Thailand’s ruling coalition nominates Paetongtarn as PM, parliament to vote
The 37-year-old daughter of tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra would become the third member of the family to lead Thailand. Thailand’s parliament is set to vote on whether 37-year-old Paetongtarn Shinawatra should become the country’s next prime minister after the ruling Pheu Thai party nominated her to replace dismissed leader Srettha Thavisin. Parliament is due to convene in Bangkok at 10am (03:00 GMT) on Friday, two days after the country’s top court sacked Srettha over his decision to appoint a minister who had a criminal conviction. Paetongtarn is the youngest child of billionaire tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra and would become the third member of the family after her father and aunt to hold the nation’s top job if she secures parliamentary backing. Srettha’s removal was the latest chapter in a long-running battle between the military, pro-royalist establishment and populist parties linked to Thaksin, who shook up the country’s staid politics when he was first elected prime minister in 2001. He spent years in exile after being removed in a military coup in 2006 and returned to Thailand only last year, on the day Pheu Thai formed the government. The grouping chose Paetongtarn as its replacement candidate at a meeting on Thursday night after none of the 10 other parties in the coalition put forward an alternative. Bhumjaithai – the third-largest party in parliament – said it had “agreed to support a candidate” from Pheu Thai in Friday’s vote. The ruling coalition holds 314 seats, and the approval of more than half of the current 493 lawmakers is needed to become prime minister. “We are confident that the party and coalition parties will lead our country,” she said after the party announced her candidacy. Paetongtarn was chosen at a meeting of the ruling coalition on Thursday night [Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP] Paetongtarn helped run the hotel arm of the family’s business empire before entering politics three years ago and has never held elected office. She was a near-constant presence on the campaign trail in the 2023 elections when she was one of Pheu Thai’s prime minister candidates, giving birth just two weeks before polling day. The reformist Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats in parliament but was blocked from forming a government by the Senate, which at the time was appointed by the military and had a veto of prime ministerial appointments. Last week, the constitutional court also voted to dissolve MFP and ban its executive board members from politics for 10 years over its promise to amend strict royal defamation laws. The party has since regrouped as the People’s Party. Its leader, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, said the party would not vote to approve a candidate from Pheu Thai on Friday and would continue its duty as an opposition. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 903
As the war enters its 903rd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Friday, August 16, 2024. Fighting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had taken full control of the town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region, after sending thousands of troops across the border in a surprise attack that began on August 6. Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskii said its forces had moved forward by 1.5km (0.93 miles) over the previous 24 hours, advancing some 35km into Russia’s Kursk region since the start of the incursion. Its forces were now in control of 1,150 square kilometres (444 square miles) of Russian territory and 82 settlements, he added. Russia’s Ministry of Defence did not respond to the Ukrainian claims about Sudzha. The ministry said earlier that Russian forces had blocked Ukrainian attempts to take several settlements in the region and that they had retaken the village of Krupets. Kursk acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, ordered the evacuation of the Glushkovo district, about 45km (28 miles) northwest of Sudzha. Authorities say more than 120,000 Kursk region residents have already been evacuated because of the fighting. Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said Ukrainian special forces captured a group of 102 Russian soldiers on Wednesday in the Kursk region. Russia said it would beef up its border defences, improve the command and control system and send in additional forces as a result of the Kursk incursion. At least two people were killed and 12 injured in a Russian-guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said on Telegram. Serhiy Tsehotskiy, an officer with Ukraine’s 59th Motorized Brigade, told national television there had been no letup in Russian military pressure in Ukraine’s partially-occupied eastern Donetsk region. “The enemy, despite what is happening on the territory of Russia, is still … keeping the bulk of its troops in this direction and trying to achieve success,” Tsehotskiy said. