SEOUL: South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North’s latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it used front-line loudspeakers to blare anti-Pyongyang broadcasts over the border between Thursday evening and Friday morning. It said the South Korean military turned on loudspeakers again later Friday as it found out the North was preparing to fly more balloons.
The broadcasts were the first of their kind in about 40 days. The contents of the broadcasts were not immediately known, but previous ones last month reportedly included K-pop songs, weather forecasts and news on Samsung, the biggest South Korean company, as well as outside criticism of the North’s missile program and its crackdown on foreign video.
The South Korean broadcasts could trigger an angry response from North Korea because it is extremely sensitive to any outside attempt to undermine its political system. In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting the South to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.
South Korea’s military said North Korea must be blamed for heightened tensions because it ignored South Korea’s repeated warnings and continued its “despicable” balloon campaigns. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the South Korean military will conduct loudspeaker broadcasts in a fuller manner and other stronger steps if North Korea continues provocations like balloon launches.
South Korea’s military earlier said North Korea’s launch on Thursday afternoon was its eighth balloon campaign since late May. About 200 North Korean balloons were found on South Korean soil as of Friday morning, and they mostly carried waste papers, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Previous North Korean-flown balloons carried scraps of cloth, cigarette butts, waste batteries and even manure, though they caused no major damages in South Korea. North Korea said they were sent in response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets to the North via their own balloons.
South Korea responded by suspending a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea, conducting propaganda broadcasts for two hours on June 9 and front-line live-fire military drills at border areas.
Earlier this week, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hinted at flying rubbish-carrying balloons again or launching new countermeasures, saying South Korean balloons have been found again at border and other areas in North Korea. In her statement Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong warned that South Korean “scum” must be ready to pay “a gruesome and dear price.” That raised concerns that North Korea could stage physical provocations, rather than balloon launches.
South Korea’s military said Wednesday it has boosted its readiness to brace for any provocation by North Korea. It said North Korea may fire at incoming South Korean balloons across the border or floating mines downriver.
It wasn’t immediately known whether groups in South Korea have recently scattered leaflets in North Korea. For years, activist groups led by North Korean defectors have used helium-filled balloons to drop anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks containing K-pop music and South Korean dramas and US dollar bills in the North.
North Korea views such activities as a serious security threat and challenge to its ban on foreign news for most of its 26 million people. In 2020, North Korea destroyed an unoccupied South Korean-built liaison office on its territory in a furious response to South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2014, North Korea fired at balloons flying toward its territory and South Korea returned fire, though there were no casualties.
Tensions between the Koreas have heightened in recent years because of North Korea’s missile tests and the expansion of U.S-South Korean military drills that North Korea calls invasion rehearsals. Experts say North Korea’s expanding ties with Russia could embolden Kim Jong Un to stage bigger provocations, particularly ahead of the US presidential election in November.
North Korea’s state media said Friday that Kim met a visiting Russian delegation led by Vice Defense Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko. During the meeting, Kim stressed the need for the two countries’ armies to unite more firmly to defend international peace and justice, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
In June, Kim met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang and signed a deal requiring each country to provide aid to the other if it is attacked and vowed to boost other cooperation. Analysts say the accord represents the strongest connection between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.
South Korea restarts blaring propaganda broadcasts after Pyongyang flies trash balloons anew
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South Korea restarts blaring propaganda broadcasts after Pyongyang flies trash balloons anew
- The South Korean broadcasts could trigger an angry response from North Korea
UK export license suspension won’t have ‘material’ impact on Israel, minister says
“It will not have a material impact on Israel’s security,” he told Times Radio on Tuesday, the day after the suspension was announced.
Britain's chief rabbi criticised the government's decision to suspend some arms export licences to Israel.
"It beggars belief that the British government, a close strategic ally of Israel, has announced a partial suspension of arms licences," Ephraim Mirvis said on X.
He said the move would bolster unfounded claims that Israel was in breach of international humanitarian law.
"Sadly, this announcement will serve to encourage our shared enemies," Mirvis said. "It will not help to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages, nor contribute to the peaceful future we wish and pray for, for all people in the region and beyond."
Britain's foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday that the government had suspended 30 of 350 British arms export licences with Israel due to a risk the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law.
New Zealand spy report calls out China for interference
- New Zealand’s spy agency said the country’s geographical position and role in the Pacific region made it “vulnerable” to other countries striving for greater influence
WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s spy service branded China a “complex intelligence concern” Tuesday and warned the Pacific nation was vulnerable to foreign interference.
In an annual threat report, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service said several countries were undertaking “malicious activity” on its shores, but called out China’s attempts as “complex and deceptive.”
In particular, Beijing was accused of using front organizations to connect with local groups to replace authentic and diverse community views with those approved by the ruling party.
In one example, a Chinese-language community news outlet parroted Beijing’s talking points, it said.
“These front organizations will often appear to be community-based... but their true affiliation, direction and funding sources are hidden,” the report said.
The unusually blunt language comes as New Zealand’s recently elected center-right government tilts the country’s foreign policy more closely toward traditional Western allies.
This comes after years of growing economic ties with China — New Zealand’s biggest trade partner.
In March, Wellington publicly said a Chinese state-sponsored group was behind a 2021 malicious cyberattack that infiltrated sensitive government computer systems.
China dismissed allegations of hacking and accused New Zealand critics of being puppets of Washington.
