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June
South Korean leader's informal media events are a break with tradition
Written by Nur Yasmin
South Korean leader Yoon Suk-yeol has departed from years of tradition by holding informal daily media events to field questions on topics ranging from inflation and ties with neighbouring North Korea to the first lady and even boyband BTS.
Such wide-ranging access to the president was previously unheard of. It stems from Yoon's decision to move his office out of the official Blue House, whose previous occupants largely steered clear of such interactions over more than seven decades.
"It's apparently helping Yoon dispel worries about his lack of political experience and giving him a sense of where public opinion is at," said Eom Kyeong-young, a political commentator based in the capital, Seoul.
Yoon, a former prosecutor-general, entered politics just a year ago, before winning the presidency in March by a margin of just 0.7%, the narrowest in South Korea's history.
Upon his inauguration in May, Yoon moved the presidential office to the compound of South Korea's defence ministry, describing the official residence as the symbol of an "imperial presidency", and vowing not to "hide behind" his aides.
His liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, had rarely held news conferences, and almost always filtered his communication with the media, and the public, through layers of secretaries.
Analysts see Yoon's daily freewheeling sessions as part of a broader communications strategy that lets him drive policy initiatives and present himself as a confident, approachable leader.
The campaign has also allayed public suspicions about the newcomer to politics, they say.
Polls show the new strategy helping to win support and much-needed political capital for Yoon in his effort to hasten recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, in a parliament dominated by the opposition Democratic Party.
Although Yoon's approval rating dipped to 47.6% in a recent survey, slightly lower than the disapproval figure of 47.9%, another June poll showed communication was the reason most frequently cited by those who favoured him.
"The sweeping victory of Yoon's conservative party in June local elections shows the public is not so much against the new administration," said Eom.
Incumbents from Yoon's People Power Party (PPP) defeated challengers for the posts of mayor in the two biggest cities of Seoul and the port city of Busan in that contest, while its candidates won five of seven parliamentary seats.
Eom attributed Yoon's low approval rating from the beginning of his term to inflation risks that threaten to undermine an economic recovery and his lack of a support base as a new politician.
But some critics say Yoon's sessions raise the chances that he could make mistakes.
"He could make one mistake a day," Yun Kun-young of the opposition party wrote on Facebook last week, saying the new practice could be "the biggest risk factor" for the government.
The presidential office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Yoon has already faced criticism for controversial remarks made during the morning briefings, such as one in defence of his nominee for education minister, who has a record of driving under the influence of alcohol years ago.
But the daily meetings and public reaction would ultimately help the government to shape policy better, said Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University in Seoul.
"It might be burdensome for his aides for now, but will be an advantage in the long term," Shin said. "A slip of the tongue cannot be a bigger problem than a policy failure." (Reuters)
June
Taiwan donates $1 million for Afghan earthquake relief efforts
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taiwan will donate $1 million to Afghan earthquake relief efforts in response to a call from the United Nations and others for humanitarian assistance, the government said late on Thursday.
Taiwan is not a U.N. member due to pressure from China which considers the democratically-governed island part of its territory, but is always keen to show it is a responsible member of the international community.
Taiwan's presidential office said in a statement that the government would donate "based on the spirit of humanitarian care for disaster relief regardless of national borders (and) responding to the United Nations and other humanitarian calls."
However Taiwan will not send search and rescue teams after consulting with other countries and considering the difficulty of transportation, office spokesman Xavier Chang added.
Taiwan also lies in a quake-prone zone and regularly sends rescue teams to other disaster areas around the world.
China has said it stands ready to provide Afghanistan aid, and on Friday its foreign ministry said that it is "stepping up efforts" to collect cash, tents, bed quilts and other humanitarian aid to deliver to Afghanistan as soon as possible, but did not offer details of the size of the aid package.
Around 1,000 people are already confirmed dead from the quake in a remote part of the country this week.
Taiwan and China have sparred over humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, with Taiwan donating more than $30 million for refugees and rebuilding and China around $3 million.
China has accused Taiwan of using the donations for political purposes. This has been strongly rejected by the government in Taipei which has said the aid came "from our heart".
When asked for comment on the speediness of Taiwan's donations in Ukraine and Afghanistan and if China supports these donations, China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Taiwan is part of China.
