Islamic State claims role in Jakarta attacks as officials probe reach in Asia

Militants staged suicide bombings and opened fire in Indonesia’s capital on Thursday in possible attempts by Islamic State followers to stage a Paris-style rampage through the teeming streets of Jakarta, officials said. Five attackers were among the seven dead.

A spokesman for Indonesia’s national police, Maj. Gen. Anton Charilyan, said the assailants have been identified and were “affiliated” with the Islamic State — possibly linked to an Indonesian faction that has sent volunteers to fight in Syria.

A message purportedly posted by the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites. Earlier, a group with ties to the Islamic State, the Aamaaq news agency, posted an Internet message claiming the attacks were carried out by “Islamic State fighters.” The claims could not immediately be confirmed.

[Islamic State finds resistance in militant haven Pakistan]

If verified, however, the Islamic State’s involvement would mark one of the group’s deepest reaches into Asia — and the capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation — after spilling blood in North Africa, Europe and possibly Turkey with Tuesday’s suicide blast that killed 10 German tourists in the shadow of Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque.

The Jakarta assailants appeared outfitted for a running siege: armed with handguns, grenades and homemade bombs, police said. They also followed tactics that have become a hallmark of recent urban terrorism — hitting targets with limited security.

[Jakarta attacks sign of Islamic State’s global strategy]

The mayhem began with a suicide blast at a Starbucks coffee shop while gunmen outside opened fire, killing a Canadian man, said Jakarta’s police chief, Maj. Gen. Tito Karnavian. Moments later, two suicide bombers struck a traffic police post, killing themselves and an Indonesian man.

As police swarmed the area, the remaining attackers opened fire, touching off a 15-minute gun battle that left two assailants dead, Karnavian said. At least 19 people were wounded in the chaos that unfolded amid luxury hotels, shops and office towers.


[Malaysia police on alert after Jakarta attack]

Security forces later put the streets on lockdown, including areas near the U.S. and French embassies and other diplomatic sites.

Authorities said they found a large, undetonated bomb and five smaller devices in a building near the Starbucks, the Associated Press reported.

“So we think … their plan was to attack people and follow it up with a larger explosion when more people gathered,” said the police spokesman Charilyan. “But thank God it didn’t happen.”

He said the range of weapons and targets suggested an attempt to copy the Nov. 13 terror attacks across Paris that left 130 people dead.

Karnavian, the police chief, identified the suspected lead plotter as Indonesian fugitive Bahrun Naim, who is believed to be in the Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold, Raqqa. Naim is described as the leader of Katibah Nusantara, a Southeast Asian-based armed faction with Islamic State connections.

The scene after suspected Islamic State affiliates stormed Indonesia’s capital

Dalian Wanda to buy Legendary Entertainment stake for $3.5bn

China's Dalian Wanda Group is to buy a controlling stake in Hollywood film studio Legendary Entertainment in a deal valued at $3.5bn (£2.4bn).

Legendary is the maker of blockbuster hits such as Jurassic World, the Dark Knight Batman trilogy and Godzilla.

Wanda is the world's biggest movie theatre operator with a majority stake in the US chain AMC.

The rapidly growing group is led by China's richest man, Wang Jianlin.

Mr Wang has been looking to buy a Hollywood studio for several years and was reported to be in talks with DreamWorks Animation last year, but a deal was not announced.

The announcement, made at a press conference by both firms in Beijing, comes after a week of rumours about a possible deal.

Legendary Entertainment chairman and chief executive Thomas Tull, who also started the company, will remain as the head of the studio.

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Stephen Evans, BBC News, Beijing - 'Not expected to defy censors'

Buying Legendary Entertainment puts Wanda on the road to becoming a global media company and one of the world's biggest players in movie production. It already owns China's biggest chain of cinemas as well as cinemas in the United States.

But will it compromise artistic standards by leading to films which have to please too many people, including Chinese censors?

Wanda's founder and chairman, Wang Jianlin, told the BBC that Hollywood films would have to adapt to the Chinese market if they wanted to succeed there: "I think this is very normal because US companies want to grab a share in the Chinese high-growth market. They should do something to cater to Chinese audiences' interests — if they don't, there might be trouble".

The new combined operation is making a movie about the Great Wall, featuring Matt Damon with Chinese director, Zhang Yimou. It's due for release this year. Legendary described it as "the story of an elite force making a last stand for humanity on the world's most iconic structure".

