North Korea Warns of ‘Overwhelming Nuclear Force’ to Counter US

By KIM TONG-HYUNG

In this photo provided by South Korean Defense Ministry, U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, center, F-22 fighter jets and South Korean Air Force F-35 fighter jets, bottom, fly over South Korea Peninsula during a joint air drill in South Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2023. North Korea on Thursday threatened the "toughest reaction" to the United States' expanding joint military exercises with South Korea to counter the North's growing nuclear weapons ambitions, claiming that the allies were pushing tensions to an "extreme red line." (South Korean Defense Ministry via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday it’s prepared to counter U.S. military moves with the “most overwhelming nuclear force” as it warned that the expansion of the United States’ military exercises with rival South Korea is pushing tensions to an “extreme red line.”

The statement by Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry came in response to comments by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said Tuesday in Seoul that the United States would increase its deployment of advanced military assets to the Korean Peninsula, including fighter jets and aircraft carriers, as it strengthens joint training and operational planning with South Korea.

South Korea’s security jitters have risen since North Korea test-fired dozens of missiles in 2022, including potentially nuclear-capable ones designed to strike targets in South Korea and the U.S. mainland.

In a statement attributed to an unidentified spokesperson of its Foreign Ministry, North Korea said the expansion of the allies’ drills is threatening to turn the Korean Peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone.” The statement said the North is prepared to counter any short- or long-term military challenge with the “most overwhelming nuclear force.”

“The military and political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region has reached an extreme red line due to the reckless military confrontational maneuvers and hostile acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces,” the spokesperson said.

North Korea for decades has described the United States’ combined military exercises with South Korea as rehearsals for a potential invasion, although the allies have described those drills as defensive.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the United States flew B-1B bombers and F-22 and F-35 fighter jets in an exercise Wednesday with South Korean fighters above South Korea’s western waters. The United States and South Korea are also planning to a joint simulation this month aimed at sharpening their response if North Korea uses nuclear weapons.

The North Korean statement portends another provocative run in weapons demonstrations in 2023, similar to how the North ramped up its own weapons launches in 2022 as the allies resumed their large-scale training. North Korea’s actions included a slew of missile and artillery launches that it described as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets.

“DPRK will take the toughest reaction to any military attempt of the U.S. on the principle of ‘nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation!’” the North Korean spokesperson said, invoking the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“If the U.S. continues to introduce strategic assets into the Korean Peninsula and its surrounding area, the DPRK will make clearer its deterring activities without fail according to their nature,” the spokesperson said.

When asked about the North Korean statement in the Philippines on Thursday, Austin said the United States is “very serious” about its commitment to defending South Korea and will continue to work alongside its allies and “train and ensure that we maintain credible and ready forces.”

Ahn Eunju, spokesperson of South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said North Korea’s expansion of its nuclear weapons and missile program and verbal threats of preemptive nuclear attacks have forced Seoul to react sternly to ensure the protection of its citizens.

“North Korea is the one that’s elevating tensions on the Korean Peninsula by rejecting dialogue offers from South Korea and the United States and making nuclear and missile provocations and threats,” she said, urging Pyongyang to return to denuclearization talks.

Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said the allies’ latest aerial drills were aimed at demonstrating the credibility of the U.S. “extended deterrence,” referring to a commitment to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear ones, to defend South Korea. He declined to reveal the exact number of U.S. and South Korean aircraft involved in the exercise.

In a news conference following their meeting on Tuesday, Austin said he and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup agreed to further expand their combined military exercises, including more live-fire demonstrations. They pledged to continue a “timely and coordinated” deployment of U.S. strategic assets to the region.

The allies had previously downsized their training in recent years to create room for diplomacy with North Korea during the Trump administration and because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Korea and the United States have also been strengthening their security cooperation with Japan, which recently included trilateral missile defense and anti-submarine warfare exercises during a provocative run in North Korean weapons tests.

“We deployed fifth-generation aircraft, F-22s and F-35s, we deployed a carrier strike group to visit the peninsula. You can look for more of that kind of activity going forward,” Austin said.

Tensions could further rise with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doubling down on his nuclear ambitions.

During a political conference in December, Kim called for an “exponential increase” in nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting South Korea, and the development of more powerful long-range missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland.

Kim could showcase his growing arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles next week as commercial satellite images indicate preparations for a huge military parade in capital Pyongyang, likely for the 75th founding anniversary of its army that falls on Feb. 8.

Experts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power so it can negotiate badly needed economic concessions from a position of strength. Nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea stopped in 2019 because of disagreements over a relaxation of U.S.-led economic sanctions against the North in exchange for steps by North Korea to wind down its nuclear weapons and missiles programs.

The North Korean spokesperson said Pyongyang isn’t interested in any contact or dialogue with the United States as long as it maintains its “hostile policy and confrontational line,” saying Washington is trying to force Pyongyang to “disarm itself unilaterally.”

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AP writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to the story.

US Advances Deal to Access More Military Bases in the Philippines Amid Protests

By Liu Xin and Liu Xuanzun

Feb 02, 2023 10:28 PM

Philippine protesters hold anti-US placards during a rally in front of the military headquarters in Quezon City, suburban Manila on February 2, 2023, during US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's visit to the Philippines. The two countries announced a deal on February 2 that will give US troops access to another four bases in the Southeast Asian country. Photo: AFP

The US has been criticized for pushing for more military presence in Asia out of a zero-sum game mentality and jeopardizing regional stability, after the US has managed to expand access to four additional military bases in the Philippines to boost its military flexibility in possible war scenarios with China.

Analysts said that regional countries have become vigilant about not becoming cannon fodder for Washington's belligerence. 

Despite protests scattered around cities in the Philippines, including Manila and Quezon City, against the deployment of US forces and weapons in the country, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pressed on with advancing the expansion of a defense pact, which allows the US to position military equipment and rotate its troops to four more military bases in the Southeast Asian country. 

The deal under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) was announced on Thursday. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who took office last year, also met with Austin on Thursday. 

The US and some Western media ran a series of reports on the deal before it was finalized and claimed that this US military expansion was aimed at China's "increasing" threats in the South China Sea and the Taiwan question. 

In response, Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a routine press conference on Thursday that defense and security cooperation between countries needs to be conducive to regional peace and stability and not targeted at or harmful to the interests of any third party. The US, out of selfish interests, holds on to the zero-sum mentality and keeps strengthening military deployment in the Asia-Pacific. This would escalate tensions and endanger peace and stability in the region.

Mao also reminded that regional countries need to remain vigilant and avoid being coerced or used by the US. 

The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines also responded on Thursday, saying that during his visit, Austin smeared China over the South China Sea and pushed the US' anti-China agenda, which goes against regional countries' common aspiration for peace, cooperation, and development. It also runs counter to Filipino people's common desire to accelerate economic recovery, improve people's livelihoods and develop cooperation with China.

From a military tactical point of view, the US military's access to more bases in the Philippines will grant US forces more flexibility if a conflict breaks out between China and the US over the Taiwan question or in the South China Sea, but that will not change the Chinese military forces' superiority on its doorstep along the first island chain, military analysts said.

From locations in the Philippines such as Luzon and Palawan islands, the US military could cover the Bashi Channel to the south of the island of Taiwan and the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, so it is likely the US will deploy surveillance, reconnaissance and combat forces in the newly announced bases, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Thursday.

With the modernization and rapid development of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) over the past decade, the US has acknowledged that the Philippines, together with other locations along the first island chain, is no longer secure. This is why it has been pulling back some of its forces to the second island chain, while also scattering its forces to more locations, making it more difficult for the PLA to strike them, experts said.

Under this concept, the US did not aim to increase the number of troops in the Philippines, but sought to have more bases at its disposal, said Chinese military expert Zhang Xuefeng.

Zhang told the Global Times on Thursday that the US now wants to deploy small but mobile forces in the first island chain that are able to harass the PLA, making it more difficult for the PLA to break the chain.

