Mike Chan’s tattoo needle buzzes gently as he draws a design on his customer’s thigh — a figure wearing a helmet, goggles and mask.
 
Dipping his needle into pots of black, red and yellow ink, Chan hunches over his client’s leg as he painstakingly brings to life the image of a Hong Kong protester clad in protective gear.
 
Using his art is Chan’s way of contributing to Hong Kong’s anti-government protest movement, which has consumed the semi-autonomous Chinese territory for months.While groups of hardcore protesters tangling with riot police have become the movement’s most visible symbol, others are using skin and ink to show their support.
 
“I am actually just a peaceful protester. I really want to go to the front line, but I don’t have the courage yet to stand and fight against the government at the front because I’m very frightened,” said Mary, who was getting the thigh tattoo, her first.A client who goes by the single name Mary chooses a tattoo image depicting protective gear-wearing protesters from a computer display in Hong Kong, Oct. 23, 2019.She chose her thigh because she could easily cover it up. She would reveal only her first name because she didn’t want anyone she works with to find out.Many protesters have sought to conceal their identities with face masks to avoid being identified, out of fear of arrest.
 
Hong Kong’s protest movement erupted in June in opposition to an extradition bill that would have sent suspects to stand trial in mainland China, and later expanded to include full democracy and police accountability.Rallies have frequently ended in mayhem, with hardcore protesters wearing goggles and gas masks throwing bricks and firebombs at police armed with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons.Now in its fifth month, the unrest has polarized the city.
 
Mary, 29, said she has taken part in mass protests that involved peaceful activity, such as singing along to the movement’s anthem.
 
But she added, “I really admire front-line protesters who fight at the front and are not afraid of getting arrested or being beaten up. Not everyone has this courage.”
 
Mary said she had been thinking about getting a protest tattoo for about two months. She hoped that it would inspire her friends to get them too.
 
Chan, who has been working as a tattoo artist for two years, said demand took off after he started doing the protest tattoos for free in July, though it has tapered off more recently.Tattoo artist Mike Chan’s needle buzzes gently as he draws a design on his customer’s thigh — a figure wearing a helmet, goggles and mask — in Hong Kong, Oct. 23, 2019. 
“I do these resistance tattoos free of charge because I see this as part of protesting,” said Chan, comparing himself to supporters handing out free water bottles during rallies in Hong Kong’s sweltering heat.
 
He offers a few dozen variations of the mask and goggles figure for free and has done about 70 of them.
 
“I want to give them a choice, not just like a stamp that’s all the same,” he said.He charges for other protest-themed tattoos such as slogans like “Free Hong Kong” and “Fight for freedom” done in calligraphy, because they take more time.
 
Tattoos in Hong Kong used to have unsavory connotations, usually signifying that the bearer was a member of an organized crime gang. But Chan and Mary say those attitudes have changed in recent years and their acceptance as an art form has grown.
 
After about half an hour, Chan is finished and Mary shows off her thigh, now decorated with a stylized figure of a protester wearing a yellow helmet, goggles and respirator mask with pink filters.
 
Even though it’s permanent, Mary said she’d never regret it.
 
“Because of what has happened over the past few months, you actually can’t speak out much or do anything much,” she said. “This is the only thing that you can do to remember this for the rest of your life.”
 
