South Korea appoints North Korean defector as minister

South Korea has appointed a former North Korean diplomat as a vice minister, making him the highest-ranking defector in the country.

President Yoon Suk Yeol appointed Tae Yongho secretary general of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, which gives the leader policy advice on peaceful Korean unification.

Mr Tae, 62, was the North’s deputy envoy to the UK before defecting in 2016. He was forced to flee because he did not want his children to live “miserable lives” in North Korea, he said.

Mr Tae claimed that he fell into “despair” over leader Kim Jong-Un’s alleged executions of government officials and nuclear ambitions.

Pyongyang denounced him as a “human scum” and accused him of embezzling public money and committing other crimes.

Mr Tae’s appointment made him the first North Korean defector appointed to a vice-ministerial job in South Korea, where nearly 34,000 North Koreans have resettled over the years.

Mr Tae was elected to South Korea’s national assembly in 2020 but could not secure a second term in April’s parliamentary election. Several North Korean defectors besides him have served as lawmakers in the South.

The president’s office said on Thursday that Mr Tae was the right person for the post because he could utilise his experiences living in the North and working on South Korea’s parliamentary committee on foreign policy and unification issues.

Most defectors from the North left after a devastating famine in the 1990s. They were mostly women from the poorer northern regions, which share a long and porous border with China. In recent years, however, the number of North Korean elites fleeing to the South has steadily increased, as per the country’s unification ministry.

A defector from the North is given citizenship, almost-free housing, resettlement money and other benefits upon arrival in the South.

But coming from an authoritarian and nominally socialist North Korea, many experience discrimination and severe difficulties in adjusting to new lives in capitalistic, highly competitive South Korea, according to their interviews and surveys.

Speaking at the inaugural “North Korean Defectors’ Day” on Sunday, Mr Yoon promised to provide greater government support to improve the lives of North Korean defectors.

South Korea’s spy agency this week announced that Ri Il Kyu, a counsellor of political affairs at the North’s embassy in Cuba, defected to Seoul last November.

Mr Ri said he did not reveal his plan even to his family until hours before he pulled off the escape. “I bought flight tickets and called my wife and kid to tell them about my decision, six hours before the defection,” the former diplomat said. “I didn’t say South Korea, but said, let’s live abroad.”

Meanwhile, South Korea’s military said that it was resuming nonstop loudspeaker broadcasting of propaganda targeting North Korea in response to what it called the “despicable, shameful and vulgar” launch of balloons by Pyongyang carrying trash across the border.

The loudspeaker broadcasts and the balloons, which South Korean activists have also launched over the years with anti-North propaganda leaflets, have escalated tension between the two Koreas.

The two countries are still technically at war since an armistice ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, not a peace treaty.

Additional reporting by agencies.

Man killed in drone strike on Tel Aviv claimed by Yemen’s Houthis

A drone allegedly launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels hit near a US embassy office in Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring eight.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Friday they believe a falling “aerial target” caused the explosion. The military has increased air patrols following the attack “to protect Israeli airspace”.

The attack came just hours after Israeli airstrikes killed two commanders of the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israeli military claimed the commanders had conducted multiple attacks against Israel.

The military and emergency services are reportedly investigating the attack on Tel Aviv, with the city on high alert.

The exact target of the attack remains unclear.

The Houthis said they launched a drone capable of evading radar detection systems at Israel, the Times of Israel reported.

According to the Israeli military, its preliminary investigation indicates that the drone was detected by air defences but it was not intercepted due to human error.

A 50-year-old man was killed in the attack. He was discovered with severe shrapnel wounds in an apartment next to the blast, according to Roee Klein, a paramedic with the national emergency service, the Washington Post reported.

Israel’s air force believe the drone came from the southern direction, possibly Yemen, although it is not ruling out other launch sites, such as Iraq or Syria, the Times of Israel said.

A military spokesman for the Houthis, who have been targeting the Israeli port city of Eilat with drones for months, announced on social media early on Friday that the group will disclose details of the “quality operation” targeting Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv’s mayor, Ron Huldai, wrote on X that the city was on “heightened alert” in light of the drone attack. He said: “The war is still here, and it is hard and painful.”

Footage from the explosion site showed shattered glass scattered across the pavements, with crowds of onlookers congregating near a building marked by blast damage.

The area was cordoned off with police tape.

Israeli opposition politician Yair Lapid said the attack was “further proof that this government does not know and cannot give security to the citizens of Israel”.

He added: “Those who lose deterrence in the north and south also lose it in the heart of Tel Aviv. There are no policies, no plans, all public relations and discussions about themselves. They [the government] have to go.”

The Houthis have consistently fired drones and missiles at Israel and Israeli-affiliated shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to demonstrate their support for Palestinians amid Israel’s war on Hamas.