"Any attempt to use various banners and names to expand the space for Taiwan independence secessionist activities will not succeed," Wang told reporters at a regular briefing in Beijing on Friday. (Reuters)
June
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi moved to solitary confinement in jail, military spokesman says
Written by Nur Yasmin
Myanmar military authorities have transferred deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to a prison in the capital from an undisclosed location where she had been held since she and her government were ousted in a coup last year, a military spokesman said.
The Nobel laureate, who turned 77 on Sunday, had been moved to the jail in Naypyitaw on Wednesday after court rulings against her, military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said.
"She was transferred to prison under the law and is being kept in solitary confinement," he said in a statement.
Suu Kyi has been charged with about 20 criminal offences carrying a combined maximum jail term of nearly 190 years since she was toppled by the military in February 2021, including multiple counts of corruption. She denies all charges.
The BBC's Burmese-language service cited sources as saying Suu Kyi was being held in a separate building inside the prison in Naypyitaw.
A source familiar with her cases told Reuters on Wednesday that all legal proceedings against Suu Kyi would be moved to a courtroom in the jail.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing had previously allowed Suu Kyi to remain in detention at an undisclosed location, despite convictions for incitement and several minor offences.
Reuters could not reach Suu Kyi or her representatives for comment. Her lawyers have been barred from speaking about her cases. A spokesperson for the junta did not respond to requests for additional comment.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, was first put under house arrest in 1989 after huge protests against decades of military rule. In 1991, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for democracy but was only fully released from house arrest in 2010.
She swept a 2015 election, held as part of tentative military reforms that were brought to a halt by last year's coup.
Western countries have called the charges against Suu Kyi and her convictions a sham and demanded her release. The military says she is being given due process by an independent judiciary.
TRIAL IN PRISON
Myanmar Witness, a non-governmental group that documents human rights, issued satellite imagery of what it said were recently constructed buildings next to the main prison compound in Naypyitaw.
The Mizzima news portal also showed a photograph of a one-storey building in the jail that it said was being used in connection with Suu Kyi.
Reuters could not independently confirm whether any of the buildings were being used for the trial or to house Suu Kyi or other detained members of her National League for Democracy party.
Australian economist Sean Turnell, previously an adviser to Suu Kyi, who has been charged with violating a state secrets law, had also been moved to the Naypyitaw jail, media reports said. Suu Kyi also faces charges over breaches of the secrets law.
Australia's foreign minister, Penny Wong, in a statement on June 10, said Canberra rejected the court decision to prosecute Turnell.
U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia cited sources saying the trial of Suu Kyi and Turnell started on Thursday in the jail.
Authorities had reinforced prison fences and tightened security since Suu Kyi had been moved there, RFA reported.
Suu Kyi had not been allowed to bring the household staff who had accompanied up during her detention and had decided not to bring her dog, Taekido, BBC Burmese reported.
Suu Kyi's court proceedings have taken place behind closed doors with only limited information reported by state media.
It is not clear how much Suu Kyi knows of the crisis in her country, which has been in chaos since the coup, with the military struggling to consolidate power and facing increasing opposition from insurgents. (Reuters)
June
Pressure mounts on South Korea to reopen case of deported North Korean fishermen
Written by Nur Yasmin
South Korea's ruling party members and rights activists are calling on the government to reopen a 2019 case of the repatriation of two North Korea fishermen, blaming the previous government of trying to curry favour with Pyongyang.
President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has been revisiting several defection cases after criticising what he called his predecessor Moon Jae-in's "submissive" North Korea policy and vowing to boost support for defectors during the election campaign.
Yoon's ruling party lawmakers, activists and conservative supporters have called for a re-investigation of the fishermen's case, accusing Moon of violating the men's constitutional and human rights as he tried to improve ties with Pyongyang, which has denounced defectors as "human scum".
The Moon government deported the fishermen, calling them "dangerous criminals" who killed 16 other colleagues aboard their vessel while crossing the sea border and said they would cause harm if they were accepted into South Korean society.
Officials said at the time that there was an "unfortunate event" between the crewmen due to an abusive captain, without elaborating.
But Yoon's party and defector and human rights groups have decried the decision, saying it not only jeopardised the fishermen's lives, but also violated South Korea's constitution that stipulates all North Koreans as South Korean citizens.
The fate of the two men is not known, but defectors from the isolated state face harsh punishment if caught or repatriated, including public execution.
"Defection is not a light crime in North Korea, but the South Korean government even said publicly that they are murderers and forcefully deported them even though they insisted on staying," said Tae Young-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who now is a lawmaker with Yoon's party.
"The two young men were most likely executed, based on double charges of defection and murder."