But the enlarged media company is expected to steer clear of any movies that might fall foul of the strict censorship of political matters in China.

Read more: Hollywood studio buy-up begs questions

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'Cultural' deal

Wanda described the deal as "China's largest cross-border cultural acquisition to date". It is aimed at increasing ties between Hollywood and the world's fastest growing movie market, China.

The Chinese conglomerate said that Legendary's films have grossed over $12bn globally.

Mr Wang said he plans to pair the Hollywood studio with its in-house film production unit and make a stock market listing. A timeline for the launch an initial public offering (IPO) was not given.

Collaboration between Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia to counter terror threat must continue: Minister

The suicide bomb attack in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Tuesday is another "tragic, unnecessary loss of life", but it is unlikely to be the last such incident, said Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Wednesday.

That is why the ongoing collaboration between Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to counter the threat of terrorism in the region must continue, he added.

"The governments at the highest levels are fully committed to continuing this effort," said Dr Balakrishnan. Such effort includes countering terrorism, fundamentalism and extremism and dealing with the flows of young people, both those going from the region to the Middle East and those returning.

Ten people, mostly German nationals, were killed and 15 others injured after a militant from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) blew himself up in Istanbul's busiest tourist district on Tuesday.

"Our condolences and our thoughts are with the families," said Dr Balakrishnan. "But unfortunately it is not likely to be the last such incident.

"And it just shows why we need to pay attention to this, share information, work collectively and effectively across boundaries, because it's a transnational problem (and) a clear and imminent threat to peace and security all over the world."

The minister was speaking to the Singapore media in Jakarta at the end of his two-day inaugural visit to Indonesia as Singapore's top envoy.

Dr Balakrishnan had earlier on Wednesday called on President Joko Widodo.

He also met his Indonesian counterpart, Ms Retno Marsudi, as well as Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan, among others on the first day of his visit.

"I would say our relationship with Indonesia is long, deep and multi-faceted and it's a healthy relationship," he told reporters. "In fact the key topics that were discussed focused very much on the economy and how Singapore and Indonesia can collaborate in expanding the scope for investments (and) this builds again on a very good pre-existing track record."

On the subject of the transboundary haze crisis, Dr Balakrishnan said Singapore is keen to resume a bilateral project in Indonesia’s Jambi Province as party of the country’s haze prevention efforts. The initiative had included ways to detect hot spots on a local level, sustainable agriculture and how to deal with and manage hot spots when they arise.

He also said that Mr Joko and Mr Luhut have given him their assurances that they are serious about preventing a repeat of last year’s crisis, which led to record levels of air pollution in the region.

“I accept their assurances, it is coming right from the very top... so let’s work with them and give them some space to make this happen,” he added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also working towards Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong meeting Mr Joko for their first Leaders' Retreat, "perhaps in the middle or this year".

The meeting between the two leaders is set to be held in Indonesia after Mr Joko called on Mr Lee in Singapore during his introductory visit last year after he was elected in October 2014.

On what his expectations are in regards to how the two countries will address various outstanding bilateral issues, Dr Balakrishnan said: "There will always be issues, we will always do our best to resolve them... but like I said, we will try our best not to allow differences to slow us down, to impede the momentum for growth because we actually have a very full agenda, many things to do together." (kes)

Analysts dubious over North Korea's H-bomb claims

North Korea’s said Wednesday that it had carried out a “successful” hydrogen bomb test, a claim that, if true, would represent a significant and dangerous step forward in its nuclear weapons programme, experts say.

Pyongyang has carried out nuclear tests before – in 2006, 2009 and 2013. But what would makeWednesday’s test significantly more worrying to the international community is the claim that it was a vastly more powerful hydrogen bomb that was detonated, rather than the fission bombs seen in previous tests.

“A fission bomb is where you split atoms into smaller atoms, and that’s very much like what the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki [during WWII] were like – so still big nuclear explosions,” nuclear policy and arms control expert Crispin Rovere told FRANCE 24.

“But an H-bomb is so much greater than that. You combine small elements, fuse them together, and that releases vast amounts of energy.”

