Tensions flare between North and South Korea as countries conduct military drills

omersukrugoksu/Getty Images

(SEOUL, South Korea) — Air Force military trainings took place in both North and South Korean airspaces as the two nations continue to ratchet up tensions on the Korean Peninsula as 180 North Korean warplanes flying over four hours just north of the military border were detected by South Korea’s military on Friday.

“North’s military planes were active in multiple areas such as the inland area in the North and above the East and West Sea,” South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

In response, South Korea’s air force “urgently scrambled its predominant air force,” including 80 F-35As. The JCS added that 240 planes that were already participating in the ROK-US “Vigilant Storm” joint training “maintained a readiness posture” while conducting the planned exercises.

North Korea had test fired a mix of almost 30 long- and short-range ballistic missiles, including a failed intercontinental ballistic missile, this week.

These provocations prompted the U.S. and South Korea to extend air force drills which North Korea considers as joint training to invade and topple their regime.

This week’s provocations by the North is more or less Pyongyang responding to ROK-US drills, analysts say.

“Since denuclearization talks stalled, North Korea is in an unfavorable situation. Biden administration in and South Korean government now are both hardline, so North Korea is reacting even more strongly,” Wi Sung-Lak, Secretary general in the Seoul-based Korea Peace Foundation, told ABC News.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

North Korea fires six ballistic missiles, launching tests for 2nd consecutive day

JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images

(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea test-fired six missiles on Thursday, a day after launching its most tests in a single day.

One long-range and two short-range ballistic missiles were tested Thursday morning, South Korean officials said. Tokyo initially said the longer-range ballistic missile had flown over Japan, warning residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures to take shelter. But Japan’s Defense Ministry later said the missile did not fly over Japan.

Authorities said they were still analyzing the details. Analysts suggested that the missile, which flew 472 miles and reached a height of 1,200 miles, was presumably an intercontinental ballistic missile that failed.

Three more short-range ballistic missiles were launched Thursday night, according to the South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missiles were fired toward the eastern seas from North Hwanghae province between 9:35 p.m. and 9:49 p.m. local time.

“We can sense North Korea’s anxiety from recent launches. In fact, these missile launches are a huge burden for their military, especially when North Korea is so economically cut off,” Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, told ABC News.

The provocations are a typical brinkmanship tactic to either bring the U.S. and South Korea into nuclear talks or a prelude to justifying an imminent seventh nuclear underground test.

“It’s possible to assume that North Korea will decorate the grand finale of its tactic with the seventh nuclear test, and then suggest a deal,” said Park.

The two Koreas test-fired missiles one after another throughout Wednesday in a series of tit-for-tat moves. North Korea fired a total of 23 missiles that were a combination of ballistic and surface-to-air weapons, and 100 artillery shells from various locations toward the east and west. In a retaliatory move, South Korea quickly responded in between by launching its own air-to-surface missiles into a similar area above the NLL, launched by two F-15K and KF-16 jet fighters.

Pyongyang claimed the missile tests are “self-defensive” in nature. Officials called for the U.S. and South Korea to stop their annual joint military drills, which they said were “aggressive and provocative.”

“They are going on a full-scale sprint. Not only are there a variety of missiles, but also a great number of them,” Park added.

Dr. Yang Uk, of Seoul-based Asan Institute, told ABC News that the missile launches are a way to show off Pyongyang’s tactical nuclear capabilities.

“It’s an adamant statement that they will respond with all forces by fully mobilizing all the means they have,” Yang explained.

South Korea’s air force announced Wednesday shortly after North Korea’s ballistic missile provocation, that the joint air drill between the U.S. will be extended. It was originally planned for five days from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russia waives threats of use of nuclear weapons

SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 02, 12:14 PM EDT
North Korea covertly shipping ammunition to Russia for war in Ukraine, US says

North Korea was secretly sending ammunition to Russia to use in its invasion of Ukraine and is disguising the shipments as appearing to be destined to the Middle East or North Africa, the White House said Wednesday.

“Our information indicates that [North Korea] is covertly supplying Russia’s war in Ukraine with a significant number of artillery shells, while obfuscating the real destination of the arms shipments by trying to make it appear as though they’re being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.

