N. Korea’s Kim absent from missile tests
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday its two latest rounds of weapons tests this week were successful while vowing to bolster its nuclear “war deterrent” and speed up the development of more powerful warheads.
It appeared North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not attend the tests on Tuesday and Thursday, which were detected by the militaries of neighbors South Korea and Japan. But Kim did inspect a munitions factory where workers pledged loyalty to their leader, who “smashes with his bold pluck the challenges of U.S. imperialists and their vassal forces,” state media said.
North Korea has been ramping up its testing activity in recent months, including six rounds of weapons launches so far in 2022, demonstrating its military might amid pandemic-related difficulties and a prolonged freeze in nuclear diplomacy with the United States.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency described the two ballistic missiles launched from a coastal area on Thursday as “surface-to-surface tactical guided missile” armed with a conventional warhead and said they accurately struck a sea target.
The North has described this weapon as “strategic,” implying that it’s being developed to deliver nuclear weapons.
Jordan reports killing 27 smugglers
AMMAN, Jordan — The Jordanian military said Thursday that troops have killed 27 suspected smugglers attempting to enter the country from neighboring Syria.
The report on the army’s website said the military had thwarted several suspected attempts to smuggle drugs into Jordan from Syria, and that large quantities of narcotics were seized in separate interventions that also left several people wounded.
The military said it was “continuing to apply the newly established rules of engagement and will strike with an iron fist, and deal with force and firmness with any infiltration or smuggling attempts to protect the borders.” Earlier this month, the military said an army officer was killed in a shootout with smugglers along the long porous border it shares with Syria.
Jordan is home to more than 650,000 Syrian refugees who fled the civil war that has raged there for more than a decade. Syria and neighboring Lebanon have become gateways for the drug to the Middle East, and particularly the Gulf.
The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said in a 2014 report that the amphetamine market is on the rise in the Middle East, with busts mostly in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria accounting for more than 55% of amphetamines seized worldwide.
U.S. drones at Japan base under study
The U.S. military’s MQ-9 reconnaissance drones are being considered for deployment to a Maritime Self-Defense Force air base in Kagoshima Prefecture, several Japanese government sources said.
Maritime Self-Defense Force Kanoya Air Base is the likely location, with the aim of strengthening vigilance and surveillance regarding China, which has been aggressively expanding its maritime presence around the Nansei Islands, the Japanese island chain between Kyushu and Taiwan.
The U.S. military is looking to deploy seven or eight MQ-9s this spring at the earliest, with about 100 U.S. personnel expected to be stationed at the air base to operate and maintain the drones.
The MQ-9 drone flies at an altitude of more than 6 miles, is remotely operated from the ground and features enhanced surveillance capabilities.
During a Jan. 7 virtual meeting of the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee of the foreign and defense chiefs, the two countries signed a joint statement mentioning the necessity to strengthen the Self-Defense Forces’ posture in the Nansei Islands and jointly use facilities.
The Defense Ministry said it will soon explain the agreement to relevant local governments and hopes to gain their understanding.
Boat with 70 migrants sinks off Tunisia
TUNIS, Tunisia — At least six Africans trying to migrate to Europe died and an estimated 30 were missing in the Mediterranean Sea after their boat sank off the coast of Tunisia on Thursday, according to Tunisia’s Defense Ministry.
Tunisian naval and coast guard forces collected the bodies, rescued 34 survivors and are searching for the people listed as missing, the ministry said in a statement. The survivors told rescuers that the boat had 70 people on it, and they were headed for Italy, the ministry said.
The boat had left from neighboring Libya and sank about 24 miles off the Tunisian town of Zarzis, near the Libyan border, it said.
The survivors included people from Egypt, Sudan and Ivory Coast, according to Mongi Slim, head of the Tunisian Red Crescent.
About 60,000 people arrived in Italy by sea last year, and some 1,200 died or disappeared on the journey, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
The Tunisian Defense Ministry said authorities thwarted eight boat migration trips in the past 48 hours off the coast of the city of Sfax, and 130 people from Tunisia and sub-Saharan Africa were detained.