Day: June 3, 2023

The South Korean military continued its operation Saturday to search and salvage the wreckage of a North Korean rocket that crashed into the Yellow Sea.

Deep-sea divers from the Sea Salvage and Rescue Unit were deployed to the remote sea, 200 kilometers west of the western island of Eocheong, military officials said.

The North launched what it claimed to be a satellite-carrying rocket Wednesday. But it crashed into the sea due to the abnormal starting of the second-stage engine, the North’s state media said.

The salvage operation involves divers attaching high-strength ropes to the 15-meter-long debris, which sank to a depth of 75 meters on the seafloor. Three salvage ships have been deployed to the area for the operation.

The space vehicle, named Chollima-1, is estimated to have a length ranging from 29 to 30 meters.

The debris spotted by the South Korean military Wednesday is believed to be the second and third stages of the launch vehicle.

Officials said there is a possibility of finding the military reconnaissance satellite, Malligyong-1, mounted on the rocket.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday praised “bold” steps by South Korea and Japan to improve ties and bolster trilateral cooperation with Washington against growing North Korean military threats.

He made the remarks during the first plenary session of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security forum in Singapore, as warming relations between Seoul and Tokyo have added new momentum to joint efforts to enhance America’s security cooperation with its core Asian allies.

“I also salute the bold steps taken by Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) to work more closely together,” Austin said, referring to South Korea by its official name.

“Strong ties between Tokyo and Seoul are good for both countries and for the region,” he said. “We made tremendous progress in our own trilateral cooperation with Japan and the ROK, including more regular military exercises and greater information sharing.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan are set to hold trilateral talks in Singapore on Saturday, as the three sides seek to step up cooperation against growing military threats posed by Pyongyang.

The meeting between Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Yasukazu Hamada, respectively, will take place on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue as tensions have flared following North Korea’s failed yet defiant launch of a space rocket Wednesday.

The talks are expected to discuss ways to better respond to the North’s threats, such as establishing a system to share North Korean missile warning data in real time and expanding three-way security exercises.

The three countries have been working to flesh out the agreement on the data sharing from a summit that President Yoon Suk Yeol and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, respectively, reached during a trilateral summit in Cambodia last November.

Currently, the real-time sharing of missile warning data is under way between the South Korean military and the U.S. Forces Korea, and between the Japan Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Forces Japan. The three countries have been working on the data sharing among them based on a trilateral information sharing arrangement signed in 2014.

Trilateral cooperation has gained traction in the wake of Pyongyang’s sabre-rattling earlier this year, including the launch of a purported solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile in April. Last year, the regime fired an unprecedented number of missiles.

Later in the day, Lee is also set to hold separate talks with his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, where the two sides will likely discuss ways to resume high-level and working-level dialogue that had been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bilateral talks come as signs of tensions emerged with Seoul moving to align closer with Washington to confront North Korea and other regional and global security challenges amid an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have offered to finance the Marcos administration’s food stamp program that aims to support one million ‘food-poor’ families across the country from 2024 to 2027, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Saturday. The ‘Walang Gutom (No Hunger) 2027’ program would require an annual budget of PHP40 billion to provide the targeted beneficiaries PHP3,000 worth of food stamps per month. ‘We will still have discussion with the economic team how to source. Alam ninyo naman sa gobyerno, ito ay talagang (may) challenge because of the limited resources that we have (You know there are challenges given the limited resources that the government has),’ DSWD Undersecretary Eduardo Punay said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City. ‘But since mayroon po tayong discussions na (we have discussions) with development partners such as ADB, nandiyan po iyong iba (there are others, like the) World Bank. We have received offers actually for funding,’ he added. Punay said DSWD will pilot the program from July to December with a USD3 million (approximately PHP168 million) technical assistance from the ADB. Under the program, a beneficiary family will get an electronic benefit transfer card loaded with PHP3,000-worth of food credits that can be used to purchase select list of commodities from DSWD-accredited local retailers. Punay said the credits are not convertible to cash and cannot be withdrawn from an automated teller machine, like the cash grants under the “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program,” a conditional cash transfer program. Filipino families tagged as ‘food-poor’ are those who belong to the lowest income bracket, or with a monthly income below PHP8,000. Beyond a dole-out, Punay said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has instructed the DSWD to utilize ‘Walang Gutom’ and other programs to ’empower or capacitate’ the beneficiaries. In the design the DSWD is drafting, one of the conditions for a family to become a beneficiary is to get themselves involved in labor capacity building. ‘We want them to enroll in training programs of DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) and TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) so that we can capacitate them into standing on their own. So, while we’re helping them with their food requirements, siguro iyong maitutulong natin na pagkain sa kanila, pambili ng pagkain, gamitin na lang po nilang pamasahe papunta sa TESDA, papunta sa DOLE, paghahanap ng trabaho (instead of buying food, they can use the money originally allotted for it to go to TESDA, DOLE, or to look for jobs),’ he said. ‘Iyon po ang target nitong program na ito (That is the target of this program) so that when they graduate after three or four years, mayroon na silang trabaho (they will have jobs). So they can sustain their livelihood, they can sustain their food requirements (That is the target of this program so that when they graduate after three or four years they already have a job to sustain their livelihood and sustain their food requirements)’ Punay added.

Source: Philippines News Agency

The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Bicol (DSWD-5) on Saturday distributed PHP4.5 million worth of cash assistance to 1,500 individuals in crisis in Naga City. In an interview, DSWD Bicol regional director Norman Laurio said beneficiaries were from sectors of labor, persons with disabilities, senior citizens, farmers, fisherfolk, solo parents and out-of-school youth. ‘Each beneficiary will receive PHP3,000 cash under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program of DSWD,’ Laurio said. Lilibeth Aberos Padua, a 39-year-old vendor from Barangay Mabolo, thanked the DSWD for the cash assistance which she will use to buy her daughter’s medicines, without specifying for what illnesses. ‘Dakulang tabang para sa aki ko, xmpre makaka inom na siya bulong buda mapapa iling ko na siya sa doctor (This is a big help for my daughter. She can drink her medicines and we can go and consult a doctor),’ Padua said. In another interview, 72-year-old Estrella de Jesus of Barangay Concepcion Grande said she will spend the assistance to repair their house damaged by typhoons last year. ‘I’m so happy. Finally, our house will be repaired soon with the cash assistance, I can now sleep well,’ she said in the vernacular. Senator Christopher Lawrence Go graced the distribution and gave grocery items, sports equipment, shoes, bicycles and mobile phones. ‘We are together in serving the Filipino people. Rest assured that I am here to help,’ Go said. Go said 18 super health clinics will be established in the Bicol region. ‘The super health clinic is a medium size polyclinic. Smaller than a hospital but bigger than a rural health unit that can be expanded by the local government unit,’ Go said in an interview. Go also attended the oathtaking of the Bicol Press Club and the Bicol Social Media Summit in Naga City.

Source: Philippines News Agency