Kirby said North Korea was sending “a significant number of artillery shells.” He did not specify an exact number but said it was more than “dozens.”

“But we don’t believe that they are in such a quantity that they would tangibly change the direction of this war or tangibly change the momentum either in the east or in the south” of Ukraine, he said.

Kirby added, “We’re gonna continue to monitor whether these shipments are received.”

In September, the U.S. had said Russia is looking to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, saying at the time that this indicated the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine.

Nov 02, 12:01 PM EDT
Russia waives veiled threat on use of nuclear weapons

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning to nations with nuclear capabilities, calling on them to abandon attempts to infringe on each other’s vital interests, warning that direct armed conflict and provocations with weapons of mass destruction can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Russia claimed it believes there can be no winners of nuclear war and said it reaffirms its commitment to the prevention of nuclear warm.

“A reaction with the use of nuclear weapons is hypothetically allowed by Russia only in response to aggression using weapons of mass destruction or aggression using conventional weapons, when the existence of the state is threatened,” the ministry said in a statement.

The White House has said it will not confirm or deny New York Times reporting that senior Russian military officials had recently discussed when and how Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. The intelligence about the conversations was reportedly circulated inside the U.S. government in mid-October.

But, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not a part of these alleged conversations, according to the New York Times.

The White House on Wednesday said it still sees “no indications that Russia is making preparations” to use nuclear weapons.

Nov 02, 8:40 AM EDT
Russia rejoins wartime deal on Ukrainian grain exports

Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday that Russia has agreed to resume its participation in a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to keep grain and other commodities shipping out of Ukraine’s ports amid the ongoing war.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, that the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative would “continue in the same way as before” as of noon Wednesday, according to Erdogan.

The renewed agreement, first reached over the summer, will prioritize shipments to African countries, including drought-ravaged Somalia, after Russia expressed concerns that most of the grain was ending up in richer nations.

Moscow agreed to return to the deal after receiving written guarantees from Kyiv that Ukraine would not use the safe shipping corridors through the Black Sea for military actions against Russian forces, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Russia had suspended its role in the deal over the weekend, after accusing Ukrainian forces of carrying out a “massive” drone attack on its Black Sea fleet on Saturday.

Turkey and the U.N. brokered separate deals with Russia and Ukraine in July to allow Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and for Russia to export grain and fertilizers.

Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain, fertilizer and fuel has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but a Russian blockade in the Black Sea combined with Ukrainian naval mines have made exporting siloed grain and other foodstuffs virtually impossible. As a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.

Nov 01, 3:01 PM EDT
Ukraine does not have effective defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles, air force official claims

Iranian ballistic missiles, which Russia plans to purchase from Iran, will probably be placed on the northern border of Ukraine, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Airborne Forces Yuri Ignat said Tuesday.

Ignat claimed the ballistic missiles’ range was 300 km for one and 700 km for another.

“We have no effective defense against these missiles. It is theoretically possible to shoot them down, but in fact it is very difficult to do it with the means we have at our disposal. We have air defense, not missile defense,” he said.

-ABC News’ Yulia Drozd

Nov 01, 3:01 PM EDT
Russia announces wider evacuation of occupied southern Ukraine

As Ukrainian forces advance to capture the city of Kherson, Russian forces are ordering civilians out of parts of the now-occupied city. Some 70,000 people along a 15 kilometer (10 mile) stretch of the left bank of the Dnipro River will be evacuated deeper into the Kherson region or to Russia, according to the Russian-installed leader of the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo.

Russia had previously ordered civilians out of an area it controls on the west bank of the river.

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Oct 31, 7:07 PM EDT
Russia’s withdrawal from grain deal ‘collective punishment’ for world: State Department

State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday lambasted Russia’s recent decision to withdraw from the U.N.-brokered deal that allowed for grain to be exported through the Black Sea — likely to be a chief focus of this week’s G-7 ministerial meeting and potentially the G-20 Leaders’ Summit next month.

“We deeply regret Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is having immediate, harmful impacts on global food security,” Price said during a press briefing. “Russia should return to full participation in the initiative, and we urge all parties to swiftly agree to sustain this crucial program through the months to come.”

