North Korea has ordered its citizens in Libya not to return home in an apparent bid to block news of civil uprisings in the Arab world from reaching the isolated state, a report said yesterday.
Pyongyang, in a message sent to its embassy in Libya, told about 200 North Korean workers not to return and to follow local authorities’ advice, Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.
“[The North] did so because it was afraid the news of Libya’s civil unrest would spread within North Korea,” said the source quoted by Yonhap.
Pyongyang sent hundreds of workers including doctors, nurses and construction laborers to oil-rich nations such as Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to earn much-needed foreign cash, Yonhap said.
Countries have rushed to evacuate nationals from the North African country since deadly clashes broke out between rebels and forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in February.
Pyongyang and Tripoli have maintained close diplomatic ties, with Qaddafi described as a “revolutionary comrade” of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, according to defectors from the North.
Experts say the North has stepped up its campaign to block information on pro-democracy protests in the Arab world, fearing they could spark similar disturbances among its own people against the Kim dynasty.
The North tightly controls access to the Internet and attempts to block other sources of information, though items smuggled from China have been eroding barriers.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS