ExoMars landing platform arrives in Europe with a name

Paris (ESA)
Mar 22, 2019

The platform destined to land on the Red Planet as part of the next ExoMars mission has arrived in Europe for final assembly and testing - and been given a name.

An announcement was made by the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos of its new name: 'Kazachok'.

The ExoMars program is a joint endeavor between ESA and Roscosmos and comprises two missions. The Trace Gas Orbiter is already circling Mars examining the planet's atmosphere, while the second mission - comprising a surface science platform and a rover - is foreseen for launch in 2020.

Last month, the rover was named 'Rosalind Franklin' after the prominent scientist behind the discovery of the structure of DNA. Now the surface platform also has a name. Kazachock literally means little Cossack, and it is a lively folk dance.

Once on the martian surface, Rosalind the rover will drive off the Kazachok platform to perform scientific investigations. Kazachok will remain stationary to investigate the climate, atmosphere, radiation and possible presence of subsurface water in the landing site.

Welcome to Europe

Kazachok left Russia after being carefully packed to meet planetary protection requirements, making sure to not bring terrestrial biological contamination to Mars. It was shipped to Turin, Italy, on an Antonov plane along with ground support equipment and other structural elements.

The Italian division of Thales Alenia Space will perform final assembly and testing of the mission in close cooperation with ESA.

There will be more components arriving to Italy throughout the year, including avionics equipment, the carrier and rover modules and thermal protection systems for the landing platform.

Several test campaigns with ExoMars models are running in parallel in preparation for launch and landing.

Recent shock tests in Russia have successfully proved the mechanical compatibility between the spacecraft and the adapter for the Proton-M rocket that will set ExoMars on its way to Mars.

The ExoMars teams have also just completed the egress and locomotion tests with a full-sized model of the rover in Zurich, Switzerland.

There the rover drove off ramps and through all the terrain conditions that it might encounter on Mars: different types of soil, various obstacle shapes and sizes and all kind of slopes.

"We have now a very challenging schedule of deliveries and tests both in Italy and France. The coordination between the Russian and European teams is key to timely reach the Baikonur cosmodrome in 2020," says Francois Spoto, ESA's ExoMars team leader.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/ExoMars_landing_platform_arrives_in_Europe_with_a_name_999.html.

NASA's Mars 2020 rover is put to the test

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Mar 20, 2019

In a little more than seven minutes in the early afternoon of Feb. 18, 2021, NASA's Mars 2020 rover will execute about 27,000 actions and calculations as it speeds through the hazardous transition from the edge of space to Mars' Jezero Crater. While that will be the first time the wheels of the 2,314-pound (1,050-kilogram) rover touch the Red Planet, the vehicle's network of processors, sensors and transmitters will, by then, have successfully simulated touchdown at Jezero many times before.

"We first landed on Jezero Crater on Jan. 23rd," said Heather Bottom, systems engineer for the Mars 2020 mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "And the rover successfully landed again on Mars two days later."

Bottom was the test lead for Systems Test 1, or ST1, the Mars 2020 engineering team's first opportunity to take the major components of the Mars 2020 mission for a test drive. Over two weeks in January, Bottom and 71 other engineers and technicians assigned to the 2020 mission took over the High Bay 1 cleanroom in JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility to put the software and electrical systems aboard the mission's cruise, entry capsule, descent stage and rover through their paces.

"ST1 was a massive undertaking," said Bottom. "It was our first chance to exercise the flight software we will fly on 2020 with the actual spacecraft components that will be heading to Mars - and make sure they not only operate as expected, but also interact with each other as expected."

The heritage for Mars 2020's software goes back to the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) and the Curiosity rover that has been exploring Mars' Gale Crater since 2012. But 2020 is a different mission with a different rover, a different set of science instruments and a different destination on Mars. Its software has to be tailored accordingly.

Work began in earnest on the flight software in 2013. It was coded, recoded, analyzed and tested on computer workstations and laptops. Later, the flight software matriculated to spacecraft testbeds where it was exposed to computers, sensors and other electronic components customized to imitate the flight hardware that will launch with the mission in 2020.

"Virtual workstations and testbeds are an important part of the process," said Bottom. "But the tens of thousands of individual components that make up the electronics of this mission are not all going to act, or react, exactly like a testbed. Seeing the flight software and the actual flight hardware working together is the best way to build confidence in our processes. Test like you fly."

Making the Grade

On the day before ST1 began, the High Bay 1 cleanroom was hopping with "bunny suit"-clad engineers and technicians assembling, inspecting and testing the mission's hardware. The next day, Wednesday, Jan. 16, the room was eerily quiet. The majority of workers had been replaced by two technicians there to monitor the flight test hardware.

Lines of electrical cabling - "umbilicals" - were added to provide data and power to the spacecraft's cruise stage, back shell, descent stage and rover chassis, which have yet to be stacked together. The ground to in-flight spacecraft (and in-flight spacecraft to ground) communications were handled by X-band radio transmission, just like they would be during the trip to Mars.

ST1 began with commands to energize the spacecraft's electrical components and set up thermal, power and telecom configurations. While all the spacecraft components remained in the cleanroom, Bottom and her team had them thinking they were sitting on top of an Atlas 541 rocket 190 feet (58 meters) above Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral on July 17, 2020, waiting to be shot into space.

Next, they focused on another part of cruise before testing the landing sequence. Then they did it all over again.

After a successful launch, they time jumped 40 days ahead to simulate deep space cruise. How would the software and hardware interact when they had to perform navigation fixes and trajectory correction maneuvers? And how would they work when simulated events didn't go as planned? The team looked for answers on the operators' computer screens in the test operations room beside the cleanroom.

"From the test operations room, you could look out the windows onto the cleanroom floor and clearly see the flight hardware," said Bottom.

"Nothing was visibly moving, but underneath the outer structure, there were flight computers swapping sides, radios sending and receiving transmissions, fuel valves moving in and out, subsystems being energized and later turned off, and electrical signals being sent to nonexistent pyrotechnic devices. There was a lot going on in there."

On Jan. 30, the Mars 2020 test team was able to close their 1,000-plus page book of procedures for ST1. They went two-for-two on Mars landings. They also launched four times, performed deep space navigation, executed several trajectory correction maneuvers and even tested a few in-flight off-nominal situations.

This first evaluation of flight hardware and software, over a year in the making, had been a thorough success, demonstrating where things excelled and where they could be improved. When these new changes have been investigated on both a virtual workstation and in the testbed, they will have their chance to "fly" in one of the many other systems tests planned for Mars 2020.

"One of the future scenario tests will place the rover inside a thermal chamber and simulate being on the surface. It will step through mission critical activities at some very low Mars surface temperatures," said Bottom. "Both literally and figuratively it will be a very cool test."

The Mars 2020 Project at JPL manages rover development for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management. Mars 2020 will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/NASAs_Mars_2020_Rover_Is_Put_to_the_Test_999.html.

Opportunity's parting shot was a beautiful panorama

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Mar 13, 2019

Over 29 days last spring, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity documented this 360-degree panorama from multiple images taken at what would become its final resting spot in Perseverance Valley. Located on the inner slope of the western rim of Endurance Crater, Perseverance Valley is a system of shallow troughs descending eastward about the length of two football fields from the crest of Endeavor's rim to its floor.

"This final panorama embodies what made our Opportunity rover such a remarkable mission of exploration and discovery," said Opportunity project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"To the right of center you can see the rim of Endeavor Crater rising in the distance. Just to the left of that, rover tracks begin their descent from over the horizon and weave their way down to geologic features that our scientists wanted to examine up close. And to the far right and left are the bottom of Perseverance Valley and the floor of Endeavour crater, pristine and unexplored, waiting for visits from future explorers."