North Korea also claimed that the weapon it tested was “miniaturised”, meaning small enough to attach to a missile. If true, this could that mean Pyongyang is close to meeting the ultimate goal of its nuclear weapons programme: to develop a long-range nuclear capability, able to strike targets thousands of miles away including the United States.

“In order to do that it’s not enough just to have a nuclear explosion. You need to have something that is small enough to fit on your missiles so you can effectively deliver that weapon,” said Rovere.

Doubts over claims

The possibility that the country has reached this important milestone in the development of its nuclear programme could have frightening ramifications, said David Galbreath, professor of international security at Bath University and an expert on arms control.

“The fear is that North Korea could have submarines armed with nuclear weapons operating off the coast of Washington state, for example, capable of striking the continental United States,” he told FRANCE 24.

North Korea has been known to exaggerate its military prowess, however, and significant doubt remains over whether the device tested on Wednesday was indeed a hydrogen bomb.

While the US Geological Survey detected a 5.1-magnitude seismic event in the vicinity of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site, which suggests that a nuclear explosion did take place, the modest size of the explosion has raised doubts over Pyongyang’s claims.

“Initial indications are that the predicted yield of the explosion is very close to that of previous fission bomb tests conducted by North Korea,” Dr Matthew Cottee, research associate for non-proliferation and nuclear policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told FRANCE 24.

“But without a lot more information it’s very difficult to say.”

Rovere agreed with that assessment, saying that the seismic activity on Wednesday suggests that “there was a nuclear explosion, but on a much smaller scale than we would expect from a typical successful hydrogen bomb test”.

North Korean H-bomb ‘only a matter of time’

But while Pyongyang may well be overstating the extent of its nuclear capabilities, an H-bomb-armed North Korea is far from an outlandish proposition, say some experts.

Policy analysts “seem pretty convinced that we are entering the age of the North Korean H-bomb”, said Galbreath. “Even if this was not a successful hydrogen bomb test it is something that is going to happen sooner or later, unless there is some kind of Iran-style nuclear agreement, which seems extremely unlikely.”

That North Korea may have carried out a successful H-bomb test “does not come as a surprise”, Cottee agreed.

“This is something we have been talking about for a while in relation to North Korea – an H-bomb test was only a question of when, not if.”

With Wednesday’s test came another blow to already moribund efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear programme, eliciting condemnation from the international community – including China, whose traditionally strong relations with North Korea seem to be rapidly deteriorating.

Several rounds of six-nation talks involving South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia on reaching an agreement with North Korea over its nuclear programme have largely failed, and while there have been many bilateral attempts to engage Pyongyang, "North Korea has now clearly rebuffed any attempt at diplomatic negotiations with this test,” said Cottee.

Pongyang, he said, is sending a message that it is “able to develop its nuclear weapon and missile programme pretty much unchecked by the international community”.

South Korea fires warning shots at 'N Korea drone' over DMZ

South Korean soldiers have fired warning shots at a suspected North Korean drone flown across the heavily fortified border.

Yonhap news agency cited officials saying that soldiers fired about 20 rounds before the craft turned back.

Earlier, South Korea's president urged China to impose the strongest possible sanctions against North Korea, following its apparent nuclear test.

Pyongyang claims it has tested a hydrogen bomb.

That claim is doubted by experts, who say the blast, though probably nuclear, was not big enough to have been a thermonuclear explosion.

Analysis: Kevin Kim, BBC News, Seoul

In a country as impoverished and isolated as North Korea, drone technology is the last thing one might expect from the military.

But on Wednesday South Korean troops spotted a surveillance drone flying near a front line observatory. The military in Seoul said the unmanned craft flew in from the north and crossed into the Demilitarised Zone. After soldiers fired warning shots, the craft turned back.

The military believes that the drone was launched by the North to identify South Korean troop positions that have been bolstered since North Korea's nuclear test a week ago.

Earlier in the day, propaganda leaflets carried by giant balloons from the North were also found near and in the South Korean capital Seoul. Some of the messages demanded that South Korean loudspeaker broadcasts across the border, stop. They were restarted in retaliation for the North's nuclear test last week.

Response 'must differ'

In her annual press conference, President Park Geun-hye said the international community's response to North Korea "must differ from the past", without giving details.

She said new sanctions on Pyongyang must go further than before, with China's support crucial. She also warned of possible further action by North Korea, including "cyber terrorism".

