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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has opened a flagship construction project close to Mount Paektu, a symbol of the Korean nation and officially the birthplace of his father and predecessor, state media reported yesterday.  The ceremony was held in snowy scenes before thousands of soldiers and civilians, and portrayed as a demonstration of the resilience of the North, which is subject to international sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.  It comes with time running out on Pyongyang’s demand for the US to offer it fresh concessions by the end of the year, and ahead of Kim’s New Year speech on January 1, a key political set-piece in the isolated country. Kim donned a black leather trench coat and gloves for the opening, and — surrounded by fur-hatted officials  — cut a red ribbon in front of a statue of his father Kim Jong-il.  Winter already has North Korea’s far north firmly in its grip, and icicles hung from buildings, Korean Central Television (KCTV) footage showed  — the largely empty streets covered in snow.  Banners proclaimed: “Long live the great leader of the force of our party and country, comrade Kim Jong Un!”  Kim had “worked heart and soul to turn Samjiyon County, the sacred place of the revolution, into the utopia town under socialism”, the official KCNA news agency said.  The Korean people were, it said, “advancing along the straight road chosen by themselves without any vacillation despite the worst trials”.  Nuclear negotiations with the United States have been deadlocked since the Hanoi summit broke up in February, and Pyongyang has issued a series of increasingly assertive comments in recent weeks as its time limit approaches.   In a separate report yesterday, KCNA quoted vice foreign minister Ri Thae-song saying: “What gift the US receives for Christmas depends entirely on the US’ decision.” Pyongyang has poured huge resources into the rebuilding of Samjiyon, the closest town to Mount Paektu, a dormant volcano that straddles the border with China.  Kim is closely associated with the scheme and has visited the area several times, reportedly riding a white horse to the mountain’s summit in October.  The vast Samjiyon project includes a museum of revolutionary activities, a winter sports training complex, processing plants for blueberries and potatoes, and 10,000 apartments.  Thousands of workers swarmed over the site during construction, AFP saw, many of them soldiers. Much of the North Korean army is devoted to construction.   Students have been sent to work on the scheme during university holidays, KCNA reported previously, while diplomats say children have also been deployed.  According to North Korean propaganda, Kim Jong-il was born at the nearby Mount Paektu Secret Camp where his own father Kim Il-sung was fighting the Japanese  — although independent historians and Soviet records say he was actually born in Russia, where North Korea’s founder was in exile.   The official story plays a central role in Pyongyang’s teachings about the Kim family, who have led the country for three generations, and every year 100,000 or more students and workers are taken on study trips to the area.

Eleven North Koreans seeking to defect to South Korea have been detained in Vietnam since Nov. 23, and are requesting help to avoid being repatriated, a South Korean activist group said on Monday. The eight women and three men were detained by border guards in northern Vietnam two days after crossing from China, and are being held in the city of Lang Son, the Seoul-based Justice for North Korea said in a statement. Peter Jung, the head of the group, which supports North Korean asylum-seekers, said the would-be defectors had requested help from the South Korean embassy in Hanoi, but he had not heard from them since Friday. Jung said the South Korean embassy's subsequent silence had prompted him to publicize the situation, fearing that without an international response the defectors could be forcibly repatriated. South Korea's foreign ministry said it was aware of the case and had been in touch with the Vietnamese government to try to prevent the defectors from being sent back to North Korea. "Our government has been making necessary efforts to ensure the North Korean defectors living abroad are sent to a desired place without being forcibly repatriated," the ministry said in a statement. Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been trying to make diplomatic progress with North Korea, and his government has been criticised by groups like Jung's for not doing enough to help defectors in recent months. Last month South Korea expelled two North Korean fishermen suspected of killing 16 colleagues before crossing the border into the South, after detaining them for questioning. That decision drew criticism and dismay from some defectors, who said the men should have been tried in the South and would likely face torture, and possibly execution in North Korea. As of September, at least 771 North Korean defectors had entered South Korea this year, according to the South's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North. Around 33,000 North Korean defectors live in South Korea. 

North Korea on Saturday warned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he could soon see a "real ballistic missile" while excoriating him as the "most stupid man ever known in history". The colourful condemnation comes two days after the isolated state tested what it called a "super-large multiple launch rocket system", with South Korea reporting that two projectiles came down in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. In the wake of the launch, which was supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Abe termed the fired weapons "ballistic missiles" that violated UN resolutions. "It can be said that Abe is the only one idiot in the world and the most stupid man ever known in history as he fails to distinguish a missile from multiple launch rocket system while seeing the photo-accompanied report," a foreign ministry official said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA. "Abe may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future and under his nose... Abe is none other than a perfect imbecile," it added. It was best for the North to avoid dealing with Abe, the official went on, adding that doing so with a "political dwarf" would bring "disgrace". The Saturday criticism of the Japanese leader is the second of its kind by Pyongyang this month. The North had slammed him as an "idiot and villain" and warned he will never set foot in Pyongyang after he condemned the North's weapons test days earlier. Pyongyang is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes, which it says it needs to defend against a possible US invasion. Nuclear negotiations between the US and the North have been at a standstill since the Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong Un broke up in February, and Pyongyang has since demanded Washington change its approach by the end of the year. North Korea has issued a series of increasingly assertive comments in recent weeks as time runs down on its end-of-year deadline. Trump hinted at the prospect of a fourth meeting with Kim in a tweet earlier this month, only to be rebuffed by the North, which said it had no interest in summits "that bring nothing to us".

