United News of Bangladesh

A powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake jolted the Solomon Islands Tuesday afternoon, overturning tables and sending people racing for higher ground. There were no immediate reports of widespread damage or injuries, although Australia's prime minister said a roof at its High Commission had collapsed. An initial tsunami warning was withdrawn after the threat passed. Solomon Islands government spokesperson George Herming said he was in his office on the second floor of a building in the capital, Honiara, when the quake rocked the city. He said he crawled underneath his table. Read more: 252 dead as Indonesia earthquake topples homes, buildings, roads “It's a huge one that just shocked everybody,” Herming said. “We have tables and desks, books and everything scattered all over the place as a result of the earthquake, but there's no major damage to structure or buildings,” he said. Herming said the Solomon Islands, which is home to about 700,000 people, doesn't have any big high-rises that might be vulnerable to a quake. He said there was some panic around the town and traffic jams as everybody tried to drive to higher ground. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said all the staff of Australia's High Commission were safe. “There are no known injuries but the roof of the High Commission annex has collapsed, which would point to likely damage throughout the city,” Albanese told Parliament. “Staff have been moved to higher ground because there was a tsunami warning that was issued. Our High Commission is seeking to confirm the safety of all Australians in the Solomons. There are difficulties because phone lines have gone down. So there are communication difficulties there,” Albanese added. Read more: Earthquake rocks Nepal, six dead while in sleep Freelance journalist Charley Piringi said he was standing outside near schools on the outskirts of Honiara when the quake sent the children running. “The earthquake rocked the place,” he said. “It was a huge one. We were all shocked, and everyone is running everywhere.” The quake's epicenter was in the ocean about 56 kilometers (35 miles) southwest of Honiara at a depth of 13 kilometers (8 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially warned of possible hazardous waves for the region but later downgraded a tsunami warning as the threat passed. The Solomon Islands sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a arc along the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

North Korea’s foreign minister called U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “a puppet of the United States” as she slammed the U.N. chief for joining U.S.-led condemnation of the North's recent intercontinental ballistic missile test. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier issued a statement strongly condemning North Korea’s ICBM launch on Friday and reiterating his call on the North to “to immediately desist from taking any further provocative actions.” Guterres’s statement came after the United States and other countries issued similar criticism of the North's ICBM test that showed an potential to strike anywhere in the continental U.S. “I often take the U.N. secretary-general for a member of the U.S. White House or its State Department,” North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in a statement carried by state media. “I express my strong regret over the fact that the U.N. secretary-general has taken a very deplorable attitude, oblivious of the purpose and principles of the U.N. Charter and its proper mission which is to maintain impartiality, objectivity and equity in all matters.” Read more: Missile tests practiced to attack South, US: North Korea Choe accused Guterres of overlooking the U.S. and its allies taking the North’s ICBM test to the U.N. Security Council, saying that “This clearly proves that he is a puppet of the U.S.” The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Monday morning on North Korea’s ICBM launch at Japan’s request. But it’s unclear if it can impose new economic sanctions on North Korea because China and Russia, two of the council’s veto-wielding members, have opposed the previous U.S. and its allies’ moves to toughen sanctions on the North over its banned tests of ballistic missiles earlier this year. On Sunday, top diplomats from the world’s major industrialized democracies issued a joint statement calling for strong steps by the U.N. Security Council in reaction to the North Korean missile launch. “(North Korea’s) actions demand a united and robust response by the international community, including the need for further significant measures to be taken by the U.N. Security Council,” said the statement by foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Friday’s ICBM launch was the latest in North Korea’s ongoing torrid run of missile tests that experts say are meant to boost its nuclear capability and increase its leverage in future diplomacy. North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un observed Friday's launch of its Hwasong-17 missile and called it another "reliable and maximum-capacity” weapon to contain U.S. military threats. Some experts say the Hwasong-17 is still under development but it's the North's longest-range missile and is designed to carry several nuclear warheads to overcome U.S. missile defense systems. Read more: North Korea continues its bombardment of missiles with a potential ICBM North Korea has argued its testing activities are a warning to the United States and South Korea over their series of military drills that the North believes were an invasion rehearsal. Washington and Seoul have maintained their exercises are defensive in nature. In her statement Monday, Choe again defended her country’s missile tests, calling them “legitimate and just exercise of the right to self-defense” against “provocative nuclear war rehearsals” by the United States and its allies. She said it’s “most amazing and deplorable to me” as Guterres still blamed North Korea for a recent flare-up in tensions on the Korean Peninsula, not the United States. A day before her country’s ICBM test, Choe threatened to threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to steps by the U.S. to bolster its security commitment to South Korea and Japan.

