Seoul:

Dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border with the South on Tuesday and retreated after warning shots were fired, Seoul’s military said, adding landmine explosions had injured Pyongyang’s troops in the area.

It is the second such incident involving North Korean troops in two weeks, with Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff saying they believed the Tuesday crossing — like a previous one on June 9 — was accidental.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice not a peace treaty, with the demilitarized zone and line of control dividing the peninsula one of the most heavily mined places in the world.

“Dozens of North Korean troops crossed the Military Demarcation Line today… (and) retreated northwards after warning shots” were fired, a JCS official said. 

Seoul’s military also said Tuesday that several North Korean soldiers had been injured when a landmine exploded near the border, without revealing the date.

The North Koreans were working on creating “barren land” and laying mines along the border, an official from the JCS said, but ended up “suffering multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents during their work”. 

Even so, the North’s military “appear to be recklessly pressing ahead with the operations,” the official said.

This year, North Korea has been working to remove streetlights from roads and dig up railway tracks that connected the two countries when ties were better, they added.

Since April, North Korea has deployed troops along the front line “to create barren land”, the official said, adding the North was also laying more landmines, reinforcing tactical roads, and adding what appeared to be anti-tank barriers.

“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South,” the JCS official said.

The vast majority of North Koreans who escape the country first go to China before making their way to the South, usually via another country, with only a handful ever managing to cross the DMZ, which is riddled with landmines and has a heavy military presence on both sides.

 June 9 incident 

The incident comes as North Korea prepares to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin for a rare state visit likely to boost defence ties between the two isolated countries.

On June 9, Seoul said that North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the line that separates the two militaries — saying it happened in an overgrown area of the heavily fortified border area and was likely accidental.

About 20 North Korean soldiers crossed the border in that incident, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years.

In recent weeks, North Korea has sent more than a thousand balloons laden with trash including cigarette butts and toilet paper southward — a response, it says, to balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda sent north by activists.

In response, the South Korean government has suspended a 2018 tension-reducing military deal and restarted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border, infuriating the North, which warned Seoul was creating “a new crisis”.

“The recent increase in the entry of North Korean military into the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is due to the need for mine clearance and surveying for the installation of barriers,” Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP. 

“Engineering and observation units have increased their presence in the area. It is believed that the disorderly actions of those who are unfamiliar with the minefields have led to these mine-related accidents.” 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Burgenstock, Switzerland:

World leaders on Sunday backed Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity, and the need for eventual talks with Russia on ending the war — but left the key questions of how and when unresolved.

More than two years after Russia invaded, leaders and top officials from more than 90 states spent the weekend at a Swiss mountainside resort for a two-day summit dedicated to resolving the largest European conflict since World War II.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the diplomatic “success” of the event, to which Russia was not invited. The path was open for a second peace summit, with a view to ending the war with a just and lasting settlement, he added.

“Russia and their leadership are not ready for a just peace,” Zelensky told the closing news conference.

“Russia can start negotiations with us even tomorrow without waiting for anything — if they leave our legal territories.”

Moscow, meanwhile, doubled down on its demand for Kyiv’s effective surrender as a starting point for negotiations.

 ‘Challenging’ road ahead 

“Reaching peace requires the involvement of and dialogue between all parties,” said the summit’s final communique, backed by the vast majority of countries that attended the gathering at the Burgenstock complex overlooking Lake Lucerne.

The document also reaffirmed a commitment to the “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states, including Ukraine, within their internationally recognised borders”.

Any threat or use of nuclear weapons in the war was “inadmissible”, and food security “must not be weaponised”, it added.

The declaration also urged a full exchange of prisoners of war and the return to Ukraine of “all deported and unlawfully displaced children”, and other unlawfully detained Ukrainian civilians.

But not all attendees backed the joint communique. India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were among those who did not appear on a list of states endorsing it.

Pavan Kapoor, the head of India’s delegation to the summit, said New Delhi continued to believe that peace “requires bringing together all stakeholders and a sincere and practical engagement between the two parties to the conflict”.

While the declaration committed countries to taking “concrete steps… to further engagement of the representatives of all parties”, it was still not clear how Russia was to be brought into the process.

“The road ahead is long and challenging,” Swiss President Viola Amherd conceded.

Kremlin reiterates Putin call 

Posting on social media platform X, Zelensky wrote: “It’s important that all Summit participants supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity because there will be no lasting peace without it.”

But the summit came as Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned, is struggling on the battlefield.

Zelensky said the current level of Western military aid was not enough to ensure Kyiv wins the war.