“Any disruption to the initiative risks spiking food prices, lowering the confidence of insurers and commercial shippers who have returned to Black Sea routes, and further imposing hardships on low-income countries already reeling from dire humanitarian crises and global food insecurity,” he added.

Price said Russia’s reneging had already caused future contracts for foodstuff to rise, even though some ships appear to have been allowed to pass through the water routes with their cargo following Moscow’s announcement.

“We’ve seen Russia engage in what appears to be collective punishment for the people of Ukraine,” he said. “But Moscow’s suspension of the initiative would be tantamount to collective punishment for the rest of the world — but especially lower- and middle-income countries that so desperately needed this grain.”

ABC News’ Shannon Crawford

Oct 31, 3:32 PM EDT
Ukraine energy company warns about attacks on energy infrastructure

Following a series of coordinated strikes across Ukraine this Monday morning, Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK says it’s running out of equipment and spare parts needed for repairs of the damaged infrastructure facilities.

“Unfortunately, we have already used up the stock of equipment that we had in our warehouses after the first two waves of attacks that have been taking place since Oct. 10,” said DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk. “We were able to purchase some equipment. But unfortunately, the cost of the equipment is now measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Most parts have been already used for repairs following previous Russian strikes, he added.

Oct 31, 4:54 AM EDT
Russia launches waves of missiles at energy targets

Russia on Monday morning again launched a series of coordinated strikes across Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure, including in the Kyiv region.

Ukraine’s military said it shot down 44 cruise missiles as the Russians launched “several waves of missile attacks on critical infrastructure facilities” across the country.

About five distant booms could be heard in central Kyiv at about 8 a.m. local time.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed that a power plant has been hit, meaning mid-morning around 350,000 homes in the capital were left without power. Kyiv’s water supply has also been compromised, according to a water company.

A local official said “critical infrastructure” had also been hit in the Chernivtsi region in southwestern Ukraine.

Critical infrastructure has also been hit and damaged in Zaporizhzhia in the south, according to another local official.

Other regions of Ukraine appear to have been targeted, including Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Poltava and Lviv.

There are currently no reports of significant casualties.

ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge

Oct 30, 10:02 AM EDT
Blinken accuses Russia of ‘weaponizing food’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as a statement from the Kremlin that “people and families around the world should pay more for food or go hungry.”

Russia announced it is withdrawing from the U.N.-brokered grain deal in response to a drone attack Saturday in the waters of the Sevastopol Bay, in the Black Sea near Crimea.

Russia’s decision, Blinken said, is jeopardizing grain shipments he described as “life-saving.”

“In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started, directly impacting low- and middle-income countries and global food prices, and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity,” Blinken said in a statement released Saturday night.

He said 9 million metric tons of food has been shipped under the agreement, which was signed and launched in July. He said the shipments have reduced food prices around the world.

“We urge the Government of Russia to resume its participation in the Initiative, fully comply with the arrangement, and work to ensure that people around the world continue to be able to receive the benefits facilitated by the Initiative,” Blinken said.

Blinken’s statement echoed what President Joe Biden said earlier Saturday, calling Russia’s withdrawal from the initiative, “purely outrageous.”

“It’s going to increase starvation. There’s no reason for them to do that, but they’re always looking for some rationale to be able to say the reason they’re doing something outrageous is because the West made them do it. And it’s just not,” Biden said. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”

 

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

North Korea fires three ballistic missiles, launching tests for second consecutive day

JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images

(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea test-fired three missiles on Thursday, a day after launching its most-ever tests in a single day.

One long-range and two short-range ballistic missiles were tested, South Korean officials said. Tokyo initially said the longer-range ballistic missile had flown over Japan, warning residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures to take shelter. But Japan’s Defense Ministry later said the missile did not fly over Japan.

Authorities said they were still analyzing the details. Analysts suggested that the missile, which flew 472 miles and reached a height of 1,200 miles, was presumably an intercontinental ballistic missile that failed.

“We can sense North Korea’s anxiety from recent launches. In fact, these missile launches are a huge burden for their military, especially when North Korea is so economically cut off,” Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, told ABC News.