For the first time, the nations of the world decided to help pay for the damage an overheating world is inflicting on poor countries, but they finished marathon climate talks on Sunday without further addressing the root cause of those disasters — the burning of fossil fuels. The deal, gaveled around dawn in this Egyptian Red Sea resort city, established a fund for what negotiators call loss and damage. It was a big win for poorer nations which have long called for money — sometimes viewed as reparations — because they are often the victims of climate-worsened floods, droughts, heat waves, famines and storms despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe. It has also long been called an issue of equity for nations hit by weather extremes and small island states that face an existential threat from rising seas. “Three long decades and we have finally delivered climate justice,” said Seve Paeniu, the finance minister of Tuvalu. “We have finally responded to the call of hundreds of millions of people across the world to help them address loss and damage.” Read more: COP27: Despite lack of progress at climate talks, veteran activists nurture hope  Pakistan’s environment minister, Sherry Rehman, said the establishment of the fund “is not about dispensing charity.” “It is clearly a down payment on the longer investment in our joint futures,” she said, speaking for a coalition of the world’s poorest nations. Antigua and Barbuda’s Molwyn Joseph, who chairs the organization of small island states, described the agreement as a “win for our entire world.” “We have shown those who have felt neglected that we hear you, we see you, and we are giving you the respect and care you deserve,” he said. The deal followed a game of chicken, with nations that supported the fund also signaling they would walk away if there was any backsliding on language on the need to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Early Sunday morning, delegates approved the compensation fund but had not dealt with the contentious issues of an overall temperature goal, emissions cutting and the desire to target all fossil fuels for phase down. Through the wee hours of the night, the European Union and other nations fought back what they considered backsliding in the Egyptian presidency’s overarching cover agreement and threatened to scuttle the rest of the process. Read more: CSOs express dissatisfaction on the outcome of COP27 The package was revised again, removing most of the elements Europeans had objected to but adding none of the heightened ambition they were hoping for. “What we have in front of us is not enough of a step forward for people and planet,” a disappointed Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Union, told his fellow negotiators. “It does not bring enough added efforts from major emitters to increase and accelerate their emissions cuts. “We have all fallen short in actions to avoid and minimize loss and damage,” Timmermans said. “We should have done much more.” Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock likewise voiced frustration. “It is more than frustrating to see overdue steps on mitigation and the phase-out of fossil energies being stonewalled by a number of large emitters and oil producers,” she said. The agreement includes a veiled reference to the benefits of natural gas as low emission energy, despite many nations calling for a phase down of natural gas, which does contribute to climate change. While the new agreement doesn’t ratchet up calls for reducing emissions, it does retain language to keep alive the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The Egyptian presidency kept offering proposals that harkened back to 2015 Paris language which also mentioned a looser goal of 2 degrees. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. Read more: COP27: Rich countries couldn’t agree yet on loss and damage funding for vulnerable nations Nor did the final deal expand on last year’s call to phase down global use of “unabated coal” even though India and other countries pushed to include oil and natural gas in language from Glasgow. That too was the subject of last minute debate, especially upsetting Europeans. Last year’s climate talks president chided the summit leadership for knocking down his efforts to do more to cut emissions with a forceful listing of what was not done. “We joined with many parties to propose a number of measures that would have contributed to this emissions peaking before 2025, as the science tells us is necessary. Not in this text,” the United Kingdom’s Alok Sharma said emphasizing the last part. “Clear follow through on the phase down of coal. Not in this text. A clear commitment to phase out all fossil fuels. Not in this text. And the energy text weakened in the final minutes.” And in his remarks to negotiators, U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell, who hails from Grenada, called on the world “to move away from fossil fuels, including coal oil and gas.” However, that fight was overshadowed by the historic compensation fund. “Quite a few positives to celebrate amidst the gloom and doom” of not cutting emissions fast enough to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, said climate scientist Maarten van Aalst