SOUTH KOREA
Rocket test successful
The nation yesterday successfully conducted a test flight of a solid-fuel space rocket over the sea near Jeju Island, the Ministry of National Defense said, amid a growing space race with North Korea. It was the third test of its kind following two others in December and March last year. The launch involved technology developed at the state-run Agency for Defense Development, and a space rocket and a satellite produced by Hanwha Systems, the ministry said in a statement. The ministry hailed the launch as achieving a milestone at a time when Pyongyang recently launched a military spy satellite, which the US and its allies have condemned for using missile technology contravening a UN security resolution. Seoul’s successful launch would accelerate the nation’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, the ministry said.
SOUTH KOREA
Yoon reshuffling Cabinet
President Yoon Suk-yeol is replacing about one-third of his Cabinet ministers in the biggest government shakeup of his tenure, hoping to boost support for his party ahead of April parliamentary elections. Yoon has named new ministers for finance, agriculture, land, oceans, small and medium enterprises and veterans affairs, chief of staff Kim Dae-ki told reporters in a briefing yesterday. The six candidates face parliamentary hearings for confirmation, but the president has the power to appoint them even if the opposition-dominated body vote them down. Outgoing Minister of Finance Choo Kyung-ho is likely to run for a parliamentary seat in April, Yonhap News Agency reported. Yoon has tapped his economic adviser, Choi Sang-mok, to replace Choo, and he has not signaled any intention to use the change to embark on new economic policies. Last week, Yoon created a new position for policy and replaced all five of his senior secretaries, in a bid to consolidate power ahead of the vote for all members of the unicameral parliament.
NORTH KOREA
Kim raises birthrate alarm
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for efforts to tackle the country’s falling birthrate, describing the challenge as “everyone’s housekeeping,” the Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. Kim made the comments during an event for mothers in Pyongyang on Sunday. “Preventing a decline in birthrates and good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers,” Kim said. The UN Population Fund estimates that as of this year, the nation’s fertility rate stood at 1.8, amid an extended fall in the rate during recent decades. The fertility rate remains higher than in some of its neighbors, including South Korea, which dropped to a record low of 0.78 last year, while Japan saw its figure drop to 1.26.
UKRAINE
Drones, missile shot down
The air force yesterday said that it shot down 18 out of 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones and one missile that Russia fired at its territory overnight. Moscow typically fires dozens of drones at Ukraine every week in waves of overnight attacks targeting energy facilities and military sites deep behind the frontlines. “As a result of combat operations, 18 attack drones and one X-59 guided missile were destroyed,” the air force said in a social media post. Local officials reported attempted attacks on the western regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi, as well as Mykolaiv and Kherson in the south. In Kherson, a cultural center and a shop were hit, the army said, adding that there was no information on possible casualties.
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