“There is aid. There are serious packages. Is it enough to win? No. Is it late? Yes,” he told reporters.

On Friday, Putin demanded Kyiv’s effective surrender as a basis for peace talks.

His call for Ukraine to withdraw its troops from the south and east of the country, which Russia claims to have annexed, was widely dismissed at the summit.

The Kremlin nonetheless on Sunday insisted that Ukraine should “reflect” on Putin’s demands, citing the military situation on the ground.

“The current dynamic of the situation at the front shows us clearly that it’s continuing to worsen for the Ukrainians,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“It’s probable that a politician who puts the interests of his country above his own and those of his masters would reflect on such a proposal.”

Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured Zagrine village in southern Ukraine, continuing its progress on the front line.

Children, nuclear fears 

The Burgenstock talks were framed around areas of common ground between Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan presented in late 2022, and a 2023 UN resolution on the war that passed with the support of 141 countries.

Switzerland set a tight remit to try to garner the broadest support by sticking firmly to topics covered by international law and the United Nations Charter — and from there, sketch out a framework towards a lasting peace.

The summit focused on Sunday on food security and freedom of navigation on the Black Sea; nuclear safety and security to curb the risk of a disaster; and humanitarian issues including the return of deported children or the welfare of POWs.

Standing beside Zelensky, Chilean President Gabriel Boric told the closing press conference that the summit was not about NATO, left or right political convictions, or North versus South debates.

“This is about respect of international law and human rights as foundational principles of our living together. And this is applicable in Ukraine, in Gaza and in every other conflict in the world,” he said.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo stressed the war’s impact on food exports from Ukraine and how the conflict had sent inflation soaring, harming living standards in some of the world’s poorest countries.

“The consequences of the invasion go far beyond the confines of Europe,” he said. “Indeed in many ways, Africa has been the greatest victim.”

Akufo-Addo said a method should be found whereby Russia and China join in the talks process “if we’re ever going to arrive at a definitive settlement”.

Zelensky called for Beijing, which refused to send a delegation to the summit due to Russia’s absence, to engage seriously with the developing peace proposals.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

The US military has suspended aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip by sea, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, after its temporary pier was damaged by bad weather.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters high seas and a North African weather system had caused a section of the pier to come away on Tuesday morning.

“The rebuilding and repairing of the pier will take at least over a week, and, following completion, will need to be re-anchored to the coast of Gaza,” she said.

“Thus, upon completion of the pier repair and reassembly, the intention is to re-anchor the temporary pier to the coast of Gaza and resume humanitarian aid to the people who need it most.”

The damage is the latest setback to the pier, which opened two weeks ago.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Saturday four US Army vessels supporting the pier broke free from their moorings and ran aground in heavy seas.

Two beached in Gaza while the other two washed up on the coast of Israel, 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Tel Aviv. One has been recovered and the other three will be brought back in within 48 hours, Singh said.

Gaza is suffering through its bloodiest ever war, which broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza that has deprived the territory’s 2.4 million people of most clean water, food, medicines and fuel.

US President Joe Biden had said in March the pier would be built to alleviate restrictions imposed by Israel on aid delivery by land to Gaza.

CENTCOM said 1,005 metric tons of aid had been delivered from the sea to the beach transfer point as of Friday, with 903 metric tons distributed from the transfer point to the UN warehouse.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The pre-war population of Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza strip sharing a border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, was 1,70,000. Today, seven months after Israel launched its war on Gaza, as many as 1.5 million people are living in Rafah. Many of them are camped on the streets and beaches, while others are cramped into filthy, overcrowded makeshift shelters.

Rafah is now a “gigantic refugee camp”, says the Norwegian Refugee Council. According to a doctor who served in Rafah, the city is a “closed jail”. Medics are struggling to supply even basic aid and prevent the outbreak and spread of diseases. According to Action Aid, every single person in Gaza “is now hungry and people have just 1.5 to 2 litres of unsafe water per day to meet all their needs”. A majority of Gaza’s population is now jammed in Rafah. It is in this Rafah, Israel is carrying out its latest offensive.

Rafah has always been a flashpoint in the Israel-Palestine conflict, given its territorial proximity to Egypt. After the 1948 Arab-Israel war, Rafah came under Egyptian rule along with other parts of the Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of Palestinians who were displaced from their homes when Israel was created were settled in Gaza.

During the Suez Crisis, Rafah came under attack when the Israeli troops were marching towards Sinai through Gaza. On November 12, 1956, the IDF raided a refugee camp in Rafah, killing at least 111 Palestinians, which came to be known as the Rafah massacre.

