North Korea launches missile into sea amid Us-south Korea drills
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile toward the sea Sunday, its neighbors said, ramping up testing activities in response to ongoing U.s.south Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.
The North’s continuation of missile tests showed its determination not to back down despite the U.s.-south Korea exercises, which are the biggest of their kind in years.
But many experts say the tests are also part of North Korea’s bigger objective to expand its weapons arsenal, win global recognition as a nuclear state and get international sanctions lifted.
The missile, launched from the North’s northwestern Tongchangri area, flew across the country before it landed in the waters off its east coast, according to South Korean and Japanese assessments. They said the missile traveled a distance of about 500 miles, a range that suggests the weapon could target South Korea.
Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino said the missile landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone and there were no reports of damage to vessels or aircraft.
The chief nuclear envoys from South Korea, Japan and the U.S. discussed the launch by phone and strongly condemned it as a provocation that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the region. They agreed to strengthen their coordination to issue a firm international response to the North’s action, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.
South Korea’s military said it will thoroughly proceed with the rest of the joint drills with the U.S. and maintain a readiness to “overwhelmingly” respond to any provocation by North Korea.
As part of the drills, the U.S. on Sunday flew longrange B-1B bombers for joint training with South Korean warplanes, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.
North Korea is highly sensitive to the deployment of B-1BS, which are capable of carrying a huge conventional weapons payload.
Gold mine attack: Gunmen stormed a Chinese-operated gold mining site that had recently been launched in Central African Republic, killing nine Chinese nationals and wounding two others Sunday, authorities said.
But the rebel coalition initially blamed by some for the attack put out a statement later in the day. Without providing evidence, it accused Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group of being behind the violence.
The attack early Sunday came just days after gunmen kidnapped three Chinese nationals in the country’s west near the border with Cameroon, prompting President Faustin Archange Touadera to plan a trip to China to reassure investors.
The assault on the Chimbolo gold mine began around 5 a.m. when the gunmen overpowered the site’s guards and opened fire, said Abel Matipata, mayor of the nearby town of Bambari, located 16 miles away. The mining site’s launch had taken place just days earlier, he added.
The bodies of the victims were brought to the capital, Bangui, later Sunday.
Pakistan ex-pm charged:
Police in the Pakistani capital filed charges Sunday against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, 17 of his aides and scores of supporters, accusing them of terrorism and several other offenses after the ousted premier’s followers clashed with security forces in Islamabad the previous day.
For hours on Saturday, Khan’s followers clashed with police outside a court where the former prime minister was to appear in a graft case. Riot police wielded batons and fired tear gas while Khan’s supporters threw firebombs and hurled rocks at the officers.
More than 50 officers were injured and a police checkpoint, several cars and motorcycles were torched.
Police said 59 of Khan’s supporters were arrested during the violence.
Khan never appeared inside the court to face charges that he had sold state gifts received while in office and concealed assets.
Besides Khan, the case filed Sunday also accuses former and current lawmakers, former ministers, a former National Assembly speaker and scores of Khan’s supporters. The charges include terrorism, obstructing police officers in carrying out their tasks, attacks on police, wounding officers and threatening their lives.
Anti-abortion monument:
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed a new law that will allow a monument near the state Capitol marking the number of abortions performed in Arkansas before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
Sanders’ office said Friday night that the Republican governor signed the bill that will allow the creation of a privately funded “monument to the unborn” on the Capitol grounds. The bill, approved by lawmakers last week, requires the secretary of state to permit and arrange the placement of the monument.
It also requires the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission to oversee the selection of the artist and the design of
the monument, with input from anti-abortion groups.
Sweden NATO bid: Sweden won’t be in a vulnerable security situation even if Finland joins NATO first, the Finnish president said Sunday, as both Nordic membership candidates negotiate bilateral military pacts with the United States.
“It is possible that Finland joins NATO before Sweden,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said in interview published by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT on Sunday.
“Should we have refused Turkey’s offer to ratify? That sounds a bit crazy. It would have been a terribly difficult situation if we had said ‘no’ to Ankara.”
Niinisto referred to his Friday visit to Ankara where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his government would move forward with ratifying Finland’s NATO application, paving the way for the country to join the military bloc, but wouldn’t ratify Sweden’s bid before disputes between Ankara and Stockholm are solved.
Syria killing: A commander in the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad was killed in Syria on Sunday in what it described as an assassination by Israeli agents.
The Al-quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad group, said in a statement that Ali Ramzi al-aswad, 31, was killed Sunday morning in the Damascus countryside in a “cowardly assassination with bullets bearing the fingerprints of the Zionist enemy,” referring to Israel.
There was no immediate statement from Israel on Sunday’s alleged assassination.
In 2019, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the home of Akram al-ajouri, a member of Islamic Jihad’s leadership living in exile. Ajouri was not harmed, but his son was reportedly killed in the attack.