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Tokyo city officials are in a public feud with the International Olympic Committee over IOC plans – made without consulting the city or local organizers – to move next year’s Tokyo Olympic marathons 800 kilometers (500 miles) north to Sapporo to avoid the capital’s summer heat.The abrupt decision to shift the marathons and race walks was announced almost two weeks ago by the IOC.Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is angry about it. Her allies say no change is needed and have raised questions about who will pay if the move goes through, and have not ruled out a lawsuit to recover damages.Taro Shirato and Hiroshi Yamada, members of Koike’s political party in the metropolitan legislature, told a news conference Tuesday that moving the marathon would cost at least $34 billion yen (about $310 million).The IOC said it is making the change, thinking first of athletes’ safety from Tokyo’s blistering summer heat.Koike’s allies offered a different take. Koike is one of Japan’s most influential politicians and just a few years ago was viewed as a potential candidate for prime minister. And she’s miffed about not being consulted.”Although they (IOC) talk about so-called athletes first, this can only be perceived as IOC first,” Shirato said through an interpreter.”You get the sense that no considerations have been made for the athletes,” Shirato added, “or the spectators who had already bought their tickets and who were looking forward to these events, or the potential spectators who will be cheering on the streets, and also to the people involved in the operation.”In a statement to The Associated Press, the Tokyo city government said it wants to see “sufficient scientific evidence” to justify the switch. It also asked if any other city was considered besides Sapporo.Don’t expect the IOC to budge. It has inspectors in Tokyo this week looking at preparations with the Olympics opening in just under nine months on July 24.IOC member John Coates heads the team and is an ally to President Thomas Bach. He has said repeatedly the IOC does not intend to change its plans, and has told that to Koike.The IOC fears worldwide television audiences might see a repeat of the recent world track and field championships in Doha, Qatar, where 28 of 68 starters failed to finish the women’s marathon and 18 of 73 men failed to complete the course.The races started at midnight in Doha with TV showing runners collapsing on the course. The scenes apparently shocked IOC President Thomas Bach.Yamada acknowledged the heat posed a risk. He said Tokyo has proposed moving the start to 5 a.m., which is mid-summer sunrise in Tokyo. Last week city officials also floated the idea of a 3 a.m. start.Estimates suggest the temperature would be 27 degrees C (81 degrees F) at 5 a.m., and would be 25.4 degrees C (78 degrees F) in Sapporo for a 7 a.m. start. The starting temperature in Doha for the women’s marathon was 32.7 degrees C (91 degrees F).Yamada described the starting temperatures in Tokyo and Sapporo “on a par.””We do recognize and understand that the heat is a very important factor, but we do not believe that at this moment it represents an overly excessive risk,” Yamada said.Tokyo’s soaring costs are also a major issue.A government audit report last year said Tokyo was spending about $25 billion to organize the Olympics, all of which is public money except for $5.6 billion from a privately financed operating budget.Tokyo said in its bid in 2013 that the Olympic would cost $7.3 billion.Yamada was asked who would pay for the increased costs.”In the event this is changed to Sapporo, then I believe the citizens of Tokyo will not be convinced they need to pay,” Yamada said. “What I can say is that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government should not be the one to pay.”Asked if the Tokyo government might sue for damages, Yamada hedged.”That’s very difficult to respond to, but I believe in terms of discussions we need to clarify the legal context,” Yamada said.Tokyo organizing committee president Toshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, seems to have sided with the IOC and not with Koike. He suggested a few days ago that it was a done deal.”Can we say no to the plan that the IOC and International Association of Athletics Federations already supported?” Mori said. “It’s not a question of good or bad, but we just have to accept it.”He also said cost was a major issue in moving the marathon.”Our overall cost has become a humongous amount, so it would cause us pain if the cost is added to our bill,” Mori said. “So I mentioned that to Mr. Coates, and he said he will look into it. We won’t be able to pay if it’s a significant damage to our finances. I have reminded him of that.” 
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Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong says he has been banned from running in the city’s upcoming local council elections.Wong posted the notice he received from an election commission officer on his Twitter page Tuesday declaring his candidacy invalid.  He angrily tweeted that the decision proves “how Beijing manipulate the election with political censorship and screening.” I become the only candidate banned from running in November’s District Council Election as Returning officer, Laura ARON ruled my nomination invalid this morning. It proved how Beijing manipulate the election with political cersorship and screening. pic.twitter.com/mwZNKUApFM— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 ? (@joshuawongcf) October 29, 2019A government spokesman issued a written statement saying Wong’s candidacy was invalidated because he has advocated for “self-determination” for Hong Kong.  The 23-year-old Wong, along with fellow student activists Nathan Law and Alex Chow, stormed a courtyard on the grounds of the government’s headquarters in September 2014, which led to the “Umbrella Revolution” that shut down several major highways for more than two months, demanding fully free elections.  The protests were launched after Beijing reneged on promises of universal suffrage by 2017, but ended without winning any concessions from the Hong Kong government.The semi-autonomous city has been mired in nearly five months of massive and oftentimes violent protests since June, sparked by a proposed bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China.  The protests have evolved into demands for full democracy for Hong Kong, along with an independent inquiry into possible use of excessive force by police and complete amnesty for all activists arrested during the demonstrations. Masked activists have vandalized businesses and the city subway system, and attacked police with bricks and homemade gasoline bombs.Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam warned Tuesday that city’s economy could see negative economic growth this year due to the protests.Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy under the “one government, two systems” arrangement established when China regained control of the financial hub from Britain in 1997.  But political activists and observers say Beijing is slowly tightening its grip on the territory and eroding its basic freedoms.