China, North Korea's closest ally, has repeatedly condemned North Korea's nuclear tests but is often accused of doing little to try and stop them.

Ms Park stressed China's past statements but added: "I am certain that China is very well aware if such a strong will isn't followed by necessary steps, we will not be able to stop the North's fifth and sixth nuclear tests and we cannot guarantee true peace and stability on the Korean peninsula."

"I believe the Chinese government will not allow the situation on the Korean peninsula to deteriorate further."

Last week US Secretary of State John Kerry also urged China to take a tougher line, telling his Chinese counterpart the relationship with North Korea cannot be "business as usual".

President Park also spoke about the steps South Korea was taking with the US to "neutralise North Korea's provocative actions" including additional deployments of American military assets on the Korean peninsula.

Answering a question about whether Seoul would consider ending its involvement in the jointly-run Kaesong industrial zone, just north of the border, Ms Park said its future depended on Pyongyang's actions.

Seoul has already limited access to Kaesong from the South, to only those directly involved in its operations.

Japan, South Korea reach landmark deal on WW2 'comfort women'

Japan, South Korea reach landmark deal on WW2 'comfort women'

South Korea and Japan said Monday they had agreed to resolve a decades-long impasse over Korean sex slaves, euphemistically known as "comfort women", who were forced into Japanese military-run brothels during World War II.

The longstanding issue was one of the biggest sources of friction in ties between Seoul and Tokyo, two thriving democracies, trade partners and staunch US allies who have seen animosity rise since the 2012 inauguration of hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

On Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Abe was offering an apology and that Tokyo would finance a 1 billion yen aid fund for the elderly former sex slaves to be set up by South Korea.

"Prime Minister Abe, as the prime minister of Japan, once again expresses his feeling of heartfelt apology and remorse to all those who, as 'comfort women', experienced much suffering and incurred incurable psychological and physical wounds," Kishida Kishida told a news conference after a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se.

Yun said the agreement was "final and irreversible", provided Japan faithfully implements its promises.

Legal responsibility

Japan had high hopes of a breakthrough on the thorny issue after the two regional rivals resumed talks last month following a more than three-year hiatus. Tokyo had been heartened by courts in Seoul recently refusing to review a complaint by a South Korean who sought individual compensation for Japan's forceful mobilisation of workers during colonial days.

There has long been resistance in South Korea to past Japanese apologies because many wanted Japan to acknowledge that it has a legal responsibility for the women. Japan, for its part, had long argued that the issue was settled by a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties and was accompanied by more than $800 million in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul.

It was not immediately clear if and how Monday's deal included some form of legal responsibility for Japan.

US pressure

Historians say tens of thousands of women from around Asia, many of them Korean, were sent to frontline military brothels during World War II to provide sex to Japanese soldiers. In South Korea, there are 46 such surviving former sex slaves, mostly in their late 80s or early 90s.

Many South Koreans feel lingering bitterness from the legacy of Japan's brutal colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945. But South Korean officials have also faced calls to improve ties with Japan, the world's third biggest economy and a regional powerhouse, not least from US officials eager for a strong united front against a rising China.

Better relations between South Korea and Japan are a priority for Washington. The two northeast Asian countries together host about 80,000 US troops and are members of now-stalled regional talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions in return for aid.

Vegans upset over 'discriminatory' Australia Day ad

Vegans upset over 'discriminatory' Australia Day ad

An action movie-style advertisement campaign to promote Australian lamb has angered vegans who call it "discriminatory".
The commercial, by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), was released on Saturday and has since gone viral.
It shows a SWAT team "saving stranded Aussies" abroad from missing a barbeque on the country's national day.
The Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) said it has received about 250 complaints, mostly from vegans.
ASB said it was also reviewing complaints of violence, and discrimination against Indigenous Australians.
The campaign has been accused of cultural insensitivity for using the slogan "Operation Boomerang" - an Indigenous term - to mark Australia Day.
The national day commemorates the arrival of the first Europeans in the country but is seen by many Indigenous Australians as a day of mourning.
Burning tofu
In one scene in the advert, a SWAT team smashes into the home of a man in New York saying "C'mon mate, in a few hours you'll be eating lamb on the beach", to which the the bearded man responds: "But I'm a vegan now...".
The ad later cuts to a shot of a flamethrower-wielding SWAT officer burning a bowl of kale on the vegan's table.
Meat & Livestock Australia said the ad was "tongue in cheek".
"Consumers are free to make up their own minds in relation to lifestyle choices, including what they eat. We appreciate that not all Australians eat lamb," group marketing manager for MLA Andrew Howie said in a statement.
"MLA is also aware of some complaints about the use of the word "boomerang" in the advertisement. It is not our intention to cause any offense through the use of this term which is used to symbolise Australians returning home for Australia Day."
Extracts of the complaints will be published on the Advertising Standards Bureau website after its next board meeting in about two weeks time, an ASB spokesperson said.

