Iran predicted its coronavirus outbreak — one of the worst in the world — will end in a matter of weeks, allowing them to end social distancing and travel restrictions.
Iran was one of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus outside of China, with more than 20,600 cases and 1,556 deaths.
Iran “has to do everything necessary to return economic production to normal,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday on state television, according to Reuters.
Rouhani claimed “counter-revolutionaries” had plotted to shut down economic production.
North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the ocean Saturday in an odd show of military strength during a crippling global health crisis.
The projectiles were fired around 6:45 a.m. and 6:50 a.m. from western North Korea, both flying roughly 255 miles cross-country before landing in waters off the eastern coast in the Sea of Japan, according to South Korean military officials.
Japan reported the projectiles didn’t reach Japanese territory, the Associated Press reported.
South Korea and the U.S. were analyzing the launches. It wasn’t immediately clear what weapons North Korea tested, but flight data suggested the North could have tested a mobile, solid-fuel missile system that it first demonstrated last year.
The testing is the third round of short-range launches and other military exercises this month. Kim Jong Un started the year promising to boost the country’s nuclear deterrent after talks with the U.S. collapsed.
“Such military action by North Korea is highly inappropriate at a time when COVID-19 is causing difficulties worldwide,” Seoul’s military said, calling for an “immediate stop,” according to Reuters.
Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono suggested Pyongyang’s demonstrations also could be aimed at “bracing the regime together” as COVID-19 spreads worldwide.
North Korea has yet to report a single case, despite sharing a border with China, where the outbreak began. A top U.S. military official said last week he is “fairly certain” there are infections in North Korea.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Saturday fired two presumed short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea’s military said, as it continues to expand military capabilities amid deadlocked nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration and a crippling global health crisis.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles were fired around 6:45 and 6:50 a.m. from an area around the county of Sonchon, western North Korea. They flew 255 miles cross-country on an apogee of 31 miles before landing in waters off the eastern coast.
South Korea and the U.S. were analyzing the launches. Seoul’s military urged the North to immediately stop its “very inappropriate” military demonstrations when the world is struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the projectiles didn’t reach Japanese territory or its exclusive economic zone.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits a drill of long-range artillery sub-units of the Korean People's Army, in North Korea on March 2, 2020.KCNA / Reuters
The North conducted two previous rounds of similar short-range launches and other military exercises this month after leader Kim Jong Un entered the new year vowing to bolster his nuclear deterrent in face of “gangster-like” U.S. sanctions and pressure.
While the North is clearly determined to advance its missile capabilities, Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono said Pyongyang’s demonstrations could also be aimed at “bracing the regime together” amid the coronavirus crisis.
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It wasn’t immediately clear what North Korea tested. Flight data released by the South Korean and Japanese militaries suggest that the North could have tested one of its new mobile, solid-fuel missile systems it first demonstrated last year.
Military analysts say such weapons, which are designed to overwhelm missile defense systems with their maneuverability and low-altitude flights, potentially strengthen the North’s ability to strike targets in South Korea and Japan, including U.S. bases there.
North Korea in recent months has also demonstrated what it described as a “super large” multiple rocket launcher, which experts say was likely tested earlier this month.
North Korea’s state media earlier reported that Kim supervised an artillery firing competition between army units in the country’s west on Friday.
The KCNA said Kim expressed satisfaction over the exercise that was aimed at evaluating combat readiness. The report didn’t mention any direct comments by Kim toward Washington or Seoul.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency also said on Saturday that the North has decided to hold a session of its rubber-stamp parliament on April 10. It wasn’t immediately clear what would be discussed.
Nuclear talks have stalemated since the collapse of the second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump in early 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
Following the breakdown in talks, the North ended a 17-month pause in ballistic activity and conducted at least 13 rounds of weapons launches last year while pressuring Washington and Seoul for concessions. Those weapons also included a developmental mid-range missile that could be launched from submarines.