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Trach looks like any other ordinary rural Cambodian village on the fringes of the municipal district of Chbar Mon in Kampong Speu province, with its dusty and bumpy roads surrounded by paddy fields and the standing palm trees for which the province is known.Trach​ ​Village​ ​in​ ​Cambodia’s​ ​Kampong​ ​Speu​ ​Province​ where many young villagers make a living by becoming factory workers.​ (Aun​ ​Chhengpor​/​VOA​ ​Khmer​)​This village in the Ka Haeng commune of the Samraong Tong district is steps from National Road 4, which connects the capital city of Phnom Penh with Sihanoukville, the primary seaport. As the nation’s garment manufacturing industry expands, National Road 4 guides it west to the southwest coast.Krech Thon is at home as her children and neighbors gather for a drink. Workers, many of them from the garment factories, have returned to their homes for one week to celebrate the annual late-September ancestral Buddhist festival, Pchum Ben.It is hard to find a single household in Trach that does not have at least one family member, usually a younger one, employed in the garment industry.Trade agreementRelying on the garment factories – directly and indirectly – Trach village is likely to be hit hard if the European Union revokes the preferential trade arrangement Cambodia enjoys under the Krech Thon, a long-time resident of Trach Village, becomes a food vendor at a nearby factory. (Aun Chhengpor/VOA Khmer)Krech Thon, a longtime resident of her village, has seen changes over the years. “People are getting a little better off with more brick-made houses and fences, and more young people drinking,” she told VOA Khmer with a laugh.All four of Krech Thon’s four children work in Phnom Penh garment factories. And when factories appeared near the village, she began selling food to the workers.The importance [of the factories] is that my children are employed and I myself have a business opportunity to sell foods out there so that we have a combined higher income,” she said.Of the 115 households in the village, accounting for about 570 people, 75% of the residents rely on working in the garment factories or selling food to those employed by them, said Svay Tem, the village chief.Industry’s beginningsTen years ago, as garment and luggage factories began arriving along the National Road 4, Phan Sorphea began selling food, including fried fish, rice and meatballs, to the workers.“Although I did not plan it, I have this as my main source of income now,” Phan Sorphea, 37, said, adding she earns between 40,000 to 60,000 riel [$9 to $15] per day after expenses.“I could also join the factories as a worker, but I decided to remain a food vendor so that I could have enough money to spend every day, although as a worker, you have a salary at the end of the month,” she added. “It is a matter of choice.”But she, as is true of almost all the villagers in Trach, knows nothing about the possible EBA revocation. Not even Kong Sina, the wife of Trach village chief Svay Tem, knows about tensions between the Cambodian government and the EU.Of the couple’s five children, four work in the village-based factories, making suitcases and footwear destined for Europe and America. Kong Sina said she focused on her business and had close to no knowledge of current Cambodian affairs, such as the EBA investigation.Food​ ​vendor​ ​Kong​ ​Sina​ ​emerges​ ​from​ ​her​ ​kitchen​ ​in​ ​Trach​ ​Village​ ​of​ ​Cambodia’s​ ​Kampong​ ​Speu​ ​province​.​ ​(​Aun​ ​Chhengpor​/​VOA​ ​Khmer​)​“I only see the trucks carrying the products packed in big [shipping containers], but I have no idea where they travel to,” she said, adding that she understands the factories contribute to local prosperity.“Without factory jobs and food-selling, we will return to farming rice and herding cattle to make a living,“ said Kong Sina, 52, who spends 250,000 riel [about $62.50] per day to prepare all the food she sells for 300,000 riel ($75) to factory workers after a shift.“I find it hard to make a profit now with increasing food prices, leaving me only some 50,000 riel [$12] profit [per day],” Kong Sina said. “But it is an easy money. All I need to set up is a wooden table and a large umbrella.”“This helps us a lot,” she said. “I have enough to support my household spending on a day-to-day basis.”’Worried’ about trade statusVillage chief Svay Tem, who can speak at length the importance of garment factories to his villagers, said that he was “worried” about what might happen if Cambodia loses its EBA status, and in a worst-case scenario, factories move to countries with less-expensive production. “The young people would have no jobs here, many of them,” he said.Krech Thon agreed that without factories, her household would be in trouble. “We live to earn money. We need to have some money to survive,” she said.She worries about losing her business and her children losing their jobs. She, like other villagers, said it would be difficult to replace their current incomes by returning to their traditional occupation, farming.Cambodian garment factory workers ride on the back of a truck as they head to their factory outside Phnom Penh, Oct. 26, 2019.At the national level, the Cambodian economy has moved away from agriculture. The sector accounted for only 18.1% of the GDP in 2018. By comparison, Chim​ ​Sokun​, ​emigrated​ ​ten​ ​years​ ​ago​ ​from​ ​Trach​ ​Village​,​ ​giving​ ​up​ ​his​ ​farmed ​land​,​ ​to​ look for ​jobs​ ​at​ ​a​ ​garment​ ​factory​ ​in​ ​Kandal​ ​Province​.​ ​(​Aun​ ​Chhengpor​/​VOA​ ​Khmer​)​“For villagers here, garment industry and factory works are vital to their livelihoods. Why? Without factories, we do not know what we can do to make a living. This is for Trach village and beyond, in my opinion,” Chim Sokun said.“We can no longer rely on agriculture here because it offers little yield and we lack irrigation” needed to farm outside the rainy season, he said. “We used to rely on growing rice, but that changed 10 years ago when there was a higher demand for labor in the garment industry.”Benefits of factoriesNov Sorphoan agreed. The 36-year-old mother of two lived in the village and inherited a farming plot of slightly more than 1 hectare from her parents – both of whom farmed. But she chose to get up at 3 a.m. every day to cook rice and prepare food to sell to factory workers. The $12.50 or so a day she cleared from that enterprise helped her secure a $20,000 home-repair loan.The combination of changing weather patterns and the growing expense of hiring farmworkers meant “I could only grow rice once a year during the rainy season,” said Nov Sorphoan, whose husband, Sim Thina, 38, works in a a Phnom Penh garment factory.Nov Sorphoan felt that she had tried her best at farming, but said she decided to continue selling food to factory workers so she could provide a better education for her two children, so they can “have a better job” than working in the paddy fields.For Krech Thon, the mother of four, growing industrialization and the changes the factories have brought to her village are a fait accompli.“Yes, we feel a nostalgia for certain areas with rice paddy fields and natural ponds that were sold into industrial purposes and were filled in,” Krech Thon said.“I want these factories to remain in place for many more years to come so that future generations will have jobs,” she added, before getting up to pat her new grandson.Vicheika Kann contributed to this report. 
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In Taiwan, a tropical storm killed two people in August and a low-strength typhoon brushed the northeast coast just over a month later. Normally the western Pacific island gets hit head on by three to four typhoons ever year from June through October. Typhoons, which pack higher winds than other tropical storms, often kill five to 10 people per event and destroy infrastructure.But for the past three years Taiwan and the Philippines, an archipelago to its south, have missed their historical average typhoon counts because of high water temperatures over the mid-Pacific where typhoons originate and shifts in upper-atmosphere winds, meteorologists believe.The Philippines can get up to 20 of the raging storms per year. The systems called cyclones and hurricanes in other parts of the world bring winds strong enough to blow down trees and rainfall that can quickly turn streets into rivers. They typically prompt mass evacuations and shut down transportation including flights.*/