Breaking a month-long lull in missile tests, North Korea fired two short range projectiles into the sea off its east coast yesterday in what appeared to be the latest try out its new  multiple rocket launchers, South Korea’s military said.  The test-firing came as the clock ticks down on the year-end deadline that Pyongyang had given the United Stated to show flexibility in their stalled denuclearisation talks. It also coincided with the US Thanksgiving holiday, and took place one day before the second anniversary of the North’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting the US mainland. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North fired the two projectiles into the sea from launchers in the eastern coastal town of Yonpo at around 5pm. The rockets travelled up to 380km and reached an altitude of 97km, the JCS said. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the launch was a threat to not only Japan but the region and beyond, though his defence ministry said the projectile did not enter Japanese airspace or its Exclusive Economic Zone. “We will remain in close contact with the United States, South Korea and the international community to monitor the situation,” Abe told reporters. The launch is the first since Oct 31, when the North tested what it called super-large multiple rocket launchers, which had also been used in tests conducted in August and September that were overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.  South Korea’s military expressed “strong regret,” urging the North to stop stoking military tension. “Such acts by North Korea are unhelpful for efforts to ease tension on the Korean peninsula,” Jeon Dong-jin, director of operations at the JCS, told a news briefing. Kim has set an end-of-the-year deadline for denuclearisation talks with Washington, but negotiations have been at an impasse after a day-long working level meeting on Oct 5 ended without progress. Analysts believe Pyongyang is trying to send a Thanksgiving reminder to the United States by demonstrating progress in weapons development on the anniversary of the 2017 ICBM test. “Today’s launch fit a North Korean pattern of escalating pressure on Washington and Seoul ahead of Kim Jong-un’s year-end deadline,” said Leif-Eric Easley, who teaches international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. North Korean officials have warned the United States to abandon its hostile policy toward the North or Pyongyang would walk away from the talks. The North has demanded the lifting of sanctions against it and the abandonment of joint military drills by the United States and South Korea, which it calls preparations for an invasion.  The test also comes a week after South Korea pulled back from a decision to scrap an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, a key element of security co-operation between the key US allies in the region.

South Korea yesterday said it would not suspend its intelligence-sharing deal with Japan, in a dramatic, last-minute reversal that signalled a breakthrough after months of frigid relations over their painful wartime history.  The decision, announced by South Korea’s presidential Blue House, is likely to be hailed by Washington, which has put pressure on its two Asian allies to set aside a long-burning feud and maintain the pact.  The General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) is seen as linchpin of trilateral security co-operation in Asia. The diplomatic thaw also has potential implications for trade. Japan has this year put export curbs on materials used to make semiconductors, threatening the global supply chain of chips that are a pillar of the South Korean economy. “This government has decided to suspend our notice of Aug 23 on the Korea-Japan intelligence agreement on the condition the agreement can be terminated at any time,” said Kim You-geun, deputy director of South Korea’s national security office. “Japan has expressed its understanding,” Kim said in a briefing. The announcement came just hours before the intelligence-sharing pact was due to expire.  South Korea had given Japan notice in August that it would stop sharing intelligence, retaliating after Tokyo put the restrictions on the export of the chip components. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said South Korea had made a “strategic decision” in sticking with the intelligence-sharing pact and that bilateral relations were vital.  Japan’s trade ministry said it hoped to hold talks with South Korea on export controls but it would not immediately put South Korea back on the trade “white list” that fast-tracks exports to the neighbouring country. Speaking in Nagoya, where a G20 ministerial meeting was underway, Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said security co-operation between the two countries was crucial. “My understanding is that the South Korean government took this strategic decision, given the current security environment,” Motegi told reporters. Motegi said he was due to meet his South Korean counterpart later yesterday. In an earlier sign of the discord, the South Korean minister had not formally confirmed her attendance at the G20.  A South Korean official said the suspension of the earlier move to scrap the intelligence agreement was temporary but there was no deadline set yet to resolve the differences, and Seoul will terminate the pact if agreement is not reached. South Korea’s decision yesterday came amid increasingly public displays of tension with the United States rare in the nearly seven decades of their alliance. The United States broke off defence cost talks this week after demanding that South Korea raise its annual contribution for maintaining the US contingent to $5bn, more than five times what it pays now. Trump has long railed against what he says are inadequate contributions from allies towards defence costs. The United States is due to begin separate negotiations for new defence cost-sharing deals with Japan, Germany and Nato next year.  While the two US allies are both concerned by China’s increasing assertiveness in the region and the potential threat from North Korea, their relations remain troubled by grievances stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonisation of the Korean peninsula. South Korea, which has said Japan must lift its trade restrictions, and Japan, which called for the security pact to be maintained, announced the developments hours before the pact was set to expire at midnight on Friday. GSOMIA was sealed in 2016 after a years-long US push for a better joint response to North Korea’s growing military threat.