However, these US forces are actually putting themselves in a dangerous position, as PLA's tactical missiles and aviation forces can easily cover them with large numbers of munitions, Zhang said.

To counter the latest US move, the PLA should act to prepare more cost-efficient precision munitions and their launch platforms, in addition to increasing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets that can track, monitor and lock onto US' flexible deployment in real time, observers said.

Song said that if a conflict breaks out, all US bases involved in attacking China will be targeted by the PLA, and the countries that host those US bases will inevitably get hit.

The Philippines should not get itself involved in the confrontation between China and the US, but instead focus on domestic economic development and make joint efforts to make the South China Sea a sea of peace and stability, Song said.

Although the permission to use additional bases in the Philippines is more symbolic than practical, the US will trumpet it as a major achievement for pushing its Indo-Pacific Strategy, some analysts said. As predicted, a release from the US Defense Department hailed the "full implementation" of the EDCA and boasted it as being "a key pillar of the US-Philippines alliance." 

The government of the Philippines has acted with more prudence on the deal to avoid casting a shadow over China-Philippines or China-ASEAN relations, as both the Philippines and ASEAN members have managed to maintain a delicate balance between China and the US, Zhou Fangyin, a research fellow at the Guangdong Institute for International Strategies, told the Global Times. 

The Biden administration is keen to fix its relations with the Philippines, which became strained under ex-president Rodrigo Duterte. The US has intensified its efforts to woo the Marcos administration to join the small US clique by hyping topics on the South China Sea. However, analysts said that the Philippine president is endeavoring to balance security and military with economic development, and has shown a positive attitude in handling disputes with China on the South China Sea. 

As the US persists in fanning confrontations to contain China, regional countries are encouraged to increase their vigilance for any attempt to destroy the hard-won peace and stability in the region, said analysts. 

How the US is Boosting Military Alliances to Counter China

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, left, shakes hands with his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez Jr. at a joint press conference in Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters in metro Manila, Philippines on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. The United States and the Philippines announced on Thursday an agreement to expand American military presence in the Southeast Asian country, where U.S. forces would be granted access to four more Philippine military camps, effectively giving them new ground to ramp up deterrence against China's increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea. (AP Photo/Joeal Calupitan,Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is expanding it military presence in Asia, in a string of moves aimed at countering Beijing and reassuring Indo-Pacific allies that America will stand with them against threats from China and North Korea.

The U.S. actions stretch from Japan to the Solomon Islands. And they involve more and increasingly advanced military exercises in the region and additional troop rotations in key areas facing the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. In some cases, they also could provide logistical support in the event of any conflict with China, specifically in defense of the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.

The announcements in recent weeks have triggered angry responses from both China and North Korea. And they come as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to go to China next week in what will be the first visit by a Cabinet-level official in the Biden administration.

PHILIPPINES

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on his seventh trip to Asia during his two years in office, announced an agreement with the Philippines on Thursday that gives the U.S. access to four more military camps in the Southeast Asian country.

He called it a “big deal” even though it doesn’t establish a permanent U.S. military presence, which is prohibited under the Philippine Constitution. What it does do, however, is give U.S. troops — rotating in and out of the Philippines — a bird’s eye view of two critical spots: the Taiwan Strait and disputed regions of the South China Sea.

There are about 500 U.S. troops in the Philippines on any given day, but thousands rotate in and out over the course of a year for military exercises, humanitarian aid, training and other missions, according to officials. The Philippines allows American forces to stay in barracks within designated Philippine camps. The U.S. already had access to five Philippine military bases.

Standing with his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez Jr., during a press conference in Manila, Austin said the efforts to strengthen the alliance “are especially important as the People’s Republic of China continues to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea.”

In response, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswomen Mao Ning accused the U.S. of pursuing “its selfish agenda” with the new arrangement, calling it “an act that escalates tensions in the region and endangers regional peace and stability.”

SOUTH KOREA

In Seoul on Tuesday, Austin announced that the U.S. would increase its deployment of advanced military assets to the Korean Peninsula, including fighter jets and aircraft carriers to boost joint training and planning.

He and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup agreed to expand their combined military exercises, including more live-fire demonstrations. And they discussed preparations for a simulated exercise in February aimed at sharpening their response if North Korea used nuclear weapons.

North Korea test-fired dozens of missiles in 2022, including potentially nuclear-capable ones designed to strike targets in South Korea and the U.S. mainland.

The U.S. resumed large-scale military drills last year, including an aerial exercise involving U.S. strategic bombers in November, in a stepped-up effort to deter Pyongyang. The allies had scaled back exercises in recent years to create room for diplomacy with North Korea during the Trump administration and because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Korea, in response, said it’s prepared to counter U.S. military moves with the “most overwhelming nuclear force.” It said the expansion of military exercises is pushing tensions to an “extreme red line.”

JAPAN

Last month, the U.S. and Japan agreed to adjust the American troop presence on the island of Okinawa in part to enhance anti-ship capabilities that would be needed in the event of a Chinese incursion into Taiwan or other hostile acts in the South or East China sea.

They also added a formal mention of outer space in the longstanding U.S.-Japan security treaty, making clear that “attacks to, from and within space” could trigger the mutual defense provisions of the treaty. And Japan announced it would begin constructing a pair of runways on the small southern island of Mageshima where joint exercises, amphibious operations and missile interception could begin in about four years.

The island would be a hub for troop deployments and munition supplies in case of a conflict like a Taiwan emergency.

The changes in the U.S. deployment on Okinawa will transform the 12th Marine Regiment into a smaller, more rapidly mobile unit — the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, which will be better equipped to fight an adversary and defend the U.S. and its allies in the region.

SOLOMON ISLANDS

On the diplomatic front, the U.S. opened an embassy in the Solomon Islands this week, in a direct effort to counter China’s growing influence there. There had been an embassy in the Solomons for several years, but it was closed in 1993 as part of a global reduction in diplomatic posts. Over time, however, the U.S. became concerned about possible weakening ties with the country.

The Solomon Islands switched allegiance from the self-ruled island of Taiwan to Beijing in 2019. And last year, the Solomons signed a security pact with China, raising fears of a military buildup by Beijing in the region.

Reopening an embassy there, the U.S. State Department said, was a priority to counter China’s growing influence in the region. The embassy in the capital, Honiara, is starting small, with a chargé d’affaires, a couple of State Department staff and a handful of local employees.

Extremist Israeli Group Halts Fund-raising Effort in US

By URI BLAU of Shomrim and MIKE CATALINI of The Associated Press

FILE - Israeli Yosef Haim Ben David, convicted in the killing of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir, arrives to a court in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 19, 2016. An Israeli group that assists Jewish prisoners convicted in some of the country's most notorious hate crimes has halted its fund-raising efforts through a U.S.-based Jewish charity following an investigation by The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative platform Shomrim. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, file)

LAKEWOOD, N.J. (AP) — An Israeli group that assists Jewish prisoners convicted in some of the country’s most notorious hate crimes has halted its fund-raising efforts through a U.S.-based Jewish charity following an investigation by The Associated Press and the Israeli nonprofit news organization Shomrim.

The fund-raising through the Lakewood, New Jersey-based World of Tzedaka had allowed American donors to make tax-exempt contributions to the hard-line Israeli group, and suggested that Israel’s far right was making new inroads into the U.S.

World of Tzedaka confirmed that it was no longer working with Shlom Asiraich, while a fund-raising link on the Israeli group’s website that connected donors to the American nonprofit has stopped working.

“We don’t do any business with them anymore, so we don’t have anything else to do with them,” said Yaakov Cohen, who identified himself as a manager for World of Tzedaka.

Shlom Asiraich, or “The Well-Being of Your Prisoners,” has been raising money in Israel since at least 2018. The group was officially registered as a nonprofit in 2020 by a group consisting mostly of Israelis from hard-line settlements in the West Bank.

