SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was expected to tour a Russian plant that builds fighter jets and visit the country’s Pacific Fleet, but his exact whereabouts remained uncertain Thursday following a summit at which he expressed unconditional support for Moscow.
Washington has warned that the summit on Wednesday between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin could lead to a deal for North Korea to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. There’s widespread concern in Seoul that North Korea would in return receive advanced weapons technologies from Russia, including those related to military spy satellites, which would increase the threat posed by Kim’s military nuclear program.
“We express our deep concern and regret that despite repeated warnings from the international community, North Korea and Russia discussed military cooperation issues, including satellite development, during their summit,” said Lim Soo-suk, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
“Any science and technology cooperation that contributes to nuclear weapons and missile development, including satellite systems that involve ballistic missile technologies, runs against UN Security Council resolutions,” he said in a briefing.
Lim also pointed out that Kim’s delegation in Russia includes several people sanctioned by the Security Council over involvement in illicit North Korean weapons development activities, including Korean People’s Army Marshal Ri Pyong Chol and Jo Chun Yong, a ruling party official who handles munitions policies. Lim said Moscow should realize there will be “very negative impacts” on its relations with Seoul if it proceeds with military cooperation with North Korea.
South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho, who handles affairs with North Korea, warned that potential arms transfers between the North and Russia would invite stronger responses from South Korea, the US and Japan, which have been stepping up their trilateral security cooperation to cope with regional threats.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday that North Korea would face consequences if it supplies arms to Russia.
“No nation on the planet, nobody, should be helping Mr. Putin kill innocent Ukrainians,” Kirby said. If the countries decide to move forward with an arms deal, the US will take measure of the arrangement and “deal with it appropriately,” he said.
He said that any deal that would improve North Korea’s military capabilities “certainly would be of significant concern to us.”
The world has been largely relying on Russian and North Korean media for information about Kim’s diplomacy in Russia, which underscores an aligning interest between the nuclear-armed countries locked in escalating tensions with the West.
A day after giving intense coverage to the summit, Russian media outlets were silent on Kim as of Thursday afternoon. North Korean state media have been reporting on his activities in Russia a day late and crafting their reports to support the government’s propaganda needs.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday that Kim had invited Putin to visit North Korea at a “convenient time” and that Putin accepted with “pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward” the history of friendship between the nations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin had accepted the invitation and said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to visit North Korea in October.
Putin told Russian state TV after the summit that Kim will travel to two more cities in Russia’s Far East on his own, flying to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he will visit an aircraft plant, and then go to Vladivostok to view Russia’s Pacific Fleet, a university and other facilities.
During their meeting on Wednesday at Russia’s spaceport in the Far East, Kim vowed “full and unconditional support” for Putin in what he described as a “just fight against hegemonic forces to defend its sovereign rights, security and interests,” in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine.
The decision to meet at the Vostochny Cosmodrome suggested that Kim is seeking Russian help in developing military reconnaissance satellites. He has previously said they are crucial to enhancing the threat of his nuclear-capable missiles. North Korea has repeatedly failed to place spy satellites into orbit.
The aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur would be another location that possibly hints at what Kim seeks to gain from Russia in exchange for help fueling Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Some analysts question whether Russia, which has always closely guarded its sensitive weapons technologies, would be willing to share them with North Korea in exchange for what may end up being limited supplies of munitions moved slowly through their small land link.
They say military cooperation between the countries could be more about conventional capabilities, such as Russia possibly helping North Korea improve its badly aged air force that remains reliant on fighter jets sent by the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Putin told reporters that Russia and North Korea have “lots of interesting projects” in spheres like transportation and agriculture and that Moscow is providing its neighbor with humanitarian aid. But he avoided talking about military cooperation, saying only that Russia is abiding by the sanctions prohibiting procuring weapons from North Korea.
Wednesday’s meeting came hours after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in testing since 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by war in Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development.
No sign of Kim Jong Un on his Russian travels as Seoul expresses concern over meetings with Putin
https://arab.news/zvw6p
No sign of Kim Jong Un on his Russian travels as Seoul expresses concern over meetings with Putin
- Washington has warned that the summit between Kim and Putin could lead to a deal for North Korea to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in Ukraine
- There’s widespread concern in Seoul that North Korea would in return receive advanced weapons technologies from Russia
Gaza conflict spurs hunger strike by California student activists
- Students on several campuses are protesting against Israeli actions in Gaza
DUBAI: Maya Abdallah’s message is clear: she will not eat until her university — the University of California, Los Angeles — hears her out on her cause, the crisis in Gaza.
