North Korea’s top military body on Thursday said it plans to conduct rocket launches and a nuclear test targeting its “sworn enemy” the United States. The threat comes one day after UN sanctions condemned North Korea’s missile activity.
North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".
The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction the country for a rocket launch in December that breached its bans.
"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.
North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.
China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.
Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.
North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the so-called six-party talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity.
"After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Analysts said the North could test as early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.
"North Korea will have felt betrayed by China for agreeing to the latest U.N. resolution and they might be targeting (China) as well (with this statement)," said Lee Seung-yeol, senior research fellow at Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.
US urges no test
Washington urged North Korea not to proceed with a third test just as the North's statement was published on Thursday.
"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul.
"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."
The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
A South Korean military official said the concern now is that Pyongyang could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.
North Korea's 2006 nuclear test using plutonium produced a puny yield equivalent to one kiloton of TNT - compared with 13-18 kilotons for the Hiroshima bomb - and U.S. intelligence estimates put the 2009 test's yield at roughly two kilotons.
North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for about a dozen plutonium warheads, although estimates vary, and intelligence reports suggest that it has been enriching uranium to supplement that stock and give it a second path to the bomb.
According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.
North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.
Its long-range rockets are not seen as capable of reaching the United States mainland and it is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.
The bellicose statement on Thursday appeared to dent any remaining hopes that Kim Jong-un, believed to be 30 years old, would pursue a different path from his father Kim Jong-il, who oversaw the country's military and nuclear programmes.
The older Kim died in December 2011.
"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
China's looming worker shortage threatens economy
Women work in a textile factory in Jiujiang, east China's Jiangxi province, January 16, 2013. China's working-age population, defined as 15-59, fell 3.45 million last year, official data showed earlier this month -- the first decline since 1963, after tens of millions died in a famine caused by the Great Leap Forward.
Migrant workers demand the government help them retrieve unpaid wages from their property developer employers, in Fuping, central China's Shanxi province, January 10, 2013. China's demographic timebomb is ticking much louder with the first fall in its labour pool for decades, analysts say, highlighting the risk that the country grows old before it grows rich.
Chinese migrant workers confront police at the Qijiayuan Diplomatic Compound during a protest against what they claim is an unpaid new year bonus in Beijing on January 14, 2013. Industrial disputes have become more common in recent years, as workers demand higher pay and better working conditions on the back of growing awareness of their rights and the shortage of skilled staff.
AFP - China's demographic timebomb is ticking much louder with the first fall in its labour pool for decades, analysts say, highlighting the risk that the country grows old before it grows rich.
The abundant supply of cheap workers in the world's most populous nation has created unprecedented cost efficiencies that underpinned its blistering economic expansion over the past 35 years, propelling the global economy forward.
But now the inexorable consequences of the one-child policy imposed in the late 1970s are beginning to appear, and threaten to impact its future growth.
China's working-age population, defined as 15-59, fell 3.45 million last year, official data showed earlier this month -- the first decline since 1963, after tens of millions died in a famine caused by the Great Leap Forward.
The immediate effect may be small in a nation of 1.35 billion people, but the cumulative effects will accelerate over the coming decades.
The number of people aged between 15 and 64 will drop by around 40 million between 2014 and 2030, said Wang Guangzhou, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government think-tank -- more than Poland's entire population.
"The population is aging so fast that we are running short of time to deal with it," said Li Jun, also of CASS, adding the family planning policy had exacerbated the problem.
China's proportion of over-65-year-olds is projected to double from seven to 14 percent over only 26 years -- a key demographic measure that took the United States 69 years to complete.
"Undoubtedly it will substantially slow down China's potential growth rate," Yao Wei, an economist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong, told AFP.
An ageing population not only means fewer people available to employ and higher labour costs, but investment -- a key driver of China's growth -- will be harder to maintain as families spend their savings on health care, she said.
Chinese authorities maintain that controlling its population growth has been key to increasing its prosperity.
But while China has risen to become the world's second-largest economy, on a per capita basis it still lags far behind the US and other developed countries.
Industrial disputes have become more common in recent years, as workers demand higher pay and better working conditions on the back of growing awareness of their rights and the shortage of skilled staff.
Multinational companies are looking to other developing economies with lower wages for further expansion, with some already moving production bases out of China to rivals such as Indonesia and Vietnam.
In a survey of 514 Japanese manufacturers by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation last year, the number of respondents voting China as the top destination for overseas business fell by more than 10 percentage points on 2011.
Economists said China must look to speed up the transformation of its economic model and move up the value chain.
"The golden period of the manufacturing industry, particularly those depending on exports, has gone," said Yao.
At the same time, she said, the country was woefully underprepared to meet the burden of caring for the elderly.
"The fiscal situation is not prepared and the social security network is not complete," she said.
By around 2060, every three Chinese workers will have to support two people above 60, compared with a ratio of five to one now, according to Li's projections.
It is a crucial challenge for the ruling Communist Party, said Ren Xianfang, a Beijing-based analyst with research firm IHS Global Insight.
"Delivering growth and delivering social security to the general public are the key things for the state to (maintain) its legitimacy."
Analysts said the medical services are increasingly expensive and hard to access, while the country's flagship public pension plans are crippled by problems including insolvency risks, difficulties in expanding coverage and mismanagement.
A rural areas programme was introduced in 2009 to provide people from the countryside with their first ever state-subsided retirement scheme, but its payouts are particularly meagre -- in many areas as low as 55 yuan ($9) a month.
The husband of Du Wenlan, a farmer from Chongqing, gets 80 yuan a month from the plan. She only buys new clothes once every three years, she said, and tries to save money by diluting their rice porridge.
"What can 80 yuan do?" she asked.
On the streets of Beijing, Su Xu, 30, who works for a cosmetics company, told AFP: "I panic when I think about my retirement."
The abundant supply of cheap workers in the world's most populous nation has created unprecedented cost efficiencies that underpinned its blistering economic expansion over the past 35 years, propelling the global economy forward.
But now the inexorable consequences of the one-child policy imposed in the late 1970s are beginning to appear, and threaten to impact its future growth.
China's working-age population, defined as 15-59, fell 3.45 million last year, official data showed earlier this month -- the first decline since 1963, after tens of millions died in a famine caused by the Great Leap Forward.
The immediate effect may be small in a nation of 1.35 billion people, but the cumulative effects will accelerate over the coming decades.
The number of people aged between 15 and 64 will drop by around 40 million between 2014 and 2030, said Wang Guangzhou, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government think-tank -- more than Poland's entire population.
"The population is aging so fast that we are running short of time to deal with it," said Li Jun, also of CASS, adding the family planning policy had exacerbated the problem.
China's proportion of over-65-year-olds is projected to double from seven to 14 percent over only 26 years -- a key demographic measure that took the United States 69 years to complete.
"Undoubtedly it will substantially slow down China's potential growth rate," Yao Wei, an economist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong, told AFP.
An ageing population not only means fewer people available to employ and higher labour costs, but investment -- a key driver of China's growth -- will be harder to maintain as families spend their savings on health care, she said.
Chinese authorities maintain that controlling its population growth has been key to increasing its prosperity.
But while China has risen to become the world's second-largest economy, on a per capita basis it still lags far behind the US and other developed countries.
Industrial disputes have become more common in recent years, as workers demand higher pay and better working conditions on the back of growing awareness of their rights and the shortage of skilled staff.
Multinational companies are looking to other developing economies with lower wages for further expansion, with some already moving production bases out of China to rivals such as Indonesia and Vietnam.
In a survey of 514 Japanese manufacturers by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation last year, the number of respondents voting China as the top destination for overseas business fell by more than 10 percentage points on 2011.
Economists said China must look to speed up the transformation of its economic model and move up the value chain.
"The golden period of the manufacturing industry, particularly those depending on exports, has gone," said Yao.
At the same time, she said, the country was woefully underprepared to meet the burden of caring for the elderly.
"The fiscal situation is not prepared and the social security network is not complete," she said.
By around 2060, every three Chinese workers will have to support two people above 60, compared with a ratio of five to one now, according to Li's projections.
It is a crucial challenge for the ruling Communist Party, said Ren Xianfang, a Beijing-based analyst with research firm IHS Global Insight.
"Delivering growth and delivering social security to the general public are the key things for the state to (maintain) its legitimacy."
Analysts said the medical services are increasingly expensive and hard to access, while the country's flagship public pension plans are crippled by problems including insolvency risks, difficulties in expanding coverage and mismanagement.
A rural areas programme was introduced in 2009 to provide people from the countryside with their first ever state-subsided retirement scheme, but its payouts are particularly meagre -- in many areas as low as 55 yuan ($9) a month.
The husband of Du Wenlan, a farmer from Chongqing, gets 80 yuan a month from the plan. She only buys new clothes once every three years, she said, and tries to save money by diluting their rice porridge.
"What can 80 yuan do?" she asked.
On the streets of Beijing, Su Xu, 30, who works for a cosmetics company, told AFP: "I panic when I think about my retirement."
UNITED NATIONS UN expert to probe use of drones in counter-terrorism
A UN expert on counter-terrorism and human rights, British lawyer Ben Emmerson, announced an inquiry Thursday into the use of drones and targeted killings. Emmerson will present his findings to the General Assembly later this year.
A U.N. expert on Thursday launched a special investigation into drone warfare and targeted killings, which the United States relies on as a front-line weapon in its global war against al-Qaida.
One of the three countries requesting the investigation was Pakistan, which officially opposes the use of U.S. drones on its territory as an infringement on its sovereignty but is believed to have tacitly approved some strikes in the past. Many Pakistanis say innocent civilians have also been killed in drone strikes, which the U.S. has rejected.
The other two countries requesting the investigation were not named but were identified as two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
The civilian killings and injuries that result from drone strikes on suspected terrorist cells will be part of the focus of the investigation by British lawyer Ben Emmerson, the U.N. rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights.
The U.N. said Emmerson will present his findings to the U.N. General Assembly later this year.
“The exponential rise in the use of drone technology in a variety of military and non-military contexts represents a real challenge to the framework of established international law,” Emmerson said in announcing the probe Thursday in London.
Emmerson said countries that use drones have “an international law obligation to establish effective independent and impartial investigations into any drone attack in which it is plausibly alleged that civilian casualties were sustained.”