Almost 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October last year when Israel launched its war on Gaza. The offensive came after Hamas attacked southern Israel and killed nearly 1,200 people and took some 250 hostage.

Four dead in India train derailment as 12 coaches come off tracks

At least four people were killed and 20 injured on Thursday when a train derailed in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The train was heading from the city of Chandigarh towards Dibrugarh in the northeast when around a dozen passenger coaches came off the tracks.

Early visuals from the scene showed derailed coaches strewn at various angles off the railway tracks in Gonda district, around 100km from Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow.

Dozens of passengers were seen sitting outside with their luggage as rescue workers rushed to the spot.

Authorities said a 40-member medical team had been dispatched to the accident site and 15 ambulances were on their way to treat the injured and move them to a nearby hospital.

Rescuers reached the site shortly after the derailment was reported, said state relief commissioner Naveen Kumar.

The accident likely occurred at around 2.30pm. Several trains plying on the route have been affected and a few have been diverted.

“Our first priority is to complete relief and rescue work there as quickly as possible,” said Pankaj Singh, a spokesperson for the Indian Railways.

Federal railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has not issued a statement on the derailment yet.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath has been briefed about the accident, his office said on X.

“The chief minister has instructed the officials to immediately take the injured to the hospital and provide them with proper treatment. He also wished for the speedy recovery of the injured,” it said.

This is only the latest train derailment on the country’s vast and essential rail network, coming a month after nine people were killed and 25 injured when a passenger service collided with a freight train in West Bengal.

India saw one of its deadliest train crashes last year when over 280 people died in Odisha’s Balasore region after three trains collided due to an error in electronic signalling.

South Korea’s Supreme Court recognises rights of same-sex partners in landmark ruling

South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld that same-sex partners are eligible for the same insurance benefits as heterosexual couples, a ruling that is being heralded as a significant legal victory for the country’s LGBT+ community.

The decision marks the culmination of more than three years of legal battles and could set a precedent for the recognition of same-sex relationships in South Korea’s federal systems.

The landmark ruling upheld a decision by the Seoul High Court early last year that the National Health Insurance Service is obligated to provide equal spousal coverage to a gay couple, who filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the agency after it cancelled their spousal benefits.

Chief justice Jo Hee-de on Thursday said that the denial of spousal insurance coverage to a gay couple because of their gender constitutes discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“It is an act of discrimination that violates human dignity and value, the right to pursue happiness, freedom of privacy and the right to equality before the law, and the degree of violation is serious,” Mr Jo said in a televised hearing.

The couple, So Sung-wook and Kim Yong-min, began their lawsuit in the lower courts, which ruled against the couple on the grounds that a same-sex relationship could not be considered a common law marriage under the current laws in South Korea.

In February 2023, the Seoul High Court overturned the lower court’s ruling and recognised that the couple should have the right to equal benefits in the first such recognition for a same-sex couple in South Korea.

The court had said that protecting the rights of minorities is the “biggest responsibility” of the court as the “last bastion” of human rights.

The National Health Insurance Service appealed the decision in the Supreme Court, bringing the case to its final hearing.

Jubilant scenes followed after the top court’s ruling, as the emotional couple chanted: “Love wins!”

“I couldn’t believe when I heard the ruling. I was extremely happy and I started crying,” Kim Yong-min told Reuters outside the court.

“It took four years to earn this dependent status and we need to fight harder to legaliSe same-sex marriage going forward,” he said.

The ruling represents a significant step for a country that does not recognise same-sex marriages and where such couples are often excluded from government benefits.

Amnesty International’s East Asia researcher Boram said: “Today’s ruling is a historic victory for equality and human rights in South Korea.

“The court has taken a significant step towards dismantling systemic discrimination and ensuring inclusivity for all.

“While this decision is a major milestone, the case itself is a sobering reminder of the lengthy judicial processes that same-sex couples must endure to secure basic rights that should be universally guaranteed.”

He added that it is “disheartening that in 2024, same-sex couples still face such significant barriers to equality”.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is a “stepping stone for progress” towards marriage equality, said activist Horim Yi from Marriage For All, an LGBT+ campaign group.

“(Dependent status for health insurance) is one of the various rights that you can enjoy as a family, so it’s going to be a very hopeful ruling for same-sex couples living in South Korea.”

Instagram star dies trying to shoot reel at waterfall in India

An Indian Instagram influencer died after falling into a 300-foot gorge while shooting a video at the Kumbhe waterfall in the western state of Maharashtra.

Aanvi Kamdar, 26, on a trip with seven friends, fell into the gorge near Raigad at around 10.30am on 16 July, police said. Officers said she is believed to have been shooting a reel for her Instagram account when she slipped.

