The Star Online: World Updates
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- North Korean leader says purge was a cleansing of 'filth'
- South Sudan government, rebels set for New Year's Day talks
- Latvia caps years of austerity with euro zone membership
| North Korean leader says purge was a cleansing of 'filth' Posted: 31 Dec 2013 08:35 PM PST SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first reference to the execution of his powerful uncle in a New Year's address, saying the reclusive state's ruling party had become stronger after it was purged of "factional filth." And he called for better relations with South Korea, warning that another war on the Korean peninsula would cause a massive nuclear disaster that would hit the United States. Kim, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, did not refer by name to his uncle Jang Song Thaek, who was executed last month in a rare public purge for crimes against the ruling Workers' Party and harming national interest. "Our party took a firm measure to get rid of factional filth that permeated the party," Kim said in a broadcast on state television that appeared to be pre-recorded, without showing if he was speaking to an audience. "Our unity strengthened hundredfold and party and revolutionary lines became more solid by purging the anti-party and anti-revolutionary faction," Kim said. After the sudden death of Kim's father in December 2011, Jang acted as regent to his young nephew as Kim established himself in power. With the purge, Kim may have chosen to remove the only man who may have posed any real threat to him. Kim's call for improved ties with the South followed a threat from Pyongyang last month that it could strike Seoul without notice. "It is time to end abuse and slander that is only good for doing harm ... We will try hard to improve North-South ties," Kim said, adding that "dark clouds of nuclear war constantly hovered over the Korean peninsula". "If there ever is once again war on this land, it will bring about an enormous nuclear disaster and the United States will not be spared from it," he said. The two Koreas remain technically at war under a truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The United States maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea in joint defence against the North. Robert Carlin, a contributor to 38 North, a project of John Hopkins University's U.S.-Korea Institute, noted that so far Pyongyang's treatment of South Koran President Park Geun-hye had avoided the relentless personal attacks on her predecessor. "Many times over the past 30 or 40 years, the two sides have started dialogue by agreeing to stop slander of the other," Carlin said. "It's a relatively easy and verifiable first step. By raising it, Kim would appear to be signalling that he's prepared to start off with something concrete, if modest, in order to open the door." CONSTRUCTION PLANS State media reported on Tuesday that Kim rode on a ski lift at the Masik ski resort, a widely publicised public project where the North expects up to 5,000 skiers a day when it opens this year. Kim has been pushing for massive projects throughout the country that go beyond the ski resort, pleasure parks and apartment blocks reported by state media, largely with the financial aid of its sole main ally China. On Wednesday, he emphasized his eagerness to pursue more construction projects. "This year, we should open up a new period of prosperity in construction. Construction is an important frontline to set grounds for the strong nation and people's happiness," he said. (Additional reporting by Jane Chung; Editing by Jack Kim and John Mair) |
| South Sudan government, rebels set for New Year's Day talks Posted: 31 Dec 2013 07:15 PM PST JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's government and rebels are set for New Year's Day peace talks in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, to thrash out a ceasefire to end weeks of ethnic bloodletting in the world's newest state. Both sides agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday, mediators said, but fighting between government troops and militias loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar raged in Bor, the capital of the vast Jonglei state and site of an ethnic massacre in 1991. "I'm worried that the continued fighting in Bor might scupper the start of these talks," said Ethiopian Foreign Minister Dr. Tedros Adhanom, who is chairman of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) bloc that is mediating the talks. "Hopefully both delegations will arrive tomorrow (Wednesday), start the talks and settle this problem once and for all," Adhanom told Reuters by phone from Addis Ababa. Western and regional powers have pushed both sides to end the fighting that has killed at least 1,000 people, cut South Sudan's oil output and raised fears of a full-blown civil war in the heart of a fragile region. It was not clear who controlled Bor on Tuesday night after a day of heavy fighting that started at dawn in the dusty town, which was held by Machar's rebels for a few days at the start of the conflict. Nearly 200,000 civilians have been displaced. The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said ethnic-based atrocities, often carried out against civilians by uniformed men, have taken place throughout the newly independent South Sudan. "This can lead to a perpetual cycle of violence that can destroy the fabric of the new nation," the United Nations warned in a statement. About 9,000 civilians are seeking refuge at the U.N. base in Bor. The clashes erupted on December 15 with fighting among soldiers in Juba. The violence quickly spread to half of the country's 10 states, dividing the country along the ethnic lines of Machar's Nuer group and President Salva Kiir's Dinkas. Kiir has accused his long-term political rival Machar, who he sacked in July, of starting the fighting in an effort to seize power. Machar has denied the charge, but he has taken to the bush and has acknowledged leading soldiers battling the government. There have been conflicting reports on whether Machar was in full control of the Nuer "White Army" militia fighting in Bor, though on Tuesday he told the BBC they were part of his forces. The White House pressured all sides to cease hostilities and allow humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians. "The United States will deny support and work to apply international pressure to any elements that use force to seize power," White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement on Tuesday. "At the same time, we will hold leaders responsible for the conduct of their forces and work to ensure accountability for atrocities and war crimes." The fighting has revived memories of the factionalism in the 1990s within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the group that fought Sudan's army in the north for two decades. Machar led a splinter faction and fighters loyal to him massacred Dinkas in Bor. TALKS, "CATASTROPHIC" CONDITIONS Both the government and the rebels said earlier on Tuesday that they were sending teams to start talks in neighbouring Ethiopia, though Machar told the BBC on Tuesday that he was not prepared to lay down weapons. The U.S. special envoy to South Sudan, Donald Booth, said the commitment to send negotiators was an "important first step" towards a negotiated settlement. