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Children Caught Up in Iran Demos Face 'Psychological Centers'

File Photo: Thousands showed their support for Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody, during a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
File Photo: Thousands showed their support for Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody, during a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
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Children Caught Up in Iran Demos Face 'Psychological Centers'

File Photo: Thousands showed their support for Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody, during a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
File Photo: Thousands showed their support for Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody, during a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Dozens of Iranian children have been killed and hundreds detained after being caught up in protests over Mahsa Amini's death, some of them even ending up in "psychological centers", it has emerged.

Iran has been rocked by nearly a month of demonstrations driven by public outrage over Amini's death after the morality police arrested her for an alleged breach of the Iranian republic's strict dress code for women, said AFP.

Fed up over the lack of change, the country's Gen-Z teens -- those born before 2010 -- have come of age and been credited for their bravery while facing off with the security forces.

"Iranian Zoomers are frustrated/angry with the status quo and aren't afraid to say it online and push outside the red lines" of the Iranian republic, tweeted Holly Dagres, an Iran specialist at the Atlantic Council think-tank.

Night after night, young women and schoolgirls have appeared on the streets with their hair exposed and fists raised, chanting "Woman, life, freedom" and "Death to the dictator".

Youths involved in the protest movement have paid with their lives, however, with the US-based rights group HRANA identifying at least 18 minors dead -- the youngest just 12 years old.

But the overall number of children killed is widely believed to be much higher.

Iran's Children's Rights Protection Society said this week that at least 28 had lost their lives, including many from the underprivileged province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

The Tehran-based group said families were being "kept in the dark" about the whereabouts of their children, and that their cases were going ahead without proper legal representation.

Human rights lawyer Hassan Raisi said some of the children arrested were being held in detention centers for adult drug offenders.

"This is very concerning," he was quoted as saying by the London-based Iran Wire news website on Wednesday.

Anyone "under the age of 18 must never be held with any criminal over 18... This is a legal requirement, not a recommendation".

"Around 300 people between the ages of 12-13 and 18-19 are in police custody," he said, without elaborating.

Among those slain in the protests are Nika Shakarami and Sarina Esmailzadeh -- two 16-year-old girls whose deaths triggered an outpouring of grief in Iran and around the world.

- 'Anti-social characters' –
Protesting children have also been arrested away from streets and inside classrooms, Iran's Education Minister Yousef Nouri told the reformist Shargh newspaper in remarks published on Wednesday.

"They are not that many," he said in response to a question on the number of schoolchildren arrested. "I can't give an exact number."

Nouri said those detained were being held in "psychological centers".

The aim, he said, was "correction and rehabilitation" to stop them from becoming "anti-social characters".

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said Monday it was "extremely concerned" over reports of "children and adolescents being killed, injured and detained" in Iran.

Despite the bloody crackdown and blocks on smartphone apps popular among Iranian teens, such as Instagram and TikTok, internet-savvy youths have still managed to get out videos of their protests.

They have adopted new tactics for the street too.

Those heading out to protests wear masks and hats, leave phones behind to avoid being tracked, and take extra clothes to change into if they are marked by paintballs that the security forces deploy to identify them later.

Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi told Iranian media on October 5 that the "average age of the detainees from many of the recent protests was 15".

"Some of the teenagers and young adults arrested used similar key phrases in their confessions, such as likening street riots to video games," the Mehr news agency quoted Fadavi as saying.

The concern with video games has been echoed by other officials as well.

Cleric Aboulfazl Ahmadi, head of a provincial organization linked to the morality police, said this month that Iran's enemies "have banked on" the country’s teenagers and that "some video games were designed to bring the youth to the streets at times like these".

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Satellite Images Suggest North Korea Expanding Missile Plant, Researchers Say

A satellite image shows a suspected missile assembly building under construction (lower center of photo) at the "February 11 Plant" near Hamhung, North Korea in this handout image obtained by Reuters on November 20, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows a suspected missile assembly building under construction (lower center of photo) at the "February 11 Plant" near Hamhung, North Korea in this handout image obtained by Reuters on November 20, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
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Satellite Images Suggest North Korea Expanding Missile Plant, Researchers Say

A satellite image shows a suspected missile assembly building under construction (lower center of photo) at the "February 11 Plant" near Hamhung, North Korea in this handout image obtained by Reuters on November 20, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows a suspected missile assembly building under construction (lower center of photo) at the "February 11 Plant" near Hamhung, North Korea in this handout image obtained by Reuters on November 20, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)

North Korea is expanding a key weapons manufacturing complex that assembles a type of short-range missile used by Russia in Ukraine, researchers at a US-based think tank have concluded, based on satellite images.