South Korean and US officials broke off talks yesterday aimed at settling the cost burden for Seoul of hosting the US military, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, amid a public backlash over a $5bn US demand for the bill.  The breakdown in talks was a sharp and rare public disagreement in the 66-year alliance, with each side suggesting the other was not prepared to come to a fair and reasonable compromise on sharing the costs for hosting 28,500 US troops as a deterent to North Korea. “Our position is that it should be within the mutually acceptable Special Measures Agreement (SMA) framework that has been agreed upon by South Korea and the US for the past 28 years,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, referring to the cost-sharing deal’s official name.  “The US believes that the share of defence spending should be increased significantly by creating a new category,” the ministry said in a statement. The top US negotiator, James DeHart, said the Americans cut short the talks to “give the Korean side some time to reconsider and I hope to put forward new proposals that would enable both sides to work towards a mutually acceptable agreement in the spirit of our great alliance.” “Unfortunately, the proposals that were put forward by the Korean negotiating team were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden sharing,” DeHart told a briefing. Negotiators left the table after only about one hour of discussions that were scheduled to continue throughout the day, South Korean media reported, citing unnamed foreign ministry officials. South Korean lawmakers have said US officials were seeking up to $5bn a year, more than five times the 1.04tn won ($896mn) Seoul agreed to pay this year. US officials have not publicly confirmed the number, but Trump has previously said the US military presence in and around South Korea was “$5bn worth of protection”.  Trump has long railed against what he says are inadequate contributions from allies towards defence costs.  The United States is due to begin separate negotiations for new defence cost-sharing deals with Japan, Germany and Nato next year.  Trump has floated the idea of pulling US troops from the Korean peninsula, which remains in a technical state of war under a truce that suspended the 1950-53 Korean War. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on what the new cost category US sought was, but Yonhap news agency has reported the US demand included labour costs for the US troops in South Korea, military personnel and family support costs, costs of rotational deployment of US troops to the Korean Peninsula, and offshore training expenses. In past cost-sharing agreements, South Korea only paid for three categories – personnel costs of South Korean workers hired by US troops, military construction costs such as building facilities within US bases, and military assistance expenses, such as for services and materials.  The negotiations are taking place as US efforts to reach an agreement with North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes appear stalled, ahead of a year-end deadline from Pyongyang for the US to shift its approach. Under South Korean law, the military cost-sharing deal must be approved by parliament. Ruling party lawmakers have said this week they will “refuse to ratify any excessive outcome of the current negotiations” that deviate from the established principle and structure of previous agreements.

The US and South Korea will postpone joint air drills in an “act of goodwill” towards the nuclear-armed North, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said yesterday, after months of deadlocked diplomacy with Pyongyang.   North Korea has long protested joint military drills, which it condemns as preparations for invasion, and has set Washington an end-of-year deadline to come up with a new offer in deadlocked negotiations on its weapons programmes.  The US and South Korea last year cancelled several joint drills in the wake of the Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, but were due to carry out a combined air exercise later this month.   The joint air drills will now be postponed, Esper said, days after hinting that the option was on the table. “We have made this decision as an act of goodwill to contribute to an environment conducive to diplomacy and the advancement of peace,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of defence ministers in Thailand’s capital. He urged Pyongyang to return to negotiations and “demonstrate the same goodwill as it considers decisions on conducting training, exercises and testing”.  Esper said the decision to delay the drills was not a concession but an effort to create “some more space” for diplomats to strike an agreement. His South Korean counterpart Jeong Kyeong-doo said there was no timetable for resuming the exercises. “It will be a part of our ongoing consultation and we will decide through that close coordination between the two sides,” Jeong said.  Pyongyang has carried out a series of missile tests in recent months, including one launched at sea which it said was fired from a submarine - a potential strategic game-changer. It has repeatedly demanded that the combined exercise is scrapped, and recently said holding the drills would be an “undisguised breach” of the Singapore summit declaration.  Negotiations have stalled since the follow-up Hanoi summit between Kim and Trump broke up in February, with disagreement over sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in return. Working-level talks restarted in Sweden in October only to break down quickly, with the North blaming the US for not giving up its “old attitude”.  Pyongyang welcomed reports that the joint drills would be postponed in a statement by an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman, published in state media outlet KCNA. But the spokesman also lashed the US for its “hostile policy” towards North Korea and blamed Washington for a recent UN meeting that criticised human rights violations under the isolated regime.   “The US has no intention to sincerely work with us towards the settlement of issues. Therefore, we have no willingness to meet,” the official said, according to the KCNA report.  Esper was in Bangkok after meeting with South Korean officials during a two-day trip to Seoul. There he urged the South to drop its plan to end a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan, which Washington considers vital to security co-operation in the face of the North and ultimately China.