Rice and palm oil risk to mangroves

Rice and palm oil risk to mangroves

The threat posed by the development of rice and palm oil plantations to mangroves in South-East Asia has been underestimated, a study has suggested.
Rice and oil plantations accounted for 38% of mangrove deforestation between 2000 and 2012, the research showed.
As well as being important carbon sinks and rich in biodiversity, mangrove forests provide fuel and food for coastal communities.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Aquaculture has largely been held responsible for causing mangrove deforestation, particularly in countries like Thailand and the Philippines," explained co-author Daniel Richards from the National University of Singapore.
He told BBC News that a study of eight countries around the world between the 1970s and the early 2000s found that 54% of deforested mangroves were replaced with aquaculture ponds used for fish or shrimp/prawn production.
"Our study found that aquaculture was still important but we were surprised that in South-East Asia between 2000 and 2012, just 30% of deforested mangroves were replaced with aquaculture.
"The impact of other drivers, like rice and oil palm agriculture, was greater than we expected."
Fishing boat on a river (Image: BBC)
Image caption
Mangrove forests provide a key habitat for biodiversity and coastal communities
Mangroves - natural defences
•Mangroves are salt-tolerant evergreens that grow along coastlines, rivers and deltas
•Found in more than 120 tropical and subtropical nations
•The plants' root systems have been shown to dissipate wave energy
Dr Richards observed: "Almost 25,000 hectares of Myanmar's mangroves were converted to rice paddy between 2000 and 2012."
He added that while there had been a few previous studies that had highlighted the role of oil palm production as a cause for mangrove loss, they had no idea of the scale of the deforestation.
"Sixteen percent of all deforested mangroves in Southeast Asia were replaced with oil palm plantations during our study period," he said.
"We usually think of oil palm as an issue which affects tropical forests on land but our study shows that demand for oil palm is also driving deforestation in coastal mangrove forests."
'Very threatened'
Dr Richards and his colleague, Daniel Friess, used Google Earth to monitor how land was used once mangrove forests had been felled.
"We viewed [more than] 3,000 deforested mangrove patches, and recorded the land-use that they were replaced with," Dr Richards said.
"This study also builds on some great existing data sets that were provided by scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Geological Survey."
He warned that mangrove forests in the region were "very threatened":
"Our study focused on quite a recent period of time but mangroves in South-East Asia have experienced widespread deforestation for decades.
"Previous research suggests that around 90% of Singapore's original mangrove forests have been lost."
The region is home to about one third of the world's mangroves, including some of the most biodiverse.
The researchers said mangroves were important to people because they provide fish and crabs, wood and charcoal, and can help protect coastlines from erosion.
Mangrove forests also stored very high densities of carbon so had a role in regulating carbon in the atmosphere, they added.
In other regions, such as Sri Lanka, the value of intact mangrove forests has been recognised by authorities and measures have been put in place to protect them.
Growing awareness
Dr Richards said that the importance of mangrove forests is becoming better understood, but it was a slow process.
"It is encouraging that our study found low rates of mangrove deforestation in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brunei, and this is partly due to stronger protection of mangroves in these countries.
"There are initiatives to restore mangroves in some countries: the Mangrove Action Project in Thailand, and Blue Forests in Indonesia, are working with governments and local communities to protect and restore mangrove forests."
But he warned that more needed to be done: "Indonesia has more mangrove forests than any country in the world, and the mangroves in the more remote parts of the country, such as Indonesian Papua, are almost intact.
"However, these mangroves may be at risk of deforestation [as a result of] recent plans to grant concessions and develop the agriculture industry in this region.
"If we want to protect Indonesia's remaining mangroves then we need to act quickly."

