With its new pact with North Korea, Russia raises the stakes with the West over Ukraine

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, drives a car with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sitting in front passenger seat at a garden of the Kumsusan State Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, drives a car with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sitting in front passenger seat at a garden of the Kumsusan State Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 24 June 2024
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With its new pact with North Korea, Russia raises the stakes with the West over Ukraine

With its new pact with North Korea, Russia raises the stakes with the West over Ukraine
  • The new agreement with Pyongyang marked the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War

MOSCOW: Behind the smiles, the balloons and the red-carpet pageantry of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea last week, a strong signal came through: In the spiraling confrontation with the US and its allies over Ukraine, the Russian leader is willing to challenge Western interests like never before.
The pact that he signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un envisions mutual military assistance between Moscow and Pyongyang if either is attacked. Putin also announced for the first time that Russia could provide weapons to the isolated country, a move that could destabilize the Korean Peninsula and reverberate far beyond.
He described the potential arms shipments as a response to NATO allies providing Ukraine with longer-range weapons to attack Russia. He bluntly declared that Moscow has nothing to lose and is prepared to go “to the end” to achieve its goals in Ukraine.
Putin’s moves added to concerns in Washington and Seoul about what they see as an alliance in which North Korea provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that would enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
A landmark pact
The new agreement with Pyongyang marked the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.
Kim said it raised bilateral relations to the level of an alliance, while Putin was more cautious, noting the pledge of mutual military assistance mirrored a 1961 treaty between the Soviet Union and North Korea. That agreement was discarded after the Soviet collapse and replaced with a weaker one in 2000 when Putin first visited Pyongyang.
Stephen Sestanovich, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations noted that when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev signed the deal with Pyongyang in 1961, he also tested the world’s biggest nuclear bomb, built the Berlin Wall and probably started thinking about moves that led to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
“The question for Western policymakers now is whether Putin is becoming comparably reckless,” Sestanovich said in a commentary. “His language in North Korea — where he denounced the United States as a ‘worldwide neocolonialist dictatorship’ — might make you think so.”
South Korea responded by declaring it would consider sending arms to Ukraine in a major policy change for Seoul, which so far only has sent humanitarian assistance to Kyiv under a longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries engaged in conflict.
Putin insisted Seoul has nothing to worry about, since the new pact only envisions military assistance in case of aggression and should act as a deterrent to prevent a conflict. He strongly warned South Korea against providing lethal weapons to Ukraine, saying it would be a “very big mistake.”
“If that happens, then we will also make corresponding decisions that will hardly please the current leadership of South Korea,” he said.
Asked whether North Korean troops could fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine under the pact, Putin said there was no need for that.
Potential weapons for Pyongyang
Last month, Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to hit Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use its allies’ arms to make limited attacks inside Russian territory.
He followed up on that warning Thursday with an explicit threat to provide weapons to North Korea.
“I wouldn’t exclude that in view of our agreements with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Putin said, adding that Moscow could mirror the arguments by NATO allies that it’s up to Ukraine to decide how to use Western weapons.
“We can similarly say that we supply something to somebody but have no control over what happens afterward,” Putin said. “Let them think about it.”
Sue Mi Terry, senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, warned that Moscow could share weapons technologies with Pyongyang to help improve its ballistic missile capabilities, noting there is evidence of this happening already, with Russia possibly providing help to North Korea with its successful satellite launch in November, two months after Kim last met Putin.
“This is deeply concerning because of the substantial overlap between the technologies used for space launches and intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Terry said in a commentary. “Russia can also provide North Korea with critical help in areas where its capabilities are still nascent, such as submarine-launched ballistic missiles.”
While raising the prospect of arms supplies to Pyongyang that would violate UN sanctions, Putin also said Russia would take efforts at the world body to ease the restrictions — an apparent signal that Moscow may try to keep arms supplies to Pyongyang under the radar and maintain a degree of deniability to avoid accusations of breaching the sanctions.
Russia and North Korea have rejected assertions by the US and its allies that Pyongyang has given Moscow ballistic missiles and millions of artillery shells for use in Ukraine.
Going ‘to the end’ in a confrontation with the West
By explicitly linking prospective arms shipments to Pyongyang to Western moves on Ukraine, Putin warned Kyiv’s allies to back off as he pushes his goals in the war — or face a new round of confrontation.
“They are escalating the situation, apparently expecting that we will get scared at some point, and at the same time, they say that they want to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield,” Putin said. “For Russia, it will mean an end to its statehood, an end to the millennium-long history of the Russian state. And a question arises: Why should we be afraid? Isn’t it better, then, to go to the end?”
Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, said Putin’s statement reflected an attempt to discourage the US and its allies from ramping up support for Kyiv as Russia pushes new offensives in several sectors of the front line.
“The situation is becoming increasingly dangerous, and Russia believes that it should quickly rap the West over its knuckles to show that its deeper engagement in the war will have a price,” he said in remarks carried by Dozhd, an independent Russian broadcaster.
He noted that Putin’s statement that Moscow wouldn’t know where its arms end up if sent to Pyongyang could have been a hint at North Korea’s role as an arms exporter.
Treading cautiously with China
Putin’s visits to North Korea handed a new challenge to Pyongyang’s top ally, China, potentially allowing Kim to hedge his bets and reduce his excessive reliance on Beijing.
China so far has avoided comment on the new pact, but many experts argue that Beijing won’t like losing sway over its neighbor.
Ever since Putin invaded Ukraine, Russia has come to increasingly depend on China as the main market for its energy exports and the source of high-tech technologies in the face of Western sanctions. While forging a revamped relationship with Pyongyang, the Kremlin will likely tread cautiously to avoid angering Beijing.
“Whether this upgraded Russia–North Korea relationship will be without limits depends upon China,” which will watch events closely, said Edward Howell of Chatham House in a commentary. “Beijing will have taken stern note of Kim Jong Un’s claim that Russia is North Korea’s ‘most honest friend.’ Despite the likely increase in cooperation in advanced military technology between Moscow and Pyongyang, China remains North Korea’s largest economic partner.”