John Brennan, the anti-terrorism chief who has been nominated as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was the first Obama administration official to publicly acknowledge the highly secretive targeted killing operations, defending the legality of the overseas program and crediting it with protecting U.S. lives and preventing potential terror attacks. The CIA runs the drone program.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed lawsuits against the United States over drone attacks that killed three U.S. civilians in Yemen in 2011, including an al-Qaida leader who had been born in the U.S., cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
“We welcome this investigation in the hopes that global pressure will bring the U.S. back into line with international law requirements that strictly limit the use of lethal force,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.
Drone strikes have been on the rise under Obama. According to the Long War Journal, which tracks such attacks, there were 35 strikes in Pakistan during 2008, the last year President George W. Bush was in office. That number grew to 117 in 2010, then fell to 64 in 2011 and 46 last year.
The program has killed a number of top militant commanders, including al-Qaida’s then-No. 2, Abu Yahya al-Libi, who died in a drone strike in June.
(REUTERS)
A U.N. expert on Thursday launched a special investigation into drone warfare and targeted killings, which the United States relies on as a front-line weapon in its global war against al-Qaida.
One of the three countries requesting the investigation was Pakistan, which officially opposes the use of U.S. drones on its territory as an infringement on its sovereignty but is believed to have tacitly approved some strikes in the past. Many Pakistanis say innocent civilians have also been killed in drone strikes, which the U.S. has rejected.
The other two countries requesting the investigation were not named but were identified as two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
The civilian killings and injuries that result from drone strikes on suspected terrorist cells will be part of the focus of the investigation by British lawyer Ben Emmerson, the U.N. rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights.
The U.N. said Emmerson will present his findings to the U.N. General Assembly later this year.
“The exponential rise in the use of drone technology in a variety of military and non-military contexts represents a real challenge to the framework of established international law,” Emmerson said in announcing the probe Thursday in London.
Emmerson said countries that use drones have “an international law obligation to establish effective independent and impartial investigations into any drone attack in which it is plausibly alleged that civilian casualties were sustained.”
John Brennan, the anti-terrorism chief who has been nominated as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was the first Obama administration official to publicly acknowledge the highly secretive targeted killing operations, defending the legality of the overseas program and crediting it with protecting U.S. lives and preventing potential terror attacks. The CIA runs the drone program.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed lawsuits against the United States over drone attacks that killed three U.S. civilians in Yemen in 2011, including an al-Qaida leader who had been born in the U.S., cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
“We welcome this investigation in the hopes that global pressure will bring the U.S. back into line with international law requirements that strictly limit the use of lethal force,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.
Drone strikes have been on the rise under Obama. According to the Long War Journal, which tracks such attacks, there were 35 strikes in Pakistan during 2008, the last year President George W. Bush was in office. That number grew to 117 in 2010, then fell to 64 in 2011 and 46 last year.
The program has killed a number of top militant commanders, including al-Qaida’s then-No. 2, Abu Yahya al-Libi, who died in a drone strike in June.
(REUTERS)
Clinton stands by Japan on China island row
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida speak to the press in Washington,DC on January 18, 2013. Clinton issued a veiled warning Friday to China not to challenge Japan's control of disputed islands as Tokyo's new government vowed not to aggravate tensions.
AFP - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a veiled warning to China not to challenge Japan's control of disputed islands as Tokyo's new government vowed not to aggravate tensions.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met with Clinton on the first trip by a top Japanese official since Japan's conservatives returned to power last month. Clinton announced that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would visit in February.
Amid signs that China is testing control control over virtually uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, Clinton said the area was under Japan's control and hence protected under a US security treaty with Tokyo.
"We oppose any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration," Clinton told a joint news conference with Kishida.
Clinton did not mention Beijing directly in the warning, but said: "We want to see China and Japan resolve this matter peacefully through dialogue."
"We do not want to see any action taken by anyone that could raise tensions or result in miscalculation that would undermine the peace, security and economic growth in this region," she said.
The United States insists it is neutral on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands -- known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese -- but that they are under the de facto administration of Japan.
China has repeatedly criticized the US position. Chinese surveillance ships and state-owned planes have increasingly neared the area, in what some see as a bid by Beijing to contest the notion that Japan holds effective control.
"The frequency and scale of their provocations have drastically increased," Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Masaru Sato told reporters in Washington.
"The Chinese are trying to change the existing order by coercion or intimidation," he said.
Abe has been known throughout his career as a hawk on national security. But Kishida took a measured tone on China while in Washington, describing the relationship with Beijing as "one of the most important" for Japan.
"While Japan will not concede and will uphold our fundamental positions that the Senkaku islands are an inherent territory of Japan, we intend to respond calmly so as not to provoke China," Kishida said.
Kishida welcomed Clinton's support, saying that the statement on the security treaty "will go against any unilateral action that would infringe upon the administration rights of Japan."
US officials and pundits have largely welcomed the return of the Liberal Democratic Party, believing that Abe's firm positions and pledges to boost military spending will deter confrontational moves by Beijing.
However, Abe in the past has made controversial statements on Japan's wartime history, leading to fears that a loose comment could set off new tensions at a time that new leaders are also taking charge in China and South Korea.
Clinton said US officials "applaud the early steps" taken by Abe and hoped that new leaders in Japan and China would "get off to a good start."
Separately, Clinton said the United States and Japan wanted "strong action" at the UN Security Council on North Korea, which put a satellite into orbit last month in a launch the two allies fear could bolster Pyongyang's missile capabilities.
Diplomats at the United Nations said the United States and China, North Korea's main ally, had reached a compromise under which the Security Council would expand existing sanctions against Pyongyang.
The talks between Clinton and Kishida also focused on the hostage crisis in Algeria, with the two diplomats pressing the North African nation to release more information about a massive kidnapping at a desert gas field.
Addressing one point of friction, Kishida promised that Japan would sign the Hague treaty on child abductions. Hundreds of US parents have complained that they have no recourse if ex-partners take their children to Japan.
A previous left-leaning government had committed but not taken action on joining the Hague convention, which requires the return of wrongfully held children to the nations where they usually live.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met with Clinton on the first trip by a top Japanese official since Japan's conservatives returned to power last month. Clinton announced that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would visit in February.
Amid signs that China is testing control control over virtually uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, Clinton said the area was under Japan's control and hence protected under a US security treaty with Tokyo.
"We oppose any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration," Clinton told a joint news conference with Kishida.
Clinton did not mention Beijing directly in the warning, but said: "We want to see China and Japan resolve this matter peacefully through dialogue."
"We do not want to see any action taken by anyone that could raise tensions or result in miscalculation that would undermine the peace, security and economic growth in this region," she said.
The United States insists it is neutral on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands -- known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese -- but that they are under the de facto administration of Japan.
China has repeatedly criticized the US position. Chinese surveillance ships and state-owned planes have increasingly neared the area, in what some see as a bid by Beijing to contest the notion that Japan holds effective control.
"The frequency and scale of their provocations have drastically increased," Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Masaru Sato told reporters in Washington.
"The Chinese are trying to change the existing order by coercion or intimidation," he said.
Abe has been known throughout his career as a hawk on national security. But Kishida took a measured tone on China while in Washington, describing the relationship with Beijing as "one of the most important" for Japan.
"While Japan will not concede and will uphold our fundamental positions that the Senkaku islands are an inherent territory of Japan, we intend to respond calmly so as not to provoke China," Kishida said.
Kishida welcomed Clinton's support, saying that the statement on the security treaty "will go against any unilateral action that would infringe upon the administration rights of Japan."
US officials and pundits have largely welcomed the return of the Liberal Democratic Party, believing that Abe's firm positions and pledges to boost military spending will deter confrontational moves by Beijing.
However, Abe in the past has made controversial statements on Japan's wartime history, leading to fears that a loose comment could set off new tensions at a time that new leaders are also taking charge in China and South Korea.
Clinton said US officials "applaud the early steps" taken by Abe and hoped that new leaders in Japan and China would "get off to a good start."
Separately, Clinton said the United States and Japan wanted "strong action" at the UN Security Council on North Korea, which put a satellite into orbit last month in a launch the two allies fear could bolster Pyongyang's missile capabilities.
Diplomats at the United Nations said the United States and China, North Korea's main ally, had reached a compromise under which the Security Council would expand existing sanctions against Pyongyang.
The talks between Clinton and Kishida also focused on the hostage crisis in Algeria, with the two diplomats pressing the North African nation to release more information about a massive kidnapping at a desert gas field.
Addressing one point of friction, Kishida promised that Japan would sign the Hague treaty on child abductions. Hundreds of US parents have complained that they have no recourse if ex-partners take their children to Japan.
A previous left-leaning government had committed but not taken action on joining the Hague convention, which requires the return of wrongfully held children to the nations where they usually live.
China's mass annual New Year migration begins
Chinese travellers arrive to board trains as the annual Lunar New Year exodus begins at Beijing train station on January 26, 2013. The holiday also known as the Spring Festival sees tens of millions of migrant workers who provide the labour in the country's prosperous cities return to their villages and towns to spend time with the famillies left behind.
Chinese travellers arrive to board trains as the annual Lunar New Year exodus begins at Beijing train station on January 26, 2013. Passengers will log 220 million train rides during the 40-day travel season, the Ministry of Railways estimates, as they criss-cross the country to celebrate with their families on February 10.
AFP - The world's largest annual migration began Saturday in China with tens of thousands in the capital boarding trains to journey home for next month's Lunar New Year celebrations.
Passengers will log 220 million train rides during the 40-day travel season, the Ministry of Railways estimates, as they criss-cross the country to celebrate with their families on February 10.
Many spend weeks at home for the most important holiday of the Chinese calendar, with the travel period spanning about two weeks before and after the Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival.
Travellers streamed into Beijing Railway Station on Saturday afternoon carrying heavy bags and boxes, while one man had strapped to his back a sack twice as thick and nearly as tall as him.
Just as making the trip home can be laborious -- often lasting one or two days -- so can simply acquiring a seat on the train, and every year complaints arise about the inefficiency or unfairness of the system.
For the second year in a row, New Year's travellers have been able to purchase tickets online and avoid long queues.
But those without Internet access were shut out while tech-savvy buyers used plug-ins and other software to facilitate purchases, leading some trips to sell out in minutes and prompting complaints.
