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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 3 augusT 2023
Canadian PM Trudeau and his wife announce their separation

By ROB GILLIES Justin Trudeau and Sophie
Associated Press Gregoire met as children
TORONTO (AP) — Cana- when she was a classmate
dian Prime Minister Justin of his youngest brother, Mi-
Trudeau and his wife, So- chel, and they reconnect-
phie Gregoire Trudeau, an- ed as adults when they co-
nounced Wednesday that hosted a 2003 charity gala.
they are separating after Trudeau is the second
18 years of marriage. prime minister to announce
The two said in statements a separation while in office.
posted on Instagram that His father, Pierre Trudeau,
they made the decision af- and mother, Margaret
ter “many meaningful and Trudeau, separated in 1979
difficult conversations.” A and divorced in 1984 dur-
statement from the prime ing the elder Trudeau’s final
minister’s office said they year in the prime minister’s
both have signed a legal office.
separation agreement. Margaret Trudeau wrote in
Trudeau, the 51-year-old her memoir that she had a
scion of one of Canada’s romance with Senator Ted
most famous politicians, Kennedy.
was sworn into office in During a 1977 visit to Wash-
2015. Sophie Trudeau is a ington, D.C. with Pierre,
former model and TV host. she sat listening to her
The couple were married in Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, arrive at Rideau husband’s speech before
2005. Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Sept. 11, 2019. Associated Press Congress while feeling
Together, they brought star “torn between an intense
power to the prime minis- er and for everything we tain stability. prime minister are focused need for him and a long-
ter’s office and appeared have built and will continue She has played a less vis- on raising their kids in a ing for Ted Kennedy.” Mar-
in the pages of Vogue to build,” the two said on ible role in recent years, safe, loving and collab- garet wrote she became
magazine. Instagram. rarely traveling with the orative environment,” the infatuated with Kennedy
They have three children, An official familiar with the prime minister on official statement from Trudeau’s after meeting him a few
15-year-old Xavier, 14-year- matter said the children trips. The two were seen to- office said. years earlier. She told Ken-
old Ella-Grace and 9-year- he will continue to live at gether publicly at Canada “The family will be together nedy that he “had not de-
old Hadrien. Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Day events in Ottawa last on vacation, beginning stroyed my marriage but
“As always, we remain a where he has lived since month. next week.” that I had used him to help
close family with deep love 2015, and the children will “They remain a close fam- His office requested re- me destroy a marriage that
and respect for each oth- primarily live there to main- ily, and Sophie and the spect for their privacy. was already over.”q

N. Korea calls U.S. human rights envoy a ‘political housemaid’ in

protest of criticisms

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Turner’s appointment July public criticism of North Turner’s past criticisms of In defiance of Washington
Associated Press 27. She previously served Korea’s human rights situa- North Korea’s human rights last week, North Korean
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) as the director of East Asia tion highlighted its hostility record as absurd, and said leader Kim Jong Un hosted
— North Korea hurled mi- and the Pacific at the State toward Pyongyang in the the U.S. “revels in meddling senior delegates from Rus-
sogynistic insults Wednes- Department. face of an intensifying nu- in the internal affairs of a sia and China at a Pyong-
day at a newly confirmed The statement said the clear standoff between the sovereign state and slan- yang military parade that
United States special en- Biden administration’s countries. KCNA described dering it.” showcased his interconti-
voy to monitor the coun- “Turner should know that nental ballistic missiles de-
try’s human rights issues she was chosen as a politi- signed to target the U.S.
and warned of unspecified cal housemaid and scape- mainland. Analysts say Kim
security consequences if goat for the ‘human rights’ is trying to boost the visibility
Washington continues to plots to pressure the DPRK, of his partnerships with Mos-
criticize its human rights a poor policy set forth by cow and Beijing as he looks
conditions. the Biden administration to break away from diplo-
The statement published driven into a scrape in the matic isolation and insert
by North Korea’s official Ko- DPRK-U.S. nuclear con- himself into a united front
rean Central News Agency frontation,” the agency against the United States.
described Julie Turner as said, using the initials of the Tensions on the Korean
a “wicked woman” who North’s formal name, the Peninsula are at their high-
was picked by the Biden Democratic People’s Re- est point in years. The pace
administration as a “politi- public of Korea. The agen- of North Korean missile
cal housemaid” to launch cy said the continued U.S. tests and the United States’
groundless attacks on the A North Korean flag flutters in the wind atop a 160-meter (525- criticism on North Korean combined military exercis-
country’s human rights re- foot) tower in the North’s Kijong-dong village near the truce human rights issues could es with South Korea have
village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South
cord. Korea on Sept, 28, 2017. “backfire on it, spawning intensified in a tit-for-tat
The U.S. Senate confirmed Associated Press severe security issues.” cycle.q