JAPAN
Cycling on phone banned
Cyclists using a mobile phone while riding could face up to six months in jail under new rules that entered into force yesterday. Those who breach the revised road traffic law can be punished with a maximum of six months in prison or a fine of up to ￥100,000 (US$660). “Making a call with a smartphone in your hand while cycling, or watching the screen, is now banned and subject to punishment,” the National Police Agency said in a leaflet. Some accidents caused by cyclists watching screens have resulted in pedestrian deaths, the government said. Under the new rules, cycling while drunk can land the rider with up to three years in prison or a fine of up to ￥500,000. Those who offer alcoholic drinks to cyclists face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to ￥300,000.
Photo: AFP
NORTH KOREA
Media hail new ICBM
Pyongyang yesterday said that a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) it test-launched is “the world’s strongest,” while experts said that it is too big to be useful in a war situation. The ICBM launched on Thursday flew higher and for a longer duration than any other weapon the nation has tested, but foreign experts say the test failed to show that Pyongyang has mastered some of the last remaining technological hurdles to possess functioning ICBMs that can strike the mainland US. The Korean Central News Agency identified the missile as a Hwasong-19 and called it “the world’s strongest strategic missile” and “the perfected weapon system.” Leader Kim Jong-un observed the launch, describing it as an expression of the nation’s resolve to respond to external threats to its security, it said. The color and shape of exhaust flames seen in media photographs of the launch suggest the missile uses preloaded solid fuel, which makes weapons more agile and harder to detect than liquid propellants that in general must be fueled beforehand. However, experts said the photos show that the ICBM and its launch vehicle are oversized, raising a serious question about their wartime mobility and survivability. “When missiles get bigger, what happens? The vehicles get larger, too. As the transporter-erector launchers get bigger, their mobility decreases,” said Lee Sang-min, an expert at South Korea’s Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The Hwasong-19 was estimated to be at least 28m long, while advanced US and Russian ICBMs are less than 20m long.
Photo: EPA-EFE
PAKISTAN
Explosion kills seven
A bomb targeting police guarding polio vaccinators yesterday killed seven people, including five children, police said. The bomb targeted officers in the city of Mastung in Balochistan Province as they were traveling in a van to guard medical workers participating in a nationwide vaccine campaign, police said. “Seven individuals: one police officer, five children and one shopkeeper” were those killed in the attack at the city’s main market, senior officer Abdul Fatah told reporters. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic and vaccination teams are frequently targeted by militants waging a campaign against security forces.
Photo: AP
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
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