Tag: toughest

N.Korea warns of ‘toughest reaction’ to US military drills with S.Korea

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Seoul: North Korea said on Thursday it will take the “toughest reaction” to the US move to expand joint military exercises with South Korea.
The North’s warning came US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Seoul earlier this week for talks with his South Korean counterpart and said there would be more deployments of strategic assets, including F-22 and F-35 jets, to Seoul in order to deter Pyongyang’s evolving military threats, reports Yonhap News Agency.
Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry claimed the US has been driving the security situation on the Korean Peninsula toward an “extreme red-line” and is pushing to spur further tensions through joint military drills of larger scale and scope with South Korea.
“This is a vivid expression of the US dangerous scenario which will result in turning the Korean Peninsula into a huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone,” the Ministry said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
North Korea will “take the toughest reaction” to any military action by the US under the principle of “nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation”, it added.
The North said it is ready to counter any military challenges from the US with the “most overwhelming nuclear force,” while stressing it is not interested in any dialogue with Washington as long as the latter pursues a “hostile policy”.
Earlier on Thursday, South Korea and the US staged combined air drills, involving B-1B strategic bombers, as well as F-22 and F-35B stealth fighters, from the US Air Force, in a show of Washington’s “will and capabilities” to provide credible extended deterrence against North Korea’s military threats.
North Korea launched around 70 ballistic missiles last year alone, the most in a single year, amid persistent speculation it may conduct a nuclear test in the near future.

The North’s leader Kim Jong-un called for an “exponential” increase in its nuclear arsenal and the need to mass-produce tactical nuclear weapons at a key party meeting held late last year.
North Korea is likely to hold a military parade on February 8 to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its armed forces.
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#N.Korea #warns #toughest #reaction #military #drills #S.Korea
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 2, 2023
North Korea warns of ‘toughest reaction’ to allies’ drills

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In a statement attributed to an unidentified spokesperson of its Foreign Ministry, North Korea said the expansion of the allies’ drills is threatening to turn the Korean Peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone.” The statement said the North is prepared to counter any short-term or long-term military challenge by the allies with the “most overwhelming nuclear force.”
“The military and political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region has reached an extreme red line due to the reckless military confrontational maneuvers and hostile acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces,” the spokesperson said.
North Korea for decades has described the United States’ combined military exercises with South Korea as rehearsals for a potential invasion, although the allies have described those drills as defensive.
North Korea last year ramped up its own weapons demonstrations as the allies resumed their large-scale training that had been downsized for years. North Korea’s actions included a slew of missile and artillery launches that it described as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets.
“DPRK will take the toughest reaction to any military attempt of the U.S. on the principle of ‘nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation!’” the North Korean spokesperson said, invoking the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“If the U.S. continues to introduce strategic assets into the Korean Peninsula and its surrounding area, the DPRK will make clearer its deterring activities without fail according to their nature,” the spokesperson said.
Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said the ministry had no immediate comment in response to the North Korean statement. He said the allies’ latest aerial drills were aimed at demonstrating the credibility of the U.S. “extended deterrence,” referring to a commitment to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear ones, to defend South Korea. He declined to reveal the exact number of U.S. and South Korean aircraft involved in the exercise.
Austin’s visit came as South Korea seeks stronger assurances that the United States will swiftly and decisively use its nuclear capabilities to protect its ally in face of a North Korean nuclear attack.

South Korea’s security jitters have risen since North Korea test-fired dozens of missiles in 2022, including potentially nuclear-capable ones designed to strike targets in South Korea and the U.S. mainland. North Korea’s elevated testing activity has been punctuated by threats to preemptively use its nuclear weapons in a broad range of scenarios in which it perceives its leadership to be under threat, including conventional clashes or non-war situations.
In a news conference following their meeting, Austin said he and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup agreed to further expand their combined military exercises, including more live-fire demonstrations. They pledged to continue a “timely and coordinated” deployment of U.S. strategic assets to the region.
They said that their countries’ resumption of large-scale military drills last year effectively demonstrated their combined capabilities to deter North Korean aggression. The allies had downsized their training in recent years to create room for diplomacy with North Korea during the Trump administration and because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Korea and the United States have also been strengthening their security cooperation with Japan, which has included trilateral missile defense and anti-submarine warfare exercises in past months amid the provocative run in North Korean weapons tests.
“We deployed fifth-generation aircraft, F-22s and F-35s, we deployed a carrier strike group to visit the peninsula. You can look for more of that kind of activity going forward,” Austin said.
Tensions could further rise in coming months with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doubling down on his nuclear ambitions.
During a political conference in December, Kim called for an “exponential increase” in nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting South Korea, and the development of more powerful long-range missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland.
Experts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and then negotiating badly needed economic concessions from a position of strength.
Nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea have been derailed since 2019 because of disagreements over a relaxation of U.S.-led economic sanctions against the North in exchange for steps by North Korea to wind down its nuclear weapons and missiles programs.
The North Korean spokesperson said Pyongyang isn’t interested in any contact or dialogue with the United States as long as it maintains its “hostile policy and confrontational line,” accusing Washington of maintaining sanctions and military pressure to force the North to “disarm itself unilaterally.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 2, 2023
Coming presidential elections in Turkey will be the toughest test for Erdogan’s rule

