famous Bourbon Street, where the attack began last week when an Army veteran drove a truck into revelers, killing 14 and injuring 30 more.
Flowers and messages had been left at the base of more than 14 crosses erected on the sidewalk in the French Quarter. After Jill Biden placed white flowers at the memorial, she and the president stood in silence and bowed their heads.
Joe Biden crossed himself, and the the couple headed to the historic St. Louis Cathedral nearby, where the president and first lady met privately with the families of those killed, survivors and local law enforcement. Afterward, they were expected to attend an interfaith prayer service.
The visit is likely to be the last time Biden travels to the scene of a horrific crime as president to console families of victims. He has less than two weeks left in office.
“I think what you’re going to see this president do today is show up for the community, be there for the community in the hardest time,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Louisiana.
She went on, speaking about Biden’s own understanding of loss, and said, “He believes this is also an important part of the job that he believes he needs to do as president.”
It’s a grim task that presidents perform, though not every leader has embraced the role with such intimacy as the 82-year-old Biden, who has experienced a lot of personal tragedy in his own life. His first wife and baby daughter died in a car accident in the early 1970s, and his eldest son, Beau, died of cancer in 2015.
“I’ve been there. There’s nothing you can really say to somebody that’s just had such a tragic loss,” Biden told reporters Sunday in a preview of his visit. “My message is going to be personal if I get to get them alone.”
Biden often takes the opportunity at such bleak occasions to speak behind closed doors with the families, offer up his personal phone number in case people want to talk later on and talk about grief in stark, personal terms.
In addition to the meeting with families, Biden hoped to visit with first responders in New Orleans, according to Jean-Pierre.
The Democratic president will continue on to California following his stop in New Orleans. With a snowstorm hitting the Washington region on Monday, Biden’s trip began with Air Force One starting its takeoff from inside a large hangar instead of on the tarmac as thick snow covered the ground at Joint Base Andrews and snowplows worked to clear the runway.
In New Orleans on Jan. 1, the driver plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street. Fourteen revelers were killed along with the driver. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who steered his speeding truck around a barricade and plowed into the crowd, later was fatally shot in a firefight with police.
Jabbar, an American citizen from Texas, had posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group and previewed the violence that he would soon unleash in the French Quarter.
Biden on Sunday pushed back against conspiracy theories surrounding the attack, and he urged New Orleans residents to ignore them.
“I spent literally 17, 18 hours with the intelligence community from the time this happened to establish exactly what happened, to establish beyond any reasonable doubt that New Orleans was the act of a single man who acted alone,” he said. “All this talk about conspiracies with other people, there’s not evidence of that — zero.”
The youngest victim was 18 years old, and the oldest was 63. Most victims were in their 20s. They came from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey and Great Britain.
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, was asked on “Fox News Sunday” what the city was hoping for from Biden’s visit.
“How can we not feel for both the families of those who die but also those who’ve been injured in their families?” he asked.
“The best thing that the city, the state, and the federal government can do is do their best to make sure that this does not happen again. And what we can do as a people is to make sure that we don’t live our lives in fear or in terror — but live our lives bravely and with liberty, and then support those families however they need support.”
Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden was directing additional resources to help New Orleans with major upcoming events, including Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl, with both events being assigned the highest level of federal support for security measures.
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Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein in Washington and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
UK leader Starmer slams ‘lies and misinformation’ after attacks from Elon Musk
- Tesla CEO has taken an intense and erratic interest in British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July
- Musk has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday condemned “lies and misinformation” that he said are undermining UK democracy, in response to a barrage of attacks on his government from Elon Musk.
The billionaire Tesla CEO has taken an intense and erratic interest in British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July. Musk has used his social network, X, to call for a new election and demand Starmer be imprisoned. On Monday he posted an online poll for his 210 million followers on the proposition: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”
Asked about Musk’s comments during a question session at a hospital near London, Starmer criticized “those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible,” particularly opposition Conservative politicians in Britain who have echoed some of Musk’s claims.
Musk often posts on X about the UK, retweeting criticism of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir -– shorthand for an unsubstantiated claim that Britain has “two-tier policing” with far-right protesters treated more harshly than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. During summer anti-immigrant violence across the UK he tweeted that “civil war is inevitable.”
Recently Musk has focused on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked northern England towns in which groups of men, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, were tried for grooming and abusing dozens of girls. The cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of covering up the “grooming gangs” out of a fear of appearing racist.
Musk has posted a demand for a new public inquiry into the cases. A huge, seven-year inquiry was held under the previous Conservative government, though many of the 20 recommendations it made in 2022 — including compensation for abuse victims — have yet to be implemented. Starmer’s government said it would act on them as quickly as possible.
Musk also has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
Starmer defended his record as chief prosecutor, saying he had reopened closed cases and “changed the whole prosecution approach” to child sexual exploitation.
He also condemned language used by Musk about Jess Phillips, a government minister responsible for combating violence against women and girls. Musk called Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and said she deserved to be in prison.