According to its promotional materials, the group has provided assistance to Yigal Amir, who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995; Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was convicted in the 2015 murder of a Palestinian baby and his parents in an arson attack; and Yosef Haim Ben David, who was convicted of abducting and killing a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Jerusalem in 2014. The group also assists an extremist ultra-Orthodox man who fatally stabbed a 16-year-old Israeli girl at Jerusalem’s gay pride parade in 2015.

A spokesman for Shlom Asiraich slammed down the phone twice when he was called by The Associated Press for comment on Thursday.

It’s not clear when the U.S. fundraising efforts on behalf of Shlom Asiraich began. Being a relatively new organization, the group’s official filing to Israel’s nonprofit registry provides little data and does not indicate how much money it has raised. But in its promotional flyers, recently broadcast by Israeli Channel 13 news, the organization indicated it has raised 150,000 shekels, or about $43,000.

It’s also not clear how much of that money was raised in the U.S. by World of Tzedaka, a group that assists Jewish families in distress, according to its website. Lakewood, New Jersey, is home to a sizeable Orthodox Jewish community.

Cohen, the World of Tzedaka representative, said his group had raised just $200 for Shlom Asiraich before the connection was halted, though that figure could not be verified.

“It didn’t really get off the ground that much. Then we started hearing some questionable information about them. Then rabbis advised to stop doing business with them, so we did,” he said.

Just when the break happened isn’t clear. Cohen said it happened “a few months” ago after “a few people locally” brought the connection to their attention.

But he couldn’t specify when, and a link on the Shlom Asiraich website that connects to the World of Tzedaka donation page was still working when the AP-Shomrim investigation was published on Jan. 24. Another link directly on World of Tzedaka’s website has also disappeared.

“We removed them from our website, and we asked them to remove our name from their website and whatever they had and we completely separated from them,” Cohen said.

Israeli universities, hospitals and charities often have fund-raising operations in the U.S., but activities like those of extremist groups like Shlom Asiraich are rare.

It is not known whether Shlom Asiraich or World of Tzedaka broke any U.S. laws. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s rules for fund-raising by nonprofit organizations are vague – saying the groups cannot exert political influence or benefit private interests.

The IRS declined to comment on the case. The U.S. State Department said it was aware of the reports about Shlom Asiraich, but referred questions to the Justice Department.

“We condemn extremist violence in all its forms,” the State Department said.

The Justice Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new far-right government took office in late December, giving ultranationalists and extremist lawmakers unprecedented power. There is no direct link between Shlom Asiraich and the government, though its registration with Israeli authorities was handled by a top aide to Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

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This article was published in partnership with Shomrim, The Center for Media and Democracy in Israel. AP correspondent Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

Recent Extremist Attacks Kill 32 People in Burkina Faso

By ARSENE KABORE and SAM MEDNICK

January 31, 2023

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Multiple jihadi attacks across Burkina Faso over several days have resulted in the death of at least 32 people, including soldiers and civilians, government authorities said Tuesday.

Burkina Faso’s State Information Agency posted on its Facebook page that a dozen soldiers and a civilian were killed Monday in Falagountou in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region during clashes between the military and jihadis. Another 20 people were killed in two attacks over the weekend in the country’s east-central and western regions.

Four people were executed Saturday afternoon when gunmen intercepted their van between Tenkodogo and Ouargaye villages. On Sunday, a passenger mini-bus coming from the western city of Banfora was intercepted by armed men, said Col. Jean Charles dit Yenapono Some, governor of the Cascades region in a statement. Eight women and one man were freed, the rest of the people were abducted and their lifeless bodies were found with bullet holes the following day, he said.

Jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State Group has ravaged the West African country for years killing thousands and displacing nearly 2 million people. Nearly 5,000 civilians have been killed since 2015, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).

The violence has sowed frustration and distrust among the population and led to two coups last year. The new junta leader, Ibrahim Traore, seized power in September promising to stem the violence but attacks are increasing.

Traore has mobilized tens of thousands of civilian fighters to combat the jihadis alongside the army. But analysts says the civilian fighters are accused of targeting other civilians perceived to be working with the jihadis, which is fueling retaliatory attacks.

“The types of mass-atrocities that are occurring were expected, as the conflict was expected to escalate in the coming months due to the increased mobilization of the population through the (volunteer) program and the increasing trend of extrajudicial killings by defence and security forces observed in recent months,” said Heni Nsaibia, senior researcher at ACLED.

“With the increase in state violence and state-sanctioned violence, it is not surprising that militant violence is escalating and further fueling cycles of attacks and retaliation,” he said.

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Mednick reported from Dakar, Senegal.

Pope Urges Congo Youth to Reject Corruption and They Respond

By NICOLE WINFIELD, CHRISTINA MALKIA and JEAN-YVES KAMALE

Pope Francis, second from left, looks at traditional dancers performing at the Martyrs' Stadium In Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. Francis is in Congo and South Sudan for a six-day trip, hoping to bring comfort and encouragement to two countries that have been riven by poverty, conflicts and what he calls a "colonialist mentality" that has exploited Africa for centuries. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Pope Francis led Congo’s young people in a rousing denunciation of political corruption on Thursday, turning an otherwise scripted meeting with church catechists into a rally that shook the capital’s sports stadium.

Francis was repeatedly interrupted as some of the 65,000 people in Kinshasa’s Martyrs’ Stadium took up his call to say “No” to corruption and turned it into a demand for Congo’s president to not run for a second term in elections later this year.

The Argentine pope often uses his foreign trips to denounce corruption, particularly in meeting with young people in hopes that future generations will resist the temptation to make dishonest deals for personal gain. The issue is particularly dear to Francis, who wrote a book on the issue and likes to say that corruption is far worse than sin.

He continued that tradition on Thursday in Kinshasa, denouncing the “cancer of corruption” as he called for Congolese to create an honest future for themselves and their families.

“If someone offers you an envelope with a bribe, or promises you favors and lots of money, do not fall into the trap. Do not be deceived! Do not be sucked into the swamp of evil!” Francis said to cheers.

Transparency International ranks Congo 166th out of 180 on its corruption perception index, finding a direct correlation between political corruption and the high level of insecurity in the country. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi says his administration is committed to fighting corruption, has denied any wrongdoing and has blamed foreign powers for the decades of violence in the east by rebels and armed militia groups.

Taking up Francis’ call, the audience broke into a chant in the Lingala language directed at the country’s president, thundering that his mandate was over.

The pope clearly seemed to enjoy the enthusiasm, even if he needed his interpreter to explain hat the crowd was chanting.

More than two-thirds of Congo’s population of around 100 million is under age 25, and the United Nations and humanitarian organizations have said the country’s youth were particularly vulnerable to abuses amid the fighting in the east of the country which has forced more than 5 million to flee their homes.

Some in the stadium on Thursday said the lack of jobs in Congo fueled the conflict since there are few other options for young people to earn money legitimately.

“We have the impression that our leaders do absolutely nothing to improve the living conditions of the population and that these leaders minimize the capacity of the youth to improve things,” said Kavira Shukuru, 26.

“And this situation is among the causes of the instability and insecurity that our country is experiencing. An unemployed youth is easily influenced and can easily join an armed group to earn a living or be influenced by a politician with bad intentions,” she said.

Tshisekedi, who is up for reelection at the end of the year, took office just over four years ago, starting what many had hoped would be a new era after the 18-year tenure of his predecessor. However, critics say Tshisekedi’s government hasn’t done enough to improve living conditions in Congo, where many remain desperately poor despite the country’s vast mineral riches.

A top presidential adviser resigned in September amid a scandal over a mining deal. Opponents also have accused the president of giving bonuses to legislators and aides.

Emery Kalo, 27, said the government was doing what it could but that Congo’s young people needed more opportunities to find work and receive adequate training and education.

