International
Kim Jong-un’s sister denies that North Korea is exporting weapons to Russia
The sister of the leader of North Korea, Kim Yo-jong, has denied in an opinion article published this Friday that the latest arms developments of the regime are aimed at boosting exports to Russia and insisted on describing the alleged shipment of weapons to Moscow as a “false rumor.”
In an editorial collected by the KCNA agency, Kim assures that the North Korean defense industry “continues to transform and reap rapid progress” in reference to the information published by state propaganda last week that shows his brother, Kim Jong-un, visiting mills of shuttles for missiles and multiple rocket launchers.
“I think it is necessary to point out the fact that hostile forces are deceiving public opinion with the false rumor that the weapons systems produced by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are ‘to export to Russia,’” Kim writes.
“As we have already said several times, the ‘rumor about the arms trade between the DPRK and Russia’, woven with wrong visions and fiction, is the most absurd paradox and does not deserve any evaluation or interpretation,” he adds.
US and South Korean intelligence have published satellite images showing thousands of containers exported from northeastern North Korea to the Russian region of Primorie, from where they transport them to areas near the front in Ukraine.
Several experts have also pointed to the evidence that shows that Moscow has used North Korean short-range artillery rounds or ballistic missiles to attack Ukrainian assets.
Kim, who is deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of North Korea, assures that there is no “intention to export” “technical military capacities to another country or to make them public.”
The leader’s sister assures that the “recent activities” in the field of defense respond exclusively to the implementation of the ambitious five-year weapons modernization plan approved by the Workers’ Party in January 2021.
“The most pressing task for us is not the “publication” or the “export” of weapons, but to perfect the preparations for the war,” writes Kim, who assures that “tactical weapons, including multiple rocket launchers and missiles recently exhibited by us are manufactured with a single mission.”
“We do not hide the fact that these weapons have the function of preventing Seoul from carrying out crazy plans,” he concludes, alluding to the tensions with the South.
At the beginning of the year, Kim Jong-un himself declared South Korea as the main national enemy and eliminated the goal of reunification of the Constitution.
Since then, the regime has withdrawn a multitude of symbolic elements in the country that urged the need to seek peaceful reunification, emphasizing that it is a profound diplomatic turn that in turn is coupled with an intense rapprochement with Russia in the last year.
International
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
A 65-year-old Austrian citizen was arrested at a border checkpoint in Croatia after attempting to enter the country in his car with a deceased woman sitting as a passenger, police announced on Tuesday.
The man was detained in a routine check in late November in Gunja, a border area separating Bosnia from Croatia, the police told AFP. Suspicious because they saw “no consciousness or movement” from the passenger, Croatian officers called a doctor, who confirmed the death of the 83-year-old woman, also Austrian, according to her identification.
The woman’s relationship to the suspect is unknown. She had died in Bosnia, and the man intended to repatriate her body to Austria to “avoid the formalities related to transporting a corpse,” according to the police. Croatian media reported that the man was her legal guardian.
Once her death was confirmed, a funeral service took charge of the body.
International
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Colombian authorities arrested two nationals accused of the illegal trafficking of migrants to the United States and of endangering lives due to the disappearance of a boat with 40 people aboard, U.S. Department of Justice officials reported on Tuesday.
Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera Orjuela, 52, and Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 40, both Colombian citizens, were arrested on December 13 in Colombia at the request of the United States for their alleged involvement in a “transnational human trafficking operation,” the department said in a statement.
According to the charges, the detainees were transporting migrants to San Andrés Island in the Caribbean, where they would then be taken by boat to Nicaragua. The goal was to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.
The accused are said to have advised the migrants on how to reach San Andrés Island, where they personally received them, arranged accommodations, and “took them to the boats that transported them to Nicaragua so they could enter the United States illegally,” the statement reads.
“These defendants put several migrants on the boat that disappeared off the coast of Nicaragua in 2023,” said Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, as cited in the statement.
Both men are “directly and personally responsible for the illicit trafficking of migrants on that vessel,” according to the indictment dated October 23.
International
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
Two soldiers were killed and five others were injured by the explosion of homemade landmines planted by a criminal group in a mountainous area of the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), the Secretary of Defense reported on Tuesday.
The attack occurred on Monday morning in the municipality of Cotija, a border area between Michoacán and the state of Jalisco, when the military was conducting a reconnaissance mission after receiving information about an armed camp in the area, explained Secretary General Ricardo Trevilla.
“At that moment, an improvised explosive device detonated. Unfortunately, two soldiers lost their lives, and five others were injured,” the military leader detailed. The affected soldiers were airlifted to hospitals in the region by a military helicopter, while the rest of the team continued with the reconnaissance of the area.
Trevilla stated that before the explosion, the military unit had located the dismembered bodies of three people, and upon continuing the mission, they confirmed the camp was abandoned.
Asked about the individuals responsible for placing the explosives, the general suggested they could be criminals linked to the local group Cárteles Unidos, which operates in Michoacán and uses these tactics in their territorial dispute with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country.
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
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