One traveller heading home from Beijing to eastern Zhejiang province told AFP it took him seven days to book a ticket online, while a migrant worker said he did not even know how to use a computer.
But the thick queues at station counters commonplace in previous years were not seen on Saturday, and people mostly appeared to be picking up tickets before heading home.
Police, some armed with machine guns, kept watch over the massive flows of people. About 70,000 officers were deployed to train stations nationwide on Saturday, the Xinhua state news agency reported.
Passengers will log 220 million train rides during the 40-day travel season, the Ministry of Railways estimates, as they criss-cross the country to celebrate with their families on February 10.
Many spend weeks at home for the most important holiday of the Chinese calendar, with the travel period spanning about two weeks before and after the Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival.
Travellers streamed into Beijing Railway Station on Saturday afternoon carrying heavy bags and boxes, while one man had strapped to his back a sack twice as thick and nearly as tall as him.
Just as making the trip home can be laborious -- often lasting one or two days -- so can simply acquiring a seat on the train, and every year complaints arise about the inefficiency or unfairness of the system.
For the second year in a row, New Year's travellers have been able to purchase tickets online and avoid long queues.
But those without Internet access were shut out while tech-savvy buyers used plug-ins and other software to facilitate purchases, leading some trips to sell out in minutes and prompting complaints.
One traveller heading home from Beijing to eastern Zhejiang province told AFP it took him seven days to book a ticket online, while a migrant worker said he did not even know how to use a computer.
But the thick queues at station counters commonplace in previous years were not seen on Saturday, and people mostly appeared to be picking up tickets before heading home.
Police, some armed with machine guns, kept watch over the massive flows of people. About 70,000 officers were deployed to train stations nationwide on Saturday, the Xinhua state news agency reported.
27/01/2013 - NORTH KOREA N Korea remains defiant on nuclear tests
NORTH KOREA
N Korea remains defiant on nuclear tests
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed “substantial and high-profile important measures” at a meeting with top security officials, state media said on Sunday, days after announcing a third nuclear test in defiance of UN sanctions.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures,” state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations.
The meeting of top officials led by Kim makes clear that he backs Pyongyang’s defiant stance in protest of U.N. Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.
Last week, the Security Council condemned North Korea’s Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The council, including North Korea ally China, punished Pyongyang with more sanctions and ordered the regime to refrain from a nuclear test - or face “significant action.”
North Korea responded by rejecting the resolution and maintaining its right to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful civilian space program.
It also warned that it would keep developing rockets and testing nuclear devices to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility. A rare statement was issued Thursday by the powerful National Defense Commission, the top governing body led by Kim.
Kim’s order for strong action and the recent series of strong statements indicate he intends to conduct a nuclear test in the near future to show “he is a young yet powerful leader both domestically and internationally,” said Chin Hee-gwan, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Inje University.
North Korea cites a U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led U.N. Command mans the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.
North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the country’s nuclear complex northwest of Pyongyang in November 2010.
However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to build nuclear warheads small enough to mount on a long-range missile.
Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect the technique, and another atomic test could take the country closer to its goal of building a warhead that can be mounted on a missile designed to strike the United States. North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.
South Korean defense officials say North Korea is technically ready to conduct a nuclear test in a matter of days.
Satellite photos taken Wednesday show that over the past month, roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated.
Analysis of the images of the Punggye-ri site was provided Friday to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Kim could order a nuclear test ahead of the Feb. 16th birthday of his late father and former leader Kim Jong Il to “create a festive mood,” Chin predicted. Kim Jong Il died at age 69 in December 2011.
The U.S., South Korea and other countries have warned North Korea not to go ahead with a nuclear test, saying that would only deepen the country’s international isolation.
After meeting with Chinese officials Friday, U.S. envoy for North Korea Glyn Davies said a nuclear test would set back efforts to restart regional talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament.
North Korea has accused the U.S. and South Korea of leading the push for the U.N. Security Council resolution.
Sunday’s KCNA dispatch said the U.N. punishment indicates U.S. hostility toward North Korea has reached its highest point. North Korea also warned South Korea on Friday of “strong physical countermeasures” if Seoul takes part in the U.N. sanctions.
N Korea remains defiant on nuclear tests
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed “substantial and high-profile important measures” at a meeting with top security officials, state media said on Sunday, days after announcing a third nuclear test in defiance of UN sanctions.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures,” state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations.
The meeting of top officials led by Kim makes clear that he backs Pyongyang’s defiant stance in protest of U.N. Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.
Last week, the Security Council condemned North Korea’s Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The council, including North Korea ally China, punished Pyongyang with more sanctions and ordered the regime to refrain from a nuclear test - or face “significant action.”
North Korea responded by rejecting the resolution and maintaining its right to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful civilian space program.
It also warned that it would keep developing rockets and testing nuclear devices to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility. A rare statement was issued Thursday by the powerful National Defense Commission, the top governing body led by Kim.
Kim’s order for strong action and the recent series of strong statements indicate he intends to conduct a nuclear test in the near future to show “he is a young yet powerful leader both domestically and internationally,” said Chin Hee-gwan, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Inje University.
North Korea cites a U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led U.N. Command mans the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.
North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the country’s nuclear complex northwest of Pyongyang in November 2010.
However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to build nuclear warheads small enough to mount on a long-range missile.
Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect the technique, and another atomic test could take the country closer to its goal of building a warhead that can be mounted on a missile designed to strike the United States. North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.
South Korean defense officials say North Korea is technically ready to conduct a nuclear test in a matter of days.
Satellite photos taken Wednesday show that over the past month, roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated.
Analysis of the images of the Punggye-ri site was provided Friday to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Kim could order a nuclear test ahead of the Feb. 16th birthday of his late father and former leader Kim Jong Il to “create a festive mood,” Chin predicted. Kim Jong Il died at age 69 in December 2011.
The U.S., South Korea and other countries have warned North Korea not to go ahead with a nuclear test, saying that would only deepen the country’s international isolation.
After meeting with Chinese officials Friday, U.S. envoy for North Korea Glyn Davies said a nuclear test would set back efforts to restart regional talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament.
North Korea has accused the U.S. and South Korea of leading the push for the U.N. Security Council resolution.
Sunday’s KCNA dispatch said the U.N. punishment indicates U.S. hostility toward North Korea has reached its highest point. North Korea also warned South Korea on Friday of “strong physical countermeasures” if Seoul takes part in the U.N. sanctions.
China mining firm falls on Hong Kong trading debut
A trader (C) walks the floor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on October 12, 2012. China's Chinalco Mining Corporation fell more than 11 percent on its Hong Kong trading debut Thursday after raising $397 million in the city's first major initial public offering of the year.
AFP - China's Chinalco Mining Corporation fell more than 11 percent on its Hong Kong trading debut Thursday after raising $397 million in the city's first major initial public offering of the year.
Chinalco -- a unit of Aluminum Corporation of China, the mainland's largest aluminium producer by output -- opened at HK$1.55 ($0.20), from an offering price of HK$1.75. It later rose but remained below its listing price.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened 0.10 percent lower.
The group focuses on non-ferrous and non-aluminium mineral resources overseas and is currently concentrating on copper mining.
Analysts said the lacklustre debut was partly prompted by Washington's announcement on Wednesday that the US economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2013, indicating that the global recovery remains fragile.
"The price of copper is closely related to the global economy, so this reflects that investors are cautious on the price of copper going forward," investment bank Core Pacific-Yamaichi analyst Kenny Cheung told AFP.
Chinalco Mining controls the Toromocho Project in central Peru, one of the largest pre-production copper projects in the world.
The company has secured five so-called cornerstone investors, including Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, which had promised to invest a total of $240 million in its shares ahead of its trading debut.
Hong Kong was the world's top IPO market from 2009 to 2011 but money raised from new listings fell last year with uncertainty in the global economic outlook.
Chinalco -- a unit of Aluminum Corporation of China, the mainland's largest aluminium producer by output -- opened at HK$1.55 ($0.20), from an offering price of HK$1.75. It later rose but remained below its listing price.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened 0.10 percent lower.
The group focuses on non-ferrous and non-aluminium mineral resources overseas and is currently concentrating on copper mining.
Analysts said the lacklustre debut was partly prompted by Washington's announcement on Wednesday that the US economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2013, indicating that the global recovery remains fragile.
"The price of copper is closely related to the global economy, so this reflects that investors are cautious on the price of copper going forward," investment bank Core Pacific-Yamaichi analyst Kenny Cheung told AFP.
Chinalco Mining controls the Toromocho Project in central Peru, one of the largest pre-production copper projects in the world.
The company has secured five so-called cornerstone investors, including Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, which had promised to invest a total of $240 million in its shares ahead of its trading debut.
Hong Kong was the world's top IPO market from 2009 to 2011 but money raised from new listings fell last year with uncertainty in the global economic outlook.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Australia and Sri Lanka make peace
Australian and Sri Lankan players officially made peace following a fiery end to their final Twenty20 international won by the tourists off the last ball, Cricket Australia said.
They also sought to play down the angry exchanges as the two sides walked off the pitch after Sri Lanka won by two runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Cricket Australia admitted the rain-hit match finished with "ugly scenes" but stressed "both teams apologised".
Trouble erupted when all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, needing four runs from the final ball to clinch victory for Australia, told the Sri Lankans, in no uncertain terms, to get on with it.
Sri Lanka veteran Mahela Jayawardene, who earlier hit an unbeaten 61, yelled back at Maxwell. After the last ball was finally delivered the pair jostled in an angry face-to-face exchange.
Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and captain George Bailey also bickered with Jayawardene and bowler Thisara Perera during the on-field handshakes.
"I went into the Sri Lankan rooms after and they apologised for going over the top. All good," Maxwell said on Twitter.
He also admitted Tuesday he too had been at fault.
"Just to clarify... I apologised to Mahela and SL players as well. I have a good friendship with Mahela, and it's gonna stay that way!"
Australian captain George Bailey put the dispute down to "passion mate" and "heat of the moment".
"People care about the game and care about the way they play," he said.
"I know we get along very well with this side. Even just the chats there coming off, I think it's all just heat-of-the-moment stuff.
"But I think what you're seeing is individuals and teams that are pretty keen to win."
