UK’s Starmer blames a lack of joint action as he struggles to stop migrants crossing the Channel

SEOUL: A North Korean who crossed the heavily fortified land border into the South has been detained and taken into custody, Seoul’s military said Friday.

The North Korean, identified as a male civilian, managed to cross the Military Demarcation Line in the midwestern part of the Demilitarized Zone on Thursday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The MDL is the de facto border, which runs through the middle of the DMZ – the border area separating the two Koreas, which is one of the most heavily mined places on earth.

“The military identified the individual near the MDL, conducted tracking and surveillance,” the JCS said in a statement.

It then “successfully carried out a standard guiding operation to secure custody,” it added.

The operation took about 20 hours, according to Seoul, after the man was detected by a military surveillance device sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. Thursday (1800 to 1900 GMT).

The mission to safely guide him to the South involved a considerable number of South Korean troops, the JCS said, and took place in an area difficult to navigate due to dense vegetation and land mine risks.

The man stayed mostly still during the day, and South Korea’s military approached him at night.

He willingly followed the troops after they offered to guide him safely out of the DMZ, according to the JCS.

It said “relevant authorities” will investigate the detailed circumstances of the incident.

North Koreans are typically handed over to Seoul’s intelligence agency for screening when they arrive in the South.

The incident comes after a North Korean soldier defected to the South by crossing the MDL in August last year.

Also last year, another North Korean defected to the South across the de facto border in the Yellow Sea, arriving on Gyodong island off the peninsula’s west coast near the border between the Koreas.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, with most going overland to neighboring China first, then entering a third country such as Thailand before finally making it to the South.

Defections across the land border that divides the peninsula are relatively rare.

The number of successful escapes dropped significantly from 2020 after the North sealed its borders – purportedly with shoot-on-sight orders along the land frontier with China – to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

No unusual activities by the North Korean military have been detected, the JCS said Friday.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last month, has vowed a more dovish approach toward Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.

“Politics and diplomacy must be handled without emotion and approached with reason and logic,” Lee said Thursday.

“Completely cutting off dialogue is really a foolish thing to do.”

LOS ANGELES: Famed Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been arrested for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application and will be deported to Mexico, where he faces organized crime charges, US federal officials said Thursday.

The arrest came only days after the former middleweight champion lost a match against influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Anaheim, California. The Department of Homeland Security said officials determined Chavez should be arrested on June 27, a day before the fight. It was unclear why they waited to act for days after the high-profile event.

The boxer was riding a scooter when agents detained him

The 39-year-old boxer, according to his attorney Michael Goldstein, was picked up Wednesday by a large number of federal agents while he was riding a scooter in front of a home where he resides in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City near Hollywood.

“The current allegations are outrageous and simply another headline to terrorize the community,” Goldstein said.

Many people across Southern California are on edge as immigration arrests have ramped up, prompting protests and the federal deployment of National Guard troops and US Marines to downtown Los Angeles.

Goldstein did not know where Chavez was being detained as of Thursday morning, but said he and his client were due in court Monday in connection with prior gun possession charges.

Before his recent bout, Chavez fought once since 2021

Before his bout with Paul on Saturday, Chavez had fought just once since 2021, having fallen to innumerable lows during a lengthy boxing career conducted in the shadow of his father, Julio César Chavez, one of the most beloved athletes in Mexican history and a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame who won championships in several weight classes.

The son, who has battled drug addiction for much of his career, has been arrested repeatedly. In 2012, he was convicted of drunk driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in jail and in January 2024 he was arrested on gun charges. Police said he possessed two AR-style ghost rifles. He was later freed on a $50,000 bond and on condition he went to a residential drug treatment facility. The case is still pending, with Chavez reporting his progress regularly.

He split his time between both countries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Chavez for overstaying a tourist visa that he entered the US with in August 2023 and expired in February 2024, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The agency also said Chavez submitted multiple fraudulent statements when he applied for permanent residency on April 2, 2024, based on his marriage to a US citizen, Frida Muñoz. She is the mother of a granddaughter of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

US officials said he is believed to be an affiliate of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel that is blamed for a significant portion of Mexico’s drug violence.

Federal officials called Chavez a public safety threat

US Citizenship and Immigration Services flagged Immigration and Customs Enforcement about Chavez on Dec. 17, saying he “is an egregious public safety threat,” and yet he was allowed back into the country without a visa on Jan. 4 under the Biden administration, the agency said.

Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said that an arrest warrant against “Julio “C was issued in Mexico in March 2023 in an investigation of organized crime and arms trafficking allegations and that Mexico on Thursday initiated extradition proceedings.

A federal agent who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed to The Associated Press that “Julio C” is Chavez. The agent declined to explain why Chavez was not arrested earlier in Mexico despite going back and forth between the two countries multiple times.

In Mexico, mixed feelings followed the arrest

In Mexico, word of US agents arresting a well-known athlete prompted mixed feelings.

Martín Sandoval Peñaloza, a newspaper seller in Mexico City, said he believes President Donald Trump wanted to make him an example.

“I think that the US government — in this case, Trump – is up to something,” he said, adding that it was “to attract media attention.”

Oscar Tienda, a Mexico City storekeeper, said he wasn’t surprised given the boxer’s troubles.

“I think it was predictable because he has had a lifetime of drug use,” he said.

Despite widely being criticized for his intermittent dedication to the sport, Chavez still rose to its heights. He won the WBC middleweight title in 2011 and defended it three times. Chavez shared the ring with generational greats Canelo Álvarez and Sergio Martinez, losing to both.

Chavez claimed to be clean for the Paul fight. He looked in his best shape in years while preparing for the match.

Chavez said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times ahead of his fight with Paul that he and his trainers were shaken by the immigration arrests.

“There are a lot of good people, and you’re giving the community an example of violence,” Chavez said. “After everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t want to be deported.”