The provocations are a typical brinkmanship tactic to either bring the U.S. and South Korea into nuclear talks or a prelude to justifying an imminent seventh nuclear underground test.

“It’s possible to assume that North Korea will decorate the grand finale of its tactic with the seventh nuclear test, and then suggest a deal,” said Park.

The two Koreas test-fired missiles one after another throughout Wednesday in a series of tit-for-tat moves. North Korea fired a total of 23 missiles that were a combination of ballistic and surface-to-air weapons, and 100 artillery shells from various locations toward the east and west. In a retaliatory move, South Korea quickly responded in between by launching its own air-to-surface missiles into a similar area above the NLL, launched by two F-15K and KF-16 jet fighters.

Pyongyang claimed the missile tests are “self-defensive” in nature. Officials called for the U.S. and South Korea to stop their annual joint military drills, which they said were “aggressive and provocative.”

“They are going on a full-scale sprint. Not only are there a variety of missiles, but also a great number of them,” Park added.

Dr. Yang Uk, of Seoul-based Asan Institute, told ABC News that the missile launches are a way to show off Pyongyang’s tactical nuclear capabilities.

“It’s an adamant statement that they will respond with all forces by fully mobilizing all the means they have,” Yang explained.

South Korea’s air force announced Wednesday shortly after North Korea’s ballistic missile provocation, that the joint air drill between the U.S. will be extended. It was originally planned for five days from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russia rejoins wartime deal on Ukrainian grain exports

SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 02, 8:40 AM EDT
Russia rejoins wartime deal on Ukrainian grain exports

Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday that Russia has agreed to resume its participation in a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to keep grain and other commodities shipping out of Ukraine’s ports amid the ongoing war.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, that the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative would “continue in the same way as before” as of noon Wednesday, according to Erdogan.

The renewed agreement, first reached over the summer, will prioritize shipments to African countries, including drought-ravaged Somalia, after Russia expressed concerns that most of the grain was ending up in richer nations.

Moscow agreed to return to the deal after receiving written guarantees from Kyiv that Ukraine would not use the safe shipping corridors through the Black Sea for military actions against Russian forces, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Russia had suspended its role in the deal over the weekend, after accusing Ukrainian forces of carrying out a “massive” drone attack on its Black Sea fleet on Saturday.

Turkey and the U.N. brokered separate deals with Russia and Ukraine in July to allow Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and for Russia to export grain and fertilizers.

Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain, fertilizer and fuel has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but a Russian blockade in the Black Sea combined with Ukrainian naval mines have made exporting siloed grain and other foodstuffs virtually impossible. As a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.

Nov 01, 3:01 PM EDT
Ukraine does not have effective defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles, air force official claims

Iranian ballistic missiles, which Russia plans to purchase from Iran, will probably be placed on the northern border of Ukraine, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Airborne Forces Yuri Ignat said Tuesday.

Ignat claimed the ballistic missiles’ range was 300 km for one and 700 km for another.

“We have no effective defense against these missiles. It is theoretically possible to shoot them down, but in fact it is very difficult to do it with the means we have at our disposal. We have air defense, not missile defense,” he said.

-ABC News’ Yulia Drozd

Nov 01, 3:01 PM EDT
Russia announces wider evacuation of occupied southern Ukraine

As Ukrainian forces advance to capture the city of Kherson, Russian forces are ordering civilians out of parts of the now-occupied city. Some 70,000 people along a 15 kilometer (10 mile) stretch of the left bank of the Dnipro River will be evacuated deeper into the Kherson region or to Russia, according to the Russian-installed leader of the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo.

Russia had previously ordered civilians out of an area it controls on the west bank of the river.

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Oct 31, 7:07 PM EDT
Russia’s withdrawal from grain deal ‘collective punishment’ for world: State Department

State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday lambasted Russia’s recent decision to withdraw from the U.N.-brokered deal that allowed for grain to be exported through the Black Sea — likely to be a chief focus of this week’s G-7 ministerial meeting and potentially the G-20 Leaders’ Summit next month.

