North Korea's Kim arrives in Russia's Vladivostok for Putin summit
Vladivostok: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Wednesday for a first summit with Vladimir Putin, as Pyongyang seeks support in its nuclear deadlock with the United States.
The talks, organised in secret and announced at the last minute, will be Kim's first face-to-face meeting with another head of state since negotiations with US President Donald Trump in Hanoi collapsed in February.
Kim's armoured train arrived in the afternoon at the Tsarist-era train station in Vladivostok and he stepped out onto a red carpet before making his way outside to be received by an honour guard.
"I hope that this visit will be successful and useful," Kim told Russian television in the Russian town of Khasan where his train crossed the border.
"I hope that during the talks... I will be able to have concrete discussions on resolving situations on the Korean Peninsula and on the development of our bilateral relationship," Kim said.
Putin was due to arrive in Vladivostok on Thursday, then fly on after the talks for another summit in Beijing.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) earlier reported Kim's departure by train, naming among his entourage foreign minister Ri Yong Ho.
The train crossed the Tumen river Wednesday and arrived in Khasan, where women in folk costumes welcomed Kim with bread and salt in a traditional greeting.
Kim's predecessors as leader, his father and grandfather, also stopped there on their trips to neighbouring Russia.
At Khasan station a small wooden building known as the House of Kim Il Sung commemorates Russian-Korean friendship.
Russian and North Korean flags were already flying on lamp posts Tuesday on Vladivostok's Russky island, where the summit is expected to take place at a university campus.
Kim plans to stay on in Vladivostok on Friday for a series of cultural events, including a ballet and a visit to the city's aquarium, Russian media reported.
The talks follow repeated invitations from Putin since Kim embarked on his diplomatic overtures last year.
Since March 2018, the formerly reclusive North Korean leader has held four meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, three with the South's Moon Jae-in, two with Trump and one with Vietnam's president.
Analysts say he is now looking for wider international support in his standoff with Washington, while Moscow is keen to inject itself into another global flashpoint.
In Hanoi, the cash-strapped North demanded immediate relief from the sanctions imposed on it over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, but the talks broke down in disagreement over what Pyongyang was prepared to give up in return.
North Korea last week launched a blistering attack on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, insisting he be removed from the negotiations just hours after announcing it had carried out a new weapons test.
Moscow has already called for the sanctions to be eased, while the US has accused it of trying to help Pyongyang evade some of the measures -- accusations Russia denies.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told a briefing on Tuesday: "The focus will be on a political and diplomatic solution to the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula." "Russia intends to help consolidate positive trends in every way," he said, but added that no joint statement or signing of agreements was planned.
KCNA did not mention whether Kim's wife Ri Sol Ju or his sister and close aide Kim Yo Jong were accompanying him.
Moscow was a crucial backer of Pyongyang for decades and their ties go back to the founding of North Korea, when the Soviet Union installed Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung as leader.
The Soviet Union reduced funding to the North as it began to seek reconciliation with Seoul in the 1980s, but Pyongyang was hit hard by its demise in 1991.
Soon after his first election as Russian president, Putin sought to normalise relations and met Kim Jong Il
The first of those meetings was in Pyongyang in 2000, when Putin became the first Russian leader to visit the North.
China has since cemented its role as the isolated North's most important ally, its largest trading partner and crucial fuel supplier, and analysts say Kim could be looking to balance Beijing's influence.
While ties between Russia and the North have remained cordial, the last meeting between their leaders came in 2011, when Kim Jong Il told then-president Dmitry Medvedev that he was prepared to renounce nuclear testing.
His son has since overseen by far the country's most powerful blast to date, and the launch of missiles capable of reaching the entire US mainland.
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Bangladesh High Court refuses to ban ISKCON
Dhaka, Nov 28: Bangladesh High Court Thursday rejected a petition seeking a ban on ISKCON's activities in the country, days after a lawyer was killed in a clash between security personnel and supporters of a Hindu leader, previously linked to the religious group.
A lawyer had sought a ban on the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) after placing some newspaper reports related to the organisation on Wednesday.
"The two-member High Court bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Debashish Roy Chowdhury on Thursday declined to ban the ISKCON activities in Bangladesh," a spokesman of the attorney general's office said.
He said the bench made the decision after the attorney general's office submitted a report on the action taken by the government regarding the death of assistant government prosecutor Saiful Islam Alif in the northeastern port city of Chattogram earlier this week.
Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachary, arrested earlier this week, was sent to jail by a Chattogram court on sedition charges, sparking a violent protest during which advocate Alif was killed. Chinmoy was earlier expelled from ISKCON.
"Right at this moment, the situation does not warrant the intervention of the (High) court as the State is carrying out its job (regarding the matter),” Justice Mahbub was quoted as saying by the spokesman.
The decision came a day after Attorney-General Mohammad Asaduzzaman urged the court not to take any decisions on the ISKCON issue as the government has started taking the required action.
Additional Attorney General Aneek R Haque and Deputy Attorney General Asad Uddin informed the bench that three separate cases have been filed in connection with the murder of the lawyer and ISKCON's activities, and 33 accused have been arrested in these cases.
The bench then hoped that the government would remain cautious about protecting the law and order situation and the lives and properties of the people of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, ISKCON Bangladesh refuted allegations linking the organisation to the lawyer's killing, saying the claims were baseless and part of a malicious campaign.
"A series of false, fabricated, and malicious campaigns is being spearheaded targeting ISKCON Bangladesh, particularly in connection with recent events. These efforts are aimed at discrediting our organisation and creating societal unrest," general secretary of the organization Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari said.
Speaking at a press conference at the organisation’s head office, he said ISKCON Bangladesh was never involved in "communal or conflict-driven activities and will continue to promote unity and harmony".
"We have already clarified the matter multiple times through press conferences and official communications with the government and administrative authorities. Regrettably, certain groups continue to deliberately spread false propaganda against our organisation and make unreasonable demands, such as banning ISKCON," Das said.
He said that Chinmoy was previously expelled from the organisation along with two others for violating its rules and none of their activities were connected to ISKCON.
ISKCON Bangladesh President Satya Ranjan Baroi also spoke at the press conference, saying their organisation was dedicated to communal harmony, religious tolerance, and the welfare of humanity and “the allegations are an attempt to tarnish our religious and social reputation".
Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum on Thursday staged a protest in front of the Supreme Court Bar, protesting the lawyer's killing and demanding the ban on ISKCON.
The group is regarded as the lawyers’ wing of ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, which led the mass upheaval to oust deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime on August 5, also demanded the ban on ISKCON.
Separately, a group of Supreme Court lawyers sent a legal notice to the Bangladesh government on Wednesday seeking the ban on ISKCON describing it as a “radical organisation.”
India on Tuesday noted with “deep concern” Chinmoy's arrest and denial of bail and urged Dhaka to ensure the safety and security of Hindus and all other minority groups.
Earlier, the ISKCON had urged the Bangladesh authorities to promote "peaceful coexistence" for Hindus in the country as it "strongly" denounced the arrest of the Hindu leader.
Chinmoy, the spokesperson for Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was arrested from Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday as he was about to fly to Chattogram to join a rally.
He was denied bail and sent to jail by the Chattogram’s Sixth Metropolitan Magistrate court in a sedition case on Tuesday.
