More than half of Canadians say freedom of speech is under threat, new poll suggests
A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians feel their right to freedom of speech is in danger.
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday accused the United States of "gangster-like" hypocrisy for criticizing her country's failed launch of a military spy satellite and insisted a successful launch will be made soon.
Kim Yo Jong said North Korea's efforts to acquire space-based reconnaissance capabilities were a legitimate exercise of its sovereign right and restated the country's rejection of UN Security Council resolutions that ban it from conducting any launch involving ballistic missile technology.
Her comments on state media came a day after the rocket carrying the satellite failed. North Korea said the rocket lost thrust after a stage separation and crashed in waters off the Korean Peninsula's western coast.
Washington, South Korea and Japan had quickly criticized the launch. Adam Hodge, a spokesperson at the U.S. National Security Council, said Washington strongly condemns the North Korean launch because it used banned ballistic missile technology, raised tensions and risked destabilizing security in the region and beyond.
The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the failed launch Friday afternoon at the request of Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Albania, Ecuador and Malta.
In her statement, Kim Yo Jong briefly mentioned Hodge's comments before saying the United States "is letting loose a hackneyed gibberish prompted by its brigandish and abnormal thinking."
"If the DPRK's satellite launch should be particularly censured, the U.S. and all other countries, which have already launched thousands of satellites, should be denounced. This is nothing but sophism of self-contradiction," she said, using the initials of North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
She noted how the United States closely monitors the North through its own reconnaissance satellites and other aerial assets, calling the Americans a "group of gangsters" who would deem it as "illegal and threatening" had North Korea attempted to send a satellite into space by balloon.
"The far-fetched logic that only the DPRK should not be allowed to do so according to the (UN Security Council's) `resolution' which bans the use of ballistic rocket technology irrespective of its purpose, though other countries are doing so, is clearly a gangster-like and wrong one of seriously violating the DPRK's right to use space and illegally oppressing it," she said.
"It is certain that the DPRK's military reconnaissance satellite will be correctly put on space orbit in the near future and start its mission," she added.
Citing what she described as U.S. hostility toward the North, Kim reiterated that Pyongyang has no intent to reengage in negotiations with Washington, which have stalemated since 2019 because of disagreements over crippling U.S.-led sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear weapons and missiles program.
Wednesday's launch extended a provocative run in North Korean military demonstrations, including the test-firings of around 100 missiles since the start of 2022 that underscored Kim Jong Un's attempts to acquire dual ability to conduct nuclear strikes on both the U.S. mainland and South Korea.
Wednesday's failed launch raised security jitters in South Korea and Japan, where residents in some areas were briefly urged to take shelter shortly after the launch. South Korea's military later said it was salvaging an object presumed to be part of the North Korean rocket. Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing Thursday that the country's navy has mobilized more vessels and aircraft in search of additional debris to recover and analyze. U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials are closely monitoring North Korea over possible launch preparations but it wasn't immediately clear whether the North would attempt another launch within the stated June 11 launch window.
The International Maritime Organization's maritime safety committee adopted a rare resolution Wednesday denouncing North Korea for conducting launches without proper notification, which have "seriously threatened the safety of seafarers and international shipping."
Japan's coast guard, which coordinates and distributes navigational warnings in the region, wasn't notified by North Korea until Monday, although such warnings should be made no less than five days in advance. The IMO said it "urgently calls upon (North Korea) to cease unlawful and unannounced ballistic missile launches across international shipping lanes."
A military spy satellite is one of several high-tech weapons systems that Kim has publicly vowed to develop to bolster his nuclear deterrent in the face of U.S. sanctions and pressure. Other weapons on his wish list include a multi-warhead missile, a nuclear submarine, a solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile and a hypersonic missile.
While North Korea with past long-range missile and rocket tests has shown it can put satellites in space, it's less clear whether its technology has advanced enough to meet its stated goal of using satellites to monitor U.S. and South Korean military activities in real time.
The two Earth-observation satellites it placed in orbit in 2012 and 2016 never transmitted imagery back to North Korea, foreign experts say. And analysts say the new device displayed recently in state media appeared too small and crudely designed to process and transfer high-resolution imagery.
The UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions on North Korea over its previous satellite and ballistic missile launches, but it has failed to punish the North over its recent tests. The council's permanent members China and Russia have continuously rejected U.S.-led efforts to toughen sanctions on Pyongyang, underscoring a divide deepened over Russia's war on Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg strongly condemned the launch using ballistic missile technology.
"This blatantly violates several UN Security Council resolutions. It is a threat to neighbours and a challenge to global stability," he said Thursday at a news conference in Oslo, Norway. "This launch raises tensions and poses risks to regional security and beyond."
------
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Oslo, Norway, contributed to this report.
A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians feel their right to freedom of speech is in danger.
Here are the latest recalls Canadians should watch out for, according to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Tiger Woods accepted a special exemption for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, the first time the three-time champion has needed an exemption to play.
Emotional support animal registrations in the United States reached 115,832 last year, by an industry group’s count. But in the eyes of reptile rescuer Joie Henney, there’s only one: 'Wally Gator.'
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
The federal government is set to announce funding to help Toronto host six matches at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
With the sheer number of passwords needed today, it may come as no surprise that over 60 per cent of Canadians feel overwhelmed, and over a third reportedly forget their passwords monthly.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.