US, SKorea and Japan to Step Up Actions on NKorean Cyberthreats

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, center, speaks at a joint news conference with South Korea's National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong, right, and Japan's National Security Secretariat Secretary-General Takeo Akiba at the presidential office, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Seoul, South Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Pool Photo via AP)
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, center, speaks at a joint news conference with South Korea's National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong, right, and Japan's National Security Secretariat Secretary-General Takeo Akiba at the presidential office, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Seoul, South Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Pool Photo via AP)
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US, SKorea and Japan to Step Up Actions on NKorean Cyberthreats

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, center, speaks at a joint news conference with South Korea's National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong, right, and Japan's National Security Secretariat Secretary-General Takeo Akiba at the presidential office, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Seoul, South Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Pool Photo via AP)
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, center, speaks at a joint news conference with South Korea's National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong, right, and Japan's National Security Secretariat Secretary-General Takeo Akiba at the presidential office, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Seoul, South Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Pool Photo via AP)

The United States, South Korea and Japan have agreed on new initiatives to respond to North Korea's threats in cyberspace, including satellite launches and cryptocurrency abuses, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday.
The national security advisers of the United States, South Korea and Japan met in Seoul on Saturday as Pyongyang warned that it would deploy more spy satellites.
Sullivan said the meeting followed up on commitments set forth at the Camp David trilateral summit hosted by US President Joe Biden in August, where leaders of the three allies pledged to deepen security and economic cooperation.
"We've also launched new trilateral initiatives to counter the threats posed by the DPRK, from its cybercrime and cryptocurrency money laundering to its reckless space and ballistic missile tests," Sullivan told reporters, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The allies' coordinated efforts would also target potential threats of economic coercion, Reuters quoted Sullivan as saying, and they have finalized work on a supply chain early warning system, agreed to at Camp David, in critical minerals and rechargeable batteries.
The Biden administration held the meeting at Camp David with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to project unity in the face of China's growing power and nuclear threats from North Korea.
North Korean state media said on Saturday that Pyongyang was determined to launch more spy satellites soon, calling space development part of its right to defend itself.
After talks with Sullivan and Japan's Takeo Akiba, South Korean national security adviser Cho Tae-yong said the three had also exchanged ideas on Ukraine and Middle East issues.



7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
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7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

Russian shelling in the town of Chasiv Yar on Saturday killed five people, as Moscow’s troops pushed ahead in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The attack struck a high-rise building and a private home, said regional Gov. Vadym Filaskhin, who said the victims were men aged 24 to 38. He urged the last remaining residents to leave the front-line town, which had a pre-war population of 12,000.
“Normal life has been impossible in Chasiv Yar for more than two years,” Filaskhin wrote on social media. “Do not become a Russian target — evacuate.” A further two people were killed by Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region. One victim was pulled from the rubble of a house in the village of Cherkaska Lozova, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, while a second woman died of her wounds while being transported to a hospital.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it captured the town of Pivnichne, also in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Russian forces have been driving deeper into the partly occupied eastern region, the total capture of which is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. Russia’s army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense in the area.
At the same time, Ukraine has sent its forces into Russia’s Kursk region in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II. The move is partly an effort to force Russia to draw troops away from the Donetsk front.
Elsewhere, the number of wounded following a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday continued to rise.
Six people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl, when glide bombs struck five locations across the city, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. Writing on social media Saturday, he said that the number of injured had risen from 47 to 96.
Syniehubov also confirmed that the 12-story apartment block that was hit by one bomb strike, setting the building ablaze and trapping at least one person on an upper floor, would be partly demolished.
Ukrainian officials have previously pointed to the Kharkiv strikes as further evidence that Western partners should scrap restrictions on what the Ukrainian military can target with donated weapons.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Kyiv had presented Washington with a list of potential long-range targets within Russia for its approval. “I hope we were heard,” he said.
He also denied speculation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s decision to dismiss the commander of the country’s air force Friday was directly linked to the destruction of an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners four days earlier.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website minutes before an address which saw Zelenskyy stress the need to “take care of all our soldiers.”
“This is two separate issues,” said Umerov. “At this stage, I would not connect them.”
The number of injured also continued to rise in the Russian border region of Belgorod, where five people were killed Friday by Ukrainian shelling, said Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. He said Sunday that 46 people had been injured, of whom 37 were in the hospital, including seven children. Writing on social media, Gladkov also said that two others had been injured in Ukrainian shelling across the region.