UN Chief Congratulates Biden, Says US 'Essential' to Global Cooperation

UN chief Antonio Guterres. (Reuters)
UN chief Antonio Guterres. (Reuters)
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UN Chief Congratulates Biden, Says US 'Essential' to Global Cooperation

UN chief Antonio Guterres. (Reuters)
UN chief Antonio Guterres. (Reuters)

UN chief Antonio Guterres congratulates US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, a UN spokesman said on Monday, describing US partnership with the world body as an “essential pillar” of global cooperation.

Biden will succeed President Donald Trump, who has been critical of the 193-member United Nations and wary of the value of multilateralism during his four years in office. Guterres took up his role just a few weeks before Trump in 2017.

Guterres “reaffirms that the partnership between the United States and the United Nations is an essential pillar of the international cooperation needed to address the dramatic challenges facing the world today,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Since taking office, Trump has quit the UN Human Rights Council, the World Health Organization, the UN cultural agency UNESCO, a global accord to tackle climate change and the Iran nuclear deal. The Trump administration cut funding for the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

Biden, who was vice president under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, has pledged to rescind Trump’s decision to abandon the WHO and quickly rejoin the Paris climate accord, a signature achievement of the Obama-Biden administration.

Biden has also said he will rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, also negotiated under the Obama administration, if Tehran also returns to compliance.

On the election of Harris, who will become the first female US vice president, Dujarric said Guterres “is always pleased when a woman leader breaks yet another ceiling.”



NKorea Building Roads, Walls Inside Demilitarized Zone

This handout image from Planet Labs PBC taken on June 11, 2024 and received on June 12, 2024 shows a view of the Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang. (Photo by Handout / Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
This handout image from Planet Labs PBC taken on June 11, 2024 and received on June 12, 2024 shows a view of the Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang. (Photo by Handout / Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
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NKorea Building Roads, Walls Inside Demilitarized Zone

This handout image from Planet Labs PBC taken on June 11, 2024 and received on June 12, 2024 shows a view of the Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang. (Photo by Handout / Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
This handout image from Planet Labs PBC taken on June 11, 2024 and received on June 12, 2024 shows a view of the Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang. (Photo by Handout / Planet Labs PBC / AFP)

North Korea's military has been building roads and walls inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates it from the South, the Yonhap news agency reported Saturday.

The construction activities are taking place north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that runs through the middle of the DMZ, the South Korean agency said, citing an unnamed military source.

The report follows an incident last week when South Korean forces fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the MDL.

South Korean authorities said it was likely accidental, and Yonhap quoted a military spokesman as saying some of the North Koreans were carrying work tools.

"Recently, the North Korean military has been erecting walls, digging the ground and constructing roads in some areas between the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and the Northern Limit Line in the DMZ," the military source said, according to Yonhap on Saturday.

It was not clear what they were building, the source told Yonhap.

When asked about the report, the South Korean military said in a statement that it was "closely tracking and monitoring the activities of the North Korean military", and that "further analysis is required".

It said it could not share the South Korean response to these actions "to ensure the safety of the personnel proceeding with an operation", without offering further details.

South Korea's spy agency told AFP this week that it had detected signs that North Korea was demolishing sections of a railway line connecting the two countries.

That followed an escalation in the propaganda war between the two Koreas.

North Korea sent more than a thousand balloons carrying trash into the South, describing them as retaliation for the propaganda balloons sent the other way by anti-Pyongyang activists.

Then, South Korea resumed blasting K-pop songs and news broadcasts at the North, using loudspeakers installed at the border.

The resumption of the loudspeaker campaign prompted Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to threaten an unspecified "new countermeasure".