SEOUL: Major arms exporter South Korea is not ruling out providing weapons directly to Ukraine, President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday, signalling a possible shift in Seoul’s stance on the issue.
Yoon also revealed he had discussed North Korea with US president-elect Donald Trump in a phone conversation that laid the groundwork for a meeting in the “near future.”
South Korea has a long-standing policy of not providing weapons to countries in conflict but indicated that could change in light of Pyongyang’s deployment of troops to Russia to aid its war efforts in Ukraine.
“Now, depending on the level of North Korean involvement, we will gradually adjust our support strategy in phases,” Yoon said at a press conference in Seoul.
“This means we are not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons.”
North Korea has become one of the most vocal and important backers of Russia’s full-scale offensive in Ukraine.
Seoul and the West have long accused Pyongyang of supplying artillery shells and missiles to Moscow for use in Ukraine.
The latest accusations, based on intelligence reports, indicate the North has deployed around 10,000 troops to Russia, suggesting even deeper involvement in the conflict and triggering an outcry and warnings in Seoul, Kyiv, and Western capitals.
Yoon said his office would monitor unfolding developments related to the operations of North Korean soldiers, and if he decided to provide weapons to Kyiv, the initial batch would be defensive.
“If we proceed with weapons support, we would prioritize defensive weapons as a first consideration,” he said without elaborating further.
US-Korea relations
In a call with Trump that took place before the press briefing, Yoon said the two men had discussed a number of issues surrounding North Korea while agreeing to a face-to-face meeting.
“We agreed to meet in the near future... I believe there will be an opportunity to meet within this year,” Yoon said.
Among the topics discussed were recent moves by the North, including its sending of trash-carrying balloons southward, he said.
“Regarding North Korea, we addressed issues such as the launching of over 7,000 trash balloons, GPS jamming, and their indiscriminate firing of ICBMs, IRBMs and SRBMs,” Yoon said, referring to a recent flurry of missile tests.
Compared with his dovish predecessor Moon Jae-in, Yoon has taken a tough stance with the nuclear-armed North while improving ties with security ally Washington.
Since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s second summit with then-president Trump collapsed in Hanoi in 2019, Pyongyang has abandoned diplomacy, doubling down on weapons development and rejecting Washington’s offers of talks.
While in office, Trump met with Kim three times, beginning with a landmark summit in Singapore in June 2018, though the pair failed to make much progress on efforts to denuclearise the North.
During the campaign, Trump said: “I think he misses me,” and that it was “nice to get along with somebody that has a lot of nuclear weapons.”
In a commentary released in July, North Korea said that while it was true Trump tried to reflect the “special personal relations” between the heads of states, he “did not bring about any substantial positive change.”
South Korea president says ‘not ruling out’ direct weapons to Ukraine
https://arab.news/b9gu6
South Korea president says ‘not ruling out’ direct weapons to Ukraine
- Yoon also revealed he had discussed North Korea with US president-elect Donald Trump
Pope Francis opens special ‘Holy Door’ for Catholic Jubilee at Rome prison
- Francis opened the Catholic Holy Year, also known as a Jubilee, on Tuesday
- A Catholic Jubilee is considered a time of peace, forgiveness and pardon
ROME: Pope Francis made a visit on Thursday to one of the largest prison complexes in Italy, opening a special “Holy Door” for the 2025 Catholic Holy Year, in what the Vatican said was the first such action by a Catholic pontiff.
Speaking to hundreds of inmates, guards and staff at the Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, Francis said he wanted to open the door, part of the prison chapel, and one of only five that will be open during the Holy Year, to show that “hope does not disappoint.”
“In bad moments, we can all think that everything is over,” said the pontiff. “Do not lose hope. This is the message I wanted to give you. Do not lose hope.”
Francis opened the Catholic Holy Year, also known as a Jubilee, on Tuesday. A Catholic Jubilee is considered a time of peace, forgiveness and pardon. This Jubilee, dedicated to the theme of hope, will run through Jan. 6, 2026.
Holy Years normally occur every 25 years, and usually involve the opening in Rome of four special “Holy Doors,” which symbolize the door of salvation for Catholics. The doors, located at the papal basilicas in Rome, are only open during Jubilee years.
The Vatican said the opening of the “Holy Door” at Rome’s Rebibbia prison was the first time such a door had been opened by a pope at a prison since the start of the Jubilee year tradition by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300.