The 23-year-old film student is Palestinian-Lebanese and is on hunger strike, protesting against her university’s funding of Israeli businesses that allegedly invest in manufacturing weapons being used by Israeli forces on the people of Gaza.
“I want to open a renegotiation for divestment … billions of dollars are spent on things like the gas that’s going into the Israeli tanks, to the manufacturers of the weapons used against the people of Gaza,” Abdallah said.
UC Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher said in an official statement in 2024 that the university had $32 billion in assets in various companies, $3.3 billion of that in groups with ties to weapons manufacturers and $163 million in the investment firm BlackRock.
Abdallah is not alone. Although she is currently the only student at UCLA on hunger strike, students at other universities in California are also striking, including California State University Dominguez Hills and California State University Long Beach.
Hoping to be heard by policymakers and officials at their institutions, these students are now on Day 21 of their strikes.
So far, San Francisco State University and University of San Francisco have announced in official statements their divestment from companies such as Palantir and GE Aerospace who allegedly supply weapon systems and technology to the Israeli military.
“I didn’t just come up with the idea of a hunger strike. I saw students across California do it, and I wanted to contribute, even if I was the only one at UCLA,” Abdallah said.
Her strike began on May 9. Abdullah, who is subsisting only on liquids, said it has been harder than she anticipated, but she is willing to push herself.
“This isn’t easy. I’m exhausted, I’m hungry, and sometimes I’m scared. But none of that compares to what Palestinians in Gaza are facing right now. I remind myself of that every single day,” she said.
Abdallah said the hardest part of the strike is the mental strain of starving herself.
“More than the toll starvation takes on your body, it’s what it does to your brain. I can’t imagine the people who’ve suffered the loss of family members, left their homes, and felt abandoned in every way; now also going without food and dealing with that added stress. For me, there’s food around me. I could end my strike and eat. That’s not an option for them,” she said.
In addition to studying film, Abdallah is a social media entertainer turned activist, with more than two million followers on various platforms.
“I’ve tried protesting and raising awareness, but this was one of the things I hadn’t tried yet … when you’re fighting for such a cause, you have to try literally everything in your toolbox,” she said.
On the ninth day of her strike, Abdallah collapsed during a protest on campus and was rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance.
In a video she posted on her social media accounts, Abdallah said that first responders discovered her heart rate was 40 percent higher than the average person.
Since then, Abdallah is back home resting and is still actively fighting for her cause on campus and on social media.
The UN in 2024 reported that more than 80 percent of educational institutes in Gaza were damaged or destroyed.
“There are no universities left in Gaza, and yet our university is helping fund that destruction. It’s disgusting hypocrisy,” she added.
Abdallah said her university was aware of her strike, and that campus police as well as social workers are in contact with her, yet no official acknowledgement of her strike has been made. Even after she was admitted to hospital, Abdallah said no one from the university responded to check on her.
A UCLA spokesperson told Arab News the university supports freedom of expression of different points of view.
“We strongly urge all Bruins to peacefully express themselves and exercise their first amendment rights in ways that are safe. We will continue to make support available to all students through UCLA’s Student Health Services and other campus offices,” the spokesperson said.
Many people online have criticized Abdallah for her decision to strike, claiming that it will not lead to any meaningful outcome. But she said she does not care.
“An ‘indefinite hunger strike’ is ridiculous. She’s only harming herself. Ridiculous actions,” said a commenter on Instagram. Another said she was “A spoiled rich girl doing spoiled rich girl stuff. Your university owes you nothing but an overpriced gender studies degree. Grow up girl.” Another said “you go girl! Starve yourself. That’ll free Gaza.”
After a surge of student protests and encampments on university campuses in April 2024 to raise awareness about the crisis in Gaza after the Israeli military aggression on Gaza intensified in 2023, UCLA released a statement saying it would not divest from Israel.
“The University of California has consistently opposed calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel. While the University affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchange of ideas on our campuses,” according to the statement on UCLA’s official website.
Abdallah, who was on campus during the 2024 protests and encampments, described the situation as brutal but she felt motivated to see so many people fight for her cause.
