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Netherlands PM Rutte Apologizes for Role of Dutch State in Slavery 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reacts while apologizing as he responds to recommendations from a panel of experts to accept the role of the Netherlands in the history of slavery and its current consequences in The Hague, Netherlands December 19, 2022. (Reuters)
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reacts while apologizing as he responds to recommendations from a panel of experts to accept the role of the Netherlands in the history of slavery and its current consequences in The Hague, Netherlands December 19, 2022. (Reuters)
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Netherlands PM Rutte Apologizes for Role of Dutch State in Slavery 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reacts while apologizing as he responds to recommendations from a panel of experts to accept the role of the Netherlands in the history of slavery and its current consequences in The Hague, Netherlands December 19, 2022. (Reuters)
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reacts while apologizing as he responds to recommendations from a panel of experts to accept the role of the Netherlands in the history of slavery and its current consequences in The Hague, Netherlands December 19, 2022. (Reuters)

Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday apologized on behalf of the Dutch State for its historical role in slavery, and for consequences that he acknowledged continue into the present day. 

"Today I apologize," Rutte said in a nationally televised speech at the Dutch National Archives. 

"For centuries the Dutch state and its representatives have enabled and stimulated slavery and have profited from it," he added. 

"It is true that nobody alive today bears any personal guilt for slavery...(however) the Dutch state bears responsibility for the immense suffering that has been done to those that were enslaved and their descendants." 

The apology comes amid a wider reconsideration of the country's colonial past, including efforts to return looted art, and its current struggles with racism. 

The prospect of an apology on a December afternoon in The Hague had been met with resistance from groups who say it should have come from King Willem-Alexander, in former colony Suriname, on July 1, 2023 -- the 160th anniversary of Dutch abolition. 

"It takes two to tango - apologies have to be received," said Roy Kaikusi Groenberg of the Honor and Recovery Foundation, a Dutch Afro-Surinamese organization. 

He said it felt wrong that activists who are descendants of slaves had struggled for years to change the national discussion but had not been sufficiently consulted. 

"The way the government is handling this, it's coming across as a neo-colonial belch," he said. 

Rutte acknowledged that the runup to the announcement had been handled clumsily and said the Dutch government was sending representatives to Suriname, as well as Caribbean islands that remain part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands with varying degrees of autonomy: Curacao, Sint Maarten, Aruba, Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius. 

Turning point 

The Prime Minister of Aruba, Evelyn Wever-Croes, said on Monday the apology was welcome and a "turning point in history within the Kingdom". 

Rutte was responding to a national advisory panel set up following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in the United States. 

The panel said that Dutch participation in slavery had amounted to crimes against humanity and in 2021 recommended an apology and reparations. Rutte on Monday said his government embraced those conclusions, including that slavery had been a crime against humanity. 

However, he ruled out reparations at a news conference last week, though the Dutch government is setting up a 200-million-euro educational fund. 

"What was completely missing from this speech is responsibility and accountability," said Armand Zunder, chairman of Suriname's National Reparations Commission, though he said it had been a "step forward". 

"If you recognize that crimes against humanity were committed then the next step is you say I'm responsible for it, we're liable for it .... Indeed I'm talking about reparations." 

Dutch press agency ANP reported that in Curacao a Dutch government delegate said in a speech that Tula, a historical figure who led a slave revolt in 1795 and was executed, would have his reputation restored. The report said the speech was greeted with long and loud applause. 

Historians estimate Dutch traders shipped more than half a million enslaved Africans to the Americas, mostly to Brazil and the Caribbean. As many or more Asians were enslaved in the East Indies, modern Indonesia. 

Many Dutch people take pride in the country's naval history and prowess as a trading nation. However, children are taught little of the role in the slave trade played by the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East India Company, key sources of national wealth. 

Despite the Dutch reputation for tolerance, racism is a significant problem. 

Citizens of Antillean, Turkish and Moroccan ancestry report high rates of discrimination in their everyday lives and recent studies have shown they face significant disadvantages in the workplace and in the housing market. 

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South Korea Unveils Its Most Powerful Missile, Which Could Reach North Korea’s Underground Bunkers

South Korean's Hyunmoo ballistic missiles (L) and Long-range surface-to-air guided missiles (L-Sam) (R), march, during the 76th Armed Forces Day on the main street in Seoul, South Korea, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
South Korean's Hyunmoo ballistic missiles (L) and Long-range surface-to-air guided missiles (L-Sam) (R), march, during the 76th Armed Forces Day on the main street in Seoul, South Korea, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
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South Korea Unveils Its Most Powerful Missile, Which Could Reach North Korea’s Underground Bunkers

South Korean's Hyunmoo ballistic missiles (L) and Long-range surface-to-air guided missiles (L-Sam) (R), march, during the 76th Armed Forces Day on the main street in Seoul, South Korea, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
South Korean's Hyunmoo ballistic missiles (L) and Long-range surface-to-air guided missiles (L-Sam) (R), march, during the 76th Armed Forces Day on the main street in Seoul, South Korea, 01 October 2024. (EPA)

South Korea unveiled its most powerful ballistic missile and other weapons targeting North Korea during a massive Armed Forces Day ceremony Tuesday, as the South's president warned the North's regime would collapse if it attempts to use nuclear weapons.

South Korea’s weapons displays and warning against North Korea came after its northern rival recently rose regional animosities by disclosing its uranium-enrichment facility and tested missiles ahead of the US presidential election in November.

"If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face the resolute and overwhelming response of our military and the (South Korea)-US alliance," President Yoon Suk Yeol told thousands of troops gathered at a military airport near Seoul. "That day will be the end of the North Korean regime."

"The North Korean regime must abandon the delusion that nuclear weapons will protect them," Yoon said.

During the ceremony, the South Korean military displayed about 340 military equipment and weapons systems. Among them was its most powerful Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile, which observers say is capable of carrying an 8-ton conventional warhead that can penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers in North Korea. It was the first time for South Korea to disclose that missile.

The US flew a long-range B-1B bomber during the ceremony in an apparent demonstration of its security commitment to its Asian ally. South Korea also flew some of its most advanced fighter jets.

Later Tuesday, South Korea will parade its troops and weapons through the streets of Seoul, the capital, as part of efforts to boost military morale and demonstrate its deterrence capabilities against potential North Korean aggressions.

Also Tuesday, South Korea launched its strategic command that officials say integrates South Korea’s conventional capabilities with US nuclear weapons. South Korea has no nuclear weapons.

Since taking office in 2022, Yoon, a conservative, has put a stronger military alliance with the US and an improved trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo security cooperation at the center of his security polices to cope with North Korea’s advancing nuclear program.

In recent years, North Korea has performed a provocative of missile tests and threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively in potential conflicts with South Korea and the United States.

Last month, concerns about North Korea’s bomb program further grew after it published photos of a secretive facility to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. It was North Korea’s first unveiling of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American scholars in 2010.

South Korean officials say North Korea will likely try to further dial up tensions with provocative weapons tests ahead of the US election to increase its leverage in future diplomacy with a new US government. Experts say North Korea likely thinks an expanded nuclear arsenal would help it win bigger US concessions like extensive sanctions relief.

Earlier Tuesday, North Korea’s vice defense minister, Kim Kang Il, slammed the US for its temporary deployments of powerful military assets to South Korea and vowed strong responses. He cited the recent visit of a US nuclear-powered submarine and Tuesday's B-1B flyover.

Kim threatened to bolster North Korea's "powerful war deterrent," an apparent reference to its nuclear capability, and take unspecified steps to stoke security concerns to the security of the US mainland. Observers say his comments implies North Korea may consider test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US mainland.