“It is because of the lack of employment that many young people indulge in delinquency and other depravities,” Kalo said. Dreaming of the future, Kalo said he would like to see a Congo where the government guarantees security, justice, work and health care.

“I would like to see the Congo embody its role in the middle of Africa, taking advantage of our resources by transforming them here locally,” Kalo said.

Later Thursday, Francis met with Congo’s priests and nuns at the capital’s Notre Dame Cathedral and repeated his appeal to avoid the temptations of corruption, vice and material comfort.

“It is scandalous when this happens in the life of a priest or sister, for they should instead be models of sobriety and inner freedom,” he said, urging religious figures to live honest, Christian lives — including honoring their vows of celibacy.

Outside the cathedral, advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse staged a small protest, holding up signs urging Francis to use his trip to meet with survivors. Signs also urged him to apply the church law that punishes bishops who cover up abuse.

Benjamin Kitobo, a 55-year-old Congolese survivor who now lives in the United States, called for accountability to stop abuse in the church.

“If he does not help the Africans, that will continue in the dark for many years,” he said.

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Yesica Fisch contributed. ___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

African Countries Lack ‘Immediate Access’ to Cholera Vaccine

By CARA ANNA

A woman carries her son, who has cholera, at Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe central Malawi, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. Malawi’s health minister says the country’s worst cholera outbreak in two decades has killed 750 people so far. The southern African country of 20 million people first reported the outbreak in March last year. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Africa’s public health agency says countries with deadly cholera outbreaks on the continent have no “immediate access” to vaccines amid a global supply shortage.

The acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell, told journalists on Thursday that the agency is working with the World Health Organization and the vaccine alliance GAVI on ways to obtain more doses.

The Africa CDC is also working with two local manufacturers to explore if their facilities can be repurposed to manufacture cholera vaccines, Ogwell said. He didn’t say which ones.

WHO and its partners recommended in October that countries temporarily switch to using a single dose of the cholera vaccine instead of two because of the supply shortage as outbreaks of the water-borne disease surge globally. They said one dose of vaccine has proven effective in stopping outbreaks “even though evidence on the exact duration of protection is limited” and appears to be lower in children.

WHO noted that Haiti and Syria also are trying to contain large outbreaks. WHO and partner agencies manage a stockpile of cholera vaccines that are dispensed free to countries that need them.

Malawi in southern Africa especially is struggling with a cholera outbreak. The country has recorded 3,577 new cases including 111 deaths in the past week, Ogwell said. They make up the bulk of the new cholera cases on the continent.

Since the beginning of 2023, there have been 27,300 new cases of cholera including 687 deaths in five African countries, Ogwell said.

The WHO has said climate change could make cholera epidemics more common, as the bacteria that causes the disease can reproduce more quickly in warmer water.

Spain and Morocco Renew Ties with Migration, Business Deals

By MOSA'AB ELSHAMY and JOSEPH WILSON

Morocco Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch receives Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at Rabat-Sale Airport in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. Sanchez is on a two-day visit to Morocco for the Moroccan-Spanish Economic Forum. (AP Photo)

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — The governments of Spain and Morocco signed deals Thursday on managing migration and boosting Spanish investment in Morocco, among 20 agreements reached at wide-ranging meetings aimed at turning the page on diplomatic tensions linked to the disputed Western Sahara.

Morocco is an ally to Western powers in fighting extremism and important in aiding EU migration policies, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez applauded what he described as a trust-building step at the signing ceremony in Rabat.

The documents inked Thursday included an 800-million-euro ($873-million) package to encourage investment by Spanish firms in Morocco, two memorandums on migration and several deals for education and job training, among other agreements. Details were not immediately released.

The meeting, which involved 11 Spanish ministers and 13 from the Moroccan government, also included a repeated commitment to eventually opening customs offices on the border crossings at Spain’s North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which Morocco doesn’t officially recognize as European territories. No date or timetable was given.

This would be a boost to the local economies on both sides of the border. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the land crossings were porous to flows of contraband goods, and now the goal is for goods to move on trucks and with duties duly paid.

The frontiers are also often sites of tragedy for Africans who try on occasion to storm the fences in hopes of continuing on to continental Europe. The border policing methods of both Spain and Morocco fell under intense scrutiny after the death of at least 23 African men, many reportedly refugees from Sudan, when they stormed a border fence at Melilla last year.

Morocco has received hundreds of millions of euros from the EU in recent years to curb irregular migration that, for Spain, peaked in 2018 with 64,000 arrivals. European officials have credited Morocco with helping lower that to 31,000 last year. Of that number for 2022, almost 29,000 arrived on the Spanish mainland or its Canary Islands, mostly on small boats unfit for open waters. Thousands more have perished or vanished at sea. Those migrants included young Moroccans.

Moroccans make up the single largest foreign community in Spain, with 800,000 residents; Spain is the largest foreign investor in Morocco, making economic cooperation a top priority for the Moroccan government.

The Spanish government’s visit is seen as an effort to get something tangible in return for diplomatic efforts to mend ties with Morocco after a flareup in tensions over the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975.

Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch praised the “renewed dynamism of our relations.”

He also thanked Spain for its support of its proposal for Western Sahara.

Spain incurred Morocco’s wrath in 2021 by allowing a Western Sahara independence fighter to seek treatment in a Spanish hospital. Rabat eased border controls on Ceuta, and thousands of people crossed over into the small city. Sanchez then took the controversial decision to throw Spain’s backing behind Morocco’s vision for the future of the territory — more autonomy but remaining firmly under Moroccan control — to smooth over tensions.

That angered Algeria, a major natural gas supplier to Spain and backer of the Polisario Front movement that has fought for Western Saharan independence. Politicians from across Spain’s spectrum considered Sánchez to have betrayed the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara for very little in return.

Sánchez insisted Thursday on the importance of improved paths of communications between governments with the intention of avoiding “unilateral actions, and never leaving out any topic regardless of its complexity.”

“We are establishing the basis for the type of relations between Spain and Morocco for the present and the future ... based on mutual trust,” Sánchez said.

Miguel Hernando de Larramendi, professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies for the University of Castilla-La Mancha, believes that Spain’s government tilted toward Morocco in the Western Sahara question because it was convinced that “its interest in fighting extremism and irregular migration hinge on having good relations with Morocco.”

In exchange, Madrid has edged toward strengthening its exclaves surrounded by Moroccan territory — if customs offices are finally established on the land border as agreed in principle.

“We are in the ‘honeymoon’ moment of this rapprochement, but we will have to see the real results of the summit,” Hernando de Larramendi said. “The opening of the customs could be a good thermometer to gauge their relations because it carries with it a type of implicit recognition (by Morocco) of Ceuta and Melilla.”

One person was notably absent from the Spanish visitors’ agenda in Morocco: King Mohammed VI.

That earned Sánchez scorn back home from opposition parties, who said the Socialist leader had been snubbed.

The Moroccan monarch and Sánchez spoke by telephone on Wednesday about a “new era” between their countries. Sánchez paid a visit early on Thursday to the gravesite of the king’s grandfather, Mohammed V.

Sánchez met with the king last year to put an end to the diplomatic crisis. They have now agreed to meet again soon.

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Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Regional Heads Plan Joint Push Against al-Shabab in Somalia

By OMAR FARUK

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The leaders of Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya have agreed on a joint “search and destroy” military campaign against the Somali al-Shabab Islamic militant group that has carried out attacks in the region — including firing mortars near the meeting venue in Mogadishu before officials gathered Wednesday.

In a joint communique issued after the meeting in Somalia’s capital, the four heads of state said the operation would “prevent any future infiltrating elements into the wider region.”

“The Summit agreed to make the final push for joint operations in the areas that remain under the terrorists to completely liberate the whole of Somalia from Al-Shabab,” read Wednesday’s communique from the four countries — whose soldiers are part of the Africa Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

Somalia’s government is currently running what has been described as the most significant offensive against the al-Shabab extremist group in more than a decade.