 


OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal
Updated 11 sec ago
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OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal
  • Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit

 

SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI says its board of directors has unanimously rejected a $97.4 billion takeover bid by Elon Musk.
“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition,” said a statement Friday from Bret Taylor, chair of OpenAI’s board.
OpenAI attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk’s attorney Friday said the proposal “is not in the best interests of OAI’s mission and is rejected.”
Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit.
OpenAI has increasingly sought to capitalize on the commercial success of generative AI. But the for-profit company is a subsidiary of a nonprofit entity that’s bound to a mission — which Musk helped set — to safely build better-than-human AI for humanity’s benefit. OpenAI is now seeking to more fully convert itself to a for-profit company, but would first have to buy out the nonprofit’s assets.
Throwing a wrench in those plans, Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a group of investment firms announced a bid Monday to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Musk in a court filing Wednesday further detailed the proposal to acquire the nonprofit’s controlling stake.
Savitt’s letter Friday said that court filing added “new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients’ much-publicized ‘bid’ is in fact not a bid at all.” In any event, “even as first presented,” the board has unanimously rejected it, Savitt said.
Musk has alleged in the lawsuit that OpenAI is violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, his lawyer has said.
He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants, including OpenAI’s business partner Microsoft, and asking for a court order that would halt OpenAI’s for-profit conversion. Musk also added xAI as a plaintiff, claiming that OpenAI was also unfairly stifling business competition. A judge is still considering Musk’s request but expressed skepticism about some of his claims in a court hearing last week.
 


US wants ‘lasting’ peace in Ukraine, VP Vance tells Zelensky

US wants ‘lasting’ peace in Ukraine, VP Vance tells Zelensky
Updated 59 min 14 sec ago
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US wants ‘lasting’ peace in Ukraine, VP Vance tells Zelensky

US wants ‘lasting’ peace in Ukraine, VP Vance tells Zelensky
  • Vance said ahead of the meeting that the US was prepared to pressure Russia, adding that Europe should “of course” be at the table
  • He also told Europe to “step up” on bolstering its own defense to allow Washington to focus on threats elsewhere in the world

MUNICH, Germany: US Vice President JD Vance pledged Friday that Washington sought to secure a “lasting” peace as he held a first meeting with Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss Donald Trump’s push for a deal with Moscow.
The talks in Munich were seen as a key moment for Kyiv as it tries to keep Washington on its side after Trump stunned allies by announcing peace efforts with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“We want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road,” Vance said as the meeting wrapped up.
He said “good conversations” had been had with Zelensky about how they could reach that goal, and they would have more talks “in the days, weeks and months to come.”
Zelensky also hailed a “good conversation,” saying the encounter with Vance was “our first meeting, not last, I’m sure.”
“We are ready to move as quickly as possible toward a real and guaranteed peace,” Zelensky wrote later on X, adding that an envoy from Washington would visit Kyiv.
Trump rattled Ukraine and its European allies on Wednesday by agreeing to launch peace talks in his first publicly announced call with Putin since returning to office.
The dramatic thaw in relations sparked fears Ukraine could be left out in the cold after nearly three years battling against Moscow’s invasion.

