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TOKYO — The operator of Japan’s destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant demonstrated Tuesday how a remote-controlled robot would retrieve tiny bits of melted fuel debris from one of three damaged reactors later this year for the first time since the 2011 meltdown.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings plans to deploy a “telesco-style” extendable pipe robot into Fukushima Daiichi No. 2 reactor to test the removal of debris from its primary containment vessel by October.

That work is more than two years behind schedule. The removal of melted fuel was supposed to begin in late 2021 but has been plagued with delays, underscoring the difficulty of recovering from the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in 2011.

During the demonstration at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Kobe, western Japan, where the robot has been developed, a device equipped with tongs slowly descended from the telescopic pipe to a heap of gravel and picked up a granule.

TEPCO plans to remove less than 3 grams (0.1 ounce) of debris in the test at the Fukushima plant.

“We believe the upcoming test removal of fuel debris from Unit 2 is an extremely important step to steadily carry out future decommissioning work,” said Yusuke Nakagawa, a TEPCO group manager for the fuel debris retrieval program. “It is important to proceed with the test removal safely and steadily.”

About 880 tons of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors. Critics say the 30- to 40-year cleanup target set by the government and TEPCO for Fukushima Daiichi is overly optimistic. The damage in each reactor is different, and plans must accommodate their conditions.

Better understanding the melted fuel debris from inside the reactors is key to their decommissioning. TEPCO deployed four mini drones into the No. 1 reactor’s primary containment vessel earlier this year to capture images from the areas where robots had not reached.
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SEOUL/TOKYO — North Korea said its attempt to launch a new military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure Monday when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight. 

The attempt came just hours after Pyongyang issued a warning that it would try to launch a satellite by June 4, in what would have been its second spy satellite in orbit. 

Instead, the launch became the nuclear-armed North’s latest failure, following two other fiery crashes last year. It successfully placed its first spy satellite in orbit in November. 

“The launch of the new satellite carrier rocket failed when it exploded in mid-air during the flight of the first stage,” the deputy director general of North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration said in a report carried by state media. 

An initial analysis suggested that the cause was a newly developed liquid fuel rocket motor, but other possible causes were being investigated, the report said. 

Officials in South Korea and Japan had earlier reported that the launch seemed to have failed. 

North Korea fired the projectile on a southern path off its west coast at around 10:44 p.m. (1344 GMT), the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. 

JCS said it had detected a large amount of debris from the rocket in the sea just two minutes after launch, however. 

The object launched by North Korea disappeared over the Yellow Sea, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters, adding the government presumes nothing had entered into space. 

“These launches are in violation of relevant security council resolutions and are a serious matter concerning the safety of our people,” Hayashi said. 

Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed video of what appeared to be an orange dot flying into the night sky and then bursting into flames in an area close to the border between China and North Korea. 

A Japanese defense ministry official told reporters that the color of the flames in the footage suggests that liquid fuel may be burning, but details are currently being analyzed, NHK reported.  

The launch appeared to originate from Dongchang-ri, a northwestern area of the country where North Korea’s main space flight center is based, JCS said. 

The Japanese government issued an emergency warning Monday for residents in the south to take cover from the possible threat of a North Korean missile, before lifting the warning and saying it was not expected to fly over Japanese territory. 

Japan said over its J-Alert broadcasting system that North Korea appeared to have fired a missile, sending out the warning to residents in the southern prefecture of Okinawa. 

Several failures, one success 

The launch would be the nuclear-armed North’s attempt to place a second spy satellite into orbit. After several failed attempts that ended when the rockets crashed, North Korea successfully placed its first such satellite in orbit in November. 

The North’s first bid to launch the new Chollima-1 satellite rocket, on May 31 last year, ended after a failure in the second stage. State media blamed the setback on an unstable and unreliable new engine system and fuel. 

After the May launch attempt, South Korea retrieved the wreckage of the satellite from the sea and said an analysis showed it had no meaningful use as a reconnaissance platform. 

Another attempt in August also ended in failure, with stages of the rocket boosters experiencing problems resulting in the payloads crashing into the sea. 

North Korea’s space authorities had described the August failure after the rocket booster experienced a problem with its third stage as “not a big issue” in terms of the rocket system’s overall reliability. 

