Asia
Blinken tours Turkey’s earthquake zone, pledges $100M in aid
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took a helicopter tour Sunday of one of the provinces worst-affected by the Feb. 6 earthquake in southern Turkey and northern Syria and pledged a further $100 million in aid to help the region.
“This is going to be a long-term effort,” Blinken said at Incirlik Air Base, a joint U.S.-Turkish facility that has coordinated the distribution of disaster aid. “The search and rescue, unfortunately, is coming to an end. The recovery is on, and then there will be a massive rebuilding operation.”
President Joe Biden announced $85 million for Turkey and Syria days after the earthquake that has killed more than 44,000 people in the two countries. The U.S. has also sent a search and rescue team, medical supplies and equipment.
The additional aid includes $50 million in emergency refugee and migration funds and $50 million in humanitarian assistance, Blinken said.
The secretary of state is making his first trip to NATO ally Turkey since he took office two years ago. Blinken arrived at Incirlik Air Base, near Adana, on Sunday after attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
He toured Turkey’s toured Hatay province from the air with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. He was expected to meet with U.S. and Turkish service personnel, as well as Turkish military families affected by the earthquake.
“When you see the extent of the damage, the number of buildings, the number of apartments, the number of homes that have been destroyed, it's going to take a massive effort to rebuild,” the top U.S. diplomat said after the helicopter tour.
“The most important thing right now is to get assistance to people who need it, to get them through the winter and to get them back on their feet," Blinken said as troops nearby unloaded boxes of aid... We’ll stick with it until we get the job done.”
Incirlik, home to the U.S. Air Force’s 39th Air Base Wing, has been a crucial logistics center for aid distribution. Supplies from around the world have been flown into the base and sent by truck and helicopter to those in need, including in difficult to reach villages.
Blinken is set to fly to Ankara, Turkey's capital, later Sunday for discussions with Turkish officials on Monday, including an anticipated meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As well as the effects of the earthquake, Blinken is expected to discuss Sweden and Finland's efforts to join NATO, which Turkey has delayed.
North Korea fires short-range missiles after making threat
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its eastern coast on Monday in its second weapons test in three days that drew quick condemnation from its rivals.
The weapons firings follow an intercontinental ballistic missile launch Saturday and North Korea’s threats to take an unprecedented strong response to U.S.-South Korean military drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal. Some experts say North Korea could use a new testing spree to expand its arsenal and intends eventually to use its boosted capability as leverage in negotiations the United States.
South Korea's military said it detected the two missile launches from a western coastal town, just north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Monday morning. Japan said both missiles landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan and that no damage involving aircraft and vessels in the area was reported.
According to Japanese and South Korean assessments, the North Korean missiles flew at a maximum altitude of 50-100 kilometers (30-60 miles) and a distance of 340-400 kilometers (210-250 miles).
South Korea’s military said North Korea’s repeated missile launches are “a grave provocation” that undermine international peace. Japan condemned the launches as a threat to the peace and safety of Japan and the international society.
Read: North Korea confirms ICBM test, warns of more powerful steps
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the missile launches highlight “the destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s unlawful weapons programs. It said the U.S. commitments to the defense of South Korea and Japan “remain ironclad.”
North Korea’s state media said long-range artillery units on its western coast fired two rounds cross-country toward the eastern waters on Monday morning, possibly referring to the same activity its neighbors said were missile launches. The official Korean Central News Agency said the North Korean artillery rounds simulated strikes on targets up to 395 kilometers (245 miles) away.
The North said the launches involved its new 600 millimeter multiple rocket launcher system that could be armed with “tactical” nuclear weapons for battlefield use. Some experts viewed the weapons system as a short-range ballistic missile.
“The frequency of using the Pacific as our firing range depends upon the U.S. forces’ action character,” Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in a statement carried by state media. “We are well aware of the movement of U.S. forces’ strategic strike means, (which are) recently getting brisk around the Korean Peninsula.”
Calling the United States “the worst maniacs,” she threatened to take unspecified “corresponding counteraction” in response to the future moves by the U.S. military.
She could be referring to the U.S. flyover of B-1B long-range, supersonic bombers on Sunday for separate training with South Korea and Japan. The B-1B deployment came as response to North Korea’s launch of the Hwasong-15 ICBM off its east coast on Saturday in the country’s first missile test since Jan. 1.
North Korea is extremely sensitive to the deployment of B-1B bombers, which can carry a huge payload of conventional weapons.
North Korea’s state media said Sunday the ICBM test was meant to further bolster its “fatal” nuclear attack capacity and verify the weapon’s reliability and the combat readiness of the country’s nuclear force. In her earlier statement Sunday, Kim Yo Jong threatened to take additional powerful steps over upcoming military drills between the United States and South Korea.
North Korea has steadfastly slammed regular South Korea-U.S. military drills as a practice for a northward invasion though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature. Some observers say North Korea often uses its rivals’ drills as a pretext to hone and perfect its weapons systems.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries plan to hold a table-top exercise this week to hone a joint response to a potential use of nuclear weapons by North Korea. The allies are also to conduct another joint computer simulated exercise and field training in March.
