World

SEOUL — North Korea said Monday it had successfully test-fired a new ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic manoeuvrable warhead, the latest breakthrough in its pursuit of advanced weaponry to threaten South Korean and US targets.

The launch, Pyongyang's first known weapons test this year and its first ever test of a solid-fuel hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), was detected by Seoul's military Sunday afternoon.

A short report in the official Korean Central News Agency said that the solid-fuel IRMB was "loaded with a hypersonic manoeuvrable controlled warhead".

The test was meant to verify "the gliding and manoeuvring characteristics" of the warhead and the "reliability of newly developed multi-stage high-thrust solid-fuel engines", KCNA said.

KCNA said that Sunday's launch "never affected the security of any neighbouring country and had nothing to do with the regional situation".

But it came just days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the country's tense maritime border with South Korea, which prompted counterexercises and evacuation orders for some South Korean border islands.

It also comes after Kim last week branded Seoul his "principal enemy" and warned he would not hesitate to annihilate South Korea, as he toured major weapons factories.

Seoul’s defence ministry condemned the launch, saying it would carry out an “overwhelming response” if North Korea conducted “a direct provocation” against the South.

“This behaviour by North Korea is a clear provocation that violates UN Security Council resolutions banning the use of ballistic missile technology, and we issue a stern warning and strongly urge it to stop immediately,” it added in a statement.

Solid-fuel missiles are easier to hide and quicker to fire, and hypersonic missiles typically allow the user to manoeuvre them in flight to better hit targets. Both technologies have long been on Kim’s list of objectives.

“North Korea appears to be pursuing the development of hypersonic missiles and IRBMs using solid-fuel rocket boosters at the same time,” said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.

“Mid- to long-range hypersonic missiles will be particularly useful in striking Guam while evading the US missile defence system,” he added.

North Korea’s last missile test was of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on December 18.

A shift 

KCNA released a single photograph of the missile launch with its Monday report, which did not mention Kim being present to oversee the test.

US-based analyst Ankit Panda told specialist site NK News that the image suggested the missile featured a so-called manoeuvrable reentry vehicle (MaRV). 

Pyongyang is trying to develop weapons with enhanced precision and the ability to “better penetrate” missile defences, he said. 

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in decades, after Kim enshrined last year the country’s permanent status as a nuclear power into the constitution and test-fired several advanced ICBMs.

Traditional allies Russia and North Korea have meanwhile boosted ties recently, with Kim making a rare overseas trip to see President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s far east in September.

Top Russian officials, including Moscow’s defence and foreign ministers, also visited North Korea last year, with the flurry of trips both ways fanning concern among Kyiv’s allies over the possibility of a potential arms deal.

On Monday, a North Korean government delegation headed by Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Moscow for an official visit, KCNA reported.

Last year, Pyongyang successfully put a reconnaissance satellite into orbit, after receiving what South Korea claimed was Russian assistance in exchange for arms shipments for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Despite its difficult economic situation, Pyongyang conducted a record-breaking series of weapons tests in 2023, including its first solid-fuel ICBM — which experts called a major technological breakthrough.

SAINT-DENIS DE LA REUNION — Hundreds of thousands of people on France’s Reunion Island were confined to their homes on Monday, as authorities issued the highest alert for a potentially devastating storm.

Cyclone Belal was expected to barrel directly into the French Indian Ocean island on Monday, as it moved in from the northwest packing “extreme winds”, according to the Meteo-France forecast.

“The eye of the storm will directly cross over the island,” the meteorological service said in its latest public bulletin. 

“Belal is not, however, expected to become an intense tropical cyclone.”

In preparation for gusty winds that could exceed 250 kilometres per hour  in the highlands, authorities hoisted the violet-level alert, indicating imminent danger, at 6:00am (2:00 GMT), putting all 870,000 inhabitants, including the emergency services, on strict lockdown.

“All circulation is formally prohibited for any reason whatsoever, and until further notice,” the official statement said.

Authorities urged islanders to stock up on food and water and stay indoors for 36 hours.

Expecting waves up to 13-15 metres high, the entire coastline was put on alert.

Many balconies and gardens had been cleared of any objects that could be carried away or broken, and shopkeepers took in removable signs.

“We are not going to play heroes, we were told to stay at home,” said Jules Dafreville, who lives in the capital Saint-Denis. 

“I returned in the middle of the afternoon and I don’t plan to come out before... Tuesday morning.” 

The island’s main airport said it was suspending flight operations.

French President Emmanuel Macron took to social media on Sunday to urge residents to stay indoors. “Be careful, stay at home,” he said on X.

The last major cyclone to hit Reunion was in 2014.

But speaking about the dangers of the current storm, authorities evoked Cyclone Firinga in 1989, which destroyed hundreds of homes and dropped record-breaking rain.

