Kim, Moon Start Possibly Most Challenging Korean Summit Yet

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18 September 2018, 11:35

In this image made from video provided by Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, poses with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a photo on the podium upon arrival in September in Pyongyang, North Korea. Image: Associated Press

PYONGYANG, North Korea — South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in North Korea on Tuesday for his third and possibly most challenging summit yet with leader Kim Jong Un in which he hopes to break an impasse in talks with the United States over the North’s denuclearization and breathe energy into his own efforts to expand and improve relations between the Koreas.

In what are by now familiar images of the two Korean leaders hugging and exchanging warm smiles, Kim greeted Moon at Pyongyang’s airport. They walked together past cheering crowds and a military honor guard, and then drove into the city, where security was higher than usual.

Traveling with Moon are business tycoons including Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong, underscoring Moon’s hopes to expand cross-border business projects. Currently, all major joint projects between the Koreas are stalled because of U.S.-led sanctions.

Moon was expected to have talks with Kim on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Moon’s chief of staff. Moon and Kim were also expected to jointly announce the results of their talks on Wednesday if things go smoothly. Moon is to return to Seoul on Thursday.

North Korea’s state-run media reported early Tuesday that Moon was to begin a visit, but said little else. It said the two will reaffirm their previous commitments to “peace, prosperity and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.”

Security was tight. Requests by The Associated Press to go to the airport or to drive around the city were denied.

This is Moon’s first trip to the North Korean capital, though he has met Kim twice at the border village of Panmunjom.

In this image made from video provided by Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, hugs North Korean leader Kim Jong Un upon arrival Tuesday in Pyongyang, North Korea. Image: Associated Press

He is under intense pressure from Washington to advance the denuclearization process. Before his departure he said he intends to push for “irreversible, permanent peace” and for better dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.

“This summit would be very meaningful if it yielded a resumption of North Korea-U.S. talks,” Moon said Tuesday morning just before his departure. “It’s very important for South and North Korea to meet frequently, and we are turning to a phase where we can meet anytime we want.”

But his chief of staff tried to lower expectations of major progress on the future of Kim’s nuclear arsenal.

Kim, meanwhile, is seemingly riding a wave of success.

The North just completed an elaborate celebration replete with a military parade and huge rallies across the country to mark North Korea’s 70th anniversary. China, signaling its support for Kim’s recent diplomatic moves, sent its third-highest party official to those festivities. That’s important because China is the North’s biggest economic partner and is an important political counterbalance to the United States.

North Korea maintains that it has developed its nuclear weapons to the point that it can now defend itself against a potential U.S. attack, and can now shift its focus to economic development and improved ties with the South. While signaling his willingness to talk with Washington, Kim’s strategy has been to try to elbow the U.S. away from Seoul so that the two Koreas can take the lead in deciding how to bring peace and stability to their peninsula.

Talks between the United States and North Korea, which Moon brokered through his April and May summits with Kim, have stalled since Kim’s meeting with President Donald Trump in Singapore in June.

North Korea has taken some steps, like dismantling its nuclear and rocket-engine testing sites, but U.S. officials have said it must take more serious disarmament steps before receiving outside concessions. Trump has indicated he may be open to holding another summit to resuscitate the talks, however.

To keep expectations from getting too high, Moon’s chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, said it’s “difficult to have any optimistic outlook” for progress on denuclearization during the summit.

But he said he still expects the summit to produce meaningful agreements that “fundamentally remove the danger of armed clashes and ease fears of war” between the two Koreas.

South Korea last week opened a liaison office in the North’s city of Kaesong, near the Demilitarized Zone. Another possible area of progress could be on a formal agreement ending the Korean War, which was halted in 1953 by what was intended to be a temporary armistice. Military officials have discussed possibly disarming a jointly controlled area at the Koreas’ shared border village, removing front-line guard posts and halting hostile acts along their sea boundary.

Moon is the third South Korean leader to visit North Korea’s capital for summits. Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun went to Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007 respectively to meet Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il. Those trips produced a slew of inter-Korean rapprochement projects, which were suspended after conservatives took power in Seoul.

Story: Eric Talmadge, Hyung-jin Kim

Lambast the Junta Friday at Anti-Coup Punk Concert

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Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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18 September 2018, 11:18

BANGKOK — Punk groups will reunite this week in Bangkok to seethe against military rule, four months after their last show was raided by police.

The same people behind the “Almost Four Years, You Motherfucker” concert will take the stage Friday with a night lampooning the junta’s recruiting of a girl idol group for publicity, according to an the event organizer who asked not to be named “because our concept is anonymity and anarchism.”

