Month: April 2023

Kim Yo-jong said North Korea’s nuclear deterrent “should be brought to further perfection”, state media reported.

The US agreed to deploy nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea and involve Seoul in its nuclear planning to counter nuclear threats from the North.

In return, South Korea agreed to not develop its own nuclear weapons.

The deal – known as the Washington Declaration – was announced this week during President Joe Biden’s talks with his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol’s in the American capital .

Referring to the agreement, Ms Kim said: “The more the enemies are dead set on staging nuclear war exercises, and the more nuclear assets they deploy in the vicinity of the Korean peninsula, the stronger the exercise of our right to self-defence will become in direct proportion to them.”

She warned that the move would “only result in making peace and security of North-East Asia and the world be exposed to more serious danger”.

Ms Kim holds a senior position in the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and is reported to have influence on her brother.

President Biden hailed the deal, saying it would strengthen the allies’ co-operation in deterring a North Korean attack.

President Yoon said the agreement marked an “unprecedented” commitment by the US to deter attacks and protect allies by using nuclear weapons.

China warned against “deliberately stirring up tensions, provoking confrontation and playing up threats”.

Under the deal, the US will make its defence commitments more visible by sending a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in 40 years, along with other assets, including nuclear-capable bombers.

The two sides will also develop a Nuclear Consultative Group to discuss planning issues.

Politicians in Seoul have long been pushing Washington to involve them more in planning for how and when to use nuclear weapons against North Korea.

Concern has been rising on both sides about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. Pyongyang is developing tactical nuclear weapons that can target South Korea, and refining its long-range weapons that can reach the US mainland.

The US already has a treaty obligation to defend South Korea, and has previously pledged to use nuclear weapons if necessary. But some in South Korea have started to doubt that commitment and call for the country to pursue its own nuclear programme.

In a rethink of strategy, Scotland’s First Minister and the new SNP leader Humza Yousaf wants to focus on making the case for independence because he knows pushing for a vote immediately will be rejected.

Mr Yousaf told the BBC this week that he wants a “consistent majority for independence”.

Senior figures familiar with his thinking say there has been a shift in position since Nicola Sturgeon stood down – with Mr Yousaf wanting to prove independence is the settled will of Scottish voters.

They acknowledge Mr Yousaf has introduced an extra step in the process of forcing another referendum.

Ms Sturgeon had wanted to use the next general election in Scotland as a de facto referendum.

Mr Yousaf does not favour that policy but has said he will listen to SNP members about the next steps.

In opinion polls, support for Scottish independence consistently sits in the mid to high forties.

But senior figures acknowledge they have not yet moved the dial to show sustained support as a majority.

Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, told the BBC: “The realisation has dawned on them that while support for independence has tended to be higher than it was in 2014, it tends to be just below 50%.

“If you want to win a referendum – and clearly make the case a referendum is justified – you need to start well ahead.”

In the independence referendum in 2014, Scotland voted against becoming an independent country by 55% to 45%.

Since becoming first minister, Mr Yousaf has demanded a Section 30 order – to allow another referendum.

But that has not been accepted by the prime minister.

Mr Yousaf’s allies acknowledge the position in Westminster is not going to change under the current government. The Supreme Court also made clear last year that Holyrood could not force another vote without Westminster’s consent.

Sources say they now have to move the dial to force another referendum – and that there is no shortcut to making that happen.

They argue events may help change that.

In particular, they claim a Labour government could be forced to accept another referendum as the price of support in a hung Parliament.

Labour has said it would not cut any deals with the SNP.

Mr Yousaf’s focus on the longer term aim comes as his party is confronted by multiple short term challenges.

There is the ongoing police investigation into the SNP.

Senior figures in the party expect Ms Sturgeon to be questioned by detectives soon.

Secondly, there are increasingly public tensions in the party, both at Westminster and Holyrood.

There is also the political challenge of Labour’s revival in Scotland, and the potential threat Sir Keir Starmer’s party poses to the SNP in the central belt and the west of Scotland.

Labour thinks it could win back as many as 20 seats in Scotland at the next general election.

Mr Yousaf is responding to this threat by portraying himself as the most left-leaning political leader in Scotland. He has talked about increasing taxes on higher earners to improve his “progressive” credentials.

