Important Takeaways:
- North Korea might have launched a hypersonic missile, South Korea has said, as intelligence agencies investigated a ballistic missile test that failed early on Wednesday
- The latest missile test came days after North Korea signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation treaty with Russia and as the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Busan to take part in joint military drills with South Korea and Japan.
- Such missiles are seen as harder to detect because they can travel at speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound and are designed to be maneuverable, posing a challenge to regional missile defense systems.
- Tensions in the region have risen as Kim has accelerated North Korean testing of missiles and other weapons.
- The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan, and sharpening their deterrence strategies.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Social order could collapse, sparking wars’ if AI is not restrained, two of Japan’s most influential companies warn
- Two leading Japanese communications and media companies have warned that AI could cause ‘social collapse and wars’ if governments do not act to regulate the technology.
- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) – Japan’s biggest telecoms firm – and Yomiuri Shimbun Group Holdings – the owners of the nation’s largest newspaper – today published a joint manifesto on the rapid development of generative AI.
- The media giants recognize the benefits of the technology, describing it as ‘already indispensable to society’, specifically because of its accessibility and ease of use for consumers and its potential for boosting productivity.
- But the declaration said AI could ‘confidently lie and easily deceive’ users, and may be used for nefarious purposes, including the undermining of democratic order by interfering ‘in the areas of elections and security… to cause enormous and irreversible damage’.
- In response, the Japanese firms said countries worldwide must ensure that education around the benefits and drawbacks of AI must be incorporated into compulsory school curriculums and declared ‘a need for strong legal restrictions on the use of generative AI – hard laws with enforcement powers’.
- It comes as the EU prepares to implement new legislation seen as the most comprehensive regulation of AI the world has seen thus far.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea Says Tests Underwater Nuclear Drone, Criticizes US-Led Joint Drills
- North Korea has conducted a test of its underwater nuclear weapons system in a protest against this week’s joint military drills by South Korea, the United States and Japan, state media KCNA said on Friday.
- The test of the “Haeil-5-23” system, a name North Korea has given to its nuclear-capable underwater attack drones, was carried out by the defense ministry’s think tank in the waters off its east coast, the report said, without specifying a date.
- The ministry’s unnamed spokesman accused the United States, South Korea and Japan of “getting frantic” with military exercises, warning of “catastrophic consequences.”
- Later on Friday, South Korea’s defense ministry issued a warning against the North’s recent series of weapons tests, calling for an immediate halt.
- “Our military is thoroughly prepared for North Korea’s provocations under a solid joint defense posture with the United States,” it said in a statement, vowing “overwhelming” responses if North Korea stages a direct provocation.
- Dubbed “Haeil”, which means tsunami, the new drone system was first reportedly tested in March 2023, and state media said it was intended to make sneak attacks in enemy waters and destroy naval strike groups and major operational ports by creating a large radioactive wave through an underwater explosion.
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Important Takeaways:
- Japan earthquake death toll rises to 94 with dozens still missing
- The US has pledged $100,000 in aid for blankets, water and medical supplies
- Despite rescue efforts, the death toll Friday grew to at least 94 people, and the number of missing was lowered to 222 after it shot up the previous day.
- More than 460 people have been injured, at least 24 seriously.
- The Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo found that the sandy coastline in western Japan shifted by up to 250 meters (820 feet) seaward in some places.
- The earthquakes set off a large fire in the town of Wajima, as well as tsunamis and landslides in the region. With some routes cut off by the destruction, worries grew about communities in which water, food, blankets and medicine had yet to arrive.
- Experts warned of disease and even death at the evacuation centers that now house about 34,000 people who lost their homes, many of them older.
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Important Takeaways:
- Search for survivors continues after Japan earthquakes with critical 72-hour window closing
- The search for survivors continues following a series of earthquakes in Japan that killed at least 60 people, with the critical 72-hour window closing.
- A magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit the Noto Peninsula in the Ishikawa prefecture as part of a series of quakes on Monday, 1 December.
- The regional government confirmed on Wednesday that 62 people are dead and more than 300 injured as a result of the quake, with the search for survivors ongoing through the rubble.
- The first 72 hours following an earthquake are vital as the chance of finding and saving people greatly diminishes after three days.
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Important Takeaways:
- Daylight reveals full destruction of Japan’s deadly 7.6 magnitude earthquake with homes toppled, temples destroyed and white smoke rising from charred remains of buildings as country reels from 150 quakes in the last 24 hours: Death toll ‘rises to 13’
- As daylight broke across Japan this morning the full destruction of the deadly 7.6 magnitude earthquake was laid bare showing collapsed homes, toppled temples and huge cracks in the middle of roads.
- White smoke continued to rise from the charred remains of buildings, as the country woke to the horrific aftermath after being hit with 150 quakes in less than 24 hours.
- The New Year’s Day disaster left at least 13 people dead in the Ishikawa Prefecture according to the Japan Times, with dozens more injured and unaccounted for as emergency workers plough through rubble to try and find survivors.
