25/12/2025

THURSDAY | DEC 25, 2025

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Korean POWs in Ukraine seek ‘new life’ in South

Probe finds duo damaged subsea cables As part of the government’s response to the Bondi Beach shooting on Dec 14 and calls for heightened action against antisemitism, Burke said he plans to lower the legal thresholds for a person’s antisemitic actions to be illegal. – Reuters BEIJING: Chinese authorities said yesterday two Taiwanese citizens led a smuggling operation involving a Chinese-crewed vessel that damaged subsea cables earlier this year. In June, a Taiwanese court sentenced the Chinese captain of a Togo-registered ship, the Hong Tai 58 , to three years in jail after finding him guilty of intentionally damaging undersea cables off Taiwan in February, in a case that alarmed officials in Taipei. The public security bureau in Weihai, in China’s eastern Shandong province, said yesterday its investigations showed that two Taiwanese men were behind a multi vessel operation that was illegally transporting frozen goods into China. The findings came after interviewing seven Chinese crew members on the Hong Tai 58 . China previously accused Taiwan of “manipulating” possible Chinese involvement in the case, saying it was making claims before the facts were clear. The public security bureau issued a bounty of up to 250,000 yuan (RM144,308) for information or assistance regarding the Taiwanese suspects with the surnames Chien and Chen, adding that they have been on a Chinese customs office wanted list since 2014. – Reuters SYDNEY: Australia cancelled the visa of a British national after he was charged with displaying a banned Nazi symbol, the immigration minister said yesterday, as the country cracks down on antisemitism in the wake of a mass shooting. The government revoked the visa of a 43-year-old man who was charged on Dec 8 with displaying a Nazi symbol and advocating for violence against the Jewish community on X, according to Australian Federal Police. “If you come to Australia on a visa, you are here as a guest,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “If someone comes here for the purposes of hate, they can leave,” he said. Burke and the federal police did not name the British man but the federal police said he displayed the Nazi Hakenkreuz , a type of swastika, and espoused “pro-Nazi ideology with a specific hatred of the Jewish community”from two X accounts from October to November. After having his visa revoked, the man who was living in the state of Queensland was taken into immigration detention and would be deported unless he voluntarily left first, media reports said. Australia cancels visa over Nazi symbol

o Seoul ready to accept both soldiers

ANKARA: A private jet that crashed early yesterday, killing Libya’s army chief of staff and seven others on board, had reported an electrical fault and requested an emergency landing shortly before contact was lost, a Turkish official said. The Dassault Falcon 50 jet, which took off from Ankara Esenboga Airport, informed air traffic control of an emergency caused by an electrical malfunction, said communications directorate head Burhanettin Duran. Search teams found the black box of the plane yesterday, Turkiye’s interior minister said. Libya’s internationally recognised government said the dead included army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad and four members of his entourage. Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah called it a “great loss for the nation”. Three crew members were also killed, Turkish officials said. In Libya, divided between North Korean soldiers are instructed to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, according to South Korea’s intelligence service. In the letter, the two prisoners thanked those working on their behalf “for encouraging us and seeing this situation not as a tragedy but as the beginning of a new life”. “We firmly believe that we are never alone, and we think of those in South Korea as our own parents and SEOUL: Korean prisoners of war held by Ukraine have said they hope to start a “new life” in South Korea, according to a letter seen by AFP yesterday. Previous reports have indicated that the two men, held captive by Kyiv since January after sustaining injuries on the battlefield, were seeking to defect to the South. But the letter represents the first time the two of them have said so in their own words. “Thanks to the support of the South Korean people, new dreams and aspirations have begun to take root,” the two soldiers wrote in a letter dated late October to a Seoul based rights group which shared it with AFP this week. North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies. At least 600 have died and thousands more have sustained injuries, according to South Korean estimates. Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies from Russia in return. Two North

A copy of a letter written by a Korean prisoner of war in Ukraine. – AFPPIC

met the prisoners during a visit to Ukraine in February, said the prisoners had described witnessing wounded comrades kill themselves with grenades. Sending the soldiers back to the North would constitute “a death sentence”, Yu said. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry has urged Ukraine not to “forcibly repatriate North Korean prisoners of war against their will” and has asked that their desire to go to the South be respected. – AFP Mohammed Ali, from the coastal city of Misrata some 200km east of Tripoli, was appointed chief of staff in 2020. Air traffic control had redirected the aircraft back toward Esenboga Airport and emergency measures were initiated, but the jet disappeared from radar while descending for landing and contact was lost, Duran said. “The aircraft’s voice recorder and the flight data recorder have been recovered. Examination and analysis of these devices have begun,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said at the crash site near Ankara’s Haymana district. Ali earlier said the aircraft had requested an emergency landing while flying over Haymana, adding that its wreckage was found near Kesikkavak village. Libyan officials said the jet was leased and registered in Malta, and that its ownership and technical history would be examined. – AFP

Nation United (GNU) rights group, which works to help defectors. That interview took place at an undisclosed facility in Kyiv where the two POWs are being held. During the interview, the pair also pleaded to be sent to the South, according to GNU chief Jang Se-yul, himself a North Korean defector who fled the isolated country in the 2000s. The video has not yet been made public but is expected to be released next month, Jang said. Yu Yong-weon, a lawmaker who

siblings and have decided to go into their embrace,“ they wrote. The letter is signed by the two soldiers, whose names AFP has been asked to withhold to protect their safety. Under South Korea’s constitution, all Koreans, including those in the North, are considered citizens, and Seoul has said this applies to any troops captured in Ukraine. The letter was delivered during an interview for a documentary film coordinated by the Gyeore-eol

Libya army chief of staff dies in crash near Ankara

Mohammed Ali in Ankara on Tuesday. – AFPPIC

said the deputy chief of staff would assume Mohammed Ali’s duties until a new chief is appointed. “We want to emphasise the continuity of operations as a military institution,” Mohammed said.

administrations in the west and east, authorities on both sides announced a three-day period of mourning and lowered flags to half mast. Mohammed Al-Menfi, head of the Tripoli-based Presidential Council,