Hours after Monday's launches, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Seoul placed unilateral sanctions on four individuals and five institutions it said were involved in illicit activities supporting the North’s nuclear arms development and evasion of sanctions. While South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government has so far placed sanctions on 31 individuals and 35 organizations for supporting the North’s nuclear ambitions, such steps are seen as mostly symbolic considering the lack of business activities between the rivals.
North Korea has claimed to have missiles capable of striking both the U.S. mainland and South Korea with nuclear weapons, but many foreign experts have said North Korea still has some key remaining technologies to master, such as shrinking the warheads small enough to be mounted on missiles and ensuring those warheads survive atmospheric reentry.
In her statement Monday, Kim Yo Jong reiterated that North Korea has reentry vehicle technology. She also hit back at South Korean experts who questioned whether North Korea’s ICBMs would be functional in real-war situations.
Kim Yo Jong insisted that the nine hours of launch preparation time after her brother Kim Jong Un ordered it included the efforts sealing the launch site and evacuating people, and was not long because of shortcomings of the missile system itself.
Last year, North Korea set an annual record with the launch of more than 70 missiles. North Korea has said many of those weapons tests were a warning over previous U.S.-South Korean military drills. It also passed a law that allows it to use nuclear weapons preemptively in a broad range of scenarios.
Kim Jong Un entered 2023 with a call for an “exponential increase” of the country’s nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting South Korea and the development of more advanced ICBMs targeting the U.S.
North Korea confirms ICBM test, warns of more powerful steps
North Korea said Sunday its latest intercontinental ballistic missile test was meant to further bolster its “fatal” nuclear attack capacity against its rivals, as it threatened additional powerful steps in response to the upcoming military training between the United States and South Korea.
The United States responded by flying long-range supersonic bombers later Sunday for a joint exercise with South Korean warplanes in a demonstration of strength against North Korea.
Saturday’s ICBM test, the North’s first missile test since Jan. 1, signals its leader Kim Jong Un is using his rivals’ drills as a chance to expand his country’s nuclear arsenal to get the upper hand in future dealings with the United States. An expert says North Korea may seek to hold regular operational exercises involving its ICBMs.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said its launch of the Hwasong-15 ICBM was organized “suddenly” without prior notice at Kim’s direct order.
KCNA said the launch was designed to verify the weapon’s reliability and the combat readiness of the country’s nuclear force. It said the missile was fired at a high angle and reached a maximum altitude of about 5,770 kilometers (3,585 miles), flying a distance of about 990 kilometers (615 miles) for 67 minutes before accurately hitting a pre-set area in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
The steep-angle launch was apparently to avoid neighboring countries. The flight details reported by North Korea, which roughly matched the launch information previously assessed by its neighbors, show the weapon is theoretically capable of reaching the mainland U.S. if fired at a standard trajectory.
The Hwasong-15 launch demonstrated the North’s “powerful physical nuclear deterrent” and its efforts to “turn its capacity of fatal nuclear counterattack on the hostile forces” into an extremely strong one that cannot be countered, KCNA said.
Whether North Korea has a functioning nuclear-tipped ICBM is still a source of outside debate, as some experts say the North hasn’t mastered a way to protect warheads from the severe conditions of atmospheric reentry. The North says it has acquired such a technology.
The Hwasong-15 is one of North Korea’s three existing ICBMs, all of which use liquid propellants that require pre-launch injections and cannot remain fueled for extended periods. The North is pushing to build a solid-fueled ICBM, which would be more mobile and harder to detect before its launch.
“Kim Jong Un has likely determined that the technical reliability of the country’s liquid propellant ICBM force has been sufficiently tested and evaluated to now allow for regular operational exercises of this kind,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at Korea Aerospace University in South Korea, said that North Korea appeared to have launched an upgraded version of the Hwasong-15 ICBM. Chang said the information provided by North Korea showed the missile will likely have a longer potential range than the standard Hwasong-15.
Later Sunday, the U.S. sent B-1B bombers streaking over the Korean Peninsula to train with South Korean and U.S. fighter jets, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. It said Sunday’s training reaffirmed Washington’s “iron-clad” security commitment to South Korea.
North Korea is sensitive to the deployment of U.S. B-1B bombers, which are capable of carrying a huge payload of conventional weapons.
The North’s launch came a day after it vowed an “unprecedentedly” strong response over a series of military drills that Seoul and Washington plan in coming weeks.
In a statement Sunday, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong Un, accused South Korea and the U.S. of “openly showing their dangerous greed and attempt to gain the military upper hand and predominant position in the Korean Peninsula.”
“I warn that we will watch every movement of the enemy and take corresponding and very powerful and overwhelming counteraction against its every move hostile to us,” she said.
North Korea has steadfastly slammed regular South Korea-U.S. military drills as an invasion rehearsal though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature.
“By now, we know that any action taken by the U.S. and South Korea — however justified from the vantage point of defense and deterrence against (North Korea’s) reckless behavior — will be construed and protested as an act of hostility by North Korea,” said Soo Kim, a security analyst at the California-based RAND Corporation. “There will always be fodder for (Kim Jong Un’s) weapons provocations.”
“With nuclear weapons in tow and having mastered the art of coercion and bullying, Kim does not need ‘self-defense.’ But pitting the U.S. and South Korea as the aggressors allows Kim to justify his weapons development,” Soo Kim said.