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Embed” />CopyListenJason Nicholls, senior meteorologist with American forecasting service AccuWeatherJason Nicholls, senior meteorologist with American forecasting service AccuWeather audio player.Jason Nicholls, senior meteorologist with American forecasting service AccuWeather“General bias is in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific has been for waters to be warmer than normal and global warming may have something to do with that,” according to  Jason Nicholls, senior meteorologist with American forecasting service AccuWeather.Warmer watersOcean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean have heated up since 2017, causing typhoons to form relatively far from Taiwan and the Philippines that lie to the west, Nicholls said.Upper-level steering winds ultimately push the storms north, eventually affecting Japan, South Korea and eastern China, he said. “They have more time to get picked up and curved off to the north and northeast,” Nicholls said.Western Pacific waters are relatively cool this year, he said, meaning fewer storms form near the east coasts of Taiwan or the Philippines.  Warm waters remain around the equator near the international dateline, he said. In the 1980s and 1990s waters around the Pacific and Indian oceans were cooler “as a general rule.”Asia’s deadliest storms each year, including the  2013 super-typhoon that killed 6,340, often reach the Philippines, a largely impoverished country that has struggled historically to cope. No full-blown typhoons, only weaker tropical storms, have made landfall there to date this year.Heading northMost of the 21 typhoons in Asia this year so far reached Japan, South Korea and China because of the northbound trend. The most severe, Typhoon Hagibis, killed 80 people in eastern Japan earlier this month.“If in a situation where Pacific Ocean high pressure is weak and higher north, before reaching Taiwan typhoons will follow the high pressure northward and reach Japan,” said Chen Meng-shih, long-range forecast section chief with Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.*/