of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, which responds to climate disasters. It’s a reflection of what can be done when the poorest nations remain unified, said Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy expert at the think tank E3G. “I think this is huge to have governments coming together to actually work out at least the first step of ... how to deal with the issue of loss and damage,” Scott said. But like all climate financials, it is one thing to create a fund, it’s another to get money flowing in and out, she said. The developed world still has not kept its 2009 pledge to spend $100 billion a year in other climate aid — designed to help poor nations develop green energy and adapt to future warming. Next year’s talks will also see further negotiations to work out details of the new loss and damage fund, as well as review the world’s efforts to meet the goals of the Paris accord, which scientists say are slipping out of reach. According to the agreement, the fund would initially draw on contributions from developed countries and other private and public sources such as international financial institutions. While major emerging economies such as China wouldn’t automatically have to contribute, that option remains on the table. This is a key demand by the European Union and the United States, who argue that China and other large polluters currently classified as developing countries have the financial clout and responsibility to pay their way. The fund would be largely aimed at the most vulnerable nations, though there would be room for middle-income countries that are severely battered by climate disasters to get aid. Martin Kaiser, the head of Greenpeace Germany, described the agreement on a loss and damage as a “small plaster on a huge, gaping wound.” “It’s a scandal that the Egyptian COP presidency gave petrostates such as Saudi Arabia space to torpedo effective climate protection,” he said. Many climate campaigners are concerned that pushing for strong action to end fossil fuel use will be even harder at next year’s meeting, which will be hosted in Dubai, located in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

Redbridge Council – the local authority for Redbridge in greater London, England – on Friday launched the Women's Safety Mission Statement at Full Council to ensure that public spaces feel safer and are safer for women and girls in Redbridge. The council, police and partners share a mission to work together with local people, businesses, workplaces and institutions. The leader of Redbridge Council Councillor Jas Athwal was joined by Women's Champion Councillor Saima Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Crime Safety and Community Cohesion Councillor Khayer Chowdhury, Chief Executive Claire Symonds, Women's Network Senior Sponsor Pervinder Sandhu and Superintendent Lisa Butterfield to officially launch the statement. The listening exercises consisted of surveys, focus groups, safety walks and workshops and the findings shared formed the basis for the Women's Safety Mission Statement. The council was able to hear from over 2,500 individuals about the issue of safety for women and girls in the borough. In 2021, it also set up the Community Crime Commission to tackle crime and the fear of crime. The commission, an independent body made up of 16 commissioners, mainly residents, investigated five of the borough's crime priorities, one of which was women and girls' safety. Read more: Sexual harassment, misconduct went on unchecked at Al Jazeera, staff allege: BBC investigation Jas Athwal said: "Everyone has a right to feel safe going about their daily life, free from harassment and abuse. Our engagement with local women and girls has shone a light on their experiences and shown that this is not always the case in Redbridge." "We're continuing to work closely with the police, partners and local people to highlight the experiences of women and girls and take action to make our borough safer for everyone." Saima Ahmed said: "As a local resident and champion of women's safety, I am committed to improving the safety of all women and girls in Redbridge." "I understand that talking about experiences of sexual harassment and violence can be difficult, and I would like to take the opportunity to recognise and say a personal thank you to everyone that has shared their experiences with us." Read more: RMG workers stage demo in Dhaka protesting sexual abuse    

A LATAM Airlines plane taking off from Lima’s international airport struck a firetruck on the runway and caught fire Friday. Authorities said the plane’s passengers and crew were all safe, but two firefighters in the truck were killed. Lima Airport Partners, the company that operates Jorge Chávez International Airport, said in a tweet that operations at the facility had been suspended. There were 102 passengers and six crew members aboard the Airbus A320neo. “Our teams are providing the necessary care to all passengers, who are in good condition,” the company said. Luis Ponce La Jara, general commander of the fire department, said two firefighters were killed and one was injured when the truck they were in was struck by the plane. Both the plane and the firetruck were in motion when they collided. President Pedro Castillo