North Korea has recalled its ambassador to a Southeast Asian country to protest a recent mass defection of its citizens to South Korea, according to media reports.
Last month, some 460 North Koreans arrived in South Korea in two planeloads in an operation shrouded in secrecy. The North Koreans are believed to have fled their land via its border with China before heading to the country, which the media reports did not name.
South Korean government officials have declined to reveal the nation that acted as a conduit for the defectors, but North Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman early this month lashed at Vietnam for helping with the defection. The spokesman said North Korea has sufficient evidence that Vietnam took part in what it called the "kidnapping" act.
Since then, North Korea has issued angry remarks and called for the return of the defectors.
In its latest protest, North Korea has recalled its ambassador to the unnamed country for helping the defectors enter South Korea, Seoul's Chosun Ilbo said.
The newspaper, citing a diplomatic source in Beijing, said North Korea has threatened to pull out the rest of its diplomatic officials if the country doesn't apologize and take measures to prevent such things from happening again.
Also yesterday, inter-Korean economic talks were canceled after the North refused to respond to earlier calls by South Korea to prepare for the talks.
Last month's defection was by far the largest in what has become a steady stream in recent years as North Koreans flee repression and hunger in their country, which has depended on outside help to feed its 22 million people since 1995.
Most North Koreans flee across their country's long border with China, and human rights groups say hundreds have made their way to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries.
More than 5,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War. Last year, the number of defectors reached 1,285, up from 1,140 in 2002 and 583 in 2001.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
RSS