Jayawardene agreed. "To be honest it was just the heat of the moment. Things happen and you exchange a few words," he told reporters.
"They play it hard and we play it hard. After the game you are friends."
The tourists won the first T20 match by five wickets at the Sydney Olympic Stadium on Saturday night.
The one-day series was drawn 2-2 after Australia took the Test series 3-0.
They also sought to play down the angry exchanges as the two sides walked off the pitch after Sri Lanka won by two runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Cricket Australia admitted the rain-hit match finished with "ugly scenes" but stressed "both teams apologised".
Trouble erupted when all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, needing four runs from the final ball to clinch victory for Australia, told the Sri Lankans, in no uncertain terms, to get on with it.
Sri Lanka veteran Mahela Jayawardene, who earlier hit an unbeaten 61, yelled back at Maxwell. After the last ball was finally delivered the pair jostled in an angry face-to-face exchange.
Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and captain George Bailey also bickered with Jayawardene and bowler Thisara Perera during the on-field handshakes.
"I went into the Sri Lankan rooms after and they apologised for going over the top. All good," Maxwell said on Twitter.
He also admitted Tuesday he too had been at fault.
"Just to clarify... I apologised to Mahela and SL players as well. I have a good friendship with Mahela, and it's gonna stay that way!"
Australian captain George Bailey put the dispute down to "passion mate" and "heat of the moment".
"People care about the game and care about the way they play," he said.
"I know we get along very well with this side. Even just the chats there coming off, I think it's all just heat-of-the-moment stuff.
"But I think what you're seeing is individuals and teams that are pretty keen to win."
Jayawardene agreed. "To be honest it was just the heat of the moment. Things happen and you exchange a few words," he told reporters.
"They play it hard and we play it hard. After the game you are friends."
The tourists won the first T20 match by five wickets at the Sydney Olympic Stadium on Saturday night.
The one-day series was drawn 2-2 after Australia took the Test series 3-0.
5 hours 19 min ago - Japan PM suggests summit with China to improve relations
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday suggested a summit with China would improve a relationship that has been badly troubled for months.
"A high-level meeting should be held because there is a problem. If necessary, there might be a need to build the... relationship again, starting with a summit meeting," he told a television show.
Asia's two largest economies have been at diplomatic daggers, drawn since Tokyo nationalised islands at the centre of a festering territorial dispute in September.
Japan insisted its move to take formal ownership of islands it controls under the name Senkakus was nothing more than an administrative shift, transferring the title deeds from an individual to the state.
But China reacted with fury to the move over what it calls the Diaoyus, accusing Japan of reverting to its war-like ways of the last century and forgetting the lessons of history.
Anti-Japan demonstrations erupted in China, targeting Japanese businesses and shops and badly denting the multi-billion dollar relationship on which both countries are dependent.
Since the nationalisation, China has repeatedly sent its ships into waters around the islands in a move that analysts say is intended to prove Japan does not have effective control over them.
Beijing's planes have also flirted with the area and on at least one occasion ventured into what Japan considers its airspace, a move that led to commanders scrambling Japanese fighter planes.
"A high-level meeting should be held because there is a problem. If necessary, there might be a need to build the... relationship again, starting with a summit meeting," he told a television show.
Asia's two largest economies have been at diplomatic daggers, drawn since Tokyo nationalised islands at the centre of a festering territorial dispute in September.
Japan insisted its move to take formal ownership of islands it controls under the name Senkakus was nothing more than an administrative shift, transferring the title deeds from an individual to the state.
But China reacted with fury to the move over what it calls the Diaoyus, accusing Japan of reverting to its war-like ways of the last century and forgetting the lessons of history.
Anti-Japan demonstrations erupted in China, targeting Japanese businesses and shops and badly denting the multi-billion dollar relationship on which both countries are dependent.
Since the nationalisation, China has repeatedly sent its ships into waters around the islands in a move that analysts say is intended to prove Japan does not have effective control over them.
Beijing's planes have also flirted with the area and on at least one occasion ventured into what Japan considers its airspace, a move that led to commanders scrambling Japanese fighter planes.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Dreamliners grounded worldwide over safety
Airlines scrambled on Thursday to rearrange flights as Europe, Japan
and India joined the United States in grounding Boeing Co’s 787
Dreamliner passenger jets while battery-related problems are
investigated.
The lightweight, mainly carbon-composite plane has been plagued by
recent mishaps - including an emergency landing of a Japanese domestic
flight on Wednesday after warning lights indicated a battery problem -
raising concerns over its use of new technology, such as lithium-ion
batteries.The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Wednesday temporarily grounded Boeing’s newest commercial airliner, saying carriers would have to demonstrate the batteries were safe before the planes could resume flying. It gave no details on when that might happen.
The European Aviation Safety Agency has confirmed that the US decision to ground Boeing 787s pending a safety review will apply to all Dreamliner jets worldwide.
It is the first such action against a U.S.-made passenger plane since the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 had its airworthiness certificate suspended following a deadly crash in Chicago in 1979, analysts said.
Boeing has sold around 850 of the new planes, with 50 delivered to date. Around half of those have been in operation in Japan, but airlines in India, South America, Poland, Qatar and Ethiopia, as well as United Airlines in the United States, are also flying the aircraft, which has a list price of $207 million.
With most of that Dreamliner fleet now effectively out of action as engineers and regulators make urgent checks - primarily to the plane’s batteries and complex electronics - airlines are wrestling with gaps in their scheduling.
Japan Airlines Co said on Thursday the 787 grounding would lead to three flight cancellations, affecting more than 500 passengers. A spokesman for Air India said no flights had been cancelled as the airline was using other planes. “We’re working out a plan to handle the situation, and will hopefully know by this evening how we should go about it,” G. Prasada Rao told Reuters.
Motohisa Tachikawa, spokesman for JTB, a Tokyo-based travel services firm, said there had not yet been any direct impact on flight bookings. “I’m sure JAL and ANA are furiously trying to assign replacement planes for those that are grounded. How and when they will make that clear will impact our situation,” he told Reuters.
Cost of planes on ground
Keeping the 787s on the ground could cost ANA alone more than $1.1 million a day, Mizuho Securities calculated, noting the Dreamliner was key to the airline’s growth strategy.
Regulators in Japan and India said it was unclear when the Dreamliner could be back in action. A spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency said the region would follow the FAA’s grounding order. Poland’s state-controlled LOT Airlines is the sole European airline currently operating the 787.
LOT spokesman Marek Klucinski told Polish TVN24 channel that the airline had not encountered any similar problems with its two 787s, and was still taking delivery of the remaining three it had ordered from Boeing.
Boeing said in a statement it was confident the 787 was safe and it stood by the plane’s integrity.
“Boeing is committed to supporting the FAA and finding answers as quickly as possible,” CEO Jim McNerney said. “The company is working around the clock with its customers and the various regulatory and investigative authorities.”
Passengers leaving United’s flight 1426 in Houston - which had taken off from Los Angeles moments before the FAA announcement - reported an incident-free trip.
“I fly over 100,000 miles a year,” said Brett Boudreaux, a salesman from Lake Charles, Louisiana. “That was one of the most relaxing flights I’ve ever had. I hope they sort it out. It’s a hell of a plane.”
Boeing shares fell 2 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday, to $72.75.
“Ultimately, you can view it as a positive thing if they can resolve what the issues are and give people confidence in the safety of the aircraft,” said Ken Herbert, analyst at Imperial Capital in San Francisco. “In the near-term, though, it’s a negative. It’s going to force the company to make significant investments.”
British woman sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Bali
A British woman on Tuesday was sentenced to death by an Indonesian court for smuggling $2.5 million worth of cocaine into Bali, after the jury concluded that she had “damaged” the island's image as a tourist destination.
Lindsay June Sandiford, 56, wept when judges handed down the sentence and declined to speak to reporters on her way back to prison, covering her face with a floral scarf. She had claimed in court that she was forced into taking the drugs into the country by a gang that was threatening to hurt her children.
Indonesia, like many Asian countries, is very strict on drug crimes, and most of the more than 40 foreigners on its death row were convicted of drug charges.
Sandiford’s lawyer said she would appeal. Appeals take several years. Condemned criminals face a firing squad in Indonesia, which has not carried out an execution since 2008, when 10 people were put to death.
Japan repatriates hostage crisis victims
Seven survivors and the bodies of nine Japanese slain in a hostage crisis in Algeria returned to Tokyo on a government plane Friday.The 16 individuals worked for a Yokohama-based engineering company, JGC Corp. at a natural gas plant in the Sahara that was seized by al-Qaida-linked militants last week.
TV footage showed Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on the airport tarmac placing flowers on caskets that had been unloaded from the airplane. He and other government and company officials bowed as the caskets were driven away.
Algeria says at least 37 hostages and 29 militants were killed during four-day standoff at the Ain Amenas plant.
A solemn-looking Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed “deep sorrow” at a morning news conference and said Japan strongly condemned the terrorist actions.
Late Thursday, Japan said it had found the body of a 10th Japanese worker who had been missing. Six non-Japanese employees of JGC also were killed.
JGC President Koichi Kawana, who had gone to Algeria after the crisis and returned on Friday morning’s flight, told a somber news conference the deaths were “extremely painful” for him. He and other company executives bowed to express their condolences.
Kawana said his staff believed that building energy plants contributed to the development of emerging economies such as Algeria. Because of the crisis, he said the company needs to think hard about how to continue to its work while ensuring the safety of their workers.
“This will become our top priority going forward,” he said.
Delhi lawmaker tells gun owners to protect women
Delhi’s lieutenant governor has called for gun owners to patrol the city streets and use their weapons to prevent crimes against women, local press reports, following the brutal gang rape of a student aboard a bus in Decem
Gun owners should roam the streets at night and use their
weapons to prevent crimes against women, Delhi's lieutenant governor has
said in the wake of the brutal gang rape and murder of a student in the
capital, according to a report Saturday.
Tejendra Khanna, who heads the national capital's police department, on Friday urged gun-owning residents to put their weapons to "social service" and scare away potential molesters, The Indian Express said.
"Gun owners with licences must roam lonely spots like bus stands each night and if they spot someone harassing a woman, they should use their weapon to stop the crime," the federal administrator said in a speech.
