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October
South Korea's Yoon Departs for Saudi Arabia and Qatar
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol left for Saudi Arabia and Qatar on Saturday to discuss business cooperation as well as to discuss security conditions amid the crisis in the Middle East, his office said.
Yoon, in what would be the first state visit by a South Korean leader, will hold talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday, and will travel to Qatar on Oct. 24-25 for a summit and to attend a business forum.
The state visit takes place roughly a year after the Saudi crown prince visited South Korea and discussed cooperation in the areas of energy, defence and infrastructure construction, signing investment pacts worth $30 billion with Korean firms.
Business leaders accompanying President Yoon include Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair E.S. Chung and the heads of Hanwha, GS, and HD Hyundai conglomerates, according to Yoon's office. (Reuters)
October
Malaysia PM Proposes Free Trade Pact Between ASEAN, Gulf Council
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - Malaysia is proposing the creation of a free trade agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) its premier said on Friday at a summit of the two blocs.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said such an agreement would be the first of its kind between ASEAN and Gulf states.
"This agreement is crucial in advancing progressive, inclusive and sustainable growth especially as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and face geopolitical uncertainties," he said in a speech at the ASEAN-GCC Summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
ASEAN, a 10-member bloc of more than 600 million people, has for years been seeking to integrate its economies, worth a combined $2.3 trillion, through trade, investment and harmonised standards and customs procedures.
However, efforts to establish free trade deals have been protracted, with some members with exports-reliant economies going it alone in seeking better access to their key markets.
ASEAN is part of the Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership (RCEP) along with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. (Reuters)
October
North Korea's Kim Vows to 'Faithfully' Fulfil Agreements Made with Russia's Putin
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his resolve to fulfil agreements made at his summit last month with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he met visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, state media KCNA reported on Friday.
Kim took a rare trip to Russia last month during which he invited Putin to Pyongyang and discussed military cooperation, including over North Korea's satellite programme, and the war in Ukraine.
Kim and Lavrov discussed ways to ramp up cooperation to actively respond to regional and global issues based on "solid political and strategic trust relations," and Lavrov conveyed Putin's greetings to Kim, KCNA said.
Kim pledged to "work out a stable, forward-looking, far-reaching plan for the DPRK-Russia relations in the new era by faithfully implementing the agreements ... and push forward with the cause of building a powerful state," KCNA said.
He was referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and Lavrov signed a plan for exchanges in 2024-25 as they held separate talks to follow up on the summit and explore greater cooperation on the economy, culture and advanced science and technology, KCNA said.
The two diplomats also discussed how to place bilateral ties "on a higher stage," it said.
"Both sides had an in-depth exchange of views on intensifying joint action on several regional and international issues including the situation on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asian region and reached a consensus of views on them," KCNA said in another dispatch.
Lavrov has departed Pyongyang after the meetings, it said.
Lavrov, at a reception after arriving in Pyongyang on Wednesday, thanked Pyongyang's "unwavering and principled support" for Russia in the Ukraine war, and vowed "complete support and solidarity" for the North, according to Moscow's foreign ministry.
'FIRST TARGET OF DESTRUCTION'
Russia and North Korea have been seeking to forge closer ties in the face of what they see as a hostile and aggressive U.S.-led Western camp.
Seoul and Washington have expressed concerns about growing exchanges between Moscow and Pyongyang, and the U.S. has stepped up military drills with Japan in response to North Korea's evolving military threats, involving an aircraft carrier and other strategic assets.
In a separate commentary, KCNA criticised the U.S. deployment of the strategic assets, including a B-52 bomber and F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, and the joint exercises.
Those assets would be "the first targets of destruction" if signs of any attack on North Korea were detected, it said, adding the country has already enacted "the policy of nuclear force which allowed the necessary procedures of action."
"This is the intentional nuclear war provocative moves of the U.S.," the commentary said.