Al-Shabab’s thousands of fighters have held back the nation’s recovery from decades of conflict by carrying out brazen attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

Streets of Mogadishu which regularly face attacks were on Wednesday shut down with limited movement amid strong military patrols, and all commercial flights were suspended while the heads of state visited.

Even then, witnesses reported that mortar shells landed near the presidential place before the meetings kicked off, but no fatalities were reported. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said the meeting “reaffirms our resolve to rid our region of terrorism permanently.”

Kenya’s President William Ruto said that peace was within reach due to the “collective effort in anti-terrorism.”

The regional leaders have decided to establish a joint operations mechanism that will coordinate the drive to defeat al-Shabab.

A Western humanitarian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said more territory has been taken from al-Shabab in the past six months than in the past five years, with close to 100 villages recaptured from the extremists.

“It took us all by surprise because it was very organic,” the official said, with local communities rising up in revolt against al-Shabab’s harsh taxation amid Somalia’s worst drought on record. Somalia’s government quickly supported the local militia fighters in the offensive.

While Somalia’s government vows to eliminate al-Shabab, some observers see that as a daunting task. “Al-Shabab has proven it can be effective without holding territory,” the humanitarian official said.

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Associated Press writer Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed.

Western-backed Chadian Military Leader to Open Embassy in Occupied Palestine Undermining the Struggle for Liberation

FILE - Chad's Interim President and Chairman transitional Military Council, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Deby, waves as he is welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron for a meeting on the Sahel crisis at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Chad will open an embassy in Israel, four years after the countries restored diplomatic relations, Israel's Prime Minister's Office said Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Chad will open an embassy in Israel, four years after the countries restored diplomatic relations, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said Wednesday.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the embassy would be inaugurated on Thursday as part of Chadian President Mahamat Deby’s state visit to Israel.

Netanyahu visited the central African state in January 2019 as part of Israel’s push to establish diplomatic ties with Muslim states. The following year Israel signed normalization agreements with Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates as part of the U.S.-brokered “Abraham Accords.”

“These are relations we want to upgrade to new levels, to new heights, and your visit here to Israel and opening an embassy are an expression of that,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with Deby.

Deby was declared head of state in 2021 after the military announced that his father had been killed by rebels after more than three decades in power.

Deby was greeted on the tarmac by Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Deby’s father and predecessor in office, Idriss Deby, visited Jerusalem in 2018. Chad had relations with Israel until 1972, when it terminated diplomatic ties under pressure from other Arab countries.

The desert country is one of the world’s least developed states, according to the World Bank’s Human Development Index, and its government has been accused of widespread human rights abuses and rigged elections.

‘Hands off Africa!’: Pope Blasts Foreign Plundering of DR Congo

By NICOLE WINFIELD, JEAN-YVES KAMALE and CHRISTINA MALKIA

January 31, 2023

Pope Francis, left, sits with President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo during a welcome ceremony at the "Palais de la Nation" in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. Pope Francis starts his six-day pastoral visit to Congo and South Sudan where he'll bring a message of peace to countries riven by poverty and conflict. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Pope Francis demanded Tuesday that foreign powers stop plundering Africa’s natural resources for the “poison of their own greed” as he arrived in Congo to a raucous welcome by Congolese grateful he was focusing the world’s attention on their forgotten plight.

Tens of thousands of people lined the main road into the capital, Kinshasa, to welcome Francis after he landed at the airport, some standing three or four deep, with children in school uniforms taking the front row.

“The pope is 86 years old but he came anyway. It is a sacrifice and the Congolese people will not forget it,” said Sultan Ntambwe, a bank agent in his 30s, as he waited for Francis’ arrival in a scene reminiscent of some of Francis’ earlier trips to similarly heavily Catholic countries.

Francis plunged headfirst into his agenda upon arrival, denouncing the centuries-long exploitation of Africa by colonial powers, today’s multinational extraction industries and the neighboring countries interfering in Congo’s affairs that has led to a surge in fighting in the east.

“Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa!” Francis said to applause in his opening speech to Congolese government authorities and the diplomatic corps in the garden of Kinshasa’s national palace.

Calling Congo’s vast mineral and natural wealth a “diamond of creation,” Francis demanded that foreign interests stop carving up the country for their own interests and acknowledge their role in the economic “enslavement” of the Congolese people.

“Stop choking Africa: It is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered,” said history’s first Latin American pope, who has long railed at how wealthy countries have exploited the resources of poorer ones for their own profit.

The six-day trip, which also includes a stop in South Sudan, was originally scheduled for July, but was postponed because of Francis’ knee problems, which were still so serious on Tuesday that he couldn’t stand to greet journalists in the plane heading to Kinshasa and forced him to use a wheelchair on the ground.

It was also supposed to have included a stop in Goma, in eastern Congo, but the surrounding North Kivu region has been plagued by intense fighting between government troops and the M23 rebel group, as well as attacks by militants linked to the Islamic State group.

The fighting has displaced some 5.7 million people, a fifth of them last year alone, according to the World Food Program.

Instead of travelling there, Francis will meet with a delegation of people from the east who will travel to Kinshasa for a private encounter at the Vatican embassy on Wednesday. The plan calls for them to participate in a ceremony jointly committing to forgive their assailants.

Sylvie Mvita, a student in economics in Kinshasa, said the pope’s arrival would focus the world’s attention and television cameras on Congo and the fighting in the east to show how its suffering has been forgotten by the rest of the world.

“This will allow the world to discover the atrocities of which our brothers in the east of the country are victims. And maybe for once, the little humanity that remains in some people will cause an awakening and the international community will not only be interested in what is happening in Ukraine but also in what is happening in this country,” she said.

President Felix Tshisekedi voiced a similar line in his speech to the pope, accusing the international community of forgetting about Congo and of its complicit “inaction and silence” about the atrocities occurring in the east.

“In addition to armed groups, foreign powers eager for the minerals in our subsoil commit cruel atrocities with the direct and cowardly support of our neighbor Rwanda, making security the first and greatest challenge for the government,” he said.

Rwanda has been accused of -- and has repeatedly denied -- backing the M23 rebels operating in Congo.

Francis’ tough words at the start set the tone for the trip, in which the pontiff is aiming to bring a message of peace, a warning to the international community to not look the other way and a recognition that Africa is the future of the Catholic Church.

The continent is one of the only places on Earth where the Catholic flock is growing, both in terms of practicing faithful and fresh vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

And Congo stands out as the African country with most Catholics hands down: Half of its 105 million people are Catholic, the country counts more than 6,000 priests, 10,000 nuns and more than 4,000 seminarians — 3.6% of the global total of young men studying for the priesthood.

That makes Francis’ trip, his fifth to the African continent in his 10-year pontificate, all the more important as the Jesuit pope seeks to reshape the church as a “field hospital for wounded souls,” where all are welcome, poor people have a special pride of place and rivals are urged to make peace.

Aid groups had hoped Francis’ six-day visit would shine a spotlight on the forgotten conflicts of Congo and South Sudan and their soaring humanitarian costs, and rekindle international attention amid donor fatigue that has set in due to new aid priorities in Ukraine.

Francis answered their call, pointing the finger at the role colonial powers such as Belgium played in the exploitation of Congo until the country, which is 80 times the size of Belgium, gained its independence in 1960, and neighboring countries are playing today.

Francis didn’t identify Belgium or any neighboring country by name, but he spared no word of condemnation, quoting Tshisekedi as saying there was a “forgotten genocide” under way.

“The poison of greed has smeared its diamonds with blood,” Francis said. “May the world acknowledge the catastrophic things that were done over the centuries to the detriment of the local peoples, and not forget this country and this continent.”

“We cannot grow accustomed to the bloodshed that has marked this country for decades, causing millions of deaths that remain mostly unknown elsewhere,” he said.