“I felt pure joy that I have literally never felt at any other time in my life. To see so many people care about the thing that I’ve been begging people to care about my entire life,” she said.
But that feeling soon turned to sadness after experiencing brutality and pressure to stop. Abdallah recalled being attacked by a group of counter-strikers who she said got very aggressive and released mice into the encampments and set off fireworks.
Abdallah said it took a long time for law enforcement officers and police to arrive on the scene and the violence escalated.
“I was there the night the cops stormed and broke it up. They came in with rubber bullets and the batons. I was so traumatized,” she said.
At the time of the encampments, The Guardian reported that demonstrators told local media that police were “creating chaos” as they tried to peacefully demonstrate with “hands up”, and video footage showed chaotic scenes of baton-carrying police used flash-bang stun grenades to disperse protesters.
Abdallah said police were called several times during the violent night raids led by counter-protesters on the encampments but no one showed up.
A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom last year criticized the “limited and delayed campus law enforcement response”" to the unrest as “unacceptable.”
Arab News asked UCLA officials for a statement regarding the alleged police brutality that occurred on campus, but they have yet to reply.
Bangladesh court begins first trial of Hasina-era officials
- Court in Dhaka accepted a formal charge against eight police officials in connection to the killing of six protesters on August 5 last year
- It is the first formal charge in any case related to killings in last year’s student-led uprising that ended Hasina’s iron-fisted rule of 15 years
DHAKA: Bangladesh began the first trial on Sunday at a special court prosecuting former senior figures connected to the ousted government of Sheikh Hasina, the chief prosecutor said.
The court in the capital Dhaka accepted a formal charge against eight police officials in connection to the killing of six protesters on August 5 last year, the day Hasina fled the country as the protesters stormed her palace.
The eight men are charged with crimes against humanity. Four are in custody and four are being tried in absentia.
“The formal trial has begun,” Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters.
“The prosecution believes that this prosecution will be able to prove the crimes done by the accused,” he said.
It is the first formal charge in any case related to the killings during last year’s student-led uprising, which ended Hasina’s iron-fisted rule of 15 years.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a brutal campaign to silence the protesters, according to the United Nations.
The list of those facing trial includes Dhaka’s former police commissioner, Habibur Rahman, who is among those being tried in absentia.
Hasina also fled by helicopter to India, her old ally.
She remains in self-imposed exile, defying Dhaka’s extradition request to face charges of crimes against humanity.
The launch of the trials of senior figures from Hasina’s government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power as the South Asian nation awaits elections that the interim government has vowed will take place before June 2026.
Islam said the eight men were accused of “different responsibilities,” including the most senior for “superior command responsibility, some for direct orders.. (and) some for participation.”
He said he was confident of a successful prosecution.
“We have submitted as much evidence as required to prove crimes against humanity, both at a national and an international standard,” he said.
Among that evidence, he said, was video footage of the violence, as well as voice recordings of Hasina in “conversations with different people where she ordered the killing of the protesters using force and lethal weapons.”
The ICT was set up by Hasina in 2009 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971.
It sentenced numerous prominent political opponents to death over the following years and became widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate rivals.
Kerala on alert as toxic cargo ship sinks in Arabian Sea
- Vessel loaded with 84 metric tons of diesel and 367 metric tons of furnace oil
- Strong water currents off Kerala complicate pollution response, expert says
NEW DELHI: India’s southern state of Kerala was on high alert Sunday after a Liberian-flagged vessel carrying hazardous cargo sank off its coast.
The Indian Ministry of Defense said the 184-meter MSC Elsa 3 container ship was en route to Kochi from Vizhinjam on Saturday when it issued a distress call.
All 24 members of the vessel’s crew — which included nationals of Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and the Philippines — were rescued by the Coast Guard and the Navy.
“The vessel went down with 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide,” the ministry said.
It did not specify what other hazardous substances were onboard, but calcium carbide becomes dangerous on contact with water, producing acetylene gas, which is flammable and explosive.
The vessel was also loaded with more than 84 metric tons of diesel and 367 metric tons of furnace oil.
Diesel and furnace oil are both classified as marine pollutants. They are toxic to marine life and can contaminate coastal ecosystems.
