North Korea balloon trash lands in South Korea president’s compound, security says
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(LONDON and SEOUL) — Refuse carried by a North Korean “trash balloon” landed inside the South Korean presidential compound in the capital city of Seoul on Thursday amid rising tensions between the two neighbors.
The South Korean Presidential Security Service “identified trash that blew up in the air and fell in the office compound early this morning,” the service said in a Thursday statement.
“After a safety inspection, the service collected the fallen objects after confirming they do not contain danger or contagiousness,” the service added. “The service is monitoring the situation in cooperation with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
This is the second time one of North Korea’s trash balloons fell inside the South Korean Presidential Office Compound.
Cross-border balloons have been one element of the recent deterioration in inter-Korean relations, with the period of diplomatic thaw from 2017 giving way to new tensions since the election of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in the spring of 2022.
The balloons have been found carrying household waste items including paper, vinyl and plastic bottles, according to the South Korean military. Some trash balloons carried manure.
Several fires have also been reported in metropolitan areas attributed to “heat timers” attached to the balloons.
North Korea launched a total of 5,500 trash balloons at South Korea on 22 occasions from May 28 to Sept. 23 this year, Lee Sung-joon — a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff — said last month.
Seoul estimated that North Korea spent 550 million won — around $411,600 — to produce the balloons, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
Lee said in September after 120 balloons were launched that Seoul would consider military action to down them if necessary. “If North Korea’s continued trash balloons are judged to pose a serious threat to the safety of our citizens or to have crossed the line, the military will take stern military action,” he said.
South Korean civic groups have also launched balloons across the border, much to Pyongyang’s chagrin.
Such balloons often carry rice, essential medicine and leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong Un’s regime. North Korea has repeatedly protested such action and threatened a response.
The frontier region has been particularly tense this month. On Oct. 15, Seoul said North Korea blew up two border roads and deployed “heavy equipment” for “further operations.”
South Korean troops along the border fired warning shots in response, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The detonations followed a North Korean warning that it intended to permanently seal off border access routes, cutting rail and road connections and reinforcing defensive fortifications.
The explosions came shortly after Kim ordered his artillery forces — traditionally the most potent threat to the capital Seoul, which sits around 35 miles from the frontier — onto full alert, having accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang.
The face-off on the Korean Peninsula may now spread to Ukraine, where Seoul, Kyiv and Washington, D.C. have accused Pyongyang of deploying troops in support of Russia’s invasion.
Yonhap reported that Seoul is now considering sending weapons to Ukraine in response, having so far only provided humanitarian aid.
Yonhap also said South Korea is considering sending military and intelligence personnel to Ukraine to probe North Korean battlefield performance and help with interrogations of captured North Korean fighters.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a Bi-Lateral meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at United Nations on September 25, 2024 in New York, New York. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the White House on Thursday, the Biden administration is facing frustration from other western allies over its refusal to let Ukraine use western long-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia.
The request is a priority for Zelenskyy that he is pressing for this visit, but so far the administration has seemed unyielding in its opposition. That has prompted unusual public expressions of frustration in recent days from some NATO countries.
The prime minister of Denmark, which has been a significant supplier of military aid, this week at the U.N. General Assembly said the public discussion of “red lines” had been a “mistake,” that is “simply giving the Russians too good a card in their hands.”
“It would be really good to stop the delays. And I think that the restrictions on the use of weapons should be lifted,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Bloomberg in a television interview.
Britain and France have both indicated they are ready to allow Ukraine to use their own long-range cruise missiles that they have supplied to hit inside Russia, but want the U.S. to give approval.
U.S. officials have briefed two key reasons for opposing the decision, saying they are concerned it could prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to further escalate and that the strikes would make insufficient difference to the war, meaning the risk of escalation isn’t worth the military payoff.
Ukraine and some of its other key allies strongly disagree, arguing Putin is bluffing.
Zelenskyy in an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts for Good Morning America on Monday said Ukraine could use the missiles to hit airbases that Russia is using to drop hundreds of powerful bombs in eastern Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said he believed Britain, France, Germany and Italy were ready to allow the strikes but that the decision needed to come from the U.S.
“The main role is in the United States, in the president of United States, Biden. Everybody’s looking up to him, and — we need this to defend ourselves,” said Zelenskyy.
Putin has turned to loud nuclear saber-rattling in an effort to deter the U.S. from accepting Ukraine’s request. The Russian leader on Wednesday announced changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine clearly directed at Ukraine and U.S. The changes said Russia will now treat aggression from non-nuclear states supported by nuclear powers as a “joint attack.”
Putin’s loud threats suggest that the Kremlin at least does not agree with the U.S. assessment that allowing Ukraine to hit targets deeper inside Russia will make little difference to the war.