expressed his condolences to the families of the firefighters in a tweet. Flight LA2213 was taking off from Lima’s main airport en route to the Peruvian city of Juliaca. Videos on social media showed smoke coming from a large plane on the runway. Read more: Small plane crashes into Tanzania's Lake Victoria, 19 dead LATAM Airlines said it lamented the death of the firefighters and would provide flexibility to reprogram flights to affected passengers at no extra cost. But it said it did not know why the firetruck was on the runway. “No emergency was reported on the flight It was a flight that was in optimal conditions to take off, it had authorization to take off and it encountered a truck on the runway and we don’t know what the truck was doing there,” said Manuel van Oordt, general manager of LATAM Airlines Peru. “We have to investigate and establish why it was there.” The Prosecutor’s Office in Callao, where the airport is located, said an investigation into the cause of the accident had been opened. According to the fire department, the incident was registered at 3:25 p.m. and four rescue units were mobilized. Read more: Plane crash kills 2, burns homes in California neighborhood Aviation authorities said operations at Jorge Chávez International Airport were suspended until 1 p.m. local time Saturday. Flights would be direct to other airports in the meantime.

Negotiators say they have struck a potential breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks in Egypt: the creation of a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich countries’ carbon pollution. Several cabinet ministers from across the globe told The Associated Press that agreement was reached on a fund for what negotiators call loss and damage. It’s a big win for poorer nations which have long called for cash — sometimes viewed as reparations — because they are often the victims of climate disasters despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe. “This is how a 30-year-old journey of ours has finally, we hope, found fruition today,” said Pakistan Climate Minister Sherry Rehman, who often took the lead for the world’s poorest nations. One-third of her nation was submerged this summer by a devastating flood and she and other officials used the motto: “What went on in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan.” If an agreement is accepted it still needs to be approved in a unanimous decision later Saturday. But other parts of a deal, outlined in a package of proposals put out earlier in the day by the Egyptian chairs of the talks, are still being hammered out as negotiators head into what they hope is their final session. There was strong concern among both developed and developing countries about proposals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, known as mitigation. Officials said the language put forward by Egypt backtracked on some of the commitments made in Glasgow aimed at keeping alive the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the mid 19th century. Some of the Egyptian language on mitigation seemingly reverted to the 2015 Paris agreement, which was before scientists knew how crucial the 1.5 degree threshold was and heavily mentioned a weaker 2-degree Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) goal, which is why scientists and Europeans are afraid of backtracking, said climate scientist Maarten van Aalst of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. Ireland’s Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said: “We need to get a deal on 1.5 degrees. We need strong wording on mitigation and that’s what we’re going to push.” Still, the attention centered around the compensation fund, which has also been called a justice issue. Read more: COP27: Bangladesh among first recipients of Global Shield financial support “There is an agreement on loss and damage,” Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna told the AP early Saturday afternoon after a meeting with other delegations. “That means for countries like ours we will have the mosaic of solutions that we have been advocating for.” New Zealand Climate Minister James Shaw said both the poor countries that would get the money and the rich ones that would give it are on board with the proposed deal. It's a reflection of what can be done when the poorest nations remain unified, said Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy expert at the think tank E3G. “I think this is huge to have governments coming together to actually work out at least the first step of ... how to deal with the issue of loss and damage," Scott said. But like all climate financials, it is one thing to create a fund, it's another to get money flowing in and out, she said. The developed world still has not kept its 2009 pledge to spend $100 billion a year in other climate aid — designed to help poor nations develop green energy and adapt to future warming. “The draft decision on loss and damage finance offers hope to the vulnerable people that they will get help to recover from climate disasters and rebuild their lives," said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International. The Chinese lead negotiator would not comment on a possible deal. The U.S. negotiations office, where special envoy John Kerry is