At the same time, he urged Congolese authorities to work for the common good and not tribal, ethnic or personal interests; and put an end to child labor and invest in education so that “the most precious diamonds” of Congo can shine brightly.

Congolese faithful were flocking to Kinshasa for Francis’ main event, a Mass on Wednesday at Ndolo airport that is expected to draw as many as 2 million people in one of the biggest gatherings of its kind in Congo and one of Francis’ biggest Masses ever.

Banners emblazoned with the pope’s image carried messages including “Pope Francis, the city of Kinshasa welcomes you with joy.”

Some women wore colorful dresses and skirts made of pagne, a wax print fabric featuring images of Francis, the Virgin Mary or the Vatican keys, in a celebratory sign of welcome.

Jean-Louis Mopina, 47, said he walked about 45 minutes to Kinshasa’s airport before the pope’s arrival on Tuesday.

“He has come like a pilgrim sent by God,” Mopina said. “His blessing will give us peace in our hearts.”

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Christina Malkia in Kinshasa, and Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Visit to Kumsusan Palace of the Sun

All the people of the DPRK have greeted the New Year full of confidence in the validity and victory of their cause after proudly concluding the unprecedentedly arduous year 2022 with the indomitable struggle and advance under the guidance of the Workers’ Party of Korea. They are now paying the highest tribute to President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il blessing the rosy future of socialism and communism as the eternal Sun of Juche.

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on January 1 on the occasion of the New Year 2023.

Accompanying him were Kim Tok Hun, Jo Yong Won, Choe Ryong Hae and Ri Pyong Chol, members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, and other members of the central leadership body of the Party.

The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun where the President and the Chairman, eternal leaders of the Party, state and people, lie in state, was wrapped in the most sublime atmosphere.

A basket of flowers in the name of Kim Jong Un was laid before the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

Also placed before the statues were flower baskets in the name of the Central Committee of the WPK, the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK and the Cabinet of the DPRK.

The General Secretary, together with the participants, paid high tribute at the statues of the great leaders.

He visited the halls of immortality where Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are preserved in their lifetime appearance and made deep New Year's bows to them who devoted their whole lives to the sacred cause of Juche to build a party and state and train the people into those dignified and powerful with independence in politics, self-sustenance in the economy and self-reliance in defence.

The members of the Party’s central leadership body firmly pledged to fulfill the heavy responsibility and duty entrusted by the Party and the people for attaining the grand goal set forth at the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK true to the revolutionary ideas and leadership of Kim Jong Un and thus achieve substantial and rapid changes and development on all fronts of socialist construction without fail.

KCNA

2023-01-02

Japan’s Vicious Colonial Enslavement Schemes

In the past the Japanese imperialists occupied Korea by force of arms and imposed stringent rule by resident-general over it.

After railroading the Ulsa Five-point Treaty through in November 1905, they set up the Residency-General in Korea, an organ for colonial rule, in Kyongsong (Seoul) on February 1, 1906.

The resident-general was a viceroy, who held all power in Korea, including its diplomacy and internal affairs.

Owing to the rule by the Japanese resident-general, the feudal Joson dynasty was deprived of its right of home administration which had remained only in name, and its people were subjected to untold misfortunes and sufferings.

During its rule by resident-general, Japan fabricated many brigandish “treaties” and “laws” at random and did without hesitation what they were determined to do.

They ousted Emperor Kojong, the supreme ruler of the feudal Joson dynasty, and in conspiracy with the pro-Japanese national traitors, trumped up the Jongmi Seven-point Treaty in July 1907, thus seizing the right of home administration of Korea.

They also framed all sorts of evil laws to legalize their colonial rule, such as the Law on Papers and the Law on Public Security.

In an attempt to intensify their rule by the resident-general, they massively brought their troops, gendarmes and policemen into Korea, turning it into a huge prison and systematically weakening the authority of the emperor of the feudal Joson dynasty. They forced the emperor to promulgate a royal ordinance on forbidding free entrance to and exist from the imperial palace, and entrusted “guard” of the imperial palace and emperor to their police. And the Korean government officials were not allowed to meet their emperor without their approval.

Besides, Japan neutralized the functions of the government of the feudal Joson dynasty; it posted Japanese deputy ministers in all sectors such as legislation, judiciary and administration.

Under these circumstances, the Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty was concluded forcibly in 1910, a reaffirmation of the established fact that Korea was a colony of Japan.

During the rule by the resident-general, Japan imposed immeasurable misfortunes and pains on the Korean people.

With an aim to wipe out the Korean patriots who were hindering its colonial rule, it dispatched its troops to not only major cities but mountainous areas under the pretext of “suppression of rioters,” and committed brutal “punitive” operations against the Righteous Volunteers units. They burned down the villages where the volunteers had passed, and randomly shot to death those people suspected of having a connection with the volunteers. They also arrested and killed at any time the anti-Japanese patriots whom they had singled out.

It tried to turn Korea into its raw materials supplier and commodity market. In 1906, they passed the Law on Mining Minerals on the plea of “promoting wellbeing,” thus plundering Korea of gold, silver, copper and coal. In 1908, it fabricated Korea-Japan Fishing Agreement to ship away Korea’s marine resources. It set up the Oriental Development Company of Japan in the same year and plundered the land of Korea at its will. In the following year, through the Korean Bank, it seized the financial sector of Korea and checked the growth of the latter’s national capital.

Meanwhile, it enforced colonial enslavement education in a bid to weaken and obliterate the Korean people’s patriotism and national identity, and forcibly closed patriotic and anti-Japanese public schools.

It repressed the development of the national culture of Korea and destroyed and plundered many valuable cultural assets.

Hirobumi Ito, the first resident-general, shipped valuable cultural assets of Korea to Japan on the pretext of their “protection,” and presented them to his king.

Nearly 80 years have passed since its defeat. However, the insular country is scheming to justify its crimes without acknowledging them, and is making desperate efforts to distort history far from making an apology.

The Korean people, always remembering the vicious colonial rule by Japan, are burning their heart with a will to make it pay dearly for the crimes.

2023-02-01

GFTUK Central Committee Holds Enlarged Plenary Meeting

The seventh enlarged plenary meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea was held on January 31 through the video conference system.

It was attended by members and alternate members of the GFTUK Central Committee.

Present there as observers were officials of the GFTUK Central Committee and those of provincial, city and county committees of the GFTUK.

The meeting discussed the issues of thoroughly implementing the decision of the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and others.

Pak In Chol, chairman of the GFTUK Central Committee, made a report.

He said that the decision of the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth WPK Central Committee is an action programme which clarified the way for achieving fresh, drastic development of the Korean-style socialism and an inspiring banner that instills the faith in sure victory in the people.

He analysed and reviewed in detail the successes, experiences, deviations and lessons produced in the work of the GFTUK in 2022 for implementing the decision of the Eighth Congress of the WPK and indicated the ways for making a tangible contribution to opening up a new phase of state development by improving the trade union work in a revolutionary way and giving fullest play to the mental strength of the heroic working class in this significant year.

Speeches were made at the meeting.

A relevant resolution was adopted after making studies of a draft resolution.

2023-02-01

All Korean Workers Turn Out in Struggle for Carrying out Five-Year Plan

All trade union organizations in the DPRK have turned out in the 2023 socialist emulation for fulfilling the five-year plan with a firm determination to bring a new upsurge in socialist construction of Korean style by certainly attaining this year’s 12 major goals for national economic development set forth at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee.

The Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea set a clear target of socialist emulation with putting the main emphasis on carrying out the national economic plan and the plan for readjustment and reinforcement in all sectors and units and launched the organizational and political work to arouse the masses to its implementation.

Trade union organizations in the key industrial sectors are concentrating their motivation efforts on giving full play to the creative power of the working class and union members full of patriotic enthusiasm.

Those in the light industry and other sectors directly related to the people's living are in high spirits to implement the decisions of the Party Central Committee.

