International
The new Moscow-Pyonyang pact, a headache for the United States and allies… and for Beijing
Moscow and Pyongyang agreed to offer military assistance in case of aggression and paved the way for more defense exchanges, a movement that according to analysts leaves both Beijing, the greatest ally of both countries, and Seoul, Tokyo and Washington, in a complex situation, for which it raises the challenge.
The leaders of Russia and North Korea, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, signed the day before the so-called “Strategic Partnership Agreement,” the new road map for their bilateral relations that replaces previous diplomatic treaties, during the Kremlin president’s first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years.
Mutual military assistance in the face of an eventual attack is the most outstanding novelty of the document, with which Putin and Kim send a warning to the United States and its Asian allies – insisting that they abide by international law – and also redraw regional alliances under the watchful eye of Beijing.
“The pact means a renewal of the Cold War security guarantees considered deceased in 1990, when South Korea and Russia normalized relations,” said the American Victor Cha, former National Security Adser of the White House, through his account in X.
Cha, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, also believes that the agreement will mean “an escalation in military cooperation,” including more supply of North Korean munitions and ballistic missiles for the war in Ukraine, and “a possible proliferation of the shipment of Russian advanced technology to North Korea.”
In addition to the potential impact on the conflict in Ukraine through the shipment of weapons that Washington, Seoul and other Western countries have been denouncing, the United States and its allies will now have to deal with formalized security ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Many analysts consider the mutual defense assistance clause precisely as a response to the largest military rapprochement between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo in recent years, including the collaboration of Japan and South Korea with NATO, and believe that it will also have the effect of pushing these three partners and other related countries to shield themselves even more against the Russian-North Korean axis.
“I think this will serve as a pretext to formalize the U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral security relationship in the context of next month’s NATO summit in Washington,” says Cha.
Other experts highlight that the pact signed by Putin and Kim highlights the weaknesses that both countries face under the extensive regime of sanctions that weighs on them, and question how far military assistance could go in the event of conflict.
“There is no credible mechanism or political will to fight for each other or to develop a joint military strategy,” Patrick Cronin, director of Asia-Pacific Security at the Hudson Institute, said in statements to the South Korean agency Yonhap.
“Yes, there is a mute desire to show solidarity in opposition to a world order led by the United States,” Cronin said.
Experts point to the possible influence of Beijing when it comes to seeing the true course of the new pact between Russia and North Korea, traditional Chinese allies and increasingly dependent on the Asian giant.
“It is likely that China is nervous. Pyongyang is prioritizing Moscow over Beijing because Russia seems willing to offer Kim more than China gives her,” says Sydney Seiler, a former U.S. intelligence analyst and currently a CSIS researcher.
Cha, for his part, points out the possibility of an upcoming summit between Xi Jinping and Kim “to balance and align positions,” and also recalls that the Chinese president held his last meeting with the North Korean dictator in June 2019, months after the latter’s failed summit with former US President Donald Trump.
Xi, who also faces increasing pressure from the West for his support for Moscow during the invasion of Ukraine, received Putin in Beijing in May at a summit in which they claimed to open “a new era” of their relations, and according to some information, asked the Russian leader not to travel to Pyongyang immediately after his passage through China.
Beijing for the moment has limited itself to pointing out that Moscow and Pyongyang “have the legitimate need for exchanges, cooperation and development of their relations as close and friendly neighbors,” according to Chinese Chancellor Lin Jian’s spokesman the day before.
International
President of Mexico concludes his government with 12,319 members of organized crime arrested
The Government of the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, (2018-2024) will conclude this month with a total of 12,319 members of organized crime arrested, almost 2,600 drug trafficking laboratories destroyed and the 19% drop in the monthly number of homicides, its latest Security Report said on Tuesday.
In the six-year period, the federal authorities arrested 94,240 criminals, including 12,319 organized crime and 8,509 “priority targets”, such as Rafael Caro Quintero, alias El narco de narcos, and Ovidio Guzmán, one of the sons of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, said Rosa Icela Rodríguez, the Secretary of Security.
As a sign of the fight against drug trafficking, Rodríguez announced in the morning conference of the National Palace the destruction of 2,593 clandestine laboratories for the production of synthetic drugs during the last six years.
The Mexican agents, he detailed, confiscated more than 95,000 kilograms of chemicals and more than 44,000 kilograms of drugs.
Of this amount, he highlighted the seizure of 795 tons of marijuana, 205 tons of cocaine, 775 tons of methamphetamine, 1,616 kilograms of heroin and 1,338 kilograms of opium gum, as well as the destruction of 11,000 hectares of marijuana, 66,000 of poppy and 70 of coca leaves.
He also reported a record confiscation of 8,000 kilograms of fentanyl, a synthetic drug that has been the priority of the United States Government, which in 2021 signed with Mexico the Bicentennial Understanding to combat violence and drug trafficking.
Despite the data, the head of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) said that López Obrador abandoned the logic of the ‘war against drugs’ declared by former President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012).
“Mr. President, thank you for teaching us the culture of peace, above war,” Rodríguez said.
The Secretary of Security insisted that the López Obrador Administration, who took office on December 1, 2018, reduced the monthly incidence of homicides by 19%, by reporting 2,546 in July compared to the historical maximum of 3,074 in July 2018, in the final phase of the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).
But preliminary data that she exhibited on September 3 showed that the López Obrador government will conclude with a record accumulated of at least 193,612 homicides from 2019 to 2024, an increase of 23.16% compared to the 157,198 committed from 2013 to 2018 under Peña Nieto.