"They can at least spend an hour or so every day with their friends in public after nightfall," Khanna said, according to the Indian Express.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party condemned Khanna's remarks, saying "citizens should not be advised to take their law into their own hands in any situation".
The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey estimates India is home to 40 million civilian-owned firearms of an estimated 650 million worldwide. Just 6.3 million Indian arms are registered.
Khanna's
remarks came as Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in a speech Friday
said the December 16 attack on the student who died of massive internal
injuries "has left our hearts empty and our minds in turmoil".
Police say rape cases in New Delhi jumped 23.4 percent to 706 in 2012 from a year earlier, highlighting rampant crime against women in the sprawling metropolis of 16 million people.
(AFP)
Tejendra Khanna, who heads the national capital's police department, on Friday urged gun-owning residents to put their weapons to "social service" and scare away potential molesters, The Indian Express said.
"Gun owners with licences must roam lonely spots like bus stands each night and if they spot someone harassing a woman, they should use their weapon to stop the crime," the federal administrator said in a speech.
"They can at least spend an hour or so every day with their friends in public after nightfall," Khanna said, according to the Indian Express.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party condemned Khanna's remarks, saying "citizens should not be advised to take their law into their own hands in any situation".
The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey estimates India is home to 40 million civilian-owned firearms of an estimated 650 million worldwide. Just 6.3 million Indian arms are registered.
Police say rape cases in New Delhi jumped 23.4 percent to 706 in 2012 from a year earlier, highlighting rampant crime against women in the sprawling metropolis of 16 million people.
(AFP)
Chinese stage rare protest over censored newspaper
Hundreds of people gathered outside the offices of a liberal newspaper at the centre of a censorship row in Guangzhou on Monday, in a rare public protest for greater freedom of the press and one that is likely to challenge China’s new leadership.
A dispute over censorship at a Chinese newspaper known for edgy reporting evolved Monday into a political challenge for China’s new leadership as prominent scholars demanded a censor’s dismissal and hundreds of protesters called for democratic reforms.
The scholars and protesters were acting in support of the Southern Weekly in its confrontation with a top censor after the publication was forced to change a New Year’s editorial calling for political reform into a tribute praising the ruling Communist Party. Rumors circulated that at least one of the newspaper’s news departments was going on strike, but they could not be immediately confirmed.
Protesters, including middle school students and white-collar workers, gathered outside the offices of the newspaper in the southern city of Guangzhou to lay flowers at the gate, hold signs and shout slogans calling for freedom of speech, political reform, constitutional governance and democracy.
“I feel that the ordinary people must awaken,” said one of the protesters, Yuan Fengchu, who was reached by phone. “The people are starting to realize that their rights have been taken away by the Communist Party and they are feeling that they are being constantly oppressed.”
Political expression in the public sphere is often viewed as risky in China, where the authoritarian government frequently harasses and even jails dissidents for pro-democracy calls.
Another protester, Guangzhou writer and activist Wu Wei, who goes by the pen name Ye Du, said the protest marked a rare instance in which people were making overt calls for political freedom since large-scale pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed in a military crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
“In other cities, we’ve seen people march, but most of the time they are protesting environmental pollution or people’s livelihood issues,” Wu said. “Here they are asking for political rights, the right to protest. The Southern Weekly incident has provided an opportunity for citizens to voice their desires.”
The protest came as 18 Chinese academics signed an open letter calling for the dismissal of Tuo Zhen, a provincial propaganda minister blamed for the censorship. The scholars included legal professors, liberal economists, historians and writers.
Peking University law professor He Weifang, who was among the signers, said the newspaper’s good work needed to be defended from censorship.
“Southern Weekly is known as a newspaper that exposes the truth, but after Tuo Zhen arrived in Guangdong, he constantly pressured the paper. We need to let him know that he can’t do this,” He said. “This incident is a test to see if the new leadership is determined to push political reform.”
Six weeks ago, China installed a new generation of Communist Party leaders for the next five years, with current Vice President Xi Jinping at the helm. Some of Xi’s announcements for a trimmed-down style of leadership, with reduced waste and fewer unnecessary meetings, have raised hopes in some quarters that he might favor deeper reforms in the political system to mollify a public long frustrated by local corruption.
The Guangdong provincial propaganda department did not immediately respond to a faxed list of questions. But the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper said in an editorial that no Chinese media outlet should fool itself into thinking that it could occupy a “political special zone” in which it is free from government control.
“Regardless of whether these people are willing or unwilling, common sense says: In China’s current social political reality, there cannot be the kind of ‘free media’ that these people hope in their hearts for,” the editorial said.
China’s media in recent years have become increasingly freewheeling in some kinds of coverage, including lurid reports on celebrities and sports figures. Still, censorship of political issues remains tight – although government officials typically claim there is no censorship at all – and the restrictions have drawn increasingly vocal criticism from journalists and members of the public.
A dispute over censorship at a Chinese newspaper known for edgy reporting evolved Monday into a political challenge for China’s new leadership as prominent scholars demanded a censor’s dismissal and hundreds of protesters called for democratic reforms.
The scholars and protesters were acting in support of the Southern Weekly in its confrontation with a top censor after the publication was forced to change a New Year’s editorial calling for political reform into a tribute praising the ruling Communist Party. Rumors circulated that at least one of the newspaper’s news departments was going on strike, but they could not be immediately confirmed.
Protesters, including middle school students and white-collar workers, gathered outside the offices of the newspaper in the southern city of Guangzhou to lay flowers at the gate, hold signs and shout slogans calling for freedom of speech, political reform, constitutional governance and democracy.
“I feel that the ordinary people must awaken,” said one of the protesters, Yuan Fengchu, who was reached by phone. “The people are starting to realize that their rights have been taken away by the Communist Party and they are feeling that they are being constantly oppressed.”
Political expression in the public sphere is often viewed as risky in China, where the authoritarian government frequently harasses and even jails dissidents for pro-democracy calls.
Another protester, Guangzhou writer and activist Wu Wei, who goes by the pen name Ye Du, said the protest marked a rare instance in which people were making overt calls for political freedom since large-scale pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed in a military crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
“In other cities, we’ve seen people march, but most of the time they are protesting environmental pollution or people’s livelihood issues,” Wu said. “Here they are asking for political rights, the right to protest. The Southern Weekly incident has provided an opportunity for citizens to voice their desires.”
The protest came as 18 Chinese academics signed an open letter calling for the dismissal of Tuo Zhen, a provincial propaganda minister blamed for the censorship. The scholars included legal professors, liberal economists, historians and writers.
Peking University law professor He Weifang, who was among the signers, said the newspaper’s good work needed to be defended from censorship.
“Southern Weekly is known as a newspaper that exposes the truth, but after Tuo Zhen arrived in Guangdong, he constantly pressured the paper. We need to let him know that he can’t do this,” He said. “This incident is a test to see if the new leadership is determined to push political reform.”
Six weeks ago, China installed a new generation of Communist Party leaders for the next five years, with current Vice President Xi Jinping at the helm. Some of Xi’s announcements for a trimmed-down style of leadership, with reduced waste and fewer unnecessary meetings, have raised hopes in some quarters that he might favor deeper reforms in the political system to mollify a public long frustrated by local corruption.
The Guangdong provincial propaganda department did not immediately respond to a faxed list of questions. But the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper said in an editorial that no Chinese media outlet should fool itself into thinking that it could occupy a “political special zone” in which it is free from government control.
“Regardless of whether these people are willing or unwilling, common sense says: In China’s current social political reality, there cannot be the kind of ‘free media’ that these people hope in their hearts for,” the editorial said.
China’s media in recent years have become increasingly freewheeling in some kinds of coverage, including lurid reports on celebrities and sports figures. Still, censorship of political issues remains tight – although government officials typically claim there is no censorship at all – and the restrictions have drawn increasingly vocal criticism from journalists and members of the public.
N Korea remains defiant on nuclear tests
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed “substantial and high-profile important measures” at a meeting with top security officials, state media said on Sunday, days after announcing a third nuclear test in defiance of UN sanctions.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures,” state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations.
The meeting of top officials led by Kim makes clear that he backs Pyongyang’s defiant stance in protest of U.N. Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.
Last week, the Security Council condemned North Korea’s Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The council, including North Korea ally China, punished Pyongyang with more sanctions and ordered the regime to refrain from a nuclear test - or face “significant action.”
North Korea responded by rejecting the resolution and maintaining its right to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful civilian space program.
It also warned that it would keep developing rockets and testing nuclear devices to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility. A rare statement was issued Thursday by the powerful National Defense Commission, the top governing body led by Kim.
Kim’s order for strong action and the recent series of strong statements indicate he intends to conduct a nuclear test in the near future to show “he is a young yet powerful leader both domestically and internationally,” said Chin Hee-gwan, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Inje University.
North Korea cites a U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led U.N. Command mans the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.
North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the country’s nuclear complex northwest of Pyongyang in November 2010.
However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to build nuclear warheads small enough to mount on a long-range missile.
Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect the technique, and another atomic test could take the country closer to its goal of building a warhead that can be mounted on a missile designed to strike the United States. North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.
South Korean defense officials say North Korea is technically ready to conduct a nuclear test in a matter of days.
Satellite photos taken Wednesday show that over the past month, roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated.
Analysis of the images of the Punggye-ri site was provided Friday to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Kim could order a nuclear test ahead of the Feb. 16th birthday of his late father and former leader Kim Jong Il to “create a festive mood,” Chin predicted. Kim Jong Il died at age 69 in December 2011.
The U.S., South Korea and other countries have warned North Korea not to go ahead with a nuclear test, saying that would only deepen the country’s international isolation.
After meeting with Chinese officials Friday, U.S. envoy for North Korea Glyn Davies said a nuclear test would set back efforts to restart regional talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament.
North Korea has accused the U.S. and South Korea of leading the push for the U.N. Security Council resolution.
Sunday’s KCNA dispatch said the U.N. punishment indicates U.S. hostility toward North Korea has reached its highest point. North Korea also warned South Korea on Friday of “strong physical countermeasures” if Seoul takes part in the U.N. sanctions.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures,” state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations.
The meeting of top officials led by Kim makes clear that he backs Pyongyang’s defiant stance in protest of U.N. Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.
