Earthquake slams Japan, residents flee some coastal areas

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Written by northsouth

Category: Asia

Published: 01 January 2024

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By Tim Kelly and Chang-Ran Kim

TOKYO - A powerful earthquake struck central Japan on Monday, triggering warnings for residents to evacuate some areas on its west coast, knocking out power to thousands of homes and disrupting flights and rail services to the affected region.

The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 triggered waves of around 1 metre along parts of the Sea of Japan coast with a larger wave expected, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has issued tsunami warnings for the coastal prefectures of Ishikawa, Niigata and Toyama, marking the first major warnings since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan.

A major tsunami warning means there is a possibility of waves of more than 3 metres (9.84 ft).

Russia also issued tsunami warnings in its far eastern cities of Vladivostok and Nakhodka.

Some houses have been destroyed and army units have been dispatched to help with rescue operations, top government spokesperson Hayashi Yoshimasa told reporters, adding that authorities were still assessing the extent of the damage.

More strong quakes in the area, where seismic activity has been simmering for more than three years, could occur over coming days, JMA official Toshihiro Shimoyama said.

In comments to the press shortly after the quake struck, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also warned residents to prepare for more disasters.

"Residents need to stay on alert for further possible quakes and I urge people in areas where tsunamis are expected to evacuate as soon as possible," Kishida said.

"Run!" a bright yellow warning flashed across television screens advising residents in specific areas of the coast to immediately evacuate their homes.

Images carried by local media showed a building collapsing in a plume of dust in the coastal city of Suzu and a huge crack in a road in Wajima where panicked-looking parents clutched their children. The quake also jolted buildings in the capital Tokyo, some 500 km from Wajima on the opposite coast.

More than 36,000 households had lost power in Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures, utilities provider Hokuriku Electric Power (9505.T) said.

High speed rail services to Ishikawa have been suspended while telecom operators Softbank (9434.T) and KDDI (9433.T) reported phone and internet service disruptions in Ishikawa and Niigata, according to their websites.

Japanese airline ANA (9202.T) turned back planes headed to airports in Toyama and Ishikawa, while Japan Airlines (9201.T) cancelled most of its services to Niigata and Ishikawa regions and authorities said one of Ishikawa's airports was closed.

NUCLEAR PLANTS

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no irregularities have been confirmed at nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan, including five active reactors at Kansai Electric Power’s (9503.T) Ohi and Takahama plants in Fukui Prefecture.

Hokuriku's Shika plant in Ishikawa, the closest nuclear power station to the quake’s epicentre, had already halted its two reactors before the quake for regular inspections and saw no impact from the quake, the agency said.

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people and devastated towns and nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima.

Another quake, known as the Great Hanshin Earthquake, hit western Japan in 1995, killing more than 6,000 people, mainly in the city of Kobe.

Monday's quake struck during the Jan. 1 public holiday when millions of Japanese traditionally visit temples to mark the new year.

In Kanazawa, a popular tourist destination in Ishikawa, images showed the remnants of a collapsed torii gate strewn at the entrance of a shrine as anxious worshippers looked on.

Kanazawa resident Ayako Daikai said she had evacuated to a nearby elementary school with her husband and two children soon after the earthquake hit. Classrooms, stairwells, hallways and the gymnasium were all packed with evacuees, she said.

"I also experienced the Great Hanshin Earthquake, so I thought it would be safest to evacuate," she told Reuters when contacted by telephone.

"We haven't decided when to return home yet."

Afghan earthquakes kill 2,445, Taliban say, as deaths mount

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Written by alib

Category: Asia

Published: 08 October 2023

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By Mohammad Yunus Yawar

KABUL - More than 2,400 people were killed in earthquakes in Afghanistan, the Taliban administration said on Sunday, in the deadliest tremors to rock the quake-prone mountainous country in years.

The Saturday quakes in the west of the country hit 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, with one of 6.3 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

They were among the world's deadliest quakes this year, after tremors in Turkey and Syria killed an estimated 50,000 in February.

anan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Ministry of Disasters, said in a message to Reuters that the toll had risen to 2,445 dead, but he revised down the number of injured to "more than 2,000". Earlier, he had said that 9,240 people had been injured.

Sayeeq also said 1,320 houses had been damaged or destroyed. The death toll spiked from 500 reported earlier on Sunday by the Red Crescent.

Ten rescue teams were in the area, which borders Iran, Sayeeq told a press conference.

More than 200 dead had been brought to various hospitals, said a Herat health department official who identified himself as Dr Danish, adding most of them were women and children.

Bodies had been "taken to several places - military bases, hospitals", Danish said.

Beds were set up outside the main hospital in Herat to receive a flood of victims, photos on social media showed.

Food, drinking water, medicine, clothes and tents were urgently needed for rescue and relief, Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar, said in a message to the media.

The mediaeval minarets of Herat sustained some damage, photographs on social media showed, with cracks visible and tiles fallen off.

Hemmed in by mountains, Afghanistan has a history of strong earthquakes, many in the rugged Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.

Death tolls often rise when information comes in from more remote parts of a country where decades of war have left infrastructure in a shambles, and relief and rescue operations difficult to organise.

