- As North Korea leader says missile test greatest success
More than 1,900 people — about 36 per day — have been killed in a violent campaign against drugs in the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte came to office seven weeks ago, the country’s police chief said Tuesday.
Director-General Ronald dela Rosa told a Senate hearing there was no declared policy to kill drug users and pushers and that about 1,100 deaths were still being investigated.
“We are not butchers,” he said.
The rest of the dead were people killed in police anti-narcotics operations, dela Rosa said.
“This has a chilling effect,” said Senator Frank Drilon after the police chief’s deposition. “We are all concerned about the number of deaths, by any language this is alarming.”
Duterte, nicknamed “the Punisher”, was voted to power promising to wipe out drugs and warning traffickers they risked death if they did not mend their ways.
The inquiry is being conducted by Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of the president who has summoned top police and anti-narcotics officials to explain the “unprecedented” rise in the body count and reports of vigilante killings.
Duterte has warned legislators not to interfere with his campaign, saying they could be killed if they blocked efforts aimed at improving the country.
Nearly 700,000 drug users and drug peddlers have turned themselves in to escape the crackdown, police chief dela Rosa said. He said there was a decrease in overall crime, although murders and homicides had increased.
The United States, a close ally of the Philippines, said overnight it was “deeply concerned” by the reports of the killings and the State Department urged Duterte’s government to abide by human rights norms.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the United States and European Union members “should make it clear to Duterte that inciting such violence is unacceptable and will reap potentially severe diplomatic and economic costs”.
“Otherwise, it’s hard to envision when these killings will end,” it said.
The number of those killed provided by dela Rosa at the Senate hearing was higher than the 1,800 he gave at the hearing on Monday. He gave no explanation for the higher number but said the figures were updated.
There has been speculation in the local media that some of the killings were carried out by corrupt police officers who were wiping out drug peddlers to avoid exposure.
In the meantime, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un declared a submarine-launched missile test the “greatest success”, state media said Thursday, as the UN weighed a condemnation of the launch which appears to advance Pyongyang`s nuclear strike capability.
The US mainland and the Pacific are now “within the striking range” of the North`s Army, the official KCNA news agency reported Kim as saying after Wednesday`s launch.
The missile was fired from a submarine submerged off the northeastern port of Sinpo on Wednesday, according to South Korea`s military. It flew 500 kilometres (around 300 miles) towards Japan, far exceeding any previous sub-launched tests.
The UN Security Council met for two hours on Wednesday to discuss North Korea`s latest provocative move and agreed to consider a statement condemning the launch.
“There was a general sense of condemnation by most members of the council and therefore we will have to see how we would then be phrasing the press statement,” said Ramlan bin Ibrahim from Malaysia, which currently holds the council`s presidency.
However, diplomats expected further haggling with China, Pyongyang`s main ally, over the wording.
Earlier this month, North Korea fired a land-launched ballistic missile directly into Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, drawing an outraged response from Tokyo.
But the Security Council failed to condemn the move after China sought to include language in a statement opposing the THAAD missile defence system that the United States plans to deploy in South Korea.
Kim said the latest launch proved the North had joined the “front rank of the military powers fully equipped with nuclear attack capability”.
Pyongyang`s top newspaper Rodong Sinmun carried 24 photos of him observing the launch, including one with his hands on his hips roaring with laughter at an observation post, and other watching through a pair of binoculars.
“He appreciated the test-fire as the greatest success and victory,” it said.Kim called for his nation`s scientists to work towards mounting nuclear warheads on all types of ballistic missiles and to be able to deliver them in order “to cope with the unpredicted total war and nuclear war with the US imperialists.”
“I do not guess what ridiculous remarks the US and its followers will make about this test-fire, but I can say their rash acts will only precipitate their self-destruction,” he was quoted as saying.
A proven submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system would take its nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a “second-strike” capability in the event of an attack on its military bases.
South Korea`s Yonhap news agency cited a military source as saying Wednesday`s launch had been made at an acute angle to limit the missile`s range.
If fired at the optimum angle and fully fuelled, it could travel over 2,500 km, the source said.
The agency had previously quoted a military source saying if fired at the optimum angle it could cover more than 1,000 km — without mentioning if it was fully fuelled.
The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said on its website, 38 North, that Pyongyang still faces significant technological challenges including building a new class of submarine to carry the missile.
But the North is “on track to the capability to strike targets in the region — including Japan — by 2020”, it said.
The South`s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement following the launch that the North was clearly bent on escalating tensions and that the latest test posed a “serious challenge” to security on the Korean peninsula.
The test came just days after North Korea threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike against South Korean and US forces who kicked off their annual Ulchi Freedom military drills on Monday.
Current UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, but Pyongyang has continued to carry out numerous launches following its fourth nuclear test in January.
South Korea has responded to Pyongyang`s continued launches by agreeing to deploy a sophisticated US anti-missile system — known as THAAD — a move that has seriously strained relations with North Korea`s main diplomatically, China.
NBC with additional report from Zee News