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the U.S. will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and South Korea and Japan. South Korea’s presidential National Security Council said it will seek to strengthen its “overwhelming response capacity” against potential North Korean aggression based on the military alliance with the United States.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries plan to hold a table-top exercise this week to hone a joint response to a potential use of nuclear weapons by North Korea. The allies are also to conduct another joint computer simulated exercise and field training in March.
The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan, meeting on the sidelines of a security conference in Germany on Saturday, agreed to boost a trilateral cooperation involving the United States and exchanged in-depth views on the issue of Japan’s colonial-era mobilization of forced Korean laborers — a key sticking point in efforts to improve their ties, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.
South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies but often spat over issues stemming from Tokyo’s 1910-45 colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula. But North Korea’s recent missile testing spree is pushing the two countries to explore how to reinforce their security cooperation.
Russia’s year of war: Purge of critics, surge of nationalism
Moscow’s nights display few signs of a nation at war.
Cheerful crowds packed restaurants and bars in the Sretenka neighborhood on a recent Saturday night, watched by officers marked as “tourist police.” Nearby, a top-hatted guide led about 40 sightseers to a 300-year-old church.
There’s only an occasional “Z” — the symbol of Russia’s “special military operation,” as the Ukraine invasion is officially known — seen on a building or a shuttered store abandoned by a Western retailer. A poster of a stern-faced soldier, with the slogan “Glory to the heroes of Russia,” is a reminder the conflict has dragged on for a year.
Western stores are gone, but customers can still buy their products — or knockoffs sold under a Russian name or branding.
The painful, bruising changes to Russian life require more effort to see.
A broad government crackdown has silenced dissent, with political opponents imprisoned or fleeing abroad. Families have been torn apart by the first mobilization of reservists since World War II. State TV spews hatred against the West and reassuring messages that much of the world still is with Russia.
And Russia’s battlefield deaths are in the thousands.
QUASHING THE CRITICS
“Indeed, the war has ruined many lives — including ours,” Sophia Subbotina of St. Petersburg told The Associated Press.
Twice a week, she visits a detention center to bring food and medicine to her partner, Sasha Skochilenko, an artist and musician with serious health issues. Skochilenko was arrested in April for replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar slogans.
She is charged with spreading false information about the military, one of President Vladimir Putin’s new laws that effectively criminalize public expression against the war. The crackdown has been immediate, ruthless and unparalleled in post-Soviet Russia.
Also Read: Ukraine in mind, US frantic to avert Mideast showdown at UN
Media cannot call it a “war,” and protesters using that word on placards are hit with steep fines. Most who took to the streets were swiftly arrested. Rallies fizzled.
Independent news sites were blocked, as were Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. A prominent radio station was taken off the air. The Novaya Gazeta newspaper, led by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, lost its license.
Skochilenko, who says she is not an activist but simply someone horrified by war, faces up to 10 years in prison.
Prominent Putin critics either left Russia or were arrested: Ilya Yashin got 8½ years, Vladimir Kara-Murza is jailed awaiting trial and Alexei Navalny remains in prison.
Entertainers opposing the war quickly lost work, with plays and concerts canceled.
“The fact that Putin has managed to intimidate a significant part of our society is hard to deny,” Yashin told AP from jail last year.
PUSHING THE GOVERNMENT LINE
The purge of critics was followed by a splurge of propaganda. State TV suspended some entertainment shows and expanded political and news programs to boost the narrative that Russia was ridding Ukraine of Nazis, a false claim Putin used as pretext for the invasion. Or that NATO is acting via puppets in Kyiv but that Moscow will prevail.
“A new structure of the world is emerging in front of our eyes,” proclaimed anchor Dmitry Kiselev in a December rant on his weekly show. “The planet is getting rid of Western leadership. Most of humanity is with us.”
These messages play well in Russia, says Denis Volkov, director of the country’s top independent pollster Levada Center: “The idea that NATO wants to ruin Russia or at least weaken … it has been сommonplace for three-fourths (of poll respondents) for many years.”
The Kremlin is pushing its narrative to the young. Schoolchildren were told to write letters to soldiers, and some schools designated “A Hero’s Desk” for graduates fighting in Ukraine.
In September, schools added a subject loosely translated as “Conversations about Important Things.” Lesson plans for eighth to 11th graders seen by AP describe Russia’s “special mission” of building a “multipolar world order.”
At least one teacher who refused to teach the lessons was fired. Although not mandatory, some parents whose children skip them face pressure from administrators or even police.
A fifth grader was accused of having a Ukraine-themed photo on social media and asking classmates about supporting the war, and she and her mother were detained briefly after administrators complained, said her lawyer, Nikolai Bobrinsky. When she skipped the new lessons, authorities apparently decided to make “an example” of her, he added.
SURVIVING SANCTIONS
The sanctions-hit economy outperformed expectations, thanks to record oil revenues of about $325 billion after the war sent energy prices soaring. The Central Bank stabilized the plummeting ruble by raising interest rates, and the currency is stronger against the dollar than before the invasion.
McDonald’s, Ikea, Apple and others left Russia. The golden arches were replaced by Vkusno — i Tochka (“Tasty — Period”), while Starbucks became Stars Coffee, with essentially the same menus.
