JAPAN
N Korea eyes third launch
North Korea has issued formal notice of a satellite launch as early as today, the Japanese coast guard said. Pyongyang’s previous efforts to put a spy satellite into orbit in May and August both failed, and Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have repeatedly warned it not to proceed with another launch. The coast guard on Tuesday posted a notification on its Web site of a launch window between today and Friday next week, and South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries quickly issued a navigation warning for ships. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters he would “demand cancelation of the launch ... and to make utmost efforts in preparing for unpredictable situations.” He added that any use of ballistic missile technology by Pyongyang would represent a breach of UN resolutions and that Tokyo was coordinating its response with Seoul and Washington.
UKRAINE
German defense head visits
German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday for an unannounced visit to reaffirm Berlin’s backing for Ukraine in its fight against Russian troops. Berlin, the second-biggest supplier of military assistance to Kyiv after the US, is seeking to offer the reassurances after the shift in focus to the Middle East war prompted concerns about waning support for Ukraine. It was Pistorius’ second visit to Kyiv since he became defense minister at the start of this year, and it comes a day after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also made an unannounced trip to Ukraine to offer Washington’s continued support. “I am here again, firstly to pledge further support, but also to express our solidarity and deep bond and also our admiration for the courageous, brave and costly fight that is being waged here,” Pistorius said, laying flowers at Maidan square in Kyiv. He was due to hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
China
Myanmar deports suspects
Burmese authorities have handed more than 31,000 telecom fraud suspects to China since law enforcement officers from both countries launched a crackdown on online scams in September, authorities said on Tuesday. The suspects included 63 “financiers” and ringleaders of crime syndicates that have cheated Chinese citizens of large sums of money, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement. “The crackdown has achieved significant battle results,” it said. More than 100,000 people engage in telecom fraud each day in at least 1,000 scam centers, Chinese state media have reported. Chinese police started to crack down on the fraud in September and this month, police launched what they said were “swift attacks” on crime gangs in Myanmar.
VIETNAM
Rhino horn trafficker jailed
Hanoi’s People’s Court on Monday sentenced a man to 12 years in jail for smuggling rhino horns and elephant ivory from Angola, a wildlife protection group said, adding that strict penalties were a key deterrent. The nation is a transport hub for illegal wildlife in Asia and a significant consumer. Ninh Ba Dien, 36, was hired by an anonymous person to deliver two packages of goods containing nearly 12kg of rhino horn and 5kg of elephant ivory from Angola, Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV) said. One of the packages was confiscated while Dien transited in Qatar, and he was then detained at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport in April. More than 60 tonnes of ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horns have been seized at major Vietnamese shipping ports since 2018, a 2021 report by ENV said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home