The launches came just hours before South Korea was set to hold an event marking the Armed Forces Day with its key military assets on display, reports Asian Lite News
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Saturday, in its fourth such provocation in less than a week, South Korea’s military said.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launches from the Sunan area in Pyongyang between 6.45 a.m. and 7.03 a.m. and that the missiles flew some 350 km at apogees of around 30 km at top speeds of Mach 6, reports Yonhap News Agency.
The launches came just hours before South Korea was set to hold an event marking the Armed Forces Day with its key military assets on display.
On Friday, the South, the US and Japan staged an anti-submarine warfare exercise in the East Sea.
“The recent series of North Korea’s ballistic missiles is an act of significant provocation that undermines peace not only on the Korean Peninsula, but also in the international community, and a clear breach of UN Security Council resolutions,” the JCS said in a statement.
“Our military will maintain a firm readiness posture while tracking and monitoring related movements in close cooperation with the US in preparation against additional provocations.”
The presidential National Security Council convened a standing committee session and condemned the North’s latest launches.
On Thursday, US Vice President Kamala Harris made a daylong visit to South Korea, during which she met with President Yoon Suk-yeol and toured the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides Korea. (Courtesy Twitter@VP)
The latest launches followed earlier provocations on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Military authorities have been looking into possibilities that the North’s recent launches might have involved its KN-23, KN-24, the KN-25 super-large multiple rocket launcher or other short-range platforms.
The KN-23 and KN-24 are modeled after Russia’s Iskander ballistic missile and the US’ Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), respectively.
Both KN-23 and KN-24 missiles are known for “pull-up” maneuvers to avoid interception.
Pyongyang’s test-firing of short-range missiles raised speculation that it has been doubling down on its push to develop tactical nuclear arms.
Presidential address on the occasion of signing the treaties on the accession of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to Russia. Photo Grigoriy Sisoev, RIA Novosti
Vladimir Putin was speaking after signing treaties on the inclusion of four former Ukrainian regions into the Russian Federation, reports Asian Lite News
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday fulminated against the West’s record, singling out the US use of nuclear weapons in the closing days of the Second World War, and then western nations’ centuries of “colonialism”, “slave trading” and the “plundering of India”.
In his speech after signing treaties on the inclusion of four former Ukrainian regions into the Russian Federation – the start of the formal process of their accession – after the Russian-conducted referendums, he asserted that Russia is ready for talks with Ukraine, but “will defend our land with all the powers and means at our disposal”.
Hitting out at the US, he said that it is the only country in the world that has twice used nuclear weapons, destroying Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities, and setting a precedent.
PM Modi in a bilateral meeting with the President of Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Putin, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 16, 2022.
“Even today, they actually occupy Germany, Japan the Republic of Korea, and other countries, and at the same time cynically call them allies of equal standing,” he said.
“The West… began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, and then followed the slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India, of Africa, the wars of England and France against China…
“What they did was hooking entire nations on drugs, deliberately exterminate entire ethnic groups. For the sake of land and resources they hunted people like animals. This is contrary to the very nature of man, truth, freedom and justice,” Putin said.
The Centre took the step following a further review of the law and order situation in Nagaland, reports Asian Lite News
The Central government has extended the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in nine districts of Nagaland including Dimapur, Niuland, Chumoukedima, Mon, Kiphire, Noklak, Phek, Peren and Zunheboto from Saturday (October 1) to March 30 next year, according to a notification issued by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
In addition, the Government of India has also extended AFSPA in the areas falling within the jurisdiction of 16 police stations in four districts of Nagaland including five police stations in Kohima district; six police stations in Mokokchung district; Yanglok police station in Longleng district; and four police stations in Wokha district.
These 16 police stations comprise Khuzama, Kohima North, Kohima South, Zubza and Kezocha police stations in the Kohima district; Mangkolemba, Mokokchung-l, Longtho, Tuli, Longchem and Anaki ‘C’ police stations in Mokokchung district; Yanglok police station in Longleng district; and Bhandari, Champang, Ralan and Sungro police stations in Wokha district.
“Dimapur, Niuland, Chumoukedima, Mon, Kiphire, Noklak. Phek, Peren and Zunheboto districts in Nagaland and the areas in Nagaland falling within the jurisdiction of i) Khuzama, Kohima North, Kohima South, Zubza and Kezocha police stations in Kohima District; ii) Mangkolemba, Mokokchung-l, Longtho, Tuli, Longchem and Anaki °C’ police stations in Mokokchung District; iii) Yanglok police station in Longleng District; and iv) Bhandari, Champang. Ralan and Sungro police stations in Wokha District are declared as ‘disturbed area’ under Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 for a period of six months with effect from October 1, 2022, unless withdrawn earlier,” reads a notification issued by the MHA on Friday.