“Right now the coupmakers are using the BNK48 girls to whitewash their image,” said the organizer. “So we want to stage this event to criticize that.”

As of Tuesday, five bands had been confirmed to perform – ETAN, GAMNAD737, Blood-Soaked Street Of Social Decay and The ShockShuck – but event organizers said other interested punk acts are welcome to join.

Their previous show was in May to mark the fourth anniversary of the coup that brought the current junta to power. That event came to an abrupt end when police officers raided the venue – a monument to those killed in a 1973 popular uprising – citing the “harsh words” some of the musicians used in reference to junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Ten people were arrested and processed before being released without charge.

The organizer expects Friday’s show to go smoothly.

“I don’t think there would be any violence or arrests, because we will be playing on private property,” the organizer said, adding that the groups want to hold a bigger event in February to mark the upcoming election.

“BNK44: Four Years Later and All We Eat is Fortune Cookies,” will start at 8pm on the rooftop of The Overstay, an underground venue in the Pinklao area that hosts punk and reggae shows. Entry is free.

80 US Lawmakers Seek Release of Jailed Myanmar Reporters

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Associated Press

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18 September 2018, 10:58

Reuters journalist Wa Lone, center, walks along with his wife Pan Ei Mon, second left, as he is escorted by police upon arrival at his trial Wednesday, April.11, 2018, Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

WASHINGTON — More than 80 U.S. lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to step up efforts to win the release of two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar for reporting about massacres against Rohingya (ROH’-hihn-jah) Muslims.

Republican and Democratic House members say it’s the latest example of erosion of press freedom in Myanmar. In a letter publicized Monday, they called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to raise the issue with the nation’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ahng sahn soo chee), and to publicly call for the journalists’ immediate and unconditional release.

Wa Lone (wah lohn) and Kyaw Soe Oo (jahw soh oo) were sentenced to seven years imprisonment on Sept. 3 for possessing state secrets. They had reported on the army’s brutal counter-insurgency campaign that drove 700,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh.

1st Private Moon Flight Passenger to Invite Creative Guests

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Associated Press

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18 September 2018, 10:49

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk, left, announces Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, right, as the first private passenger on a trip around the moon, Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, in Hawthorne, California. Photo: Chris Carlson / Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said Monday that he plans to blast off on the first-ever private commercial trip around the moon and will invite six to eight artists, architects, designers and other creative people on the weeklong journey “to inspire the dreamer in all of us.”

The SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket is scheduled to make the trip in 2023, company founder Elon Musk announced at an event Monday at its headquarters near Los Angeles.

Maezawa, 42, said he wants his guests for the lunar orbit “to see the moon up close, and the Earth in full view, and create work to reflect their experience.”

Musk said the entrepreneur, founder of Japan’s largest retail website and one the country’s richest people, will pay “a lot of money” for the trip, but declined to disclose the exact amount. Maezawa came to SpaceX with the idea for the group flight, Musk said.

“I did not want to have such a fantastic experience by myself,” said Maezawa, wearing a blue sports jacket over a white T-shirt with printed with a work by the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. He said he often mused about what artists like Basquiat or Andy Warhol might have come up with if they’d traveled into space.

“I wish to create amazing works of art for humankind,” Maezawa said.

Maezawa didn’t immediately say who will be on his guest list for the spaceflight, but in response to a question from a reporter he said he’d consider inviting Musk.

“Maybe we’ll both be on it,” Musk said with a smile.

He said the BFR is still in development and will make several unmanned test launches before it takes on passengers. The reusable 118-meter (387-foot) rocket will have its own dedicated passenger ship.

The mission will not involve a lunar landing.

The average distance from Earth to the moon is about 237,685 miles (382,500 kilometers). Astronauts last visited the moon during NASA’s Apollo program. Twenty-four men flew to the moon from 1968 through 1972 and half of them made it to the lunar surface.

NASA is planning its own lunar flyby with a crew around 2023. The space agency also aims to build a staffed gateway near the moon during the 2020s. The outpost would serve as a stepping-off point for the lunar surface, Mars and points beyond.

Musk outlined a somewhat different SpaceX mission last year. He said then that two people who know each other approached the company about a weeklong flight to the moon and back. He had said that the trip would happen this year. Musk did not name the clients last year or say how much they would pay.

That original mission would have used a Falcon Heavy rocket – the most powerful rocket flying today – and a Dragon crew capsule similar to the one NASA astronauts will use to fly to the International Space Station as early as next year.