Yoon said this week that his government is looking into the case because "so many people" had raised it.
An official at the South's Unification Ministry responsible for inter-Korean affairs said the repatriation decision was "clearly wrong", promising to cooperate with a prosecutor's office in Seoul which he said is re-examining the case.
"It might constitute a crime," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. "They are constitutionally South Korean citizens, therefore we should have accepted them, given the penalties they would get back there." (Reuters)
June
Taliban fighter returns home to dead family and ruins after earthquake
Written by Nur Yasmin
Noor Shah Mohammad was serving as a Taliban soldier hundreds of miles from home when disaster struck early on Wednesday morning.
A powerful earthquake reduced much of his village to rubble, killing residents as they slept including his wife, father, two sisters and a brother.
When he heard the news, he said his heart raced and he panicked; he hitched the first ride he could find to take him to Asl Asha, close to the town of Gayan, where he found scenes of devastation.
"I wasn't here, I was in Panjshir," Mohammad told Reuters, referring to the valley north of Kabul where Taliban forces have been fighting former members of Afghanistan's ousted, Western-backed army.
"This is my house. I have lost five members of my family," said the heavily bearded 25-year-old, speaking amid the ruins of his home perched on a hill near the rugged mountains of Afghanistan's eastern border.
"I lost my father, my wife, two sisters and a brother ... I have to tolerate it. If I don't ... God will be upset; we don't know more than God."
'NO PLACE TO LIVE IN'
Tragedies like Mohammad's have been repeated across Paktika and Khost provinces bordering Pakistan.
More than 1,000 people were killed in the earthquake and thousands more injured. Rescue efforts have been hampered by poor roads, patchy communications and the Taliban administration's limited resources.
Local and international aid has been reaching the affected areas, some of it ferried in a small fleet of ageing helicopters, but a Taliban official said on Friday that more medicine and other medical aid were urgently needed.
People's suffering did not end with the quake and its immediate aftermath.
An apparent aftershock hit the region on Friday, killing at least five, and people across impoverished, remote villages and hamlets have few means with which to rebuild their lives.
"We cannot afford to build another house to live in," said Rahman Ullah, a 17-year-old student, sitting on a pile of bricks and stones that crashed to the ground, and surrounded by broken wooden beams.
"It was raining the whole night, children were crying. We spent the entire night under the rain. We had nothing, no place to live in."
In Asl Asha, Mohammad began to sift through the debris in his courtyard as he assessed the extent of the damage to his mud-walled house.
He said his late wife had taught girls in a local madrasa, or Islamic school. His mother, brother and son are the only relatives left alive.
"Only four remained from my whole family, including me." (Reuters)
June
Bangladesh floods leave 3.5 million children needing clean water: UNICEF
Written by Nur Yasmin
Fifteen children have drowned in flash floods that swept through Bangladesh with another 3.5 million urgently needing clean drinking water as the risk of waterborne diseases grows, UNICEF's country representative said on Friday.
"That's a staggering number of children and an increase over the last couple of days. Huge areas are fully underwater and are disconnected from safe drinking water and food supplies. Children need help right now," Sheldon Yett said.
Government and aid agencies have rushed to provide relief including water and other supplies after flash flooding across a quarter of the South Asian nation.
The floods have also disrupted health facilities, shut schools and disrupted malnutrition treatment for hundreds of children, Yett told a briefing in Geneva.
Cases of diarrhoea have risen to 2,700 as of the middle of this week, he added.
Authorities in Bangladesh and neighbouring India have warned of a risk of a disease epidemic. In total, more than 4.5 million people have been stranded and dozens killed in Bangladesh, many in the worst flooding in the Sylhet region in the northeast for more than 100 years.
In the eastern Indian state of Assam, Indian air force helicopters have been deployed to drop food and other supplies to cut-off communities. (Reuters)
June
IAEA voices concern for staff at Ukrainian nuclear plant, demands access
Written by Nur Yasmin
The U.N. nuclear watchdog is increasingly concerned about the welfare of Ukrainian staff at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Europe's largest, it said on Friday, adding that it must go there as soon as possible.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has for months said that the situation at Zaporizhzhia, where Ukrainian staff are working operating the plant under the order of Russian troops, poses a safety risk and that it wants to send a mission there.
"The IAEA is aware of recent reports in the media and elsewhere indicating a deteriorating situation for Ukrainian staff at the country's largest nuclear power plant," a statement by the Vienna-based United Nations agency said.