2023-01-29

Trust in Representatives of the People in DPRK

On July 19, Juche 104 (2015), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea held elections of deputies to the provincial, city and county people’s assemblies amid the close attention of the people across the country.

That day, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un came to the polling station of Sub-constituency No. 102 of Constituency No. 107 for the election of a deputy to the Pyongyang Municipal People’s Assembly and Constituency No. 102 for the election of a deputy to the Sosong District People’s Assembly.

As he entered the station, Ho Myong Gum, driver of the Yokjon Workshop of the Ryonmot Trolley Bus Company who was the candidate for deputy to the Pyongyang Municipal People’s Assembly, and Sin Sun Thae, head of processing shop No. 2 of the Kim Jong Thae Electric Locomotive Complex who was the candidate for deputy to the Sosong District People’s Assembly, respectfully greeted him. He congratulated them for their nomination as candidates for deputies with a bright smile on his face.

They didn’t know what to do moved by the unexpected great honour and happiness. He shook their hands one by one and said to Ho Myong Gum that he heard that she was working as trolley bus driver for 30 years from her girlhood and that for so long in the same job and that she should work better to turn the socialist country into a paradise of the people true to the expectations of the people as a representative of the people. And he told Sin Sun Thae standing next to the woman that he should also do lots of good things for the sake of the people in the future. He would cast his ballots for them hoping that they would become faithful servants of the people to be respected and followed by them as representatives of the people, he added with sincerity.

After a while, Kim Jong Un received ballots from the chairman of the election committee to take part in the voting. Back outside he shook the hands of the candidates again saying he believed that they would do more good things for the sake of the people in the future.

In September last year, he invited labour innovators and persons of merits to the celebrations of the 74th founding anniversary of the DPRK and said that the Party and the government valued most the patriotic efforts and pure conscience of the working people who were devoting themselves to their motherland and that labour innovators and merited persons who placed their civic duties before their rights to enjoyment, making strenuous efforts to relieve the country of even one of its heavy burdens, were true representatives of the people and genuine patriots.

2023-01-29

Lukashenko: Belarus Willing to Offer More Help to Russia

By FARAI MUTSAKA

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, left, poses with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the State House in Harare, Tuesday, Jan, 31, 2023. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has arrived in Zimbabwe to pomp and fanfare, in a visit that seeks to cement economic and political ties between the two countries that are both close allies of Russia. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday that his country is willing to offer more assistance to close ally Russia in its war against Ukraine.

But Lukashenko stressed that Russia does not need “any help” right now.

“However, if our Russian brothers need help, we are always ready to offer such assistance,” he said on a state visit to the southern African nation of Zimbabwe — which is also close to Russia.

Lukashenko was speaking through a translator in a brief response to a question on whether his country is under pressure to step up its support for Russia in the nearly yearlong war against Ukraine.

Lukashenko did not specify what that help would entail.

Belarus allowed Russia to stage part of its invasion from its territory last February and has also been a launching pad for Russian missiles into Ukraine. But Belarus hasn’t committed any of its troops to the war.

Russia and Belarus have engaged in joint military exercises on Belarusian territory this month and Ukraine says it has maintained forces along its border with Belarus to fend off any potential invasion.

The Pentagon says that it hasn’t seen any Russian troop movement in Belarus that would indicate an imminent attack.

Also, analysts have said that if Belarus’ small and inexperienced military gets involved, the additional troops could help Moscow cut off some key transportation corridors but it’s unlikely to significantly help Russia’s position.

Lukashenko arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday in a visit that seeks to cement economic and political ties between two countries.

The visit, according to Zimbabwe’s foreign ministry, is aimed at boosting “strong cooperation in political, economic, mining, agriculture and disaster risk management.”

Belarus has provided Zimbabwe with farm equipment such as tractors, combine harvesters and trucks under a deal worth tens of millions of dollars following Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s visit to Minsk in 2019.

On Tuesday, the two countries signed several agreements ranging from agriculture to taxation and education.

Lukashenko also offered to sell potash fertilizer to Zimbabwe, adding that despite Western sanctions, Belarus “was able to sell big amounts of potash fertilizer.”

“There are states ready to cooperate with Belarus,” he said.

Lukashenko’s visit to Zimbabwe comes soon after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s latest trip to Africa. Lavrov visited South Africa, Eswatini, Angola and Eritrea last week, pulling on some of Moscow’s historic ties to the continent to rally support for Russia’s position and blame the West for the war in Ukraine.

Sudanese Man Released After Convicted of Killing US Diplomat

CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese authorities have released a man convicted of the 2008 killing of a U.S. diplomat in a drive-by shooting in the capital, Khartoum, his family said Tuesday. The release followed a 2020 deal between Sudan and the Trump administration that included compensation settlements for killings of Americans.

Abdel-Raouf Abu Zaid, designated a terrorist by the United States, was captured weeks after the shooting. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of John Granville, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Granville’s Sudanese driver.

Abu Zaid spent most of the past 15 years behind bars in Kubar Prison in Khartoum and was released on Monday, according to his brother, Abdel-Malek Abu Zaid, who posted photos on social media showing the scene outside the prison following Abdel-Raouf’s release.

Abdel-Malek would not elaborate but one of the daily newspapers in the country, the Sudani, reported that the Abu Zaid family had paid blood money to the slain driver’s family. Under Islamic law, or Sharia, which Sudan’s judiciary follows, a convict can be pardoned if his victim’s family is financially compensated.

The U.S. State Department said it was aware of the reported release of Abdel-Raouf Abu Zaid, designated a terrorist in 2013 by the U.S., and was seeking more information from the authorities in Khartoum.

“We call for full accountability for the murders,” of Granville and his driver, Abdel Rahman Abbas Rahama, the State Department said.

Earlier this month, Abu Zaid’s family apologized for the killing of Granville and his driver, saying in a video message: “We, as a family, apologize and acknowledged Abdel-Raouf’s mistake and he already admitted his mistake and expressed his regret and remorse for what has happened.”

Three other men were sentenced to death along with Abu Zaid while a fifth man received a two-year sentence for providing the weapons used in the attack.

The four awaiting hanging broke out of prison in June 2010, killing a Sudanese police officer and wounding another in a shootout in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, according to a Sudanese notice to the international police agency, Interpol.

Abu Zaid was recaptured weeks later and returned to Kubar Prison. The three other men were not recaptured. Local reports have said two of them later died in Somalia while the third is still living there.

In 2020, Sudan’s former transitional government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok reached a deal with the Trump administration to stop any future compensation claims being filed against the African country in U.S. courts.

This came after Sudan paid $335 million to settle compensation lawsuits at U.S. courts related to the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole at Yemen’s southern port of Aden which killed 17 Marines, as well as Granville’s killing.

Granville, 33, was an official for the USAID. He was working to implement a 2005 peace agreement between Sudan’s north and south that ended more than two decades of civil war.

He was being driven home early in the morning on Jan. 1, 2008, from a New Year Eve party, when another vehicle intercepted his car and the gunmen inside opened fire on Granville’s vehicle, killing him and his driver, also a USAID employee. The attackers then fled the scene.

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Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.

Ugandan Activist’s Family Awarded $10.5M for Utah Park Death

By SAM METZ

FILE - Delicate Arch is seen at Arches National Park on April 25, 2021, near Moab, Utah. The United States will pay more than $10 million in damages over the death of Esther Nakajjigo, a prominent Ugandan human rights activist killed in Arches National Park in 2020. Nakajjigo was decapitated after wind swung an untethered metal gate into her car, killing her immediately as her husband sat in the seat next to her. (AP Photo/Lindsay Whitehurst, File)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The United States will pay family members of a Ugandan human rights activist killed in an accident at Arches National Park more than $10 million in damages, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Though the amount was substantially less than pursued, attorneys representing the family of Esther Nakajjigo celebrated the judgement, saying it was the largest federal wrongful death verdict in Utah history.