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Embed” />CopyListenChen Meng-shih, long-range forecast section chief with Taiwan’s Central Weather BureauChen Meng-shih, long-range forecast section chief with Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau audio player.Chen Meng-shih, long-range forecast section chief with Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau Warming ocean temperatures will “drive cyclonic storm activity,” the advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists said in a December 2018 report. Other scientific reports say ocean temperatures will make the storms stronger.Ocean temperatures are going up because the water absorbs heat from “increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere”, mainly from fossil fuel consumption, the civic group International Union for Conservation of Nature says.Too wet or not wet enough?Lack of typhoons has spared crops, infrastructure and human lives. Typhoon Mitag, Taiwan’s biggest storm of 2019, caused just $60,485 in crop damage, the government’s Council of Agriculture found. Mitag passed east of the island on October 1.In a more typical case, Typhoon Soudelor killed six people, cancelled 300 flights and cost farmers $9.42 million in Taiwan.In the Philippines, dry weather has accelerated municipal-level infrastructure projects that heavy rainfall could otherwise delay, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in metro Manila. The government is in the midst of a 5-year, $169 billion infrastructure renewal drive to attract investment.*/

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Embed” />CopyListenJonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in metro ManilaJonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in metro Manila audio player.Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in metro Manila.But the dearth of typhoons has cut valuable rainfall too, Ravelas said. Parts of Metro Manila have rationed water this year partly for lack of precipitation.“You’d rather have more rains but on the other side you have lots of calamities,” he said. “It’s a double-edged sword, so to speak.”
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Hong Kong’s reputation as a haven for freewheeling business has steadily eroded since the territory was handed over to China from Britain in 1997. As anti-government protestors step up demands for democracy, and with demonstrations becoming more violent, however, the business environment is getting worse.High-technology professionals, bankers and financiers head the list of those wanting to go to the United States, a desire that has taken on an added sense of urgency with the level of investment required for the EB-5 U.S. investment visa, known as the “golden visa,” leaping to $900,000 next month from $500,000, where it has been since 1993, as part of an effort to stem money laundering.The EB-5 visa grants a two-year conditional green card in return for investments in struggling parts of the United States, and applicants have until November 21 to apply under the current investment level.Protesters Again Take to Streets of Hong KongTeaser DescriptionThis week, Hong Kong’s governing body formally withdrew the bill that sparked the original protests earlier this year, but that has done little to appease protesters in this leaderless movement, who say they want the government to do more to stave off what they believe is encroaching control from Beijing John Hu, principal consultant of John Hu Migration Consulting, says inquiries have risen four-fold overall since the protests escalated five months ago. He says he is receiving thousands of callers a month, mainly from those interested in heading to the United States, Canada and Australia.”The protests is definitely a catalyst for people who are determined to go to the U.S.,” Hu says from his office in the Wanchai financial district, adding that the U.S. trade war with China is a further spur.”This is a very favorable destination, and also in November the investment amount is going to increase from $500,000 to $900,000, so people are rushing in,” he says, referring to the EB-5 visa.Hong Kong has witnessed a steady loss of its financial clout over the last two decades.Some business have opted for the Chinese financial capital of Shanghai, others for the West, moves which have been blamed on an erosion of freedoms and failure by Beijing to uphold the promises it made before the handover from Britain.
Protesters Again Take to Streets of Hong Kong video player.
Protesters Again Take to Streets of Hong KongAs a result protests have become common, but the recent hike in violent clashes between protesters, police and pro-Beijing gangs, in response to government-planned extradition laws bitterly opposed by business groups, has deeply unsettled the city.Despite the scrapping of those laws, protesters continue to agitate for universal suffrage, and most Sundays are dominated by police and hardcore demonstrators exchanging tear gas and Molotov cocktails. Train stations and businesses with known pro-China leanings are often trashed.On potential emigration to the United States, Hu notes, “First of all, there is the education, because you have the top-of-the-world Ivy League colleges, and we have lots of financial professionals in Hong Kong.” “For people who want to work in Wall Street and the financial world they would like to migrate to the U.S.,” he addedAn October survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found at least a third of the territory’s 7.4 million people would emigrate if they could. Taiwan, Britain, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan are also popular destinations.Huw Watkin, head of the risk, research and investigation company Drakon Associates, says a weak economy and comments by the pro-China lobby have not helped, as they have fueled increased migration, amid the current wave of protests.He cites comments by Junius Ho, ejected from the Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s legislature, after suggesting pro-democracy politician Claudia Mo, whose husband is British, “eats foreign sausage.””Incomes have been static for years, the cost of living remains very high, and racist comments by the business elites and pro-China political lobby give the sense that Westerners are actually no longer welcome in Hong Kong,” Watkin adds.”Given that China is clearly more aggressively nationalistic, here as elsewhere, I am not surprised that people are leaving,” he says.At the corporate level, the more recent evidence is anecdotal, however.Goldman Sachs has estimated that between $3 billion and $4 billion in deposits flowed to Singapore, the territory’s main rival in international finance, in July and August.A flash survey led by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore found 80% of respondents believed Hong Kong protests had affected their decisions on whether to make future investments here.Twenty percent said they had “considered plans” to move capital out or relocate their business functions, particularly to Singapore, a trend described by the Hong Kong chamber as a “real concern.”Watkin said Hong Kong’s strong English-language credentials make it easier for business immigrants to meet U.S. entry standards and that the scramble to leave is unlikely to abate, unless the pro-China lobby backs off and Beijing adheres to its “one country two systems” policy.That includes the Basic Law, under which Beijing agreed to 50 years of self government and autonomy.”Hong Kong is this entrepot, this cosmopolitan place, and has been so since its inception,” Watkin saus. “There was a deal and I think it’s incumbent upon the Chinese administration to honor that deal, if not for their own self-interest in being a trusted partner in the world.””In Hong Kong it’s a very unique situation and frankly it’s very hard to predict how this will turn out.”
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Clashes in the streets as thousands of people took to the streets for another weekend of protests in Hong Kong. This week, the city’s governing body formally withdrew the bill that sparked the original protests earlier this year, but that has done little to appease protesters in this leaderless movement, who say they want the government to do more to stave off what they believe is encroaching control from Beijing. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Hong Kong
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People in Laos have been converted into everyday items materials from hundreds of millions of bombs dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War. That idea has inspired a New York woman to make jewelry from the fragments of bombs and use some of the profits to help Laos clear millions of explosives that never went off. Valdya Baraputri reports.
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There has been no substantial progress in U.S.-North Korea ties, a senior North Korean official warned Sunday, stressing that continued “belligerent” relations could lead to an exchange of fire “at any moment.” 
 