The trailblazing mission ended after nearly 15 years of exploring the surface of Mars, but its legacy will live on. Opportunity's scientific discoveries contributed to our unprecedented understanding of the planet's geology and environment, laying the groundwork for future robotic and human missions to the Red Planet.

The panorama is composed of 354 individual images provided by the rover's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) from May 13 through June 10, or sols (Martian days) 5,084 through 5,111. This view combines images taken through three different Pancam filters. The filters admit light centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet).

A few frames (bottom left) remain black and white, as the solar-powered rover did not have the time to record those locations using the green and violet filters before a severe Mars-wide dust storm swept in on June 2018.

The gallery includes the last images Opportunity obtained during its mission (black-and-white thumbnail images from the Pancam that were used to determine how opaque the sky was on its last day) and also the last piece of data the rover transmitted (a "noisy," incomplete full-frame image of a darkened sky).

After eight months of effort and sending more than a thousand commands in an attempt to restore contact with the rover, NASA declared Opportunity's mission complete on Feb. 13, 2019.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Opportunitys_Parting_Shot_Was_a_Beautiful_Panorama_999.html.

About 50 pieces of destroyed Indian satellite flying above ISS

Washington DC (Sputnik)
Apr 08, 2019

Around 60 fragments of India's Microsat-R military satellite are currently flying in orbit, 46 of which are flying in orbits located above the apogee of the International Space Station (ISS), according to the US Air Force's catalog, published on space-track.org website.

The US Air Force's catalog currently includes 57 Microsat-R fragments flying in orbits at altitudes from 159 kilometers to 2,248 kilometers (99-1,397 miles). As many as 46 of these fragments are flying in orbits above the ISS apogee, which stands at around 400 kilometers.

Ivan Moiseev, the head of the Russian Institute for Space Policy, has commented on the matter, telling Sputnik that fragments flying above the ISS were a threat, albeit an insignificant one.

"There is a threat coming from the Indian satellite, but it is a highly unlikely one", Moiseev said, explaining that the risk of collision was low because the ISS and the fragments had different inclinations.

India successfully tested its anti-missile weapon on 27 March destroying the Microsat-R in low-Earth orbit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised this as a benchmark event, stressing that the test has proven India's ability to safeguard its space assets.

Meanwhile, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has slammed the test, saying that it had created at least 400 pieces of debris, increasing the risk of the ISS colliding with debris by 44 percent.

Microsat-R, designed by the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization, was launched into orbit atop the PSLV carrier in January.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/About_50_Pieces_of_Destroyed_Indian_Satellite_Flying_Above_ISS___US_Air_Force_999.html.

India to Launch Military Satellite to Detect Enemy Radars, Sensors and Devices

New Delhi (Sputnik)
Mar 26, 2019

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is set to launch a locally built advanced military satellite, along with 28 other satellites from international partners, on 1 April from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota.

This will be the 47th mission of ISRO's C45 Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The launch is also aimed at demonstrating the PSLV's capability to place satellites into orbit.

"We will be using a PSLV rocket with four strap-on motors. Further, for the first time we will be trying to orbit the rocket at three different altitudes," K Sivan, chairman of the ISRO, said.

The primary satellite will be injected into orbit at 749 km, followed by two fourth stage restarts to achieve a 504 km orbit, where all customer satellites will be injected. Subsequently, the fourth stage will be restarted again to achieve a 485 km orbit to serve as an orbital platform to carry out spaceborne experimentation.

In the fourth stage, the launcher will turn into a payload platform carrying three experimental payloads that include an automatic identification system for maritime satellite applications capturing messages transmitted from ships.

The second payload comprises an automatic packet repeating system (APRS) from India's AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) that will assist amateur radio operators in tracking and monitoring position data.

The third experimental payload includes an advanced retarding potential analyzer for ionospheric studies (ARIS) from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), an ISRO document reads.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/India_to_Launch_Military_Satellite_to_Detect_Enemy_Radars_Sensors_and_Devices_999.html.

New surprises from Jupiter and Saturn

Washington DC (SPX)
Mar 11, 2019

The latest data sent back by the Juno and Cassini spacecraft from giant gas planets Jupiter and Saturn have challenged a lot of current theories about how planets in our solar system form and behave.

The detailed magnetic and gravity data have been "invaluable but also confounding," said David Stevenson from Caltech, who will present an update of both missions this week at the 2019 American Physical Society March Meeting in Boston. He will also participate in a press conference describing the work. Information for logging on to watch and ask questions remotely is included at the end of this news release.

"Although there are puzzles yet to be explained, this is already clarifying some of our ideas about how planets form, how they make magnetic fields and how the winds blow," Stevenson said.

Cassini orbited Saturn for 13 years before its dramatic final dive into the planet's interior in 2017, while Juno has been orbiting Jupiter for two and a half years.

Juno's success as a mission to Jupiter is a tribute to innovative design. Its instruments are powered by solar energy alone and protected so as to withstand the fierce radiation environment.

Stevenson says the inclusion of a microwave sensor on Juno was a good decision.

"Using microwaves to figure out the deep atmosphere was the right, but unconventional, choice," he said. The microwave data have surprised the scientists, in particular by showing that the atmosphere is evenly mixed, something conventional theories did not predict.

"Any explanation for this has to be unorthodox," Stevenson said.

Researchers are exploring weather events concentrating significant amounts of ice, liquids and gas in different parts of the atmosphere as possible explanations, but the matter is far from sealed.

Other instruments on board Juno, gravity and magnetic sensors, have also sent back perplexing data. The magnetic field has spots (regions of anomalously high or low magnetic field) and also a striking difference between the northern and southern hemispheres.

"It's unlike anything we have seen before," Stevenson said.

The gravity data have confirmed that in the midst of Jupiter, which is at least 90 percent hydrogen and helium by mass, there are heavier elements amounting to more than 10 times the mass of Earth. However, they are not concentrated in a core but are mixed in with the hydrogen above, most of which is in the form of a metallic liquid.

The data has provided rich information about the outer parts of both Jupiter and Saturn. The abundance of heavier elements in these regions is still uncertain, but the outer layers play a larger-than-expected role in the generation of the two planets' magnetic fields. Experiments mimicking the gas planets' pressures and temperatures are now needed to help the scientists understand the processes that are going on.

For Stevenson, who has studied gas giants for 40 years, the puzzles are the hallmark of a good mission.

"A successful mission is one that surprises us. Science would be boring if it merely confirmed what we previously thought," he said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/New_surprises_from_Jupiter_and_Saturn_999.html.

US and Japan partner on future moon mission

by Olufemi Terry for Share America
Washington DC (VOA)
May 30, 2019

At a May meeting in Washington, U.S. and Japanese officials affirmed the desire for continued scientific cooperation between the two countries. They collaborate on space exploration, space and earth science, and aeronautics research.

In one important example, NASA, the U.S. space agency, plans an infrastructure to sustain humans on and around the moon with assistance from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

President Trump's Space Policy Directive 1 instructs NASA to lead a program of exploration with commercial and international partners to the moon.

Building on more than two decades of partnership - along with the Canadian, Russian and European space agencies - in the International Space Station program, NASA and JAXA are discussing the Gateway, a small spaceship to orbit the moon. The Gateway will support humans on the moon and provide experience that could boost future exploration of Mars.

NASA plans to land the first women and the next men on the moon's surface by 2024, and JAXA is collaborating on possible robotic missions that could support human activities on the moon.

Beyond the moon

On XRISM, the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, which will launch in early 2021 to investigate X-rays emitted by stars, quasars and black holes, the agencies' roles are reversed: JAXA leads, and NASA contributes key components.

In the coming days, as Trump visits Japan, he and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will seek to extend the two countries' cooperation into other areas.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/US_and_Japan_partner_on_future_moon_mission_999.html.

