North Korea yesterday renewed its strong attack against Japan for announcing new sanctions against the communist state, describing it as a "bat-blind," boot-licking "political charlatan."
"Japan would be well advised to behave with discretion, pondering over the serious consequences to be entailed by its harebrained act against the DPRK [North Korea]," said the Rodong Sinmun newspaper of the ruling communist party.
Japan last week blacklisted 15 companies and an individual with alleged links to weapons programs in North Korea in compliance with a UN resolution that condemned Pyongyang's missile tests in July.
The US has urged its allies to tighten the financial noose around North Korea, which is also involved in a standoff with the international community over its nuclear ambitions.
In a commentary, Rodong Sinmun described the sanctions as "poor, third-rate diplomacy of bat-blind philistines."
It added: "Japan is whipping itself into senseless frenzy to please the whim of its American master ... It does not warrant surprise, considering that Japan has made it its physical quality to lick the boots of the American master and tail behind the US."
The commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, described the sanctions as "disgusting behavior of a slovenly political charlatan bent on refurbishing his public image by ingratiating himself with his American master and feathering his own nest by following the US."
The "clumsy and wicked act" trampled on the spirit and requirements of the Pyongyang Declaration, it added.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the North's leader Kim Jong-il issued the declaration on establishing better relations after a 2002 summit was held in Pyongyang.
But relations have soured since then, partly over the fate of Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
Pyongyang has returned five of the kidnap victims but Japan insists that more are alive and being kept under wraps.
"It is justifiable and natural for the DPRK to put up a tough rebuff to Japan's desperate political provocation. The situation is very serious and the consequences are unpredictable," Rodong Sinmun added.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS