Month: July 2022

Citizens were urged to be vigilant around objects that may have blown across the border from the South.

For years activists in the South have flown balloons across the border to send leaflets and humanitarian aid.

In response, Seoul says there is “no possibility” Covid could have crossed the border in that way.

According to North Korea’s state media, an official investigation found two people who became infected with Covid early on in the outbreak after coming into contact with unidentified materials near the South Korean border.

An 18-year-old soldier and five-year-old child tested positive for the virus in early April after finding the objects on a hill in Ipho-ri, it reported.

Since then, state media said: “The malignant Covid-19 virus…has rapidly spread in the DPRK [North Korea].”

As a result of the investigation, people in the country are instructed to “vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons in the areas along the demarcation line and borders.”

Anyone who notices a strange object is instructed to report it immediately so it can be swiftly removed by an emergency anti-epidemic team.

Although the report did not mention South Korea directly, Seoul’s unification ministry strongly denied the North’s explanation for how Covid could have got into the country.

The closed border between the Koreas is one of the most heavily guarded in the world, but defectors and South Korean activists have for years launched balloons across the divide with anti-North Korean messages.

Since late April North Korea has been battling an explosive wave of 4.7 million cases of “fever,” believed to be untested Covid infections.

Kim Jong-un described the outbreak in May as the greatest “turmoil to fall on our country since the founding”, state media reported.

Until this year the reclusive nation had claimed to be completely Covid-free – although some experts believe the virus may have been circulating before then.

Its population of 25 million is vulnerable due to the lack of a vaccination programme and poor healthcare system, although in recent weeks there have been media reports that Pyongyang has accepted an offer of Chinese-manufactured vaccines.

It’s not clear how many North Koreans, if any, have so far been vaccinated.

In the last few weeks officials say the number of new cases has dropped dramatically but many suspect the government of under-reporting the true figures.

The outbreak began some months after the North eased a strict lockdown of its border with China – with freight trains resuming their journeys between the two countries for the first time since early 2020.

Any suggestion that the virus could have entered the country this way, especially as China was dealing with a severe outbreak of the Omicron variant, would have raised difficult and diplomatically sensitive questions, North Korea expert Professor Lim Eul-chul told Reuters news agency.

“If they concluded the virus was from China they would have had to tighten quarantine measures on the border area in a further setback to North Korea-China trade,” he said.

The Chinese leader mounted a stern defence of the political system in a speech in Hong Kong, following recent international criticism.

Hong Kong is marking 25 years since Britain returned the city to China.

It is under tight security as it hosts Mr Xi, who is on his first trip outside of the mainland in two years.

Under “one country two systems”, Hong Kong is supposed to be governed in a way that gives it a high degree of autonomy and protects freedom of speech and assembly, and other rights not found in mainland China.

But in recent years China has been criticised for increasing its control of Hong Kong and enacting laws and reforms that stifle free speech and dissent.

The “one, country, two systems” principle arose out of an agreement between Britain and China and is enshrined in law in Hong Kong. The protections run out in 2047, a deadline which many in Hong Kong have long been worried about.

But on Friday Mr Xi said it “must be adhered to over the long run” – the clearest sign yet that China intends to preserve the political model, which critics say has already been compromised to suit Beijing.

Flanked by the Chinese and Hong Kong flags on stage, Mr Xi defended the system as having worked in protecting Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability as well as China’s “fundamental interests” in the past 25 years.

“‘One country, two systems’ has been tested and proved time and again, and there is no reason to change such a good system,” he said, to applause from the audience comprising mostly of the city’s pro-Beijing elite.

He added the system had the “unanimous endorsement” of residents along with “widespread approval” by the international community, and that Hong Kong’s “true democracy began” when it returned to China.

But over the years Hong Kong has seen huge protests and many, including Western countries, have criticised Beijing’s growing interference in the city.

In 2020, China introduced a controversial national security law that has clamped down on free speech and dissent in Hong Kong. This prompted Britain to accuse China of violating the “one country two systems” principle and their agreement.

“We’re not giving up on Hong Kong,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.

“Twenty-five years ago we made a promise to the territory and its people and we intend to keep it, doing all we can to hold China to its commitments so that Hong Kong is once again run by the people of Hong Kong, for the people of Hong Kong.”

China’s recent electoral reforms designed to ensure only “patriots” can run for office in Hong Kong have also been heavily criticised.

But Mr Xi strongly defended this move on Friday, saying that it was “essential for safeguarding the long-term stability and security of Hong Kong” and that “at no time should this principle be allowed to be compromised”.

“No country or territory’s citizens would allow non-patriotic, or even traitorous, forces and people to wield political power,” he said.

At the same event, Mr Xi also formally appointed John Lee, a former security chief known for his tough pro-Beijing views, as the new chief executive.

Mr Lee had got the top job through an uncontested election – a sore point for many Hongkongers who say China has gone back on its promise to make the process fully democratic eventually.

Mr Lee’s new 21-member cabinet was also sworn in. It is heavily staffed by pro-Beijing leaders, including three who have been sanctioned by the US for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly” of its people.

Various official events celebrating the handover will be held across the city on Friday, a public holiday. They typically culminate in a firework display over Victoria Harbour.

Mr Xi’s visit this year – the first to Hong Kong since the 20th anniversary celebrations in 2017 – has led to the city deploying plainclothes officers and “special constables” drafted from prison guards and immigration forces, reports BBC Chinese’s Martin Yip.

An Omicron outbreak earlier this year in Hong Kong fuelled doubts over whether Mr Xi, who has personally championed China’s zero Covid policy, would cancel his visit.

But he arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday via a high-speed train where he met outgoing chief executive Carrie Lam.

In his resignation letter, he told the PM he “drank far too much” and “embarrassed myself and other people”.

Witnesses told the BBC he was seen “extremely drunk” at the Carlton Club, the Conservative Party members’ club in London on Wednesday night.

The BBC has approached Mr Pincher for comment.

A Downing Street source said as things stood he would face no further action from the party and would keep the whip – meaning he would remain a Conservative MP.

The Sun newspaper first reported the resignation, saying he was drinking at the Carlton Club when he is said to have assaulted two other male guests.

Several concerned Tory MPs contacted the Conservative whips’ office to complain about Mr Pincher’s behaviour, the paper said.

Dozens of people were present in a small room with a bar at the private members’ club including other MPs, ministers, club officials and people working in public relations, the BBC understands.

The Conservative Party and the Tory whips’ office have been approached for comment.

Mr Pincher began his letter to the prime minister with: “Last night I drank far too much.”

He added: “I think the right thing to do in the circumstances is for me to resign as deputy chief whip. I owe it to you and the people I’ve caused upset to, to do this.”

He said that Boris Johnson would continue to have his “full support from the back benches”, adding: “It has been the honour of my life to have served in Her Majesty’s Government.”

A senior Downing Street source described Mr Pincher as a loyal Conservative who recognised that he had behaved badly.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said Boris Johnson has “serious questions to answer” about why Mr Pincher was given the role of party whip and how he can remain a Conservative MP.

“There cannot be any question of the Conservatives sweeping a potential sexual assault under the carpet,” she said.

“The Conservative party is so mired in sleaze and scandal that it is totally unable to tackle the challenges facing the British people.”

Mr Pincher previously stood down from the whips’ office in 2017, when he was accused of making an unwanted pass at former Olympic rower and Conservative activist Alex Story.

But after an investigation by the party, he was cleared of any breach of its code of conduct.

Several Conservative MPs have stood down from their seats in recent months after complaints about their conduct.

In April, Neil Parish stood down after admitting he watch pornography in Parliament, describing it as a “moment of madness”.

And in November last year, Owen Paterson quit as an MP after an inquiry found he had broken lobbying rules – which he denied.

Mr Pincher was first elected as MP for Tamworth in 2010 and served as a minister under former Prime Minister Theresa May.

He has served in the whips’ office in Mr Johnson’s government since February 2022, and was previously a minister in the Foreign Office and the Levelling Up Department.

Whips are MPs who are in charge of party discipline, and who have the job of trying to ensure that all MPs on their side vote with the party line in Parliament.