Visa and Mastercard halted services, but banks switched to the local MIR system, so existing cards continued to work in the country; those traveling abroad use cash. After the European Union banned flights from Russia, airline ticket prices rose and destinations became harder to reach. Foreign travel is now available to a privileged minority.
Sociologists say these changes hardly bothered most Russians, whose average monthly salary in 2022 was about $900. Only about a third have an international passport.
Inflation spiked nearly 12%, but Putin announced new benefits for families with children and increased pensions and the minimum wage by 10%.
MacBooks and iPhones are still easily available, and Muscovites say restaurants have Japanese fish, Spanish cheese and French wine.
“Yes, it costs a bit more, but there’s no shortage,” said Vladimir, a resident who asked not to be fully identified for his own safety. “If you walk in the city center, you get the impression that nothing is happening. Lots of people are out and about on weekends. There are fewer people in cafes, but they are still there.”
Still, he admitted the capital seems emptier and people look sadder.
‘IN THE TRENCHES, OR WORSE’
Perhaps the biggest shock came in September, when the Kremlin mobilized 300,000 reservists. Although billed as a “partial” call-up, the announcement sent panic through the country since most men under 65 — and some women — are formally part of the reserve.
Flights abroad sold out in hours and long lines formed at Russia’s border crossings. Hundreds of thousands were estimated to have left the country in the following weeks.
Natalia, a medical worker, left Moscow with her boyfriend after a summons was delivered to his mother. Their income was cut in half and she misses home, but they’ve decided to try it for a year, said the woman, who asked that her last name and location not be revealed for their safety.
“Between ourselves, we’re saying that once things calm down, we will be able to come back. But it wouldn’t resolve the rest of it. That huge snowball is rolling downhill, and nothing will be back (as it was),” Natalia said.
Draftees complained of poor living conditions at bases and shortages of gear. Their wives and mothers claimed they were deployed to the front without proper training or equipment and were quickly wounded.
A woman who is contesting her husband being drafted said her family life fell apart after she suddenly had to care for her children and frail mother-in-law.
“It was hard. I thought I’d lose my mind,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his legal case is continuing. Her husband came home on leave — suffering from pneumonia — and needs psychological care because he jumps at every loud sound, she said.
Vasily, a 33-year-old Muscovite, learned authorities tried twice this month to deliver a summons to a former apartment where he is officially registered. Although not sure if the summons was to draft him or to clear up his enlistment records, especially after a September attempt to deliver call-up papers, he doesn’t intend to find out.
“All my friends who went (to the enlistment office) to figure it out are in the trenches now, or worse,” added Vasily, who withheld his last name for his own safety.
Volkov, the pollster, said the dominating sentiment among Russians is that the war is “somewhere far away, it is not affecting us directly.”
While anxiety over the invasion and mobilization came and went over the year, “people started feeling again that it indeed doesn’t affect everyone. ’We’re off the hook. Well, thank god, we’re moving on with our lives.’”
Some fear a new mobilization, which the Kremlin denies.
LIVES LOST
As the war became bogged down by defeats and setbacks, families got the worst news possible: a loved one was killed.
For one mother, it was too much to bear.
She told AP she became “hysterical” and “started shaking” when told her son was missing and presumed dead while serving on the Moskva, the missile cruiser that sank in April. The woman, who at the time spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared reprisal, said she found it hard to believe he was killed.
The military has confirmed just over 6,000 deaths, but Western estimates are in the tens of thousands. Putin promised generous compensation to families of those listed as killed in action — 12 million rubles (about $160,000).
In November, he met with a dozen mothers, which Russian media said were hand-picked among Kremlin supporters and officials, and told one of them her son’s death wasn’t in vain.
“With some people ... it is unclear why they die -– because of vodka or something else. When they are gone, it is hard to say whether they lived or not -– their lives passed without notice,” he told her. “But your son did live – do you understand? He achieved his goal.”
‘I just want my legs back’: Myanmar landmine casualties soar
The 3-year-old boy had taken only two steps from his mother’s lap when a deafening explosion rang out. The blast caught the woman in the face, blurring her vision. She forced her eyes open and searched for her son around the busy jetty where they’d been waiting for a ferry, near their small village in south-central Myanmar.
Through the smoke, she spotted him. His small body lay on the ground, his feet and legs mangled with flesh peeled away, shattered bones exposed.
“He was crying and telling me that it hurt so much,” she said. “He didn’t know what just happened.”
But she did.
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The woman’s son had detonated a landmine, an explosive device designed to mutilate or destroy whatever comes into its path.
Landmines have been banned for decades by most countries, since the United Nations Mine Ban Treaty was adopted in 1997. But in Myanmar, which is not party to the treaty, the use of mines has soared since the military seized power from the democratically elected government in February 2021 and armed resistance has skyrocketed.
Also Read: US sanctions Myanmar officials, military-affiliated 'cronies' ahead of coup anniversary
Landmines are planted by all sides of the bloody conflict in Myanmar, and they’re responsible for surging civilian casualties, including an alarming number of children as victims, according to an AP analysis based on data and reports from nonprofit and humanitarian organizations, interviews with civilian victims, families, local aid workers, military defectors and monitoring groups.
