عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Pakistan Steps Up Security ahead of Regional Leaders' Meeting

Pakistani Army and security officials stand guard as the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaft (PTI) continue their protest for the third day demanding release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, 06 October 2024. EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD
Pakistani Army and security officials stand guard as the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaft (PTI) continue their protest for the third day demanding release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, 06 October 2024. EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD
TT
TT

Pakistan Steps Up Security ahead of Regional Leaders' Meeting

Pakistani Army and security officials stand guard as the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaft (PTI) continue their protest for the third day demanding release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, 06 October 2024. EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD
Pakistani Army and security officials stand guard as the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaft (PTI) continue their protest for the third day demanding release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, 06 October 2024. EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD

Pakistan's capital was under strict security lockdown starting Monday ahead of the arrival of Chinese Premier Li Qiang for a four-day bilateral visit and a heads-of-government gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) this week.
The government has announced a three-day public holiday in Islamabad, with schools and businesses shut, and large contingents of police and paramilitary forces deployed, according to Reuters.
Pakistan army troops will be responsible for the security of the capital's Red Zone, which will house most of the meetings and is also home to parliament and a diplomatic enclave, according to the interior ministry.
The threat alert has been high in the South Asian nation ahead of the SCO summit meeting, especially after the killing of two Chinese engineers and shooting to death of 21 miners.
Tensions have mounted after jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan called for a protest on Oct. 15 to press for his release and agitate against the coalition government, following violent clashes between his party loyalists and security forces.
Islamabad has sought to curb all movement of Chinese nationals in the city, citing fears of violence from separatist militants.
The SCO's 23rd meeting, which comprises nine full members including China, India, Iran and Russia, is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Islamabad.
Prime Minister Li is undertaking a bilateral visit to Pakistan from Monday to Thursday, accompanied by senior officials, Pakistan's foreign office said.
Li and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will lead their respective delegations to discuss economic and trade ties and cooperation under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment in the South Asian country under Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative.
Li is also likely to inaugurate the CPEC funded Gwadar International Airport in restive southwestern Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
The SCO participants will be represented by the prime ministers of China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as the first vice president of Iran and external affairs minister of India, the foreign office said.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

North Korea Says 1.4 Million Apply to Join Army amid Tensions with South

Barricades are seen at a military checkpoint on the Tongil bridge, the road leading to North Korea's Kaesong city, in the border city of Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
Barricades are seen at a military checkpoint on the Tongil bridge, the road leading to North Korea's Kaesong city, in the border city of Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
TT
TT

North Korea Says 1.4 Million Apply to Join Army amid Tensions with South

Barricades are seen at a military checkpoint on the Tongil bridge, the road leading to North Korea's Kaesong city, in the border city of Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
Barricades are seen at a military checkpoint on the Tongil bridge, the road leading to North Korea's Kaesong city, in the border city of Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)

North Korean state media said on Wednesday around 1.4 million young people had applied to join or return to the army this week, blaming Seoul for a provocative drone incursion that had brought the "tense situation to the brink of war".

The fiery rhetoric comes after North Korea last week accused Seoul of sending drones over Pyongyang that scattered a "huge number" of anti-North leaflets. It then blew up inter-Korean roads and rail lines on its side of the border on Tuesday, and warned that the South would "pay a dear price".

The young people, including students and youth league officials who had signed petitions to join the army, were determined to fight in a "sacred war of destroying the enemy with the arms of the revolution," the official KCNA news agency said.

Photographs published by KCNA showed what it said were young people signing petitions at an undisclosed location.

"If a war breaks out, the ROK will be wiped off the map. As it wants a war, we are willing to put an end to its existence," the KCNA report said, using the initials of the South's official name, the Republic of Korea.

North Korea has previously made similar claims about young people scrambling to enlist at a time of heightened tensions, though such statements from the isolated state are difficult to verify.

Last year, state media reported on 800,000 of its citizens volunteering to join the North's military to fight against the United States. It also said in 2017 that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers volunteered to serve.

According to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), North Korea has 1.28 million active soldiers and about 600,000 reservists, with 5.7 million Worker/Peasant Red Guard reservists among many unarmed units.

Seoul's defense ministry did not comment on the latest KCNA report, but has warned that if North Korea inflicts harm on the safety of South Koreans, that day will be "the end of its regime."

FLARE-UP IN TENSION

Amid rising tension, vice foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan are scheduled to hold talks in Seoul on Wednesday.

An official at Seoul's unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said Pyongyang might be seeking to consolidate people's unity and build logic for a provocation by kindling and exaggerating tension against the South.

There also seemed to be public pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over economic challenges, the official said.

Park Won-gon, a professor at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said North Korea appears to be using the drone incident to rally people against the South in line with its push to sever cross-border ties and promote a "two-state" system.

"If you look at the interviews that keep appearing in state media, there are very harsh words toward the South, and that's their typical public mobilization propaganda," he said.

Early this year, Kim declared South Korea a "primary foe" and said unification was no longer possible, and the North has since been taking steps to cut inter-Korean relations.

The two Koreas are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The neighbors have also clashed over balloons carrying trash floated since May from the North, which it said were a response to anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent in balloons by defectors and activists in the South.

"Overall, there seems to be a sense of legacy building here, of Kim Jong Un looking to fundamentally change the status quo on the Korean Peninsula to preserve permanent two Korean states," said Jenny Town of the US-based Stimson Center.