"Now that the U.S. and gangsters of the 'Republic of Korea' have committed a provocation of nuclear war against the DPRK, the DPRK will take corresponding option," it said, referring to South Korea. (Reuters)
October
US Encourages Afghanistan's Neighbors, Including Pakistan, to Accept Refugees
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - The United States "strongly" encouraged Afghanistan's neighbors, including Pakistan, to allow entry for Afghans seeking protection and urged them to uphold obligations in treatment of refugees, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.
THE TAKE
Pakistan has set a Nov. 1 deadline for all illegal immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans, to leave the country or face forcible expulsion.
BY THE NUMBERS
Some 1.73 million Afghans in Pakistan have no legal documents, according to Islamabad, which alleged that Afghan nationals carried out over a dozen suicide bombings this year.
Pakistan has hosted the largest number of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979. Islamabad says the number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan totaled 4.4 million.
Some 20,000 or more Afghans who fled the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan are in Pakistan awaiting the processing of their applications for U.S. Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) or resettlement in the United States as refugees.
KEY QUOTE
"We strongly encourage Afghanistan's neighbors, including Pakistan, to allow entry for Afghans seeking international protection and to coordinate with international humanitarian organizations ... to provide humanitarian assistance," a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.
CONTEXT
Pakistan says the deportation process would be orderly and conducted in phases and could begin with people with criminal records.
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have said Pakistan's threat to force out Afghan migrants was "unacceptable".
Relations have deteriorated between Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past couple of years, largely over accusations that Islamists fighting the Pakistani state operate from Afghan territory. The Taliban deny this claim.
A group of former top U.S. officials and resettlement organizations have urged Pakistan to exempt from deportation to Afghanistan thousands of Afghan applicants for special U.S. visas or refugee relocation to the United States. (Reuters)
October
Taliban Says Plans to Formally Join China's Belt and Road Initiative
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - The Taliban administration wants to formally join Chinese President Xi Jinping's huge 'Belt and Road' infrastructure initiative and will send a technical team to China for talks, Afghanistan's acting commerce minister said on Thursday.
Beijing has sought to develop its ties with the Taliban-run government since it took over in 2021, even though no other foreign government has recognised the administration.
Last month, China became the first country to appoint an ambassador to Kabul, with other nations retaining previous ambassadors or appointed heads of mission in a charge d'affaires capacity that does not involve formally presenting credentials to the government.
"We requested China to allow us to be a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Belt and Road Initiative... (and) are discussing technical issues today," acting Commerce Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters in an interview a day after the Belt and Road Forum ended in Beijing.
The Pakistan "economic corridor" refers to the huge flagship section of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Afghanistan's neighbour.
Azizi said the administration would also send a technical team to China to enable it to "better understand" the issues standing in the way of it joining the initiative, but did not elaborate on what was holding Afghanistan back.
Afghanistan could offer China a wealth of coveted mineral resources. Several Chinese companies already operate there, including the Metallurgical Corp. of China Ltd (MCC) which has held talks with the Taliban administration, as well as the previous Western-backed government, over plans for a potentially huge copper mine.
"China, which invests all over the world, should also invest in Afghanistan... we have everything they need, such as lithium, copper and iron," Azizi said. "Afghanistan is now, more than ever, ready for investment."
Asked about the MCC talks, Azizi said discussions had been delayed because the mine was near a historical site, but they were still ongoing. "The Chinese company has made a huge investment, and we support them," he added.
Investors have said security remains a concern. The Islamic State militant group has targeted foreign embassies and a hotel popular with Chinese investors in Kabul.
Asked about the security challenges, Azizi said security was a priority for the Taliban-run government, adding that after 20 years of war - which ended when foreign forces withdrew and the Taliban took over - meant more parts of the country were safe.
"It is now possible to travel to provinces where there is industry, agriculture and mines that one previously could not visit... security can be guaranteed," Azizi added.
Afghanistan and 34 other countries agreed to work together on the digital economy and green development on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum on Wednesday. (Reuters)
October
China's Xi Calls for Efforts to Fight Cross-Border Crimes With Thailand
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - China and Thailand should step up efforts to crack down on cross-border crimes such as telecommunications fraud and online gambling, President Xi Jinping told Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin in Beijing on Thursday.
