No visas for S. Korean journalists to cover nuclear site closure
Seoul, May 19: South Korean journalists may not be allowed to cover the closure of Pyongyang's nuclear test site, as the North Korean government has not accepted their visa applications, media reported on Saturday. This comes less than a week after they were reportedly invited.
The dismantlement "ceremony," which will involve blowing up the tunnels under the sprawling complex known as Punggye-ri, could take place as early as May 23, CNN reported quoting North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as announcing on Saturday.
Journalists from China, Russia, South Korea, the US, and the UK were to be invited to watch for transparency's sake.
Analysts said that only journalists are being allowed to watch but it's not known if non-proliferation experts, with the technical know-how to properly verify the site's closure, have been extended an invitation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced in April that the country would shutter Punggye-ri, declaring that after six underground tests, the site had served its purpose, as the country has completed its quest to achieve nuclear weapons.
Analysts said satellite imagery shows that the North Koreans have already begun dismantling equipment.
Though Kim declared the site's closure was due to the nuclear quest rather than acceding to global pressure, many in the international community saw his commitment to, no longer test nuclear weapons underground, as a positive step in the recent thaw in relations between North Korea and its adversaries.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