The Centre took the step following a further review of the law and order situation in Nagaland.
Earlier, the Central Government in the exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (28 of 1958) had declared nine districts and 16 Police Stations in four other districts of Nagaland as ‘disturbed area’ for a period of six months with effect from April 1 to September 30, 2022.
The AFSPA empowers security forces to arrest a person without a warrant, enter or search premises without a warrant, and perform other actions. (ANI)
US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield did not attach much weight to the abstentions by India, along with China, Brazil and Gabon, reports Arul Louis
India has abstained on a Security Council resolution condemning Moscow’s annexation of parts of Ukraine while saying it was “deeply disturbed by the recent turn of developments” there.
The resolution, which sought to declare as illegal the referendum Moscow said it held in those areas to annex them, was vetoed by Permanent Member Russia, although it received 10 votes with four abstentions in the 15-member Council on Friday.
India’s abstention came a fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had emphatically spoken to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin against the invasion and External Affairs Minister told the General Assembly last week that New Delhi was on “the side that respects the UN Charter and its founding principles”.
While explaining the abstention, India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj told the Council, “India is deeply disturbed by the recent turn of developments in Ukraine. We have always advocated that no solution can ever be arrived at the cost of human lives.”
“India’s Prime Minister has also emphasised that this cannot be an era of war,” she added highlighting his public statement to Putin in Samarkand in September, which has been welcomed by Washington and interpreted as a shift from India’s presumed neutrality.
Photo taken on Sept. 30, 2022 shows screens displaying Russian President Vladimir Putin delivering a speech in Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua/Cao Yang/IANS)
This was at least the ninth time India had abstained on a substantive resolution on Ukraine at the UN.
US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield did not attach much weight to the abstentions by India, along with China, Brazil and Gabon.
Speaking to reporters outside the Council chamber after the vote, she said, “Their abstentions clearly were not a defence of Russia. They were not in support of Russia and they made clear their condemnation of Russia.”
Kamboj said, “India’s position has been clear and consistent from the very beginning of this conflict: The global order is anchored on the principles of the UN Charter, international law and respect for sovereignty and the territorial integrity of all states.”
Calling for an immediate end to the conflict, she said, “Dialogue is the only answer to settling differences and disputes, however daunting that may appear at this moment.”
Prime Minister Modi has unequivocally said this to both Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, she added.
The Council took up the resolution hours after Putin held a ceremony at the Kremlin to formalise the annexation and declared that the territories were now part of Russia and Moscow would defend them.
The seized territories together cover “more than 90,000 square km”, which UK’s Permanent Representative Barbara Woodward said, “is the largest forcible annexation of territory since the Second World War”.
The referendum came after Russia faced military setbacks and retreated from some of the territories it had invaded.
The vetoed resolution introduced by Albania and the US called the “so-called referendums” held by Russia in the four Ukraine regions, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya, “illegal” and said they were an attempt to change Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.
The issue will now go before the General Assembly either through a similar resolution or by a new procedure adopted by it to require permanent members to explain their vetoes.
Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote that if Russia vetoed the resolution she would take it to the Assembly, where there are no vetoes, to “send an unmistakable message to Moscow”.
Although the Assembly has no enforcement powers, large support for the resolution would give it moral authority and show Moscow’s isolation.
Thomas-Greenfield said that “sham referenda” were held under “the barrel of Russian guns” and the outcome was “pre-determined in Moscow”.
“Time and time again we have seen the Ukrainian people fight for their country and their democracy,” she added.
Russia’s Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya dismissed the resolution as a tactic to provoke a veto.
He asserted that the people of the four regions have spoken and “there will be no turning back, as today’s draft resolution would try to impose”.
Later at the request of Moscow, the Council took up the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline that carries Russian gas to Germany.
After UN Assistant Secretary-General Navid Hanif said that while the organisation could not confirm any of the reports about the causes of the four leaks in the undersea pipeline, the discussions descended into the US and Russia trading charges.
US Ambassador to UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Nebenzya alleged that the “Anglo-Saxons” – an imprecise reference to the multi-ethnic US – had sabotaged the pipeline and American natural gas companies would be “celebrating” increased opportunities in Europe.
US Deputy Permanent Representative Richard Mills “categorically” denied the allegations.
He said that “sabotage of critical infrastructure should be of concern to us all” and pointed out that there have been “numerous Russian attacks damaging civilian infrastructure” in Ukraine.
Hanif said that the damages to the Nord Stream pipelines had two major impacts, on the environment and on the energy supply.
“Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of methane emissions” would result from the broken pipeline and it “can exacerbate the high price volatility on the energy markets in Europe and around the world”, he said.