The head of the SSPC also reported a drop in the monthly incidence of crimes such as kidnapping (-77% to 37 per month), femicide (-41.6% to 63 per month), and total theft (-30.2% to 45,719 per month).
As one of López Obrador’s main achievements, the secretary cited a reduction during her administration of more than 15 points in the perception of insecurity, up to 59.4% of the population, one of the lowest measurements of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), an autonomous body.
“This means that more and more people consider it safe to live in their city, it is also important to consider that this consistent downward trend, during a period of 22 quarters is something that is practically not observed in any country in the world,” Rodríguez said.
According to Inegi data, the secretary also explained that between 2018 and 2022 in 17 entities the crime victim rate and the percentage of poverty fell, while in the first half of 2024 the number of households of victims of theft or extortion fell by 12.7% compared to 2018.
He also highlighted that the government institution in which the population trusts the most is the federal government, with a record of 59.1% that expressed its confidence in 2023, compared to 25.5% in 2017, according to Inegi.
“The way of governing in Mexico has had a positive impact on the population. They are great advances of the transformation movement, led by President López Obrador, a solid basis for the new Government of the president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum,” he concluded.
International
Ukraine allocates 10.8 billion euros more to its Army until the end of the year
The Ukrainian Supreme Rada (Parliament) approved this Wednesday to allocate 500 billion more grivnas (about 10.8 billion euros) to cover the financing needs of the Army until the end of the year, according to Ukrainian deputies on their social networks.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal had previously explained that the original budget for 2024 would not be enough, since it had been calculated taking into account that the war would end this summer.
Ukraine devotes 100% of its taxes at the national level to military and defense expenses, and covers the financing of public services and other civilian expenses thanks to international aid.
As Shmigal explained at the time, each soldier costs the Ukrainian State an average of 32,000 dollars a year.
The budget rectification approved this Wednesday should be financed with the issuance of debt and with the increase in taxes such as the one applied to tobacco or fuel, as explained by the president of the Committee on the Budget of the Parliament, Roksolana Pidlasa.
The Ukrainian Parliament approved on Tuesday in first reading (so it will require a second vote to be adopted) a tax increase that affects the so-called war rate, which taxes taxpayers to finance the Army and goes from 1.5 to 5%.
The new legislation also raises taxes on several tax segments and introduces changes in taxation for banks and companies.
International
Manipulated ‘you’ searches’ and a fake message: what is known about the explosions in Lebanon
A new shipment of search devices used by members of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbulá, originally manipulated before arriving in Lebanon, and a false message that detonated them remotely are the most likely hypotheses of the chain of explosions that this Tuesday caused at least twelve deaths in an operation attributed to Israel.
According to various sources, and in the absence of knowing the exact details, including who was the author of that cyber attack that from Lebanon is attributed to Israel, the Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications, Johnny Corn, assures that the devices that exploded were part of a shipment that “recently” arrived” in Lebanon.
He states that “maybe it was activated remotely,” although he does not yet know how, and indicates that, according to preliminary information, “the batteries of the people seekers heated up.”
It may, therefore, that even some people threw away those devices before they exploded.
This is what is known so far about this unusual and sophisticated operation:
Since the simultaneous attack, which injured thousands of people, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, and which affected members of the Shii armed formation in Syria, there have been numerous hypotheses about how this attack could have occurred.
The most likely, and that some experts are already pointing out, such as the military analyst and independent politician, Elijah J. Magnier, is that an explosive trap was placed inside the devices, which “were not imported directly to Lebanon, but were stopped in a nearby country for three months, where Israel implanted the explosive.”
In what would be a sophisticated infiltration in the supply chain of these devices, Israel would have placed the explosives in that batch of devices, in total about 3,000, according to several US media, including The New York Times, always citing anonymous sources.
These explosives would have been implanted next to the battery of each of the mensaphones, which is why there was an overheating prior to the explosion, to which a mechanism was added to detonate them remotely.
That mechanism was a false message, which supposedly came from the dome of Hezbulá, and that when punctured activated the explosives.
Before the detonation, according to the sources, the device was programmed to beep for several seconds.
This type of attacks on supply chains is a concern in the field of cybersecurity due to the potential ‘hacks’ that may occur in the development phases, although these actions are normally limited to software and not to hardware, since for the latter it is required to have accessed the device during the assembly line.
Several computer experts consulted by EFE support the theory that, for these explosions to occur, the devices would have to have been manipulated at origin or destination, pointing out that the manufacturers of the components of these mensaphones are the ones who should respond to this.
And they have done so, since according to the New York Times, Hizbulá commissioned the devices from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo.
However, the Asian company denied in a statement having manufactured these devices and indicated that the person responsible for producing them is a company called ‘BAC’, which is based in Budapest.
Regarding the AR-924 ‘person-seeker’ that would have been used in the explosions, the Taiwanese company reiterates that it is a model “produced and sold” by BAC.
“We only provide the authorization of the registered trademark and we are not involved in the design or manufacture of this product. We always adhere to the relevant regulations and maintain a transparent and compliant cooperation with our partners,” the statement concluded.
The Shiite group uses among its members this kind of devices as a means of communication to avoid being geolocated by Israel, which usually carries out selective murders against members of Hezbullah, among other factions present in Lebanon and Syria.
Mensaphones, which became obsolete with the arrival of the mobile phone, are low-tech wireless devices that basically receive alphanumeric and bidirectional messages, with the ability to send and receive short messages.
President of Mexico concludes his government with 12,319 members of organized crime arrested
Ukraine allocates 10.8 billion euros more to its Army until the end of the year
Manipulated ‘you’ searches’ and a fake message: what is known about the explosions in Lebanon
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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