US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper pressed South Korea yesterday to pay more for the cost of stationing US troops in the country and to maintain an intelligence-sharing pact with its other Asian ally, Japan, that Seoul is about to let lapse.  Speaking after a high-level defence policy meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo, Esper also said the two countries must be flexible with their joint military drills to back diplomatic efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear programme. But he stopped short of announcing any new reduction in military exercises that North Korea has sharply condemned. North Korea said yesterday it had turned down a US offer for new talks ahead of a year-end deadline Pyongyang has set for Washington to show more flexibility in negotiations.  As uncertainty hangs over the troubled peace push, the United States and South Korea are simultaneously scrambling to clinch an agreement in the coming weeks to cover next year’s costs of maintaining a 28,500-strong US military presence aimed at deterring North Korea. South Korea, Esper said, “is a wealthy country and could and should pay more” for the US military deployment. “It is crucial that we conclude the (defence pact) ... with increased burden-sharing by the Republic of Korea before the end of the year,” Esper told a news conference. Jeong said he and Esper shared the view that the cost-sharing pact being negotiated should be fair and mutually agreeable, but it was unclear if they shared any sense of what a fair amount might be.  A South Korean lawmaker said last week that US officials had demanded up to $5bn a year, more than five times what Seoul agreed to pay this year under a one-year deal. US President Donald Trump has rattled South Korea with his insistence it take on a greater contribution for the deterrence against North Korea. A survey by the government-affiliated Korea Institute for National Unification released last week showed 96% of South Koreans opposed paying more for the US military presence. North Korea said in a commentary from state media KCNA yesterday that the US demand for a greater South Korean contribution to defence costs was an attempt to “exploit” and tighten its control over South Korea. The South Korean Foreign Ministry announced another round of defence cost talks would be held on Nov 18-19 in Seoul.  After his talks with Jeong, Esper warned that South Korea’s decision to end an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, called GSOMIA, would impact military readiness — presumably by slowing the ability of the US allies to directly share information about North Korean military activity. “The only ones who benefit from expiration of GSOMIA and continued friction between Seoul and Tokyo are Pyongyang and Beijing,” Esper said. General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), hosted a video teleconference from Seoul yesterday with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, during which South Korea’s Park Han-ki stressed the importance of trilateral co-operation, its JCS said. Jeong said both South Korea and Japan would make efforts to narrow differences before the pact expires on November 23. But there was no sign of an imminent breakthrough. Relations between the neighbours plunged after South Korea’s top court last year ordered Japanese firms to compensate some wartime forced labourers.  Japan imposed export controls on South Korea, citing unspecified security reasons. During a meeting with Esper and Milley later yesterday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said it was difficult to share intelligence with Japan which raised security concerns in restricting exports, though he acknowledged the need for three-way cooperation, Moon’s spokeswoman told a briefing. Esper said he would also ask Japan to make efforts for an amicable resolution of the issue.

South Korea and the United States are expected to cancel a combined air drill for the second straight year to avoid tensions with North Korea as denuclearization talks remain stalled, local media reported Saturday.  Citing an unnamed source, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the military authorities from the two countries "shared the understanding" to postpone the "Vigilant Ace" military air exercise. Planned to take place around December across the Korean Peninsula, the source told Yonhap that the countries are likely to conduct their own individual drills instead. He added that Seoul and Washington will make a final decision when the two countries' defence ministers hold annual talks later this month. Pyongyang has often accused the US of preparing an attack through joint military exercises with its ally South Korea, threatening that such manoeuvres would affect denuclearization talks. US President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the military demarcation line inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea at the end of June and agreed to resume negotiations on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. Trump is seeking North Korea's denuclearization and has pressured the communist country by ramping up economic sanctions, but progress has stalled in the nuclear talks despite the high-profile June meeting.

South Korean rescuers located three bodies believed to be among seven who went missing after their chopper crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from islets disputed with Japan, officials said Saturday. The helicopter had just picked an injured fisherman up from Dokdo, which is known as Takeshima in Japan, when it went down on Thursday night. One body was found inside the chopper located at a depth of 72 metres, 600 metres south of the islets, while the other two were found in the water nearby, a Coast Guard representative told reporters. The crashed chopper -- which rescuers located on Friday -- sat upside down on the seabed, he said, adding its tail had broken off and had been found 110 metres away. It was not yet possible to identify the three bodies, he said, adding that a search operation was underway to retrieve them and find the other four still missing. The bodies were found by an unmanned submarine, although divers would attempt to retrieve them manually for fear using the submarine's "robot-arm" could damage the remains. "We will do our best till the end to bring those missing back to their families," he added. Ships and divers from the defence ministry and members of the National Fire Agency and civilian volunteers have been mobilised for the search operation, authorities said. The crashed chopper is a Eurocopter EC225, made by the European aerospace corporation Airbus. The seven people on board were five rescuers, the fisherman and a civilian. Seoul has controlled the islets in the Sea of Japan -- or East Sea -- since 1945, when Tokyo's brutal colonial rule on the peninsula ended, while Japan still claims sovereignty over them.