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it captured the Donetsk village of Ivanivka, a frontline village about 15km (nine miles) from the strategically important town of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down all 29 Russian drones targeting eight Ukrainian regions, and the attack caused only minor damage. Politics and diplomacy A court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg jailed 32-year-old Ksenia Karelina, a dual United States-Russian citizen, for 12 years after finding her guilty of treason for donating $51.80 to a New York-based charity that provides aid to children and the elderly in Ukraine. Karelina, who lives in Los Angeles where she made the donation, was arrested earlier this year when she flew to Russia to see family. Mykhailo Podolyak, aide to Ukraine’s president, rejected suggestions Kyiv was involved in the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The Wall Street Journal reported late on Wednesday that Ukraine’s then-top military commander, Valerii Zaluzhny, oversaw the plan to blow up the pipelines in September 2022. The report came after Germany issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian over the attacks. Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko, a key Russian ally, told Russian state television Moscow and Kyiv should negotiate an end to the war. Lukashenko claimed only “high-ranking people of American origin” wanted the war to continue. Weaponry The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said Ukraine was allowed to use British weapons in operations on Russian territory, but restrictions remained on the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles. Sky News and other UK media outlets reported Challenger 2 tanks donated by the UK to Ukraine were being used in the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli society still supports Netanyahu and his war on Palestinians
NewsFeed A new poll shows Israelis would still re-elect Benjamin Netanyahu, suggesting much of Israeli society still supports his policies against Palestinians whether under occupation in the West Bank or unrelenting war in Gaza. Al Jazeera’s Soraya Lennie breaks it down. Published On 15 Aug 202415 Aug 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks: A timeline of obstruction
Ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are dragging on with few signs of a breakthrough that would bring relief to Gaza. Attempts at talks started in November with Hamas pushing for an end to all hostilities, the release of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails and the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza. Israel is baulking at those demands. In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted he wants a “partial” deal to return Israeli captives but not end a devastating war that has killed more than 40,000 people, uprooted nearly all of Gaza’s population and created mass famine and outbreaks of fatal yet preventable diseases. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been meditating, but Israel’s reluctance to stop its war on Gaza has obstructed a deal, according to experts and Israeli officials. Here’s a timeline of the ceasefire talks – successful and otherwise – since October 7. November 22 After more than six weeks of fighting, a brief breakthrough is achieved. An initial four-day ceasefire starts, with Hamas releasing 50 Israeli captives – mostly women and children – in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. Israel says it would extend the truce if Hamas releases 10 more captives per day. Humanitarian aid is also allowed in during the pause in fighting. But Netanyahu does not want a permanent ceasefire, insisting that Israel’s aim is to “dismantle” Hamas completely – a goal US and Israeli officials have since declared impossible. December 2 Although the ceasefire was eventually extended to a week, with 110 captives freed from Gaza and 240 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons, talks to extend the truce collapse. The dispute centres around whether Hamas should release women soldiers as part of the same deal, and Hamas’s insistence that all Palestinian prisoners be released. Israel outright refuses that demand. The war, which United Nations experts say may amount to genocide, resumes. December 10 The US, Israel’s biggest ally, vetoes a UN Security Council (UNSC) proposal to stop the war. The deputy US ambassador to the UN says an immediate halt to hostilities would only “plant the seeds for the next war”, alleging Hamas’s refusal to accept a two-state solution. But Hamas has accepted a two-state solution for nearly 20 years. In 2017, its new charter officially stated that. Then-leader of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, says he is reviewing a three-stage ceasefire proposal hammered out by Egyptian, Israeli, Qatari and US negotiators in Paris. It has three phases: Phase 1: A permanent halt in the fighting, the release of some Israeli captives and a ramping-up of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave Phase 2: More Israeli