The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are in China for the ninth Brics Summit being held in Xiamen, Fujian province from September 3-5.

The five nations are home to 43 per cent of the world’s population with a combined GDP of over US$16 trillion, China’s President Xi Jinping told his audience in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the business forum held in advance of the summit.

President Xi said through ten years’ development, the Brics countries had become a bright light of the world economy, but cooperation had now reached a crucial stage.

“We are in a great era of development, transformation and adjustment,” he said.

“Going forward, Brics countries have major tasks to accomplish, which are to grow economies and to strengthen cooperation.

“It is time to set sail when the tide rises.”

He said China, as the largest of the five member group, had witnessed its economic aggregate output grow by 239 per cent over the decade while its total volume of exports and imports in goods rose by 73 per cent.

The country had become the world’s second largest economy, and the lives of its 1.3 billion-plus people had been significantly improved, he said.

Meanwhile, China had made increasingly greater contributions to both regional and global economic development.

The country was also actively participating in global governance through its practices to contribute solutions to the world’s problems.

This had been evident from the Apec Summit to the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, and then to the Brics Summit in Xiamen, he said.

Despite this, President Xi said the long road to global peace and development would not be a smooth one.

Worldwide more than 700 million people were still living in hunger; tens of millions of people had been displaced and become refugees, while many civilians, including innocent children, had been killed in conflicts, he said.

The progress of economic globalisation was facing more uncertainties and emerging markets and developing countries had found themselves facing more complex external environments.

The global economy is still not healthy enough and remains in a period of adjustment featuring weak growth with new drivers yet to emerge.

In the face of these challenges, the Brics continued to be a key bulwark with economic cooperation the foundation of the 5-nation mechanism, he said.

Together the nations and their leaders should work to usher in the second “golden decade” of cooperation.

“The growth potential and trend of Brics countries remain unchanged. We are fully confident about it,” he said.

He said progress had been made over the past year in the operation of the New Development Bank and Contingent Reserve Arrangement and e-commerce, trade and investment facilitation, trade in services, local currency bond issuance, scientific and technological innovation, industrial cooperation and public-private partnerships.

Brics members should continue to implement such agreements and accords already reached while actively exploring new ways and areas for practical cooperation.

He said the Brics Summit in Xiamen would promote equality and mutual benefit, hastening the abandoning of old economic orders.

He called for “reform to the global economic governance system to make it commensurate with the reality of the global economic architecture” while advocating a community of shared future for all.

“We should uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and basic norms governing international relations, firmly support multilateralism, work for greater democracy in international relations, and oppose hegemonism and power politics,” President Xi said.

“We should foster the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and take a constructive part in the process of resolving geopolitical hotspot issues and make our due contributions.”

Economic growth was critical to ensure political stability, Ong said, adding that a rising middle class across Asean had seen 5 per cent growth since last year.

That growth, which Ong expected to top 7 per cent, could be furthered by integrative mechanisms, he said.

The most prominent example was the Asean Free Trade Area pact signed in 1992, followed by the formal debut of the Asean Economic Community, which has helped to realise tariff reductions and facilitated cross-border trade, investment and the transfer of capital.

Asean should also keep working on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a proposed FTA among Asean member countries as well as Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, which all have existing FTAs with Asean.

“A study from McKinsey & Company shows that a fully integrated Asean economy could raise our economy by 10 per cent,” Ong said. “Without [integration], Asean will eventually lose out from competition between India and China.”

To accelerate economic progress, he said, efficient implementation of technology should be considered. Already a digital industry hub, Asean had the potential to be ranked among the world’s top-five digital economies by 2025, he said.

With hundreds of thousands of new mobile phone users in Asean countries, modernisation should boost growing markets and not instead hinder traditional employment in industry, allowing job creation to prosper, he said.

Sophisticated technology would also help to balance supply and demand in growing Asean labour markets as well as regulate transboundary issues, including the rise of extremism that needed to be checked, he said.