The statement from Kim Yong Chol, the country’s former spymaster, appeared designed to further escalate pressure on the U.S. ahead of North Korea’s self-imposed, end-of-year deadline to advance stalled nuclear talks. 
 
North Korean officials have for months praised U.S. President Donald Trump and noted he continues to enjoy a close relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even while slamming the rest of the U.S. administration. 
 
U.S.-North Korea relations could have “derailed and fallen apart several times,” but have been maintained because of the “close personal relations” between Trump and Kim Jong Un, Kim Yong Chol said in a statement published by the Korean Central News Agency.  FILE – In this image made from video, Kim Yong Chol, in white, a former military intelligence chief who is now Kim Jong Un’s top official on inter-Korean relations, walks upon arrival at Beijing airport in Beijing, May 29, 2018.”But there is a limit to everything,” he continued. “The close personal relations … are never a guarantee for preventing the DPRK-U.S. relations from getting aggravated.” 
 
The statement reiterated North Korea’s end-of-year deadline, which U.S. officials have dismissed as arbitrary and unimportant. 
 
The U.S. is “seriously mistaken,” Kim Yong Chol said, if it shrugs off the deadline and exploits the Trump-Kim Jong Un relationship as a “delaying tactic.” 
 Pressure tactic 
 
Mintaro Oba, a former U.S. diplomat focused on the Koreas, said in some ways the statement was a “garden-variety North Korean pressure tactic.” 
 
“They want to put as much personal pressure on President Trump and time pressure on Washington, generally, as they can, while shaping a public narrative where the burden of proving good faith is on the United States,” Oba said. 
 