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Monday that East African countries had agreed to move in and defeat Machar if he rejected the ceasefire offer, threatening to turn the fighting into a regional conflict. No other countries have confirmed any such an agreement. "The town is still partly in our hands and partly in the hands of the rebels," Mayor Nhial Majak Nhial told Reuters on Tuesday from the government's military headquarters inside Bor, 190 km (120 miles) north of Juba by road. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said about 70,000 civilians had fled Bor and sought refuge in the town of Awerial in neighbouring Lakes state, with no access to food, clean water or shelter. Others were hiding in swamps. "Living conditions are verging on the catastrophic," MSF said. According to United Nations figures, fighting across the country has displaced at least 180,000 people, including 75,000 who are seeking refuge inside U.N. bases. The African Union said late on Monday it was dismayed and disappointed by the bloodletting that came two years after South Sudan won independence from its northern neighbour, Sudan. The AU's Peace and Security Council said it would "take appropriate measures, including targeted sanctions, against all those who incite violence, including along ethnic lines, continue hostilities (and) undermine the envisaged inclusive dialogue." (Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic and Richard Lough in Nairobi, and Jeff Mason in Honolulu; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Toni Reinhold and Bill Trott) |
| Latvia caps years of austerity with euro zone membership Posted: 31 Dec 2013 04:45 PM PST RIGA (Reuters) - Latvia joined the euro zone on Wednesday, banking on its experience of austerity to bring it prosperity in a currency union where other economies have floundered. The Baltic country of just 2 million people became the bloc's 18th member at midnight (2200 GMT), taking a step further out of the shadow of neighbouring Russia a decade after joining the European Union and NATO. Latvia's acting prime minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, who led his country through its worst economic crisis since it left the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, said euro adoption was an opportunity, but not a guarantee of wealth, and the country should not relax its fiscal policy. "It's not an excuse not to pursue a responsible fiscal and macroeconomic policy," he said after withdrawing the first euro banknote after midnight from a cash machine in Riga. The euro switchover ceremony took place at a site where Latvia's crisis began - the former headquarters of the collapsed Parex bank, now headquarters of state-owned Citatele bank, which emerged from Parex's ruins. Parex, the country's second-biggest bank by assets, went bust at end-2008, forcing the Baltic state to seek an international rescue to keep its currency, the lat, pegged to the euro at the same rate. Its economy shrank by a quarter during 2008-2010, but then grew at the fastest pace in the EU, expanding by 5.6 percent in 2012, after the government slashed spending and wages and hiked taxes in one of the harshest austerity programs in Europe. Latvia's efforts have won praise from EU policymakers, who have pointed numerous times to the Baltic state as an example that austerity can work. "Thanks to these efforts ... Latvia will enter the euro area stronger than ever, sending an encouraging message to other countries undergoing a difficult economic adjustment," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Tuesday. Still, a few concerns remain. The European Central Bank has warned Latvia that the high level of foreign deposits, mostly from Russia, in Latvian banks, as in Cyprus, was a risk factor. Latvia also enters the euro zone without a permanent government after Dombrovskis resigned in December, taking political responsibility over a supermarket collapse in Riga that killed 54 people. Latvia enters the euro zone as the single currency bloc marks its 15th anniversary, and the euro is now used by 333 million Europeans. Even so, neighbouring Lithuania is the only remaining EU country showing much enthusiasm for euro admission after the temptations and strains of sharing a currency forced Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to seek international bailouts for their government finances or their banks. Estonia joined the euro zone in 2011, and Lithuania aims to do so in 2015. Among the ex-Communist EU countries that have yet to adopt the euro, Croatia is stuck in recession while bigger economies such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have become reticent about currency union. Latvia, which becomes the fourth smallest economy in the euro zone after Malta, Estonia and Cyprus, expects the euro to lower its borrowing costs and encourage investors by eliminating currency risk. Both Standard & Poor's and Fitch have raised the country's credit ratings in anticipation of its euro entry. But opinion polls show ordinary Latvians are divided on the euro's merits, with many worried that its adoption will be an excuse to raise prices. "In all other countries which had switched to the euro, prices rose. Most likely, they will rise here as well, which is bad," said Oleg Bachurin, 62, a pensioner. Latvia's central bank expects euro zone entry to lift consumer prices by 0.2-0.3 percentage point in 2014, taking inflation to 2 percent. "I'm not worried (about euro adoption). I believe it's progress. We should not look back, we should go forward," said Anita Linde, 57, a retailer. (Additional reporting by John O'Donnell in Brussels; Editing by Niklas Pollard, Ruth Pitchford and Eric Walsh) |
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