Meteo-France warned of a possible “lull” as the eye of the storm tracked over the island, but added, “This should not be understood as the end of the cyclone.”

“Quite the opposite, as the winds will pick up again in completely different directions,” said Celine Jauffret at the forecasting service. 

The weather service warned that winds could exceed 200km/h on the coast and 250km/h or more in the highlands. 

“These are destructive and devastating winds that could cause major damage,” said Sebastien Langlade, head of forecasting at Meteo-France Reunion.

Residents were also warned to beware potentially flooded rivers.

Six emergency health centres were set up for people requiring treatment, in addition to the 142 accommodation centres across the country for people to use in the event of flooding.

Olivier Blondet, manager of two restaurants and a nightclub in Saint-Denis, prepared his three establishments for the worst.

“We’re trying to make sure there’s absolutely nothing that can come off the ground and be thrown onto the windows or walls,” he said on BFMTV.

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s new President Bernardo Arevalo promised early on Monday to fight corruption and stand firm against global authoritarianism, in his first speech after being sworn in.

“We will not allow our institutions to be bent by corruption and impunity,” he said at the inauguration ceremony — held in Guatemala City more than nine hours late after a last-ditch effort to prevent the anti-corruption crusader from taking office.

The 65-year-old former lawmaker, diplomat and sociologist pulled off a major upset when he swept from obscurity to win elections last August, firing up voters weary of graft in one of Latin America’s poorest nations.

He took the oath of office after warding off a barrage of attempts to prevent him from taking power — including by prosecutors facing accusations of graft who are closely aligned with the country’s political and economic ruling class.

The prosecutors had tried to overturn the election results and strip Arevalo — who enjoyed strong support from the international community — of immunity from prosecution. 

His Semilla (Seed) Party had its registration suspended on fraud allegations widely seen as trumped up.

The opposition-dominated Congress engaged in hours of tug-of-war Sunday over the status of 23 Semilla lawmakers due to the party’s suspension. 

The lawmakers were finally accepted and the inauguration ceremony got under way around midnight.

With the presidential sash across his chest, Arevalo warned of “a wave of authoritarianism, the spread of intolerance, the restriction of dissent”.

“During these last months we have faced complex tensions and challenges that led many to believe that we were destined for an authoritarian setback,” he said, adding that Guatemala’s “painful passage of uncertainty” was now giving way to hope.

‘Scoundrel governments’ 

The inauguration was attended by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro and Spanish King Felipe VI.

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric had to leave before the ceremony, due to the lengthy delays.

In a nearby square, thousands of supporters had gathered to await the ceremony, waving flags in a festive atmosphere with music and dancing.

Indigenous Mayans had earlier lit incense and danced along to the rhythm of drums, celebrating the pending change in government.

Guatemala’s Indigenous community has spearheaded roadblocks and protests against the efforts to keep Arevalo from power.

“We have had mediocre, corrupt, scoundrel governments that do not have the slightest love for their country, and I hope that this government does not fail the people,” said Indigenous leader Alida Vicente, 43.

“There is a lot of enthusiasm, there is a lot of hope from the population.” 

Arevalo takes over from Alejandro Giammattei, under whom several prosecutors fighting graft were arrested or forced into exile. 

Rights groups accused him of cracking down on critical journalists.

He was also accused of propping up Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who headed the campaign against Arevalo alongside Senior Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche and Judge Fredy Orellana.

All three are listed as corrupt and undemocratic by the US Justice Department.

‘Rebuilding democracy’ 

Guatemala is ranked 30th out of 180 countries by Transparency International, which lists nations from most to least corrupt.

It is also one of Latin America’s most unequal countries, a reality that has, along with high rates of violent crime, compelled hundreds of thousands to risk the perilous migrant journey to the United States in hopes of a better life.

Arevalo is the son of reformist Juan Jose Arevalo, who in 1945 became Guatemala’s first democratically elected president after decades of dictatorship.

The chess-playing, jazz-loving polyglot is facing a tricky task ruling Guatemala.

To start with, he inherits an attorney general who “attacked and criminalised” him and “threatened democracy to a degree we had not thought possible”, said Edie Cux of Citizen Action, a local version of Transparency International.

Arevalo himself has acknowledged there would be “difficulties, since these political-criminal elites, at least for a time, will continue to be entrenched in some branches of the state”.

QUITO — All remaining 136 prison guards and administrative workers who were seized as hostages during prison riots in Ecuador were freed on Saturday night, prison authorities said.

Neary 180 prison guards and civil servants had been taken hostage by rioting inmates after President Daniel Noboa launched a military crackdown on criminal groups this week, sparking a deadly confrontation with narco gangs in the South American country.

“Security protocols and the joint work of the police and the national army enabled the release of all the hostages who were being held in various prisons across the country,” the SNAI prison authorities said in a statement on X.