captives released, including female soldiers, in exchange for more aid and a restoration of major services Phase 3: A return of deceased Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners Netanyahu’s right-wing allies in Israel’s government warn they will collapse the fragile coalition if a permanent ceasefire happens. Netanyahu rejects the proposal, saying Hamas’s conditions are “delusional”. Experts say Netanyahu is afraid his coalition partners will leave and early elections would be called at a time when his popularity is at an all-time low. February 20 For a third time, the US vetoes a UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The US ambassador to the UN says the veto was over concerns the resolution would jeopardise talks between the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar Netanyahu welcomes the US veto. March 26 The US finally abstains rather than vetoes a UNSC ceasefire proposal, which passes with 14 of the council’s 15 members in favour. However, the US later says the resolution is “nonbinding”, undermining the rules of the UN system and signalling its commitment to keep backing Israel’s war on Gaza. May 7 Hamas accepts a ceasefire proposed by Qatar and Egypt that follows the three-phase framework. It stipulates that all Israeli captives – civilian and military – would be released in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. It calls on Israel to scale up aid, gradually withdraw from Gaza and permit reconstruction as well as lift the siege it imposed on the enclave since 2007. But, experts say, Israel is unlikely to agree to the terms because it doesn’t want a lasting ceasefire. “Israel wants to reserve the right to continue operations in Gaza,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group. Two days later, Israel ignores mounting calls for a ceasefire and launches an offensive on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are seeking refuge. July 31 Haniyeh is assassinated in Tehran while attending the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iranian and US officials believe Israel is responsible. Israel neither officially confirms nor denies it. Fears rise that negotiations could stop after the assassination, not least because Haniyeh was Hamas’s main interlocutor. Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, was the Palestinian group’s pointman in ceasefire talks with Israel [File: Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu] August 15 Netanyahu is still being accused of blocking a deal. He reportedly hardens his negotiating team’s position, insisting that Israeli forces must remain in control of Gaza’s southern border, a stipulation that was not included before. He also says security checkpoints be set up to search Palestinians hoping to return to their homes in northern Gaza, stipulations the negotiating team fears will torpedo a ceasefire as a new round of talks gets under way. Israel does send a team to attend ceasefire talks in Doha called for by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Reports suggest that Hamas will not send representatives, but has told mediators that it is willing to meet after the discussions to determine if the Israelis are serious about the truce proposals. Adblock test (Why?)
Mapping Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region
During the past week, Ukraine has launched an offensive in Kursk in the most significant cross-border attack since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. The Kursk region, located in western Russia and bordering Ukraine, has a population of about 1.2 million. Ukraine’s incursion, which began on August 6, took the Kremlin by surprise. Moscow has struggled to push back against the assault for over a week and announcing emergency measures including the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Both Kyiv and Moscow have now acknowledged the operation into the Russian border regions, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirming on Saturday that his army is fighting within Russian territory. How much of Russia does Kyiv claim it controls? Oleksandr Syrskii, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, claimed Kyiv’s forces controlled about 1,000sq km (386sq miles) of Russia’s Kursk region on Monday, six days into the offensive. That’s almost as much land as Russia has advanced upon in Ukraine so far this year, according to analysts. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, estimated Ukraine’s advances at about 800sq km (309sq miles) based on satellite imagery and open source information. “We continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region. Currently, we control about 1,000 square kilometres of the territory of the Russian Federation,” Syrskii said in a video published on Zelenskyy’s Telegram account on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces are now in control of 74 Russian settlements in the Kursk region, the result of a Ukrainian cross-border operation. Where are evacuations taking place? The Russia-Ukraine land border is about 1,974km (1,227 miles) long. Nearly 200,000 people have been forced to evacuate from border regions. The governor of the Belgorod region on Wednesday declared a state of emergency, blaming the relentless bombardment by Ukraine. “The situation in the Belgorod region continues to be extremely difficult and tense,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app. Daily shelling by Ukraine’s armed forces had destroyed houses, and had killed and injured civilians, he added. “Therefore, we are making a decision, starting today, to declare a regional emergency situation throughout the Belgorod region … with a subsequent appeal to the government to declare a federal emergency situation.” Why has Ukraine launched an incursion? President Zelenskyy said Russian forces have conducted almost 2,100 artillery strikes from Russia’s Kursk region on Ukraine’s Sumy region since June 1, 2024, and Ukraine’s operations into Kursk were intended to secure its borders from the Russian military. Zelenskyy insisted that the offensive is tactical – not aimed at taking Russian territory, but at forcing Russia into a ceasefire. “Russia brought war to others, now it’s coming home,” he said on Tuesday. The Institute for the Study of War reported that geolocated footage indicated Ukrainian forces had recently been active in Sudzha and northern Zaoleshenka. On August 12, it was alleged that Ukraine had captured the town of Sudzha, according to Russian sources. Gas pipelines near Sudzha Intense fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces is taking place near a pipeline Russia uses to supply European countries with gas. However, network operators and gas companies said on Tuesday that the flow of gas had not been disrupted. Sudzha is the site of the only pumping station for Russian natural gas to reach Europe through Ukraine. European countries like Austria, Hungary and Slovakia still buy gas from Russia – all of it flowing through Sudzha. Located about 10km (6 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Sudzha sees an average of 42 million cubic metres (1.5 billion cubic ft) of Russian gas flowing through its pipelines on the way to Europe every day. The town plays host to a gas metering system that measures this flow. Despite the war with Russia, Kyiv has allowed the gas to continue being sent through its Soviet-era gas pipeline unabated as part of a $2bn-a-year contract between state-owned Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 902
As the war enters its 902nd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, August 15, 2024. Fighting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s forces were advancing in the Russian region of Kursk with Kyiv claiming control of at least 1,000 square kilometres (386sq miles) of Russia. Ukraine said the week-old offensive was creating a strategic buffer zone to protect its border areas from Russian attacks. Moscow said the area under Ukraine’s control was about half that claimed by Kyiv and that it had thwarted their attempts to push deeper into five areas in the Kursk region. Ukraine said its army would allow the evacuation of civilians from the Kursk region into Russia and Ukraine and admit international humanitarian organisations to the area. Russia’s Belgorod border region declared a state of emergency amid what the governor said was daily Ukrainian bombardment. Ukraine’s General Staff said Kyiv hit four Russian military airfields overnight in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Kursk and Nizhny Novgorod, targeting fuel stores and aerial weapons. Zelenskyy called the attack “timely” and “accurate”. Moscow said it shot down 117 of the Ukrainian drones as well as four missiles. Police said two medics were killed and three civilians injured in a Russian drone attack on a medical battalion vehicle in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. At least two people were injured in a Russian missile attack on port infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa, officials said. Politics and diplomacy Germany issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor over his alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in 2022. Hackers linked to Russian intelligence are targeting the Kremlin’s critics and Western diplomats with phishing emails, according to new research from digital rights groups Citizen Lab and Access Now. The attacks began in 2022 with victims in the double digits, the groups said. The former US ambassador to Ukraine was among those targeted. Russia has launched more than 10,000 cases against people accused of “discrediting” the army since it began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the Mediazona website, which monitors the country’s courts. Polish prosecutors said that they formally indicted Pavel Rubtsov, better known as Pablo Gonzalez, on charges of espionage. The dual Russian-Spanish man was part of a prisoner swap between Russia and the West last month. China said its special envoy on Eurasian affairs had a phone call with Pope Francis’s special envoy on Ukraine and discussed the conflict. Adblock test (Why?)
