الكاتب: kafej

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his military should “thoroughly annihilate” the US and South Korea if provoked, according to state media.

Mr Kim’s comments on Sunday came after he said moves by the US and its allies against Pyongyang had been unprecedented in 2023, pushing the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.

In a meeting with commanding army officers on Sunday, he said the country needed to sharpen “the treasured sword” to safeguard national security – an apparent reference to his country’s nuclear weapons programme.

He cited “the US and other hostile forces’ military confrontation moves”, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Mr Kim said that “our army should deal a deadly blow to thoroughly annihilate them by mobilising all the toughest means and potentialities without moment’s hesitation” if they opt for military confrontation and provocations against North Korea, KCNA added.

North Korea’s leader is expected to ramp up weapons tests in 2024 ahead of the US presidential election in November, with many experts believing that Mr Kim thinks an expanded nuclear arsenal will allow him to gain US concessions if former president Donald Trump is re-elected.

In a five-day meeting of the ruling party last week, Mr Kim pledged to launch three new spy satellites, build military drones and increase his country’s stock of nuclear weapons in 2024.

At the meeting, Mr Kim called South Korea “a hemiplegic malformation and colonial subordinate state” whose society is “tainted by Yankee culture”.

He said his military must use all available means including nuclear weapons to “suppress the whole territory of South Korea” in the event of a conflict.

In response, South Korea’s Defence Ministry warned that if North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, South Korean and US forces will punish it overwhelmingly, resulting in the end of the Kim government.

Experts say small-scale military clashes between North and South Korea could happen this year along their heavily armed border.

They say North Korea is also expected to test launch intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the mainland US, and other major new weapons.

In his New Year’s Day address on Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he will strengthen his military’s pre-emptive strike, missile defence and retaliatory capabilities in response to the North Korean nuclear threat.

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He said South Korea was “building genuine, lasting peace through strength, not a submissive peace that is dependent on the goodwill of the adversary”.

Mr Kim has focused on modernising his nuclear and missile arsenals since talks with then US President Trump broke down in 2019 over disagreements about international sanctions on Pyongyang.

North Korea has carried out more than 100 missile tests since 2022, prompting the US and South Korea to expand their joint military drills.

A Bangladeshi court has sentenced a Nobel Peace Prize winner to six months in jail – after more than 170 world leaders and Nobel laureates called for the legal proceedings to be suspended.

Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered using microcredit to help impoverished people, was accused of violating the country’s labour laws and was granted bail at the hearing in Dhaka today. He has 30 days to appeal.

Grameen Telecom, which he founded as a non-profit organisation, is at the centre of the trial.

The head of the Third Labour Court of Dhaka said in her verdict that 67 of Grameen Telecom’s employees were supposed to be made permanent and that the employees’ participation and welfare funds were not formed.

Sheikh Merina Sultana also said that, following company policy, 5% of the company’s dividends were supposed to be distributed to staff.

She found Yunus, as chairman of the company, and three other company directors guilty, sentencing each to six months in jail.

Grameen Telecom owns 34% of the country’s largest mobile phone company, Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Norway’s telecom giant Telenor.

The Nobel laureate is also facing several other charges involving alleged corruption and fund embezzlement.

Yunus’s supporters believe the charges were filed to harass him amid a wider complex political context and frosty relations with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Bangladesh‘s government has denied the allegations.

In August, global leaders including former US president Barack Obama, former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and more than 100 Nobel laureates urged Ms Hasina to suspend all legal proceedings against Yunus.

The group said in a letter that they were deeply concerned by recent threats to democracy and human rights in Bangladesh.

Yunus founded Grameen Bank in 1983 which gives small loans to entrepreneurs who would not normally qualify for bank loans. The bank’s success in lifting people out of poverty led to similar microfinancing efforts in many other countries.

Ms Hasina’s administration began a series of investigations into Yunus after she came to power in 2008.

At that time, he had criticised politicians in the country, saying they were only interested in money, while Ms Hasina called him a “bloodsucker” and accused him of using force and other means to recover loans from poor rural women as head of Grameen Bank.

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In 2011, Ms Hasina’s administration began a review of the bank’s activities. Yunus was fired as managing director for allegedly violating government retirement regulations.

He was also put on trial in 2013 on charges of receiving money without government permission, including his Nobel Prize award and royalties from a book.

Bangladesh is holding a general election on 7 January but the country’s main opposition the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is boycotting the vote.

The party said it does not have any confidence in Ms Hasina’s administration to hold a free and fair election.

Israel’s Supreme Court has struck down a controversial law passed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that rolled back some of the high court’s power and sparked nationwide protests.

The new legislation had removed one of the methods by which the Supreme Court can quash government and ministers’ decisions.

The law would have stripped the court of its ability to void such decisions that it deemed “unreasonable”.

Opponents had argued that the legislation may open the door to corruption and improper appointments of unqualified allies to important positions.

Eight of 15 justices ruled in favour of nullifying the law, the court said in a statement, and added that they ruled to strike down the law because it would severely damage Israel‘s democracy.

The proposed legislation, passed in July, was part of a broader judicial overhaul proposed by Netanyahu and his coalition of religious and nationalist partners which caused a deep rift in Israel and concern over the country’s democratic principles among Western allies.

Those divisions were largely put aside while the country focuses on the war in Gaza but today’s court decision could reignite those tensions, which sparked months of mass protests against the government and had rattled the cohesion of the powerful military.

Netanyahu’s Likud party said the decision was unfortunate and that it opposed “the will of the people for unity, especially during wartime”. Opposition lawmakers praised the ruling.

It comes as Israel pulled five brigades, amounting to several thousand troops, from Gaza in the first significant drawdown of soldiers since 7 October.

There were several other developments in the Israel-Hamas war as New Year’s Day came to a close:

• Israel also pulled tanks out of some Gaza City districts today, residents said, as it announced plans to shift tactics
and cut back on troop numbers;
• The US said this signalled the start of a shift to lower-intensity operations in northern Gaza
• Hezbollah said three of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon;
• Also in Lebanon, the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets and that five soldiers were wounded by cross-border fire;
• Hamas fired a large barrage of rockets towards Israel, including its commercial hub Tel Aviv, as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve;
• Israel’s defence minister says some communities that had been evacuated to the north of the Gaza Strip will be able to return soon;
• The US Navy said it will end the deployment of the Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier in the Middle East which started after the 7 October attack