Asean must also pick the right instruments to develop young people as a vital element of Asean’s future, Ong said. A majority of the 630 million people in Asean, excluding Singapore and Thailand, are young people.

The younger generation would not only help maintain dynamic growth in Asean, but also enhance Asean’s capacity to invest, given that economies cannot be wholly reliant on natural resources but also depend on human resources, Ong said.

Ong, a Singaporean diplomat who served as secretary-general from 2003 to 2007, spoke during a special lecture at the Foreign Ministry as a part of commemorative activities on the occasion of 50th anniversary of Asean.

A total of 87,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since violence erupted in neighbouring Myanmar on August 25, with some alleging massacres by security forces and Buddhist mobs.

Kadyrov — who rules the mainly-Muslim Chechnya region in southern Russia with an iron fist — is a fierce loyalist of President Vladimir Putin, but has also sought to present himself as an influential figure for Muslims worldwide.

“Stop this bloodshed. We demand the guilty are punished and crimes against humanity are investigated,” Kadyrov told the large crowd in central Grozny in a live broadcast on local television.

“I am convinced that hundreds of millions of people around the world will hear our demand.”

The outspoken protest in Chechnya — which Kadyrov claimed drew “hundreds of thousands” of people from across the Russian Caucasus — represented a rare public divergence between the leader and the official line from Moscow.

Russia has been muted over the latest violence in Myanmar and earlier this year reportedly even blocked a UN statement expressing fears over the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Russia and Myanmar are also allies who signed a military cooperation agreement last year, with Moscow of having exported military aircraft and artillery to the country.

The country’s foreign ministry said Sunday that it was “closely following” the current situation and was “concerned by reports of ongoing armed clashes that have caused casualties among civilians and government security forces.”

Kadyrov — who rights groups accuse of rampant abuses — has previously staged a mammoth demonstration against the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The latest rally in Chechnya came after some 1,000 Muslims gathered in Moscow Sunday to protest outside Myanmar’s embassy in the city.

Moscow police said they detained 20 people near the embassy on Monday for breaching public order, with the TASS news agency reporting they were citizens from the North Caucasus holding a second smaller protest. //AFP

Cambodia’s Tax Department issued a letter yesterday asking its Immigration Department to prevent Deborah Krisher-Steele and Douglas Steele – both representatives of the Cambodia Daily – from leaving the country, a day after department head Kong Vibol said he would continue to pursue the tax dispute that precipitated the paper’s closure.

The Daily published its last edition yesterday, complying with an order to either pay an “exorbitant” US$6.3 million tax bill by September 4 or cease operations.

On Sunday, the newspaper announced that deputy publisher Krisher-Steele would be handing its assets back to founder Bernard Krisher, her father, who was willing to face any legal action stemming from the tax dispute.

The letter says that Krisher-Steele and General Manager Douglas Steele – both listed as members of the board of directors by the Ministry of Commerce – had failed to fulfil their tax duties and still owed 25 billion riel (around US$6.3 million), and that the department would continue to seek to collect the debt, the paper’s closure notwithstanding.

Additionally, it asked the Immigration Department to prevent the duo from leaving the country.

“The General Tax Department would like to request cooperation from the Department of Immigration by taking action to ban the travel out of Cambodia for Deborah Krisher-Steele and Douglas Eric Steele in order to put the burden on these two individuals to pay tax to the state, to eventually avoid the risk of losing the income,” the letter reads.

Both are named as directors of Bernard Krisher Jimusho Co, Ltd, the company Krisher-Steele formed when she took over the newspaper from her father earlier this year. The paper’s closure, after 24 years of hard-hitting reporting, comes amid a sweeping clampdown on independent media in the Kingdom, with at least 15 radio stations – mostly carrying content from Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and Voice of Democracy – also forced to close in recent weeks.

Immigration Department head Sok Phal refused to comment on the directive, as did Uk Hai Seila, director of investigations with the immigration police.