The U.S. has provided Ukraine with long-range missiles known as ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) that have a range of nearly 190 miles. Amid the debate over whether to let Ukraine use them deeper into Russian territory, Russia has moved back most of its aircraft to bases out of range of the missiles, reducing their potential effectiveness.
Germany, another key ally for Ukraine, though has expressed opposition to supplying its own long-range missiles, despite Ukraine’s requests. Germany’s leader Olaf Scholz this week again reiterated that refusal, saying it is “not compatible with my personal stance … We will not do that.”
Some U.S. political figures have suggested Germany’s opposition is also a concern to the Biden administration.
(TEL-AVIV, Israel) — Israel is preparing for a potential ground operation as its war with Hezbollah intensifies, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
“Today, we will continue, we are not stopping; we keep striking and hitting them everywhere,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of the General Staff, said Wednesday. “The goal is very clear — to safely return the residents of the north. To achieve that, we are preparing the process of a maneuver, which means your military boots, your maneuvering boots, will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts, with underground infrastructure, staging points and launchpads into our territory and carry out attacks on Israeli civilians.”
Israel continued its offensive against Hezbollah on Wednesday, conducting “extensive strikes” in southern Lebanon and the Begaa area, east of Beirut. The Israeli army said it struck 260 targets in Lebanon on Wednesday.
At least 636 people — including at least 50 children — have been killed and over 1,700 others were injured in Israeli strikes across Lebanon since Monday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
Israel also called up thousands of troops to northern Israel on Wednesday.
Over 90,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced over five days of Israeli airstrikes, according to the United Nations.
The number of displaced people in Lebanon as a result of the war could approach 500,000, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned Tuesday, stressing that “the war in Lebanon will not help the Israelis return to their homes and negotiations are the only way to do so.”
Hezbollah fired a long-range ballistic missile at Tel Aviv for the first time on Wednesday, targeting Mossad headquarters, according to the group. Hezbollah said it blames Mossad for the recent assassinations of its top leaders and explosions of members’ pagers and hand-held radios.
The missile was intercepted by aerial defense systems, according to the IDF. Israel also said it took out the missile launcher inside Lebanon.
As strikes continue to hit Lebanon, its largest hospital — Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut — is preparing for the worst, reopening multiple wings and organizing a massive triage unit. Flags were placed on the roof of the hospital with the letter “H,” to identify it for planes flying overhead.
“I’m asking for this hospital not to be shelled,” Dr. Jihad Saade, the general director of the hospital, said Wednesday. “We don’t want the problem of Gaza to be repeated here, regarding shelling and bombing of hospitals. It’s very dangerous if this hospital is targeted.”
International leaders gathering at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week have called for deescalation between Israel and Hamas as well as Israel and Hezbollah, calling for a cease-fire agreement to end the war with Hamas and a diplomatic resolution to end the widening conflict with Hezbollah.
Mediators between Israel and Hamas are now as far from a cease-fire deal as they have ever been, multiple senior U.S. officials told ABC News.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan issued a rare joint statement on Wednesday, condemning “the Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” warning that “Israel is pushing the region into an all-out war.”
Halting “the dangerous escalation … begins with stopping the Israeli aggression against Gaza,” the ministers said in a statement released after they met on the sidelines of the U.N. on Tuesday.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a key financial backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah, also warned Wednesday that killing members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah will not bring the group to its knees.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Morgan Winsor and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
(LONDON )– As Jahanzeb Wesa fled toward the Pakistani border in the middle of the night, he wondered if his career defending human rights would help protect him now that he was a refugee himself.
A 28-year-old Afghan journalist and women’s rights advocate, Wesa said he was attacked by a Taliban fighter while covering a women’s rights protest just after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. If he didn’t make it across the border, he said, he knew he would likely be killed.
“We worked for 20 years for a better future for Afghanistan,” he recalled thinking. “Why did we lose everything?”
But arriving in a new country brought no sense of safety.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, some Afghan journalists said they have been in limbo waiting for humanitarian visas while living in exile in Pakistan, where they fled across the shared border when Kabul fell.
The Taliban’s violent suppression of criticism, along with draconian crackdowns on women’s rights, meant journalists who stayed in Afghanistan were at constant risk of being detained, tortured, disappeared or killed.
In Pakistan, unable to legally work and threatened with deportation through government ultimatums and face-to-face interactions, some Afghan journalists applied for visas from countries that promised to help Afghan refugees.
Almost three years later, many said they still have not received a decision.
In the meantime, their prospects in Pakistan are dire, several told ABC News.
Life in Pakistan
Several Afghan journalists living in Pakistan told ABC News that their fear of deportation is omnipresent.
Khatera, a journalist from northern Afghanistan who asked ABC News not to publish her last name for her safety, fled to Pakistan in April 2022 after the Taliban raided her newsroom, destroying radios and TVs.