Human rights group locates North Korean execution sites

June 11, 2019

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A human rights group said Tuesday it has identified hundreds of spots where witnesses claim North Korea carried out public executions and extrajudicial state killings as part of an arbitrary and aggressive use of the death penalty that is meant to intimidate its citizens.

The Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group said its research was based on interviews with 610 North Korean defectors conducted over four years who helped locate the sites with satellite imagery.

The group didn't reveal the exact locations of the 323 sites because it's worried that North Korea will tamper with them, but said 267 of them were located in two northeastern provinces near the border with China, the area where most of the defectors who participated in the study came from.

North Korea's public executions tend to happen near rivers, in fields and on hills, and also at marketplaces and school grounds — places where residents and family members of those sentenced are often forced to attend the killings, the report said.

The group also said it documented three sites where people died while in detention and 25 sites where the dead were allegedly disposed of by the state. It said it also found official locations that may have documents or other evidence related to the killings.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the report, and the group acknowledged that its findings weren't definite because it doesn't have direct access to North Korea and cannot visit the sites defectors told it about. Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, one of the report's authors, also said interviews with defectors suggest that public executions in North Korea are becoming less frequent, although it's unclear whether that's because more people are being executed in secret.

South Korea's Korea Institute for National Unification, a state-sponsored think tank, expressed similar views on its annual white paper on North Korea's human rights released last week. The institute said the North still uses public executions to provoke fear and control the behavior of its citizens, particularly in city and border areas where crimes are more prevalent.

The Transitional Justice Working Group is a nongovernment organization founded by human rights advocates and researchers from South Korea and four other countries. The group said the new report was made possible by funding from the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy, which is funded by the U.S. Congress.

North Korea didn't immediately respond to the report, but the nation bristles at outside criticism of its human rights record and claims negative assessments are part of U.S.-led pressure campaigns meant to tarnish the image of its leadership and destroy the country's political system. In a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in May, North Korea said it "consistently maintains the principle of ensuring scientific accuracy, objectivity and impartiality, as well as protecting human rights in dealing with criminal cases."

A 2014 United Nations report on North Korea's human rights conditions, however, said state authorities carry out executions, "with or without trial, publicly or secretly," in response to political and other crimes that are often not among the most serious offenses. While public executions were more common in the 1990s, North Korea continues to carry them out for the purpose of instilling fear in the general population, the report said.

The new report said its findings show arbitrary executions and extrajudicial killings under state custody have continued under the rule of young leader Kim Jong Un despite international criticism over how North Korea supposedly applies the death penalty without due judicial process.

Since assuming leadership in 2011, Kim has shown a brutal side while consolidating his power, executing a slew of members of the North Korean old guard, including his uncle Jang Seong Thaek, who was convicted of treason, and senior officials accused of slighting his leadership.

Following a provocative run in nuclear and missile tests, Kim initiated diplomacy with Washington and Seoul in 2018 in attempting to leverage his arsenal for economic and security benefits. But North Korea's human rights issues have so far been sidelined in the summitry between Kim, President Donald Trump, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Almost all of the state killings documented in the report were public executions by firing squad. Public executions in most cases are preceded by brief "trials" on the spot where charges are announced and sentences are issued without legal counsel for the accused, the report said.

Criminal charges for executions commonly cited by interviewees included violent crimes such as murder, rape and assault, but also property crimes like stealing copper or cows and brokering defections. With a lack of due process in the North's judicial system, it's unclear whether the charges would actually match the act of the accused, the report said.

Bodies of people killed by state agents aren't usually returned to the family and are often dumped in mountainous areas, buried in the ground without markers, or thrown into a gorge or ravine, the report said.

Authorities often force family members of those sentenced and residents, including children, to watch public executions. Some defectors reported incidents in the mid-2010s where guards used metal detectors to find and confiscate mobile phones from witnesses to prevent them from recording the events, which showed the government's concern about information on the public executions getting outside the country, the report said.

The rights group said the information it gathered will be crucial if a political transition in North Korea allows for the identification of victims, the return of remains to families and investigations into human rights abuses committed by the government.

The group released an earlier report in 2017 based on a smaller number of interviews. It said the new report is better sourced, based on accounts of direct witnesses or those who heard from direct witnesses and were able to provide geographic information of the sites.

A look at alleged raiders of North Korean Embassy in Madrid

March 27, 2019

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The 10 people who allegedly raided the North Korean Embassy in Madrid last month belong to a mysterious dissident organization that styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea.

Their leader appears to be a Yale-educated human rights activist who was once jailed in China while trying to rescue North Korean defectors living in hiding, according to activists and defectors. Details have begun trickling out about the raid after a Spanish judge lifted a secrecy order Tuesday and said an investigation of what happened on Feb. 22 uncovered evidence that "a criminal organization" shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents. A U.S. official said the group is named Cheollima Civil Defense, a little-known organization that recently called for international solidarity in the fight against dictatorship in North Korea.

Here's a look at the group and its apparent leader.

THE GROUP

Details about the creation of the Cheollima Civil Defense group are hazy. The word "Cheollima" — spelled "Chollima" in the North — refers to a mythical winged horse that the government often uses in its propaganda.

In March 2017 the group said it had arranged the escape of Kim Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who was assassinated at a Malaysian airport earlier that year.

A man claiming to be Kim Han Sol appeared in a YouTube video at the time and said he was safely with his mother and sister.

"My name is Kim Han Sol from North Korea, part of the Kim family," the man said in English in the 40-second video clip. "My father has been killed a few days ago."

Recently the group declared on what appears to be its website the establishment of "Free Joseon," which it described as "a provisional government" that would fight against "the criminal incumbents of the north." The Joseon Dynasty ruled the Korean Peninsula for more than 500 years until 1910, when Japan colonized Korea, which was later divided at the end of World War II.

The group also recently posted a video showing an unidentified man destroying glass-encased portraits of North Korea's two late leaders. South Korean media reported that the group was behind the writing of "Let's topple Kim Jong Un," the current North Korean leader, on the wall of the North Korean Embassy in Malaysia.

After the Spanish judge released documents about the Feb. 22 incident, the Cheollima website said it had been responding to an urgent situation at the embassy and was invited onto the property, and that "no one was gagged or beaten." The group said there were "no other governments involved with or aware of our activity until after the event."

The Spanish court report said the intruders urged North Korea's only accredited diplomat in Spain, So Yun Sok, to defect.

The Cheollima website said the group shared "certain information of enormous potential value" with the FBI, under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality.

The FBI said its standard practice is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations.

If Cheollima was behind the embassy break-in, it indicates the involvement of North Korean defectors who have experience working for North Korea's military or security authorities, said Nam Sung Wook, a former president of the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with South Korea's main spy agency.

"There are many young North Korean men who come to the South with more than 10 years of military experience," said Nam, who now teaches at Korea University in South Korea. "People would be surprised at what they are capable of doing, and they aren't always being closely watched by the South Korean government."

THE ALLEGED LEADER

A Spanish court document identified the leader of the group that entered the embassy as Adrian Hong Chang.

This is likely to be Adrian Hong, who in 2005 co-founded Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), an international activist group devoted to rescuing North Korean refugees, according to North Korean defectors and activists who spoke with The Associated Press.

Hannah Song, CEO of LiNK, said Hong has had no involvement with the organization for more than 10 years. "We have no knowledge of his recent activities," Song said.

The Spanish judge, Jose de la Mata, described Adrian Hong Chang as a Mexican national and resident of the United States. According to the Spanish court report, the man flew to the United States on Feb. 23, got in touch with the FBI and offered to share material and videos. The report didn't say what type of information the items contained or whether the FBI accepted the offer.

An online message by AP to a verified Twitter account linked to activist Adrian Hong wasn't immediately answered.

Hong is known for his work helping North Koreans flee their homeland and resettle in South Korea and elsewhere. LiNK said it has helped more than 1,000 North Koreans reach safety. Fellow activists and North Korean defectors said Hong was detained in China briefly in the 2000s because of his work.