In 2022, figures from the U.N. show, civilian casualties from landmine and unexploded ordnance spiked by nearly 40%. Experts say this and other official tallies are vastly undercounted, largely due to difficulties monitoring and reporting during the conflict.
Despite incomplete numbers, experts agree that the increase in Myanmar is the largest ever recorded.
Virtually no area is immune to the threat. Over the past two years, mine contamination has spread to every state and region except for the capital city, Naypyitaw, according to Landmine Monitor, a group that tracks global landmine use.
The military also uses civilians as human shields, a practice widespread in the country for decades but raising alarms with increasing mine incidents. AP’s analysis found the military, known as the Tatmadaw, forced people to walk ahead of troops to detonate potential landmines in their path, protecting their own troops.
According to local and international human rights groups, the Tatmadaw has mined homes, villages, walking paths, church compounds, farms, cellphone towers and a Chinese-backed oil and gas pipeline and copper mine.
The Myanmar military, which has acknowledged mine use in the past, did not respond to a list of questions AP sent to their official spokesperson’s email.
Even when the fighting moves on, the landmines don’t. The mines left behind can indiscriminately maim or kill those who happen upon them for years after hostilities have ended.
It raises the specter of casualties for years to come. In countries including Egypt and Cambodia, people continue to die from millions of mines left behind long after conflicts has ended.
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“Leaving an activated mine like this is the same as releasing a monster,” said a 26-year-old military defector who worked as a combat engineer platoon commander in Myanmar. “Mines don’t have friends or enemies. Even a gun only shoots in the direction it’s pointed.”
Like most who were interviewed by AP, the defector spoke on condition of anonymity to protect himself and his family from military retaliation. Many in Myanmar who speak with reporters can face detainment or violence.
Landmines and unexploded ordnance have been a persistent issue in Myanmar for more than four decades. The problem has grown exponentially since the military takeover, with heavier use of landmines in more parts of the country, said Kim Warren, a U.N. landmine specialist who’s monitored issues in Myanmar.
In 2022, 390 people were victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Myanmar, more than a 37% increase from 2021, according to figures compiled by UNICEF. Overall, 102 people were killed and 288 were wounded, with children making up some 34% of the victims, compared with 26% in 2021.
Still, Warren said, incidents are underreported. She cited the lack of a robust information management system, the sensitivities around reporting conflict-related data, and difficulties getting care for victims.
Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, Landmine Monitor’s Myanmar expert, said his group counts only casualties it can confirm with confidence.
“We’ve always been undercounting,” he said. “How many more? Double? Almost certainly. Triple? Could be.”
Experts concede the total number of casualties may seem small, with Myanmar’s population of about 56 million, but say the rapid increase is distressing nonetheless, given the underreported cases, the destructive nature of mines and their use amid the decades-long conflict.
Experts are particularly concerned about children victims, like the boy who triggered the mine at the jetty. Many are unaware of how lethal landmines and unexploded munitions are; some pick them up and play with them.
Most children are no longer in school amid the conflict, leading to more unsupervised time. Violence has also forced more than 1.2 million people from their homes, according to the U.N., so children and others frequently move around in unfamiliar areas.
Many civilian victims encounter landmines during daily routines — just going about their days until life changes forever.
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In March 2021, two teenage cousins were working on a small family-run plot in Shan state. They had just left to dig for sweet potatoes when the father of one of the boys heard a blast from his home. He rushed to help, but he was too late. They’d been killed instantly. They’d triggered a mine.
The father, 47, tears up when he returns to the fields, where he found tattered clothes and mangled bodies.
“But it’s my family’s business, so I have to come to the farm to make a living,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect himself and his relatives.
On the other side of the country, in western Chin state, a 20-year-old farmer was returning home from weeding a rice paddy field on a sunny May day when he triggered a mine buried on a path he’d walked many times before.
“The explosion engulfed me, and my entire surroundings were clouded in smoke. I thought I was dying,” he told AP on condition of anonymity, out of fear for his safety. “I could see bones. The right leg was completely destroyed up to the ankle. My whole body was hot as if it was on fire and my skin was black.”
During his 18-day stay in the hospital, his right leg was amputated about four inches below the knee.
Many victims and families won’t know who was responsible for the blasts — the Tatmadaw or anti-military groups — as all sides of the conflict use mines.
A member of a militia that operates in Sagaing said his group has removed nearly 100 mines thought to be planted by the military and plans to reuse them to augment its arsenal of homemade devices.
“A mine is an indispensable weapon to attack the enemy,” said the member, who spoke by phone on condition of anonymity over the sensitive information and fear the military would retaliate against his family.
It’s a common practice: Militias and armed groups announcing they’ve demined areas where they operate, only to reuse the weapons.
“They just move the mines to a new location,” Moser-Puangsuwan said. “And that is not what we call demining.”
The militia member said villagers are warned of mine locations and civilians are rarely harmed. But Moser-Puangsuwan and other experts said it’s just not possible to prevent civilian casualties.
“They’re using an indiscriminate weapon,” Moser-Puangsuwan said. “Once it’s out there, it will kill or injure the next person who comes across it, whether they’re the enemy, whether they’re one of the soldiers on your side, or whether they are civilians.”