North Korean state news agency KCNA said yesterday another test of super-large multiple rocket launchers a day earlier had been a success, but the test drew protests from neighbouring Japan and South Korea. KCNA said the latest test of the “super-large multiple rocket launchers”, following two tests of the same weapon in August and September overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, indicated the progress of Pyongyang’s weapons development while talks with the United States remain in limbo. The success of the tests was reported immediately and Kim expressed satisfaction and congratulated the scientists who had developed the weapon, KCNA said, suggesting that Kim was not at the site for Thursday afternoon’s test. North Korea’s state newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, showed a photo of the multiple rocket launcher surrounded by yellow flames and smoke. Thursday’s test verified that the “continuous fire system” of the multiple rocket launchers was able to “totally destroy” a group target of the enemy by a surprise strike, KCNA said. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said North Korea’s latest test, which he described as a missile launch, was against UN resolutions and was “extremely regrettable”. Suga said Japan had protested to North Korea over the missile launch. Republican US Senator Cory Gardner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, said North Korea was “engaged in increasingly  escalatory behaviour”. “This launch and continued North Korean aggression underscore the need for the Trump Administration to re-commit to the maximum pressure policy” and for Congress to impose additional sanctions against Kim’s government, Gardner said in a statement. However, South Korea’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said the North’s missile launches do not pose “very grave threats”. “We’re also test-firing missiles, no less than North Korea does,” he told a parliamentary session. “Our missile defence and intercept capabilities are absolutely superior to theirs.” The weapons test was the first since one day of talks between the United States and North Korea in Sweden ended without an agreement on October 5. It came as North Korea repeatedly emphasises an end-of-the-year deadline that Kim set for denuclearisation talks with  Washington. The situation on the Korean Peninsula is at a critical stage, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a daily news briefing on Friday. All sides should work towards a peaceful resolution of the issue, he said. KCNA said last month that while Kim and US President Donald Trump have a “special” relationship, policymakers in Washington were “hostile to the DPRK for no reason”. North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

* Airbus helicopter was on medical flight when it crashed * Search ongoing for seven people on board * Chopper crashed into sea, found in 70 metres of water * President Moon orders safety checks on similar models Divers from South Korean rescue services on Friday located an Airbus chopper which fell into the sea with seven people on board off the disputed islets of Dokdo late on Thursday. A body was found close to the wreckage, Yonhap news agency reported. The Coast Guard was unable to confirm the report that a body had also been found and the search for the missing was ongoing. The Airbus H225 Super Puma helicopter, operated by South Korea's fire department, was found in 70 meters of water on Friday afternoon, a coast guard official told a media briefing earlier. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said he had ordered safety checks for other H225 in service in the country. The helicopter was carrying an injured person to hospital when it crashed about two minutes after takeoff from Dokdo close to midnight, a fire department official said. The Dokdo islets, which South Korea and Japan claim as their territory, are called Takeshima in Japan. Rescue officials were trying to secure the blackbox and voice recorder to find out what went wrong, the official said. An Airbus subcontractor carried out maintenance for the model's main gear system between September and October, followed by test flying, and there were no safety issues found, he added. "We are aware that a H225 operated by the South Korean National 119 Rescue Headquarters, has been involved in an accident," Airbus said in a statement to Reuters, referring to the fire department. "We stand ready to provide full technical assistance to the customer and authorities as required." Airbus Helicopters won a contract in 2017 for two additional H225 helicopters from South Korea's fire department, but the models have yet to be delivered. The fire department currently operates an all-Airbus helicopter fleet comprising two AS365 N2 and two H225. PAST CRASHES The stricken helicopter went into service in 2016. On board were two pilots, one maintenance official, two rescue officials, the injured patient and person accompanying them. The pilots were veterans with about 23 and 17 years of experience respectively, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. The H225 model, previously known as a Eurocopter EC-225, is a heavy twin-engined helicopter used in search and rescue or military operations worldwide. An accident off Norway that killed 13 North Sea oil workers in 2016 had also involved a H225. But it has suffered commercially since oilfield demand fell and the Norway crash prompted many North Sea workers to boycott the helicopter. It competes with the Sikorsky S-92. The accident in Norway led to a temporary grounding of most of the global fleet and prompted Airbus SE to make design changes to gearboxes. On Aug. 31, an Airbus AS350 helicopter crashed in northern Norway, killing all six people on board and prompting European regulators to order checks on recently delivered versions of some Airbus helicopters. 

South Korea scrambled fighter jets after Russian warplanes entered South Korea's air space identification zone on Tuesday, the latest in a series of such violations, its military said. A total of six Russian military aircraft repeatedly entered the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ) over a six-hour span starting 9:23 a.m. (0023 GMT), Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The incident marked the 20th breach of KADIZ by a Russian military plane this year, the JCS said. "Our military urgently dispatched fighter jets to track and monitor the aircraft and broadcast warning messages," the JCS said in a statement. Calls to the Russian embassy in Seoul seeking comment went unanswered. The wedge of sea between Japan, Russia, and the Korean peninsula had long been a flashpoint amid a string of regional airspace disputes. In July, South Korean warplanes fired flares and hundreds of warning shots near Russian bombers that violated South Korean airspace during what Moscow said was its first long-range joint regional air patrol with China. But there were no warning shots fired on Tuesday as the Russian aircraft did not enter South Korean territorial airspace, Seoul's military said. An ADIZ is usually an area where countries may unilaterally demand that foreign aircraft take special steps to identify themselves, unlike a nation's airspace, which usually means the space above its territory. The latest incident came a day before the South Korean and Russian militaries hold talks to discuss plans to open a hotline between their air forces as part of efforts to rein in unreported ADIZ entries. 