Kang Chol-hwan, a prominent North Korean defector-turned-activist, said he was close to Hong and helped him with LiNK.

Kang, an ex-inmate of North Korea's notorious Yodok prison camp, said Hong became passionate about North Korean human rights after reading his detention memoir. He said Hong visited Seoul and rallied against what he believed were pro-North Korea sympathizers and those silent on North Korean human rights issues.

Kang, who said he last saw Hong about five years ago, said Hong wanted to "muster anti-government forces (in North Korea) and bring down North Korea from the inside." Kang said Hong even went to Libya to study the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi so he could explore ways to topple the Kim government.

"He has great capacity for organization because of his experience establishing LiNK," Kang said. "He's a very smart guy."

Fellow defector-turned-activist Heu Kang Il, who met Hong around 2005, recalled him as a "passionate young man."

Testifying before the Canadian Senate in 2016, Hong said: "North Korea is not a normal nation with the government seeking to serve and protect its citizens. It is a brutal totalitarian regime, ruled by a royal family and a class of vassals, both in tenuous concert with one another. It does not care for the welfare of its people."

In an op-ed for The Christian Science Monitor in 2014, Hong said the international community must support "efforts to strengthen meaningful opposition and civil society in the country, training exiles to one day assume leadership positions, educating younger refugees, and creating more robust programs to help defectors adjust to life on the outside."

"A class of Korean technocrats must be capable of stabilizing and rebuilding on a national scale," Hong wrote.

Associated Press writer Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed to this report.

North Korea's Kim leaves Vietnam after summit breakdown

March 02, 2019

DONG DANG, Vietnam (AP) — Smiling and holding up his clasped hands in a victorious pose, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday boarded his private train at the Vietnam-China border for a 60-plus-hour ride home, ending a trip to Vietnam that saw a summit breakdown with President Donald Trump.

He spent his last day in Hanoi laying large red-and-yellow wreaths at a war memorial and at the mausoleum of national hero Ho Chi Minh, surrounded by Vietnamese soldiers in crisp white uniforms and his own entourage of top North Korean officials. At the border, he got out of his armored limousine and clasped his hands, waving to a crowd of people cheering his departure.

Since Trump flew home to Washington, Kim has stepped assuredly into the spotlight, keen to show himself as a poised leader taking his rightful place on the international stage. He met Friday with President Nguyen Phu Trong, the country's top leader and Communist Party chief, grinning broadly as he was feted by top officials and escorted down a red carpet.

As Kim met with officials in Hanoi, the United States and North Korea have both been spinning their versions of what happened during one of the most high-profile diplomatic collapses in recent years. But some experts believe that Kim, by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump at a summit that captivated many around the world, will have one sure win: He'll be able to portray himself to his people and supporters as the charismatic head of a nuclear-armed power, not an international pariah that starves its citizens so it can build nukes and missiles.

On Saturday, Kim, his trademark high-and-tight pompadour a bit disheveled, walked slowly behind a wreath with his name on it and a message that said, "I mourn the heroes and patriotic martyrs," as it was taken to the Monument to War Heroes and Martyrs. He also oversaw the presentation of a large wreath at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where he bowed and walked inside.

Talks between Kim and Trump broke down on Thursday, the second day of their two-day summit, in a dispute over how much sanctions relief Washington should provide Pyongyang in return for nuclear disarmament steps. Despite a senior North Korean official's suggestion — in a rushed, middle-of-the-night news conference called to dispute Trump's version of the summit's end — that Kim may have "lost the will" for diplomacy, the North Korean leader seems to have emerged from the diplomatic wreckage as a winner.

Kim answered questions with humor and ease when confronted by an aggressive international media contingent here. And, crucially for his image at home, he stood firm on his demands for the relief of sanctions imposed over a nuclear program North Korea says it built in the face of unrelenting U.S. hostility meant to end its leadership.

Kim, as he considers his next move after Hanoi, will be backed by state-controlled media that were already busy portraying the summit as a victory for their leader, saying Kim and Trump "appreciated that the second meeting in Hanoi offered an important occasion for deepening mutual respect and trust and putting the relations between the two countries on a new stage."

North Korea said it had asked for partial sanctions relief in return for closing its main nuclear site at Yongbyon, an important nuclear-fuel production facility but not the only place the North is believed to make bomb fuel.

The United States also has been spinning the summit breakdown, with senior officials saying that North Korea wanted billions of dollars in sanctions relief in return for only partial dismantlement of Yongbyon, and demanded the North scrap more of its nuclear program for such a high level of concessions.

It's unclear what will come next: Working-level meetings among experts to close the negotiating gap? Another summit? Or will Trump, consumed with controversy in Washington and burned by the failure in Hanoi, lose interest?

The worst-case scenario would be a return to the personal insults and threats of war between Trump and Kim in 2017 as the North staged a series of increasingly powerful weapons tests, including a nuclear detonation and displays of long-range missiles that can target the U.S. mainland, though experts believe those ICBMs are not yet complete.

Trump maintained ahead of the Hanoi summit that the economic benefits of a deal could push Kim to give up his nuclear ambitions. Kim came into the summit feeling confident that he could settle something that would end painful economic sanctions while letting him keep much of his nuclear program and only making a "a variety of gestures that mimic disarmament," Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, wrote after the summit collapse. This outcome would be a signal that "the world must live with North Korea's bomb, but Kim won't rub it in anyone's face."

"Since it would be utter madness to try to topple a nuclear-armed dictator, it seems obvious which side should yield," Lewis said. If Trump "does not accept the reality that we now live with a nuclear-armed North Korea, then we are doomed to the collapse of negotiations, and perhaps even a return to the terror of 2017."

Klug reported from Hanoi, Vietnam. Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report. Foster Klug, AP's bureau chief in South Korea, has covered the Koreas since 2005.

NKorea leader Kim Jong Un tours Hanoi after summit breakdown

March 01, 2019

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A day after his stunning summit breakdown with Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un smiled broadly as he strode down a red carpet with Vietnam's president Friday, a military band playing as stiff-backed soldiers goose-stepped by.

With Trump back in Washington, and both countries spinning their version of what happened during one of the most high-profile diplomatic collapses in recent years, Kim seemed confident and poised — a world leader taking his place on the international stage — as he stepped out of his armored limousine, embraced President Nguyen Phu Trong, the country's top leader and Communist Party chief, and accepted a bouquet of flowers from a beaming girl.

On Saturday he is expected to be driven back to the border with China where he will board his armored train for a 60-plus-hour trip, through the sprawl of China, back home to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. But Friday saw his black limousine rolling beneath fluttering Vietnamese and North Korean flags — the U.S. ones have been mostly taken down — as a large crowd jammed the city's streets and waved flowers.

Talks between Kim and Trump broke down on Thursday, the second day of their two-day summit, in a dispute over how much sanctions relief Washington should provide Pyongyang in return for nuclear disarmament steps. Despite a senior North Korean official's suggestion — in a rushed, middle-of-the-night news conference called to dispute Trump's version of the summit's end — that Kim may have "lost the will" for diplomacy, the North Korean leader seems to have emerged from the diplomatic wreckage as a winner.

Kim stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump at the summit, an image that allows his propaganda services to portray him to his people and supporters as the leader of a nuclear-armed power, not an international pariah that starves its citizens so it can build nukes and missiles. He answered questions with humor and ease when confronted by an aggressive international media contingent here. And, crucially for his image at home, he stood firm on his demands for the relief of sanctions imposed over a nuclear program North Korea says it built in the face of unrelenting U.S. hostility meant to end its leadership.