One man in Myanmar’s western Chin state described how soldiers took him, his pregnant wife and their 5-year-old daughter captive, making them and 10 other civilians to walk ahead, beating them with rifles if they refused.
The civilians moved slowly ahead through the suspected minefield, expecting with each step to trigger a blast, while a firefight between an anti-government militia and the soldiers broke out, he said.
“I thought: ‘Today is the day I die,’” said the man, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. They later escaped, with no mines detonated during their march.
Landmine Monitor documented similar incidents in other states, calling it a “grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights law” in its most recent report.
Myanmar and Russia were the only states with documented new use of mines in 2022, according to Landmine Monitor, though Human Rights Watch in January alleged Ukraine also used antipersonnel mines when Russian forces occupied the city of Izium. Non-state armed groups have also been confirmed to be using them in at least five countries in 2022, including anti-government forces in Myanmar.
Myanmar and Russia are among countries that aren’t signatories to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, along with China, North and South Korea, and the United States.
Landmine Monitor also confirmed the military has been increasingly mining infrastructure such as mobile phone towers and power lines to deter attacks. Military-planted mines also are protecting at least two major Chinese-backed projects — a copper mine in Sagaing and a pipeline pumping station in northeastern Shan state that is part of China’s Belt and Road initiative, Moser-Puangsuwan said.
“We are not aware of the situation you mentioned,” a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a fax to AP. “The cooperation project between China and Myanmar is in line with the common interests of both sides and has brought tangible benefits to the people of Myanmar.”
It made no reference to any of those who had been maimed.
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For those who survive a blast, health care is difficult to access. Many areas are remote, with limited road infrastructure or access to medical facilities. Staffing is low; health workers are often forced to go into hiding or leave Myanmar over participation in anti-military protests. Few victims can afford prosthetics and rehabilitation.
At the jetty, the explosion that maimed the 3-year-old boy set off a frantic search for help, with his mother traveling dozens of kilometers across rural countryside by motorbike and boat.
A small clinic on the other side of the river gave basic first aid and morphine for pain. A larger rural clinic bandaged wounds and provided a blood transfusion. It wasn’t until the pair got to the main hospital in the regional capital that doctors were able to amputate both of the boy’s legs — the right below the knee and the left just below his hip.
The hospital bill was more than six times the family’s monthly income of 400,000 Myanmar Kyat ($190).
For months, the boy used a wheelchair. He would stare out the window of their small wooden home, watching friends play. “I just want my legs back,” he’d say.
In November, he was admitted to an orthopedic rehabilitation center. The Red Cross paid for quality prosthetic limbs and taught him to use them.
Now 4, the boy is back home and can move around on his own, allowing his mother to go back to work in the bean fields.
He speaks frequently about the blast, but his mother isn’t sure he’ll ever process what happened. And the family will never be the same.
“Maybe he still doesn’t understand,” she said. “He is still young.”
North Korea confirms ICBM test, warns of more powerful steps
North Korea said Sunday its latest intercontinental ballistic missile test was meant to further bolster its “fatal” nuclear attack capacity against its rivals, as it threatened additional powerful steps in response to the planned military training between the United States and South Korea.
Saturday’s ICBM test, the North’s first missile test since Jan. 1, signals its leader Kim Jong Un is using his rivals’ drills as a chance to expand his country’s nuclear capability to enhance its leverage in future dealings with the United States. An expert says North Korea may seek to hold regular operational exercises involving its ICBMs.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said its launch of the existing Hwasong-15 ICBM was organized “suddenly” without prior notice at Kim's direct order.
KCNA said the launch was designed to verify the weapon’s reliability and the combat readiness of the country’s nuclear force. It said the missile was fired at a high angle and reached a maximum altitude of about 5,770 kilometers (3,585 miles), flying a distance of about 990 kilometers (615 miles) during a 67-minute flight before accurately hitting a pre-set area in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
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The steep-angle launch was apparently aimed at avoiding neighboring countries. The flight details reported by North Korea, which roughly matched the launch information previously assessed by its neighbors, show the weapon is theoretically capable of reaching the mainland U.S. if fired at a standard trajectory.
The Hwasong-15 launch demonstrated the North’s “powerful physical nuclear deterrent” and its efforts to “turn its capacity of fatal nuclear counterattack on the hostile forces” into an extremely strong one that cannot be countered, KCNA said.
Whether North Korea has a functioning nuclear-tipped ICBM is still a source of outside debate, as some experts say the North hasn’t mastered a technology to protect warheads from the severe conditions of atmospheric reentry. The North has claimed to have acquired such a technology.
The Hwasong-15 is one of North Korea’s three existing ICBMs, all of which use liquid propellants that require pre-launch injections and cannot remain fueled for extended periods. The North is pushing to build a solid-fueled ICBM, which would be more mobile and harder-to-detect before its launch.
“Kim Jong Un has likely determined that the technical reliability of the country’s liquid propellant ICBM force has been sufficiently tested and evaluated to now allow for regular operational exercises of this kind,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at Korea Aerospace University in South Korea, said that North Korea appeared to have launched an upgraded version of the Hwasong-15 ICBM. Chang said the information provided by North Korea showed the missile will likely have a longer potential range than the standard Hwasong-15.
