NATO Chief: No New Cold War With China

Flags of NATO member countries flutter at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
Flags of NATO member countries flutter at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
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NATO Chief: No New Cold War With China

Flags of NATO member countries flutter at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
Flags of NATO member countries flutter at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday there is no new Cold War with China but the western allies will have to adapt to the challenge of Beijing's rise.

"We're not entering a new Cold War and China is not our adversary, not our enemy," Stoltenberg told reporters after a NATO leaders' summit.

"But we need to address together, as the alliance, the challenges that the rise of China poses to our security."

NATO leaders are expected on Monday to brand China as a security risk to the Western alliance for the first time, a day after the Group of Seven issued a statement on human rights and Taiwan that Beijing said slandered its reputation.

G7 leaders, meeting in Britain over the weekend, scolded China over human rights in its Xinjiang region, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full and thorough investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China.

China's embassy in London said it was resolutely opposed to mentions of Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan that it said distorted the facts and exposed the "sinister intentions of a few countries such as the United States".

"China's reputation must not be slandered," the embassy said on Monday.



South Korean Prosecutors Seek Drone Chief's Arrest over Operation in North

A South Korean flag covers a ceremonial guard member prior to the arrival of South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in at the White House in Washington, US, April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files
A South Korean flag covers a ceremonial guard member prior to the arrival of South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in at the White House in Washington, US, April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files
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South Korean Prosecutors Seek Drone Chief's Arrest over Operation in North

A South Korean flag covers a ceremonial guard member prior to the arrival of South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in at the White House in Washington, US, April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files
A South Korean flag covers a ceremonial guard member prior to the arrival of South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in at the White House in Washington, US, April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files

South Korean prosecutors said on Sunday they had sought court approval to detain the head of a military drone unit as part of an investigation into former President Yoon Suk Yeol and drone operations in neighboring North Korea.

Prosecutors stepped up a probe into the drone operation after indicting the jailed ex-President Yoon on Saturday on additional charges for his short-lived declaration of martial law in December.

They had summoned the unit's chief, Kim Yong-dae, on Thursday regarding accusations that Yoon ordered a covert drone operation into the North last year to inflame tension between the neighbors to justify his martial law decree, Reuters reported.

Yoon has denied the accusations.

Kim told reporters the incident was part of a "clandestine military operation" in response to trash balloons sent from the North and not intended to provoke the neighboring nation.

In October, North Korea said the South had sent drones to scatter anti-North Korea leaflets over Pyongyang, and published photos of the remains of a crashed South Korean military drone.

South Korea at the time declined to disclose whether it had sent the drones.

In a statement on Sunday, the prosecution office said it had sought an arrest warrant for Kim. Media said a court hearing is planned for Monday afternoon to review the request for a warrant.

He was arrested on Friday without a court warrant, media said. Prosecutors and police are permitted to make an "emergency arrest" if they have a strong belief someone is guilty of a serious crime and may flee or destroy evidence.