China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Thailand within multilateral frameworks, state media China Central Television quoted Xi as saying while meeting Srettha. (Reuters)
October
Pakistan Court Forbids Arrest of Ex-PM Nawaz Sharif on His Return
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - A Pakistan court on Thursday barred authorities from arresting a former three-time prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, upon his expected return home on Saturday from four years in self-imposed exile, his lawyer said.
Lawyer Azam Nazeer Tarar told reporters that Sharif had been granted protective bail, under which authorities could not arrest him until he himself appears before a court on Oct. 24, adding that Sharif would address a rally in the city of Lahore upon his return.
Sharif's younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, was prime minister from 2022 until this year, when his government was replaced by a caretaker administration upon the dissolution of parliament in advance of a general election due early next year.
The younger Sharif welcomed the court's decision.
"He was implicated in absurd cases and subjected to mistreatment," Shehbaz Sharif said on the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
"Any fair hearing would have established his innocence."
Nawaz Sharif was in 2018 convicted on corruption charges, which he denied, in two cases and sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison.
A court allowed him to travel to London for medical treatment in 2019 under a rare surety bond, under which he undertook to return after treatment. Later, he was declared an absconder after failing to return.
The veteran politician has said he was ousted as prime minister in 2017 by leaders of the powerful military and the judiciary after he fell out with the generals.
The military, which has ruled Pakistan for extended periods since independence in 1947 and retains significant influence, even over civilian government, denies that.
Tarar said Sharif would follow up appeals against his convictions, which have been pending since he left, in the hope of overturning them and campaigning for the general election.
Upon his return on Saturday, he would address a rally in his old stronghold of Lahore, Tarar said.
"It is everyone's constitutional rights to freely do political activities," Tarar said.
Sharif's party has said he would like to contest a seat in the general election but that would depend on the court over-turning his convictions.
Groomed by the military when he entered politics in the late 1970s, Sharif fell out with then army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, during a second stint as prime minister and was ousted in a 1999 coup.
Musharraf ruled for nearly a decade when Pakistan, which supported the U.S.-led "war on terror", was rocked by Islamist militant violence. Sharif returned to Pakistan and to politics in 2007. (Reuters)
October
Scientists Test Fukushima Fish After Nuclear Plant Water Release
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - A team of international scientists collected fish samples from a port town near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday, seeking to assess the impact of the plant's recent release of treated radioactive water into the sea.
The study by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog is the first since the water release began in August, a move that drew criticism from local fisherman and prompted China to ban all imports of marine products from Japan over food safety fears.
Scientists from China, South Korea and Canada observed the collection of fish samples delivered fresh off the boat at Hisanohama port, about 50 kilometres south of the plant which was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The samples will be sent to laboratories in each country for independent testing, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
"The Japanese government has requested that we do this and one of the reasons they want us to do this is to try and strengthen confidence in the data that Japan is producing," said Paul McGinnity, a research scientist with the IAEA overseeing the survey.
More than a million metric tons of water - enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized smimming pools - was contaminated from contact with fuel rods at the reactor following the 2011 disaster.
Before being released, the water is filtered to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate, plant operator Tepco says. The water is also diluted until tritium levels fall below regulatory limits.
Tritium is considered to be relatively harmless because its radiation is not energetic enough to penetrate human skin; however, when ingested at levels above those in the released water it can raise cancer risks, a Scientific American article said in 2014. (Reuters)
October
Russia's Lavrov Arrives in North Korea as Cooperation Deepens
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOINews, Jakarta - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday for meetings seen as setting the stage for a visit by President Vladimir Putin, who has stepped up cooperation with politically isolated North Korea.
Lavrov's two-day visit comes a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip to Russia, during which he invited Putin to Pyongyang and discussed military cooperation, including over North Korea's satellite program and the war in Ukraine.