Kim, as he considers his next move after Hanoi, will also be backed by state-controlled media that were already busy portraying the summit as a victory for their leader, saying Kim and Trump "appreciated that the second meeting in Hanoi offered an important occasion for deepening mutual respect and trust and putting the relations between the two countries on a new stage."

North Korea said it had asked for partial sanctions relief in return for closing its main nuclear site at Yongbyon, an important nuclear-fuel production facility but not the only place the North is believed to make bomb fuel.

The United States also put its interpretation on the summit breakdown, with senior officials saying that North Korea wanted billions of dollars in sanctions relief in return for only partial dismantlement of Yongbyon, and demanded the North scrap more of its nuclear program for such a high level of concessions.

It's unclear what will come next: Working-level meetings among experts to close the negotiating gap? Another summit? Or will Trump, consumed with controversy in Washington and burned by the failure in Hanoi, lose interest?

The worst-case scenario would be a return to the personal insults and threats of war between Trump and Kim in 2017 as the North staged a series of increasingly powerful weapons tests, including a nuclear detonation and displays of long-range missiles that can target the U.S. mainland, though experts believe those ICBMs are not yet complete.

Trump maintained ahead of the Hanoi summit that the economic benefits of a deal could push Kim to give up his nuclear ambitions. Kim came into the summit feeling confident that he could settle something that would end painful economic sanctions while letting him keep much of his nuclear program and only making a "a variety of gestures that mimic disarmament," Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, wrote after the summit collapse. This outcome would be a signal that "the world must live with North Korea's bomb, but Kim won't rub it in anyone's face."

"Since it would be utter madness to try to topple a nuclear-armed dictator, it seems obvious which side should yield," Lewis said. If Trump "does not accept the reality that we now live with a nuclear-armed North Korea, then we are doomed to the collapse of negotiations, and perhaps even a return to the terror of 2017."

AP writer Hyung-jin Kim in Hanoi contributed to this report. Foster Klug, AP's bureau chief in South Korea, has covered the Koreas since 2005.

In a summit first, Kim Jong Un takes US media questions

February 28, 2019

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — So here's a bit of history made at President Donald Trump's summit with Kim Jong Un: for what is almost certainly the first time, the North Korean leader actually answered an impromptu question from an American reporter.

Then just a little bit later, as if to prove it wasn't a fluke, he did it again. Looking confident and speaking in his typically gravelly voice, Kim didn't miss a beat when asked by a member of the White House press pool about his outlook on the summit, saying "It's too early to say. I won't make predictions. But I instinctively feel that a good outcome will be produced."

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which deals with North Korean affairs, couldn't confirm whether it was the first time Kim answered a question from a foreign journalist. But reporters didn't get opportunities to ask questions of Kim during his three summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his four meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Kim ignored questions shouted at him during his first summit with Trump last June in Singapore. In an earlier brush with foreign media at the opening of a war museum in Pyongyang in 2013, questions were shouted at him but not answered.

The first journalist to get his response on Thursday was David Nakamura of the Washington Post. As a pool reporter, he was allowed close access to the leaders as the representative of the White House press corps.

"I asked Kim Jong Un if he felt confident he could get a deal with @realDonaldTrump," Nakamura tweeted. "He replied: 'It's too early to say. I would not say I'm pessimistic.'" Soon after, as journalists were allowed to see the beginning of the final day of talks, Kim responded to several more questions from American reporters in the White House pool — including The Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg. He said he thought it would be a good idea to open a U.S. liaison office in Pyongyang and said through the interpreter that he wouldn't be in Hanoi if he weren't willing to discuss denuclearization.

The interpreters — Yun-hyang Lee, who also translated for Trump at his first meeting with Kim in Singapore, and Sin Hye Yong, for Kim — played a key role in the exchanges. Shouted or unapproved questions are usually simply not translated to begin with. But with Trump responding, it appeared natural for Kim to follow suit. The interpreters interpreted. And Kim jumped right in.

Kim's confident performance in Hanoi began as soon as he got off the train. Despite the tight security that is the rule at summits, foreign media were allowed to get right up beside him as he got off his armored train at the Chinese border to switch to a limousine for the drive the rest of the way to Hanoi.

Taiwan's military trains for a Chinese invasion on the beach

May 30, 2019

FANGSHAN, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese tanks and soldiers have fired at simulated Chinese forces in an anti-invasion drill on the island's coast. The live-fire drill on Thursday at a beach in southern Taiwan is part of an ongoing annual exercise designed to showcase the military's capabilities and resolve to repel an attack from across the Taiwan Strait.

China claims the self-governing island as its territory. Taiwan split from China amid a civil war in 1949. The simulated response to a Chinese landing included assault helicopters, fighter jets and missiles launched at targets in the sea.

The Defense Ministry said the joint army-navy-air force operation tested the island's combat readiness in the face of the Chinese military threat.

G-20 talks trade, finance as Japan readies for Osaka summit

June 09, 2019

FUKUOKA, Japan (AP) — Top finance and economy ministers of the Group of 20 nations were meeting in Japan on Sunday, haggling over issues ranging from taxes to debt and artificial intelligence as China and the U.S. showed no sign of breaking their stalemate over trade and technology.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he had a constructive meeting with China's central bank Gov. Yi Gang on the sidelines of a financial leaders' meeting in the southern city of Fukuoka. In a Twitter post that showed the two clasping hands, he said they "had a candid discussion on trade issues." He gave no details.

The closed-door talks in Fukuoka, and parallel talks on trade and "digital economy" issues in Tsukuba, a city north of Tokyo, are taking place as the world's two largest economies remain mired in a tariffs war over trade and technology. Talks stalled after 11 rounds of negotiations and both sides are threatening further action, adding to uncertainty and unnerving financial markets.

In diplomatic speak, the word "candid" often signals a degree of disagreement. Mnuchin earlier urged China to rejoin the talks. So far, there has been no word of further negotiations, and he said any major progress in resolving the impasse would likely come at a meeting of Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping during the G-20 summit in late June in Osaka.

Trump has yet to decide, he said, on whether to impose more 25% tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese exports. There was no immediate word from the Chinese side about the meeting between Yi and Mnuchin.

After the Trump administration raised tariffs to up to 25% on $250 billion of imports from China and blacklisted telecommunications giant Huawei, China raised tariffs on rare earth exports to the U.S. and threatened to halt exports altogether.

Last week, China's Commerce Ministry said it will soon release a list of "unreliable" foreign companies in a move seen as a response to the U.S. decision to penalize Huawei for alleged theft of intellectual property and evasion of Iran sanctions.

The Communist Party newspaper People's Daily said Sunday that Beijing is creating a strong firewall to strengthen China's ability to innovate and to accelerate the development of key technologies. "China ... will never allow certain countries to use China's technology to contain China's development and suppress Chinese enterprises," the newspaper said, without directly referring to the United States.

Japan, the world's third-largest economy, is hosting the G-20 for the first time since it was founded in 1999. The meetings in Fukuoka and Tsukuba were due to wrap up later Sunday with statements to be put forward for endorsement at the summit.

Reports said officials had reached agreement on the need to revamp tax systems, better regulate new areas such as artificial intelligence, reform the rules-making World Trade Organization and ensure transparency about the levels of debt incurred by developing countries.

The venue for the annual financial meeting, Fukuoka, is a thriving regional hub and base for startups. Much attention at the G-20 meetings this year has focused on how to adapt tax systems and regulation to the increasingly digital nature of business.

But the specter looming over all the meetings is what will become of global trade given the rancor between Washington and Beijing. Mnuchin earlier acknowledged concern among fellow leaders over slowing world growth, though he said it was not due to the standoff with Beijing over trade and technology.

He and other members of the Trump administration maintain that the ripple effects of the billions of dollars in tariffs imposed by Washington on Chinese exports over the past year are creating new business opportunities for other businesses in the U.S. and other countries.