Police and local emergency crews, including one from the Coast Guard, responded to the accident on Tuesday.

“She had fallen about 300-350 feet. Despite reaching her, rescuing her was challenging due to her injuries and heavy rain, so we used a vertical pulley,” a rescuer was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Authorities in Raigad said she was brought out of the gorge after a six hour rescue operation but died late on Tuesday at a local hospital.

A chartered accountant by training, Kamdar used the handle @theglocaljournal on Instagram to post photos of her travels, as well as tips and hacks for others. She was well-known for her love of monsoon tourism, and her page has more than 260,000 followers.

Local officials in Maharashtra have urged tourists to prioritise safety and avoid risky behaviour.

This incident is not the first involving social media influencers losing their lives or getting injured seemingly during the pursuit for new content.

Gigi Wu, known as the “Bikini Climber”, died in 2019 after falling into a ravine during a solo hike in Taiwan.

Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Megan Scraper of the travel vlogging group “High on Life” died in 2018 after falling from Shannon Falls in British Columbia while attempting to take photos near the waterfall’s edge.

Hong Kong influencer Sofia Cheung, 32, lost her life after falling from a waterfall in Ha Pak Lai park while taking a selfie in 2021.

Hong Kong scribe says WSJ fired her for leading press advocacy group

The new head of a Hong Kong journalists’ association has claimed she was fired by The Wall Street Journal soon after being elected to the post.

Selina Cheng was told her job with the American newspaper had been terminated due to restructuring in the company.

She, however, said she believed the termination was linked to her supervisor’s request to withdraw from the election to chair the Hong Kong Journalists Association, or HKJA, a trade union that also advocates for press freedom.

“I am appalled that the first press conference I’m giving as HKJA’s new chair is to announce that I was fired for taking up this position in a press union,” Ms Cheng said on Wednesday. She was elected last month.

Ms Cheng claimed she was pressed by her employer about three weeks ago to withdraw from the election and quit the board of the association, which she had been on since 2021.

After declining the request, Ms Cheng said, she was told the role would be “incompatible with my employment at The Wall Street Journal”.

“The editor said that the employees of the Journal shouldn’t be seen as advocating for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong even though they can in Western countries where it is already established,” she said.

The media industry in the former British colony returned to China in 1997 has suffered major setbacks since it imposed a national security law in 2020 following mass street protests.

Ms Cheng noted that the Journal has been supportive of Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the newspaper who has been jailed in Russia on espionage charges that he, his employer and the US government vehemently deny.

“This is why I’m deeply shocked that senior editors at the paper would actively violate their employees’ human rights by preventing them from advocating for press freedom that the Journal’s reporters rely on to work,” she said.

Dow Jones, which publishes the paper, confirmed on Wednesday that it made “some personnel changes” but refused to comment on individual cases.

“The Wall Street Journal has been and continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom in Hong Kong and around the world,” the company said in a statement.

Ms Cheng covered China’s automobile and energy sectors for the Journal, which plans to move her role out of Hong Kong, The Guardian reported.

After the imposition of the draconian security law, which has allegedly been weaponised to silence dissent in the city, two local news outlets known for critical coverage of the government, Apple Daily and Stand News, were forced to shut down after the arrest of senior management, including Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai.

In March, Hong Kong enacted another security law to punish espionage, disclosure of state secrets and “collusion with external forces”. It left many journalists worried about further erosion in media freedom.

A week after the law was enacted, Radio Free Asia, which is funded by the US, announced its Hong Kong bureau had been closed because of safety concerns.

In June, secretary for security Chris Tang said HKJA lacked legitimacy and accused it of having stood with the protesters in 2019.

The Journal faced pressure from the city’s government last July when it received three letters by Mr Tang over its editorial or opinion pieces.

The paper announced in May that its staff was shifting “its centre of gravity” in the region from Hong Kong to Singapore. The decision resulted in some staffers losing their jobs in the Chinese financial hub.

Ms Cheng, however, was not affected.

The HKJA said the Journal risked hastening the decline of what space remained for independent journalism by pressuring its employees to not take part in the association.

Other board members of the association have also been pressured by their employers to stand down, it said in a statement without giving details.

Hong Kong was ranked 135th out of 180 countries and territories in the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.

Japanese PM apologises to victims of forced sterilisation programme

Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishidi bowed in apology to the victims of forced sterilisation just weeks after Japan’s top court ruled that a defunct eugenics law under which thousands of people were forcibly sterilised between 1948 and 1996 was unconstitutional.

Mr Kishida apologised to the victims on Wednesday and said: “The government, which enforced the law, bears extremely grave responsibility. I am deeply sorry and I offer an apology on behalf of the government.”

He said: “I decided to meet with you today in order to personally express my remorse and apology for the tremendous physical and mental suffering that many people have endured based on the former Eugenic Protection Law.”