The United States and South Korea must produce new solutions for the current standoff on the Korean Peninsula, a senior North Korean military official said yesterday, warning that hostile policies towards Pyongyang would lead to serious consequences.  The remarks add to recent comments from Pyongyang expressing discontent at the lack of progress in its negotiations with Washington.  This month North Korea issued a veiled threat about ending the freeze in long-range missile testing amid continued economic sanctions and pressure aimed at pushing it to give up its nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes. Kim Hyong Ryong, North Korea’s Vice Minister of the People’s Armed Forces, said at the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing that North Korea has worked to build lasting piece but that the situation has relapsed into a “dangerous, vicious cycle” of exacerbating tensions because of the actions of the US and South Korean governments. “Though it has been more than one year since the DPRK-US joint statement was adopted, there is no progress in improving bilateral relations between the two countries, completely because of the US’ anachronistic, hostile policies against the DPRK,” Kim said, referring to his country by the initials of its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He also accused South Korea of a “double-dealing attitude” in continuing to carry out military drills with the US and buying advanced military equipment. “Bearing in mind our firm will to safeguard peace in the region, the United States and the South Korean authorities must refrain from any actions disrupting the stability of the situation and come up with a new way for solving the problem,” Kim said. North Korea has conducted missile tests in recent months, including that of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, and broke off the latest working-level nuclear talks with the US in early October. Pyongyang’s top negotiator for the talks blamed the US for the breakdown and said Washington “brought nothing” to the negotiating table.  Pyongyang has so far stuck to a freeze in testing of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles that has been in place since 2017 and allowed for three meetings between its leader, Kim Jong-un, and US President Donald Trump since last year. North Korean state media reported last week on Kim Jong-un’s visit to Mt Paektu, the spiritual homeland of the Kim dynasty, and that his aides are convinced the leader plans “a great operation,” which experts say may signal a major shift in Pyongyang’s stance towards the US in the coming months.  Some analysts say possible North Korean actions could include another space launch or an intercontinental ballistic missile test.

Fans and fellow performers on Tuesday mourned the death of a K-pop star who had long been the target of online bullying, some calling for greater mental health support for those working in the country's notoriously competitive show business industry. The body of Sulli, a former member of top girl group f(x), was discovered Monday by her manager at her home on the outskirts of Seoul. ‘There has been no evidence of an outsider having broken in, or any other crimes committed by another person,’ an official from Seongnam Sujeong Police Agency told AFP. ‘Suicide is among the possible causes.’ Authorities said the 25-year-old had been suffering from ‘severe depression’. South Korea has one of the world's highest rates of suicide which, according to recent government figures, is among the top causes of death for those under 40. ‘I wish I could hope for Sulli to be the last idol to die from suicide and mental illness,’ tweeted one fan. ‘But knowing how cruel society is, I can't help but be afraid about who's going to be the next one.’ Beneath the glitz and glamour, the K-pop industry is known for its cut-throat competitiveness, a lack of privacy, online bullying and relentless public pressure to maintain a wholesome image at all times and at any cost. - Mental health taboo - K-pop stars like Sulli are picked up by agencies at a young age -- usually in their early- or mid-teens -- and their lives then taken over by gruelling singing and dancing training. Taboos about mental illness dissuade many South Koreans from seeking help. Sulli's death echoes that of fellow K-pop star Jonghyun, who took his life in 2017 after battling with depression. Both were members of the SM Entertainment stable, one of the country's biggest talent agencies. K-pop singer Goo Hara, a close friend of the late star, was also sent to hospital last year after a suspected suicide attempt. Goo had been abused by her ex who threatened to post her spycam sex vidoes online. ‘I hope Jin-ri is now in a place where she can do whatever she wants,’ Goo wrote on Instagram -- using Sulli's real name and sharing photos of the two of them together. Sulli, who started her career as a child actress at age 11, made her debut in 2009 for f(x), which quickly became one of K-pop's top girl groups. Known for behaviour considered controversial in South Korea -- including her refusal to wear a bra in public -- she had been relentlessly bullied online throughout her career, with many sexually abusive comments. She recently hosted a TV series where celebrities discussed their experiences of online abuse. She had also candidly shared her experience struggling with panic disorder and social phobia. Her outspokenness resonated with many young South Korean women who have been leading a new wave of feminists fighting a patriarchal society obsessed with looks. ‘Being one of the first female artists in K-pop to talk about mental health and feminism is amazing. I love you so much Sulli - I hope in heaven you are finally free,’ a fan wrote in a tweet.

South Korean Justice Minister Cho Kuk, mired in a corruption scandal involving his family, resigned on Monday after just over a month on the job, saying his appointment had become a political burden for the government. Cho was appointed by President Moon Jae-in on Sept. 9 to lead a reform of the prosecutors' office, which legal critics say has long been susceptible to political pressure. His appointment came as prosecutors were investigating his family's financial investments and the university admissions of his children, which fuelled protests against Cho. "I decided I must not burden the President and the government with my family's affairs anymore," Cho said in a statement announcing his resignation. "I believe that now is the time for me to step down so that reforming the prosecutor's office will be successfully completed," he added. Cho's decision to step down was his own, Moon's chief political advisor Kang Gi-jung told reporters. The controversy over Cho, as well as public discontent over a sluggish economy and stalled diplomatic efforts with North Korea, have pushed Moon's approval ratings to fresh lows. In its latest survey, pollster Realmeter said 41.4% approved of Moon's performance, the lowest since he took office in 2017. The survey of 2,502 people conducted last week found 56.1% disapproved of his performance, up from 52.3% in the first week of October, the pollster said on Monday. Cho had attended a news conference earlier on Monday where he released details of proposed reforms to the prosecutor's office, such as closing some powerful investigative units accused by critics of operating without proper oversight. 

