Seoul, July 3 (IANS) South Korea’s top nuclear envoy discussed the deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia in meetings on Korean Peninsula issues with foreign diplomats in Seoul, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Lee Jun-il, director general for Korean Peninsula policy, invited the ambassadors and diplomats from 30 countries to two separate roundtable sessions on North Korean issues on Monday and Wednesday, the ministry said, Yonhap news agency reported.

The participating countries either have a diplomatic presence in North Korea, or have their top envoys to Seoul double as their ambassadors to Pyongyang.

They include Guatemala, Norway, Denmark, Laos, Bulgaria, Brazil, Spain, the Czech Republic, France and Australia, as well as the European Union.

Lee stressed at the meetings that the closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang clearly demonstrate how security in Asia is closely linked to that in Europe, and called for the international community to sternly deal with the potential threats posed by their relationship.

As North Korea continues to threaten the South with missile launches, and lately with the GPS signal jamming and the sending of trash-carrying balloons across the border, South Korea will firmly deal with any future provocations by the North, the ministry quoted Lee as telling the groups.

The diplomats shared the understanding that countries need to send a strong message to the North about the potential threats posed by its cooperation with Russia, urging Pyongyang to stop acts that raise tensions, the ministry said.

–IANS

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Colombo, July 3 (IANS) Two people were killed in a fire that broke out on Wednesday morning in a row of houses where tea plantation workers live in central Sri Lanka, the police said.

Speaking to local media, police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa said the victims were a 60-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman who were living in the first house that caught on fire, Xinhua news agency reported.

The cause of the fire was an electricity leakage, according to the police. Three houses that estate workers live in were destroyed.

Most of Sri Lanka’s estate workers live in housing provided by plantation companies.

The government has allocated 14 billion rupees (about $46 million) for people without homes in the plantations, a minister said in January this year.

–IANS

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Seoul, July 3 (IANS) The number of people demanding the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol surpassed the 1 million mark Wednesday on the National Assembly’s petition website.

The petition, calling on the National Assembly to propose a bill on Yoon’s impeachment, gained a daily average of 100,000 signatures over a period of 10 days after it was posted on June 24, Yonhap news agency reported.

Lawmakers of the Democratic Party (DP) backed the petition, saying the number of petition approvals rightfully reflects the public’s views of Yoon.

“The president must change first for the state affairs, now on the verge of a catastrophe, to get back on track,” DP floor leader Park Chan-dae said during a Supreme Council meeting.

During the meeting, Rep. Jung Chung-rae also said the petition is “the people’s voice” demanding the “judgment” of the Yoon administration.

A petition approved by more than 50,000 people within 30 days is referred to a parliamentary subcommittee that reviews petitions under the legislation and judiciary committee, and can be submitted to a plenary session.

DP spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said the committee and the subcommittee will impartially examine the petition and they would consider holding a hearing or taking other necessary steps, if needed, over the course of the examination.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) lashed out at the move.

“The DP is abusing the petition as a means of political fighting,” PPP spokesperson Kwak Gyu-taek told reporters, claiming that it is “obvious that there are no grounds” for Yoon’s impeachment.

Amid deepening political strife, the presidential office accused the opposition of trying to railroad contentious bills and pushing for the impeachment of high-ranking officials.

“The DP should immediately stop anti-civilizational attempts to destroy the Constitution and its unheard-of legislative violence and coup d’etat,” a senior presidential official told Yonhap News Agency.

On Tuesday, the DP proposed a motion to impeach four prosecutors, including those involved in corruption investigations into former party leader Lee Jae-myung.

The DP, which holds a controlling majority in parliament, is also pushing to put forth a bill calling for a special counsel probe into the government’s alleged interference with a military probe into a Marine’s death despite opposition by the ruling People Power Party.

The bill, seen as ultimately aiming to investigate suspicions of Yoon’s interference with the probe, had been vetoed by the president in the previous National Assembly, but the DP proposed it again after the new National Assembly began its term in late May.

–IANS

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Lisbon, July 3 (IANS) At least three people were killed and seven went missing after a trawler sank in the early hours of Wednesday off the coast of Marinha Grande in Leiria, Portugal.

The Portuguese National Maritime Authority said that seven people have been rescued. Two of the rescued fishermen were in a state of shock and another was in “severe pain,” Xinhua news agency reported.

All those rescued were transported to the nearby Port of Figueira da Foz.

–IANS

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Los Angeles, July 3 (IANS) Authorities have ordered more than 13,000 people to evacuate amid a fast-moving wildfire that broke out in Northern California.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Thompson Fire, which erupted near the City of Oroville in Butte County, has already consumed over 2,100 acres (about 8.5 square km) of land as of Tuesday evening, with no containment achieved yet, reported Xinhua news agency.

Mandatory evacuations and evacuation warnings have been issued in part of Butte County due to the wildfire.

Meanwhile, Oroville declared a local emergency Tuesday evening, noting the fire is expected to continue to affect substantial geographic areas within the city for an unknown duration due to extremely high temperatures and high winds.

The fire has caused and is substantially likely to cause extreme conditions, such as power outages, damage to infrastructure, burned trees, slope failures, and structural damage, said Oroville authorities.

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the western US state has secured federal assistance to support the response to the Thompson Fire.

–IANS

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