However, a police officer at Phnom Penh International Airport confirmed that immigration officials had received the directive, which also contains copies of their passports.

Steele declined to comment on the directive yesterday, and Krisher-Steele did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.

The Tax Department’s Vibol, who could not be reached yesterday, has maintained that his department will continue to work on retrieving the debt.

“Even though there is a closure, the enforcement on tax will continue. The debt must be paid and the one who is responsible for this news institution is the one who is responsible for the state debt,” he told government mouthpiece Fresh News on Sunday.

Last week the Cambodia Daily said it was under “siege” and continued to call the government’s targeting of the newspaper an attack on press freedom, as five radio station owners that had been ordered to shut shop attempted to resume their services.

“Today, the Daily is under siege. The massive bill the government has handed us is an assault on press freedom thinly disguised as a tax dispute,” Deborah Krisher-Steele said.

The English-language daily was slapped with a purported $6.3 million tax bill this month after the Tax Department said it had failed to pay taxes for a 10-year period starting in 2006. The issue escalated after the department’s director-general, Kong Vibol, and Prime Minister Hun Sen gave the newspaper’s management a September 4 deadline to pay up or shut down.

Following North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke Monday morning with South Korean President Moon Jae In and they agreed to seek a stronger U.N. resolution on North Korea.

During the approximately 20-minute phone conversation, the two leaders agreed that their countries, and also the three-country group of Japan, the United States and South Korea, will work closely together to pass a new U.N. Security Council resolution. Abe and Moon also agreed to discuss the issue at their bilateral meeting to be held Thursday in the city of Vladivostok on Russia’s east coast.

In Sunday’s talks with Moon, Abe said the North’s nuclear test is “a direct challenge to international society and an unprecedentedly serious and imminent threat to regional safety, including to Japan.” Abe stressed that “it was essential for the entire international community to apply maximum pressure on North Korea, including the pursuit of a more powerful Security Council resolution.”

Moon replied that South Korea would work with the global community to craft strong retalitory mesasures against North Korea through the UNSC, including a strong resolution.

Japan’s government will request other countries’ cooperation in implementing strong countermeasures, including restrictions on oil exports to North Korea.

Late Sunday night, Abe also held a phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump followed by a call to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.N. General Assembly will hold a series of meetings in New York during the second half of this month. At a Monday liaison meeting between the government and ruling parties held at the Prime Minister’s Office, Abe said with regard to the U.N. meetings, “[Japan] will strongly argue [through the U.N. meetings] that now is not the time to hold a dialogue [with Pyongyang] but that it is necessary for international society to work closely together to pressure North Korea into adopting new policies.”

Foreign Minister Taro Kono and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a roughly 20-minute phone conference on Monday morning. Kono and Tillerson agreed that the Japanese and U.S. governments will cooperate in efforts to adopt a new UNSC resolution.

At the Foreign Ministry, Kono held a series of meetings with representatives from non-permanent UNSC member countries – including with the charges d’affaires ad interim of Ethiopia, this month’s UNSC chair – and other officials. The foreign minister is thought to have asked for their cooperation in the adoption of a new resolution.

Amid continued ambiguity regarding the fate of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, some industry experts are predicting high odds that US President Donald Trump may actually terminate the trade deal, following North Korea’s escalating threats, which are adding tension to the political and economic climate between South Korea and the US.

“While some people view Trump’s threats as being bluffs, in my expert opinion, Trump deciding to back out of the S Korea-US Free Trade Agreement is a real possibility,” Yang Jun-sok, an economics professor at Catholic University of Korea, told The Korea Herald.

The expert added that the US president is struggling to uphold his campaign promises to his Midwest supporters to stand tough and renegotiate international trade deals that are destroying American jobs.

During his visit to hurricane-hit Houston in Texas over the weekend, Trump told reporters that he would be discussing the future of the KORUS- FTA in the upcoming week, hinting that he would be looking for ways to pull out of the 5-year-old trade pact.