The North’s launch came a day after it vowed an “unprecedentedly” strong response over a series of military drills that Seoul and Washington plan in coming weeks.
In a separate statement Sunday, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong Un, accused South Korea and the United States of “openly showing their dangerous greed and attempt to gain the military upper hand and predominant position in the Korean Peninsula.”
“I warn that we will watch every movement of the enemy and take corresponding and very powerful and overwhelming counteraction against its every move hostile to us,” she said.
North Korea has steadfastly slammed regular South Korea-U.S. military trainings as an invasion rehearsal though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature. Some analysts say North Korea often uses South Korea-U.S. drills as a pretext to modernize its weapons arsenals, which it believes is essential to win sanctions relief from the U.S.
“By now, we know that any action taken by the U.S. and South Korea — however justified from the vantage point of defense and deterrence against (North Korea’s) reckless behavior — will be construed and protested as an act of hostility by North Korea,” said Soo Kim, a security analyst at the California-based RAND Corporation. “There will always be fodder for (Kim Jong Un’s) weapons provocations.”
“With nuclear weapons in tow and having mastered the art of coercion and bullying, Kim does not need ‘self-defense.’ But pitting the U.S. and South Korea as the aggressors allows Kim to justify his weapons development,” Soo Kim said.
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the U.S. will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and South Korea and Japan. South Korea’s presidential National Security Council said it will seek to strengthen its “overwhelming response capacity” against potential North Korean aggression based on the military alliance with the United States.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries plan to hold a table-top exercise this week to hone a joint response to a potential use of nuclear weapons by North Korea. The allies are also to conduct another joint computer simulated exercise and field training in March.
The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan, meeting on the sidelines of a security conference in Germany on Saturday, agreed to boost a trilateral cooperation involving the United States and exchanged in-depth views on the issue of Japan’s colonial-era mobilization of forced Korean laborers — a key sticking point in efforts to improve their ties, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.
South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies but often spat over issues stemming from Tokyo’s 1910-45 colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula. But North Korea’s recent missile testing spree is pushing the two countries to explore how to reinforce their security cooperation.
Last year, North Korea set an annual record with the launch of more than 70 missiles. North Korea has said many of those weapons tests were a warning over previous U.S.-South Korean military drills. It also passed a law that allows it to use nuclear weapons preemptively in a broad range of scenarios.
Kim Jong Un entered 2023 with a call for an “exponential increase” of the country’s nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting South Korea and the development of more advanced ICBMs targeting the U.S.
China, EU should strengthen cooperation: Chinese diplomat
Faced with a world of change and disorder, China and Europe should strengthen cooperation to inject more stability into the world, Wang Yi, a senior Chinese diplomat, said on Saturday.
Wang, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell during the 59th Munich Security Conference.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said that China and the EU are partners, not rivals, and their consensus far outweighs their differences.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU. Both sides should remain committed to the partnership, respect each other's core interests, cherish the fruits of cooperation, and usher in an even better next two decades, he noted.
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China has successfully pulled through a pandemic and is ready to fully restart exchanges with Europe and the rest of the world, Wang said.
He suggested that the two sides may actively prepare for a new China-EU leaders' meeting, make full use of high-level dialogue mechanisms in various fields, and bring bilateral exchanges back to pre-epidemic levels as soon as possible.
The essence of China-EU economic and trade relations is complementary and mutually beneficial. Both sides should maintain openness and cooperation, resist decoupling, and work together to maintain the stability of the global production and supply chain, Wang said.
Wang expressed the hope that the EU and its members abide by the one-China principle and maintain the political foundation of China-EU relations.
Borrell said that the European side has always been promoting EU-China relations in a mature and candid manner, stressing that the EU firmly upholds the one-China policy, recognizes the government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government representing the whole of China, supports China's efforts to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will translate the principle into the political relations between the EU and China.
The EU hopes to strengthen high-level exchanges with China and promote cooperation in various fields, which benefits not only Europe and China but also the entire world, Borrell said.
The EU side is willing to work with China to prepare for the next meeting between EU and Chinese leadership for in-depth exchanges of views on issues of common interest, said Borrell.
On the Ukraine crisis, Wang stressed that the Chinese side adheres to promoting peace talks and is willing to strengthen communication with the EU, making consistent efforts toward a political settlement.
Senior Chinese diplomat urges U.S. to correct mistakes in airship incident
A senior Chinese diplomat on Saturday urged the United States to show sincerity, correct its mistakes, acknowledge and repair the damage it has done to the China-U.S. relations over the Chinese civilian unmanned airship incident.
Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when answering questions on China-U.S. relations at a China session of the ongoing 59th Munich Security Conference (MSC).
Calling the incident a political farce created by the U.S., Wang said China had clearly told the U.S. that the Chinese civilian unmanned airship, affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, deviated from its planned course and entered the U.S. airspace, and China had urged the U.S. to jointly handle the issue in a rational and professional manner.
"Unfortunately, the U.S. ignored the basic facts and brazenly sent a fighter jet to shoot down the non-threatening airship with a missile," he said. "Such an unthinkable and hysterical action is, without doubt, excessive use of force, and clearly violates common practice and relevant international law."