In February, U.S. space experts said North Korea’s first spy satellite, dubbed the Malligyong-1, was “alive,” after detecting changes in its orbit that suggested Pyongyang was successfully controlling the spacecraft — although its capabilities remain unknown. 

North Korean state media reported that the satellite had transmitted photos of the Pentagon and White House, among other areas, but has not released any of the images. 

The successful November launch was the first after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip abroad in September and toured Russia’s most modern space launch center, where President Vladimir Putin promised to help Pyongyang build satellites. 

Neither country has elaborated on the extent of that future aid, which could violate United Nations Security Council resolutions against North Korea. 

Russian experts have visited North Korea to help with the satellite and space rocket program, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed South Korean senior defense official. 

Pyongyang has said it needs a military reconnaissance satellite to boost monitoring of U.S. and South Korean military activities.
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BANGKOK — A Thai court on Monday sentenced a lawmaker from a progressive opposition party to two years in prison after finding her guilty of defaming the monarchy in a speech she made during a protest rally three years ago.

Chonthicha Jangrew of the Move Forward Party was greeted by several supporters when she arrived at the Thanyaburi Provincial Court in Pathum Thani province, north of Bangkok, with some party colleagues. Chonthicha, popularly known by her nickname “Lookkate,” represents a constituency in Pathum Thani.

Her charges stemmed from her speech in 2021 that demanded the release of all political prisoners during a rally in front of the same court that delivered Monday’s sentence. 

She was found guilty for parts of the speech concerning how the government then led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha had amended laws to give King Vajiralongkorn more power to control the palace wealth, which is managed by the Crown Property Bureau.

The judge said her speech could misinform the public by suggesting that King Vajiralongkorn can spend taxpayers’ money for his personal use and use his influence to interfere with politics, which could tarnish his reputation.

The judge originally sentenced her to three years in prison but reduced it to two years because of her cooperation in the trial. The law for defaming the monarchy, an offense known as lese majeste, carries a penalty of three to 15 years imprisonment. It is widely referred to as Article 112 from its place in the Criminal Code.

Chonthicha was afterwards released on bail of 150,000 baht ($4,100). Had bail not been granted and she been sent directly to prison, she would have immediately been removed from her seat in Parliament.

She told reporters she wasn’t surprised about the verdict as most of 112 charges led to convictions.

She said she will appeal, adding that she was glad to have been granted release on bail but wished that other political prisoners were given the same right.

A young activist charged with lese majeste died in detention earlier this month after carrying out a monthslong hunger strike to protest the revocation of her bail in January.

Chonthicha and nine other defendants in the case were charged with other offenses including illegal assembly and violating an emergency decree enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. All 10 were acquitted of those charges. Chonthicha was the only one who had been charged with violating the lese majeste law.

Before becoming a politician, Chonthicha had been an activist since she was a college student. She became a high-profile figure in the youth-dominated movement by confronting the police during the mass street protests that demanded democratic reform of several powerful institutions including the monarchy.

Chonthicha, 31, won a seat in last year’s general election, part of a surprise victory for the progressive Move Forward Party that shook Thai politics. 

However, it failed to take power after the party was outmaneuvered by influential conservative forces, as members of the Senate refused to approve the party’s leader as prime minister.

Criticism of Thailand’s monarchy is considered taboo, and insulting or defaming key royal family members is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

But student-led pro-democracy protests began to challenge that taboo in 2020, openly criticizing the monarchy. That led to vigorous prosecutions under what was previously a little-used law. Critics say the law is often wielded as a tool to quash political dissent.

The advocacy group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights says that since early 2020, more than 270 people — many of them student activists — have been charged with violating Article 112.

In December, another lawmaker from the Move Forward Party was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison over two posts she allegedly shared two years ago on the social media platform X, then known as Twitter. She appealed and was granted release on bail.
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Seoul, South Korea — North Korea has notified Japan of plans to launch a satellite by June 4, Japanese media reported Monday citing the coast guard, after Seoul said Pyongyang was preparing to put another military spy satellite into orbit.