While the North Korean statement warned of an “exchange of fire,” it still was much less aggressive than the language routinely used by North Korean officials as recently as 2017, during a period of heightened tensions. 
 FILE – Military guard posts of North Korea, top, and South Korea, center, in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Oct. 15, 2019.”It certainly raises tensions above where they are now, but should be understood in the context of a history of habitually raising tensions for tactical gain and threatening, among many other things, to turn Seoul into a sea of fire,” Oba said. 
 Trump-Kim still ‘close’ 
 
The latest statement also still refrained from directly criticizing Trump, noted Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst and current North Korea expert at the Rand Corporation. 
 
“But this time they’ve stepped it up on him, too,” she said. By warning that the Trump-Kim relationship wouldn’t necessarily prevent ties from deteriorating, North Korea appeared to be sending a subtle threat. 
 
“[It’s] subtle, but in case Trump doesn’t take these threats seriously, they’re sending him another reminder,” Soo Kim said. 
 
A North Korean foreign ministry official said earlier this week that Trump and Kim Jong Un continued to have a “close” and “special” relationship and maintained trust with each other.  FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they meet at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, June 30, 2019.The U.S. and North Korean leaders have met three times since last June and exchange personal letters. Earlier this month, Trump also suggested he talks with Kim Jong Un on the phone. 
  
But the two men’s relationship has failed to transform broader U.S.-North Korea relations or secure progress on eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons. 
  
Pyongyang has appeared reluctant to talk with anyone other than Trump, leading some analysts to say the Trump-Kim relationship may actually be preventing more substantial, lower-level negotiations. 
 Talks stalled 
 
Talks broke down in February when Trump walked away from a summit with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, over disagreements on how to begin implementing denuclearization. 
 
Following several months of little interaction, North Korea agreed to hold working-level talks in Stockholm, Sweden, apparently encouraged by Trump’s suggestion of the need for a “new method” to the discussions. 
 
But North Korea walked away after just one day of meetings. The North later said it had no intention of engaging in “sickening negotiations” until the U.S. took unspecified steps to withdraw its “hostile policy.” 
  
At their first meeting, held in Singapore last June, the two leaders agreed to improve U.S.-North Korea relations and to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But the two sides have been unable to agree on what denuclearization means or how to begin implementing it. 
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Torrential rain that caused flooding and mudslides in towns east of Tokyo left at least 10 people dead and added fresh damage in areas still recovering from recent typhoons, officials said Saturday.Rescue workers found the body of a person who had gone missing in Chiba prefecture after getting caught up in floodwaters while driving. Another person was unaccounted for in Fukushima, farther north, which is still reeling from damage by Typhoon Hagibis earlier this month. The death toll included nine people in Chiba and one in Fukushima.Chiba inundatedWhile rains and floodwater subsided, parts of Chiba were still inundated. About 4,700 homes were out of running water and some train services delayed or suspended.In the Midori district in Chiba, mudslides crushed three houses, killing three people who were buried underneath them. Another mudslide hit a house in nearby Ichihara city, killing a woman. In Narata and Chonan towns, four people drowned when their vehicles were submerged.“There was enormous noise and impact, ‘boom’ like an earthquake, so I went outside. Then look what happened. I was terrified,” said a resident who lived near the crushed home in Midori. “Rain was even more intense than the typhoons.”A street is flooded by heavy rain, Oct. 25, 2019, in Narita, east of Tokyo.In Fukushima, a woman was found dead in a park in Soma city after a report that a car was washed away. A passenger is still missing.Rain also washed out Friday’s second round of the PGA Tour’s first tournament held in Japan, the Zozo Championship in Inzai city.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held an emergency task force meeting Saturday morning and called for “the utmost effort in rescue and relief operations.” He also urged quick repairs of electricity, water and other essential services to help restore the lives of the disaster-hit residents.Month’s worth of rain in half a dayThe Prime Minister’s Office said the average rainfall for the entire month had fallen in just half a day Friday.The downpour came from a low-pressure system above Japan’s main island of Honshu that moved northward later Friday. Power was restored Saturday at most of the 6,000 Chiba households that had lost electricity.Two weeks ago, Typhoon Hagibis caused widespread flooding and left more than 80 people dead or presumed dead across Japan.Yoshiki Takeuchi, an office worker who lives in a riverside house in Chiba’s Sodegaura city, said he had just finished temporary repairs to his roof after tiles were blown off by the September typhoon when Friday’s rains hit hard.“I wasn’t ready for another disaster like this. I’ve had enough of this, and I need a break,” he told Kyodo News.
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Police in southern China detained feminist activist and journalist Huang Xueqin after she returned to the mainland from Hong Kong and Taiwan, her friends said Friday.Authorities in Guangdong province’s Guangzhou city arrested Huang last Thursday on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” her friends said. The vague charge is commonly used against activists viewed as threatening by the ruling Communist Party.The friends spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution for being publicly associated with Huang. Calls on Friday to Huang’s lawyer and Guangzhou’s Baiyun District Detention Center, where friends say she is detained, rang unanswered.The friends said police harassed Huang’s family after she published an essay describing her experience at a protest in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese city that has been roiled by months of anti-government demonstrations.”Perhaps, under the powerful machine of the party state, ignorance and fear can be cultivated,” Huang wrote in her essay. “But if you have personally experienced it, witnessed it, you cannot pretend to be ignorant.”In August, Guangzhou police confiscated Huang’s passport and other travel documents, preventing her from pursuing a postgraduate law program at the University of Hong Kong.
 