Images broadcast by the police showed the guards, many in tears, exhausted and supported by their colleagues shortly after their release.

“We are released...Thank God we all got out safely,” a prison employee said in a video posted on social media, waving the Ecuadorian flag and standing in front of one prison in southern Cotopaxi province.

Earlier on Saturday, 41 hostages had been freed, including 24 guards and 17 administration employees.

Noboa celebrated the latest releases in a post on X.

“Congratulations to the patriotic, professional and courageous work of the armed forces, national police and the SNAI... for achieving the release of the prison guards and administrative staff held in the detention centers of Azuay, Canar, Esmeraldas, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, El Oro and Loja,” he wrote.

State of emergency 

The crisis was triggered by the escape from Guayaquil prison of one of the country’s most powerful narcotics gang bosses, Jose Adolfo Macias, known by the alias “Fito”, who headed the country’s main gang “Los Choneros”.

Riots erupted in at least five prisons and attacks on security forces following his escape.

At least 19 people have died in the violence, including civilians, prison guards and police in the last week, according to SNAI authorities. 

Authorities said eight “terrorists” were killed and 27 escaped prisoners were recaptured.

The SNAI has said it will investigate the causes and those responsible for the prison riots.

Hundreds of military personnel and police have been deployed in a manhunt for Fito since Monday, while Noboa announced a 60-day nationwide state of emergency and a nightly curfew.

Neighbouring Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer, put its army on high alert Friday over the possibility that Fito could cross the border into its territory.

Once a bastion of peace situated between major cocaine producers, Ecuador has been plunged into crisis after years of expansion by the transnational cartels that use its ports to ship the drug to the United States and Europe.

‘We are going to win’ 

Noboa has vowed not to bow before the violence, giving orders to “neutralise” the criminal groups responsible.

“I believe we are going to win and I will not stop fighting until we do,” he told the BBC on Friday.

Narco gangs often use prisons as criminal offices, from where they manage drug trafficking, order assassinations, administer the proceeds of crime and fight to the death with rivals for power.

Ecuador’s murder rate quadrupled between 2018 and 2022, as the criminal gangs found a foothold in the country.

Last year was the worst yet, with 7,800 murders and a record 220 tonnes of drugs seized.

Under Noboa’s presidency, the country has introduced two “super maximum” security prisons with a capacity for more than 3,000 people, with proposals for future “prison ships” also on the table.

Much of the country’s increasing violence has been concentrated in prisons, where spectacularly brutal clashes between inmates have left more than 460 dead, many beheaded or burned alive, since February 2021.

COPENHAGEN — Denmark turned a page in its history on Sunday as Queen Margrethe abdicated the throne and her son became King Frederik X, with more than 100,000 Danes turning out for the unprecedented event.

After a final procession in a horse-drawn carriage through the streets of Copenhagen, the hugely popular 83-year-old queen signed a declaration of abdication at Christiansborg Palace — a first in 900 years in Denmark, ending her 52-year reign and automatically making her son monarch.

She then left the Council of State, also attended by the government, the new king, his wife and their 18-year-old eldest son, the new Crown Prince Christian.

She left the room with tears in her eyes, saying: "God bless the king."

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was to proclaim 55-year-old Frederik the new king on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace, the seat of parliament and government, at 3:00 pm (14:00 GMT), with his wife Queen Mary at his side.

Australian-born Mary is the first commoner to become queen in Denmark.

"It's just exciting that an ordinary person like us becomes a queen. It's very exciting!" said Judy Langtree, a retiree waiting outside Christiansborg who flew with her granddaughter from Brisbane, Australia to watch the succession.

Despite the freezing winter weather, huge crowds had gathered along the procession route and outside Christiansborg, bundled up in warm parkas and some wrapped in Danish flags to catch a glimpse of the new sovereign.

Copenhagen police had predicted a turnout of more than 100,000 people in the streets.

This is only the second time a Danish sovereign has stepped down — the last one was Erik III, almost nine centuries ago in 1146.

There was a heavy police presence in the capital, which was decked out in red-and-white flags for the occasion.

‘Soul of the nation’ 

Aske Julius, a 27-year-old Copenhagen resident, called Margrethe “the embodiment of Denmark... the soul of the nation”.

“More than half of the Danish population has never known anything else but the queen,” he said.

Portraits and banners around the capital thanked the queen for her years of service, with cheeky signs in the metro declaring “Thanks for the Ride, Margrethe”.

Others read “Long Live the King”.

Apart from the abdication, the protocol was largely similar to previous royal successions in Denmark.

No foreign dignitaries or royals were invited, and there is no coronation or throne for the new monarch.

Margrethe chose to abdicate exactly 52 years to the day after she took over from her father, Frederik IX.