Chinese trading halted again as shares plummet

China stock markets closed for the day less than half an hour after opening on Thursday when shares fell more than seven percent, triggering an automatic “circuit breaker,” after authorities lowered the yuan’s value by the most since August.

By 9.58am, when trading was halted, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index had slumped 7.32 percent, or 245.95 points, to 3,115.89.

The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, had tumbled 8.35 percent, or 178.08 points, to 1,955.88.

Another Chinese billionaire goes missing

The billionaire founder of Metersbonwe, one of China's best-known fashion brands, has gone missing, the latest in a series of Chinese business people and financiers apparently ensnared in the country's anti-corruption campaign.
Metersbonwe suspended trading in its shares on the Shenzhen stock exchange on Thursday while the company said it was investigating reports in the Chinese media that Zhou Chengjian, its chairman, had been picked up by police.

The company is a household name on the Chinese high street and Mr Zhou was China's 65th-richest man last year, according to the Hurun Rich list, with a fortune of Rmb26.5bn ($4.01bn).

S. Korea launches propaganda barrage on North after nuclear test

South Korea unleashed a high-decibel propaganda barrage across the border on Friday in retaliation for North Korea’s nuclear bomb test this week, while the United States called on China to end “business as usual” with its ally Pyongyang.

The broadcasts, in rolling bursts from walls of loudspeakers at 11 locations along the heavily militarised border, blare rhetoric critical of the Pyongyang regime as well as “K-pop” music. The broadcasts, considered an insult by the North, led to an exchange of artillery fire the last time they were used.

South Korea, which has grown increasingly close to China in recent years, also said its foreign minister would speak with his Chinese counterpart later on Friday.

Wednesday’s test angered both the United States and China, which was not given prior notice, although the U.S. government and weapons experts doubt Pyongyang’s claim that the device it exploded was a hydrogen bomb.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday he had made clear in a phone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China’s approach to North Korea has not succeeded.

“China had a particular approach that it wanted to make, that we agreed and respected to give them space to implement that,” Kerry told reporters. “Today in my conversation with the Chinese I made it very clear that has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual.”

China is the North’s main economic and diplomatic backer, although relations between the two Cold War allies have cooled in recent years.

China’s foreign ministry said after the call with Kerry that Beijing was willing to communicate with all parties, including the United States.

“Wang Yi stressed that China has staunchly dedicated itself to the goal of the peninsula’s denuclearisation and to maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a short statement.

South Korea’s foreign ministry had requested a phone call with Wang since directly after North Korea announced on Wednesday it had tested a hydrogen bomb, the South’s Yonhap News Agency said. However, the call had been delayed due to China’s “internal scheduling”, it said, citing an unnamed official.

Troops deployed, tours cancelled

The last time Seoul deployed the loudspeakers, in retaliation for a landmine blast in August that wounded two South Korean soldiers, it led to an armed standoff and exchange of artillery fire.

The sound from the speakers is so loud that it can carry for 10 km (6 miles) into North Korea during the day and more than twice that distance at night, Yonhap reported.

North Korea boosted troop deployments in front-line units on Friday, and South Korea heightened military readiness to its highest level at locations near the loudspeakers.

Seoul also vowed to retaliate against any attack on the equipment and raised its cyber security alert level.

Tours of the Demilitarised Zone, popular with visitors to South Korea, were also cancelled at the military’s request. The vast majority of North Korea’s business dealings are with China, which bought 90 percent of the isolated country’s exports in 2013, according to data compiled by South Korea’s International Trade Association.

Kerry said he and Wang agreed to work closely to determine what measures could be taken given increasing concerns about the nuclear test. He said America has a “firm and continued commitment to regional security and global nonproliferation”.

The Global Times, an influential Chinese tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, said in an editorial it was unfair to expect China alone to bring about change in Pyongyang.

“There is no hope to put an end to the North Korean nuclear conundrum if the U.S., South Korea and Japan do not change their policies toward Pyongyang. Solely depending on Beijing’s pressure to force the North to give up its nuclear plan is an illusion,” it said.

“The China-North Korea relationship should not be dragged into antagonism. Beijing has participated in previous sanctions on the North. Whether China will take tougher measures hinges on the decision of the UN Security Council,” it said.

U.S. Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives could join forces in a rare display of unity to further tighten sanctions on North Korea.