sick with COVID-19, also declined to comment. China and the U.S. are the two biggest carbon polluters. European negotiators said they were ready to back the deal but declined to say so publicly until the entire package was approved. The Egyptian presidency, which had been under criticism by all sides, proposed a new loss and damage deal Saturday afternoon and within a couple hours an agreement was struck but Norway's climate and environment minister Espen Barth Eide said it was not so much the Egyptians but countries working together. According to the latest draft, the fund would initially draw on contributions from developed countries and other private and public sources such as international financial institutions. While major emerging economies such as China would not initially be required to contribute, that option remains on the table and will be negotiated over the coming years. This is a key demand by the European Union and the United States, who argue that China and other large polluters currently classified as developing countries have the financial clout and responsibility to pay their way. The planned fund would be largely aimed at the most vulnerable nations, though there would be room for middle-income countries that are severely battered by climate disasters to get aid. An overarching decision that sums up the outcomes of the climate talks doesn't include India’s call to phase down oil and natural gas, in addition to last year’s agreement to wean the world from “unabated” coal. Read more: COP27: Bangladesh to reiterate call to materialize $100bn pledged for developing countries Several rich and developing nations called Saturday for a last-minute push to step up emissions cuts, warning that the outcome barely builds on what was agreed in Glasgow last year. It also doesn’t require developing countries such as China and India to submit any new targets before 2030. Experts say these are needed to achieve the more ambitious 1.5 degrees Celsius goal that would prevent some of the more extreme effects of climate change. Throughout the climate summit, the American, Chinese, Indian and Saudi Arabian delegations have kept a low public profile, while European, African, Pakistan and small island nations have been more vocal. Many of the more than 40,000 attendees have left town, and workers started packing up the vast pavilions in the sprawling conference zone. U.N. climate meetings have evolved over the years to resemble trade fairs, with many countries and industry groups setting up booths and displays for meetings and panel discussions. At many stands, chairs were stacked neatly ready for removal, and monitors had been taken away, leaving cables dangling from walls. Pamphlets and booklets were strewn across tables and floors. Snack bars, which the Egyptian organizers said would remain open through the weekend, were emptied out. At the youth pavilion, a gathering spot for young activists, a pile of handwritten postcards from children to negotiators was left on a table. “Dear COP27 negotiators,” read one card. “Keep fighting for a good planet.”  

A LATAM Airlines plane taking off from Lima’s international airport struck a firetruck on the runway and caught fire Friday. Authorities said the plane’s passengers and crew were all safe, but two firefighters in the truck were killed. Lima Airport Partners, the company that operates Jorge Chávez International Airport, said in a tweet that operations at the facility had been suspended. There were 102 passengers and six crew members aboard the Airbus A320neo. Read: Myanmar releasing 4 foreigners in broad prisoner amnesty “Our teams are providing the necessary care to all passengers, who are in good condition,” the company said. Luis Ponce La Jara, general commander of the fire department, said two firefighters were killed and one was injured when the truck they were in was struck by the plane. Both the plane and the firetruck were in motion when they collided. President Pedro Castillo expressed his condolences to the families of the firefighters in a tweet. Flight LA2213 was taking off from Lima’s main airport en route to the Peruvian city of Juliaca. Videos on social media showed smoke coming from a large plane on the runway. LATAM Airlines said it lamented the death of the firefighters and would provide flexibility to reprogram flights to affected passengers at no extra cost. But it said it did not know why the firetruck was on the runway. Read: Small plane crashes into Tanzania's Lake Victoria, 19 dead “No emergency was reported on the flight It was a flight that was in optimal conditions to take off, it had authorization to take off and it encountered a truck on the runway and we don’t know what the truck was doing there,” said Manuel van Oordt, general manager of LATAM Airlines Peru. “We have to investigate and establish why it was there.” The Prosecutor’s Office in Callao, where the airport is located, said an investigation into the cause of the accident had been opened. According to the fire department, the incident was registered at 3:25 p.m. and four rescue units were mobilized. Aviation authorities said operations at Jorge Chávez International Airport were suspended until 1 p.m. local time Saturday. Flights would be direct to other airports in the meantime.