Any strategy which involved waiting longer for an independence referendum would be a risk for the SNP leadership.

Some SNP politicians and activists want more immediate action.

Ms Sturgeon also faced criticism for relegating the importance of independence in the 2017 general election campaign – with some in her party arguing they failed to mobilise their key support and thus lost seats.

Bhutan is one of the two countries with which China is yet to resolve its land border dispute. The other country is India, which has a long-running disagreement over its Himalayan frontier with China.

China’s global rise is putting pressure on Bhutan to reach a deal with Beijing, but any possible breakthrough will need the approval of its ally India.

Thimphu and Delhi share a close relationship and India has been offering hundreds of millions of dollars of economic and military aid to Thimphu.

Bhutan and China have disputes over territory in the north and in the west in the Himalayas.

Among all the contentious places, the key issue is a strategic plateau called Doklam – situated close to the tri-junction between India, Bhutan and China. Bhutan and China claim the region and India supports Thimphu’s position.

India has its own reasons to back Thimphu. Experts say the Doklam plateau is of great security importance to India as any dominance of the region by the Chinese could pose a threat to Siliguri Corridor, known as the Chicken’s Neck, a 22km (14-mile) stretch that connects the Indian mainland with its north-eastern states.

A recent interview given by the Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering to a Belgian newspaper La Libre has only reminded the country about its limitations.

“It is not up to Bhutan alone to solve the problem. We are three. There is no big or small country, there are three equal countries, each counting for a third. We are ready. As soon as the other two parties are also ready, we can discuss,” Mr Tshering was quoted as saying.

He also expressed hope that Bhutan and China will be able to demarcate some of its boundaries in a meeting or two. The two countries have been holding border negotiations since 1984. Mr Tshering also said that there was no Chinese intrusion of its territory.

The comments by Mr Tshering have triggered alarm bells in India, particularly in the media, with many commentators expressing concern over the possibility of any swap agreement with Bhutan and China involving the tri-junction. Some of them say Thimphu is not pressing hard enough over its claims on Doklam.Indian troops on the border with China

“India is concerned that China is pressuring Bhutan to settle the boundary to harass New Delhi,” said P Stobdan, a former senior Indian diplomat and an expert on Himalayan affairs.

“Clearly, the Bhutanese are intending to speed up the process of resolving their differences and there have been some changes in the Bhutanese stance lately with regards to China’s role in settling the dispute,” Mr Stobdan said.

Following the furore in the Indian media, Mr Tshering earlier this month clarified his comments.

“I have said nothing new and there is no change in [Bhutan’s] position,” the prime minister told The Bhutanese weekly.

While many Bhutanese were surprised by the reaction to Mr Tshering’s comments in the Indian media, the view from China is that Thimphu will struggle to reach a deal without Delhi’s backing.

“India is the hurdle here. If China and Bhutan also resolve the border issue, only India will be left. I don’t think India will let this happen,” Liu Zongyi, a senior fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the BBC.

China and Bhutan were close to reaching a final agreement around 1996, but failed due to India’s intervention, he said.

The Bhutan-China border issues are also linked to the decades-old India-China tensions over the border.

The two countries share a frontier that isn’t fully demarcated, and have overlapping territorial claims. India says it is 3,488km long; China puts it at around 2,000km.

The de-facto border starts from India’s northern Ladakh region and runs all the way to the state of Arunachal Pradesh (which the Chinese call Southern Tibet) in the east.

China’s growing economic and military might is also being keenly watched by many Bhutanese who feel that settling for a deal with Beijing soon will be better for the country.

“China is a reality. Does Bhutan have that option of not to have diplomatic relations with China? I don’t think that it is a desirable arrangement,” said a Bhutanese expert who didn’t want to be identified.

India and Bhutan signed a special treaty in 1949 that takes Delhi’s security concerns into account. A revised treaty in 2007, gave Thimphu more freedom in areas of foreign policy and military purchases.

Hundreds of Indian soldiers have been stationed inside Bhutan and officials say they offer training to Bhutanese troops. Its military headquarters is in the western town of Haa, about 20km from Doklam.

Bhutanese commentators like Wangcha Sangey feel that Bhutan can achieve a border settlement with China, if it were not for Delhi’s reported insistence that Bhutan retain Doklam.