The G-20 group includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

Hong Kong police fire tear gas, water as protest escalates

June 12, 2019

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police fired tear gas and high-pressure water hoses against protesters who had massed outside government headquarters Wednesday in opposition to a proposed extradition bill that has become a lightning rod for concerns over greater Chinese control and erosion of civil liberties in the semiautonomous territory.

The afternoon violence marked a major escalation in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory's biggest political crisis in years. It came after protesters earlier in the day forced the delay of a legislative debate over the bill, which would allow criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent for trial in mainland China.

The overwhelming young crowd had overflowed onto a major downtown road as they overturned barriers and tussled with police outside the government building. But when some appeared to have breached the police cordon around offices of the government and Legislative Council in the city state's Wanchai district, leading to the police response, which also included firing nonlethal projectiles.

Earlier, a curt government statement said the session scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. would be "changed to a later time." Officials gave no indication of when that would be and Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam canceled a scheduled news briefing.

The delay appeared to have been at least a temporary victory for the bill's opponents, whose protests are the largest since pro-democracy demonstrations closed down parts of the Asian financial center for more than three months in 2014. Some businesses closed for the day, and labor strikes and class boycotts were called.

The protests are a challenge to China's ruling Communist Party and President Xi Jinping, who has in the past said he would not tolerate Hong Kong being used as a base to challenge the party's authority. But they are also giving vent to young Hong Kongers alienated by a political process dominated by the territory's economic elite.

Protesters said they hoped the blockade would persuade Lam's administration to shelve the proposed amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance.

"We want the government to just set the legislation aside and not bring it back," said a protester who gave only his first name, Marco, to avoid possible repercussions from authorities. Another protester, who gave her name only as King, also out of fear of repercussions, said the protest was a watershed moment for Hong Kong's young generation, who face difficult job prospects and skyrocketing housing prices.

"We have to stand up for our rights or they will be taken away," she said. Dressed in black T-shirts and jeans, many protesters appeared undaunted by demands to disperse from police. Protesters clashed with police intermittently throughout the day, occasionally hurling traffic cones and other objects over metal traffic barriers. Police initially responded with pepper spray, which was met with unfurled parasols as used in 2014 pro-democracy protests that became known as the Umbrella Movement.

The demonstrators also appeared mindful of Beijing's growing use of electronic surveillance such as facial recognition technology to build dossiers on those it considers politically unreliable, with many donning surgical or anti-pollution masks to hide their features, as well as to safeguard against tear gas.

Such protests are never tolerated in mainland China, and Hong Kong residents can face travel bans and other repercussions if they cross the border. In a statement read out to reporters, Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Mathew Cheung urged the protesters to clear the streets.

"I would also like to ask the people in this gathering to stay calm and leave the scene as soon as possible and not to commit any crime," he added. Under its "one country, two systems" framework, Hong Kong was supposed to be guaranteed the right to retain its own social, legal and political systems for 50 years following its handover from British rule in 1997. However, China's ruling Communist Party has been seen as increasingly reneging on that agreement by forcing through unpopular legal changes.

The government pushed ahead with plans to present the amendments to the legislature on Wednesday despite a weekend protest by hundreds of thousands of people that was the territory's largest political demonstration in more than a decade.

Lam has consistently defended the legislation as necessary to close legal loopholes with other countries and territories. A vote is scheduled on June 20. The protests are widely seen as reflecting growing apprehension about relations with the Communist Party-ruled mainland, where Xi has said he has zero tolerance for those demanding greater self-rule for Hong Kong.

Critics believe the extradition legislation would put Hong Kong residents at risk of being entrapped in China's judicial system, in which opponents of Communist Party rule have been charged with economic crimes or ill-defined national security offenses, and would not be guaranteed free trials.

Lam said the government has considered concerns from the private sector and altered the bill to improve human rights safeguards. She said without the changes, Hong Kong would risk becoming a haven for fugitives.

She emphasized that extradition cases would be decided by Hong Kong courts. Opponents of the proposed extradition amendments say the changes would significantly compromise Hong Kong's legal independence, long viewed as one of the crucial differences between the territory and mainland China.

Hong Kong currently limits extraditions to jurisdictions with which it has existing agreements and to others on an individual basis. China has been excluded from those agreements because of concerns over its judicial independence and human rights record.

Those in Hong Kong who anger China's central government have come under greater pressure since Xi came to power in 2012. The detention of several Hong Kong booksellers in late 2015 intensified worries about the erosion of Hong Kong's rule of law. The booksellers vanished before resurfacing in police custody in mainland China. Among them, Swedish citizen Gui Minhai is being investigated on charges of leaking state secrets after he sold gossipy books about Chinese leaders.

In May, Germany confirmed it had granted asylum to two people from Hong Kong who, according to media reports, were activists fleeing tightening restrictions at home. It was the first known case in recent years of a Western government accepting political refugees from Hong Kong.

Associated Press journalists Raf Wober and Alice Fung in Hong Kong and Sally Ho in Seattle contributed to this report.

Hong Kong to push ahead with bill that sparked huge protest

June 10, 2019

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's leader signaled Monday that her government will push ahead with controversial amendments to extradition laws despite a massive protest against them that underscored fears about mainland China's broadening footprint in the semi-autonomous territory.

In what was likely Hong Kong's largest protest in more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of people shut down the heart of the skyscraper-studded city on Sunday, three days before the Legislative Council is slated to take up the bill.

The demonstrations refocused attention on the former British colony, whose residents have long bristled at what many see as efforts by Beijing to tighten control, and dominated newspaper front pages in a city that allows far more freedom of expression than other parts of China.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam told reporters the legislation is important and will help Hong Kong uphold justice and fulfill its international obligations. Safeguards added in May will ensure that the legislation protects human rights, she said.

Hong Kong was guaranteed the right to retain its own social, legal and political systems for 50 years under an agreement reached before its 1997 return to China from British rule. But China's ruling Communist Party has been seen as increasingly reneging on that agreement by pushing through unpopular legal changes.

The extradition law amendments would allow Hong Kong to send people to mainland China to face charges, spurring criticism that defendants in the Chinese judicial system won't have the same rights as they would in Hong Kong. Opponents contend the proposed legislation could make Hong Kong residents vulnerable to vague national security charges and unfair trials.

Lam said Sunday's protest shows Hong Kong's enduring commitment to its people's freedoms. She denied that she is taking orders from the central government in China's capital. "I have not received any instruction or mandate from Beijing to do this bill," she said. "We were doing it — and we are still doing it — out of our clear conscience, and our commitment to Hong Kong."

People of all ages took part in the march. Some pushed strollers while others walked with canes, and chanted slogans in favor of greater transparency in government. The protest that stretched past midnight into Monday was largely peaceful, though there were a few scuffles with police as demonstrators broke through barriers at government headquarters and briefly pushed their way into the lobby. Police in riot gear used batons and tear gas to push the protesters outside.

Three officers and one journalist were injured, according to Hong Kong media reports. There was a heavy police presence on downtown streets deep into the night. Authorities said 19 people were arrested in connection with the clashes.

Hong Kong currently limits extraditions to jurisdictions with which it has existing agreements or to others on an individual basis under a law passed before 1997. China was excluded because of concerns over its poor record on legal independence and human rights.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China firmly backs the proposed amendments and opposes "the wrong words and deeds of any external forces" that interfere in Hong Kong's affairs.

"Certain countries have made some irresponsible remarks" about the legislation, Geng said, without elaborating. Lam was elected in 2017 by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing Hong Kong elites. Critics have accused her of ignoring widespread opposition to the extradition law amendments.

She said Monday that the bill seeks to prevent Hong Kong from becoming a haven for fugitives and is not focused on mainland China. Western democracies have accused Hong Kong of failing to address issues such as money laundering and terrorist financing, Lam said.