It’s a desert, where little grows. It’s a climate conference, where water is scarce inside buildings and out, lines are long, tempers are short, meetings go late and above all progress comes in one-drop drips. Yet hope springs forth in the strangest places. Not in the naïve new face, but in the hearts and minds of veteran activists and officials, who have gone through this frustrating sleep-depriving exercise, not once or twice but numerous times. And it blooms in a odd metal “tree” sculpture in a center square here at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt. People write their hopes on green paper leaves. “Hope is the only meaning (sic) that makes us ALIVE!” Mohamed Ageez, an Egyptian youth activist wrote. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore looks at more than 30 years of climate change efforts and sees hope in progress and change. United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen and The Nature Conservancy Chief Scientist Katharine Hayhoe see it in all the people in the halls working hard. Read: COP27: Rich countries couldn’t agree yet on loss and damage funding for vulnerable nations And Christiana Figueres, the former U.N. climate secretary who helped forge the 2015 Paris agreement and then started a non-profit called Climate Optimism, sees hope not as a noun but an action verb. “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up,” Figueres told The Associated Press, quoting poet David Orr. “I think of hope and optimism as being very active and in fact being precisely the reason why we roll up our sleeves.” Asked how he doesn’t despair after seeing heat-trapping emissions rising year after, Gore told the AP: “Despair is a big word. You know, they used to say denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. Here we are in Egypt and despair ain’t just a tire in the trunk. It’s a real factor. But we also have the basis for hope.” He pointed to several political wins this year. “In August, the U.S. passed the biggest climate legislation in history,” Gore said. “In September, the people of Australia made a historic change and agreed to become part of the leadership in the world toward renewable energy. And then in October, just days ago, the people of Brazil made a decision to stop destroying the Amazon and start fighting the climate crisis.” “When people feel vulnerable to climate despair, I urge them to look at the real progress that is being made.” Read: CSOs express dissatisfaction on the outcome of COP27 Whenever United Nations environment chief Andersen feels down in these meetings she takes note of what’s happening all around her in the pavilions and offices: “In these halls, you will see people huddling over solutions over networking, saying ‘Here’s what we did. Maybe you can do that’.” Climate scientist Hayhoe finds hope in the same place. “So when people say it was a complete failure and there’s no hope, I say, just look around at every single face here,” Hayhoe said. “There are tens of thousands of faces here, and every single one of them just about wants to change the world.” That tree of hope? Gone. It’s been moved away from negotiations to the “green zone,” far away from negotiators.  

Hip hop star Nicki Minaj has teamed up with Colombian singer-songwriter Maluma and Lebanese singer Myriam Fares for the latest addition to the official soundtrack of the World Cup in Qatar. The single “Tukoh Taka,” with lyrics in English, Spanish and Arabic, was released on Friday, two days ahead of the start of the tournament. It’s the latest in a series of songs by artists from around the world released as part of FIFA’s official soundtrack of the 2022 World Cup. Also read: Portugal Squad Analysis for 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar Maluma and Myriam Fares will perform at the opening of the FIFA fan festival in Doha on Saturday.  