“By his verdict, Judge Bruce Jenkins has shown the world how the American justice system works to hold its own government accountable and greatly values all lives, including that of Esther Nakajjigo, a remarkable young woman from Uganda,” Randi McGinn, the family’s attorney said in a statement.

Nakajjigo and her husband Ludovic Michaud were vacationing in eastern Utah, visiting the region’s national parks months after their wedding. Recreation areas had recently opened after pandemic-era closures and, on the edge of Arches, a metal gate normally secured with a lock was left untethered.

As the couple was leaving the park, gusts of wind swung the gate around rapidly, enough to slice through the passenger side door of the couple’s car, decapitating Nakajjigo as her husband sat feet away in the driver’s seat.

The gruesome nature of Nakajjigo’s death and the fact that she was a renowned Ugandan women’s rights activist drew widespread attention to the case.

Nakajjigo, who was 25, lived with her husband in Denver, where she moved to attend a leadership course on a full scholarship. She rose from poverty to become the host of a solutions-oriented reality television series in Uganda focused on empowering women on issues such as education and healthcare, and had successfully raised funds to build health care facilities in her hometown.

Because neither the U.S. nor Nakajjigo’s family disputed the facts of the case, the civil suit focused largely on the amount of damages merited. Attorneys representing Michaud and Nakajjigo’s parents asked for $140 million in damages, while the government said an appropriate award would be roughly $3.5 million.

Jenkins awarded Michaud $9.5 million; Nakajjigo’s mother, Christine Namagembe, $700,000; and her father, John Bosco Kateregga, $350,000.

Throughout the trial, attorneys debated estimates of Nakajjigo’s earnings potential. McGinn, representing Nakajjigo’s family, likened her to a nonprofit CEO for an American charity and said she would have likely made millions throughout her life. Attorneys representing the U.S. commended her work, yet noted her most recent job was working at a restaurant making $15 per hour.

In his judgement, Jenkins said the government had provided “a more reasonable projection” of Nakajjigo’s earnings potential.

President Biden to End COVID-19 Emergencies on May 11

By ZEKE MILLER and AMANDA SEITZ

President Joe Biden talks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023, after returning from an event in Baltimore on infrastructure. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared.

The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal coronavirus response to treat the virus as an endemic threat to public health that can be managed through agencies’ normal authorities.

It comes as lawmakers have already ended elements of the emergencies that kept millions of Americans insured during the pandemic. Combined with the drawdown of most federal COVID-19 relief money, it would also shift the development of vaccines and treatments away from the direct management of the federal government.

Biden’s announcement comes in a statement opposing resolutions being brought to the floor this week by House Republicans to bring the emergency to an immediate end. House Republicans are also gearing up to launch investigations on the federal government’s response to COVID-19.

Then-President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar first declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31, 2020, and Trump later declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergenc y that March. The emergencies have been repeatedly extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and are set to expire in the coming months. The White House said Biden plans to extend them both briefly to end on May 11.

“An abrupt end to the emergency declarations would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system — for states, for hospitals and doctors’ offices, and, most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans,” the Office of Management and Budget wrote in a Statement of Administration Policy.

More than 1.1 million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 since 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including about 3,700 last week.

Congress has already blunted the reach of the public health emergency that had the most direct impact on Americans, as political calls to end the declaration intensified. Lawmakers have refused for months to fulfill the Biden administration’s request for billions more dollars to extend free COVID vaccines and testing. And the $1.7 trillion spending package passed last year and signed into law by Biden put an end to a rule that barred states from kicking people off Medicaid, a move that is expected to see millions of people lose their coverage after April 1.

“In some respects, the Biden administration is catching up to what a lot of people in the country have been experiencing,” said Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at Kaiser Family Foundation. “That said, hundreds of people a day are still dying from COVID.”

Still, some things will change for Americans once the emergency expires, Levitt pointed out.

The costs of COVID-19 vaccines are also expected to skyrocket once the government stops buying them, with Pfizer saying it will charge as much as $130 per dose. Only 15% of Americans have received the recommended, updated booster that has been offered since last fall.

People with private insurance could have some out-of-pocket costs for vaccines, especially if they go to an out-of-network provider, Levitt said. Free at-home COVID tests will also come to an end. And hospitals will not get extra payments for treating COVID patients.

Legislators did extend for another two years telehealth flexibilities that were introduced as COVID-19 hit, leading health care systems around the country to regularly deliver care by smartphone or computer.

The Biden administration had previously considered ending the emergency last year, but held off amid concerns about a potential “winter surge” in cases and to provide adequate time for providers, insurers and patients to prepare for its end.

Officials said the administration would use the next three months to transition the response to conventional methods, warning that an immediate end to the emergency authorities “would sow confusion and chaos into this critical wind-down.”

“To be clear, continuation of these emergency declarations until May 11 does not impose any restriction at all on individual conduct with regard to COVID-19,” the administration said. “They do not impose mask mandates or vaccine mandates. They do not restrict school or business operations. They do not require the use of any medicines or tests in response to cases of COVID-19.”

Case counts have trended downward after a slight bump over the winter holidays, and are significantly below levels seen over the last two winters — though the number of tests performed for the virus and reported to public health officials has sharply decreased.

On Monday, the World Health Organization said the coronavirus remains a global health emergency, even as a key advisory panel for the group found the pandemic may be nearing an “inflexion point” where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths. China, for example, reported an unprecedented surge in December after lifting most of its COVID-19 restrictions.

Moments before the White House’s announcement, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., accused the president of unnecessarily extending the public health emergency to take action on issues like forgiving some federal student loan debts.

“The country has largely returned to normal,” Cole said Monday, introducing a Republican-backed bill calling for an end to the health emergency. “Everyday Americans have returned to work and to school with no restrictions on their activities. It is time that the government acknowledges this reality: the pandemic is over.”

The House was scheduled to vote Tuesday on legislation that would terminate the public health emergency.

The bill’s author, Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said he still hopes the House will proceed with a vote. He said he was surprised by the White House move, but thinks the legislation may have played a role in prompting the administration to act.

“I think we should go forward,” he said late Monday as lawmakers returned to the Capitol. “If for some reason they don’t do it on May the 11th, the vehicle is still there for Congress to take back its authority.”

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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed.

HarperCollins to Cut North American Workforce by 5%

By HILLEL ITALIE

NEW YORK (AP) — HarperCollins Publishers plans to cut its workforce by 5% in the U.S. and Canada by the end of June, citing increased costs and lower sales in a statement released Tuesday.

The announcement comes the day before HarperCollins and the union representing some 250 striking employees are to meet with a federal mediator, the first negotiations since the strike began more than two months ago.

HarperCollins cited similar issues in laying off a “small number” of staff members last fall. A new round of layoffs has already started, although the company expects reductions to come through a combination of layoffs and positions left unfilled.

“As noted last October, HarperCollins continues to experience unprecedented supply chain and inflationary pressures resulting from the pandemic, including increased paper, manufacturing, labor, and distribution costs,” according to the company’s statement. “Coupled with declining sales over the last few quarters, these issues have resulted in us having to make difficult decisions to realign the needs and resources of the business.”

The company said it will implement “a variety of cost-saving measures” in addition to the workforce cuts in North America.

HarperCollins, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has around 4,000 employees worldwide, more than half located in North America.

Editorial assistants, production designers and other mid- and entry-level employees have been on strike since Nov. 10, with salaries among the issues. The employees, who have been without a contract since last spring, are represented by Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers.

“The company has not communicated with us on this matter so we are still investigating the scope of layoffs,” Olga Brudastova, the local’s president, told The Associated Press.

Most of the major New York publishers saw sales decline after 2021, one of the best years in recent memory for the industry, although none have announced the kinds of reductions intended by HarperCollins. In its most recent earnings statement, which came out in November, the publisher reported an 11% drop in revenue and a 54% drop in earnings for its first fiscal quarter of 2023.