The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority issued a public warning on Saturday, when the ship started losing containers in the Arabian Sea. The authority’s secretary told reporters that “there is a chance the cargo, including containers and oil, will wash ashore.”
The Indian Coast Guard has deployed spill detection systems.
“ICG aircraft equipped with advanced oil spill mapping technology are conducting aerial assessment of the affected area,” it said. “As of now, no oil spill has been reported.”
What complicates pollution response is strong currents off the coast of Kerala, which, if leakage occurs, may move the spill toward the south, to Alleppey and Kollam districts, Prof. Biju Kumar, dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Kerala, told Arab News.
“These are the best fishing grounds, as far as Kerala is concerned. Any kind of oil spill will have consequences that will affect marine life. The major issue will be the fish fauna,” he said.
“The major threat is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are the most toxic component in any oil. They may be absorbed by plankton, which is a major food source for the commercially available fish … The PAH will remain in the water for a longer time. It essentially means that we need long-term monitoring if it happens.”
Kerala on alert as toxic cargo ship sinks in Arabian Sea
- Vessel went down with 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide
- All 24 members of the vessel’s crew, including nationals of Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Philippines, were rescued
NEW DELHI: India’s southern state of Kerala was on high alert Sunday after a Liberian-flagged vessel carrying hazardous cargo sank off its coast.
The Indian Ministry of Defense said the 184-meter MSC Elsa 3 container ship was en route to Kochi from Vizhinjam on Saturday, when it issued a distress call.
All 24 members of the vessel’s crew — which included nationals of Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and the Philippines — were rescued by the Coast Guard and the Navy.
“The vessel went down with 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide,” the ministry said.
It did not specify what other hazardous substances were onboard, but calcium carbide becomes dangerous on contact with water, producing acetylene gas, which is flammable and explosive.
The vessel was also loaded with more than 84 metric tons of diesel and 367 metric tons of furnace oil.
Diesel and furnace oil are both classified as marine pollutants. They are toxic to marine life and can contaminate coastal ecosystems.
The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority issued a public warning on Saturday, when the ship started losing containers in the Arabian Sea. The authority’s secretary told reporters that “there is a chance the cargo, including containers and oil, will wash ashore.”
The Indian Coast Guard has deployed spill detection systems.
“ICG aircraft equipped with advanced oil spill mapping technology are conducting aerial assessment of the affected area,” it said. “As of now, no oil spill has been reported.”
What complicates pollution response is strong currents off the coast of Kerala, which if leakage occurs may move the spill toward the south, to Alleppey and Kollam districts, Prof. Biju Kumar, dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Kerala, told Arab News.
“These are the best fishing grounds, as far as Kerala is concerned. Any kind of oil spill will have consequences, which will affect marine life. The major issue will be the fish fauna,” he said.
“The major threat is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are the most toxic component in any oil. They may be absorbed by plankton, which is a major food source for the commercially available fish ... The PAH will remain in the water for a longer time. It essentially means that we need long-time monitoring if it happens.”
Spain hosts European, Arab nations to pressure Israel on Gaza
- Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares says the international community should look to sanction Israel to stop the war in Gaza
- Madrid is hosting 20 countries alongside international organizations on Sunday with the aim of stopping the war
MADRID: The international community should look to sanction Israel to stop the war in Gaza, Spain’s foreign minister said, ahead of a Madrid meeting of European and Arab nations on Sunday to urge a halt to its offensive.
Countries Israel had long counted on as allies have been adding their voices to growing international pressure after it expanded military operations against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose 2023 attack on Israel sparked the devastating war.
A two-month aid blockade has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian territory, sparking fears of famine.
Aid organizations say the trickle of supplies Israel allowed to enter in recent days falls far short of needs.
Madrid will host 20 countries as well as international organizations on Sunday with the aim of “stopping this war, which no longer has any goal,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told France Info radio.
Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza “massively, unimpeded, neutrally, so that it is not Israel who decides who can eat and who cannot,” he said.
A previous such gathering in Madrid last year brought together countries including Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye as well as European nations such as Ireland and Norway that have recognized a Palestinian state.
Sunday’s meeting, which also includes representatives from the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, will promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
After the European Union decided this week to review its cooperation deal with Israel, Albares said “we must consider sanctions, we must do everything, consider everything to stop this war.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Palestinian militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed almost 54,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.