Francis has shown special attention for the incarcerated over his 11-year papacy. He often visits prisons in Rome and on his foreign trips.
China urges Philippines to return to ‘peaceful development’
- The US Typhon system, which can be equipped with cruise missiles capable of striking Chinese targets, was brought in for joint exercises earlier this year
BEIJING: China’s foreign ministry on Thursday urged the Philippines to return to “peaceful development,” saying Manila’s decision to deploy a US medium-range missile system in military exercises would only bring the risks of an arms race in the region.
The US Typhon system, which can be equipped with cruise missiles capable of striking Chinese targets, was brought in for joint exercises earlier this year.
On Tuesday, Philippine Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro said the Typhon’s deployment for joint exercises was “legitimate, legal and beyond reproach.” Army chief Roy Galido said on Monday that the Philippines was also planning to acquire its own mid-range missile system.
Rivalry between China and the Philippines has grown in recent years over their competing claims in the South China Sea. Longtime treaty allies Manila and Washington have also deepened military ties, further ratcheting up tensions.
“By cooperating with the United States in the introduction of Typhon, the Philippine side has surrendered its own security and national defense to others and introduced the risk of geopolitical confrontation and an arms race in the region, posing a substantial threat to regional peace and security,” said Mao Ning, a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry.
“We once again advise the Philippine side that the only correct choice for safeguarding its security is to adhere to strategic autonomy, good neighborliness and peaceful development,” Mao told reporters at a regular press conference.
China will never sit idly by if its security interests were threatened, she added.
The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, which is also claimed by several Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines.
Russia says it foils Ukrainian plots to kill senior officers with disguised bombs
- The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that the Russian citizens had been recruited by the Ukrainian intelligence services
MOSCOW: Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Thursday it had foiled several plots by Ukrainian intelligence services to kill high-ranking Russian officers and their families in Moscow using bombs disguised as power banks or document folders.
On Dec. 17, Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service killed Lt. Gen. Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, in Moscow outside his apartment building by detonating a bomb attached to an electric scooter.
An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that the Ukrainian intelligence agency had been behind the hit. Russia said the killing was a terrorist attack by Ukraine, with which it has been at war since February 2022, and vowed revenge.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has prevented a series of assassination attempts on high-ranking military personnel of the Defense Ministry,” the FSB said.
“Four Russian citizens involved in the preparation of these attacks have been detained,” it said in a statement.
Ukraine’s SBU did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that the Russian citizens had been recruited by the Ukrainian intelligence services.
One of the men retrieved a bomb disguised as a portable charger in Moscow that was to be attached with magnets to the car of one of the Defense Ministry’s top officials, the FSB said.
Another Russian man was tasked with reconnaissance of senior Russian defense officials, it said, with one plot involving the delivery of a bomb disguised as a document folder.
“An explosive device disguised as a portable charger (power bank), with magnets attached, had to be placed under the official car of one of the senior leaders of the Russian Defense Ministry,” it said.
The exact date of the planned attacks was unclear though one of the suspects said he had retrieved a bomb on Dec. 23, according to the FSB.
Russian state TV showed what it said was footage of some of the suspects who admitted to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence for bombings against Russian defense ministry officials.
Moscow holds Ukraine responsible for a string of high-profile assassinations on its soil designed to weaken morale — and says the West is supporting a “terrorist regime” in Kyiv.
Ukraine, which says Russia’s war against it poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state, has made clear it regards such targeted killings as a legitimate tool.
Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, was killed in August 2022 near Moscow. The New York Times reported that
US intelligence agencies
believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the killing.
US officials later admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, the Times said. Ukraine denied it killed Dugina.
Rural communities urged to flee east Australia bushfire
- About 600 firefighters battling the blaze in the Grampians National Park 240 kilometers west of Melbourne
- State emergency services warned residents to leave home immediately in more than two dozen mostly small rural communities
MELBOURNE: Australian authorities urged people in dozens of rural communities to leave home “immediately” Thursday to escape an out-of-control bushfire tearing through a national park.
About 600 firefighters were battling the blaze in the Grampians National Park 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of Melbourne, a Victoria state emergency services spokesperson said.
The blaze has persisted for more than a week in hot, windy conditions, scorching 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres) — about one-third of the park — so far without causing deaths or destroying homes.