Putin's foreign minister, who last visited North Korea in 2018, will hold talks with his North Korean counterpart, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russia's TASS news agency reported that Lavrov may brief the North Koreans on the results of Putin's visit to China, as well as discussing Putin's potential visit.
Calling each other "comrade", Putin and Kim toasted their friendship last month with Russian wine.
Courting Kim allows Putin, who says Moscow is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, to needle Washington and its Asian allies while potentially securing a deep supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim on Tuesday called relations between North Korea and Russia "worrying," after the White House said last week Pyongyang had recently supplied weapons to Russia.
A growing number of reports by the U.S. government and Western researchers have documented with satellite imagery what they say are North Korean weapons shipments to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the Western allegations were not based on evidence.
"They report about it all the time - they don't provide any evidence," Peskov said, according to TASS. Peskov said Russia would continue to build its relations with North Korea.
On Monday the British Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) released dozens of high-resolution commercial satellite images that it said showed two Russian ships with connections to Russia's military logistics networks making multiple trips to North Korea.
The two ships had moved several hundred containers to and from a port in North Korea since August, the RUSI report said.
Although acknowledging it was impossible to confirm their contents, the report said containers of the same size and colour were later seen being delivered to a recently expanded Russian munitions storage facility near the border with Ukraine.
North Korea is heavily sanctioned over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and U.N. Security Council resolutions - approved at the time with Russia's support - ban cooperation with Pyongyang on military issues as well as in a range of other areas. (Reuters)
October
VOINews, Jakarta - A strike on a Gaza hospital killed hundreds of Palestinians, deepening tensions in the Middle East and raising the stakes for U.S. President Joe Biden as he flies to Israel on Wednesday to signal support for its war against Hamas.
CONFLICT
* The blast at Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital killed between 300 and 500 people, according to health ministry sources and a civil defence chief in Gaza. Palestinian officials said an Israeli air strike hit the hospital, while Israel blamed the blast on a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which denied responsibility.
* The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
* Daoud Shehab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, told Reuters: "This is a lie and fabrication, it is completely incorrect. The occupation is trying to cover for the horrifying crime and massacre they committed against civilians."
* The Israeli military urged Gaza City residents to relocate southward, saying in a new evacuation advisory there was a "humanitarian zone" with down the coast of the Palestinian enclave.
* Yossi Landav, 55, has worked in search and rescue for 33 years but nothing could prepare him for what he saw in the aftermath of a Hamas attack in southern Israel which killed at least 1,300 people.
DIPLOMACY AND PROTESTS
* Biden will pose "tough questions" and seek a sense of Israel's plans and objectives in the days and weeks ahead in meetings with Netanyahu, the Israeli war cabinet and other Israeli leaders.
* "He'll be asking some tough questions, he'll be asking them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel, but he'll be asking some questions of them," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Air Force One during the flight to Tel Aviv.
* Jordan cancelled a summit it was to host in Amman on Wednesday with Biden and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders to discuss Gaza, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
* The hospital blast drew condemnation across the Arab world, and protests were staged at Israel's embassies in Turkey and Jordan and near the U.S. embassy in Lebanon, where security forces fired tear gas toward demonstrators.
* Palestinian security forces in Ramallah fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters throwing rocks and chanting against President Mahmoud Abbas as popular anger boiled over after the deadly Gaza hospital attack.
* Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group denounced what it said was Israel's deadly attack on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza, which is run by the Anglican church, and called for "a day of unprecedented anger" against Israel and Biden's visit.
* The United Nations Security Council will now vote on Wednesday on a Brazilian-drafted resolution that calls for humanitarian pauses in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip.
* The U.S. State Department will continue to offer government-sponsored charter flights to Europe from Tel Aviv to help Americans leave Israel through at least Sunday.
* The U.S. State Department raised its travel alert for Lebanon to "do not travel," citing the security situation related to rocket, missile, and artillery exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah.
* Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited a marked rise in antisemitism in Canada after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas' attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent deadly air strikes in Gaza. (Reuters)