Although senior White House officials stated that a final decision has not been made, Inside US Trade reported the administration may be considering withdrawing from the trade deal as early this next week.

While Seoul and Washington are gesturing at a joint effort to stop the escalating nuclear threats by North Korea, experts speculated that the US is now more likely to pull out of the bilateral deal as President Trump took to Twitter to accuse Seoul of being soft on Pyongyang.

Some expressed the view that the US leader might be using the economic agenda with South Korea to gain an upper hand in North Korea’s nuclear issues.

“It is dangerous to handle North Korea’s nuclear agendas with economic matters with South Korea,” said Yang.

“In the past, presidents tended to separate political and economic matters when dealing with the international community, but this does not seem to be the case with President Trump. Therefore, we should take his threats of pulling out of the KORUS FTA seriously.”

According to the New York Times on Sunday, a member of Trump’s foreign policy team said the president’s decision to take aim at South Korea was his way of saving face and flexing his political powers. “The president’s brand is based on projecting strength, and since he could not throw a real punch at Pyongyang, Seoul was the logical target,” the article said.

Last month, officials from Seoul and Washington held a special joint committee session to discuss the US’ call for amending the trade deal. However, according to the head of Korea’s chief trade negotiator Kim Hyun-chong following the summit meeting, the two nation’s failed to reach any agreement, citing differing opinions.

Under the terms of the FTA, the deal can be terminated 180 days after one party notifies the other of its withdrawal.

According to data compiled by the Korea Economic Research Institute and the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade on Sunday, if the KORUS FTA is abolished, Korea’s export loss to the US is expected to reach 30 trillion won ($26.4 billion) over the next five years and the loss of some 240,000 jobs. However, the data also suggested the US economy would suffer more than Korea if the FTA is abolished.

In the event the trade deal is nullified, the tariff rate would be restored to its original level before the agreement came into effective, with experts saying the declining price competitiveness of S Korean exports would inevitably lead to a decline in exports to the US.

The data projects that S Korea’s imports will be significantly reduced compared to US exports. If the two countries adopt the most favoured nation treatment tariff rate, the US tariff rate on S Korean imports would stand at 1.6 per cent, while the tariff rate on the US imports to S Korea would be 4 per cent higher.

Xi was speaking on Monday at the dialogue between leaders of BRICS countries and the BRICS Business Council, as well as the BRICS-led New Development Bank. About 300 people attended the dialogue.

BRICS leaders have agreed to usher in a second “golden decade” of the bloc of emerging markets and developing countries, Xi said, adding that the BRICS Business Council and the New Development Bank should seize the opportunity to achieve more progress.

The president told the businesspeople to take a leading role in translating the consensus of the five countries’ leaders into real action to gain common development among the nations.

In his speech, Xi encouraged the BRICS Business Council and the New Development Bank to contribute to the economic growth of BRICS countries and inject new impetus for the development of the emerging markets.

Xi also highlighted the important role that the business leaders are playing in boosting people-to-people exchanges, as “there are thousands of employees and their families behind each enterprise”.

During the meeting, the BRICS countries’ leaders were briefed by Xu Lirong, chairman of China BRICS Business Council, and K.V. Kamath, president of the BRICS-led New Development Bank.

Xi extended his congratulations for the progress made by the BRICS Business Council and the New Development Bank, saying that the achievement shows the vitality and potential of BRICS cooperation.

The BRICS Business Council has made great efforts in such areas as e-commerce, technological capacity development, standard-setting and experience-sharing in digital economies, while the New Development Bank has pushed forward its new projects steadily and opened its Africa regional center recently, Xi said.

Brazilian President Michel Temer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Jacob Zuma also delivered speeches at the meeting. All of them expressed recognition for the works and achievements of the BRICS Business Council and the New Development Bank.

Witnessed by the five leaders, the BRICS countries and the New Development Bank signed four documents to boost cooperation in such areas as the economy and trade, innovation, customs and development strategies.

