Trump Says North Korea ‘Threat to Civilized World,’ Time for 'Patience' Over

US President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands before a working lunch at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
US President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands before a working lunch at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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Trump Says North Korea ‘Threat to Civilized World,’ Time for 'Patience' Over

US President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands before a working lunch at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
US President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands before a working lunch at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The time for "strategic patience" with North Korea is over, US President Donald Trump said Monday as he declared Pyongyang "a threat to the civilized world.”

Trump has signaled in the past that Washington could look beyond a diplomatic solution to the North's nuclear weapons ambitions, and consider military intervention.

The North's nuclear program is "a threat to the civilized world and international peace and stability," Trump told reporters on the second day of a trip to Asia.

"The era of strategic patience is over," he declared alongside his host, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, denouncing efforts by the Obama administration to manage Pyongyang.

"Some people say my rhetoric is very strong but look what has happened with very weak rhetoric in last 25 years," said Trump at the news conference.

Abe, whose own nation has seen North Korean missiles fired over its northern island amid threats by Pyongyang to "sink" it into the sea, backed the bullish stance.

"We always support President Trump's policy that all options are on the table," in reining in North Korea over its provocative actions, he said.

Abe announced Japan will freeze the assets of 35 North Korean groups and individuals as a new sanction.

The United Nations has adopted multiple rounds of sanctions against the reclusive North, the most recent in September following its sixth nuclear test and a flurry of missile launches.

The president arrived in Asia with tensions over North Korea at fever pitch, as US bombers fly sorties over the Korean peninsula and concerns mount that Pyongyang might stage another nuclear or missile test.

Trump began his marathon trip in belligerent form, warning on Sunday that "no dictator" should underestimate US resolve, a clear swipe at North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-Un.

However in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on US TV he held out the prospect of talks with Pyongyang, saying he would "certainly be open" to meeting Kim.

"I would sit down with anybody," he said. "I don't think it's strength or weakness, I think sitting down with people is not a bad thing.”

"So I would certainly be open to doing that but we'll see where it goes, I think we're far too early,” Trump said on the "Full Measure" show.

Following his meeting with Abe Monday, Trump said he was committed to achieving "free, fair, and reciprocal" trade with Japan to lower the US trade deficit.

He also said he wanted to work with Japan to "sort out" trade problems with the country.



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."