“We deeply regret Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is having immediate, harmful impacts on global food security,” Price said during a press briefing. “Russia should return to full participation in the initiative, and we urge all parties to swiftly agree to sustain this crucial program through the months to come.”

“Any disruption to the initiative risks spiking food prices, lowering the confidence of insurers and commercial shippers who have returned to Black Sea routes, and further imposing hardships on low-income countries already reeling from dire humanitarian crises and global food insecurity,” he added.

Price said Russia’s reneging had already caused future contracts for foodstuff to rise, even though some ships appear to have been allowed to pass through the water routes with their cargo following Moscow’s announcement.

“We’ve seen Russia engage in what appears to be collective punishment for the people of Ukraine,” he said. “But Moscow’s suspension of the initiative would be tantamount to collective punishment for the rest of the world — but especially lower- and middle-income countries that so desperately needed this grain.”

ABC News’ Shannon Crawford

Oct 31, 3:32 PM EDT
Ukraine energy company warns about attacks on energy infrastructure

Following a series of coordinated strikes across Ukraine this Monday morning, Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK says it’s running out of equipment and spare parts needed for repairs of the damaged infrastructure facilities.

“Unfortunately, we have already used up the stock of equipment that we had in our warehouses after the first two waves of attacks that have been taking place since Oct. 10,” said DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk. “We were able to purchase some equipment. But unfortunately, the cost of the equipment is now measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Most parts have been already used for repairs following previous Russian strikes, he added.

Oct 31, 4:54 AM EDT
Russia launches waves of missiles at energy targets

Russia on Monday morning again launched a series of coordinated strikes across Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure, including in the Kyiv region.

Ukraine’s military said it shot down 44 cruise missiles as the Russians launched “several waves of missile attacks on critical infrastructure facilities” across the country.

About five distant booms could be heard in central Kyiv at about 8 a.m. local time.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed that a power plant has been hit, meaning mid-morning around 350,000 homes in the capital were left without power. Kyiv’s water supply has also been compromised, according to a water company.

A local official said “critical infrastructure” had also been hit in the Chernivtsi region in southwestern Ukraine.

Critical infrastructure has also been hit and damaged in Zaporizhzhia in the south, according to another local official.

Other regions of Ukraine appear to have been targeted, including Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Poltava and Lviv.

There are currently no reports of significant casualties.

ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge

Oct 30, 10:02 AM EDT
Blinken accuses Russia of ‘weaponizing food’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as a statement from the Kremlin that “people and families around the world should pay more for food or go hungry.”

Russia announced it is withdrawing from the U.N.-brokered grain deal in response to a drone attack Saturday in the waters of the Sevastopol Bay, in the Black Sea near Crimea.

Russia’s decision, Blinken said, is jeopardizing grain shipments he described as “life-saving.”

“In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started, directly impacting low- and middle-income countries and global food prices, and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity,” Blinken said in a statement released Saturday night.

He said 9 million metric tons of food has been shipped under the agreement, which was signed and launched in July. He said the shipments have reduced food prices around the world.

“We urge the Government of Russia to resume its participation in the Initiative, fully comply with the arrangement, and work to ensure that people around the world continue to be able to receive the benefits facilitated by the Initiative,” Blinken said.

Blinken’s statement echoed what President Joe Biden said earlier Saturday, calling Russia’s withdrawal from the initiative, “purely outrageous.”

“It’s going to increase starvation. There’s no reason for them to do that, but they’re always looking for some rationale to be able to say the reason they’re doing something outrageous is because the West made them do it. And it’s just not,” Biden said. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”

 

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

North and South Korea test missiles off coasts, raising tensions

omersukrugoksu/Getty Images

(SEOUL, South Korea) — Tensions rose in the Korean Peninsula while the two Koreas test-fired missiles one after another in a series of tit-for-tat moves on Wednesday.

North Korea fired four short-range ballistic missiles at 6:51 a.m. local time from its North Pyongan Province into the West Sea. Two hours later, the North fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea (Sea of Japan), one of which landed in the waters below south of the NLL, or North Limit Line.

“This is the first time since the two Koreas split that a ballistic missile fell close to our waters, south of the NLL,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a written statement.