US flies B-52 over S. Korea after North's nuclear test

The United States deployed a B-52 bomber over its ally South Korea on Sunday, in a show of force following North Korea's nuclear test last week and will consider sending an aircraft carrier to the region next month.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said it was possible that a carrier would join a US-South Korea joint naval exercise to send a warning message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who said his country conducted a hydrogen bomb test as a self-defence step against what it said was a US threat of nuclear war.

North Korea's fourth nuclear test angered both the United States and China, although the US government and weapons experts doubt the North's claim that the device was a hydrogen bomb.

China Is Said to Formally Arrest 4 Human Rights Advocates

HONG KONG — The Chinese police have formally arrested four human rights advocates in the past week on the charge of subverting state power, after detaining them for the past six months, according to one of their colleagues and rights groups.

The families of two lawyers, Zhou Shifeng and Wang Quanzhang, both of the Fengrui Law Firm in Beijing, received letters on Tuesday that notified them of their relatives’ formal arrest, their colleague, Liu Xiaoyuan, said by telephone. Mr. Zhou is the director of the firm. Mr. Liu said that Li Shuyun, an intern lawyer at the firm, was also arrested under the charge, as was Zhao Wei, an assistant to another rights lawyer. The letters were dated Friday.

Continue reading the main story

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  China Targeting Rights Lawyers in a CrackdownJULY 22, 2015

The four rights defenders were part of what was until last year a flourishing group of legal experts who represented prominent Chinese clients, including the artist Ai Weiwei, the blind activist Chen Guangcheng and the Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti, as well as ordinary people seeking justice through the Communist Party-controlled court system. In July, more than 200 of these experts were rounded up in a nationwide sweep and pilloried by the state-run news media as swindlers. Many were detained at an undisclosed location in the port city of Tianjin.

Continue reading the main story

China’s Missing Rights Lawyers

The charge of subverting state power, which can carry a sentence of up to life in prison, is far more serious than several human rights advocates had expected in the four recent cases and suggests that the government believes that these people were seeking to undermine the state through their legal work. By way of comparison, the Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 on the charge of “inciting subversion of state power,” regarded by many as a slightly lesser offense.

“Cracking down on lawyers is one thing,” said Joshua Rosenzweig, an independent human rights researcher based in Hong Kong who studies China’s legal system. “But this is now being presented as lawyers who are trying to overthrow the regime.”

The website of China’s Ministry of Justice states that ringleaders who “organize, plot or carry out” subversion are given sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison, while “active participants” are sentenced to three to 10 years. Other participants receive sentences of less than three years for subversion, which can include seeking to “overthrow the socialist system.”

The crackdown on lawyers is part of a wide-ranging constriction of civil society under President Xi Jinping, who is intent on shoring up the Communist Party, which has ruled China since 1949. His government is enacting new limits on what people can say online, making it more difficult for foreign nongovernmental organizations to work in China, andrestricting the use of Western textbooks at the country’s universities.

In recent days, two other rights defenders, Xie Yang and Xie Yanyi, were formally charged with inciting subversion of state power, said Maya Wang, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong.

The Chinese police can hold people for up to six months under a system called “residential surveillance in a designated location,” which can mean detention at some secure facility like a hotel run by the police. After that, they must be formally charged, released pending further investigation or released without charges, Mr. Rosenzweig said.

Several of the most prominent rights lawyers detained in July, including Wang Yu of the Fengrui Law Firm, who defended Mr. Tohti, appear to still be in detention, and there has been no information about whether they have been charged.

Wen Donghai, a lawyer for Wang Yu, said on Tuesday that the members of her family, who live in Inner Mongolia, had not yet received a formal arrest letter, but that he believed she would also be arrested on suspicion of subversion or inciting to subvert state power.

“Now they see these lawyers as a criminal group,” Mr. Wen said. “Subversion or inciting subversion — these are all fancy charges we have never heard of. It’s just ridiculous.”

Exclusive: North Korea reveals alleged U.S. prisoner to CNN in Pyongyang

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN)Is North Korea holding an American prisoner? That's what a man CNN spoke to in Pyongyang claims.

As tensions on the Korean peninsula continued to rise and Seoul and Washington officials discussed the potential deployment of more troops to South Korea, officials in Pyongyang gave CNN exclusive access to a man North Korea claims is a U.S. citizen arrested on espionage charges.