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Nicosia: Last week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled that the country’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections scheduled for June would be held on May 14.
This immediately stirred a debate about whether he can legitimately run for office, as the Constitution envisages that the President’s term of office is five years renewable only once, and Erdogan has been President since 2014. However, the big question is not whether he is entitled to be a candidate for President but, after 20 years in power, there is a real possibility that Erdogan may lose.
Repeated polls show that this time the Turkish elections will be tight and Erdogan faces the possibility of being unseated by the so-called “Table of Six” -a six-party opposition alliance led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Erdogan announced his intention to move the elections one month earlier in a speech on January 18 when he said:
“Now, we ask for the support of our nation in 2023 by saying, ‘Enough! The decision and the future belong to the nation. In the 100th anniversary of our Republic, we have achieved the goals that we wanted our country and our nation to reach, to a great extent… 2023 is both the symbol of our 20 years of work, as well as the beginning of our new vision, the Century of Turkey. This is what makes the upcoming election important and historic.”
Some constitutional experts express doubts if Erdogan can legitimately contest the elections, in the light of article 110 of the Constitution “that a person may be elected as the President of the Republic for two terms at most.”
However, Article 116 says “If the Assembly decides to renew the elections during the second term of the President of the Republic, he/she may once again be a candidate.”
Erdogan became president for the first time in the presidential elections held in 2014. He later took office as the first president of the new executive presidential system in the elections held in June 2018. Under the new system, a person can be elected president at most two times.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag on January 19 claimed that there is no obstacle for Erdogan to be a candidate again, saying: “Our President is a candidate running for the second president of the Presidential Government System and it is his second candidacy. There are no constitutional obstacles.”
But the question of whether Erdogan has the right to contest the elections or not is a moot point, as it is the Parliament and the Election Council that will approve the new election date and as Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the opposition Republican Party, said that he has no objection if Erdogan stands as a candidate.
What opposition parties are really concerned about is the fact that the election campaign would take place on a highly uneven playing field, given that Erdogan’s party has a near monopoly on public broadcasting and the mass media.
Furthermore, Erdogan’s Executive Presidency has managed to control the judiciary, the Army, the Police and almost all institutions in Turkey and hollowed democracy in Turkey turning it effectively into a “one man’s rule.”
Berk Esen, an international relations expert at Sabanci University in Istanbul, says: “Erdogan has transformed Turkey’s democratic government into a hyper-presidential system, in which parliament is no longer that powerful.”
This view is shared by the mass media, many scholars, journalists, newspapers and magazines in many countries, which express concern at the great power Erdogan exercises on all institutions in Turkey and his harmful influence on Turkish democracy.
Last week’s issue of the British magazine “The Economist” claims that Erdogan as a leader has taken his country “to the brink of disaster,” and adds: “Approaching his third decade in power, he sits in a vast palace snapping orders at courtiers too frightened to tell him when he is wrong. His increasingly eccentric beliefs swiftly become public policy…
Mr Erdogan’s behaviour as the election approaches could push what is today a deeply flawed democracy over the edge into a full-blown dictatorship.”
Reacting to the article, Turkey’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun harshly accused The Economist of making “cheap propaganda” and disinformation on Turkey and wrote on Twitter: “The Economist recycles its intellectually lazy, dull, and purposefully ignorant depiction of Turkiye (Turkey). It seems like they feel obligated to announce the end of Turkish democracy through regurgitating cliches, misinformation and blatant propaganda.”
Speaking to reporters following Friday prayers in Istanbul, Erdogan said: “Does a British magazine determine Turkey’s fate? It is my nation that decides. Whatever my nation says happens in Turkey.”
A big currency crisis, mainly created as a result of Erdogan’s misguided insistence on lowering the interest rates, high inflation which is currently standing at 65 percent and high unemployment have eroded popular support for AKP and Erdogan, particularly among workers and the lower classes, who a few years ago were their ardent supporters.
President Erdogan in January raised the salaries of public servants by 30 per cent and restored to some extent their purchasing power, but what about people working in the private sector who find that they cannot buy even the basic things they need? So, discontent keeps rising.
For the first time in 20 years, the opposition parties have a chance to remove Erdogan. Last year six opposition parties – The Republican People’s Party (CHP), the right-wing Iyi Party, the Conservative Felicity Party, the Democrat Party (DP), DEVA (Democracy and Progress) Party and the Future (Gelecek) Party- formed a platform called the Table of Six and announced a constitutional package for restoring democracy, the rule of law and a parliamentary system if they win elections in 2023 against President Erdogan.
But they have a chance to win the elections only if they manage to agree and set aside even temporarily the political ambitions of their respective leaders and manage to field a single strong candidate who will be able to convince the Turkish people to vote for him and put an end to the one-man rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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#Coming #presidential #elections #Turkey #toughest #test #Erdogans #rule
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 23, 2023