The missile fell 104 miles northwest of South Korea’s Ulleung island, triggering an air raid alert which forced the island’s 9,000 residents to evacuate to underground shelters.

The North soon after continued to fire off an additional 10 or more short-range ballistic and surface-to-air missiles from South Hamgyung Province to the east and from South Pyongan Province and South Hwanghae Province to the west.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the military to ensure that North Korea “pays a clear price for its provocation,” according to his office.

In a retaliatory move, South Korea quickly responded by launching its own air-to-surface missiles into a similar area above the NLL, launched by two F-15K and KF-16 jet fighters.

“This precision strike by our military shows that we have willpower to decidedly respond to any sorts of provocation and the capability and readiness to precisely strike the enemy,” the JCS said.

The warning did not stop Pyongyang from firing about 100 artillery shells into the eastern waters near the maritime border.

South Korea demanded Pyongyang cease fire with a statement that they “once again clearly warn that responsibilities of all situations hereafter lies completely on North Korea as North Korea continues to provoke despite repeated warnings from our military.”

Wednesday’s launches came hours after Pyongyang warned that it could use nuclear weapons to make the U.S. and South Korea “pay the most horrible price in history” if South Korea and the U.S. joint military drills continue.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

South Korea responds to North firing 23 missiles

omersukrugoksu/Getty Images

(SEOUL, South Korea) — Tensions rose in the Korean Peninsula while the two Koreas test-fired missiles one after another in a series of tit-for-tat moves on Wednesday.

North Korea fired four short-range ballistic missiles at 6:51 a.m. local time from its North Pyongan Province into the West Sea. Two hours later, the North fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea (Sea of Japan), one of which landed in the waters below south of the NLL, or North Limit Line.

“This is the first time since the two Koreas split that a ballistic missile fell close to our waters, south of the NLL,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a written statement.

The missile fell 104 miles northwest of South Korea’s Ulleung island, triggering an air raid alert which forced the island’s 9,000 residents to evacuate to underground shelters.

The North soon after continued to fire off an additional 10 or more short-range ballistic and surface-to-air missiles from South Hamgyung Province to the east and from South Pyongan Province and South Hwanghae Province to the west.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the military to ensure that North Korea “pays a clear price for its provocation,” according to his office.

In a retaliatory move, South Korea quickly responded by launching its own air-to-surface missiles into a similar area above the NLL, launched by two F-15K and KF-16 jet fighters.

“This precision strike by our military shows that we have willpower to decidedly respond to any sorts of provocation and the capability and readiness to precisely strike the enemy,” the JCS said.

The warning did not stop Pyongyang from firing about 100 artillery shells into the eastern waters near the maritime border.

South Korea demanded Pyongyang cease fire with a statement that they “once again clearly warn that responsibilities of all situations hereafter lies completely on North Korea as North Korea continues to provoke despite repeated warnings from our military.”

Wednesday’s launches came hours after Pyongyang warned that it could use nuclear weapons to make the U.S. and South Korea “pay the most horrible price in history” if South Korea and the U.S. joint military drills continue.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Who is Lula? Winner of Brazil’s presidential election

Daniel Munoz/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Brazil’s voters on Sunday chose a new president: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known by the name Lula.

Lula narrowly beat out Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent far-right president who has become infamous during four years in office for accelerating the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, as well as for his administration’s handling of the pandemic. Brazil suffered the world’s second-highest death toll from COVID-19, behind the U.S.

Although Bolsnaro did not officially concede the election during public remarks Tuesday, and has in the past spread myths questioning the integrity of elections in the country, Lula is expected to be sworn in on Jan. 1.

So who is Brazil’s new president?

Lula is a former labor organizer and founding member of the country’s Workers’ Party. He served two terms as the president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010 and left office with an approval rating of 80%.

During his presidency, he expanded social welfare programs including a vast family assistance program, raised the minimum wage, grew the economy and expanded trade. His programs are estimated to have lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty and grown the country’s middle class.

He was known as a pragmatic negotiator, helping to expand foreign markets for Brazilian goods such as meat and soybeans. Former President Barack Obama once called him “one of the most popular politicians on Earth.”