Lotte Duty Free is considering pulling its duty-free business out of Incheon Airport’s Terminal 1 in the wake of falling sales, according to an official with the company Monday.

“We are in the midst of negotiations with the airport to adjust rent costs, but closing our outlet at the airport is a serious consideration,” the official said.

Korea’s largest duty-free operator has seen sales numbers decrease sharply, following tensions between China and Korea due to the latter’s decision to deploy an American anti-missile system here.

The majority of Lotte Duty Free’s sales, which had been rising at about 20 per cent annually for the past few years, had come from groups of Chinese tourists. So far in 2017, the issue related to the defense system has led to a 14 per cent drop in sales on-year for Lotte.

As sales fell, Lotte Duty Free and other operators such as Shilla Duty Free have called Incheon Airport’s high rent costs burdensome.

At the end of August, executives from duty-free operators met with Chung Il-young, the CEO of Incheon International Airport Corp., demanding lower rents.

Last year, major duty-free operators at Incheon Airport paid out more than one-third of their total sales at the airport as rent.

Earlier this year, Hanwha Galleria announced that it would be closing its outlet at Jeju International Airport, run by Korea Airports Corp., for similar reasons. Due to a delay in determining the next operator, Hanwha will be closing its outlet in Jeju at the end of 2017.

Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai and mainly Muslim countries in Asia led a growing chorus of criticism on Monday aimed at Myanmar and its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi over the plight of the Rohingya Muslim minority, reported AFP.

Nearly 90,000 Rohingya have flooded into Bangladesh in the past 10 days following an uptick in fighting between militants and Myanmar’s military in strife-torn western Rakhine state.

The recent violence, which began last October when a small Rohingya militant group ambushed border posts, is the worst Rakhine has witnessed in years, with the UN saying Myanmar’s army may have committed ethnic cleansing in its response.

Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner of Myanmar’s junta, has come under increasing fire over her perceived unwillingness to speak out against the treatment of the Rohingya or chastise the military.

She has made no public comment since the latest fighting broke out on August 25.

“Every time I see the news, my heart breaks at the suffering of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar,” Pakistani activist Yousafzai said in a statement on Twitter.

“Over the last several years I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same,” she added.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman also questioned Suu Kyi’s silence.

“Very frankly, I am dissatisfied with Aung San Suu Kyi,” Anifah told AFP.

“(Previously) she stood up for the principles of human rights. Now it seems she is doing nothing.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week accused Myanmar of “genocide” against the Rohingya.

On Monday he said: “Unfortunately large massacres have taken place in Myanmar. Humanity has remained silent…” He added that Turkish aid organisations were giving help and that he would take the issue to the UN General Assembly later this month.

AFP reported that the growing crisis threatens Myanmar’s diplomatic relations, particularly with Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Indonesia where there is profound public anger over the treatment of the Rohingya.

The Maldives announced on Monday that it was severing all trade ties with the country “until the government of Myanmar takes measures to prevent the atrocities being committed against Rohingya Muslims”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi met Suu Kyi as well as Myanmar’s army chief General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw on Monday in a bid to pressure the government to do more to alleviate the crisis.

“Once again, violence, this humanitarian crisis has to stop immediately,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo told reporters on Sunday as he announced Retno’s mission.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it was “deeply concerned over reports of growing number of deaths and forced displacement of Rohingya Muslims” and urged Myanmar to investigate reports of atrocities against the community.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif added in a recent tweet: “Global silence on continuing violence against #Rohingya Muslims. Int’l action crucial to prevent further ethnic cleansing – UN must rally.”

Protesting the atrocities against Rohingyas in Myanmar, Sommilito Natto Parishad forms a human chain in Sylhet city yesterday. Photo: Star

Thousands gathered in Russia’s Chechnya region Monday for an officially staged rally over the plight of the Rohingya.