North Korea's foreign ministry ‘strongly demanded’ on Saturday that Japan pay compensation for a fishing boat that sank when it collided with a Japanese patrol boat earlier this week, North Korean state media reported. The collision on Monday was deliberate and ‘a gangster act’ by Japan and Tokyo should take steps to prevent future incidents, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA. ‘We strongly demand that the Japanese government compensate for the infliction of the material damage by sinking our vessel,’ the unnamed spokesman said. ‘If such an incident occurs again, Japan will face an undesirable consequence.’ The Japanese coast guard said on Monday it rescued about 60 North Korean crew members from a fishing boat that sank after it collided with the patrol boat that was chasing it out of Japanese waters. The foreign ministry official disputed Japan's claim that a sharp turn by the North Korean boat caused the accident. The fishing boat was ‘on a normal navigation,’ the official said in the statement. ‘Japan is impatiently trying to justify its deliberate act, and it even acts like a guilty party filing the suit first,’ the official said. ‘Yet, they cannot evade from their responsibility for this incident of sinking our vessel and threatening even the safety of its crew.’ At the time, Japanese authorities said the North Korean boat was fishing illegally in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

An Iraq-Qatar co-production looking at life in war-torn Baghdad and a Vietnamese tale of a young bookie struggling to support himself and his loved ones have shared the top award at the 24th Busan International Film Festival. Iraqi director Mohanad Hayal's ‘Haifa Street’ and ‘Rom’, from Vietnam's Tran Thanh Huy, won the festival's New Currents award, which hands out two prizes of $30,000 to first- or second-time Asian directors, early Saturday. ‘The decision was tough and these two films are not first and second, this was not a horse-race,’ said New Currents jury head Mike Figgis, the Oscar-nominated director of ‘Leaving Las Vegas’. ‘We saw a lot of great work from young, exciting filmmakers who understand the art of cinema.’ ‘Haifa Street’ was a film with tension from beginning to end, the jury said in a statement. ‘This is a mature, grown-up movie and the director exhibited a confidence and understanding of cinema language which set the film apart,’ their statement read. ‘Good to see a strong gender-balanced cast.’ The New Currents jury praised ‘Rom’ for ‘it's amazing energy’. Among the Hollywood stars to grace this year's event were previously Oscar-nominated Timothee Chalamet, with thousands waiting for his red carpet appearance alongside co-star Joel Edgerton, before the screening of their new film ‘The King’. Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda was in town to collect the Asian Filmmaker of the World award while the Korean industry was out in force, led by opening night host Lee Hanee. This year's festival comes during unprecedented interest in Korean cinema, thanks to the global success of director Bong Joon-ho's Oscar favourite ‘Parasite’. That film is rolling out this week in the United States -- after claiming a Palm D'or at Cannes in May -- but there was a wealth of other local talent on display, with a buzz building around the likes of Yoon Dan-bi's sweeping family drama ‘Moving On’. BIFF had opened with the threat of Typhoon Mitag looming and with hundreds of flights to Korea cancelled, but skies cleared and the festival was able to go ahead with a series of outdoor screenings at venues across the city. ‘There was the possibility of chaos but in the end there were no problems,’ said BIFF chairman Lee Yong-kwan. The festival announced on Saturday it intended to expand it's film funding efforts, including more TV and streaming platform content, and building a Korean cinema museum. This year BIFF screened 299 films from 85 countries, with 118 world premieres, and almost 200,000 attending across its 10-day run. The event ends on Saturday night with the official prize-giving, and with the world premiere of Korean director Lim Dae-hyung's mother-daughter relationship drama ‘Moonlit Winter’.

