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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 23 august 2017

As North Korea vows response, US continues drills

tests, is standard fare dur- forces in the Pacific, said
ing the spring and summer the drills are critical for the
war games by allies Seoul allies to maintain readi-
and Washington, but al- ness against an aggressive
ways uneasy ties between North Korea. “A strong dip-
the Koreas are worse than lomatic effort backed by a
normal this year following strong military effort is key
weeks of tit-for-tat threats because credible combat
between President Don- power should be in support
ald Trump and Pyongyang of diplomacy and not the
in the wake of the North’s other way around,” Harris
two intercontinental ballis- said during a news confer-
tic missile tests last month. ence at the Osan Air Base
There have been calls in in South Korea. Vincent
both the United States and Brooks, commander of U.S.
South Korea to postpone Forces Korea, said the al-
or modify the drills in an at- lies should continue the
tempt to ease hostility on war games until they “have
the Korean Peninsula fol- reason not to.” ‘’That rea-
lowing North Korea’s threat son has not yet emerged,”
U.S. Pacific Command Commander Adm. Harry Harris Jr., front, answers questions during a press
conference as Commander of the U.S. 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command Brigadier to lob missiles toward the he said. The U.S. military of-
Gen. Sean Gainey, left, Lt. Gen. Samuel A. Greaves, director of the United States Missile Defense U.S. territory of Guam. But ficials later traveled to the
Agency, second from left, Gen. John Hyten, commander of the United States Strategic Command, a visiting group of senior site of a contentious U.S.
third from left, United States Forces Korea Commander Gen. Vincent Brooks, second from right, U.S. military commanders, missile-defense system in
and deputy Commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Force Command Gen. Kim Byeong- including Adm. Harry Har- South Korea later Tuesday.
joo, right, stand in front of two PAC-3 launching station at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South ris, the commander of U.S. q
Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017.
(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)

By LEE JIN-MAN ation” against U.S.-South or downsize exercises they
HYUNG-JIN KIM Korean military drills that it called crucial to countering
Associated Press claims are an invasion re- a clear threat from Pyong-
OSAN AIR BASE, South Ko- hearsal, senior U.S. military yang. The heated North
rea (AP) — As North Korea commanders on Tuesday Korean rhetoric, along
vowed “merciless retali- dismissed calls to pause with occasional weapons

Angola:
President to quit after 38 years in power

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA association with 74-year- of civil war that ended in
Associated Press old dos Santos dates to the 2002, leaving at least half
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — war against Portuguese a million people dead, sev-
Angolans vote Wednesday colonial rule, has pledged eral million displaced from
in an election that will see to fight graft if elected. He their homes and infrastruc-
President Jose Eduardo dos would likely encounter the ture devastated.
Santos quit after nearly four entrenched interests of an Despite evidence of crony-
decades in power. Yet the elite partly dominated by ism, the selection of Lou-
longtime leader has laid the president’s family, in- renco as a successor to dos
the groundwork for a hand- cluding daughter Isabel Santos and the avoidance
picked successor in an oil- dos Santos, who heads the of a “dynastic transition”
rich country where pover- state oil company Sonan- to one of the president’s
ty, corruption and human gol although media reports children indicates “that in-
rights concerns are unlikely have indicated that she ternal checks and balanc-
to dissipate anytime soon. could vacate the post. es may be stronger than
Defense Minister Joao Lou- Isabel dos Santos is reput- many believed,” said Soren
renco is the ruling MPLA ed to be Africa’s richest Kirk Jensen, an associate
party’s candidate to suc- woman, hailing from a na- fellow in the African pro-
ceed dos Santos, who is tion with one of the highest gram of Chatham House,
expected to remain party poverty rates in the world. a London-based institute.q
leader. Lourenco, whose Angola endured decades