People who were forcibly sterilised had filed lawsuits across the country claiming the treatment meted out to them was unconstitutional and sought state compensation.

The Eugenic Protection Law, in place for 48 years until 1996, permitted doctors to sterilise people with mental or intellectual disabilities. The law was brought in to curb the population during food shortages after the Second World War.

According to The Mainichi, the prime minister met with more than 130 plaintiffs, lawyers and supporters and said “it is with deep regret that at least 25,000 people have suffered the grave harm of being sterilised”, under the now-defunct law.

Around 25,000 people were sterilised under the law, including some who consented under pressure.

Former prime minister Shinzo Abe had also issued a public apology to the victims and said the eugenics law had caused “great suffering”.

Meanwhile, Mr Kishida also announced that he had directed authorities to prepare a new compensation plan for survivors, but did not provide any details.

Plaintiffs and their supporters have contended that a previous government compensation offer of 3.2m yen (about £15,700) per person was insufficient.

They achieved a significant victory earlier this month when Japan’s Supreme Court ordered the government to pay 16.5m yen (about £80,000) each to the plaintiffs of several lawsuits and 2.2m yen (about £10,000) to their spouses.

As per a parliamentary report released last year, children as young as nine were among those sterilised under the now-defunct eugenics law in Japan.

Though forced sterilisation was outlawed in 1996, high school textbooks as recently as 1975 stated that Japan’s government was making efforts for the “country’s eugenics to improve and enhance the genetic predisposition of the entire public”.

“I heard the apology directly from the prime minister to the victims, but I think we could have heard it earlier,” Koji Niisato, an attorney for plaintiffs was quoted as saying by NHK.

“Today, I hope that you will listen to the actual conditions of the victims and their real voices and do your utmost to achieve a full resolution for them.”

Suzuki Yumi from Kobe City believed that the meeting was a significant first step towards eliminating discrimination against people with disabilities. However, she noted that many forms of discrimination still persist in Japan.

Kojima Kikuo from Sapporo City shared that Mr Kishida held his hands and acknowledged his hardships. But he was not ready to forgive so soon. He told NHK that what was done to him remains “unforgivable”.

Japan is not the only country to have conducted forced sterilisations.

In 1997, records were uncovered showing Sweden sterilised 60,000 women between 1935 and 1976, some due to physical or mental disabilities, others because they were seen to be “inferior racial types”. The government later passed legislation giving £14,250 in compensation to each of the victims of the programme.

This is not the first time Japan has apologised for its past excesses and wartime actions. Japan apologised for the forced recruitment of “comfort women” during World War II, but it was an apology that did not satisfy South Korea. Then again, it expressed “deep remorse” and a “heartfelt apology” for Japan’s wartime actions, including the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Japan has also apologised to Australian prisoners of war (PoWs) who suffered under Japanese captivity during World War II.

However, Tessa Morris-Suzuki, an Australian historian noted in the East Asia Forum in a 2016 piece titled “The ever-shifting sands of Japanese apologies” that despite acknowledgements and apologies, Japan’s consistency in recognising the full extent of its historical responsibility is questionable.

At least 16 killed in huge fire at China shopping mall

At least 16 people were killed as a massive blaze tore through a shopping centre in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan.

The fire broke out in a 14-storey commercial building in the high-tech zone city of Zigong, located 1,900km from capital Beijing. The city is home to about 2.5 million people.

Firefighters responded to an emergency call shortly after 6pm on Tuesday at the building and pulled around 75 people to safety, state news agency Xinhua reported. The rescue operation continued overnight and ended at 3am (local time).

It was not immediately known what caused the fire or how many people were in the building when the fire broke out but preliminary investigation showed the fire erupted was due to construction operations.

The building houses a department store, offices, restaurants and a movie theater.

Videos showed clouds of thick black smoke coming out of windows from the building’s lower levels and engulfing the entire building as they rose to the sky.

Fire department authorities have reportedly called on the public to “not believe or amplify rumours” about the blaze. China‘s Ministry of Emergency Management has dispatched a team of experts to Sichuan for an investigation.

Fire hazards remain a problem in China, which reported 947 fire fatalities in this year’s first several months ending on 20 May, up 19 per cent from the same period of the previous year, Li Wanfeng, a spokesperson for the National Fire and Rescue Administration, told the Associated Press.

He said the number of fires in public places such as hotels and restaurants rose 40 per cent and that the most common causes were malfunctioning in electrical or gas lines and carelessness.

In January, a fire killed 39 people in a commercial building in the southeastern Chinese province of Jiangxi. It was caused by unauthorized welding in the basement.

Another 15 people were killed in a residential building in the eastern city of Nanjing in February, after an attached parking lot that had electric bikes caught fire.