Some experts say the lull in North Korean launches between November and March could have been caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which started in mainland China in December.
Although Kim has vowed to build up his nuclear arsenal and achieve a “frontal breakthrough” against sanctions while urging his nation to stay resilient in a struggle for economic “self-reliance,” some experts say North Korea’s self-imposed lockdown amid the coronavirus crisis could potentially hamper his ability to mobilize people for labor.
North Korea has not publicly confirmed a single case of the COVID-19 illness, but state media have described anti-virus efforts as a matter of “national existence.” Experts say an epidemic in North Korea could have dire consequences due to the country’s poor health system and shortage of medical supplies.
The country has banned foreign tourists, shut down nearly all cross-border traffic with China, intensified screening at entry points and mobilized health workers to monitor residents and isolate those with symptoms.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, in an open letter, urged Americans to call on their government to end the “dark chapter” of sanctions against his country as it fights the growing coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. imposed new sanctions on Iran last week, blacklisting five international companies from doing business with the country, Reuters reported.
“Our policy of maximum pressure on the regime continues,” Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iranian affairs, told reporters, according to Reuters. “U.S. sanctions are not preventing aid from getting to Iran.”
But in his letter, Rouhani wrote, “Even under the circumstances of the pandemic, the U.S. government has failed to abandon its malicious policy of maximum pressure; and is thus in practice aiding the spread of this virus with its sanctions.”
He said the “war” on the virus can be won only if every nation pulls together.
Rouhani also wrote to a number of world leaders last week, asking them to ignore U.S. sanctions that have “hampered” Iran’s response to coronavirus, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who claimed the sanctions show “utter contempt for human life.”
Iran has been hit the hardest of any other Middle Eastern country by the virus, with one person dying every 10 minutes, according to the country's health ministry.
Over the past 24 hours, 123 people died, raising the country's death toll to 1,556, according to healthy ministry spokesperson Kianush Jahanpoor. It has had 20,610 cases.
The U.S. sanctions are meant to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear ambitions after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Obama-era nuclear agreement in 2018.
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson effectively closed down the United Kingdom on Friday, ordering pubs, restaurants, theaters, cinemas and gyms to shut their doors in a bid to slow down the accelerating spread of the coronavirus.
As the coronavirus outbreak sweeps across the world, governments, companies and investors are grappling with the biggest public health crisis since the 1918 influenza pandemic, panicked populations and imploding financial markets.
Johnson said he understood just how wrenching it was to take away the ancient rights of the British people to go to the pub but that it was absolutely essential to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“I do accept that what we’re doing is extraordinary: we’re taking away the ancient, inalienable right of free-born people of the United Kingdom to go to the pub, and I can understand how people feel about that,” Johnson said. “It’s a huge wrench.”
“It’s a huge wrench to do that, everybody understands that,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking to think of the businesses that will face difficulties as a result of the measures this country has had to take.”
The United Kingdom so far has 3,983 confirmed cases of coronavirus, after 66,976 people were tested, though the government’s scientists say it is raging across London, partly as some people are not obeying government advice to isolate.
At total of 177 people with the virus have died so far across the country.
Johnson said pubs, restaurants, theaters, nigthtclubs, cinemas and gyms and leisure centers were being asked to close on Friday night and to stay shut indefinitely.
“We are telling cafes, bars and restaurants to close tonight as soon as they reasonably can and not to open tomorrow,” Johnson told reporters in Downing Street. “Though to be clear, they can continue to provide takeout services.
“Some people may of course be tempted to go out tonight, and I say to those people, ‘please don’t,’” Johnson said.
Slideshow (7 Images)
The government also announced that a military veterans’ parade in London to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe (VE Day) in May would be canceled.
New plans to mark the occasion would be unveiled shortly.
Johnson’s finance minister Rishi Sunak also launched a gigantic stimulus package to stabilize Britain’s virus-hit economy on Friday, including the government paying the wages of workers up and down the country. [L8N2BD2UN]
Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison and Estelle Shirbon