State emergency services warned residents to leave home immediately in more than two dozen mostly small rural communities, with populations ranging from as few as six to as many as several hundred.
People in several other communities were told to take shelter indoors because it was unsafe to leave.
Firefighters expected shifting winds to complicate their task during the day, said Victoria state control center spokesman Luke Hegarty.
“We are reaching a critical part of the day when we see the wind change moving through the western part of the state,” he said in an afternoon update.
“We’re expecting strong winds and variable winds to be a concern for us over the next few hours.”
A total fire ban was declared across the whole of Victoria, barring any fires in the open air.
Tears, prayers as Asia mourns tsunami dead 20 years on
- A 9.1-magnitude earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004 pummeled the coastline of 14 countries from Indonesia to Somalia
- A total of 226,408 people died as a result of the tsunami, according to EM-DAT, a recognized global disaster database
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Tearful mourners prayed on Thursday as ceremonies were held across Asia to remember the 220,000 people who were killed two decades ago when a tsunami hit coastlines around the Indian Ocean in one of the world’s worst natural disasters.
A 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia’s western tip on December 26, 2004, generated a series of waves as high as 30 meters (98 feet) that pummeled the coastline of 14 countries from Indonesia to Somalia.
In Indonesia’s Aceh Province, where more than 100,000 people were killed, a siren rang out at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque to kick off a series of memorials around the region, including in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, which the tsunami hit hours later.
People recounted harrowing tales of horror and miraculous survival as giant waves swept in without warning, carrying debris including cars and destroying buildings in its wake.
“I thought it was doomsday,” said Hasnawati, a 54-year-old teacher who goes by one name, at the Indonesian mosque that was damaged by the tsunami.
“On a Sunday morning where our family were all laughing together, suddenly a disaster struck and everything’s gone. I can’t describe it with words.”
At Aceh’s Siron mass grave, where around 46,000 people were buried, emotional relatives recited Islamic prayers in the shade of trees that have since grown there.
Khyanisa, a 59-year-old Indonesian housewife, lost her mother and daughter, searching in vain for them in the hope they were still alive.
“I kept chanting God’s name. I looked for them everywhere,” she said.
“There was a moment where I realized they were gone. I felt my chest was in pain, I screamed.”
The victims included many foreign tourists celebrating Christmas on the region’s sun-kissed beaches, bringing the tragedy into homes around the globe.
The seabed being ripped open pushed waves at double the speed of a bullet train, crossing the Indian Ocean within hours.
In Thailand, where half of the more than 5,000 dead were foreign tourists, commemorations began early in Ban Nam Khem, its worst-hit village.
Tearful relatives laid flowers and wreaths at a curved wall in the shape of a tsunami wave with plaques bearing victims’ names.
Napaporn Pakawan, 55, lost her older sister and a niece in the tragedy.
“I feel dismay. I come here every year,” she said.
“Times flies but time is slow in our mind.”
After an interfaith ceremony, Italian survivor Francesca Ermini, 55, thanked volunteers for saving her life.
“I think all of us (survivors), when we think about you, it makes us feel so hopeful,” she said.
Unofficial beachside vigils were also expected to accompany a Thai government memorial ceremony.
A total of 226,408 people died as a result of the tsunami, according to EM-DAT, a recognized global disaster database.
There was no warning of the impending tsunami, giving little time for evacuation, despite the hours-long gaps between the waves striking different continents.
But today a sophisticated network of monitoring stations has cut down warning times.
In Sri Lanka, where more than 35,000 people perished, survivors and relatives gathered to remember around 1,000 victims who died when waves derailed a passenger train.
The mourners boarded the restored Ocean Queen Express and headed to Peraliya — the exact spot where it was ripped from the tracks, around 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Colombo.
A brief religious ceremony was held with relatives of the dead there while Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim ceremonies were also organized to commemorate victims across the South Asian island nation.
Nearly 300 people were killed as far away as Somalia, as well as more than 100 in the Maldives and dozens in Malaysia and Myanmar.
Dorothy Wilkinson, a 56-year-old British woman who lost her partner and his parents to the tsunami in Thailand, said the commemorations were a time to remember the best of those who died.
“It makes me happy to come... a bit sad,” she said.
“It’s celebrating their life.”