The country’s constitution prohibited Lula from running for a third term, and he helped elect his former energy minister and close ally Dilma Rousseff as president. She would become the country’s first female president.

Despite his popularity, his presidency was marred by a number of public scandals including revelations the Workers’ Party was paying a monthly bribe, or “mensalão” to political officials, and “Operation Car Wash,” a multi-year criminal investigation into dealings of the state-owned oil company Petrobras along with dozens of individuals in public and private sectors.

He was convicted on charges of corruption and money laundering, and eventually arrested in 2018. Lula maintained that he was innocent. He spent a year and a half in prison before his charges were annulled in 2021 by a Supreme Federal Court decision that found the judge in the case had been biased against him.

Lula tried to run for president in 2018 but a court denied his candidacy due to his imprisonment. Bolsonaro, a former military officer and conservative Congressman who ran on a far-right platform, won the presidential election.

Lula was born to a poor family in northeast Brazil, moving to the metropolis of São Paulo with his family at a young age. He only achieved a middle school education and began working at a very young age, first as a shoe-shiner and then in factories. While working in the metal industry he first became involved in union organizing.

He would go on to serve as the leader of a steel-workers union, helping to organize strikes during the military rule in the late 1970s. The military dictatorship in Brazil lasted from 1964 to 1985.

In 1980, he helped found the national political party, the Workers’ Party, alongside other union leaders, politicians, organizers and intellectuals. The Workers’ Party helped to organize a campaign and social movement called “Diretas Já!” in 1984, which advocated for the country’s presidents to be elected by popular vote.

Lula held his first political office in 1986, when he was elected to Congress. His party helped to draft the country’s new Constitution, which was ratified in 1988.

He ran for president unsuccessfully three times, beginning in the 1989 election, before being elected in 2002.

In 2011, Lula was diagnosed with throat cancer, for which he underwent successful chemotherapy. He has been married three times, marrying his third wife, Rosangela Silva, in May of this year.

He campaigned on reducing the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, tackling climate change and expanding social welfare services, including increasing taxes on the rich.

“I consider myself a citizen who has had a process of resurrection in Brazilian politics,” Lula said in his victory speech Sunday night. “They tried to bury me alive.”

“I am here to govern in a very difficult situation,” he added. “But I have faith in God that, with our people’s help, we will find a way out for this country.”

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US citizen imprisoned in Saudi Arabia over tweets

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. citizen and Florida resident Saad Ibrahim Almadi was arrested for a series of tweets he published that were critical of Saudi Arabia while visiting family in the Kingdom last November.

His son, Ibrahim Almadi, spoke with ABC News’ Linsey Davis Monday about his fight for his father’s release and what he knows about the case. Almadi said his father has been tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison, and that the U.S. is not doing enough to help his father.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement to ABC News, “we’ve consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding his case at senior levels of the Saudi government several times in both Washington and Riyadh and will continue to do so. The Saudi government understands the priority we attach to resolving this matter.”

PRIME: Thank you so much for joining us. Talk to me about that day that you last saw your dad. How did you hear about what happened?

ALMADI: Last time I saw my dad, I thought everything was okay. I didn’t know about his situation until December 20. That’s when I reached out to the State Department and our embassy in Riyadh.

PRIME: And what did you hear?

ALMADI: They told me, “we’ll try to locate your father. We have no idea where he is right now.”

PRIME: And did you ever learn then about some charges? How did that information come to you?

ALMADI: Nothing until March 29th, when they saw my father at Al-Ha’ir prison. It’s a political prison where they throw all the Saudis there for practicing freedom of speech, which they don’t have in their constitution there but as American citizens, we have it here.

PRIME: And so what are they accusing him of?

ALMADI: Terrorism, trying to destabilize the kingdom and they torture him until convicted himself that he made these tweets to do that.

PRIME: And you say that he’s been tortured. What evidence do you have of that?

ALMADI: That’s his own words, his own reply to the judge. The judge wanted to sentence him for 42 years. But after reading my father’s reply to the way the investigation went, they discounted him to 16 years from 42.

PRIME: You’ve not been able to talk to your father.

ALMADI: Until now. And the Department of State has no news about my father since August 10th.