Agnes Chow, a prominent Hong Kong activist who opposes the bill, said Lam "ignored the anger of more than a million Hong Kong citizens." "Not only me, but I believe most Hong Kong people — have felt really angry with Carrie Lam's response to our rally," Chow told reporters in Tokyo, where she arrived Monday to appeal to Japanese media and politicians.

Wang reported from Beijing. AP video journalist Kaori Hitomi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Massive extradition bill protest fills Hong Kong streets

June 09, 2019

HONG KONG (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through Hong Kong on Sunday to voice their opposition to legislation that would allow people to be extradited to mainland China where they could face politically charged trials.

The massive demonstration took place three days before the semi-autonomous Chinese territory's government plans to bring the highly contentious bill to the full legislature in a bid to win approval by the end of the month.

Police estimated the crowd at 240,000, but organizers said more than 1 million took part. The protest was one of the largest in recent Hong Kong history, underscoring fears over China's broadening footprint in the former British colony. It appeared to be even bigger than a massive pro-democracy demonstration in 2003 against a proposed national security law, according to Associated Press journalists who covered both events.

Late Sunday night, a group of demonstrators broke through barriers at government headquarters, where the march had ended. The crowd briefly pushed its way into the lobby, but police used batons and pepper spray, and the protesters were moved outside. Most had dispersed by 1 a.m.

People of all ages took part in the march, some pushing strollers and others carrying canes, chanting slogans in the native Cantonese dialect in favor of greater transparency in government. Kiwi Wong, 27, was among the throng, a member of the younger generation who've grown up enjoying relative prosperity but also growing insecurity about what many see as an erosion of the rights Hong Kong residents have enjoyed.

"If I didn't come out now, I don't know when I would have the chance to express my opinion again," Wong said. "Because now we've got to this stage, if you don't come out to try to do what you can, then it will end up too late, you won't be able to say or do anything about it."

Alex Ng, a 67-year-old retiree, said he joined the protest because "I think that there was never any public consultation about this law, and there are a lot of uncertainties." Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, has pushed forward with the legislation despite widespread criticism from human rights and business groups. The amendments have been criticized as eroding Hong Kong's judicial independence by making it easier to send criminal suspects to mainland China, where they could face vague national security charges and unfair trials.

"What can we do to get Carrie Lam to listen to us, how many people have to come out to make her reconsider listening to the public?" said Miu Wong, a 24-year-old office worker who was among the protesters.

Tommy Lam, a 29-year-old who is working on his master's degree, said: "All these people coming out and marching sends a definite message. If the government doesn't listen, there will be tension." The Hong Kong government said in a statement late Sunday that it respected the right of its opponents to protest.

"We acknowledge and respect that people have different views on a wide range of issues," the statement said. "The procession today is an example of Hong Kong people exercising their freedom of expression within their rights as enshrined in the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance."

Hong Kong was guaranteed the right to retain its own social, legal and political systems for 50 years following its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the so-called "one country, two systems" framework. However, China's ruling Communist Party has been seen as increasingly reneging on that agreement by forcing through unpopular legal changes.

Hong Kong currently limits extraditions to jurisdictions with which it has existing extradition agreements or to others on an individual basis under a law passed before 1997. China was excluded because of concerns over its poor record on legal independence and human rights. In recent years, mainland authorities have gone after opponents by accusing them of dubious crimes such as tax evasion, crystalizing worries among critics and others.

Lam's government argued that the revisions were needed to close legal loopholes, while opponents say that is merely an excuse to pursue China's agenda of reducing Hong Kong's legal independence. Hong Kong's Legislative Council will table the amendments on the bill on Wednesday.

"The people of Hong Kong want to protect our freedom, our freedom of speech, our rule of law, our judicial system, and also our economic foundation, which is welcome to international investors," activist Lee Cheuk-yan, a former Hong Kong legislator, said Sunday. "If international investors lose confidence in Hong Kong because of this evil bill, then Hong Kong, economically, would also be destroyed."

Associated Press videojournalist Raf Wober contributed to this report.

Russian journalist freed after police abruptly drop charges

June 11, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — In a stunning turnaround, Russian authorities Tuesday abruptly dropped all charges against a prominent investigative reporter after a public and media outcry over his arrest, and they promised to go after the police who allegedly tried to frame him as a drug dealer.

The release of Ivan Golunov marked an extremely rare case of security officials admitting a mistake. It also highlighted the difficulties that Russian journalists routinely face when reporting on sensitive topics like graft, corruption and President Vladimir Putin's personal life.

The 36-year-old Golunov was stopped Thursday by police on a Moscow street and taken into custody, where his defense team said he was beaten and denied a lawyer for more than 12 hours. The journalist, who works for the independent website Meduza, had been facing drug charges that could put him in prison for up to 20 years.

Supporters mounted a nationwide campaign on his behalf, with journalists and others picketing Moscow police headquarters for five days. More than 20,000 people signed an online pledge to march in the capital on Wednesday, a public holiday, to protest Golunov's arrest.

But Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev surprised the nation when he announced that all charges against Golunov were dropped after police found "no proof of his part in a crime." "I believe that the rights of any citizen, whatever his professional affiliation, ought to be protected," the minister said, adding that he will ask Putin to dismiss two police generals, including the drug chief of the Moscow police, and suspend the officers who detained Golunov.

Speaking outside police headquarters, a shy and shocked-looking Golunov said he still couldn't believe he was cleared so quickly. "I will keep doing investigations to justify the trust of all those who supported me," he said.

He added that he hopes the police will stop trying to frame innocent people, adding: "I hope it will not happen to anyone else in our country." In an unusual broadcast, his release was shown live on a state-controlled 24-hour news channel.

Judicial statistics indicate that the chances for criminal charges to be dropped or an acquittal once a person is in custody are extremely slim. When it does happen, authorities tend to avoid taking any blame.

"When the authorities admit their mistakes, admit the mistakes of the law enforcement officials and correct them, that's very good because it shows that the government is reasonable," Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of the influential Ekho Moskvy radio station, told the Interfax news agency.

It is not yet clear if the police reversal represented a turning point for the many Russian journalists who are routinely attacked or face government pressure for their work. Many of them say they don't feel safe to operate and report freely.

"We have put the pressure on the system and it worked this time," said Pavel Kanygin, investigative reporter at Novaya Gazeta. "But it really is impossible to work in this environment." The circumstances of Golunov's detention alarmed others in the media. In an apparent attempt to portray him as a professional drug dealer, police on Friday released several photos, reportedly from his home, of what appeared to be a drug lab. They later retracted the statement, saying that the photos were taken elsewhere.

In a separate statement later, the police said they found cocaine at Golunov's home. A judge put him under house arrest Saturday following a public outcry of support, including from high-profile journalists working for state-owned media.

Many Russian journalists have to tread carefully in their work, especially when reporting about Putin and his family. But since Golunov's work mostly focused on Moscow City Hall and the city's crime-ridden funeral industry, the case raised questions about a possible shift in where the red lines are drawn in Russian journalism.

Award-winning journalist Roman Badanin was ousted from three major editorial positions between 2011 and 2016 after the media outlets under his leadership touched on topics believed to be too sensitive for the Kremlin.

Three top editors at the business newspaper RBC, including Badanin, were ousted in 2016 after reporting on Putin's inner circle, including an investigative piece about an oyster farm near a mansion that a whistleblower has described as "Putin's palace."

To Badanin, the crackdown on Golunov stands out because it lower-level decision-makers, rather than the Kremlin or government-connected tycoons, were likely behind it. "Ivan's case tells us that now violence or unlawful actions against journalists can be applied at a lower level, not just by the Kremlin," he told The Associated Press.

In act of journalistic solidarity not seen for at least 15 years, RBC and two other major papers, Kommersant and Vedomosti, published identical front pages on Monday with the headline "I am/We are Ivan Golunov," and called for a transparent investigation of his case. The newspapers all had first-hand experience of government pressure and indirect censorship.