“After that,” she said, “everything was a nightmare.”
Like many Afghan journalists in Pakistan, Khatera arrived on a tourist visa she had to renew every six months through a private travel agent. Visa renewals were sometimes denied without reason, and officials often asked for bribes, she said.
The Pakistani government did not reply to a request for comment.
Housing, health care and transportation in Pakistan can be prohibitively expensive for Afghans, whose tourist visas don’t allow them to work. Many rely on depleting savings, support from family members, or under-the-table jobs, according to those who spoke to ABC News. Given the economic strain, the biannual visa fee and the corresponding bribes present significant burdens, they said.
But not having proper documentation can bring serious consequences. “Anywhere you’re going, the police are asking about your valid documents,” said Khatera. They sometimes conduct nighttime home check-ins and try to deport those who can’t provide valid papers, she said.
Those disruptions to daily life don’t appear to be unique to journalists. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report declared a “humanitarian crisis” of Pakistani authorities committing widespread abuses, including mass detentions and property seizures, against Afghans in Pakistan. Over a month and a half, the report said, Pakistani authorities deported 20,000 Afghans and coerced over 350,000 more to leave on their own.
Afghan journalists regularly receive death threats from the regime at home over social media, Wesa said. “If I’m deported to Afghanistan,” he said, “the Taliban is waiting for me.”
“No journalist has been condemned to torture, disappearance, or death by the government of Afghanistan,” said a spokesperson for the Taliban-run Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that “all citizens of the country are equal in the eyes of the law regardless of their position and profession.”
Some journalists said they also face a widespread mental health crisis. Rahman, an Afghan journalist who asked ABC News to use his middle name due to what he described as ongoing threats from the Taliban, struggles with worsening depression and anxiety. He said he fears for himself and his family, still in Kabul.
“It’s daily mental torture,” he said.
An endless wait
The conditions in Pakistan have spurred many Afghan journalists to apply for humanitarian visas from the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and other European countries. Yet, some have not heard back for about three years.
Wesa applied for an Australian humanitarian visa on Jan. 4, 2022, six months after he arrived in Pakistan. He supplemented his application with support letters from Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International and other nongovernmental organizations stating his life was at risk, he told ABC News.
More than two years after filing his initial application, he has received a confirmation of receipt but no further updates, he said.
A departmental spokesperson from the Australian Department of Home Affairs said they “expect it will take at least 6 years from the date of receipt for processing to commence on [the applications] lodged in 2022, 2023, or 2024.”
“We will wait – there is no other way,” Wesa said in response. “I hope they help us as soon as possible.”
“Day by day, I’m faced with depression and health issues,” he said. “My only hope is that Australia will save my life.”
Rahman, who reported on women’s rights in Afghanistan, is saving up to apply for a family visa from Australia, where his fiancée lives. The process costs over $9,000. He said he believes a humanitarian visa application will not receive a response.
Requests for help from the French embassy and the U.N. have also yielded no results, he said.
“I believe these countries have always been for freedom and for democracy. They can help out,” he said. “I just wonder why it takes such a long time.”
Khatera applied for a visa from the Swiss embassy. It took a year and a half to receive the file number, she said. She was told she needed close relatives in the country, but otherwise, they would likely not be able to help.
“I’m getting depression,” she said. “I’m just trying to fight.”
Every Afghan journalist in exile interviewed by ABC News said they continue to receive threats from the Taliban over social media and fear for their lives every day.
The Taliban denied sending the threats, saying “the government and officials of Afghanistan have not threatened any journalists.”
Broken promises
Afghan journalists waiting in worsening conditions for responses to their visa applications said they feel that Western countries have broken their promises to help Afghan refugees.
The United States expanded a resettlement program for Afghan refugees in 2021 to include journalists and humanitarian workers who had helped the United States. However, as of 2023, The Associated Press reported that only a small portion of applicants had been resettled.
The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The Afghan Pro Bono Initiative, a partnership providing free legal representation to Afghan refugees, published a 2023 report entitled “Two Years of Empty Promises.” The report found that the U.K. resettlement programs for Afghan refugees were fraught with delays, understaffing, administrative hurdles, narrow eligibility and technical issues.
Earlier this year, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other NGOs called on Western countries to adopt prima facie refugee status for Afghan women and girls, which would grant refugee status without the need for individual assessments, potentially streamlining the application process and decreasing lengthy wait times.
Despite the dragging wait times and the pervasive hopelessness, many of the 170 Afghan journalists in exile in Pakistan continue to speak out against the Taliban.
Wesa’s X account includes frequent posts about Afghanistan — legal updates, protest videos and women singing to resist what they describe as draconian Taliban policies.
“In any country, I will stand for Afghan women,” he said. “I will risk my life for them.”