US officials have insisted that Zelensky will be involved in negotiations — and the Ukrainian leader said he would be prepared to sit down with Putin after agreeing a “common plan” with Trump.
“Only in this case I’m ready to meet,” Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference before seeing Vance.
Vance said ahead of the meeting that the United States was prepared to pressure Russia, adding that Europe should “of course” be at the table.
But he also told Europe to “step up” on bolstering its own defense to allow Washington to focus on threats elsewhere in the world.
US officials have sent mixed messages over Washington’s strategy after Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth appeared to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or retaking all of its territory.

That has sparked major worries in Kyiv and Europe that Ukraine could be forced into a bad deal that leaves the continent facing an emboldened Putin.
But Vance told The Wall Street Journal that Trump would put everything “on the table” in potential talks, and that Washington could even use “military leverage” against Russia to force a deal.
He did not give more away in a keenly awaited keynote speech, as he avoided addressing the war in Ukraine and focused instead on scolding Europe over immigration and free speech.
Saudi Arabia, after being named by Trump as a likely venue for a meeting with Putin, said it would welcome holding any talks between the two leaders.
Zelensky appeared to play down fears that Trump was cutting out Kyiv, saying the US president had given him his personal number when they spoke.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he assured Zelensky that it’s “Ukrainians alone who can drive the discussions for a solid and lasting peace” with Russia, in a post on X.
In a bid to keep Washington close, Kyiv has held talks over granting access to its rare mineral deposits in return for future US security support.
European allies, who along with Washington are Ukraine’s strongest backers, demanded that they too be included in negotiations that will impact their continent’s security.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warned that forcing Ukraine into a bad deal would harm US interests.
“I believe that by working together, we can deliver that just and lasting peace,” she said.

While Europe nervously monitors the US stance on Ukraine, there is little ambiguity on Trump’s determination to get Europe to spend more on its defense.
Fears that Vance could announce a major US troop reduction in Europe did not materialize, but he repeated warnings that Washington needed to focus more on other parts of the globe.
On the sidelines of the conference, Vance also met with leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, according to German press.
It comes as Vance criticized Germany for blocking the far right from possibly sharing power in upcoming elections.
The conservative candidate and poll favorite Friedrich Merz insists he would not govern with the AfD or actively seek its support.
Amid the diplomatic flurry in Munich, Zelensky said that back on the ground in Ukraine a Russian drone had struck a cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, though he added that radiation levels were normal.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 133 drones across the country overnight, including attack drones, targeting northern regions of the country where the Chernobyl plant lies.
Zelensky said the attack was evidence that “Putin is definitely not preparing for negotiations — he is preparing to continue deceiving the world.”
 


Argentine court issues warrants for Myanmar officials accused of Rohingya ‘genocide’

Argentine court issues warrants for Myanmar officials accused of Rohingya ‘genocide’
Updated 15 February 2025
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Argentine court issues warrants for Myanmar officials accused of Rohingya ‘genocide’

Argentine court issues warrants for Myanmar officials accused of Rohingya ‘genocide’
  • The court ruling was in response to a complaint filed by a Rohingya advocacy group under the principle of “universal jurisdiction”
  • Myanmar’s military junta leader is also under investigation by the ICC, while the ICJ is examining a complaint of “genocide” against Myanmar

