12/12/2025

FRIDAY | DEC 12, 2025

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SEOUL: A South Korean minister resigned yesterday after being accused of receiving illegal funds from the Unification Church, a cult-like movement linked to influence-peddling. The church, known for its mass weddings, is being investigated on charges of unlawful donations linked to the country’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee. Kim’s conservative husband Yoon Suk Yeol was ousted in April and is in prison following a brief imposition of martial law, with voters electing President Lee Jae Myung in a snap election in June. But local media reports increasingly suggest that lawmakers from Lee’s left-leaning ruling party and the conservative opposition may have accepted bribes from the church. Oceans Minister Chun Jae-soo is accused of having received 30 million won (RM83,721) in cash as well as two luxury watches from the church between 2018 to 2020, the reports said. The accusations were reportedly levelled by former head of the church’s global headquarters Yun Young-ho during questioning by investigators this year. “As a public official, resigning from the ministerial post is the right behavior,“ said Chun. He denied wrongdoing but said he would step down to allow the government’s work to continue “without faltering”. Lee has accepted the resignation, his office said. Founded in 1954 by Moon Sun-myung, the Unification Church claims to have around three million followers worldwide. The church rose to global prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, and over the decades amassed a business empire that spans construction, food, education and media. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, responsible for handling fraught relations with North Korea, also denied yesterday having been bribed by the Unification Church. Chung, named alongside Chun as being part of a group of lawmakers who had received cash and gifts, described the claims as a “groundless false rumour”, Yonhap news agency said. This comes a day after Lee ordered a probe into alleged illegal ties between a “religious group” and politicians, widely seen as a reference to the Unification Church. – AFP Seoul minister resigns over alleged bribes Indonesia aims for UNHRC presidency JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai reiterated the country’s determination to take the helm of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on the 77th Human Rights Day, reported news agency Antara. “The Human Rights Ministry, along with the Foreign Ministry and National Planning Agency, is resolute with our determination to seize the presidency of UNHRC.“ According to him, Indonesia must become a global leader in human rights advocacy, and this effort could begin by ensuring Indonesian representation in the UNHRC presidency. He said with Indonesia at the helm, the body would initiate new human rights guidelines, including on corruption, environment, elections and development issues. “If an Indonesian holds the presidency, they would help Indonesia change the world. We must not wait until 2045 to lead the world, we must start now and help build a better civilisation,“ he said, referring to Indonesia’s centenary year. He added that a more advanced civilisation is one in which human rights become mainstream in public life. Pigai said Indonesia has initiated a national mission to make human rights a mainstream in public life in a bid to achieve the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision, and the process would take place in stages. He said in its effort to secure the presidency, Indonesia has rallied support from several countries, including Cambodia and Laos, which he recently visited, as well as Australia, which Deputy Minister Mugiyanto visited. – Bernama-Antara

Renewed fighting at Cambodia-Thai border A family arriving at the Chong Kal refugee camp in Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia yesterday after evacuation. – REUTERSPIC

The AA was a key participant in the so-called “Three Brotherhood Alliance”, but its other factions this year agreed to Chinese-brokered truces, leaving it as the last one standing. While the military-run election has been widely criticised by monitors, Beijing has emerged as a key backer, saying it should“restore social stability” to its neighbour. The AA has proven a powerful adversary for the junta and controls all but three of Rakhine’s 17 townships, according to conflict monitors. But the group’s ambitions are largely limited to their Rakhine homeland, hemmed in by the coast of the Bay of Bengal and jungle-clad mountains to the north. The group has been accused of atrocities, including against the mostly Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority from the region. The military has blockaded Rakhine, contributing to a humanitarian crisis that has seen“a dramatic rise in hunger and malnutrition”, the World Food Programme said in August. – AFP which was struck in the fighting in July. Cambodia’s Defence Ministry said more than 101,000 people have been evacuated. In Thailand, authorities said more than 400,000 civilians have taken shelter elsewhere. The United States, China and Malaysia, as chair of regional bloc Asean, brokered a ceasefire in July. In October, Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration, touting new trade deals with Thailand and Cambodia after they agreed to prolong their truce. But Thailand suspended the agreement the following month. The United Nations cultural agency called on Wednesday for “protection of the region’s cultural heritage in all its forms” amid the ongoing fighting. “Unesco has communicated to all parties concerned the geographical coordinates of sites on the World Heritage List, as well as those of national significance, in order to avoid any potential damage.” It added that it is concerned about the hostilities near the Temple of Preah Vihear, a Unesco heritage site. – AFP

Rakhine state is controlled almost in its entirety by the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority separatist force active long before the military staged a coup toppling the civilian government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The AA Health Department on Wednesday said 10 hospital patients were“killed on the spot” in the air strike at 9pm (1430 GMT). The AA has emerged as one of the most powerful opposition groups in the civil war ravaging Myanmar, alongside other ethnic minority fighters and pro-democracy partisans who took up arms after the coup. Scattered rebels initially struggled to make headway before a trio of groups led a joint offensive starting in 2023, backfooting the military and prompting it to bolster its ranks with conscripted troops. with the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia to demand a halt to their renewed clashes. Both sides blame the other for reigniting the conflict, which has expanded to five provinces of both Thailand and Cambodia, according to an AFP tally of official accounts. In Thailand’s northeast yesterday, hundreds of evacuated families woke up inside a university building in Surin city that has been transformed into a shelter. AFP journalists in Cambodia’s northwestern Oddar Meanchey province heard the blasts of incoming artillery from the direction of disputed temples since dawn on Wednesday. Cambodia’s Defence Ministry said Thai forces initiated an attack yesterday in the province, “shelling the Khnar Temple area”. On the other side of the border, the Thai military announced a curfew from 7pm to 5am in parts of Sa Kaeo beginning on Wednesday. The Thai army said on Wednesday Cambodian forces fired rockets that landed in the vicinity of the Phanom Dong Rak Hospital in Surin province, to the north of Sa Kaeo,

SURIN: Renewed fighting raged at the border of Cambodia and Thailand yesterday, with combat heard near centuries-old temples, ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned phone call to the two nations’ leaders. At least 15 people, including Thai soldiers and Cambodian civilians, have been killed in the reignited border conflict, officials said. More than half a million people, mostly in Thailand, have fled border areas near where jets, tanks and drones have waged battle. The Southeast Asian nations dispute the colonial-era demarcation of their 800km frontier, where both sides claim a smattering of historic temples. This week’s clashes are the deadliest since five days of fighting in July that killed dozens before a shaky truce was agreed, following intervention by Trump. Trump said he expected to speak yesterday o At least 15 people killed in reignited conflict, say officials

Myanmar junta air strike on hospital kills 31 MRAUK U: A Myanmar military air strike has killed more than 30 people at a hospital, an on-site aid worker said yesterday, as the junta wages a withering offensive ahead of elections beginning this month. the ground outside the hospital. A junta spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.

The junta has increased air strikes since the start of Myanmar’s civil war, after snatching power in a 2021 coup ending a decade-long democratic experiment, conflict monitors say. The military has set polls starting Dec 28, touting the vote as an off-ramp to fighting, but rebels have pledged to block it from territory they control, which the junta is battling to claw back. A military jet bombed the general hospital of Mrauk-U in western Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, on Wednesday evening, said on-site aid worker Wai Hun Aung. “We can confirm there are 31 deaths and we think there will be more. There are also 68 wounded and there will be more and more.” At least 20 shrouded bodies were visible on