PRIME: So you don’t really know his status at all? Is there any way to get any kind of update or what is the United States— ?

ALMADI: I mean, the White House needs to recognize my father. He’s a senior American citizen. I don’t want my father to die in prison like Dr. Abdullah Mohammed.

PRIME: Of course, you’re aware of the publicity and the push to get the United States to free Paul Wheelan and Brittney Griner from Russia. Do you feel that there are any similar efforts underway to get your dad out?

ALMADI: That’s that’s what I’m that’s what I’m hoping for, but nothing yet.

PRIME: You’ve said that the State Department has mishandled your father’s case. And I do want to give you a quote that they have told ABC, they say “we’ve consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding his case at senior levels of the Saudi government several times in both Washington and Riyadh and will continue to do so. The Saudi government understands the priority we attach to resolving this matter” and that they have no further updates. How do you respond to that?

ALMADI: I mean, if His Highness Crown Prince, is quite sensitive from Twitter, I suggest he buy the rest of the stake, he can shut down Twitter. He can’t send a senior American citizen to prison for practicing his First Amendment.

PRIME: And so what does the U.S. State Department tell you? Do you get any updates from them at all?

ALMADI: Nothing. Last time I talked to them was two weeks ago, and that is nothing.

PRIME: And what did they say?

ALMADI: We’re still working on it. We submitted a ticket to see your father, but the Saudis didn’t respond to the ticket.

PRIME: If you could talk to your dad, what would you say to him?

ALMADI: I love you so much. I will do everything to bring you back home.

PRIME: Is there anything else that you can do? Do you feel, are your hands tied because you’re just waiting for the State Department to act?

ALMADI: Absolutely. They need to act and they must act. My father is facing the most aggressive sentence for an American citizen overseas. The Saudi court under MBS they broke a new record. They need to act.

PRIME: Did your dad express any concern when he was going over there to Saudi Arabia, that because he had been critical of the government that something might happen?

ALMADI: That’s a lovely question. My father had his American passport printed, a photo of it, in his bedroom. And he told me ‘son, if I’m gone, immediately reach out to our embassy.’

PRIME: And you did that?

ALMADI: Absolutely.

PRIME: And you feel that the response has not been adequate?

ALMADI: Not yet.

PRIME: Well, we thank you so much for sharing your story, your father’s story with us, and hope that it will do some good for you.

ALMADI: Thank you, Linsey.

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South Korean police say first calls were made four hours before deadly crowd crush

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(LONDON) — Delayed police responses and an illegal street obstruction were contributing factors to the weekend’s crowd crush in Seoul, South Korea, officials said on Tuesday.

At least 154 people were killed, and dozens were seriously injured in the South Korea capital’s Itaewon neighborhood as they celebrated Halloween on Saturday night.

The death count could further rise as many of those injured remain in critical condition, the country’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.

Those killed or wounded were mainly teenagers and individuals in their 20s, according to Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department.

Government investigators have scrambled to explain the night’s logistical failures, such as insufficient police reactions and obstructive terraces, which escalated the fatality of the crush.

The first person called for emergency rescue at the site at 6:34 p.m., four hours before the crowd crush, the National Police Agency said. Firefighters arrived after 11 p.m., they said.

In total, witnesses made 11 emergency calls throughout the night, and police dispatched officers to the site four times, the agency said. The officers presumably did not realize the urgency of the crowd, according to local reports.

The National Police Agency is investigating its protocol, seeking to uncover why the rescue squad did not arrive earlier and why the force’s control of the crowd was “inadequate,” per the wording of its police chief.

In addition to the lack of police dispatched, authorities said they were looking into two makeshift terraces on each side of the back street of the Hamilton Hotel building. The terraces were illegal and caused the crowd’s bottleneck pile-up, officials said.

Alley streets must be four meters wide, according to law, but the hotel’s terraces shrunk the alley’s width to three meters, just under 10 feet. Authorities in the ward office of Yongsan fined the Hamilton Hotel for the same violation last year, officials said.

The national police chief, Seoul’s mayor and the prime minister all had separate press meetings on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Each apologized for their inability in preventing this tragedy, vowing to prioritize public safety.

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