Also Read: China, EU should strengthen cooperation: Chinese diplomat
China firmly opposes and has strongly protested against the U.S. over its action, said Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
"A lot of balloons are flying over the Earth every day. Does the U.S. want to shoot them all down?" he questioned. "Such an action is no proof of the American power, but the exact opposite."
He urged the U.S. to stop doing such absurd things out of domestic political needs and to correct its mistakes.
The senior Chinese diplomat said the underlying reason why the unexpected incident has caused such a stir in bilateral relations is the United States' wrong perception and strategic misjudgment of China.
Wang said China's policy toward the U.S., based on the clear and transparent principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, encourages exploring the right way for two major countries with different social systems, histories and cultures to get along.
On the contrary, the U.S. sees China as the gravest geopolitical challenge and strategic competitor in its China policy, and it is using all means possible to block and suppress China with such an erroneous view of China, Wang noted.
He said that China has never been afraid of competition despite all the U.S. talking about competing with China, but the competition should be fair and rules-based.
The Chinese diplomat denounced the United States' CHIPS and Science Act as unilateral and self-serving, saying that the act uses state power to suppress Chinese companies, violates the rules of the World Trade Organization and seriously disrupts the stability of the global industrial and supply chains.
The act shows that the U.S. is standing against the free trade that it advocates, Wang said, adding that it will not only undermine the legitimate rights and interests of all other countries, but also compromise the credibility and interests of the U.S. itself.
"A virtuous man acquires wealth in an upright and just way," Wang cited an ancient Chinese saying, noting that the U.S. has torn apart its disguise in an attempt to blatantly plunder.
Wang urged the U.S. to view China's development in a fair and objective way, pursue a positive and pragmatic China policy, and work together with China to bring China-U.S. relations back to the track of sound and stable development.
This serves the interests of the two countries and peoples and also meets the common expectation of the international community, he added.
Some 150 senior officials, including over 40 heads of state and government, and leaders of international organizations joined this year's MSC to discuss pressing global security challenges and concerns.
Turkey Earthquake: Why Did So Many Buildings Collapse?
Two major earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and later 7.5 killed thousands of people in southern Turkey and northern Syria, destroying almost all buildings to the ground. The published photos and videos are shocking. While a huge number of buildings collapsed in Turkey, other similar buildings remain standing. The collapsed buildings include the newly built apartment blocks too, which were earthquake-proof.
However, according to the building code, all structures should maintain construction standards. That being said, either all of the structures should collapse, or all of them should remain standing.
But why were some buildings affected and some neighboring buildings did not face any problems? This occurrence raised questions about the maintenance of building safety standards and triggers corruption. Let’s find out the reasons why so many buildings collapsed in Turkey's earthquake.
Read More: Earthquake Safety: Do’s and Don’ts during an Earthquake
What Experts Say
Earthquake engineers at the University of Buffalo suggest that behind the seemingly random occurrence of collapses, there are likely some underlying causes.
Extreme shaking from earthquakes like the Feb. 6, magnitude 7.8, and magnitude 7.5 can lead to a building's collapse. This is due to various factors, including shaking intensity and duration, building design and detailing, construction quality, construction documents, soil conditions, construction oversight, and structural modifications. Andrew Whittaker, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, explains these contributing elements.
In the United States, modern reinforced concrete buildings are designed to tolerate damage in the event of severe earthquake shaking and will not collapse. This same philosophy has been adopted in many other countries, and Turkey is not an exception. Nonetheless, these buildings may still collapse if the construction quality is poor, design errors have been made, the shaking is more intense than expected, or a combination of these factors has been present.
These brought up so many questions, and the BBC started investigating to find out the answer.
Read More: Post-Earthquake Cautions: Do’s & Don’ts
Turkey: Couple saved 296 hours after quake, but children die
A couple and their son were pulled alive from under a collapsed apartment building more than 12 days after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake ravaged parts of Turkey and Syria, although the child later died at a hospital, Turkish state media reported Saturday.
A foreign search team from Kyrgyzstan rescued Samir Muhammed Accar, 49, his wife, Ragda, 40, and their 12-year-old son while digging through the rubble of the apartment building in the southern Turkish city of Antakya, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
They were removed at about 11:30 a.m. local time (8:30 GMT), or 296 hours after the Feb. 6 quake, and quickly transferred to ambulances. TV footage showing medics fixing an IV drip to the man’s arm as he lay on a stretcher.
One of the Kyrgyz rescuers said the team also found the bodies of two dead children. Anadolu later reported they also were the children of Samir Muhammad and Ragda Accar.
Also Read: Turkish teen filmed ‘last moments’ from quake-hit apartment
During a visit to Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the father was conscious and being treated at Mustafa Kemal University Hospital. Anadolu published photos showing American TV personality and former U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz visiting the recovering man.
Reporting on their conversation, Anadolu said Samir Muhammed Accar described how he survived the ordeal by drinking his own urine. He also told Dr. Oz that his children responded to his voice for the first two or three days but he heard nothing from after that.
Hatay province, where Antakya is located, was one of areas hit hardest by the earthquake, which killed at least 40,642 people in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria.
Search and rescue operations are continuing in Turkey, although the head of the country’s disaster response agency said they would end on Sunday.