Compensation arrives 7 years after siege that left Marawi a ‘dead city’
Marawi, Philippines – Maisara Dandamun-Latiph’s office sits on a hill overlooking the ruins of Marawi, the southern Philippine city that was destroyed during a five-month battle with hardline fighters linked to the ISIL (ISIS) group in 2017. Dandamun-Latiph was named chairperson of the Marawi Compensation Board in 2023, after years of promises to rebuild the city came to nothing. Now, Marawi residents are finally beginning to receive payouts, in a compensation process that also must navigate a frayed and fragile trust. “We want the people to be on board with us,” Dandamun-Latiph told Al Jazeera. “The people deserve nothing less than very good service after what has happened.” Marawi was completely destroyed after the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups launched an attack in 2017, holding on to the city during a five-month siege before the Philippine military recaptured it. Of the more than 1.1 million people who once lived there, most have not returned. The administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte released more than $200m in funding to rebuild Marawi. But rather than new homes, the money went mostly to public infrastructure projects, such as a new lakeside stadium and convention centre, which now stand alone amid the ruins. “It’s normal for [residents] not to be so trustful of government, especially with what happened,” Dandaman-Latiph said. Maisara Dandamun-Latiph says fairness is crucial in decisions on compensation [Nick Aspinwall/Al Jazeera] The Marawi Compensation Board was created by an act of congress in 2022 to handle claims of wrongful death and damaged or destroyed property. Last year, President Ferdinand Marcos appointed Dandaman-Latiph, a respected lawyer and civic leader, as its chairperson. The board has received 14,495 claims so far and has approved 596, totalling about $16.8m for destroyed structures and civilian deaths. Some 87 civilians died in the siege, with Amnesty International accusing ISIL-affiliated fighters and the Philippine military of human rights violations. All claims are processed in batches in the order they are received, said Dandaman-Latiph, who stressed the need for fairness in both determining compensation and hiring staff for the office. “It has to be based on merit,” she said. “Otherwise, this office will fail.” A hopeful process Dandamun-Latiph’s office is full of claimants on any given day, many of whom she knows by name. As she walks along the corridor to her office, she chats with an elderly woman, then spins around and crouches down to greet a child. “Here, everybody knows everybody,” she said. Faisah Dima-Ampao, a Marawi native, had just returned to the city in 2017 after working in Saudi Arabia for 36 years. When the fighting began, her mother did not evacuate, believing – as many did at the time – that it would last only for a few days. Her mother has never been found, and the family home was completely destroyed. The Sarimanok Sports Stadium and a neighbouring convention centre were built using relief funds despite protests from community leaders [Nick Aspinwall/Al Jazeera] After the siege, Dima-Ampao’s family received about $1,400 from a government task force, along with sacks of rice, chicken and groceries that were “only enough for one month for a small family”, she said. Dima-Ampao compares her situation unfavourably to survivors of conflict in Syria and Lebanon, where she says governments rebuilt housing within one or two years. “But in Marawi, it didn’t happen,” she said. “They didn’t give us anything.” Now, she feels somewhat vindicated by the compensation process, which she says has been smooth. She has received $6,100 in compensation for the death of her mother and is waiting for her family’s lost property claim to be processed. The compensation board has embraced a data-driven approach, plotting damaged and destroyed properties on a 3D map and matching them against claims. It also allows residents to prove property ownership via other means, like inviting witnesses, if their documents were lost in the siege. “They just carried them, their families and their clothes on their back,” Dandaman-Latiph said. “We do not want to overburden them.” ‘A dead city’ But even as residents begin to receive compensation, the payouts will not rebuild the city of Marawi, which remains largely in ruins. Marawi’s former commercial centre stands vacant. Weeds and wildflowers have taken over vacant lots and wound their way around the husks of the buildings. Near the city’s largest mosque, which was quickly rebuilt after the siege, one family was rebuilding its house. Three blocks away, a man was selling dodol, a glutinous rice cake, from a street cart. But the stores and restaurants that once made Marawi popular as a trading post and culinary destination have not returned, giving residents little incentive to come back. Some Marawi residents have begun to rebuild their homes, but most people have not returned [Nick Aspinwall/Al Jazeera] The newly built stadium and convention centre stand on the shore of Lanao Lake – the jewels of the Duterte administration’s rebuilding project. However, they have rarely been used, and they’ve become targets for those wishing the money had gone to housing and job creation. “You think that’s the priority of the people who don’t have any livelihood to play tennis or run or jog or do track and field or play football? What they need is to have a livelihood,” said Acram Latiph, a professor at Mindanao State University. “There were a lot of resources wasted,” he said. “All they did was prolong the agony of the people.” Last December, a bombing attack during a Catholic mass at Mindanao State University was a reminder of the threats that remain in the region. Four people were killed and at least 50 injured in an attack that was claimed by ISIL. “It’s not a question of whether it will happen. It’s a question of when,” Latiph said. “They’re like cockroaches.” Still, many residents blame the authorities for what happened to Marawi and question whether the siege had to happen in the first place. “They said let’s just sacrifice Marawi and compensate the people afterwards,” he said. “It was a