The solidarity surprisingly extended to tightly controlled state TV channels, with some commentators referring to Golunov as "a colleague" and questioning the police evidence. Rights activists have long complained of police abusing their powers and planting drugs on innocent people. About 130,000, or nearly a third of the country's prison population, were convicted on drug-related charges.

Golunov's release prompted several prominent officials, including close Putin ally Alexei Kudrin, to call for a review of how drug charges are used and abused. In a joint statement, the CEO and editor in chief of Meduza, along with Golunov's lawyer and two other prominent journalists, pledged to investigate the police officials responsible for the arrest.

"The group of journalists we have gathered together in recent days will continue working, and now, they will be working together with Ivan himself," the statement said. "This is only the beginning. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us if we are to ensure that what happened here will never happen again to anybody."

Russian parliament speaker concerned about journalist's case

June 11, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — The speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament on Tuesday raised concerns about a drug dealing case against a prominent investigative journalist. Ivan Golunov, who works for the independent website Meduza, was stopped by police on a Moscow street last Thursday and taken to custody where he was beaten and denied a lawyer for more than 12 hours, according to his defense team. He was transferred to house arrest following a public outpouring of support including high-profile journalists working for state-owned media.

Valentina Matviyenko, who is Russia's third most senior official after the president and prime minister, on Tuesday voiced concerns about the criminal inquiry, which she described as a "really bad story." She stopped short of saying, however, what made her think this.

Matviyenko said she spoke to the prosecutor general, who promised to take the case under his personal control. Golunov rose to prominence with his investigations into corruption at the Moscow City Hall, the crime-ridden funeral industry and murky food markets.

The circumstances of the journalist's arrest have alarmed the media community. In an apparent attempt to portray Golunov as a professional drug dealer, police on Friday released several photos, reportedly from Golunov's home, of what appeared to be a drugs lab. They later retracted the statement, saying that the pictures were taken elsewhere. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday dismissed the incident as a mere mistake.

Journalists and others have been picketing the headquarters of the Moscow police department for five days. More than 20,000 people have said online that they will take to the streets on Wednesday, a public holiday, to protest Golunov's detention.

Russian newspapers show solidarity with detained journalist

June 10, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — In a show of rare solidarity, Russia's three major newspapers on Monday put out nearly identical front pages to support a detained journalist. Kommersant, Vedomosti and RBK, among the most respected daily newspapers in the country, published a joint editorial under the headline "I am/We are Ivan Golunov," calling for a transparent probe into the case of the prominent investigative journalist.

Golunov, who works for the independent website Meduza, was beaten and kept in custody for 12 hours without a lawyer after he was stopped by police in Moscow on Thursday. He was transferred to house arrest on Saturday following a public outpouring of support, but he still faces drug dealing charges that could send him to prison for as much as 20 years.

The papers dismissed evidence presented in the case against the journalist. Russia's media landscape is fragmented, and such a show of solidarity in the media is rarely seen. All three papers have faced pressure from authorities and covert censorship.

Pavel Chikov, head of the lawyers' association Agora that represents Golunov, on Monday published results of tests that Golunov has taken to prove his innocence. He said the tests indicated that it is unlikely that he regularly handles drugs as police has suggested.

Yevgeny Bryun of the Russian health ministry said on state television on Sunday that lab tests of Golunov's urine did not find any traces of drugs. The circumstances of the journalist's arrest have alarmed the media community. In an apparent attempt to portray Golunov as a professional drug dealer, police on Friday released several photos, reportedly from Golunov's home, of what appeared to be a drugs lab before they retracted the statement, saying that the pictures were taken elsewhere.

Golunov rose to prominence with his investigations into corruption at the Moscow City Hall, the crime-ridden funeral industry and the murky food markets. The journalist told the court on Saturday that he has received threats related to his investigation into Moscow's funeral business.

Meduza's director general Galina Timchenko said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Monday that Golunov told her in March about the threats after his piece came out. Timchenko said she had spoken with Golunov about security measures but she could not get Golunov to leave the country.

Prominent investigative journalist detained in Russia

June 07, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — A prominent Russian investigative journalist has been charged with drug dealing after four grams of the synthetic stimulant mephedrone were found in his backpack, Moscow police said Friday.

Ivan Golunov, who works for the independent website Meduza, was stopped by police in central Moscow on Thursday afternoon. Police also said that more drugs were found at his home. Meduza's director general, Galina Timchenko, told The Associated Press that Golunov, one of the most prominent investigative journalists in Russia, was beaten while in detention and denied medical tests that would show he has not handled drugs. Timchenko said she has photos that show the impact on the left side of his face.

Moscow police denied the accusations of beating. Golunov is due to appear in court on Saturday. His lawyer said that his client was not allowed to contact his family or lawyer for 12 hours after he was detained.

Golunov's colleagues and other journalists went to the headquarters of the Moscow police Friday afternoon to protest what many saw as blatant retribution for a journalist's work. An organization that tracks politically connected arrests, OVD-Info, said 11 journalists were detained at the protest, but later released without charges.

In the evening, a queue of demonstrators assembled outside the headquarters, each in turn holding a sign in support of Golunov. Single protest pickets are permitted without prior authorization under Russian law.

Golunov, 36, has recently received threats linked to a story he was pursuing, Timchenko said. "We are convinced that Ivan Golunov is innocent," Timchenko's Meduza said in a statement. "What's more, we have reasons to believe that Golunov is being persecuted for his journalism. We know that Vanya (Golunov) has been receiving threats in recent months, and we know which particular unfinished story they relate to."

Meduza was founded in 2014 by a group of journalists who left a popular Russian news website after their editor was fired. The website is based in Riga, Latvia, as the journalists fear that an increasing wave of media censorship and restrictive internet laws in Russia make any editorial office there vulnerable to government pressure. While most of Meduza's staff is based in Riga, special correspondents like Golunov are working in Russia.

Moscow police attached nine photos to its statement about Golunov's detention, some of which showed bags with white substance and big empty bottles suggestive of a makeshift drugs lab at his home. A friend of the journalist, Alexander Urzhanov, told the AP that he had been to Golunov's home and that the pictures could not have been taken at the tiny apartment.

"What has been published doesn't look like an apartment: there's a cement floor, wood on the walls," he said. "Vanya's apartment had white walls. I can't imagine all of the stuff in those pictures can be fitted in the apartment that I have been to so that no one would notice."

Moscow police later amended its statement and deleted the pictures. Police said that those pictures were related to a drugs raid in the Moscow region, and that they were looking into possible links between the drug dealers' group there and Golunov.

Golunov rose to prominence in recent years with his corruption investigations into Moscow's city government and the crime-ridden funeral market. Peers described Golunov as one of Russia's most dogged investigative reporters and expressed dismay at the circumstances of the case.

"This is totally incredible and is not in his character that he would give up what he's been doing and start making money in this way," Alexander Baunov of the Moscow Carnegie Center told the AP. Baunov has known Golunov since 2004 when they worked at the same publishing house.

The allegations of a thriving drugs business run by an investigative reporter stunned Russia's journalism community, long accustomed to arbitrary detentions and violence, and raised concerns about police actions.

"Golunov's detention is not so much about the crackdown on journalists," prominent TV journalist Alexei Pivovarov tweeted. "It's about the fact that they can come after anyone. Because it's dead easy to find a drugs lab at your place."

Amnesty International also raised concerns about Golunov's detention. "Everything indicates that the authorities are planting drugs on their targets to shut them up with a jail sentence," Nataliya Zviagina, the director of Amnesty's Russia office, said in a statement.

"Ivan Golunov is a prominent critic and his investigations into government corruption clearly did not go down well with the authorities. It seems he is now paying the price."