BUENOS AIRES: An Argentine court has issued arrest warrants for the head of Myanmar’s military junta and former officials including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi over alleged “genocide and crimes against humanity” targeting the Rohingya minority group.
The court ruling, seen by AFP on Friday, was issued in response to a complaint filed in Argentina by a Rohingya advocacy group.
It was filed under the principle of “universal jurisdiction” by which countries can prosecute crimes regardless of where they occurred if, like genocide or war crimes, they are considered sufficiently serious.
Warrants were issued for military and civilian officials including current junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, ex-president Htin Kyaw, and former elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her capacity as “state counselor” from 2016 to 2021, when she was ousted in a coup.
In that time, she has been accused by detractors of doing little to stop the abuse of Rohingya.
Hlaing is also under investigation by the International Criminal Court, while the International Court of Justice — the UN’s highest tribunal — is examining a complaint of “genocide” against Myanmar.
The Rohingyas, mainly Muslims, are originally from Buddhist-majority Myanmar where, according to Amnesty International, they have been subjected to a regime akin to apartheid.
Beginning in 2017, many have been forced to flee persecution and violence to richer and predominantly Muslim Malaysia, or to refugee camps in Bangladesh, where about a million of them live.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the 2021 coup that sparked renewed clashes with ethnic rebels and saw the formation of dozens of “People’s Defense Forces” now battling the junta.
In her ruling issued Thursday, Judge Maria Servini said the allegations listed in the complaint “constitute crimes that violate human rights recognized in various international criminal law instruments, subscribed to by most countries in the world.”
They included “internationally known crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity, committed by the political and military authorities in power in that country,” she added.

Universal jurisdiction
Argentine courts have in the past opened investigations into crimes in other countries under the principle of “universal jurisdiction,” including for acts committed by the Francisco Franco regime in Spain.
And last December, a judge ordered the arrest of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega for “systematic violation of human rights.”
None of the cases have yet resulted in action against a foreign national.
Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK, nevertheless welcomed the latest ruling as a “historic step toward justice for Rohingya and everyone in Burma suffering under the Burmese military.”
It was “also a victory for international justice at a time of growing violations of international law worldwide,” he said in a statement.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the Rohingya’ plaintiffs’ lawyer in Argentina, told AFP the next step will be for the ruling to be forwarded to prosecutors, who will take the steps necessary for the notification of Interpol, which issues international warrants.
 


President Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing

President Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing
Updated 14 February 2025
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President Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing

President Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing
  • Incident killed 259 passengers and crew, 11 people on ground

LONDON: A prominent lawyer who represented the British victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has urged President Donald Trump to declassify US intelligence files related to the attack, Sky News reported on Friday.

Prof. Peter Watson, who served as secretary for the Lockerbie Disaster Group, has called on Trump to release the documents, arguing that the families of those killed “deserve transparency, truth and answers.”

Trump has previously moved to declassify files concerning the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., and Watson said he believes Lockerbie should be next.

“Nearly four decades later, as new trials and investigations continue, the pursuit of truth and justice for the victims and their families endures,” he said.

“The families of the victims are entitled to know as much as possible about what happened on the night of the bombing, and we know there are documents held by the US and UK intelligence services that fill the vacuum of understanding that remains today.”

Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew on board, along with 11 people on the ground.

Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing in 2003 and compensated the families of the victims to the tune of £2.1 billion ($2.7 billion), but significant questions about the attack remain with no public inquiry into the bombing held to date.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi was convicted for the bombing but was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2012.

Libyan suspect Abu Agila Masud, who is alleged to have built the bomb, will stand trial in the US in May. He denies all charges.

Watson sent his declassification request in a letter to Matthew Palmer, the charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in London.

He wrote: “We have seen a move from President Trump to declassify a number of federal secrets, and we believe Lockerbie should be next.

“The families have waited far too long. They deserve transparency, truth and answers.”


European naval force helps free ship seized by pirates

European naval force helps free ship seized by pirates
Updated 14 February 2025
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European naval force helps free ship seized by pirates

European naval force helps free ship seized by pirates
  • Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 when 237 attacks were reported

DUBAI: A European naval force in the Middle East helped free a Yemeni fishing boat seized by suspected Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa, authorities said.
The naval force, EUNAVFOR Atalanta, said late on Thursday that the incident remained under investigation. It said the 12 mariners on board were safe and uninjured.
It said the attack that began last week targeted a dhow, a traditional ship that plies the waters of the Mideast off the town of Eyl in Somalia.
“The immediate presence of Atalanta forces in the area, especially the helicopter, was decisive in the fishing vessel liberation,” EUNAVFOR said.
“The crew confirmed that the alleged pirates abandoned the vessel after stealing personal objects and two skiffs belonging to the dhow.”
Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 when 237 attacks were reported.
Somali piracy in the region at the time cost the world’s economy some $7 billion — with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.
The threat was diminished by increased international naval patrols.