“When the poison of the far-right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed,” Starmer said. “I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have, but that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies.”
Musk has also called for the release of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a far-right activist who goes by the name Tommy Robinson and is serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.
Starmer said people “cheerleading Tommy Robinson … are trying to get some vicarious thrill from street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”
Starmer largely avoided mentioning Musk by name in his responses, likely wary of giving him more of a spotlight — or of angering Musk ally Donald Trump, who is due to be inaugurated as US president on Jan. 20.
Musk’s incendiary interventions are a growing worry for governments elsewhere in Europe, too. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, another target of the X owner’s ire, said he is staying “cool” over critical personal comments made by Musk, but finds it worrying that the US billionaire makes the effort to get involved in Germany’s election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Starmer said the main issue was not Musk’s posts on X, but “what are politicians here doing to stand up for our democracy?”
He said he was concerned about Conservative politicians in Britain “so desperate for attention they are amplifying what the far right are saying.”
“Once we lose the anchor that truth matters … then we are on a very slippery slope,” he said.
While some Conservatives, including party leader Kemi Badenoch, have echoed Musk’s points, the main UK beneficiary of his interest has been Reform UK, the hard-right party led by Nigel Farage that has just five seats in the 650-seat House of Commons but big expansion plans. Farage said last month that Musk was considering making a multimillion-dollar donation to the party.
But Farage is critical of Tommy Robinson, refusing to let him join Reform, and on Sunday Musk posted: “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Farage tweeted in response: “Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree.”
Emergency demonstration outside UK Parliament calls for action to protect Palestinian health workers
Emergency demonstration outside UK Parliament calls for action to protect Palestinian health workers
- Event in wake of reports of intensified assaults on Gaza’s healthcare system
LONDON: An emergency demonstration organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and its partners took place opposite the UK Parliament buildings in London on Monday.
Thousands attended the rally, demanding immediate action from MPs to safeguard Gaza’s health workers and medical infrastructure amid escalating attacks by Israel, according to organizers.
Prominent speakers expected at the rally included MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, alongside healthcare professionals and civil society representatives.
The demonstration followed recent reports of intensified assaults on Gaza’s healthcare system.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, including its neonatal unit, was recently destroyed in northern Gaza, and the Indonesian Hospital is under siege amid a forced evacuation.
Palestinian healthcare workers have been allegedly targeted, with scores killed and hundreds detained — including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan — amid accusations of inhumane treatment and the torture of detainees.
The International Court of Justice has identified Israel’s actions as a plausible case of genocide.
Under international humanitarian law, hospitals are especially protected, and attacks on healthcare facilities may constitute war crimes, with activists critical of the UK government for continuing to supply arms and extend political, diplomatic, and economic support to Israel.
Ben Jamal, director of the PSC, has condemned the British government’s stance.
He said: “Israel has been given impunity by the UK government to commit war crime after war crime over the last 15 months. We hoped this barbarity and the government’s support for it had a limit, a red line which could not be crossed, but we have not seen it yet.
“To attack and destroy hospitals, to target and kill medical staff and patients within them, has no possible justification and is completely unacceptable.
“These are crimes for which Israel will have to answer in world courts, but the UK government must also face its own reckoning for shamefully aiding and abetting Israel’s carnage.”
Still awaiting thanks for stopping extremists in Sahel, Macron says
- Donald Trump knows that he has a solid ally in France, he says
PARIS: France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he was still waiting for Africa’s Sahel states to thank Paris for stopping them falling into the hands of militants and he dismissed suggestions his country had been forced out of the region.
Speaking to French ambassadors at an annual conference on foreign policy for 2025, Macron said France had been right to intervene in 2013 to fight militants even if those same states had now moved away from French military support.
“I think that they forgot to thank us, but that’s ok, it will come in time,” Macron said ironically.
French troops have in recent years pulled out of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso after successive military coups and are in the process of withdrawing from Chad, Senegal and Ivory Coast.
“None of them would have a sovereign state if the French army had not deployed in this region,” Macron said.
Macron dismissed the notion that Paris had been kicked out of the region, saying it had decided to re-organize its strategy.
“No, France is not on the back foot in Africa, it is just lucid and reorganizing itself,” he said.
Macron extended an olive branch to US President-elect Donald Trump, declaring that France is “a solid ally” as he outlined his vision for global diplomacy in 2025 during his address to French ambassadors.
“Donald Trump knows that he has a solid ally in France, an ally he does not underestimate, one who believes in Europe and carries a lucid ambition for the transatlantic relationship,” Macron said at the Elysee Palace, emphasizing France’s commitment to fostering cooperation while urging European nations to fortify their unity and resilience.
“If we decide to be weak and defeatist, there is little chance we will be respected by the United States under President Trump,” he warned.
Macron’s speech, delivered against a backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, laid out France’s foreign policy priorities, spanning the Ukraine war, European defense, and the Middle East.