“There’s a lot of symbolism around this day,” Cecilie Nielsen, royal correspondent for Danish public broadcaster DR, told AFP.

The queen stunned Danes when she announced her abdication in her annual televised New Year’s Eve address, after having repeatedly insisted she would follow tradition and reign until her death.

Even her own family was only informed three days prior.

She attributed her decision to health issues after undergoing major back surgery last year.

Opinion polls show that more than 80 per cent of Danes support her decision.

Margrethe will retain her title of queen and may represent the royal family on occasion.

‘Different’ monarch 

Experts say that passing the baton to her son now will give him time to flourish in his role as monarch, after gradually taking on increasing responsibilities.

“She thinks the crown prince is totally ready to take over. And she wants to avoid a situation like in Great Britain where Prince Charles became King Charles after the age of 70,” historian Lars Hovbakke Sorensen said.

Like his mother, Frederik, who had been crown prince since the age of three, enjoys the support of more than 80 per cent of Danes.

He is expected to bring his own style to the monarchy, which dates back to the 10th century Viking era.

“He understood that he could not copy [the queen] and has managed to define his own image, his own ties to the Danish people,” another historian, Bo Lidegaard, told AFP.

While his mother is known for her love of the arts and is an accomplished writer and artist, Frederik is an avid sportsman who champions environmental causes.

In Denmark the monarch’s role is largely ceremonial, but he or she does sign legislation, formally presides over the forming of a government and meets with the Cabinet regularly.

KYIV, Ukraine — France’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday on his first official visit abroad, vowing that Paris would maintain its support.

His visit came a day after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled a fresh package of military help in Kyiv, and as Ukraine waits to see if Brussels and Washington will unlock massive sums of new aid.

“Despite the multiplying crises, Ukraine is and will remain France’s priority,” Sejourne told Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at a joint news conference earlier on Saturday.

Later, he held talks with Zelensky that lasted for about an hour, a source close to the minister told AFP.

“I appreciate France’s unwavering defence support for our soldiers and assistance to our people,” Zelensky wrote on X.

Zelensky also made it clear he appreciated the significance of Sejourne making Ukraine his first official stop following his appointment. “We are grateful for this signal,” he told the minister.

In his evening address, Zelensky said they had discussed Ukraine’s defence needs, “including joint production of drones, artillery, and further strengthening of air defence”.

Ukraine endured another wave of overnight strikes by Russia from Friday to Saturday. Moscow has stepped up its aerial attacks in recent weeks.

‘Values of Europe’ at stake 

Sejourne’s visit came at a time when allies are struggling to secure funding and as some worry that Kyiv could be forgotten as other conflicts, such as that between Israel and Hamas, take centre stage.

Major blocks of funding, in Brussels and in Washington, have also been tied up for political reasons.

The European Union is due to hold a meeting on February 1 to unblock the 50 billion-euro aid package for Ukraine, vetoed by Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban.

But with the EU package stalled and the US Congress still divided over sending additional aid to Ukraine, Kyiv is feeling the pressure.

Aid promised to Ukraine between August and October 2023 fell almost 90 per cent from the same period in 2022, reaching its lowest point since the start of the war, according to a Kiel Institute survey from December.

Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have warned that any delay would seriously affect the course of the war.

Sejourne earlier promised that France would do all it could to help. Its military support so far amounts to 3.2 billion euros, according to a parliamentary report published in November.

Britain’s aid to Ukraine, after Sunak unveiled its latest package in Kyiv on Friday, now takes the UK’s overall support for Ukraine’s war efforts to nearly £12 billion.

“The fundamental principles of international law and the values of Europe, as well as the security interests of the French” are at stake in Ukraine, Sejourne said at the press conference with Kuleba.

“Russia hopes Ukraine and its supporters will get tired before it does. We will not falter,” Sejourne added.

But Russia, bolstering its arsenal, has geared up for a long war and reoriented its economy.

‘Strengthen Ukraine’ 

It has in recent weeks intensified its aerial assaults on the war-torn country.

Russia launched 40 missiles and drones over the country in an overnight barrage, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that it destroyed eight missiles and disabled over 20 devices.

Russia said it targeted places producing ammunition and drones and had hit “all designated facilities”.

Ukrainian authorities did not report any dead in the latest barrage but one civilian was wounded in the Sumy region.

At the press conference with Sejourne, Kuleba said the two had “discussed the further supply of systems and missiles to protect the Ukrainian sky, as well as the supply of drones to Ukraine”.

“We are entering a new phase of defence cooperation” aiming to “strengthen Ukraine’s capacity to produce the weapons it needs on its own soil”, Sejourne said.

Kuleba confirmed that the two countries had agreed to “work on creating the most favourable conditions for the interaction of our defence companies”, including legally.