South Korea, Japan and the US yesterday began a joint naval exercise involving destroyers, supply ships and helicopters in a move denounced by North Korea as a “reckless provocation.”
Seoul’s defense ministry said the two-day drill would practice humanitarian operations such as search and rescue missions and maritime interceptions. It said no live-fire exercises were planned.
Pyongyang yesterday said the three-nation exercise threatens to bring a “new cloud of war” to Northeast Asia.
“The North’s people and military are intensely watching the trilateral military drill,” ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said, urging the three allies to stop “reckless provocation.
A South Korean defense ministry spokesman declined to say how many personnel were involved in the exercise in international waters south of South Korea’s Jeju Island, but said such drills had been held since 2008.
The US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington will join the exercise today before taking part in a separate drill with South Korea in the Yellow Sea from tomorrow to Monday. On land, South Korean and US forces are to hold their biggest joint live-fire exercise today. The aim is to showcase their “watertight defense posture and war-fighting capabilities,” Seoul’s defense ministry said earlier in the week.
It said 2,000 troops, F-15K and KF-16 jet fighters and light-attack planes would be among weaponry deployed.
Four US Apache attack helicopters as well as tanks and rocket launchers will fire thousands of rounds during the drill at Pocheon near the border with the North. The drill is timed to mark the 62nd anniversary on Monday of the start of the Korean War, which sealed the peninsula’s division.
The North has taken a hostile tone with the South since new leader Kim Jong-un took over in December last year.
South Korean activists yesterday announced a plan to launch 1 million cross-border leaflets denouncing the North’s ruling family.
They said the leaflets, slung under giant gas-filled balloons, would be floated across the border in five launches starting on Sunday.
“While the North is busy idolising Kim Jong-un with fabrication and hypocrisy, we will send letters unveiling the truth about Kim,” the Fighters for Free North Korea said in a statement.
They did not say where the launches would take place, for security reasons.
BROWNOUT DRILL HELD
Meanwhile, sirens rang out across South Korea and some traffic lights were switched off yesterday as the country carried out an unprecedented drill aimed at averting summer power cuts.
The 20-minute exercise was intended to encourage consumers to switch off appliances if reserves run dangerously low, and to simulate responses if phased blackouts become inevitable, the ministry of knowledge economy said.
Reserves are feared to fall to dangerously low levels next month and August when air conditioners will run at full blast, a situation that could spark rolling blackouts across the country.
At four subway stations in Seoul, firemen simulated operations to rescue passengers trapped in elevators. Some large hospitals evacuated patients from emergency rooms. Government buildings cut off mains power and switched on generators.
People were urged voluntarily to switch off air conditioners, fans and other appliances during the drill.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of