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CNA
04-07-2025
- Politics
- CNA
North Korean detained after crossing land border: Seoul military
SEOUL: A North Korean who crossed the heavily fortified land border into the South has been detained and taken into custody, Seoul's military said on Friday (Jul 4). The North Korean managed to cross the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) in the midwestern part of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Thursday, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The MDL is the de facto border, which runs through the middle of the DMZ – the border area separating the two Koreas, which is one of the most heavily mined places on earth. "The military identified the individual near the MDL, conducted tracking and surveillance," the JCS said in a statement. It then "successfully carried out a standard guiding operation to secure custody," it added. Seoul's military said "relevant authorities" will investigate the detailed circumstances of the incident. North Koreans are typically handed over to Seoul's intelligence agency for screening when they arrive in the South. The incident comes after a wooden boat carrying four North Koreans drifted into waters south of the de facto maritime border in May. Another North Korean defected to the South across the de facto border in the Yellow Sea last year, arriving on Gyodong island off the peninsula's west coast near the border between the Koreas. Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, with most going overland to neighbouring China first, then entering a third country such as Thailand before finally making it to the South. Defections across the land border that divides the peninsula are rare. The number of successful escapes dropped significantly from 2020 after the North sealed its borders – purportedly with shoot-on-sight orders along the land frontier with China – to prevent the spread of Covid-19. South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last month, has vowed a more dovish approach towards Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol. "Politics and diplomacy must be handled without emotion and approached with reason and logic," Lee said Thursday.
Irish Times
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
German intelligence service report on AfD faces claims of political interference
A week ago, Germany 's domestic intelligence service (BfV) presented the outgoing federal government with a 1,108-page report classifying Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a 'guaranteed far-right' political party. Not any more: a week on, after the AfD filed an injunction, the BfV has set aside this classification temporarily until a court ruling, shifting attention away from damaging claims against the party to claims of political interference in the BfV report, how it was compiled and issued. On May 2nd, after nearly four years of work, the report was accepted – but not published – as one of the last official acts of outgoing federal interior minister Nancy Faeser. In an accompanying press statement – since deleted from its website – the BfV said the AfD and its politics were 'incompatible' with Germany's 'free democratic order', in particular because of its 'ongoing' agitation against refugees and migrants. READ MORE The intelligence agency declined to release the report, claiming that doing so would reveal key elements of its investigation. That in turn has prompted the AfD, joint first in national opinion polls with 25 per cent support, to launch legal action against what it views as a smear campaign by political rivals. [ Derek Scally: Far-right AfD looks to broaden its base Opens in new window ] Despite the BfV pause, leaked extracts suggest the report is largely an extensive compilation of public remarks by about 300 party officials – either at rallies or in online posts. Given this, an unnamed BfV official told the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily that many in the agency doubted the report would stand up in court. On Friday the Bild tabloid presented five key accusations, drawing on extracts from the report's seven chapters: claims that the AfD discriminates against non-white people; rejects non-ethnic German citizens; represents Islamophobic positions; undermines the legitimacy of the state; and plays down Nazi-era crimes. The report quotes AfD MP Maximilian Krah from January 2024 saying that 'whoever takes Afghans and Africans into the government makes the government culturally more African and Afghan'. Other politicians complain about 'passport Germans', discuss the 'genetic make-up of living things' and urge voters, in a social media post: 'Don't let us GERMANS be robbed of our PRIDE and HONOUR'. The BfV rates such political remarks as indicative of a party that views a population as an 'ethnic-cultural collective, exclusionary of people with a migration background. This violates the [constitutional] principle of human dignity.' On Islam, the BfV report cites party officials' claims of a Muslim takeover plan to 'undermine and enslave us' as proof of a 'sweeping degradation and criminalisation of the entire Muslim faith community'. Other quotes cited by Bild draw parallels between the Nazi dictatorship and modern Germany, claiming 'the Berlin republic is moving in the direction of totalitarianism'. In its summary the intelligence agency says it 'doesn't expect' moderate forces in the party can halt the AfD's slide towards an 'unconstitutional organisation'. High legal hurdles must be cleared before a party can be classified as extremist, allowing intelligence services step up surveillance of party members and communications – and deploy, or recruit, informers within party ranks. Germany's new federal interior minister Alexander Dobrindt has admitted he has yet to read the report but said it was likely to contain sensitive information from intelligence activities. Despite this he promised 'not to put it in a cupboard' and publish as much of the report as possible. It is no longer certain that this will happen. On Friday AfD leader Alice Weidel said she was confident their legal action would be successful, ensuring the BfV report would never see the light of day. On Twitter/X she wrote: 'We are fighting with all legal means.'
