Page 28 - min.soc 9 jan,2016

A10
WORLD NEWSSaturday 9 January 2016
South Korea resumes anti-North
Korea propaganda broadcasting
FOSTER KLUG
HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)
— As world leaders debat-
ed how to punish North
Korea’s claim of a fourth
nuclear test, South Ko-
rea retaliated by broad-
casting anti-Pyongyang
propaganda across the
rivals’ tense border Friday
on what was believed to
be Kim Jong Un’s birth-
day.
North Korea considers
such broadcasts to be an
act of psychological war-
fare and likely will have a
furious response. Pyong-
yang is extremely sensitive
to any outside criticism of
the authoritarian leader-
ship of Kim, the third mem-
ber of his family to rule the the U.S. took the unusual
country. When South Ko-
rea briefly resumed pro-
paganda broadcasts in
August after an 11-year
break, Seoul says the
two Koreas exchanged
artillery fire, followed by
threats of war.
South Korea’s Yonhap
news agency reported
that frontline troops, near
11 sites where loudspeak-
ers started blaring pro-
paganda at noon, were
on highest alert. Yonhap
said Seoul had deployed
missiles, artillery and other for its still-limited nuclear cism of his force’s handling to restore public trust and
weapons systems near the
border to swiftly deal with
any possible North Ko-
rean provocation. South
Korea’s Defense Ministry
did not immediately con-
firm the reports. The North
Korean response could
be harsh because of the
high emotions surrounding
the likely birthday of Kim,
who is believed to be in
his early 30s. North Korean
military forces often com-
pete to show their loyalty
to the leader. The North’s
state media has yet to
mention Kim’s birthday or
South Korea’s loudspeak-
er campaign. The broad-
casts came as world pow-
ers sought to find other
ways to punish the North
for conducting what it
said was its first hydrogen
bomb test Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry urged China,
the North’s only major ally
and its biggest aid pro-
vider, to end “business as
usual” with North Korea.
Diplomats at a U.N. Secu-
rity Council emergency
session pledged to swiftly
pursue new sanctions. For
current sanctions and any
new penalties to work,
better cooperation and
stronger implementation
from China is seen as key.
South Korean and U.S. mil-
itary leaders also have dis-
cussed the deployment
of U.S. “strategic assets,”
Seoul’s Defense Ministry
said. Officials refused to
elaborate, but the assets
likely are B-52 bombers,
F-22 stealth fighters and
nuclear-powered subma-
rines. After North Korea’s
third nuclear test in 2013,
step of sending its most
powerful warplanes —
B-2 stealth bombers, F-22
stealth fighters and B-52
bombers — to drills with
South Korea in a show of
force. B-2 and B-52 bomb-
ers are capable of deliv-
ering nuclear weapons.
It may take weeks or lon-
ger to confirm or refute
the North’s claim that it
successfully tested a hy-
drogen bomb, which
would mark a major and
unanticipated advance
arsenal. Outside experts
are skeptical the blast was
a hydrogen bomb, but
even a test of an atomic
bomb would push North
Korea closer to building
a nuclear warhead small
enough to place on a
long-range missile.
Late Friday, the Korea In-
stitute of Nuclear Safety
said a small amount of
radioactive elements was
found in air samples col-
lected from the peninsu-
la’s eastern seas after the
blast but the measured
amount was too small to
determine whether the
North had really detonat-
ed a nuclear device.
The institute said the lev-
el of xenon-133 isotopes
found in the samples was
similar to levels normally
detected at its two radio-
active gas detectors on
the eastern and western
coasts. q
Spain: US couple charged over son’s death
tioned by the judge. on Nov. 15 when the family
HERNAN RATO Case prosecutor Enrique went to a restaurant to cel-
CIARAN GILES Barata said their passports ebrate a family birthday.
Associated Press had been removed and Barata said the father told
GIRONA, Spain (AP) — that the pair had “lost their the judge that the family
An American couple ar- sense of reality” following did not take the child to
rested after police found the death of their asthmat- a hospital because they
the badly decomposed
Case prosecutor Enrique Barata, center right, talks to the media outside the courthouse in Girona,
Spain, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016. American couple Bruce and Schrell Hopkins who were arrested after
police found the badly decomposed body of their 7-year-old son at the family’s apartment in
northeastern Spain told a court Friday that the child suffered from asthma and did not wake up
one morning but that the family didn’t think he was dead.
(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
body of their 7-year-old ic son Caleb. did not believe in standard
son at the family’s apart- The charges come three medicine, but that they
ment in northeastern Spain days after the couple’s ar- had previously treated his
claimed Friday that the rest when police found the asthma with inhalers and
child did not wake up one body of Caleb under sev- homeopathic medicine.
morning weeks ago but eral blankets on a bed at “The child was fine play-
that they didn’t accept he the rented apartment in ing around and living a
was dead. the city of Girona where normal life. But one morn-
Bruce and Schrell Hopkins, the couple lived with their ing he wouldn’t wake up,”
aged 39 and 38, and who three children. Barata told reporters. “The
originated from the Detroit Barata said the exact father explained he tried
area, were charged Friday cause and time of the to give his son resuscitating
with negligent homicide child’s death had yet to be maneuvers, cardiac mas-
but were released provi- established and that Ca- sage and mouth-to-mouth
sionally after being ques- leb was known to be alive breathing. q
Cologne Police chief dismissed over assaults
GEIR MOULSON tirement, and the 60-year- by groups of men within
FRANK JORDANS old commander said he a 1,000-strong crowd de-
Associated Press understood the reasons scribed by police as pre-
BERLIN (AP) — The police why. dominantly Arab or North
chief of the German city The state’s interior minister, African in origin.
of Cologne was dismissed Ralf Jaeger, said Albers’ The German government
Friday amid mounting criti- removal was “necessary said 31 suspects were brief-
ly detained for question-
of a string of New Year’s the Cologne police’s abil- ing after the New Year’s
Eve sexual assaults and ity to act with a view to Eve trouble, among them
robberies that police and upcoming major events.” 18 asylum-seekers. The 31
witnesses have blamed Cologne’s annual Carnival included nine Algerians,
largely on foreigners. is next month. eight Moroccans, five Ira-
The state government of Albers had faced mount- nians, four Syrians, two
North Rhine-Westphalia ing criticism for the police Germans and one person
said it was sending Wolf- response to New Year’s each from Iraq, Serbia and
gang Albers into early re- Eve attacks on women the United States.q