- One building, believed to be a seven-story block, was seen lying on its side while a temple in Suzu City is said to have been completely destroyed. In popular tourist site Wajima City, in the Ishikawa Prefecture at least 100 buildings have been destroyed.
- Shocking images emerging from the country show houses flattened to the ground, with abandoned cars being engulfed into huge crevices in the road.
- A major search and rescue operation continued into the early hours of Tuesday, with Japan’s Prime Minister saying that rescue efforts had been made ‘extremely difficult due to damage to roads’ in the Ishikawa prefecture, near the epicenter of the quake.
- As Japan was on high alert on Monday, waves of at least 1.2 meters (four feet) high hit the port of Wajima, and a series of smaller tsunamis were reported elsewhere, including as far away as the northern island of Hokkaido.
- Dozens of aftershocks registering between 3.1 and 6 on the Richter scale rang out after the largest quake hit around 4pm local time (7am UK time), with Wajima City’s Fire Department in Ishikawa reporting it had received more than 30 reports of collapsed buildings, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
- Elements of Japan’s military have been called up to aid in the rescue and evacuation efforts, Hayashi added, with a total of 51,000 told to abandon their homes.
- Japan’s meteorological agency said that the earthquake’s magnitude of 7.6 is the largest ever recorded in the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture.
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Important Takeaways:
- A move by Japan to provide Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine will have “grave consequences” for Russia-Japan ties, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
- Relations between Moscow and Tokyo, already difficult, have deteriorated sharply since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Japan has joined its Western allies in imposing sweeping economic sanctions on Russia.
- Last week, Japan said it would prepare to ship Patriot air defense missiles to the United States after revising its arms export guidelines, in Tokyo’s first major overhaul of such export curbs in nine years.
- Although Japan’s new export controls still prevent it from shipping weapons to countries that are at war, it may indirectly benefit Ukraine in its war with Russia as it gives the United States extra capacity to provide military aid to Kyiv.
- “The Japanese side loses control over the weapons with which Washington can now do whatever it wants,” Zakharova told a weekly briefing. “It cannot be ruled out that under an already tested scheme Patriot missiles will end up in Ukraine.”
- Such a scenario would be “interpreted as unambiguously hostile actions against Russia and will lead to grave consequences for Japan in the context of bilateral relations”, she said.
- Earlier this month, Japan and South Korea both scrambled jets to monitor joint flights by Chinese and Russian bombers and fighters near their territories.
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Important Takeaways:
- Japan urged citizens to shelter from what it said was a North Korean missile launch today, issuing an emergency warning for residents in the south of the country.
- The alert covering the Okinawa prefecture has since been lifted as the Japanese government claimed the missile appeared to have flown towards the Pacific Ocean.
- ‘Missile passed. Missile passed. The missile is believed to have passed into the Pacific Ocean around 22:55 (1355 GMT). The call for evacuation is being cancelled,’ the office of prime minister Fumio Kishida said via X, formerly Twitter.
- Seoul’s military said the rocket was believed to be carrying a spy satellite and was launched toward the south, just hours after Japan said it had been notified by North Korea of plans to launch a satellite between Wednesday and December 1.
- It would be North Korea’s third such launch in recent months, following two failed attempts earlier this year.
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Important Takeaways:
- New island that emerged from the ocean off Japan is now visible from space
- A newborn island that recently emerged from the Pacific Ocean after an underwater volcanic eruption is now visible from space, images from the European Space Agency (ESA) reveal. The satellite images show the new landmass sitting around 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) off the coast off Japan’s Iwo Jima Island.
- The submerged volcano began erupting on Oct. 21, with activity ramping up over the next 10 days. By Oct. 30, explosions were taking place every few minutes, according to a translated statement. The eruption threw large lumps of rock into the air, and shot a jet of gas and ash over 160 feet (50 meters) almost vertically above the water’s surface.
- Since the volcano started erupting, “volcanic ash and rocks have piled up to form the new island, which is now also visible from space,” a statement from the ESA said. The latest image was captured with the Landsat 9 satellite on Nov. 3. It shows Iwo Jima — which sits around 750 miles (1,200 km) south of Tokyo — before and after the latest eruption.
- The eruption has now subsided, Yuji Usui, an analyst with the Japan Meteorological Agency, told the AP.
- The new island was approximately 330 feet (100 m) wide and up to 66 feet (20 m) high, but it appears to be shrinking as the waves erode the “crumbly” rock, Usui said. Whether the new island will survive is unclear and depends on what it is made of: If it is lava, it could remain for longer. “We just have to see the development,” he told the AP.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Biden administration believes that a seismic but fragile realignment is underway in East Asia: a deeper relationship between two close U.S. allies with a long history of mutual acrimony and distrust.
- The change would accelerate Washington’s effort to counter China’s influence in the region and help it defend Taiwan.
- While the summit is unlikely to produce a formal security arrangement that commits the nations to each other’s’ defense, they will agree to a mutual understanding about regional responsibilities.
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