- North Korea launches ballistic missiles marking the third launch in less than a week.
- Angela Merkel: Putin’s warning should be taken seriously
- Ukraine calls for Russia to be classified as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’
North Korea has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006, most recently in September 2017.
South Korea said North Korea launched ballistic missiles into the eastern seas, hours after U.S. Vice President Harris arrived at the South Korean border.
Joint Chiefs of Staff South Korea (JCS) today said Korean launched at least one ballistic missile into eastern waters, marking the third launch in less than a week.
South Korea’s eastern waters are South Korea’s way of referring to the Sea of Japan, and the Japanese coast guard also said North Korea may have conducted the missile launch.
North Korea’s move comes just hours after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived to visit the demilitarized zone on the South-North Korean border.
Harris reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to South Korea’s defense as “sustainable,” adding that the two countries have coordinated their response to the growing threat posed by North Korea’s weapons program.
“We want the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but in the short term we are ready to deal with any situation that occurs,” she said.
The U.S. vice president ended his visit and left South Korea ahead of North Korea’s latest missile launch. The U.S. and South Korea are conducting a large-scale joint naval exercise aimed at a show of strength.
Under President Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea and the U.S. stepped up joint military exercises and insisted on being purely defensive.
North Korea sees these drills as preparing for an invasion.
South Korean and U.S. officials have warned for months that North Korea is preparing to conduct another nuclear test. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said North Korea could conduct a nuclear test between Oct. 16 and Nov. 7, close to midterm congressional elections in the United States.
According to the NIS, preparations at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site have been completed.
- Angela Merkel: Putin’s warning should be taken seriously
During her tenure as chancellor, Ms. Merkel is often considered the de facto leader of the European Union (EU), the most powerful woman in the world and, since 2016 the leader of the free world.
A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union from 2000 to 2018. Merkel is Germany’s first female chancellor.
Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021 and surely her experience is a key.
While Russia has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal of about 6,000 nuclear warheads and a huge arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Merkel said the West should take Putin’s nuclear warning seriously because it is not “empty talk.”
“Such statements should not be taken as empty words, taking them seriously is not a sign of weakness. On the contrary, it is an expression of political wisdom,” the former prime minister said.
Germany Angela Merkel speaking at the launch event of the Helmut Kohl Prime Minister’s Foundation in Berlin on September 27.
Her comments came after the President Russia Vladimir Putin last week that Moscow would use “all measures to protect the country and its people” if its territorial integrity is threatened.
According to Putin, those who use “nuclear blackmail” against Russia “should know that the wind can turn.”
It was one of the rare times Merkel has commented on Russia policy since she left office last year.
During her 16 years in power, Germany has built good relations with Russia, but is also heavily dependent on its energy.
In June, Merkel said her resignation last year could affect Putin’s decision to launch a military campaign in Ukraine.
She also acknowledged her own failure to create an “additional negotiating framework with Russia on the European security order, in addition to the Normandy format,” which paved the way for the Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015 to cool the conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014.
Putin said on September 21 that Russia could use all available tools, including “weapons of varying degrees of destruction,” to protect its “territorial integrity.”
The “territorial integrity” mentioned by the Russian president may soon include 4 Ukrainian territories, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, which have just held referendums to annex Russia.
Putin’s warning has Western officials concerned about the risk of Russia using small tactical nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes his Russian counterpart no “empty intimidation”, while European Union foreign policy official Josep Borrell said the warning must be taken “seriously”.
U.S. President Joe Biden accused the Russian president of flouting his responsibility for nonproliferation.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned that Washington would respond decisively and expose Russia to “catastrophic” consequences for using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
- Ukraine calls for Russia to be classified as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’
Since the U.S. considers North Korea, Syria, Iran and Cuba to be “state sponsors of terrorism.”
If the U.S. includes Russia on the list, it could impose secondary sanctions on any organizations or individuals that support or transact with Russian government agencies, including state banks.
U.S. citizens and workers can also sue Russia for financial damages or seek material compensation for casualties “caused by terrorist acts.” Russian citizens entering the U.S. also face higher restrictions.
Kiev and the West have repeatedly accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine and stepped up investigative efforts.
However, Moscow has repeatedly denied committing war crimes or targeting civilians in Ukraine, insisting it was a campaign of “demilitarization, de-fascismization”.
On Sept. 5, President Biden answered “no” when asked by a reporter if he supported a proposal to pass a bill that would designate Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism.”
The White House explained that this was “not the most effective and powerful way to hold Russia accountable.”
Kremlin Dmitry Peskov later expressed much appreciated Mr. Biden.
In August, Alexander Darchiyev, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North American Department, warned that if the U.S. passes the bill, it will cross a line of no return, even leading to a severing of ties.
Kiev backed an international committee’s conclusion that Russia should be considered a “state sponsor of terrorism,” calling for an expansion of sanctions against Moscow.
Chief of Staff to the President Ukraine Andriy Yermak on September 29 praised the current sanctions, but said they did not have a decisive impact. “Money is like water, always looking for ways to flow.
The West needs to sharply increase sanctions,” he said, calling for the introduction of sanctions.
Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
Earlier, an international committee on sanctions made up of lawyers, diplomats and economists issued a report arguing that Russia should be considered a “state sponsor of terrorism”, as defined legally in US and Canadian law. Among the committee members was Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia.
“The nature of terrorism can be summed up as premeditated politically motivated violence, aimed against non-combative targets,” the report reads.
According to the report, the horrific events in Ukraine “were not the outbursts of rogue elements in the Russian armed forces but were designed and carried out with the specific purpose of terrorizing the Ukrainian people.”
However, committee members acknowledged that labeling Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism” could backfire, risking destroying a grain export agreement with Ukraine via the Black Sea.
Russia has not yet commented on the report.