The Japanese coast guard said the eight-day launch window began at midnight Sunday into Monday, with North Korea’s notice designating three maritime danger zones near the Korean peninsula and the Philippines island of Luzon where the satellite-carrying rocket’s debris might fall, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Officials from the United States, Japan and South Korea agreed in a phone call to urge Kim Jong Un’s regime to suspend the plan, as any launch using ballistic missile technology would violate U.N. resolutions, Kyodo reported.

Nuclear-armed North Korea launched its first reconnaissance satellite last November in a move that drew international condemnation, with the United States calling it a “brazen violation” of U.N. sanctions.

Experts say that spy satellites could improve Pyongyang’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly over fierce rival South Korea, and provide crucial data in any military conflict.

Seoul said Friday that South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities were “closely monitoring and tracking” presumed preparations for the launch of another military reconnaissance satellite.

The suspected preparations were detected in North Korea’s Tongchang-ri county, Seoul said, which is home to the isolated country’s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground. It was also where the North staged three satellite launches last year, with only the final one being successful.

Seoul has said the North received technical help from Russia for that satellite launch, in return for sending Moscow weapons for use in the war in Ukraine.

The warning from the North comes as Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo’s top leaders are due to meet in South Korea on Monday for their first summit in nearly five years, though differing political stances mean a discussion on North Korea is not expected to be on the table. 
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SEOUL/TOKYO — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Chinese Premier Li Qiang agreed on Sunday to launch a diplomatic and security dialogue and resume talks on a free trade agreement, Yoon’s office said.

Yoon and Li held talks a day ahead of a summit with their Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, their first three-way talks in more than four years.

Yoon told Li the two countries should work together not only to promote shared interests based on mutual respect, but also on regional and global issues to tackle common challenges, citing the Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas conflict and global economic uncertainties.

“Just as Korea and China have overcome various difficulties together over the past 30 years and contributed to each other’s development and growth, I hope to continue to strengthen bilateral cooperation even in the face of today’s global complex crises,” Yoon said at the start of the meeting, according to his office.

Li told Yoon their countries should oppose turning economic and trade issues into political or security issues and should work to maintain stable supply chains, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

In recent years Chinese leaders and diplomats have frequently condemned the U.S. and its allies over export controls targeting its semiconductor industry by calling on these countries to stop “overstretching the concept of national security.”

Since 2021 Chinese companies and state entities have been increasingly cut off from ready access to the world’s most advanced chips, many of them produced by South Korean tech giants like Samsung and SK Hynix.

Li expressed hopes for continuing efforts to “build consensus and resolve differences” through “equal dialogue and sincere communications.”

At a separate meeting with Kishida, Yoon lauded progress on diplomatic, economic and cultural exchanges with Japan, and they agreed to foster deeper ties next year when the two countries celebrate the 60th anniversary of normalizing relations, Yoon’s office said.

Practical cooperation

The three neighbors had agreed to hold a summit every year starting in 2008 to boost regional cooperation, but bilateral feuds and the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the initiative. Their last trilateral summit was in late 2019.

Yoon, Li and Kishida will adopt a joint statement on six areas including the economy and trade, science and technology, people-to-people exchanges and health and the aging population, Seoul officials said.

Kishida also plans to meet Li separately on Sunday, NHK reported, citing the Japanese government, and, according to the broadcast, is expected to raise a Chinese ban of Japanese seafood imports and Taiwan, among other topics.

Speaking with reporters before departing for Seoul, Kishida said he would seek “open and frank” discussions and hoped to foster future-oriented practical cooperation by revitalizing the trilateral process.

At the talks with Li, Kishida said he would like to “firmly confirm the direction of the mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests and constructive and stable Japan-China relations”.

The summit comes as South Korea and Japan have been working to mend ties frayed by historical disputes while deepening a trilateral security partnership with the United States amid intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry.

China has previously warned that U.S. efforts to further elevate relations with South Korea and Japan could fan regional tension and confrontation.

Seoul and Tokyo have warned against any attempts to forcibly change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, while Beijing on Tuesday criticized a decision by South Korean and Japanese lawmakers to attend Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s inauguration.

The summit might not bring a major breakthrough on sensitive issues but could make progress in areas of practical cooperation like people-to-people exchanges and consular matters, officials and diplomats said.