Last week, the Security Council condemned North Korea’s Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The council, including North Korea ally China, punished Pyongyang with more sanctions and ordered the regime to refrain from a nuclear test - or face “significant action.”
North Korea responded by rejecting the resolution and maintaining its right to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful civilian space program.
It also warned that it would keep developing rockets and testing nuclear devices to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility. A rare statement was issued Thursday by the powerful National Defense Commission, the top governing body led by Kim.
Kim’s order for strong action and the recent series of strong statements indicate he intends to conduct a nuclear test in the near future to show “he is a young yet powerful leader both domestically and internationally,” said Chin Hee-gwan, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Inje University.
North Korea cites a U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led U.N. Command mans the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.
North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the country’s nuclear complex northwest of Pyongyang in November 2010.
However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to build nuclear warheads small enough to mount on a long-range missile.
Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect the technique, and another atomic test could take the country closer to its goal of building a warhead that can be mounted on a missile designed to strike the United States. North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.
South Korean defense officials say North Korea is technically ready to conduct a nuclear test in a matter of days.
Satellite photos taken Wednesday show that over the past month, roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated.
Analysis of the images of the Punggye-ri site was provided Friday to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Kim could order a nuclear test ahead of the Feb. 16th birthday of his late father and former leader Kim Jong Il to “create a festive mood,” Chin predicted. Kim Jong Il died at age 69 in December 2011.
The U.S., South Korea and other countries have warned North Korea not to go ahead with a nuclear test, saying that would only deepen the country’s international isolation.
After meeting with Chinese officials Friday, U.S. envoy for North Korea Glyn Davies said a nuclear test would set back efforts to restart regional talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament.
North Korea has accused the U.S. and South Korea of leading the push for the U.N. Security Council resolution.
Sunday’s KCNA dispatch said the U.N. punishment indicates U.S. hostility toward North Korea has reached its highest point. North Korea also warned South Korea on Friday of “strong physical countermeasures” if Seoul takes part in the U.N. sanctions.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
(Phillip Sherrod) North Korean Missile 'Could Have Reached US'
North Korean Missile 'Could Have Reached US'
Sky News – Sun, Dec 23, 2012
Enlarge PhotoNorth Korean Missile 'Could Have Reached US'
The long-range rocket fired by North Korea could have reached the US and eastern Europe, according to the South Korean defence ministry.
The launch was effectively the test of a ballistic missile capable of flying more than 10,000km (6,200) miles with a half-tonne payload, according to their scientists' analysis of the rocket's wreckage.Its range covers the whole of Asia, eastern Europe, western Africa, Alaska and a large part of the US west coast including San Fransisco.
The estimates have been based on analysis of a container recovered from the rocket's first-stage splashdown site.
"Based on our analysis and simulation, the missile is capable of flying more than 10,000km with a warhead of 500-600 kilograms," a defence ministry official said.
However, without any debris from the second and third stages to analyse, the official said it could not be determined if the rocket had re-entry capability, which is a key element of inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology.
North Korea maintains the launch of the Unha-3 was not a missile test but simply designed to put the country's first satellite in space.
However, most of the rest of the world saw the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test in contravention of the UN resolutions imposed after Pyongyang conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
South Korea is now analysing further wreckage from the rocket, including a fuel tank, a combustion chamber and an engine connection rod.
"As additional pieces have been salvaged, we will be able to look deeper into the function and structure of North Korea's long-range rocket," said the defence ministry official.
The read-out from the South Koreans comes after North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un made his first explicit call for the advancement of his country's long-range rocket programme.
On Friday, he gathered his rocket scientists together for a banquet in Pyongyang to urge them to build more powerful rockets. (Phillip Sherrod)
(Phillip Sherrod) Shenzhen: police officer gets 14 years in prison for his pro-democracy activity
» 01/03/2013
14:30
CHINA
Shenzhen: police officer gets 14 years in prison for his pro-democracy activity
After eight months in jail without trial, Wang Dengchao, a police officer in favour of democratic reforms in China gets a harsh sentence after being convicted by a court in Luohu. Afraid that the military might join the people in the fight for freedom, the Communist party is using an iron fist against any form of unrest.
Beijing (AsiaNews) - Opposition to China's Communist regime is now developing within its security forces. The latter have the task of maintaining the existing system by any means, violence included. For example, a court in Luohu recently sentenced a Shenzhen policeman to 14 years in prison after convicting him for "embezzlement" and "disrupting official business". In reality, the officer, Wang Dengchao, wanted to take part in a rally for democratic reforms.
Arrested in March 2012, the 38-year-old Wang had been involved with pro-democracy groups and websites. Two days after he was taken into custody, he was set to take part in a rally in a Shenzhen park. Instead, he was held for eight months without trial and convicted on 26 November on trumped-up charges.
A university graduate, Wang had been involved in pro-democracy activity for some time. His arrest and harsh sentence confirm two important facts. First, even within the security forces people are disinclined to go along uncritically with the government's repression. Second, the regime's rulers are showing signs of fear so much so that they are willing to squash rapidly and violently any sign of disaffection within the police and the military.
Both outgoing President Hu Jintao and his successor Xi Jinping, who in March will be president, party general secretary and chairman of the military commission, have used the strongest terms to describe the security forces as the "only barrier against the forces that want to destroy China". (Phillip Sherrod)
CHINA
Shenzhen: police officer gets 14 years in prison for his pro-democracy activity
After eight months in jail without trial, Wang Dengchao, a police officer in favour of democratic reforms in China gets a harsh sentence after being convicted by a court in Luohu. Afraid that the military might join the people in the fight for freedom, the Communist party is using an iron fist against any form of unrest.
Beijing (AsiaNews) - Opposition to China's Communist regime is now developing within its security forces. The latter have the task of maintaining the existing system by any means, violence included. For example, a court in Luohu recently sentenced a Shenzhen policeman to 14 years in prison after convicting him for "embezzlement" and "disrupting official business". In reality, the officer, Wang Dengchao, wanted to take part in a rally for democratic reforms.
Arrested in March 2012, the 38-year-old Wang had been involved with pro-democracy groups and websites. Two days after he was taken into custody, he was set to take part in a rally in a Shenzhen park. Instead, he was held for eight months without trial and convicted on 26 November on trumped-up charges.
A university graduate, Wang had been involved in pro-democracy activity for some time. His arrest and harsh sentence confirm two important facts. First, even within the security forces people are disinclined to go along uncritically with the government's repression. Second, the regime's rulers are showing signs of fear so much so that they are willing to squash rapidly and violently any sign of disaffection within the police and the military.
Both outgoing President Hu Jintao and his successor Xi Jinping, who in March will be president, party general secretary and chairman of the military commission, have used the strongest terms to describe the security forces as the "only barrier against the forces that want to destroy China". (Phillip Sherrod)
(Phillip Sherrod) Pyongyang in the streets weeps for Kim Jong-il (and the failures of Kim Jong-un)
» 12/17/2012
14:51
NORTH KOREA
Pyongyang in the streets weeps for Kim Jong-il (and the failures of Kim Jong-un)
The regime requires the Koreans abroad "not to be seen in public" and to go to the embassy to bow to the funeral altar of the late "Beloved Leader". A statue erected of the former dictator as high as that of the father of the country, Kim Il-sung. A source: "The people cry because they lack food and homes, not for the death of the old man."
Seoul (AsiaNews) - Hundreds of thousands of people have paid tribute this morning to the memory of Kim Jong-il, the "Beloved Leader" of North Korea who died a year ago. After nine bows (the customary "kowtows" with which one pays tribute to a deceased person), the crowd gathered in the central square in Pyongyang wept openly and showed its desperation for the "death of the great hero of the revolution." However, as pointed out by several sources, "those present, and all North Koreans, cried also because of the failures of the regime."
The mourning lasted 3 days. The government in Pyongyang has also imposed on the North Koreans abroad "not to be seen in public" and to go instead to their country's embassies "to cry with all the great Korean people." In Dandong, China, the various merchants who come from Pyongyang have disappeared from the streets; in all the embassies there has been erected a memorial altar for the late dictator.
Instead, in the capital, a statue was erected of the "Beloved Leader" as high as that of his father, Kim Il-sung: a way to emphasize the "equal contribution" that the two have made to the "development" of the country. Making the comparison was the President of Parliament, Kim Young-nam, who spoke in the place of the new dictator Jong-un, "too emotional" to pronounce his speech.
Kim said "the whole life of Kim Jong-il has proven to be exceptional. His superhuman energy and his enormous revolutionary spirit have held high the red flag over our glorious nation, and his patriotic commitment have defended it against the enormous threats that surround it." The reference is to the nuclear missile program that Pyongyang continues to carry on despite the enormous cost in economic, human, social and diplomatic terms.
The launch of the Unha-3, the "weather" missile that has successfully reached the Earth's atmosphere, was celebrated as a success of the Kim family: every day since its launch last week, "spontaneous" demonstrations have been held to celebrate it. With the money spent to build and run it, the regime could have bought 5.8 million tonnes of maize, enough to feed 20 million people for 19 months.
A source pointed out: "In addition to the death of Jong-il, North Korea also commemorates a year since the new dictator has taken over. He had re-launched, after his father's funeral, the slogan of his grandfather, "will we feed the people with rice and meat soup". Well, in the past 12 months things have gotten worse for everyone: even the military has little to eat, while the government's ranks have been purged almost every month. That is why the North Koreans mourn, not for the death of the old Kim." (JYL)
NORTH KOREA
Pyongyang in the streets weeps for Kim Jong-il (and the failures of Kim Jong-un)
The regime requires the Koreans abroad "not to be seen in public" and to go to the embassy to bow to the funeral altar of the late "Beloved Leader". A statue erected of the former dictator as high as that of the father of the country, Kim Il-sung. A source: "The people cry because they lack food and homes, not for the death of the old man."
Seoul (AsiaNews) - Hundreds of thousands of people have paid tribute this morning to the memory of Kim Jong-il, the "Beloved Leader" of North Korea who died a year ago. After nine bows (the customary "kowtows" with which one pays tribute to a deceased person), the crowd gathered in the central square in Pyongyang wept openly and showed its desperation for the "death of the great hero of the revolution." However, as pointed out by several sources, "those present, and all North Koreans, cried also because of the failures of the regime."