It added that it was "increasingly concerned about the difficult conditions facing staff..., and it must go there as soon as possible to address this and other urgent issues".
One of those issues was that IAEA inspectors need to carry out verification work, including checking on the "large amounts" of nuclear material there.
Although remote transmission of data on that material to IAEA headquarters was restored this month, physical inventory verifications must still be carried out in person by inspectors within an interval that "cannot exceed a specified duration", the agency said, without elaborating.
Two of the plant's six reactors have recently been refuelled and such checks on that fuel are a prerequisite before restarting them, it added. Two reactors are currently operating.
"The situation at this major nuclear power plant is clearly untenable. We are informed that Ukrainian staff are operating the facility under extremely stressful conditions while the site is under the control of Russian armed forces," IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in the statement.
"The recent reports are very troubling and further deepen my concern about the well-being of personnel there." (Reuters)
June
Australia looks to mend French ties with prime minister's visit after submarine row
Written by Nur Yasmin
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit France next week as his new Labor government looks to repair relations strained last year when Australia scrapped a French submarine deal.
Australia cancelled the multi-billion-dollar order with France's Naval Group and chose an alternative deal with the United States and Britain to buy nuclear submarines, angering France.
"We do need to reset, we've already had very constructive discussions," Albanese told ABC television in an interview late on Thursday, confirming he had accepted an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Paris.
Albanese, in power for just over a month, has already reached a 555 million euro ($584 million) settlement over the submarine deal - valued at $40 billion in 2016 and reckoned to cost much more now - in his efforts to repair the rift.
"Next week's visit is a very concrete sign of the repair that's been done already," Albanese said.
"It is important that, that reset occur. France, of course, is central to power in Europe, but it's also a key power in the Pacific in our own region as well."
Albanese will travel to Europe on Sunday for a NATO summit in Madrid on June 29-30, and then travel on to Paris, his office said in a statement.
Australia was invited to the meeting along with some other non-NATO members as the alliance looks to strengthen its ties in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Amid reports he might also visit Ukraine, Albanese said the government was "getting national security advice on that".
Australia, one of the largest non-NATO contributors to the West's support for Ukraine, has been supplying aid and defence equipment and has banned exports of alumina and aluminium ores, including bauxite, to Russia.
It has also placed sanctions on hundreds of Russian individuals and entities. (Reuters)
June
Five killed in Afghanistan tremors close to Wednesday's earthquake epicentre
Written by Nur Yasmin
Five people were killed on Friday in eastern Afghanistan after fresh tremors shook areas close to the epicentre of Wednesday's 6.1 magnitude earthquake, a senior Afghan official said.
"(This) morning another earthquake happened in Paktika in Gayan district, according primary information... five have died," Afghan health ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told Reuters.
U.S. Geological Survey's website showed a 4.3 magnitude earthquake had hit near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at 01:43 UTC time on Friday. (Reuters)
June
North Korea's Kim oversees military meeting amid potential nuclear test
Written by Nur Yasmin
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continued to preside over the second day of the nation's major party meeting on its military and defence policies on Wednesday, the state media reported on Thursday, amid concerns over a potential imminent nuclear test.
At the meeting, the party discussed adding operation duties of the frontline units, modifying operation plans and restructuring key military organisational formations, Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said, adding Kim stressed the importance of efforts to enhance the operational capabilities of the frontline units.
The meeting is being closely watched as it could provide clues on the timing of a nuclear test, which the North is seen to have been preparing for weeks. South Korean officials have said the test can come "at any time" and that the timing would be decided by Kim.
But an official at South Korea's presidential office on Wednesday said he thought North Korea could be delaying what would be its seventh nuclear test in consideration of China's political calendar and the nation's COVID-19 situation.
Kim Jong Un on Tuesday presided over the military meeting, which KCNA reported would discuss major tasks to further enhance the function and role of the military commissions at all levels as well as the military policy line and key defence policies of the party.
Last year, Kim laid out military development plans that included smaller nuclear bombs, hypersonic missiles, spy satellites, and drones.
In April, he called on the country's military to "bolster up their strength in every way to annihilate the enemy", and has tested an unprecedented number of ballistic missiles this year, including massive intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), new hypersonic missiles, and a short-range missile potentially designed for tactical nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, North Korea has recently reported an outbreak of an unidentified intestinal epidemic in its faming region, which has been adding further strain on the isolated economy, already battling chronic food shortages and a wave of COVID-19 infections. (Reuters)