After the Six-Day War of 1967, the entire Gaza, including Rafah, came under Israel’s direct military occupation. Israel would retain its direct control over the enclave until 2005.

After the latest war began on October 7, 2023, Israel ordered over 1 million Palestinians living in the northern Gaza to evacuate. Most of them fled their homes and moved to southern cities such as Khan Younis and Rafah. When Khan Younis was attacked, there was another flight of refugees towards the south. Today, the lion’s share of Rafah’s population are internally displaced Palestinians.

Before Israel launched the Rafah offensive, there were dramatic developments. The U.S. had warned Israel against launching a full-scale invasion of Rafah, arguing that such an attack would kill more Palestinian civilians. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel would go ahead with the plan to invade Rafah, defying international pressure, warnings and pleas. But Mr. Netanyahu is also under pressure to bring the remaining hostages back. Israel says 128 hostages abducted on October 7 are still in Hamas’s captivity, though many of them are feared dead. There are growing protests in Israel, asking the government to strike a deal with Hamas to bring the hostages back. Israel and Hamas, helped by mediators such as the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, had held multiple rounds of talks in Cairo for a ceasefire deal.

While the fine details of the ceasefire proposal were not made public yet, reports in Egyptian and Saudi media suggested that the mediators had proposed a three-phase deal that would see the release of all hostages and Palestinian prisoners and eventually bring the war to an end. In the first phase, Israel was expected to cease fire for 40 days and free Palestinian prisoners in return for the release of 33 hostages.

In the second phase, the ceasefire would be extended by 42 more days, while all the remaining living hostages would be released.

The third phase proposals were the most contentious. Israel wanted Hamas to release the bodies of all hostages and Hamas wanted a comprehensive, lasting ceasefire and full withdrawal from Gaza.

Israel says no to both Hamas demands. Israeli troops have been deployed in northern and central Gaza, effectively carving the northern tip of the strip as a buffer zone between Israel proper and Gaza’s population. If the Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza, Israeli officials say, Palestinians as well as Hamas militants would return to the areas close to the Israeli border. And if Israel agrees to a lasting ceasefire, the remaining Hamas battalions would survive.

When Israel launched the war on October 7, it made its twin objectives public: dismantle Hamas and release the hostages. Seven months after the war, in which roughly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, Israel has not met either of the objectives. One practical solution to the hostage crisis is to strike a deal with Hamas. But Hamas would release the hostages only in return for a ceasefire. And if Israel agrees for a ceasefire, Hamas would survive. This is the dilemma Mr. Netanyahu is facing.

Earlier, Biden administration officials had said Hamas was the major stumbling block for a ceasefire. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on May 4 that “the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas”. But on May 6, Hamas’s Doha-based leader Ismail Haniyeh said the group accepted the ceasefire proposal suggested by the mediators in Cairo. The Hamas announcement came hours after the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) ordered at least 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate from Rafah. Mr. Netanyahu’s government immediately rejected the Hamas offer, saying it did not meet Israel’s core demands. The Prime Minister later said Israel would never agree to end the war in Gaza as part of a deal with Hamas.

Mr. Netanyahu’s tough line on Rafah has created tensions in Israel’s ties with the U.S. Earlier President Biden had said a full-scale attack on Rafah without a proper plan to protect civilians would be a redline for him. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that any attack on the overcrowded Rafah would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. If he abandons the plan to attack Rafah and cuts a deal with Hamas for hostages, Netanyahu’s government could fall as his far-right allies such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have already warned against such a move. If he goes ahead with the plan to invade Rafah, more Palestinian civilians would be killed, Israel would further be isolated globally and tensions would rise in ties with the U.S. But Mr. Netanyahu doesn’t seem to bother.

“If Israel has to stand alone, it will stand alone,” he said on May 10, less than a month after American, British, French and Jordanian defence systems, along with the IDF, shot down most of the drones and cruise and ballistic missiles launched by Iran towards Israel.

Read more: Rafah | Opening the gates of hell

Read more: Israel’s ‘limited’ military operation in Rafah | Explained

Script and presentation: Stanly Johny

Video: Thamodharan B.

Production: Ravichandran N.

Kyiv:

Ukraine claimed Monday it had killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in an unprecedented missile strike on the naval headquarters in the annexed Crimean peninsula last week.

“Thirty-four officers were killed, including the commander of the Black Sea fleet. Another 105 occupants were wounded. The headquarters are beyond repair,” Ukraine’s special forces said in a statement on social media.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)