Russian-North Korean pact is a major loss for US allies in region

The allies of the US in Asia, particularly South Korea and Japan, were the biggest losers of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

“Recall that Japan has been lobbying Moscow incessantly for decades for the return of the Kuril Islands,” explained historian and author Dr. Gerald Horne on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour. “Now you see that Japan is staggered by the prospect that North Korea, which specializes in sending missiles into Japanese space, now has a formidable ally in the form of Moscow.”

Late last year, the Japanese government approved a record military budget, making it the third highest military spender in the world, after the US and China. Just a decade ago, Japan had a pacifist defense policy and would only use its military in direct self-defense. In 2014, that restriction was removed and Japan started expanding its military capabilities.

This “is not consoling to the DPRK,” added Horne. “No doubt [it] motivated this recent embrace of Moscow.”

“It is a strategic defeat for US imperialism in the sense that Russia is now strengthened diplomatically [and] perhaps even militarily,” Horne said.

“It is also a failure of the entire Cold War era, perpetrated and driven by US imperialism. That is to say that somehow Washington did not realize – I guess they did not study diplomatic history or political geography – that Russia, the largest country by territory on planet Earth, has been designed to play a major role in world politics be they led by communists in Moscow or non-communists in Moscow,” concluded Horne. “Now we see the validation of that particular thesis, because we see that Moscow [has been] resurrected.”

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IDF strapped an injured Palestinian to its vehicle in an alleged 'human shield' incident

A video has emerged on social media of what appears to be an injured Palestinian,who was named as Mujahed Azmi by the Reuters news agency, being driven through the city of Jenin in the West Bank while strapped to the hood of an Israeli military vehicle, seemingly being used as a human shield.

The video was taken on Friday and is reportedly from the Jabariyat neighborhood. Israeli special forces were reportedly conducting a raid in the neighborhood while seeking out resistance fighters.

The outlet Mondoweiss spoke with the owners of the house that was raided. They say that Israeli forces injured several men during the raid, shooting at least some of them while they slept. In the video, one of these men can be seen strapped to the Israeli vehicle and driven through the streets. The Israeli vehicle passes several Red Crescent ambulances as it continues down the street. The man was reportedly handed over to Palestinian medical teams eventually, according to pro-Palestinian Telegram channels.

Israeli forces reportedly arrested three men during the raid. Including at least one injured man, Majd Hussiniyya, whose family reportedly said that they have not heard from Israeli authorities about his condition or whereabouts.

Ra’fat Husseiniyya, the owner of the home, told the outlet that the three men were his brothers and claimed that they were not suspected to be part of the resistance. The Red Crescent said that they treated three people from Jabariyat suffering from gunshot wounds.

Hamas is not in control of the West Bank, though Jenin has been a central point of Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. The Jenin Brigade posted on its Telegram account that it discovered Israeli special forces in Jabariyat and engaged them using firearms and explosive devices. They claim to have caused casualties among the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).

In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed that they took fire during an operation in Jenin, saying they injured and then apprehended a suspect. It said that the soldiers violated protocol. “The suspect was taken by forces while tied on top of a vehicle,” adding that the “conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values” of the IDF and that it is investigating the incident.

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