The mourning lasted 3 days. The government in Pyongyang has also imposed on the North Koreans abroad "not to be seen in public" and to go instead to their country's embassies "to cry with all the great Korean people." In Dandong, China, the various merchants who come from Pyongyang have disappeared from the streets; in all the embassies there has been erected a memorial altar for the late dictator.
Instead, in the capital, a statue was erected of the "Beloved Leader" as high as that of his father, Kim Il-sung: a way to emphasize the "equal contribution" that the two have made to the "development" of the country. Making the comparison was the President of Parliament, Kim Young-nam, who spoke in the place of the new dictator Jong-un, "too emotional" to pronounce his speech.
Kim said "the whole life of Kim Jong-il has proven to be exceptional. His superhuman energy and his enormous revolutionary spirit have held high the red flag over our glorious nation, and his patriotic commitment have defended it against the enormous threats that surround it." The reference is to the nuclear missile program that Pyongyang continues to carry on despite the enormous cost in economic, human, social and diplomatic terms.
The launch of the Unha-3, the "weather" missile that has successfully reached the Earth's atmosphere, was celebrated as a success of the Kim family: every day since its launch last week, "spontaneous" demonstrations have been held to celebrate it. With the money spent to build and run it, the regime could have bought 5.8 million tonnes of maize, enough to feed 20 million people for 19 months.
A source pointed out: "In addition to the death of Jong-il, North Korea also commemorates a year since the new dictator has taken over. He had re-launched, after his father's funeral, the slogan of his grandfather, "will we feed the people with rice and meat soup". Well, in the past 12 months things have gotten worse for everyone: even the military has little to eat, while the government's ranks have been purged almost every month. That is why the North Koreans mourn, not for the death of the old Kim." (JYL)
(Phill Sherrod) Senkaku / Diaoyu: Chinese ships in disputed islands, tension grows between Tokyo and Beijing
» 12/21/2012
09:43
JAPAN - CHINA
Senkaku / Diaoyu: Chinese ships in disputed islands, tension grows between Tokyo and Beijing
According to the Coast Guard, a group of vessels has crossed the 12 nautical miles around the atolls. A showdown from Beijing, which shows that it can "come and go" when it wants to. It is the first violation in the area, since the Japanese elections which confirmed the victory of Abe.
Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Beijing has sent some ships to the territorial waters surrounding a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea at the center of a dispute with Japan. This is the first incursion since the Japanese elections which saw the triumph of the "hawk" and conservative Shinzo Abe, of the Liberal Party (LDP). From now on the new Tokyo leadership has made it clear that the Chinese challenge "must be stopped", although it is also our duty to construct "good relations in the national interest of both countries." However, the dispute around the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, threatens to plunge already strained relations.
Japan's coast guard reported that three Chinese patrol boats entered in the 12 nautical miles around the Senkaku Islands, and in addition, there is also a group of fishing vessels stationed in adjacent waters. It is the 19th time that Beijing has sent boats to the area, since Tokyo nationalized the atolls last September. Experts believe it is a Chinese show of strength to prove they can "come and go from the area as they please."
Tensions have peaked since 13 December last when Tokyo scrmbled fighter jets after a Chinese aircraft entered the airspace of the Senkaku / Diaoyu, for the first time since 1958. For several months, Tokyo and Beijing have been staging a tug of war over the sovereignty of this group of islands in the East China Sea, sending ships, coastguards, fishing boats and now planes. Asian policy experts argue that Beijing "will not compromise" and intends to "keep up the pressure."
The new Communist leadership headed by President Xi Jinping does not seem to be willing to close the territorial disputes in a peaceful manner, involving various strategic areas of Asia and the Pacific. Beijing's latest weapon of choice is that of science. A 11-page report presented to the UN asserts that "the appearance and geological features show that the islands are part of the fault line of China's mainland territory." It is an attempt to undermine the legal system of territorial waters and of international organizations.
(Phill Sherrod)
JAPAN - CHINA
Senkaku / Diaoyu: Chinese ships in disputed islands, tension grows between Tokyo and Beijing
According to the Coast Guard, a group of vessels has crossed the 12 nautical miles around the atolls. A showdown from Beijing, which shows that it can "come and go" when it wants to. It is the first violation in the area, since the Japanese elections which confirmed the victory of Abe.
Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Beijing has sent some ships to the territorial waters surrounding a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea at the center of a dispute with Japan. This is the first incursion since the Japanese elections which saw the triumph of the "hawk" and conservative Shinzo Abe, of the Liberal Party (LDP). From now on the new Tokyo leadership has made it clear that the Chinese challenge "must be stopped", although it is also our duty to construct "good relations in the national interest of both countries." However, the dispute around the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, threatens to plunge already strained relations.
Japan's coast guard reported that three Chinese patrol boats entered in the 12 nautical miles around the Senkaku Islands, and in addition, there is also a group of fishing vessels stationed in adjacent waters. It is the 19th time that Beijing has sent boats to the area, since Tokyo nationalized the atolls last September. Experts believe it is a Chinese show of strength to prove they can "come and go from the area as they please."
Tensions have peaked since 13 December last when Tokyo scrmbled fighter jets after a Chinese aircraft entered the airspace of the Senkaku / Diaoyu, for the first time since 1958. For several months, Tokyo and Beijing have been staging a tug of war over the sovereignty of this group of islands in the East China Sea, sending ships, coastguards, fishing boats and now planes. Asian policy experts argue that Beijing "will not compromise" and intends to "keep up the pressure."
The new Communist leadership headed by President Xi Jinping does not seem to be willing to close the territorial disputes in a peaceful manner, involving various strategic areas of Asia and the Pacific. Beijing's latest weapon of choice is that of science. A 11-page report presented to the UN asserts that "the appearance and geological features show that the islands are part of the fault line of China's mainland territory." It is an attempt to undermine the legal system of territorial waters and of international organizations.
(Phill Sherrod)
(Phillip Sherrod) North Koreans celebrate Kim's rocket
12/14/2012 13:08
KOREA
North Koreans celebrate Kim's rocket
by Joseph Yun Li-sun
Hundreds of thousands brave the frigid temperatures in Kim Il-sung Square and celebrate the successful launch of the Unha-3 rocket. Kim Jong-un, North Korea's young dictator, is hailed as the author of the success. However, South Korea is first to find the rocket's first stage fuel container and is convinced that the North is preparing a new nuclear test.
Seoul (AsiaNews) - Despite the bitter cold, hundreds of thousands of North Korea came out en mass today in Pyongyang and other North Korea cities to celebrate the successful launch of the Unha-3 rocket that put a satellite in orbit on Wednesday. In the capital, a traditional mass rally with at least 200,000 people was held with participants dancing and waving large coloured cards to create ideograms with the rocket's name and that of the country's new leader, Kim Jong-un.
The huge crowd in Pyongyang's in Kim Il-sung Square, shown on state television, cheered as top officials in the army, party and government delivered their speeches and praised the new dictator's "bravery and wisdom". Indeed, the launch "was achieved thanks to the Great Marshall Kim Jong-un's endless loyalty, bravery and wisdom," said Jang Chol, president of the State Academy of Sciences.
North Korea claims that the long-range rocket it launched placed a satellite into orbit. It also claims that its space programme is intended for peaceful purposes; critics however contend that it is part of the regime's military nuclear programme.
For his part, the young Kim, cited by the regime's official news agency, told the crowd that North Korea needed "to launch satellites in the future . . . to develop the country's science, technology and economy".
Internationally, the launch has instead raised suspicions, especially in South Korea, which now fears new provocations.
Intelligence authorities and experts here believe a nuclear test is imminent, the daily Chosun Ilbo reported. Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin told the National Assembly on Wednesday that "North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and made considerable progress toward a third one," adding that Pyongyang may well conduct another test if it deems it "politically necessary."
To gather more information, South Korea's Navy located the first stage of the North Korean rocket, a fuel container at a depth of about 80 metres.
"The launch means the fulfilment of Kim Jong-Il's last wish," said Yoo Ho-Yeol, a political science professor at Korea University in Seoul. "As such, it helps cement Jong-un's grip on power and strengthens his authority over the North's military elites, securing their loyalty and a sense of solidarity under his leadership," Yoo added. (Phillip Sherrod)
KOREA
North Koreans celebrate Kim's rocket
by Joseph Yun Li-sun
Hundreds of thousands brave the frigid temperatures in Kim Il-sung Square and celebrate the successful launch of the Unha-3 rocket. Kim Jong-un, North Korea's young dictator, is hailed as the author of the success. However, South Korea is first to find the rocket's first stage fuel container and is convinced that the North is preparing a new nuclear test.
Seoul (AsiaNews) - Despite the bitter cold, hundreds of thousands of North Korea came out en mass today in Pyongyang and other North Korea cities to celebrate the successful launch of the Unha-3 rocket that put a satellite in orbit on Wednesday. In the capital, a traditional mass rally with at least 200,000 people was held with participants dancing and waving large coloured cards to create ideograms with the rocket's name and that of the country's new leader, Kim Jong-un.
The huge crowd in Pyongyang's in Kim Il-sung Square, shown on state television, cheered as top officials in the army, party and government delivered their speeches and praised the new dictator's "bravery and wisdom". Indeed, the launch "was achieved thanks to the Great Marshall Kim Jong-un's endless loyalty, bravery and wisdom," said Jang Chol, president of the State Academy of Sciences.
North Korea claims that the long-range rocket it launched placed a satellite into orbit. It also claims that its space programme is intended for peaceful purposes; critics however contend that it is part of the regime's military nuclear programme.
For his part, the young Kim, cited by the regime's official news agency, told the crowd that North Korea needed "to launch satellites in the future . . . to develop the country's science, technology and economy".
Internationally, the launch has instead raised suspicions, especially in South Korea, which now fears new provocations.
Intelligence authorities and experts here believe a nuclear test is imminent, the daily Chosun Ilbo reported. Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin told the National Assembly on Wednesday that "North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and made considerable progress toward a third one," adding that Pyongyang may well conduct another test if it deems it "politically necessary."
To gather more information, South Korea's Navy located the first stage of the North Korean rocket, a fuel container at a depth of about 80 metres.