“THE SITUATION IS DIRE”

Last week, Fortify Rights, a Bangkok-based rights body said Myanmar state security forces and armed locals committed mass killing of Rohingyas, including children and women, and burned down their villages in northern Rakhine state.

Survivors and witnesses described horrific scenes of beheading children, burning Rohingyas alive, setting fire on villages by Myanmar Army, police, “security guards”, riot police, and local armed-civilians, forcing tens of thousands to flee to Bangladesh.

“The situation is dire,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights in a statement on September 1.

Fortify Rights interviewed 24 survivors and eyewitnesses of attacks in the last week from 17 villages in three townships of northern Rakhine State—Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung.

Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old survivor of the attacks on Chut Pyin village of Rathedaung, said, “My brother was killed—[Myanmar Army soldiers] burned him with the group. We found [my other family members] in the fields.”

“My two nephews, their heads were off. One was six-years old and the other was nine-years old. My sister-in-law was shot with a gun.”

Witnesses and survivors said armed residents from a nearby village and Myanmar Army entered Chut Pyin village around 2 pm on August 27, shooting and killing several residents and, in some cases, beheading Rohingya residents, including children.

Soldiers reportedly arrested a large group of Rohingya men, marched them into a nearby bamboo hut, and set it on fire, burning them to death, witnesses told Fortify Rights.

Survivors from Chut Pyin said soldiers and armed residents burned every house in the village.

After the army and local armed-residents left the village, Rohingya survivors returned to the village to assess damage, at great personal risk, and to count the dead. Survivors estimated the death toll to be more than 200.

The killing spree lasted for approximately five hours—from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm on August 27, they said.

Fortify Rights fears a “massive influx” of tens of thousands of other Rohingyas into Bangladesh in the next several days. It urged Bangladesh to open the border to the refugees and coordinate with humanitarian organisations.

Fortify Rights also documented how militants with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) are also accused of killing civilians—suspected government “informants”—in recent days and months as well as preventing men and boys from fleeing Maungdaw.

A Rohingya man from Kha Maung Seik village in northern Maungdaw Township told Fortify Rights that Rohingya militants stopped him and a large group of displaced civilians for two hours. He told Fortify Rights: “They didn’t beat us but they beat our guide who was showing us the way. They said we all had to go back and fight against the government.”

Members of ARSA must respect the rights of the civilian population, including the right to freedom of movement, Fortify Rights said.

“We can’t stress enough the urgency of the situation. The Myanmar authorities are failing to protect civilians and save lives,” said Matthew Smith, referring to Myanmar blocking access to affected areas in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung townships.

Myanmar has blocked all UN aid agencies from delivering vital supplies of food, water and medicine to thousands of desperate civilians at the centre of a bloody military campaign in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

The Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar told The Guardian that deliveries were suspended “because the security situation and government field-visit restrictions rendered us unable to distribute assistance”, suggesting authorities were not providing permission to operate.

Staff from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), didn’t conduct any field work in northern Rakhine for more than a week, a dangerous halt to life-saving relief that will affect poor Buddhist residents as well as Rohingyas.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it also had to suspend distributions to other parts of the state, leaving a quarter of a million people without regular access to food, The Guardian reported yesterday.

Sixteen major non-government aid organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, have also complained that the government has restricted access to the conflict area.

Humanitarian organisations are “deeply concerned about the fate of thousands of people affected by the ongoing violence” in northern Rakhine, said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar.

In a statement yesterday, the UNHCR warned of “true crisis” as Rohingyas seek safety in already strained Bangladesh refugee camps.

Meanwhile, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar criticised the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to protect the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Yanghee Lee said the situation in Rakhine was “really grave” and it was time for Ms Suu Kyi to “step in”, reports BBC.

In a separate development, Myanmar government approved the military’s request to designate the entire Maungdaw district in northern Rakhine State as an operational area, President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay confirmed to news portal The Irrawaddy yesterday.