 
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SYDNEY — More than 4,000 people were likely impacted by a massive landslide that flattened a village in northern Papua New Guinea on Friday, humanitarian group CARE Australia said.

Hundreds are feared dead in the landslide in the Pacific nation north of Australia that leveled Kaokalam village in Enga Province, about 600 kilometers northwest of capital Port Moresby, around 3 a.m. Friday local time (1900 GMT Thursday).

According to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, more than six villages have been impacted by the landslide in the province’s Mulitaka region, which local media said buried more than 300 people and more than 1,100 houses.

CARE Australia said late on Saturday that nearly 4,000 people lived in the impact zone, with the total number of those affected probably higher as the area was “a place of refuge for those displaced by conflicts” in nearby areas.

In February, at least 26 men were killed in Enga Province in an ambush amid tribal violence that prompted Prime Minister James Marape to give arrest powers to the country’s military.

CARE said Friday’s landslide has left debris up to 8 meters deep across 200 square km, cutting off road access, which was making relief efforts difficult.

Helicopters were the only way to reach the area, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp, which reported on Saturday that four bodies had been retrieved from the rubble.

“More homes could be at risk if the landslide continues down the mountain,” a CARE spokesperson said in a statement.

Marape has said disaster officials, the Defense Force and the Department of Works and Highways were assisting with relief and recovery efforts.

Social media footage posted by villager Ninga Role showed people clambering over rocks, uprooted trees and mounds of dirt searching for survivors. Women could be heard weeping in the background. 
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GENEVA — Reports are emerging of new atrocity crimes being committed in a concerted campaign of violence and destruction by Myanmar’s military against the largely Muslim Rohingya people in northern Rakhine state.

“We are receiving frightening and disturbing reports from northern Rakhine state in Myanmar of the impacts of the conflict on civilian lives and property,” Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Friday in a briefing to journalists in Geneva.

“Some of the most serious allegations concern incidents of killing of Rohingya civilians and the burning of their property,” she said, noting that tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent days by fighting in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships.

She said that information gathered in testimony from victims, eyewitnesses, satellite images, and online video and pictures over the last week indicate that “Buthidaung town has been largely burned.”

“We have received information indicating that the burning started on 17 May, two days after the military had retreated from the town and the Arakan Army claimed to have taken full control,” she said.

Speaking in Bangkok, James Rodehaver, head of Myanmar Team, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said his team had spoken to many sources on the ground and reviewed numerous materials, many of which “were deemed to be credible.”

“Our offices are corroborating information further, particularly in establishing who were the perpetrators of the burning.

“One survivor described seeing dozens of dead bodies as he fled the town. Another survivor said that he was among a group of displaced persons numbering in the tens of thousands, who attempted to move outside of the town to safety but were blocked by the Arakan Army,” Rodehaver said, pointing out that the Arakan Army had abused survivors and extorted money from them as they fled the town.

The Arakan Army is an armed ethnic group fighting as part of an alliance against the Myanmar military.

Rodehaver said, “In the weeks leading up to the burning of Buthidaung, the Myanmar team of the U.N. human rights offices has documented renewed attacks on Rohingya civilians by both the Arakan Army and by the military in northern Rakhine state,” including many by aerial strikes and drones.

He said his office also has received reports of shooting at unarmed fleeing villagers, multiple disappearances and burnings of homes, and has confirmed four cases of beheadings.

Rodehaver said the military has been actively targeting the Rohingya for years and has “actively enforced draconian and discriminatory restrictions affecting all aspects of their lives.”

“It is one of the reasons why the Rohingya, whenever they were asked to leave Buthidaung and other villages, have been very reluctant to move because they have needed special permission to move outside of their township of residence. They also have nowhere else to go.

“They, of course, have learned very hard lessons in 2017, knowing that whenever movement starts, it usually ends [with] them leaving their homes, never to see them again,” he said.

In August 2017, more than a million Rohingya fled to Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar. Currently, an estimated 600,000 Rohingya live in Rakhine state. Although they have lived in Myanmar for generations, the government considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and refuses to grant them citizenship.

