VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

North Korea held mass rallies in Pyongyang where people shouted slogans vowing a "war of revenge" to destroy the United States, as it marked the 73rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, state media reported on Monday.

About 120,000 working people and students took part in the rallies held across the capital on Sunday, state news agency KCNA reported.

Photos released by state media showed a stadium crowded with people holding placards reading "The whole U.S. mainland is within our shooting range" and "The imperialist U.S. is the destroyer of peace."

Sunday's anniversary came amid concerns Pyongyang could soon conduct another launch of its first military spy satellite to boost monitoring of U.S. military activities after its first attempt ended in failure on May 31.

North Korea now had "the strongest absolute weapon to punish the U.S. imperialists" and the "avengers on this land are burning with the indomitable will to revenge the enemy," KCNA said.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has been testing various weapons including its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile, ramping up tension with the South and the South's main ally, the United States.

In a separate foreign ministry report, North Korea said the U.S. was "making desperate efforts to ignite a nuclear war," accusing Washington of sending strategic assets to the region.

North and South Korea remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty. (Reuters)

Pakistan and several African nations called for more protections for migrants at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday following the shipwreck off the Greek coast.

At least 82 people died and hundreds more are feared dead in the June 12-13 shipwreck along the world's most deadly migration route from Libya to Italy.

Pakistan, which had 350 of its nationals aboard the ship that capsized and sank, said the incident was a "grim reminder of the protection gaps".

"The human cost of such a status quo is unacceptable," Pakistan's deputy permanent ambassador, Zaman Mehdi, told the 47-member council in unusually frank comments. "Gaps in responsibility sharing, arrangements for the safe and timely search and rescue, disembarkation of all people rescued at sea and accountability must be plugged in the spirit of solidarity."

The envoy for Gambia, a country from which many migrants depart on perilous journeys towards Europe, said that the issue required "urgent attention".

Felipe Gonzalez Morales, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Migration, called on states to end the criminalisation of irregular migrants and find regular pathways for them.

He also reiterated a call made by hundreds of NGOs for the rights body to create a new international investigative body looking at human rights abuses committed against migrants. The idea is being discussed as part of the ongoing council session in Geneva. (Reuters)

The Philippines on Monday said it had signed four loan agreements with the World Bank totalling $1.14 billion, including $750 million of budgetary support for policy reforms to boost environmental protection and climate resilience.

The agreements also include $276 million of funding support for two projects aimed at developing the agriculture and fisheries sectors, and $110 million financing for improving education quality, according to the Philippines' finance department.

The Southeast Asian country is looking to transform its long-neglected farm sector into an engine of growth.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is also the agriculture minister, has vowed to undertake reforms to improve productivity of the sector, which in recent years accounted for about a tenth of gross domestic product. (Reuters)

South Korea's government unveiled plans on Monday aimed at curbing the country's burgeoning spending on private education, which has been blamed for being a major factor behind the country's declining fertility rate.

The move comes as President Yoon Suk Yeol this month criticised college entrance tests that incorporate questions not in the curriculum at public schools, including some that have been dubbed "killer questions" because of their complexity.

"We will cut the vicious cycle of killer questions in exams, which leads to excessive competition among students and parents in private education," education minister Lee Ju-ho told a briefing.

The ministry also vowed to crack down on private education "cartels" by ramping up efforts to monitor what it termed false and exaggerated advertising by private schools targeting exam preparations.

Local media have reported on alleged connections between the private education industry and government education officials in drawing up college entrance exams that require private tutoring to master.

South Koreans spent a record 26 trillion won ($19.97 billion) on private education last year, despite a declining student population, a joint report by the education ministry and the government statistics bureau showed.

Nearly eight in 10 students use in private education products such as cram schools, known as "hagwons", according to the report.

This heavy reliance on private education has helped result in South Korea's having the world's highest cost of raising a child, according to a report last year, and the world's lowest birth rate.

Killer questions are typically drawn from material not covered in public school curriculum, opening the door for "hagwons" to promote their ability to teach students how to solve them.

Proponents of such questions say they help colleges select candidates in a competitive environment, but Yoon cited the issue of fairness, noting not every family could afford to pay for extracurricular classes.

Shin So-young, an activist at civic group The World Without Worry About Private Education, said the planned changes may not be enough to contain the competition.

"The government needs to come up with a broader plan that addresses the question of how to alleviate this excessive competition to get into a few of the best universities," Shin said.

Last year, nearly 450,000 high school seniors across the country and graduates taking the test again sat for the exam in November. The all-day event suspends airline flights during the listening comprehension portion of the English test.

Shares of education-linked companies in South Korea fell on concerns over changes in policies.

Woongjin Thinkbig (095720.KS) closed down 1.44% for Monday while MegaStudyEdu (215200.KQ) was down 2.11%. (Reuters)