New Zealand’s spy agency said the country’s geographical position and role in the Pacific region made it “vulnerable” to other countries striving for greater influence.
That included Russia, which “likely monitors the public statements and social media accounts” of people.
In another case, an unnamed country contacted a local New Zealand council and offered to pay for a community event if they agreed to restrict a particular religious group.
Andrew Hampton, Director-General of Security, said the report aimed to be upfront about threats facing the country.
“The point is not to alarm anyone but to alert New Zealanders to the threats so that we can work together to manage them,” he said.
Earlier this year, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the country could no longer depend on the “splendid isolation” provided by its geography.
China remains New Zealand’s biggest trading partner — exporting diary, meat and wood products that exceeded NZ$21.39 billion ($13.2 billion), according to the most recent official data.
Luxon has warned that although China was “a country of undoubted influence,” different values mean “there are issues on which we cannot and will not agree.”
After brutal rape case, Sandip Ghosh, ex-head of India’s RG Kar college, arrested for suspected graft
- Ghosh, who resigned as principal of the college days after incident became public, was arrested on Monday on charges of financial irregularities
- Rape and murder case triggered widespread protests by doctors demanding greater safety for women at the workplace and justice for 31-year-old doctor
KOLKATA: India’s federal police said it had arrested the former principal of R.G. Kar Medical College in Kolkata for alleged graft, after an investigation in the case of the brutal rape and murder of a young female doctor on the premises.
Sandip Ghosh, who resigned as principal of the British colonial-era college days after the incident became public, was arrested on Monday on charges of financial irregularities, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said.
The CBI said it also arrested two vendors of hospital supplies and a close aide of Ghosh in connection with the case.
Reuters was not able to immediately reach Ghosh or his lawyer.
The rape and murder case triggered widespread protests by doctors demanding greater safety for women at the workplace and justice for the 31-year-old doctor, whose body was found over three weeks ago.
Although tougher laws were introduced after the 2012 gruesome gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi, activists say the incident in Kolkata has highlighted how women in India continue to suffer from sexual violence.
A police volunteer, designated to help police personnel and their families with hospital admissions when needed, was arrested last month and charged with the crime.
Ethiopian Airlines says flights to Eritrea capital suspended
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines said Monday that it was suspending its flights to and from Eritrea’s capital Asmara from September 3, citing “difficult operating conditions.”
Air links between Ethiopia and Eritrea had resumed in July 2018 after a 20-year interruption because of longstanding conflicts between the two Horn of Africa countries.
However, in July Ethiopian Airlines said in a post on X that Eritrea had suspended its flights to the country from September 30, without providing a reason.
Late Monday Africa’s largest airline said on X that it “regrets to inform its valued customers traveling to/from Asmara that it has suspended its flights to Asmara effective September 3.”
It said the suspension was “due to very difficult operating conditions it has encountered in Eritrea that are beyond its control,” without giving further details.
Indirect flights to Asmara from Ethiopia beyond September 3 were still available on Ethiopian Airlines official website.
The Eritrean government, which is diplomatically isolated and does not allow any independent media, has not publicly commented on the July decision.
US seizes Venezuela leader Maduro’s plane
- US Justice Department said the plane was ‘illegally purchased’
MIAMI: The United States on Monday seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s plane in the Dominican Republic and flew the jet to Florida, saying it acted over violation of US sanctions.
United States officials moved to take the aircraft, a Dassault Falcon 900EX private jet used by Maduro and members of his government, with the Justice Department saying the plane was “illegally purchased.”
“The Justice Department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolas Maduro and his cronies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Aircraft tracking site Flightradar24 showed that the jet flew from Santo Domingo to Fort Lauderdale on Monday morning.
The US says that in late 2022 and early 2023, individuals affiliated with Maduro allegedly used a Caribbean-based shell company to conceal their involvement in the illegal purchase of the jet.
The aircraft was then illegally exported from the United States to Venezuela through the Caribbean in April 2023.
Since May 2023, the plane has flown almost exclusively to and from a military base in Venezuela.
Anthony Salisbury, special agent in charge at the Homeland Security Investigations Miami office, said “this plane was predominantly utilized by Nicolas Maduro on numerous state visits.”
The South American country was rocked by protests when Maduro was declared the winner of a disputed July 28 election, with dozens killed and more than 2,400 people arrested.
The opposition claims it won by a landslide and that it has the voting records to prove it.
The leftist Maduro government, brushing off accusations of authoritarianism, has resisted international pressure to release vote tally numbers to back up its claim of victory.
“Maduro and his representatives’ have tampered with the results of the July 28 presidential election, falsely claimed victory, and carried out wide-spread repression to maintain power by force,” a US National Security Council spokesperson said.
The seizure of the plane “is an important step to ensure that Maduro continues to feel the consequences from his misgovernance of Venezuela,” they added.
The United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries have refused to recognize Maduro as having won without seeing detailed voting results.
Violence that accompanied the protests left 27 people dead and at least 192 wounded.
Since 2005, Washington has imposed sanctions on Venezuela that target individuals and entities “that have engaged in criminal, antidemocratic, or corrupt actions,” according to a Congressional briefing document.
“In response to increasing human rights abuses and corruption by the government of Nicolas Maduro, in power since 2013, the Trump Administration expanded US sanctions to include financial sanctions, sectoral sanctions, and sanctions on the government.”
Caracas has not yet commented on the seizure.
