VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

South Korea's top court on Tuesday ruled against a parliamentary vote to impeach the interior minister over what critics said was a botched response to a deadly Halloween crush in Seoul last year, provoking anger and dismay among victims' relatives.

Some relatives at the hearing broke down in tears after the Constitutional Court ruling, with two mothers collapsing and taken away by an ambulance, according to a Reuters witness. There was a heavy police presence at the court.

Lawmakers in February voted to impeach minister Lee Sang-min, urging him to take responsibility for the failure of the response to a crowd surge that killed 159 people, most of them young people celebrating Halloween, in Seoul's Itaewon nightlife district.

"This disastrous incident was not caused and exacerbated by a single cause or person," Lee Jong-seok, a justice at the court said, adding that different government agencies were not able to respond in a coordinated way to big disasters.

While the court found the minister had made inappropriate remarks about how the disaster unfolded, it said in a statement the comments did not amount to grounds for impeachment and ruled he had not neglected his duties. The decision was unanimous, the court said.

Lee, who did not attend the hearing, said later in a statement issued by his ministry that it was time to unite and stop "wasteful political strife" over the disaster.

Dozens of relatives and their supporters gathered in front of the court chanting "condemn the constitutional court that gave immunity to Lee Sang-min".

Choi Sun-mi, the mother of victim Park Ga-young, said the ruling as "truly devastating".

"Our children, young people, are living in a place that isn't safe to even walk in," said Choi, whose hands were shaking as she choked back tears.

President Yoon Suk Yeol had rejected an opposition demand that he sack Lee.

The president's office and the ruling party denounced their rival Democrats and accused the party of abusing its majority in parliament to push the impeachment.

Before the ruling, dozens of members of right-wing groups rallied outside the court, calling on it to dismiss the impeachment and branding it an opposition ploy.

In June, the opposition-led National Assembly decided to fast-track a bill aimed at an independent investigation of the crowd crush.

The Itaewon district is known as a place of fun and freedom but its narrow, steep streets and limited access points proved a lethal mixture for the partygoers who became trapped and crushed. (Reuters)

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast late on Monday, South Korea's military said, hours after a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arrived in a naval base in the South.

Japan's defence ministry also reported the launch of what it said were two ballistic missiles by North Korea, both of which fell outside its exclusive economic zone.

The launches come amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula as South Korea and the United States take steps to increase their military readiness against North Korea's weapons programme with the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets.

North Korea has reacted angrily, saying such a deployment could meet the criteria for its use of nuclear weapons.

The United States said it was consulting closely with its allies about the North Korean missile launches, which it described as being destabilising.

In a statement on Monday, the U.S. military added the launches posed no immediate threat to U.S. personnel and territory or to U.S. allies.

Earlier on Monday, a nuclear-powered U.S. submarine entered a naval base in South Korea's southern island of Jeju to load military supplies while on an unspecified operational mission, the South Korean navy said.

Over the weekend, the North fired a barrage of cruise missiles into the sea off its west coast.

Last week, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests after a nuclear-armed U.S. submarine arrived at a South Korean port for the first time since the 1980s. (Reuters)

China urged fishing boats to seek shelter and farmers to speed up their harvest while Taiwan suspended annual military drills as Super Typhoon Doksuri spiralled closer to East Asia, potentially reaching deep into China.

Doksuri is likely to be the most powerful typhoon to land in China so far in the storm season this year. China narrowly escaped from Typhoon Mawar, one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record for the month of May, which was headed for China but later swung north towards Japan before dissipating.

Nearly 1,000 km (620 miles) in diameter, Doksuri is expected to sweep past lightly populated islands off the northern tip of the Philippines by mid-week while fierce winds and heavy rain lash Taiwan to the north.

Philippine authorities have already raised storm warning levels in the capital region and dozens of northern provinces, and have begun evacuating some coastal communities in the path of the storm.

Currently packing top wind speeds of 138 miles per hour (223 kph), Doksuri will make landfall on the Chinese mainland somewhere between Fujian and Guangdong provinces on Friday, China's National Meteorological Center said on Tuesday.

While Doksuri is expected to lose some power and land as either a typhoon or severe typhoon, it will still hammer Chinese cities with torrential rain and strong winds.

Fujian has ordered all offshore fishing boats to find refuge at the nearest port by Wednesday noon and told farmers to harvest their rice and other crops that have matured.

Hong Kong will suspend some high-speed rail services from Wednesday to Friday between the former British colony and coastal cities on the mainland including Fujian's Xiamen.

Concerned about autumn grain crops, China's ministry of agriculture and rural affairs warned on Monday that Doksuri could go deep inland after landing, affecting high-stalk crops such as corn and even rice in rural areas.

After the storm has passed, plots without broken stalks should be straightened quickly and waterlogged fields should be drained in time, with fast-acting fertilisers applied to hasten the recovery of plants, the ministry said.

SOME DRILLS CANCELLED

Taiwan cancelled some of its annual military drills on Tuesday for safety reasons as authorities stepped up preparations for what they say could be the most damaging typhoon to hit the island in nearly four years.

It was not clear how the typhoon could further impact the five-day Han Kuang exercise, set to take place throughout the island this week with a focus on defending the island's main international airport and how to keep sea lanes open in the event of a Chinese blockade.

Beijing has never renounced using force to bring the democratically governed island under its control. Taiwan rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims and has vowed to defend its freedom and democracy.

Taiwan's weather bureau issued sea and land warnings for southern Pingtun county and urged communities to brace for heavy rains and strong winds.

In the southern port city of Kaohsiung, authorities were rushing to collect hundreds of containers drifting in the sea after container ship Angel sank off Taiwan's southwestern coast last week.

"Taiwan has not seen any typhoon making landfall in more than 1,400 days, and that's why I urge all government ministries that they must gear up and make preparations," Premier Chen Chien-jen said in a post on Facebook.

"I'd like to remind citizens not to underestimate typhoon threats." (Reuters)

VOINews, Jakarta - The Indonesian government has renewed its research cooperation forged with Japan, with special focus on the sectors of mobility, biodiversity, and manufacturing.

The cooperation was renewed with the objective of building the capacity of both countries' researchers in understanding an array of current issues and problems.

Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency's (BRIN's) Social and Humanity Sciences Organization stated in Jakarta on Tuesday that cooperation on mobility means that Indonesia will send students or researchers to Japan.

Furthermore, Indonesia can invite Japanese professors and researchers to come to Indonesia to strengthen the ecosystem, he affirmed.

On July 25-26, 2023, BRIN and the Japan Foundation are holding an international symposium that discusses five decades of friendship and cooperation between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is currently being chaired by Indonesia.

Indonesia has been conducting several studies on ASEAN since the establishment of the bloc in 1967. Meanwhile, the country started conducting studies on Japan in 2001.

According to Burhani, studies conducted in Indonesia have not yet been put in a broader scope, as most of them are focused on a specific issue.

Meanwhile, Head of BRIN Laksana Tri Handoko expressed optimism that the research collaboration fostered between Indonesia and Japan would further encourage and facilitate Indonesian researchers to study in Japan.

He then noted that in the past, most Indonesian students studying in Japan were those, who were financially covered by the government.

However, today, several students, be it self-financed or grantees of the government-funded Education Fund Management Institution (LPDP) scholarship, tend to choose to study in English-speaking countries, he pointed out.

"We want to reinforce it (the cooperation), considering Japan is one of the most crucial partners of Indonesia. We should maintain and even boost our relations with Japan through exchanges of not only students but also researchers, academics, and so on," he remarked. (Antaranews)