Huang has been an outspoken voice in China’s #MeToo movement, helping sexual assault victims highlight cases against university professors. She has worked as an independent reporter covering issues surrounding gender, equality and disadvantaged groups.Detained, harassed “It is unclear exactly the reasons for Huang’s detention, but in recent weeks, more and more activists, writers and regular citizens in the mainland have been detained or harassed by authorities for their peacefully voicing support for the Hong Kong protests,” said Yaqiu Wang, China researcher at Human Rights Watch.”Huang’s detention shows that the Chinese government has intensified the crackdown on mainland Chinese who peacefully showed solidarity with Hong Kong protesters, and that authorities are fearful that the protests in Hong Kong could inspire challenges to the government in the mainland, and any expression of ideas of freedom and democracy is a threat to their grip on power,” Wang said.The protests in Hong Kong began over the summer in response to a now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to stand trial in mainland China, where critics say their legal rights would be threatened. The sometimes-violent demonstrations have since ballooned to encompass broader calls for democratic reform and an inquiry into alleged police abuse.
 
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North Korea has proposed that Seoul discuss the removal of its facilities from the North’s resort of Mount Kumgang, a key symbol of cooperation that Pyongyang recently criticized as “shabby” and “capitalist,” the South’s officials said on Friday.In the latest sign of the neighbors’ cooling ties, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has urged that the South’s “backward” and “hotchpotch” facilities at the infrequently used resort be taken down and rebuilt, the North’s KCNA news agency has said.On Friday, North Korea sent notices to the South’s Unification Ministry, which handles issues between the two sides, and Hyundai Group, whose affiliate Hyundai Asan Corp built resort facilities, asking for the demolition and seeking discussion through the exchange of documents, the ministry said.”The government will prepare a creative solution to the Mt. Kumgang tourism project” by protecting the property rights of South Korean people while considering the international situation, inter-Korean agreements and domestic consensus, Unification Ministry spokesman Lee Sang-min said in a briefing.Any withdrawal of South Korean relics from the scenic resort would be another setback for President Moon Jae-in’s campaign to end confrontation between the old foes, including efforts to resume stalled business initiatives.”The North asking the South to discuss the issue ‘in writing’ means they don’t even want to talk about other things,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.Mt. Kumgang is on North Korea’s eastern coast, just beyond the demilitarized zone separating the two countries. It was one of two major inter-Korean economic projects, along with the Kaesong industrial zone, and an important token of rapprochement during decades of hostilities following the 1950-53 Korean War.Kim, on a visit to a nearby province, hailed a new tourist resort being built there as a striking contrast to Mt. Kumgang’s “architecture of capitalist businesses targeting profit-making from roughly built buildings,” KCNA said.However, the South’s Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said he did not see the North’s proposal as a bid to exclude the South, because Kim Jong Un had said he would welcome South Koreans if it was properly rebuilt, the Yonhap news agency said.Tourism has become increasingly key to Kim’s policy of “self-reliant” economic growth, as it is not directly subject to U.N. sanctions aimed at curbing the North’s nuclear programs, though they ban the transfer of bulk cash to Pyongyang.There have been no South Korean tours to Mt. Kumgang since 2008, although there have been infrequent events such as the reunions of families from both sides separated by the war.Kim has called for Mt. Kumgang to be refurbished in “our own style” alongside other tourist zones, such as the Wonsan-Kalma coastal area and the Masikryong ski resort.The Wonsan beach resort, one of Kim’s pet projects, is seen nearing completion by early 2020 after “remarkable construction progress” since April, 38 North, a U.S.-based project that studies North Korea, said in a report, citing satellite imagery. 
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