As negotiators for the United States and North Korea resume talks over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme this weekend, analysts  say that the leaders of both countries face increased incentives to strike a deal, but that it is far from clear they will find common ground after months of deadlock and increased tensions. The meeting in Stockholm will be the first formal working-level talks since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in June, vowing to restart negotiations that had stalled after their failed summit in February.  Since June, however, American officials have struggled to persuade North Korea to return to the table. That appeared to change this week when North Korea abruptly announced that it had agreed to hold talks. The stakes have grown for Trump and Kim, but publicly the two sides have shown no sign of where they may compromise.  On Wednesday North Korea test fired a ballistic missile designed for submarine launch, the latest in a series of missile tests that analysts say underscores the need for Washington to move quickly to negotiate at least some limits on Pyongyang’s growing arsenal. Trump continued to downplay the test in remarks to reporters in Washington, noting that the two sides would soon be meeting. North Korea is under tough sanctions that ban much of its trade, although the United Nations has warned that the country has circumvented many of the sanctions.  US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun is expected to lead the American delegation. Biegun has often struck a more pragmatic note than former national security adviser John Bolton, who pushed Trump to maintain a harder line in Hanoi but was fired last month. Policy analysts said Bolton’s departure could help US efforts to revive the talks. But, they said, it would not make Washington’s aim of persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons any easier.  The North Korean delegation will be led by its former ambassador to Vietnam, Kim Myong Gil, who stepped in after his predecessor was reportedly removed in a diplomatic shakeup. “There’s been a new signal from the US side, so we’re going with great expectations and optimism about the outcome,” Kim told reporters in Beijing before boarding for Stockholm. Pyongyang will likely seek a declaration ending the technical state of war that has existed since the 1950-1953 Korean War, opening liaison offices with the United States, and possibly economic aid, said Professor Ramon Pacheco Pardo at King’s College London, who has met with North Korean officials as part of separate semi-official discussions.  But sanctions relief will be at the top of the list for the North Koreans because Kim Jong-un needs to show he is winning material benefits from Washington, Pacheco Pardo said. “North Korea will want sanctions relief, however partial and even if it is the form of their interruption rather than full removal,” he said. “From Pyongyang’s perspective, that would show that the US is serious about a step-by-step process.” Any agreement at the working-level talks would likely be finalised at yet another summit between Trump and Kim, who have pinned hopes for a breakthrough on their personal relationship. The most visible and longest-running part of North Korea’s nuclear programme, the Yongbyon nuclear complex, is a central point of contention. South Korean officials have pressed Washington to accept the closure of Yongbyon in return for lifting at least some sanctions, arguing it would be a significant step toward curtailing North Korea’s ability to build more nuclear weapons. Some observers, however, question how useful Yongbyon is. Nuclear experts and American officials have estimated that North Korea may have had the material necessary to build up to a dozen more warheads since talks with the United States in early 2018. Kim offered to close the facility during the February summit with Trump, but American officials said he wanted too many sanctions lifted in exchange.

North Korea said yesterday it had successfully test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the sea to contain external threats and bolster self-defence, ahead of fresh nuclear talks with the United States.  The launch on Wednesday was the most provocative by North Korea since it resumed dialogue with the United States in 2018 and a reminder by Pyongyang of the weapons capability it has been aggressively developing, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, analysts said. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “sent warm congratulations” to the defence scientists who conducted the test, state news agency KCNA said, indicating he did not attend the launch as he has at previous tests of new weapons systems. The new type of SLBM, called Pukguksong-3, was “fired in vertical mode” in the waters off the eastern city of Wonsan, KCNA said, confirming an assessment by South Korea’s military on Wednesday that the missile was launched on a lofted trajectory. “The successful new-type SLBM test-firing comes to be of great significance as it ushered in a new phase in containing the outside forces’ threat to the DPRK and further bolstering its military muscle for self-defence,” KCNA said. DPRK is short for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  The test “had no adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries,” KCNA said but gave no other details about the launch. Photos released in the North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, whose front two pages featured the test, showed a black-and-white painted missile clearing the surface of the water, then the rocket engine igniting to propel it into the sky. A State Department spokeswoman called on Pyongyang to “refrain from provocations” and to remain committed to nuclear negotiations. South Korea expressed strong concern and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the launch, saying it was a violation of UN Security Council resolutions. North Korea rejects UN Security Council resolutions that ban Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology, saying they are an infringement of its right to self-defence. Talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes have been stalled since a second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Vietnam in February broke down in disagreement over nuclear disarmament. North Korea fired the missile hours after announcing it would resume talks with the United States by holding working-level negotiations on Oct 5. North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Myong-gil, arrived at the Beijing airport yesterday with other North Korean officials and booked flights to Stockholm, Sweden, Yonhap reported, citing an airport official. “We’re going for the DPRK-US working-level negotiations,” the negotiator Kim told reporters in Beijing, according to Yonhap. “There’s been a new signal from the US side, so we’re going with great expectations and optimism about the outcome.” The Pukguksong-3 appeared to be a new design that has enhanced range and stability compared with a version tested in 2016, three analysts said. It was probably launched from a test platform and not a submarine, which would be the final stage of testing, said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. State news agency KCNA released photos and a report in July of leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a large, newly built submarine, but an unnamed South Korean military source said Thursday that the submarine appears to be still incomplete, Yonhap news agency reported. Leader Kim Jong-un’s absence at the test is “extremely unusual,” Kyungnam University’s Kim said, probably meant to contain the political fallout that could result in the upcoming talks falling apart before they even start. On Wednesday, South Korea’s military said the missile flew 450km and reached an altitude of 910km. It was likely a Pukguksong-class weapon, as the North’s earlier submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) under development were known. South Korean Defence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said the Pukguksong, or Pole Star in Korean, would have had a range of about 1,300km on a standard trajectory. North Korea had been developing SLBM technology before it suspended long-range missile and nuclear tests and began talks with the United States that led to the first summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore in June 2018. The latest version of the Pukguksong may be the longest-range North Korean missile that uses solid fuel and the first nuclear-capable missile to be tested since November 2017, Ankit Panda of the US-based Federation of American Scientists said.  North Korea has been developing rocket engines that burn solid fuel, which has advantages in military use compared with liquid fuel because it is stable and versatile, allowing it to be stored in missiles until they are ready for launch.