The North Korean women had gathered in the Chinese province of Shandong on Jan. 4 and begun their journey to South Korea via Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, the activist said. “The ill-fated boat had a capacity for about 10 people. The sinking may have been caused by being overcrowded,” said the activist, asking to remain anonymous.
More than 200 people were feared dead after a heavily overloaded boat packed mostly with Afghan and Iranian asylum-seekers sank off Indonesia en route to Australia, rescuers said Sunday. Australia's government called the sinking "a terrible tragedy", but came under pressure from campaign groups which said its tough approach to refugees was partly responsible for such disasters. The fibreglass boat had a capacity of 100 but was overloaded with about 250 people when it sank on Saturday 40 nautical miles off eastern Java, in heavy rain and high waves, Indonesian officials said. Thirty-three survivors were plucked from the shark-infested waters,…... [read more]
The Unification Ministry in an emergency briefing Sunday warned of an impending provocation from North Korea after the defection of a senior diplomat, from Chosun's source said this morning.The Ministry did not say why it decided to call an emergency briefing at the weekend or what kind of provocation it expects."North Korea intended to hold a rally on Liberation Day on Aug. 15 to criticize joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises and divide public sentiment in the South," the ministry said in a press release handed out to reporters. "But it abruptly abandoned the plan."The ministry said the defection of Thae…... [read more]
Five years ago, Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korea's ruler, pleaded with his younger sibling to spare his life, according to two lawmakers in South Korea. He wrote a letter to Kim Jong Un, who took power after their father Kim Jong Il died in December 2011, and asked him to withdraw a standing order for his assassination, according to the lawmakers, who were briefed by South Korea's spy agency. "We have nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. We are well aware that the only way to escape is suicide," Kim Jong Nam said in a letter to…... [read more]
Malaysia summoned the North Korean ambassador on Monday for a dressing-down over Pyongyang's attack on its investigation into the assassination of leader Kim Jong-Nam's brother, deepening a diplomatic row. Five North Koreans are in the frame for last week's airport killing, drawing a furious response from Pyongyang which has accused Kuala Lumpur of conspiring with "hostile forces" to damage its reputation. Malaysia recalled its envoy to Pyongyang and also summoned the North Korean ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, who was told his accusation was "baseless", the foreign ministry said in a statement. "The ministry emphasized that as the death occurred on…... [read more]
Hundreds of people are feared dead after two boats carrying about 500 migrants sank off Libya, officials say. The first boat, which capsized early on Thursday, had nearly 50 people on board. The second, which sank later, was carrying about 400 passengers. A Libyan official told the Reuters news agency that about 200 people had been rescued but this is unconfirmed. The UN says about 2,400 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year. More than 100,000 others have landed in Italy, whilst another 160,000 have crossed to Greece. Coastguard constrained The Libyan coast…... [read more]