The era of space tourism began in 2001 when California businessman Dennis Tito paid for a journey on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. The trip was organized by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures, which has since sent several more paying customers on spaceflights.

SpaceX already has a long list of firsts, with its sights ultimately set on Mars. It became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and safely return it to Earth in 2010, and the first commercial enterprise to fly to the space station in 2012 on a supply mission.

Musk’s successes have recently been overshadowed by his behavior and the struggles of his Tesla electric car company to deliver.

He recently criticized analysts during a Tesla earnings conference call, labeled a British diver in the recent Luang cave rescue drama as a pedophile, took a hit off an apparent marijuana-tobacco joint during a podcast interview, and tweeted that he had funding to take Tesla private but then announced the deal was off.

Two high executives announced departures from Tesla, and the diver sued Musk on Monday. Last month he told the New York Times he was overwhelmed by job stress.

The British diver, Vernon Unsworth, sued Musk for defamation on Monday and is seeking more than USD$75,000.

Musk and SpaceX engineers built a small submarine and shipped it to Thailand to help with the rescue. The device wasn’t used and in the interview, Unsworth called it a “PR stunt” and said it wouldn’t have worked to free the boys who were trapped in the flooded cave.

Story: Christopher Weber

Luang Cave Rescuer Sues Elon Musk Over ‘Pedo’ Tweet

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Associated Press

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18 September 2018, 10:37

Elon Musk, second from left, in July in Chiang Rai. Photo: @Nammtoei / Twitter

A British diver who helped rescue youth football players trapped in a cave in Chiang Rai is suing Elon Musk, alleging that the Tesla CEO falsely accused him of being a pedophile.

Diver Vernon Unsworth, who lives north of London, contends that Musk made the false allegation on Twitter and then repeated multiple other falsehoods after the dramatic rescue of a dozen youth football players and their coach in July.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court Monday seeks more than USD$75,000 in damages and a court order stopping Musk from making further allegations. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Musk called Unsworth a “pedo” in a tweet to his 22.5 million followers after Unsworth criticized Musk in a July 13 television interview with CNN about the rescue.

Musk and engineers from his rocket company, SpaceX, built a small submarine and shipped it to Thailand to help with the rescue. The device wasn’t used and in the interview, Unsworth called it a “PR stunt” and said it wouldn’t have worked to free the boys who were trapped in the flooded cave. He also said Musk “can stick his submarine somewhere where it hurts.”

The lawsuit alleges that Musk, apparently angered by Unsworth’s remarks, began a campaign to destroy his reputation “by publishing false and heinous accusations of criminality against him to the public.”

In a series of tweets July 15, Musk, who personally delivered the submarine to the cave, wrote that he never saw Unsworth and challenged him to show a video of the final rescue. “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” Musk tweeted. Later on Twitter, Musk wrote “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”

Later Musk deleted the tweets and apologized after being criticized by shareholders, the lawsuit alleged, stating in a tweet that his words were “spoken in anger” and that the sub was built out of kindness according to specifications from the dive team leader.

British caver Vern Unsworth in July in the Tham Luang complex in Chiang Rai.

But on Aug. 28, Musk tweeted about Unsworth once again, writing: “You don’t think it’s strange he hasn’t sued me? He was offered free legal services.” The lawsuit states that with the tweet, Musk sought to tell the average reader that Unsworth’s failure to sue at the time was evidence that Unsworth is a pedophile.

Two days after the Aug. 28 tweet, Musk emailed a BuzzFeed News reporter, suggesting that the reporter investigate Unsworth and “stop defending child rapists,” according to the lawsuit, which is 65 pages with exhibits.

“He’s an old, single white guy from England who’s been traveling or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years,” Musk wrote, adding that Unsworth moved in Thailand “for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time,” according to the lawsuit.

Then in a second email to BuzzFeed, Musk accused Unsworth of being a liar and said he wasn’t on the cave dive team.

“Mr. Unsworth is not a pedophile. Mr. Unsworth has never engaged in an act of pedophilia. Mr. Unsworth is not a child rapist,” the lawsuit stated, adding that Unsworth has never been married to a minor.

Unsworth has a “significant other” in Thailand, a 40-year-old woman with whom he shares a house, according to the lawsuit. He first started going to Thailand in 2011, where he explored and mapped caves, the documents stated.

The lawsuit explains Unsworth’s role in the rescue, saying that on June 23, when the football players became trapped, several officials called and asked him to go to the cave as soon as possible. He was the first foreign rescuer to arrive.

