North Korea's Kim Yo Jong Calls South Korean Drills a Provocation

28 June 2024, South Korea, Jeju: A Super Hornet fighter jet taking part in the first multidomain exercise of Freedom Edge held by South Korea, the United States and Japan in international waters, south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju. /US Navy vs YNA/dpa
28 June 2024, South Korea, Jeju: A Super Hornet fighter jet taking part in the first multidomain exercise of Freedom Edge held by South Korea, the United States and Japan in international waters, south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju. /US Navy vs YNA/dpa
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North Korea's Kim Yo Jong Calls South Korean Drills a Provocation

28 June 2024, South Korea, Jeju: A Super Hornet fighter jet taking part in the first multidomain exercise of Freedom Edge held by South Korea, the United States and Japan in international waters, south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju. /US Navy vs YNA/dpa
28 June 2024, South Korea, Jeju: A Super Hornet fighter jet taking part in the first multidomain exercise of Freedom Edge held by South Korea, the United States and Japan in international waters, south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju. /US Navy vs YNA/dpa

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said South Korea's recent military drills near the border between the two nations are an inexcusable and explicit provocation, according to a report from state media KCNA on Monday.

Kim Yo Jong also accused Yoon of creating tensions on the Korean peninsula to divert public attention away from his poor performance in domestic politics. She cited an online petition calling for Yoon to be impeached, with more than 1 million signatures.

Kim said that in case North Korea judges its own sovereignty as violated, its armed forces will immediately carry out mission and duty according to its constitution.

The South Korean military has resumed live-fire artillery drills near the western maritime border in late June, the first time since 2018.

Last month, South Korea said it would suspend a military agreement signed with North Korea in 2018 aimed at easing tensions, in protest against North Korea's trash balloon launches toward the South.



France Sues Iran at Top UN Court over Detained Citizens

France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot talks to the press as he arrives for an informal meeting of The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) foreign ministers, in Antalya, on May 15, 2025.
France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot talks to the press as he arrives for an informal meeting of The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) foreign ministers, in Antalya, on May 15, 2025.
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France Sues Iran at Top UN Court over Detained Citizens

France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot talks to the press as he arrives for an informal meeting of The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) foreign ministers, in Antalya, on May 15, 2025.
France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot talks to the press as he arrives for an informal meeting of The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) foreign ministers, in Antalya, on May 15, 2025.

Paris has filed a case against Tehran at the top UN court over two French citizens who have been held in Iran for three years, the French foreign minister said on Friday.

The announcement comes as Iranian negotiators are set to meet with their counterparts from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in Türkiye on Friday for talks on Iran's nuclear program.

Cecile Kohler, a 40-year-old literature teacher from eastern France and her partner Jacques Paris, in his 70s, were arrested on May 7, 2022, on the last day of a tourist trip to Iran.

They have been held on spying charges, which they have vehemently denied.

In its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France accuses Iran "of violating its obligation to provide consular protection" to the pair, who "have been held hostage... detained in appalling conditions that amount to torture," Jean-Noel Barrot told France 2 television.

They are among a number of Europeans still held by Iran in what some European countries, including France, regard as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Iran's nuclear program.

Kohler and Paris are the last known French detainees in Iran after some recent releases and are regarded as "state hostages" by the French government.

The two are jailed in extremely tough conditions, according to their families.