Afghanistan's healthcare system, reliant almost entirely on foreign aid, has faced crippling cuts in the two years since the Taliban took over and much international assistance, which had formed the backbone of the economy, was halted.

Diplomats and aid officials say concerns over Taliban restrictions on women and competing global humanitarian crises are causing donors to pull back on financial support. The Islamist government has ordered most Afghan female aid staff not to work, although with exemptions in health and education.

In August, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was likely to end its financial support for 25 Afghan hospitals because of funding constraints. It was not immediately clear if the Herat hospital was on that list.

The quakes triggered panic in Herat, resident Naseema said.

"People left their houses, we all are on the streets," she wrote in a text message to Reuters on Saturday, adding that the city was feeling aftershocks.

There are a total of 202 public health facilities in Herat province, one of which is the major regional hospital where 500 casualties had been taken, the World Health Organization (WHO)said in a report on Sunday.

A vast majority of the facilities are smaller basic health centres and logistical challenges were hindering operations, particularly in remote areas, the WHO said.

"While search and rescue operations remain ongoing, casualties in these areas have not yet been fully identified," it said.

North Korea unveils first nuclear-armed submarine

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Written by northsouth

Category: Asia

Published: 08 September 2023

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By Josh Smith and Soo-Hyang Choi

SEOUL - North Korea has launched its first operational "tactical nuclear attack submarine" and assigned it to the fleet that patrols the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, state media said on Friday.

Submarine No. 841 - named Hero Kim Kun Ok after a North Korean historical figure - will be one of the main "underwater offensive means of the naval force" of North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un said at the launch ceremony on Wednesday.

Analysts said the vessel appears to be a modified Soviet-era Romeo-class submarine, which North Korea acquired from China in the 1970s and began producing domestically. Its design, with 10 launch tube hatches, showed it was most likely armed with ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, analysts said.

But such weapons won't add much value to the North's more robust land-based nuclear forces, because the aging submarines used as the core of the new design are relatively noisy, slow and have limited range, meaning they may not survive as long during a war, said Vann Van Diepen, a former U.S. government weapons expert who works with the 38 North project in Washington.

"When this thing is field deployed, it's going to be quite vulnerable to allied anti-submarine warfare," he said. "So I think from a sort of hard-headed military standpoint this doesn't make a lot of sense."

South Korea's military said that the submarine didn't appear ready for normal operations, and that there were signs North Korea was attempting to exaggerate its capabilities.

Shin Seung-ki, research Fellow at Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), cautioned that South Korea and the United States cannot be guaranteed to detect and destroy submerged submarines.

"It is evident that North Korea has significantly expanded and strengthened the operational capabilities of its naval forces compared to before," he said.

At the launch ceremony, Kim said arming the navy with nuclear weapons was an urgent task and promised more underwater and surface vessels equipped with tactical nuclear weapons for the naval forces, news agency KCNA reported.

"The submarine-launching ceremony heralded the beginning of a new chapter for bolstering up the naval force of the DPRK," KCNA said, using the initials of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea plans to turn other existing submarines into nuclear armed vessels, and accelerate its push to eventually build nuclear-powered submarines, Kim said.

"Achieving a rapid development of our naval forces ... is a priority that cannot be delayed given ... the enemies' recent aggressive moves and military acts," the North Korean leader said in a speech, apparently referring to the United States and South Korea.

North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions, and the submarine launch drew condemnation from South Korea and Japan.

"North Korea's military activity is posing graver and more imminent threat to our country's security than before," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a briefing.

NUCLEAR ATTACK SUBMARINE

The designation as a "tactical" submarine suggests it does not carry submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) that can reach the U.S. mainland, but rather smaller, short-range SLBMs or submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCM) capable of striking South Korea, Japan, or other regional targets, said Choi Il, a retired South Korean submarine captain.

The rear of the submarine's sail - the tower that juts out of the top of the hull - was expanded and 10 vertical launch tubes, 4 large and 6 small, were installed, likely for SLBMs and SLCMs, he said.

North Korea has test-fired both SLBMs and SLCMs.

Shin said it can take a year or more to evaluate a new vessel at sea, so immediate deployment may be limited.

It is unclear whether North Korea has fully developed the miniaturised nuclear warheads needed for such missiles. Analysts say that perfecting smaller warheads would most likely be a key goal if the North resumes nuclear testing.

North Korea has about 20 Romeo-class submarines, which are powered by diesel-electric engines and are obsolete by modern standards, with most other countries operating them only as training vessels.

Analysts first spotted signs that at least one new submarine was being built in 2016, and in 2019 state media showed Kim inspecting a previously unreported submarine built under "his special attention" that would operate off the east coast.

North Korea has a large submarine fleet but only the experimental ballistic missile submarine 8.24 Yongung (August 24th Hero) is known to have fired a missile.

The launching ceremony comes as North Korea is set to mark the 75th anniversary of its founding day on Saturday and follows reports that Kim plans to travel to Russia this month to meet President Vladimir Putin to discuss weapons supplies to Moscow.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Jakarta, and asked Beijing to do more as a U.N. Security Council member to address North Korea's nuclear threat.