The Myanmar junta, which has been at war with its people for decades, recently has suffered many defeats. One consequence is young men have been conscripted from the Rohingya to fight its battles, by promising them many benefits, such as more food rations for their families and a promise of citizenship.

Rodehaver calls that an insidious ploy by military leaders.

“They know that most of these men have never had any sort of combat training or self-defense training. So, they are largely being sent to the front lines as human shields or as cannon fodder, and the military knows that very well.

“The military also told the Rohingya, if you run away and you do not serve, we will arrest you or cut the rations to your family. So, they use a variety of pressures to convince the Rohingya to join. We have had reports that from 1,500 to 2,000 men have been recruited at this point,” he said.

Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, warned Thursday of “ominous signs of another Rohingya bloodbath in Rakhine state” if the international community were to continue to turn a blind eye and fail to take action to save the lives of thousands of Rohingya.

“Once again, the world seems to be failing a desperate people in their hour of peril, while a hate-driven unnatural disaster unfolds in real time in Myanmar’s Rakhine state,” he said.

Mirroring that assessment, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk is calling for “an immediate end to the violence, and for all civilians to be protected without any distinction based on identity.

“Prompt and unhindered humanitarian relief must be allowed to flow, and all parties must comply fully and unconditionally with international law,” he said.
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tokyo — Those who want to climb one of the most popular trails on Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji will have to book a slot and pay a fee as crowds, littering and climbers who try to rush too fast to the summit cause safety and conservation concerns at the picturesque stratovolcano. 

The new rules for the climbing season, July 1 to September 10, apply for those hiking the Yoshida Trail on the Yamanashi side of the 3,776-meter (12,300-foot) mountain that was designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2013. 

Only 4,000 climbers will be allowed to enter the trail per day for a hiking fee of 2,000 yen each (about $18). Of those slots, 3,000 will be available for online booking and the remaining 1,000 can be booked in person on the day of the climb, Yamanashi prefecture said in a statement via the Foreign Press Center of Japan on Monday. Hikers also have an option of donating an additional 1,000 yen (about $9) for conservation. 

Climbers can book their slots via the Mount Fuji Climbing website, which is jointly run by the Environment Ministry and the mountain’s two home prefectures, Yamanashi and Shizuoka. 

Mount Fuji is divided into 10 stations, and there are four “5th stations” halfway up the mountain from where the Yoshida, Fujinomiya, Subashiri and Gotemba trails start to the top. 

Under the new system, climbers must choose between a day hike or an overnight stay at the several available huts along the trail. The day of their climb, they are given a QR code to be scanned at the 5th station. Those who have not booked an overnight hut will be sent back down and not allowed to climb between 4 p.m. and 3 a.m., mainly to stop “bullet climbing,” or rushing to the summit without adequate rest, which authorities are worried puts lives at risk. 

A symbol of Japan, the mountain called “Fujisan” used to be a place of pilgrimage. Today, it especially attracts hikers who climb to the summit to see the sunrise. But the tons of trash left behind, including plastic bottles, food and even clothes, have become a major concern. 

In a statement, Yamanashi Governor Kotaro Nagasaki thanked people for their understanding and cooperation in helping conserve Mount Fuji. 

Shizuoka prefecture, southwest of Mount Fuji, where climbers can also access the mountain, has sought a voluntary 1,000-yen ($6.40) fee per climber since 2014 and is considering additional ways to balance tourism and environmental protection. 

The number of Mount Fuji climbers during the season in 2023 totaled 221,322, according to the Environment Ministry. That is close to the pre-pandemic level and officials expect more visitors this year. 

Just a few weeks ago, the town of Fujikawaguchiko in Yamanashi prefecture began setting up a huge black screen on a sidewalk to block a view of Mount Fuji because tourists were crowding into the area to take photos with the mountain as a backdrop to a convenience store, a social media phenomenon known as “Mount Fuji Lawson” that has disrupted business, traffic and local life. 

Overtourism has also become a growing issue at other popular tourist destinations such as Kyoto and Kamakura as foreign visitors have flocked to Japan in droves since the coronavirus pandemic restrictions were lifted, in part due to the weaker yen. 

Last year, Japan had more than 25 million visitors, and the figures in 2024 are expected to surpass nearly 32 million, a record from 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
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