"The launch means the fulfilment of Kim Jong-Il's last wish," said Yoo Ho-Yeol, a political science professor at Korea University in Seoul. "As such, it helps cement Jong-un's grip on power and strengthens his authority over the North's military elites, securing their loyalty and a sense of solidarity under his leadership," Yoo added. (Phillip Sherrod)
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Burmese army launches air strikes on northern rebels
Burmese army launches air strikes on northern rebels
Burma's army has launched air strikes in recent days against ethnic rebels as it fights to regain one of its bases from the Kachin Independence Organisation, government sources said Wednesday, amid an escalation in clashes.
Myanmar's army has used air strikes against northern ethnic rebels, sources from both sides said Wednesday, in an escalation of a conflict that has raised doubts over the country's reform drive.
Fighting between the country's military, known as the 'Tatmadaw', and the armed wing of the KIO (Kachin Independence Organisation) has worsened in recent days as the army battled to regain one of its bases, a government negotiator involved in peace efforts told AFP.
"We heard the military used helicopters and training jets while trying to get their camp back," said Hla Maung Shwe, who is also an adviser to President Thein Sein.
He declined to specify how the aircraft were used, but a report on the military's Burmese language Myawaddy news website said a key base had been seized from the rebels on December 30 "with the help of air strikes in the region".
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced since June 2011, when a 17-year ceasefire between the government and Kachin rebels broke down.
The rebels are calling for greater political rights and an end to alleged human rights abuses by the army.
Clashes in Kachin, along with communal unrest in western Rakhine state, have cast a shadow over Myanmar's widely praised emergence from decades of army rule.
KIO deputy chief of foreign affairs Colonel James Lum Dau said that the fighting in Kachin had become "more serious" since last week, adding that it was concentrated in an area about seven miles (11 kilometres) from the rebel headquarters in Laiza on the Chinese border.
"Before they (attacked) with helicopters, now they are using jets with rockets and bombs," he said.
AFP was not able to independently verify whether the jets had been used to fire on the rebels.
A close observer of the situation, who asked not to be named, said there had been a "marked escalation" in fighting.
"They are firing a lot from helicopter gunships and using heavy artillery. It has been very close to the KIO headquarters," he said.
Civil war has gripped parts of Myanmar since independence from Britain in 1948.
Myanmar's new quasi-civilian government has reached tentative ceasefires with most of the country's other major ethnic rebel groups, but several rounds of talks aimed at resolving the conflict in the country's far north have shown little tangible progress.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay, who declined to give details of the latest fighting, said the Kachin rebels had not responded to an invitation for further dialogue.
The UN recently appealed to Myanmar to stop blocking aid to tens of thousands of displaced people in rebel-held territory in Kachin.
North Korean leader calls for end to “confrontation” with South
North Korean leader calls for end to “confrontation” with South
In the first televised New Year address by a North Korean leader in 19 years, Kim Jong-un called for the end of “confrontation between the north and the south” of the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas never signed a treaty to end the 1950-1953 war.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
The address by Kim, who took over power in the reclusive state after his father, Kim Jong-il, died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year editorial published in leading state newspapers.
Impoverished North Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in December that it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation.
EXCLUSIVE REPORT: INSIDE NORTH KOREA
North Korea, which considers North and South as one country, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.
“An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south,” Kim said in the address that appeared to be pre-recorded and was made at an undisclosed location.
“The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war.”
The New Year address was the first in 19 years by a North Korean leader after the death of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather. Kim Jong-il rarely spoke in public and disclosed his national policy agenda in editorials in state newspapers.
The two Koreas have seen tensions rise to the highest level in decades after the North bombed a Southern island in 2010 killing two civilians and two soldiers.
The sinking of a South Korean navy ship earlier that year was blamed on the North but Pyongyang has denied it and accused Seoul of waging a smear campaign against its leadership.
Last month, South Korea elected as president Park Geun-hye, a conservative daughter of assassinated military ruler Park Chung-hee whom Kim Il-sung had tried to kill at the height of their Cold War confrontation.
Park has vowed to pursue engagement with the North and called for dialogue to build confidence but has demanded that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, something it is unlikely to do.
Conspicuously absent from Kim’s speech was any mention of the nuclear arms programme.
North Korean rocket 'could have reached US'
North Korean rocket 'could have reached US'
A North Korean rocket launched earlier this month has shown that the country has likely developed the technology to fire a warhead more than 10,000 km, theoretically putting the US West Coast within range, South Korean officials warned on Sunday.
This month’s rocket launch by reclusive North Korea shows it has likely developed the technology, long suspected in the West, to fire a warhead more than 10,000 km (6,200 miles), South Korean officials said on Sunday, putting the U.S. West Coast in range.
North Korea said the Dec. 12 launch put a weather satellite in orbit but critics say it was aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.
North Korea is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests and the U.N. Security Council condemned the launch.
South Korea retrieved and analysed parts of the first-stage rocket that dropped in the waters off its west coast
“As a result of analysing the material of Unha-3 (North Korea’s rocket), we judged North Korea had secured a range of more than 10,000 km in case the warhead is 500-600 kg,” a South Korean Defence Ministry official told a news briefing.
North Korea’s previous missile tests ended in failure.
North Korea, which denounces the United States as the mother of all warmongers on an almost daily basis, has spent decades and scarce resources to try to develop technology capable of striking targets as far away as the United States and it is also working to build a nuclear arsenal.
But experts believe the North is still years away from mastering the technology needed to miniaturise a nuclear bomb to mount on a missile.
South Korean defence officials also said there was no confirmation whether the North had the re-entry technology needed for a payload to survive the heat and vibration without disintegrating.
Despite international condemnation, the launch this month was seen as a major boost domestically to the credibility of the North’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, who took over power from his father who died last year.
Apparently encouraged by the euphoria, the fledgling supreme leader called for the development and launching of “a variety of more working satellites” and “carrier rockets of bigger capacity” at a banquet in Pyongyang on Friday which he hosted for those who contributed to the lift-off, according to North Korean state media.
China opens world’s longest high-speed train
China opens world’s longest high-speed train
China began service on the world’s longest high-speed rail Wednesday, with TV crews filming as the first train pulled out of Beijing West Railway Station. The 2,298-kilometre line connects the capital to Guangzhou city in eight hours.
China started service Wednesday on the world's longest high-speed rail route, the latest milestone in the country's rapid and – sometimes troubled – super fast rail network.
The opening of the new 2,298-kilometre (1,425-mile) line between Beijing and Guangzhou means passengers will be whisked from the capital to the southern commercial hub in just eight hours, compared with the 22 hours previously required.
China Central Television broadcast the departure of the first train live from Beijing West Railway Station. It also carried live reports from inside showing passengers toting cameras to apparently snap commemorative photos.
Trains will travel at an average speed of 300 kilometres per hour over the line, which includes 35 stops in major cities such as Zhengzhou, Wuhan on the Yangtze River and Changsha.
State media have reported that December 26 was chosen to start passenger service on the Beijing-Guangzhou line to commemorate the birth in 1893 of revered Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
The Beijing-Guangzhou route was made possible with the completion of a line between Zhengzhou and Beijing. High-speed sections linking Zhengzhou and Wuhan and Wuhan and Guangzhou were already in service.
China's high-speed rail network was established in 2007, but has fast become the world's largest with 8,358 kilometres of track at the end of 2010. That is expected to almost double to 16,000 kilometres by 2020.
The network, however, has been plagued by graft and safety scandals, most notably a deadly bullet train collision in July 2011 that killed 40 people and sparked a public outrage.
The accident was China's worst rail disaster since 2008 and caused a torrent of criticism aimed at the government amid accusations that authorities compromised safety in their rush to expand the network.
Authorities said they have taken steps ahead of the new line's opening to improve maintenance and inspection of infrastructure, including track, rolling stock and emergency response measures.
"The emergency rescue system and all kinds of emergency pre-plans are established to improve emergency response ability," according to a ministry booklet.
Still, safety concerns remain.
The Global Times newspaper, with close ties to China's ruling Communist Party, on Wednesday quoted a Ministry of Railways official acknowledging continuing problems despite intense efforts to solve them during trial runs.
"We can't make sure it's error-proof in the future, and we have been subject to a lot of pressure from the public," Zhao Chunlei, deputy chief of the ministry's transportation department, told the paper.
The train's opening means that it will be in service over China's Lunar New Year holiday period, which falls in mid-February next year.
Hundreds of millions of people travel across the country during that period to visit their ancestral hometowns in the world's largest annual migration.
Philippines 'sin tax' introduced, dampens New Year fun
Philippines 'sin tax' introduced, dampens New Year fun
A "sin tax" on cigarettes and alcohol dampened the New Year party spirit when it was introduced in the Philippines Tuesday, as part of a government bid to boost finances.
Many stores started selling tobacco and drink at inflated prices before midnight, ahead of the official implementation of the tax hikes on January 1, hitting partygoers in the pocket.
Tax on cigarettes will gradually be raised to 30 pesos ($0.72) per pack by 2017, roughly doubling the current price to around 52 pesos.
Duty on alcohol will also increase gradually until 2017, increasing the price of a bottle of beer by 23.50 pesos, with varying levels for other drinks including wine and spirits. It will be further increased by four percent each year thereafter.
"The new prices compared to countries like Singapore for example, are still low, but for the ordinary Filipinos they are expensive," said Laudemer Angeles, a 33-year-old shop owner in the town of Bacoor, south of Manila.
"Many of my customers were complaining about the higher prices and were not too happy when they bought their booze and smokes for their parties last night."
Anti-smoking campaigner Emer Rojas said he hoped the new taxes would lead to a gradual decline in the number of people suffering from tobacco-related illness.
"I think the sin taxes should even be raised higher," he told AFP. "But we commend President Aquino for showing his resolve in signing the law."
The government has said that the country of 100 million has the highest incidence of smoking in the region, with tobacco-related diseases costing the country 177 billion pesos ($4.3 billion) last year.
The new taxes aim to raise 33 billion pesos ($800 million) this year alone, gradually increasing over the coming years.
A large percentage of the money will go towards the government's health care programme.
The government first asked parliament to raise taxes on "sin" products as early as 1997, but a strong lobby by tobacco manufacturers stifled change.
The lobby included members of parliament representing tobacco-growing regions as well as powerful cigarette companies that enjoyed one of the lowest tobacco taxes in Southeast Asia.
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