He recommended that the Thai government seek help from divers in the United Kingdom, and Unsworth called friend and fellow diver Rob Harper. Harper, who had just returned from exploring Thai caves with Unsworth, brought two other divers, John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, to help with the rescue.

The boys, ages 11-16, were found July 2 by Volanthen and Stanton, according to the lawsuit.

The last football player was rescued July 8. “Together with Mr. Unsworth, Mr. Harper, Mr. Volanthen, and Mr. Stanton put together the dive portion of the rescue plan that ultimately saved the boys,” the lawsuit stated. It concedes that Unsworth was not involved in the final planning stages of the rescue because he didn’t have enough experience to make the dive.

The lawsuit was filed by lawyers led by L. Lin Wood, an Atlanta attorney who has represented plaintiffs in several high-profile libel cases including the family of homicide victim JonBenet Ramsey and security guard Richard Jewel, who was accused in media reports of being a suspect in a 1996 bombing during the Olympics in Atlanta, a crime committed by anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph. The documents said a separate lawsuit would be filed in England.

Unsworth will not do interviews, Wood said, but the attorney said in a statement that Musk’s wealth “cannot convert his lies into truth or protect him from accountability for his wrongdoing in a court of law.”

Unsworth’s British lawyer, Mark Stephens, said that “Twibels (Twitter libels) show that falsehoods by the rich and powerful can circulate round the globe to their 22.5 million followers and to the media before the truth can pull its boots on.”

“The truth has now got its boots on and Elon Musk is being brought to account for repeatedly attacking and taunting the good name of an ordinary spelunker: Vernon Unsworth who answered the call and (with others) put his life on the line to help rescue the 13 trapped in the caves in Thailand,” he said.

Stephens did not say when Unsworth planned to file a claim in the British courts.

Story: Tom Krisher

Russia: Missile That Shot Down Flight MH17 Was Ukrainian

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Associated Press

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17 September 2018, 17:27

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 taxis in 2011 in Fiumicino Airport, Rome, Italy. Photo: Alan Wilson / Wikimedia Commons

MOSCOW — The Russian military says the missile that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 came from the arsenals of the Ukrainian army, not from Russia.

The passenger jet was shot down by a Soviet-made missile over rebel-held eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 people aboard. The Netherlands and Australia announced in May that they believe the missile was transported to Ukraine from a military unit in the Russian city of Kursk.

Russia has vehemently denied involvement. Lt. Gen. Nikolai Parshin, chief of the Missile and Artillery Directorate at the Russian Defense Ministry, told reporters on Monday that the military had studied archives at the research center that produced the Buk missiles.

He said the missile in question was transported to a military unit in 1986 and to their knowledge never left Ukraine.

Toddler’s Body Found in Refugee Camp Hit By Landslide

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JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

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17 September 2018, 17:16

A landslide devastated the Ban Mae La Oon refugee camp in Mae Hong Son province in a photo provided Monday by the authorities.

MAE HONG SON — The body of a 2-year-old girl was found Monday after a landslide swept through a refugee camp in Mae Hong Son province, with seven people still missing.

The search and rescue operation continued Tuesday for the mostly young children who went missing in flash floods and a landslide triggered by torrential rain Sunday in the Ban Mae La Oon refugee camp in the Sop Moei district.

Gov. Sakorn Roongruang vowed to keep up the search until all are found.

The landslide also left 15 people injured. At least seven homes were destroyed and 49 people displaced. Almost 700 people were affected by the disaster.

Officials said residents face food and clothing shortages as most of their belongings were swept away.

Sakorn said it takes hours for rescue teams to reach the community as many parts of the road are blocked.

He added that the authorities will find another area less prone to landslides to build new homes for affected residents.

Ban Mae La Oon, located about 7 kilometers from the Myanmar border, is home to more than 9,400 refugees – mostly ethnic minorities who fled violence in Myanmar – according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Update: This article has been updated with additional information about the missing children and comments from the provincial governor.

Voice TV Suspends 2 Commentators, Says NBTC Forced It

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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17 September 2018, 17:10

Sirote Klampaiboon in a Friday episode of Wake Up News.

BANGKOK — Voice TV said on Monday it would suspend two prominent news commentators from a morning program for a month after citing pressures by the national telecommunications commission.

Virot Ali – one of two political commentators suspended from the Wake Up News program – said the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission accused him and his colleague of being biased and reporting too frequently on ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The station is owned by Thaksin’s son Panthongtae.