The facility, known as the February 11 plant, is part of the Ryongsong Machine Complex in Hamhung, North Korea's second-largest city, on the country's east coast.

Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), located at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said the plant was the only one known to produce the Hwasong-11 class of solid-fuel ballistic missiles. Ukrainian officials say these munitions - known as the KN-23 in the West - have been used by Russian forces in their assault on Ukraine.

The expansion of the complex has not been previously reported.

Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied that North Korea has transferred weapons for Russia to use against Ukraine, which it invaded in February 2022. Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defense treaty at a summit in June and have pledged to boost their military ties.

North Korea's mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The satellite images, taken in early October by the commercial satellite firm Planet Labs, show what appears to be an additional assembly building under construction as well as a new housing facility, likely intended for workers, according to the analysis by researchers at CNS.

It also appears that Pyongyang is improving the entrances for some of the underground facilities at the complex.

A disused bridge crane that was in front of a tunnel entrance, blocking easy access, was removed, suggesting they might be placing an emphasis on that part of the facility, Lair said.

"We see this as a suggestion that they're massively increasing, or they're trying to significantly increase, the throughput of this factory," Lair said.

The new assembly building is about 60 to 70 percent the size of the previous building used to assemble missiles.

In 2023, state media published images, which Reuters has reviewed, showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walking through new buildings at the complex in Hamhung, where workers were assembling tail kits and nose cones for what appeared to be the KN-23, according to analysts.

In the past, publicly released videos from North Korean state media show that the complex has produced everything from tank wheels to the casings for rocket motors, Lair said.

LOW-FLYING MISSILES

The KN-23 was first tested in May 2019, and is designed to evade missile defenses by flying on a lower, "depressed" trajectory, experts have told Reuters, making them potentially useful for Russia as it seeks ways to penetrate Ukraine's air defenses.

Russia has fired thousands of missiles since the invasion. Leaning on North Korea for additional supplies could ease the strain on its own production facilities, Lair said.

North Korea's state news agency KCNA has reported that construction is underway at the Ryongsong Machine Complex.

This month, KCNA said the facility "is pushing ahead with the projects for attaining the goal for modernization planned for this year." The work includes rebuilding production facilities as well as assembling and installing equipment at machine workshops and a steel casting workshop, it said.

Researchers at SI Analytics, a South Korean satellite imagery firm that uses AI technology to scour images, also confirmed the new construction at the February 11 plant, saying in a report on Monday that some of the construction near the loading area would likely be used to conceal the future operations of the factory from satellites.

"Considering the presence of numerous construction materials, vehicles, and open-top freight cars loaded with materials around the site, the construction appears to be progressing rapidly," the firm said. The report said the facility was used to produce ballistic missiles, without naming the KN-23.

Michael Duitsman, also a research associate at CNS, said it was possible that the new construction revealed in the satellite images could be a storage facility, but he believed it was more likely a new assembly building.

North Korean missiles account for a fraction of Russia's strikes during its war on Ukraine, but their alleged use has caused alarm in Seoul and Washington because it suggests an end of nearly two-decade consensus among UN Security Council permanent members on preventing Pyongyang from expanding its ballistic missile programs.

SI Analytics said on Monday it had also identified new construction at the nearby February 8 Vinalon Complex, which is believed to produce fuel for ballistic missiles. The construction may be aimed at boosting production of solid propellants or UDMH, an important liquid rocket engine fuel, the report said.

Joseph Dempsey, a military analyst with London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that North Korea's expansion of short-range ballistic missile facilities would likely be motivated mainly by a desire to boost the country's own arsenal.

He said it was unclear to what extent Pyongyang may have expanded production capacity to meet the demands of its new cooperation with Moscow.

More than 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukraine launched a major cross-border incursion in August, according to Washington, Kyiv and Seoul.

The troops will fight as part of Russia's airborne unit and marines, with some already participating in battles in the Ukraine war, a South Korean lawmaker who sits on the parliamentary intelligence committee said on Wednesday.

Russia has not denied the involvement of North Korean troops in the war, which it has been waging in Ukraine since launching a full-scale invasion in February 2022.