SKorea says North did not fire a new ICBM, hints at earlier launch
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Tuesday dismissed North Korea’s claim to have launched a newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile last week, accusing the country of firing a less-powerful existing weapon and fabricating data following an earlier failed launch.
North Korea said it launched a Hwasong-17 missile, its longest-range developmental ICBM, last Thursday in its biggest weapons test in years. Its state media called the launch “a historical event” and released a stylized Hollywood-style video showing leader Kim Jong Un, in sunglasses and leather jacket, supervising the launch.
But South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it has determined that what North Korea fired wasn’t a Hwasong-17 but a Hwasong-15, another ICBM that it successfully tested in 2017.
Both missiles are potentially capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. But analysts say the Hwasong-17 has a longer potential range and its huge size suggests that it’s designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to defeat missile defense systems. Believed to be 82 feet long, the Hwasong-17 is, by some estimates, the world’s biggest road-mobile ballistic missile system.
The Defense Ministry said it told a parliamentary committee that details of Thursday’s launch — such as the missile’s speed, combustion and stage separation —were similar to those of the Hwasong-15, not the Hwasong-17. The ministry report to the committee also suggested that the North Korean video wasn’t shot on the actual launch date, citing an analysis of Kim’s shadow and weather conditions seen in the video.
The report said the United States agreed with the South Korean assessment and is separately analyzing the launch.
Supreme Court case: The Supreme Court on Tuesday cast doubt on Texas’ claim that it can’t be sued by a former state trooper who says he was forced out of his job when he returned from Army service in Iraq.
The justices heard arguments in a dispute over a federal law that was enacted in 1994 in the wake of the Persian Gulf war to strengthen job protections for returning service members.
The court is weighing an appeal by Le Roy Torres, who spent a year in Iraq and was discharged as a captain after nearly 19 years in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Torres says he suffered lung damage from exposure to open burn pits on his base in Iraq.
The state and Torres dispute what happened when he returned to Texas, unable to resume his job as a state trooper because of the damage to his lungs. He eventually resigned and later filed his lawsuit. A state appellate court dismissed it, and the justices stepped in.
The Biden administration is backing Torres’ right to sue the state.
US-Mexico border: About 7,000 migrants are being stopped crossing the border daily from Mexico, the U.S. Border Patrol chief said Tuesday, a sharp increase from February that comes as the Biden administration nears a decision on whether to end sweeping asylum restrictions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Chief Raul Ortiz said 1,500 Cubans were stopped over the previous day, more than double the daily average from February.
The administration is particularly challenged by migrants from countries that have traditionally not sent such large numbers of people to the U.S., including Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Since March 2020, the U.S. has used a public health order aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 to expel migrants more than 1.7 million times without a chance to seek asylum. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to decide this week whether to extend Title 42, named for a 1944 public health law.
Some migrants from countries such as Cuba have continued to be released in the U.S. to pursue asylum because costs and diplomatic challenges prevent the U.S. from sending them home.
‘Partygate’ scandal: British police have issued 20 fines over illegal parties held by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff during coronavirus lockdowns — though the recipients don’t yet include Johnson, whose hold on power has been threatened by the illicit gatherings.
The Metropolitan Police force said Tuesday it wouldn’t identify the recipients of the fixed penalty notices, but Johnson’s office said it would reveal if he gets one.
It wasn’t clear whether 20 people received fines or whether some individuals got more than one.
Opponents, and some members of the governing Conservative Party, have said that Johnson should resign if he is issued a fine for breaking rules he imposed on the rest of the country during the COVID19 pandemic.
The “partygate” scandal had left Johnson’s tenure on a knife-edge before Russia
launched a war in Ukraine more than a month ago that gave Britain’s politicians more urgent priorities and pushed the scandal from the headlines.
Johnson’s government was shaken by public anger over revelations that his staff held “bring your own booze” office parties, birthday celebrations and “wine time Fridays” in 2020 and 2021 while millions in Britain were barred from meeting with friends and family because of his government’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Thousands of people were fined $79 to $13,200 by police for rule-breaking social gatherings.
Jailed journalist: An Ethiopian court has ordered Ethiopian journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro to be released on bail after being imprisoned for four months without charges.
A judge in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Tuesday granted bail to Kiyaro while prosecutors determine
whether or not to press charges against him. Kiyaro remained in custody while bail procedures were being followed before his expected release.
Kiyaro, 30, a video journalist accredited to The Associated Press, was detained Nov. 28 in Addis Ababa under the country’s war-related state of emergency powers.
Kiyaro is accused of “serving the purposes” of what the government has classified a terrorist group by interviewing its officials, according to reports by Ethiopian state media, citing federal police.
Local journalist Thomas Engida was arrested at the same time and faces similar charges.
If the journalists are found guilty of violating Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law or the state of emergency law, they could face sentences of seven to 15 years behind bars, federal police inspector Tesfaye Olani has told state media.