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the test of a newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile confirmed that his country has another “reliable and maximum-capacity” weapon to contain outside threats, as he warned the United States and its allies that their alleged provocative steps would lead to “their self-destruction,” state media reported Saturday. North Korea’s state media said Kim oversaw the launch of the Hwasong-17 missile, a day after its neighbors said they had detected the launch of an ICBM that showed a potential ability to reach anywhere in the United States. The North’s Korean Central News Agency said Kim observed the launch with his wife Ri Sol Ju and their “beloved daughter” as well as senior officials. State media photos showed Kim walking hand-in-hand with his daughter clad in a white jacket and a pair of red shoes, and watching together a huge missile loaded on a launch truck. It’s the first time for North Korea to publish the photo of Kim’s daughter. Observers say Kim observing a weapons launch with his family suggests that he was confident in its success. Kim, 38, is the third generation of his family to rule North Korea. South Korean media reported he has three children born in 2010, 2013 and 2017 respectively. It wasn’t immediately known which child he took to the launch site. Much of Kim’s private life is still unknown, but in 2013, after a trip to Pyongyang, retired NBA star Dennis Rodman told the British newspaper the Guardian that he and Kim had a “relaxing time by the sea” with the leader’s family and that he held Kim’s baby daughter, named Ju Ae. Also read: North Korea continues its bombardment of missiles with a potential ICBM Friday’s launch was part of the North’s ongoing barrage of missile tests that are seen as an attempt to expand its weapons arsenal and boost its leverage in future diplomacy. Some foreign experts said the Hwasong-17 missile is still under development but is the North’s longest-range ballistic weapon designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to defeat U.S. missile defense systems. KCNA said the missile fired from the Pyongyang International Airport traveled up to a maximum altitude of about 6,040 kilometers (3,750 miles) and flew a distance of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before it landed on the preset area in international waters off the country’s east coast. “The test-fire clearly proved the reliability of the new major strategic weapon system to be representative of (North Korea’s) strategic forces and its powerful combat performance as the strongest strategic weapon in the world,” KCNA said. Kim said his country is compelled to further bolster its “overwhelming nuclear deterrence” because U.S.-led military threats have been getting more transparent. Kim stressed the need to have the U.S. and its allies realize that their military steps against North Korea would “lead to their self-destruction,” KCNA said. “Kim Jong Un solemnly declared that if the enemies continue to pose threats to the DPRK, frequently introducing nuclear strike means, our Party and government will resolutely react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation,” KCNA said. Kim’s statement suggests North Korea will continue its weapons testing activities as the United States is pushing to bolster its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan. North Korea’s weapons testing spree this year was possible partly because China and Russia have opposed the United States and its allies’ moves to adopt fresh United Nations sanctions on North Korea. There are concerns that North Korea could soon conduct its first nuclear test in five years. U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson condemned Friday’s launch and said the United States will take “all necessary measures” to guarantee the safety of its territory and South Korea and Japan. Vice President Kamala Harris separately met with the leaders of those countries and of Australia, Canada and New Zealand who are attending a regional forum in Bangkok to discuss a joint response to North Korea. South Korea and Japan also criticized the launch and held separate aerial drills with U.S. forces. South Korea’s military said it also staged unilateral exercises simulating aerial strikes on North Korean mobile missile launchers at a firing range near its land border with North Korea. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Friday that depending on the weight of a potential warhead, the missile had a range exceeding 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles), “in which case it could cover the entire mainland United States.” The North’s nuclear and missile arsenals are shrouded in secrecy. Some experts say North Korea is still years away from possessing a functioning nuclear missile, saying it has yet to prove technologies to ensure that warheads survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry. But others say North Korea has likely already acquired such capacities given the number of years spent on its nuclear program. In recent months, North Korea has performed dozens of shorter-range missile tests that it called simulations of nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets. North Korea said its tests were aimed at issuing a warning to the United States and South Korea over their military training that the North views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea halted weapons launches for about a week before it fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday. Before that launch, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to steps by the U.S. to bolster its security commitment to South Korea and Japan. Choe was referring to U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Cambodia. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence. Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including nuclear weapons. Read more: N. Korea's Kim vows to develop more powerful means of attack