13/12/2025

SATURDAY | DEC 13, 2025

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Japan issues tsunami warning after quake

China harming regional peace, say Defence chiefs

TOKYO: Beijing’s actions are “not conducive to regional peace”, Japan’s Defence minister and his US counterpart Pete Hegseth agreed during a call after Chinese aircraft locked radar on Japanese jets near Taiwan, Tokyo said yesterday. The Dec 6 radar incident came after comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan that infuriated China. This was followed this week by Chinese-Russian air patrols around Japan. Hegseth and Shinjiro Koizumi “exchanged candid views on the increasingly severe security situation in the Indo-Pacific region, including the radar incident”, the Japanese Defence Ministry said after the call. They “expressed serious concern over any actions to increase regional tensions, as China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability”, the statement added. Koizumi said he told Hegseth that China is “disseminating information that is completely contrary to the facts” about the radar incident. “Japan has made clear that it does not seek escalation and we are responding calmly while making necessary rebuttals, and we are keeping the door open for dialogue.“ Hegseth’s office said they “discussed China’s military activities” among other issues, including

“Japan’s efforts to increase its defence spending and strengthen its capabilities”. “Hegseth and Koizumi reaffirmed the importance of the US-Japan Alliance and underscored their commitment to deterring aggression in the Asia-Pacific,“ the US statement added. Takaichi had suggested on Nov 7 that Japan would intervene with military force in any Chinese attack on Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force. Last week, J-15 jets from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked radar on Japanese aircraft that had scrambled in international waters near Okinawa, according to Japan. China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday accused Japan of sending the jets “to intrude into the Chinese training area without authorisation, conduct close-range reconnaissance and harassment, create tense situations and maliciously hype up the situation”. On Tuesday, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country, Japan said. A day later, Japan and the US air forces conducted their own joint air drills, Tokyo said. – AFP

The 800km undersea trench is where the Philippine Sea oceanic tectonic plate is “subducting”, or slowly slipping, underneath the continental plate that Japan sits atop. The government has said a quake in the Nankai Trough and subsequent tsunami could kill as many as 298,000 people and cause up to US$2 trillion (RM8.19 trillion) in damage. JMA lifted last year’s advisory after a week but it led to panic-buying of staples, such as rice, and prompted holidaymakers to cancel hotel reservations. Japan sits on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is one of the world’s most seismically active countries. The archipelago, home to about 125 million people, experiences some 1,500 jolts every year. The vast majority are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to the location and depth below the earth’s surface. – AFP

o No immediate signs of abnormalities reported at region’s nuclear facilities

TOKYO: A 6.7-magnitude earthquake occurred off northern Japan yesterday, days after a 7.5-level tremor in the same region injured at least 50 people, the weather office said. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warned that tsunami waves of up to one metre could hit the northern Pacific coastline. The United States Geological Survey said the quake measured 6.7 and was 130km off the city of Kuji in Iwate prefecture on the main island of Honshu. Broadcaster NHK said the level of shaking was less than the bigger tremor on Monday, which knocked items off shelves, tore apart roads, smashed windows and triggered tsunami waves of up to 70cm. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said yesterday there were no

immediate signs of abnormalities at the region’s nuclear facilities. Following Monday’s tremor, JMA published a rare special advisory warning that another quake of similar or greater size was possible for another week. The advisory covered the Sanriku area on the northeastern tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu and the northern island of Hokkaido, facing the Pacific. The region is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing. In August 2024, JMA issued its first special advisory for the southern half of Japan’s Pacific coast, warning of a possible “megaquake” along the Nankai Trough.

Thailand preparing for early polls BANGKOK: Thailand is set for an earlier than expected election after its king endorsed Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s request to dissolve Parliament yesterday, as a border conflict with Cambodia raged and the government moved to head off a no-confidence vote. Anutin on Thursday said he was “returning power to the people” and King Maha Vajiralongkorn approved his petition to dissolve the House, according to a royal gazette posting, paving the way for an election as early as February. The election, which must take place within 60 days, raises the spectre of more political turmoil in Thailand, which for the past two decades has seen multiple elected governments and parties brought down by coups and a court ruling. Anutin was elected prime minister by Parliament in September after a court removed Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office, with his rise only possible due to a deal he struck with the People’s Party to back him, on the condition that he starts the process of amending the Constitution and dissolves the House in late January. However, chaos ensued in a joint sitting of the legislature on Thursday over the voting process to amend the Constitution.

Anutin’s play comes as an armed border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia entered into a fifth day, with at least 20 people killed, close to 200 wounded and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Thailand’s top diplomat Sihasak Phuangketkeow spoke with US counterpart Marco Rubio yesterday ahead of a planned call between Thailand’s premier and US President Donald Trump about the border conflict with Cambodia, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said. Sihasak told Rubio that Thailand is committed to a peaceful resolution, but said sustainable peace must be backed by actions and genuine commitment, it said, adding that Rubio confirmed the readiness of the United States to constructively promote peace. Anutin’s decision to dissolve the House comes less than 100 days after he was sworn in as head of a minority government, amid high drama in Parliament that raised expectations that the opposition People’s Party, the biggest force in the House, would file a no-confidence motion against him.

Anutin’s party had reneged on an agreement, said opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, and a government spokesperson said a no-confidence motion was being planned. Anutin faces an uphill struggle to be re-elected, with opinion polls consistently showing the liberal opposition to be the country’s most popular party. A forerunner to the People’s Party won the 2023 election on an anti-establishment platform but was blocked from forming a government by lawmakers allied with the royalist military. Anutin yesterday said his decision to dissolve Parliament would not affect management of the conflict with Cambodia. Government spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat said the caretaker administration has “full authority”. – Reuters

WASHED OUT WASTELAND ... Residents resting as they search for the remains of their house, buried under piles of uprooted trees after a flash flood in Lintang Baru village in Aceh Tamiang, northern Sumatra. – AFPPIC

Seoul searches for workers at collapsed construction site GWANGJU: South Korea’s rescue authorities were racing to find two workers trapped under a pile of debris at a collapsed library construction site as search efforts entered a second day, officials said yesterday, Yonhap reported. at the site, with firefighters recovering two of them. One was pronounced dead at the scene and the other later at the hospital. Rescue officials have slowly advanced to the underground level, cutting through entangled debris that has hampered the operation. Search teams are also facing difficulties as the concrete mixture has begun to harden with the rubble.

Authorities suspect that the collapse began as workers were pouring concrete onto the rooftop of the two-storey structure, causing the ground floors to fall to an underground level. Officials have mobilised thermal-imaging cameras to locate the workers while taking measures to stabilise the site amid concerns of further collapse.

“We need to dig as much as we can before it completely hardens,”a rescue official said. The library under construction was being built by the Gwangju Metropolitan Government on the site of a former waste incineration plant. – Bernama-Yonhap

Search operations are ongoing to locate the missing workers, believed to be trapped under twisted steel and concrete debris after the structure collapsed at 1.58pm local time on Thursday in Gwangju, about 300km south of Seoul. Four workers were initially trapped