Minouche Shafik resigns as Columbia president after tumultuous year
Shafik drew criticism over her handling of Gaza war protests that rocked the university campus earlier this year. Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, has announced her resignation after a tumultuous year marked by tensions with staff and students over her handling of campus protests against the Gaza war. The university announced her departure in a statement on its website on Wednesday. “This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Shafik wrote in a letter to the university’s staff and students. “It has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.” David Greenberg and Claire Shipman, co-chairs of the university’s Board of Trustees, said they understood and respected her decision. Protests against the Gaza war began on Columbia’s New York City campus in April inspiring similar encampments at other institutions across the United States and beyond. As the protests gathered momentum, Shafik was summoned to a congressional committee over allegations the university had failed to protect students and staff from rising anti-Semitism. The next day, she allowed New York City police onto the campus to clear the protests and about 100 people were arrested, triggering outrage from protesters and some academics and calls for her resignation. Tensions rose further at the end of April, when police returned again to campus, arresting some 300 people and removing the encampment. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead,” Shafik said. “I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins.” Shafik’s resignation was welcomed by some of the protesters, as well those who had accused her of allowing anti-Semitism to flourish. The trustees said Katrina Armstrong would step in as Columbia’s interim president. She is currently the chief executive officer of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The new academic year is due to start on September 3. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since Israel began its war in Gaza, after Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack into Israel on October 7 last year. At least 1,139 people were killed in that attack and some 240 people taken captive. The war in Gaza has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble and displaced most of its residents. South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in a case that is now being investigated by the International Court of Justice. Adblock test (Why?)
How people in Gaza are working remotely amid war
NewsFeed One man is making it possible for people in Gaza to work remotely while Israel continues to wage war on the besieged enclave. The initiative is providing hope for Palestinians to earn much-needed income after having lost everything. Published On 14 Aug 202414 Aug 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
North Korea set to reopen borders to foreign tourists
The reclusive country has largely been closed to tourists since 2020, when it imposed strict COVID-19 border controls. North Korea is set to reopen its borders to international visitors after years of strict COVID-19 border controls, say two Chinese tour operators. Beijing-based Koryo Tours announced on its website on Wednesday that the reclusive country would be welcoming tourists to the northeastern city of Samjiyon and “likely the rest of the country” in December 2024. “Having waited for over four years to make this announcement, Koryo Tours is very excited for the opening of North Korean tourism once again,” said the operator. Big News! https://t.co/RTEsf1BB97 pic.twitter.com/g0XbeJhGYG — Koryo Tours (@KoryoTours) August 14, 2024 KTG Tours, based in Shenyang, also announced that tourists would be able to go to Samjiyon starting at the end of 2024. North Korea has largely been closed to international tourists since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Koryo Tours, which has been operating in the country for over 30 years, said it had never come across such a lengthy closure of the borders. International flights in and out of North Korea only resumed last year, when a small group of Russian tourists flew there for a private tour in February. Their arrival came as Moscow and Pyongyang bolstered ties, with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un making a rare overseas trip to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia last September, the latter visiting North Korea in June. The Russian tour group included people in the tourism business and “travellers from literally all parts of Russia from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok”, said the Russian embassy in Pyongyang at the time. North Korea has been building what it has called a “socialist utopia” in Samjiyon, a city near the Chinese border, billing it as “a model of highly civilised mountain city”, with new apartments, hotels, a ski resort and commercial, cultural and medical facilities. Back in July, Kim sacked or demoted some senior officials for their “irresponsible” handling of his flagship Samjiyon project. Koryo Tours visited the city back in 2018 while assisting British television star Michael Palin with a travel documentary. The operator said its website would be open for bookings once its local partner confirmed itineraries and dates in the coming weeks. “Your safety is our priority,” it said. “And your enjoyment too!” Adblock test (Why?)