“The [commission] left us with no option. They said we have committed repeated violations and threatened to revoke our license,” Virot said, referring to the permit to operate the TV station.

Virot said the commission gave no explanation or written order, and that the station was told to propose how to penalize itself. He added that he believes the military regime pressured the commission to act.

NBTC secretary general Takorn Tantasith was not available for comment as of press time Monday afternoon.

Prateep Kongsib, director of Content and News Programs at Voice TV, said Monday that the suspension would extend from today through Oct. 17. Prateep said substitute staff will man the program until then, adding that a daily online political vignette by cartoonist Sia would also be suspended for the same period.

Prateep said the commission had already called the station five times this year to make clarifications.

“No penalty has been imposed this time because they want us to re-examine and improve on some parts,” Prateep said.

In a Sunday Facebook post, Prateep wrote that they had to put up with such scrutiny and listed four other TV hosts working at the station who had previously been suspended.

“In the end, we still reserve the right to fight in the justice process,” he said.

Sirote Klampaiboon, the other suspended commentator, wrote Sunday night on Facebook that he had been accused of political bias and making sarcastic remarks about the government.

“I draw the line on my views toward this government based on direct criticism. I do not attack them for being dictatorial. I don’t say they came to power through a coup. I don’t touch on their personalities and never exploit any chance to wrongly accuse the government.”

Sirote’s post elicited many comments, including one from former Nation TV President Adisak Limparungpatanakij.

“This behavior you describe is no different to that of a wolf and a sheep. No matter which era, the symptoms of underlings who feel they are insecure tend to lead to such behavior to pay lip service to the boss. But in the end, the boss will unknowingly be in ruins, because they end up closing their own ears and eyes without wanting to hear or read bad things about themselves,” Adisak wrote.

K-Drama Fans Who Impersonated Airport Staff Face Charges

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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17 September 2018, 17:06

BANGKOK — Police said Monday that two women were able to enter a restricted area at Suvarnabhumi Airport and see a Korean actor up close by claiming to be customs officials.

The pair was using a security pass borrowed from a mutual friend, who was working in the Customs Department, according to Suvarnabhumi Airport police chief Viroj Tudso. Airport authorities have filed criminal charges over the incident, he said.

“We have issued a summons warrant,” Col. Viroj said. He declined to name the official and the two fans.

Update: Suvarnabhumi to Upgrade Security After K-Fan Breach

The incident took place Friday night when actor and model Lee Jong-suk arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport to attend a fan meeting event scheduled for Saturday.

While most of the fans were content with waiting to welcome the star at the arrival hall, a woman posted on her Instagram account that she and her friend managed to see Lee at the immigration checkpoint area thanks to the help from someone who works at the customs department.

“Thank you my dear friend Piano who let me know Suk’s flight, and P’Sai for telling an official to let us in through the departure gate,” a caption reads. “Oyyyy I was the first to shake Suk’s hand!”

Outraged fans soon condemned and widely shared the posts, drawing the attention of airport authorities. Suvarnabhumi airport director Sirot Duangraj said in a Monday statement that his staff are seeking legal action over the incident.

The trio face charges of nighttime intrusion of an airport security area, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail, Col. Viroj said. He added that the airport takes the matter seriously because it could affect its international standing.

“It violates the standards set by ICAO,” the policeman said, referring to the International Civil Aviation Organization. “They had already given us a red flag about security measures.”

In a statement released Monday, the customs department confirmed that one of its officials was responsible for the breach, and that a disciplinary investigation had been launched. On top of potential legal consequences, the official in question could be expelled if found guilty.

The statement also said the inquiry would find out whether there were other people involved in the incident.

7 Die of Suspected Drug Overdoses at Vietnam Music Festival

By

Associated Press

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17 September 2018, 14:16

An undated image of revelers at the Vietnam Electronic Weekend in Hanoi. Image: Anternation Channel / YouTube

HANOI — Seven people have died of suspected drug overdoses during a music festival in Vietnam.

The Capital Police newspaper said five other people were still in comas Monday after overdosing at the festival Sunday night.

The Vietnam Electronic Weekend festival was held in a water park near Hanoi’s city center and attended by thousands of people.

The state-run media outlet said all the victims tested positive but it didn’t identify which drug or drugs were involved. It said police had seized suspected drug substances at the scene.

Police and local officials were not available for comment Monday.

Government data say Vietnam has 220,000 drug addicts with police records and some 1,600 overdose deaths annually.

Methamphetamine and heroin are the most common drugs used and overdosed, with meth use rising in recent years.

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