According to Police Major Ko Ko Soe of the border guard police headquarters in Maungdaw’s Kyee Kan Pyin, five areas in northern Rakhine — Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Rathedaung townships, and Taungpyoletwe and Myinlut sub-townships — have been designated as operational areas as of August 25.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Washington will present a new sanctions resolution to be negotiated in the coming days, with a view to voting on it next Monday.

“Only the strongest sanctions will enable us to resolve this problem through diplomacy,” Haley told an emergency council meeting called by the United States, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea.

North Korea on Sunday triggered global alarm when it detonated what it described as a hydrogen bomb designed for a long-range missile.

The underground blast had a yield of between 50 and 100 kilotons, or on average more than five times more powerful than the bomb detonated over Hiroshima, UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman told the council.

Declaring that “enough is enough,” Haley said incremental sanctions imposed on Pyongyang since 2006 had failed.

“War is never something the United States wants. We don’t want it now. But our country’s patience is not unlimited,” she declared.

“North Korea has basically slapped everyone in the face in the international community that has asked them to stop.”

Haley did not spell out what measures Washington was seeking, but diplomats said they could target oil supplies to North Korea — potentially dealing a major blow to the economy.

New sanctions could also seek to curb tourism to North Korea and ban North Korean laborers sent abroad.

The draft text was expected to be presented to the 14 other council members on Tuesday as the United States sought to respond quickly to reports that North Korea was preparing another missile launch.

‘Insulting’

South Korea’s defense ministry said Pyongyang may be preparing a missile launch to follow its two tests in July of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that apparently brought much of the US mainland into range.

At the UN, China’s ambassador Liu Jieyi warned that the crisis was worsening and emphasized the need for dialogue and a diplomatic solution.

“China will never allow chaos and war on the (Korean) peninsula,” he asserted.

Liu urged the parties to agree to a Chinese-Russian plan calling for the North to freeze its missile and nuclear tests and the United States and South Korea to suspend joint military exercises.

Haley rejected the proposal as “insulting.”

“When a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon and an ICBM pointed at you, you do not take steps to lower your guard. No one would do that. We certainly won’t,” she declared.

Russia said it would study the new US proposals for sanctions, but again stressed those measures alone would not resolve the crisis.

“This is not the way to get parties to the table to seek a political solution,” said Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia.

The council has imposed seven sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006, but Pyongyang has repeatedly found ways to circumvent the measures.

The most recent resolutions, however, have zeroed in on the economy, targeting key exports sectors such as coal that are a source of hard currency for the regime.

Haley reiterated US threats to impose sanctions on countries that conduct trade with North Korea, saying these nations will be seen as “giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions.”

That could have major reverberations: China is the largest trading partner of both the North and the United States.

South Korean response

South Korea’s defense ministry said it was already strengthening its defenses, in part by deploying more US-made Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile launchers.

Seoul also fired an early-morning volley of ballistic missiles in an exercise simulating an attack on the North’s nuclear test site.

US President Donald Trump and South Korea’s leader Moon Jae-In spoke on the phone Monday and agreed to remove limits on the payload of the South’s missiles, fixed at 500 kilograms according to a 2001 bilateral agreement.

Trump also approved in principle, the sale of “many billions of dollars’ worth of military weapons and equipment from the United States by South Korea,” according to a White House readout of the call which did not mention any specific new deals.

Seoul was the fourth-biggest importer of US arms between 2010-2016, purchasing nearly $5 billion of weaponry in that period according to an analysis by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Trump also spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with the two leaders agreeing on the need for harsher sanctions.

On Sunday US monitors measured a powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake near the North’s main testing site.

Hours before the test, the North released images of Kim inspecting a device it called a “thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power” entirely made “by our own efforts and technology.”

The respected 38 North website urged caution, saying it was likely the item pictured was “only a model mock-up.”

The North says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion, and analysts say it is seeking to strengthen its hand for any future negotiations with Washington.