SOUTH KOREA
Yoon casts early vote
President Yoon Suk-yeol cast his ballot yesterday as early voting got under way ahead of next week’s general election, where his party is seeking to win back its parliamentary majority. Yoon’s approval ratings have fallen below 40 percent in recent weeks, according to some pollsters, driven by a litany of scandals and voter dissatisfaction with rising inflation. However, experts say the poll is crucial for Yoon’s People Power Party, because his authority could be significantly weakened for the final three years of his term if the opposition wins a supermajority. Yoon cast his vote in Busan and afterwards thanked the staff at the polling station, his office said.
DENMARK
Faulty missile shuts strait
An important shipping strait between two Danish islands was closed for several hours on Thursday after a missile malfunction on a navy frigate, the military said. The malfunction happened during a missile test on the Niels Juel frigate in the port of Korsor, west of Copenhagen, which created the risk of a missile launch. “The problem happened during a compulsory test where the launcher had been activated” and could not be deactivated for several hours, Danish Defence Command said in a statement. As long as the launcher was not deactivated, there was “a risk that the missile would be fired and would travel several kilometers,” the military said, adding however that there was no risk of the missile exploding. The Great Belt shipping lane, which separates the islands of Zealand and Funen, and air traffic over it were closed between mid-afternoon and 8pm. However, road traffic on the bridge between the two islands was not suspended.
RUSSIA
Governor stabbed
The governor of the northwestern Murmansk region was stabbed in the stomach after a meeting with local residents, the most dangerous assault on a high-ranking government official in more than a decade. Governor Andrei Chibis, 45, had just finished a meeting at the cultural center in the town of Apatity on Thursday, when a man walked up and stabbed him with a knife, local media reports said. The suspect, who was not named, told interrogators that he committed the attack because he “disliked” the governor, although he did not know him personally, the Investigation Committee said on its Telegram channel. The investigation is ongoing. Chibis underwent surgery for his injuries, and posted a video in his Telegram channel yesterday, saying he is conscious and will recover.
CHINA
Space pact with India inked
China and Thailand yesterday signed initial pacts to cooperate on peaceful use of outer space and international lunar research stations, the China National Space Administration said in a statement. The countries aim to form a joint working group on space exploration and applications, encompassing data exchanges and personnel training, the memorandums of understanding said. They also agreed to cooperate on plans for appraising, engineering and managing lunar research stations, it said. Last year, China selected a space weather monitor developed by Thailand for its Chang’e-7 lunar probe mission, the agency added. To be launched around 2026, the Chang’e-7 mission will explore resources on the moon’s south pole, looking to sustain long-term human habitation. China aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
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