Speaking to CNN's Will Ripley, the man identified himself as Kim Dong Chul, a naturalized American, who said he used to live in Fairfax, Virginia.

"I'm asking the U.S. or South Korean government to rescue me," Kim said during an interview at a hotel in the North Korean capital.

Kim, 62, was frogmarched into the room by stony-faced guards, who insisted that the interview be conducted in Korean, through an official translator.

The translation was later independently corroborated by CNN.

A U.S. passport for Kim Dong Chul provided to CNN by North Korean officials.

Spying for 'conservative elements'

China's relationship with North Korea is complicated 02:50

Kim told CNN that in 2001 he moved to Yanji, a city near the Chinese-North Korean border that acts as a trade hub between the two countries.

From Yanji, Kim said he commuted daily to Rason, a special economic zone on the North Korean side of the border, where he served as president of a company involved in international trade and hotel services.

According to Kim, he spied on behalf of "South Korean conservative elements," for which he was arrested in October 2015.

"I was tasked with taking photos of military secrets and 'scandalous' scenes," he said.

Kim named a number of South Koreans he said "injected me with a hatred towards North Korea."

"They asked me to help destroy the (North Korean) system and spread propaganda against the government."

Caught red-handed

Former spy: N. Korean agents operating in U.S., S. Korea 02:29

According to Kim, North Korean officials said they had been monitoring his activities since 2009, two years after he established his cross-border business.

He started working as a spy in April 2013, bribing local residents to "gather important materials," which he smuggled into China or South Korea.

Asked whether he worked for the U.S. at any time, Kim said categorically that he did not.

Kim was arrested in October 2015 while he was meeting a source to obtain a USB stick and camera used to gather military secrets.

The source, a 35-year-old former North Korean soldier, was also arrested. Kim said he did not know the other man's fate.

During the almost two years of spying in North Korea, Kim only made around $5,300 (35,000 yuan).

Asked why he would risk his freedom for such a relatively paltry sum of money, Kim said that "it wasn't about the money."

Kim left a wife and two daughters behind in China, with whom he has had no contact since his detention. Repeated attempts to reach his wife using a phone number provided by Kim were unsuccessful.

Secret U.S. detainee?

Canadian pastor detained in North Korea 02:32

Kim's claims were made in the presence of North Korean officials and CNN cannot determine whether they were made under duress.

If true, Kim would be the only U.S. citizen held prisoner in North Korea, a fact not revealed until today.

Americans Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller werereleased by Pyongyang in November 2014. By that point, Bae had spent more than two years in prison in North Korea.

Hours after the interview with CNN's crew, North Korean authorities provided his passport for inspection.

The U.S. State Department said they could not confirm whether Kim is a U.S. citizen, telling CNN that "speaking publicly about specific purported cases of detained Americans can complicate our tireless efforts to secure their freedom."

On Saturday, CNN spoke to jailed Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim, who said that he hoped "to go home some day."

In good health

Kim appeared in good health, and said he was getting proper nourishment and three meals a day.

As is the norm for international prisoners who haven't yet been charged, Kim said he was being held in a Pyongyang hotel, where he has access to local newspapers and television.

He was aware of North Korea's purported hydrogen bomb test, carried out on January 6, saying that it meant it was now time "for the U.S. government to drop its hostile policies against North Korea."

"Seeing that this H-bomb test has succeeded, now is the time to abandon hostile policies and work to help North Korea," he said.

"The U.S. needs to find a way to reconcile with North Korea. I think the main way to do that is with a peace treaty."

Asked about the similarity of his statements to North Korean propaganda and whether any of them had been rehearsed or pre-scripted, Kim said that they had not, and accused Western media of "misunderstanding" the situation in the country.

Westerners held previously in North Korea have said their confessions were given under pressure from the state.

U.S. Bomber flies over South Korea 01:17

Tensions on the Korean peninsula are at their highest for some time, with South Korea resuming propaganda broadcasts across the demilitarized zone. Pyongyang regards such broadcasts as tantamount to an act of war and has fired on the giant speakers used for them in the past.

On Sunday, a U.S. B-52 bomber flew over Osan, South Korea in what officials said was a show of solidarity with Seoul following the purported nuclear test. The U.S. bomber was flanked by a South Korean F-15.