“How we make claims on Doklam? What we have now as part of Doklam is still with us. What we don’t have, we cannot take it from China,” he said.

Analysts like Mr Sangey argue that as Bhutan currently banks on imports from India for most of its needs, particularly for oil, Thimphu should diversify its supplies by opening another route with its northern neighbour China.

The Bhutanese PM’s comments have elicited a cautious response from India’s foreign ministry.

“India and Bhutan remain in close touch, close co-ordination relating to our shared national interests including security interest,” Vinay Mohan Kwatra, permanent secretary to the Indian External Affairs Ministry, told journalists in early April.

“I would reiterate our earlier statements which explicitly and clearly bring out our position on the determination of the tri-junction [Doklam] boundary points,” Mr Kwatra said.

India doesn’t want any major realignment around Doklam because of its great strategic importance. On the other hand, for a country like Bhutan it may be difficult to put pressure on Beijing to give up its claim.

Bhutan may be in a great position sharing a border with two of the world’s emerging economies at a time when people are talking about an Asian century. But with tensions between Delhi and Beijing persisting, Thimphu finds itself increasingly in a vulnerable situation.

Mr Li will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers’ meeting on Thursday and Friday in the Indian capital Delhi.

This is the first visit to India by a Chinese defence minister since a deadly clash between their troops in 2020.

At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed.

The sides have had other confrontations since then, with the most recent flare-up happening in December at Tawang in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The root cause of the tensions is an ill-defined 3,440km (2,100-mile)-long disputed border in the high-altitude Himalayan region. Rivers, lakes and snowcaps along the frontier mean the line can shift, bringing soldiers face to face at many points.

China’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that Mr Li will address the conference in Delhi and “meet with the heads of delegations from relevant countries to communicate and exchange views on the issues of international and regional situation as well as defence and security cooperation”.

Local media have reported that Mr Li and Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh may also hold a bilateral meeting in Delhi. Neither country has confirmed this.

Mr Li’s visit comes days after India and China concluded the 18th round of military talks to try to resolve the border dispute.

India became the chair of the SCO in 2023. The organisation was formed by China, Russia and four Central Asian countries in 2001 as a countermeasure to limit the influence of Western alliances such as Nato. India and Pakistan joined the group in 2017.

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu will also attend the meeting in Delhi, while Pakistan’s Khawaja Asif is expected to join virtually.

Next week, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will attend an SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in India – it’s the first visit by a top Pakistani government official to India in years.

Washington has agreed to periodically deploy US nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea and involve Seoul in its nuclear planning operations.

In return, South Korea has agreed to not develop its own nuclear weapons.

The Washington Declaration will strengthen the allies’ co-operation in deterring a North Korean attack, US President Joe Biden said.

Concern has been rising on both sides about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. Pyongyang is developing tactical nuclear weapons that can target South Korea, and refining its long-range weapons that can reach the US mainland.

The US already has a treaty obligation to defend South Korea, and has previously pledged to use nuclear weapons if necessary. But some in South Korea have started to doubt that commitment and call for the country to pursue its own nuclear programme.

The South Korean President, Yoon Suk-yeol, who was at the White House for a state visit, said the Washington Declaration marked an “unprecedented” commitment by the US to enhance defence, deter attacks and protect US allies by using nuclear weapons.

The new agreement is a result of negotiations that took place over the course of several months, according to a senior administration official.

Under the new deal, the US will make its defence commitments more visible by sending a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in 40 years, along with other strategic assets, including nuclear-capable bombers.

The two sides will also develop a Nuclear Consultative Group to discuss nuclear planning issues.

Politicians in Seoul have long been pushing Washington to involve them more in planning for how and when to use nuclear weapons against North Korea.

As North Korea’s nuclear arsenal has grown in size and sophistication, South Koreans have grown wary of being kept in the dark over what would trigger Mr Biden to push the nuclear button on their behalf.

A fear that Washington might abandon Seoul has led to calls for South Korea to develop its own nuclear weapons.

But in January, Mr Yoon alarmed policymakers in Washington when he became the first South Korean president to put this idea back on the table in decades.

