VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The United States, South Korea and Japan staged joint naval missile defence drills off the Korean peninsula on Tuesday, as North Korea denounced the "gang bosses" of Washington and its allies for increasing the risk of nuclear war.

The three nations staged exercises in international waters off South Korea's southern Jeju island to improve their ability to detect and track targets, and share information in the event of provocation by Pyongyang, South Korea's military said.

The drills come as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for "radically" modernising the weapons and equipment of his country's naval forces, criticising an increased presence of U.S. strategic assets in the region.

In a speech to mark Navy Day, Kim said the "gang bosses" of the United States, Japan and South Korea announced regular joint military exercises, news agency KCNA reported, apparently referring to their Aug. 18 summit at Camp David, Maryland.

"Owing to the reckless confrontational moves of the U.S. and other hostile forces, the waters off the Korean Peninsula have been reduced to the world's biggest war hardware concentration spot, the most unstable waters with the danger of a nuclear war," Kim was quoted by KCNA as saying.

In the first standalone meeting between the leaders of the U.S., South Korea and Japan, the three agreed to deepen military and economic cooperation as they seek to project unity in the face of China's growing power and the North's nuclear threats.

Japan said the sharing of information on ballistic missiles was part of the drills on Tuesday.

"The exercises will strongly facilitate trilateral cooperation and demonstrate the commitment of Japan, the United States, and the Republic of Korea to protect a free and open international order based on the rule of law," Japan's defence ministry said in a statement.

South Korea and the United States last week began the Ulchi Freedom Shield summer exercises, designed to enhance their joint responses to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. Pyongyang has long denounced the drills as a rehearsal for war.

As part of the exercises, the allies' special operations troops practised infiltrating an enemy's coastline from the sea, riding rubber boats and emerging from the waves with diving gear and guns. (Reuters)

Japan threatened on Tuesday to take China to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to seek a reversal of Beijing's ban on all of its seafood imports after the release of treated radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that Japan would take "necessary action (on China's aquatic product ban) under various routes including the WTO framework".

Filing a WTO complaint might become an option if protesting to China through diplomatic routes is ineffective, Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi said separately.

The comments came as Japanese businesses and public facilities continued to receive harassment calls from phone numbers with the +86 Chinese country code, with many reporting callers complaining of the Fukushima water release.

Fukushima prefectural government and public facilities in the prefecture have received about 3,000 such calls, Kyoto News reported, quoting the prefecture governor.

The power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (9501.T) has received about 6,000 such calls to date, local media reported, and the government said it was seeking help from telecommunications companies to block the calls.

An increasing number of landline phone users are requesting to block foreign numbers, said a spokesperson at NTT Communications, a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (9432.T) unit. NTT and other phone companies including KDDI (9433.T) and SoftBank Corp (9434.T) are discussing measures following the government's request.

NTT East, which serves the eastern half of the country including Fukushima, said it had set up a customer service centre on Tuesday specifically for harassment calls from overseas, in response to the government's plea.

"It is extremely regrettable and concerning about the large number of harassment calls that have likely come from China," Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said during a news conference. He said that according to the people of Fukushima some calls were even going to hospitals.

"Human life is at stake now. Please stop the calls immediately," Nishimura said.

The minister said the government was gathering information on the reports of movements to boycott Japanese products in China and would work with business leaders to address the situation.

Japan is also conducting interviews with local travel agencies to gather information about the status of travel to Japan from China after media reports that some Japan-bound tours have been cancelled.

"Some travel agencies responded that they had received cancellation requests while others said they had received inquiries about the safety of food and beverages, and the possibility of postponing or cancelling tours," Japan's Land Minister Tetsuo Saito told reporters.

The move came after China earlier this month lifted pandemic-era restrictions on group tours for Japan and other key markets. (Reuters)

Hundreds of thousands of people are being trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centres and other illegal online operations that have sprung up across Southeast Asia in recent years, the United Nations said in a report on Tuesday.

The report cited "credible sources" estimating that at least 120,000 people across Myanmar and around 100,000 in Cambodia may be trapped in scam operations, with other criminal-owned enterprises in Laos, the Philippines and Thailand ranging from crypto-fraud to online gambling.

"People who are coerced into working in these scamming operations endure inhumane treatment while being forced to carry out crimes. They are victims. They are not criminals," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

Cambodian police spokesperson Chhay Kim Khoeun said he had not seen the U.N. report but queried the number.

"I don't know how to respond, where did they get the (100,000) number from? Have they investigated? Where did they get the data? Foreigners are just saying things."

Myanmar's military-run government did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.N. Human Rights Office report was one of the most detailed of the phenomenon that has emerged since the COVID pandemic, fuelled by closure of casinos that prompted moves into less regulated areas in Southeast Asia.

The fast-growing scams centres are generating billions of U.S. dollars in revenue each year, the report said.

"Faced with new operational realities, criminal actors increasingly targeted migrants in vulnerable situations ... for recruitment into criminal operations, under the pretence of offering them real jobs," the report said.

It said most of the trafficking victims were from other Southeast Asian countries as well as China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, but some were recruited from as far away as Africa and Latin America.

The U.N. rights office called on regional governments to strengthen rule of law and tackle corruption to "break the cycle of impunity" that allows criminal enterprises to thrive. (Reuters)

Taiwan's defence ministry warned on Tuesday of a possible "sharp increase" in military tensions after reporting renewed Chinese military activity including fighter jets crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for three years of increased military pressure from Beijing, mostly in the form of China's air force flying near the island.

The ministry said that on Tuesday morning, it spotted 12 Chinese military aircraft in its air defence identification zone, of which seven crossed the median line - six J-10 fighters and a single drone.

Five Chinese ships also carried out "combat readiness patrols", the ministry said, without giving a location.

The median line had for years served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides, until China's air force began regularly crossing it a year ago.

"The continued military harassment by the Communist military in the region may lead to a sharp increase in tensions and worsen regional security," the ministry said, calling on Beijing to "immediately stop such unilateral acts".

Maintaining the peaceful and stable status quo in the Taiwan Strait is critical to the security and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region, and all parties, including Beijing, have a common responsibility to uphold it, the ministry added.

The latest Chinese mission happened the same day Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, from Taiwan's main opposition party the Kuomintang which traditionally favours close relations with Beijing, arrived in Shanghai for annual city-to-city talks.

His office said the city government has many times reiterated that "the more difficult the environment is, the more the two sides should communicate".

"What the people of Taiwan want is peace and prosperity. This is the voice of the people and the firm position of the city government," it said.

Speaking to reporters before leaving for Shanghai, Chiang said the city forum was a good way to keep communication channels open and send a message of "peaceful values".

Taipei city councillors for Taiwan's governing Democratic Progressive Party issued a joint statement saying Chiang should "speak for the Taiwanese people" and demand an end to China's military activities. (Reuters)