South Sudan President Appoints Own Defense Minister, Breaching Peace Deal

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir addresses the opening session of parliament in Juba, South Sudan August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Jok Solomun/File Photo
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir addresses the opening session of parliament in Juba, South Sudan August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Jok Solomun/File Photo
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South Sudan President Appoints Own Defense Minister, Breaching Peace Deal

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir addresses the opening session of parliament in Juba, South Sudan August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Jok Solomun/File Photo
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir addresses the opening session of parliament in Juba, South Sudan August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Jok Solomun/File Photo

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has appointed a member of his own party as defense minister, according to a decree read on state media, breaching a peace deal in which the role should be selected by the party of opposition leader Riek Machar.

Kiir fired defense minister Angelina Teny, who is also First Vice President Machar's wife, along with the interior minister this month, re-igniting long-standing disagreements over how the two
war veterans share power, AFP said.

Kiir and Machar's forces signed a peace agreement in 2018 that ended five years of civil war that killed 400,000 people and triggered Africa's biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Implementation of the deal has been slow, and bouts of fighting have continued to kill and displace large numbers of civilians.

According to the decree read on state TV late on Wednesday, Kiir replaced Teny with Chol Thon Balok, a loyal general and former governor of Upper Nile state.

"The appointment of Chol Thon as a minister of defense is unilateral and a blatant violation of the peace agreement," said Puok Both Baluang, Machar's spokesperson, calling for Teny to be reinstated.

A meeting this month aimed at resolving the rift between Kiir and Machar ended in a deadlock. The stalemate is likely to cause paralysis in the implementation of the peace deal, which is meant to culminate in a national election at the end of 2024, said Boboya James, a policy analyst at the Juba-based Institute of Social Policy and Research.

"(Kiir) wants to have all the powerful institutions," James said. "What he is doing is to consolidate that level of power between now and towards the elections."



North Korea's Kim Vows Steadfast Support for Russia’s War in Ukraine

TOPSHOT - This photograph taken and released on November 29, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov (4th-L) and his delegation attending a bilateral talks with North Korean delegation in Pyongyang. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Defense Ministry / AFP)
TOPSHOT - This photograph taken and released on November 29, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov (4th-L) and his delegation attending a bilateral talks with North Korean delegation in Pyongyang. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Defense Ministry / AFP)
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North Korea's Kim Vows Steadfast Support for Russia’s War in Ukraine

TOPSHOT - This photograph taken and released on November 29, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov (4th-L) and his delegation attending a bilateral talks with North Korean delegation in Pyongyang. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Defense Ministry / AFP)
TOPSHOT - This photograph taken and released on November 29, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov (4th-L) and his delegation attending a bilateral talks with North Korean delegation in Pyongyang. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Defense Ministry / AFP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed his country will “invariably support” Russia’s war in Ukraine as he met Russia's defense chief, the North’s state media reported Saturday.
A Russia military delegation led by Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday, amid growing international concern about the two countries’ expanding cooperation after North Korea sent thousands of troops to Russia last month.
The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim and Belousov reached “a satisfactory consensus” on boosting strategic partnership and defending each country’s sovereignty, security interests and international justice in the face of the rapidly-changing international security environments in a Friday meeting.
Kim said that North Korea “will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the imperialists’ moves for hegemony,” KCNA said.
North Korea has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a defensive response to what both Moscow and Pyongyang call NATO’s “reckless” eastward advance and US-led moves to stamp out Russia’s position as a powerful state.
Kim slammed a US decision earlier in November to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles as a direct intervention in the conflict. He called recent Russian strikes on Ukraine “a timely and effective measure" demonstrate Russia's resolve, KCNA said.
According to US, Ukrainian and South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia and some of them have already begun engaging in combat on the frontlines. US, South Korean and others say North Korea has also shipped artillery systems, missiles and other conventional weapons to replenish Russia’s exhausted weapons inventory.
Both North Korea and Russia haven’t formally confirmed the North Korean troops’ movements, and have steadfastly denied reports of weapons shipments.
South Korea, the US and their partners are concerned that Russia could give North Korea advanced weapons technology in return, including help to build more powerful nuclear missiles.
Last week, South Korean national security adviser Shin Wonsik told a local SBS TV program that Seoul assessed that Russia has provided air defense missile systems to North Korea. He said Russia also appeared to have given economic assistance to North Korea and various military technologies, including those needed for the North’s efforts to build a reliable space-based surveillance system.
Belousov also met North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol on Friday. During a dinner banquet later the same day, Belousov said the two countries' strategic partnership was crucial to defend their sovereignty from aggression and the arbitrary actions of imperialists, KCNA said.
In June, Kim and Putin signed a treaty requiring both countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. It's considered the two countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.