It suddenly became clear to the US that reassuring words and gestures would no longer work and if it was to dissuade South Korea from wanting to build its own bombs, it would have to offer something concrete.

Furthermore, Mr Yoon had made it clear that he expected to return home having made “tangible” progress.

Duyeon Kim, from the Centre for a New American Security, said it was a “big win” for South Korea to be involved in nuclear planning.

“Until now, tabletop exercises would end before Washington’s decision to use nuclear weapons,” said Ms Kim.

“The US had considered such information to be too classified to share, but it is important to practice and train for this scenario given the types of nuclear weapons North Korea is producing.”

This new Nuclear Consultative Group ticks the box, providing the increased involvement the South Korean government has been asking for. But the bigger question is whether it will quell the public’s anxieties.

It does not ink a total commitment from the US that it would use nuclear weapons to defend South Korea if North Korea were to attack.

However, on Wednesday Mr Biden said: “A nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of whatever regime were to take such an action.”

In return, the US has demanded that South Korea remain a non-nuclear state and a faithful advocate of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The US sees dissuading South Korea from going nuclear as essential, fearful that if it fails, other countries may follow in its footsteps.

But these US commitments are unlikely to fully satisfy the influential, and increasingly vocal, group of academics, scientists and members of South Korea’s ruling party who have been pushing for Seoul to arm itself.

Dr Cheong Seong-chang, a leading proponent of South Korea going nuclear, said that while the declaration had many positive aspects, it was “extremely regrettable that South Korea had openly given up its right to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT]”, adding that this had “further strengthened our nuclear shackles”.

President Biden said the US was continuing efforts to get North Korea back to the negotiating table. Washington says Pyongyang has ignored numerous requests to talk without preconditions.

The US hopes to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, but last year the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the country’s nuclear status “irreversible”.

Some experts say it now makes more sense to discuss arms control rather than denuclearisation.

The study of the “voice of rugby” was where match-day preparations took place during his 50-year career.

A recreation of the office will act as a centrepiece of an exhibition to celebrate Bill’s centenary.

Historian Murray Watson said he had spent two years going through 30,000 different items from the room.

Bill McLaren’s career behind the microphone began with BBC radio in 1953.

Over the following five decades he became one of the most recognisable and favoured voices on radio and television.

As well as being awarded an MBE, OBE and CBE, Bill became the first non-international player to be inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame.

Following his death in 2010, the Bill McLaren Foundation (BMF) was formed by former friends and colleagues in his hometown of Hawick.

Later this year the foundation will host a major exhibition to celebrate the centenary of Bill’s birth on 16 October 1923.

As well as building a replica of the famous Murrayfield scoreboard that sat above the East terrace, the exhibition will allow visitors to sit inside the original commentary gantry from the national stadium.

But taking centre stage will be the recreation of Bill’s study.

Murray, who is a volunteer with the BMF, said: “Bill was enormously thorough in his preparations with his commentaries and for his writing – and he did all of his research in a time long before Google.”

However, he said it was fair to describe the room as “chaotic” and added: “It was an absolute tip.

“It was full of books, newspaper cuttings, magazines and videos – there were three piles of videos from floor to ceiling.

“We have now resurrected all of the furniture that was in there, things like the desk, the chair, the shelves, the typewriter and even the empty Hawick Balls tins he used for pens and paperclips.

“For the exhibition we will put everything back to where it was left.”

During the exhibition at Hawick Museum, thousands of previously unseen artefacts and photographs will help tell Bill’s story from his early years, through his playing career and into his military service during World War Two.

The celebration, which will be held initially during October and November, will also feature items from his family life, his years as a PE teacher, where he introduced the likes of Jim Renwick, Colin Deans and Tony Stanger to the game of rugby, and also the 18 months he spent on an isolation wing after contracting tuberculosis.

But commanding the most space in the Wilton Park museum will be Bill’s vast archive of rugby memorabilia and reports.

Murray added: “Bill was like the Wikipedia of rugby, long before there was Wikipedia.

“And he was loved for his knowledge as well as his humour.

“We have around 10,000 items of fan mail and we could only find one that had a complaint.”

From next spring, the Bill McLaren 100 exhibition will share Hawick Museum with a display charting Hawick Rugby Club’s 150 years.