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AAP
Mining ready to ride boom with $2 trillion up for grabs

Story by Marion Rae • 5:27 pm - 26-5-2023

Afaster path to net-zero emissions and more security in the Indo-Pacific are expected to flow from a new pact with the United States, but the mining industry wants details.

Some $2 trillion has been unleashed for a low-carbon economy under United States laws, with Australia set to get preferential treatment as a trusted source of critical minerals and new energy sources such as hydrogen.

Canada is the only other country to get the special access that is in the works for Australian metals and minerals, future hydrogen and ammonia producers and defence technology companies.

"What's clear to me is that if Canada and the United States have been able to establish a good partnership, that bodes well for Australia," Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Constable told AAP.

But it's up to governments to work out the details quickly, she said.

With the right number of mines to meet demand and manufacturing occurring with a like-minded country, there will be a faster path to net-zero and more security in the region, she said.

"Hopefully the critical minerals strategy will set out a framework and pathway for those additional incentives that will really turbocharge this new industry," Ms Constable added.

Australia's updated list of critical minerals and strategy will be released soon and MCA wants nickel and copper added to unlock investment.

"The more we can get on the list the better, but nickel and copper should certainly be on the list," she said.

Used in everyday life in computers and mobile phones, they are also essential for electric cars and electronics for the electricity grid.

US Consul General Siriana Nair said on Wednesday the world's energy transition cannot happen without Australia's resources sector.

The freshly inked climate and energy partnership will increase investment in both countries, Ms Nair told the AFR Mining Summit in Perth.

"Australia is uniquely positioned to be a supplier of choice for us and global manufacturers," she said.

Demand for critical minerals will skyrocket in coming decades and for minerals such as lithium and graphite that are used in electric vehicle batteries, demand will increase by as much as 4000 per cent, she said.

An unprecedented $2 trillion has been allocated under various US laws to support investment in research and development, adopting clean energy and new vehicles, new infrastructure and supply chain security, she said.

Seeking to break China's stranglehold on the global supply of factory-ready minerals, the US laws define a critical mineral as a mineral essential to economic or national security and which has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption.

She said Australia, and particularly Western Australia, has the technological know-how and high environmental and labour standards needed to bring these minerals to market in a sustainable way.

"And America stands with you," Ms Nair said.

A new Australia-US task force will give local industry a seat at the table to secure vital supply chains for minerals and defence industries.

A global survey released by KPMG to coincide with the summit shows mining leaders are confident they can profit from the clean energy boom and hit net-zero goalposts.

Improving energy efficiency was the highest priority for tackling the environmental challenges from mining and metals processing.

The Guardian
Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision is over. Can Apple save it?

Story by Alex Hern • 22-5-2023

It is not just outsiders Meta needs to convince. Even its own shareholders are starting to revolt. The company lost $13.7bn on its “reality labs” unit, which handles research into virtual reality and augmented reality tech, in the last year alone. In a December 2022 blogpost from the unit’s head, Andrew Bosworth, he predicted that a full fifth of the company’s expenditure this year would land with the unit.

But despite the years of investment, there is still only one real area where the underlying technology is actually paying off: video games.

Meta’s Quest 2 headset, a £400 standalone device, is the market leader, capable of handling some of the most popular VR games on the market, including the Meta-owned rhythm game Beat Saber, and VR exercise title Supernatural. Connect it to a powerful gaming PC and it can play even more, including the critically acclaimed Half-Life Alyx, a sequel to 2004’s Half-Life 2. (For non-gamers, imagine if Doctor Who had returned from its 1996 to 2005 hiatus in the form of a Sarah Jane Smith-focused spin-off series that was exclusive to 3D TVs. And then won a best drama Bafta.)

“Meta has done a huge amount of backpedalling about what it thinks is and is not the metaverse,” said Whatley. “I’ve seen Meta presentations that say augmented reality filters on Instagram count as the metaverse. But then I’ve also seen them say that we are all building the metaverse together. It’s quite telling that 100% of the top 38 bestselling experiences for the Quest 2 are all video games. The 39th is a ‘walk the plank’ experience.”

And in that world, Meta is hardly unchallenged. Half-Life Alyx was made for a rival PC platform, the £919 Valve Index, which serves the needs of diehard VR gamers with its “room scale” approach, while Sony’s £529 PlayStation VR2 offers a similar high-fidelity approach for console gamers with a PlayStation 5 in the living room.

And then there is the elephant in the room – and the reason why it may still be too early to fully write off Meta’s metaverse ambitions altogether. On 5 June, Apple is set to lift the lid on the worst kept secret in tech: its own virtual reality headset.

Piecing together leaks from the supply chain, reports from California and the groundwork the company has laid with developers, it is clear that the iPhone maker is planning to take a radically different approach from its rival, with a price tag in the thousands of dollars and a long-term goal to create a device that people do not feel the need to take off when they want to speak to people in the same room as them.

Like so much in the metaverse space, it is a vision that makes sense when you are planning for a decade’s time: with a refined version of these headsets that bundles the same technology in a pair of glasses, it could even be an appealing prospect to speak to the avatar of a work colleague floating in virtual space if the alternative is staring at yet another Zoom window.

But getting from here to there is going to be a hard and thankless slog – and even Zuckerberg cannot burn $10bn a year for ever.

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, says the metaverse is still in its infancy. Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images
© Provided by The Guardian

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ABC Business
Australia commits $160m to build more Bushmasters after donating 90 to Ukraine in war against Russia

17-5-2023

The federal government has announced a $160 million dollar contract for Bendigo defence manufacturer Thales Australia to build another order of Bushmaster protected vehicles for the Australian Army.

The contract, for the manufacture of 78 new troop-carrying and command vehicles over the next 18 months, was signed at Thales Australia's Bendigo facility today.

"More than 1,200 Bushmasters have already been manufactured at our Bendigo facility," Thales Australia chief executive Jeff Connolly said.

"As well as proving to be a life-saving vehicle for the Australian Army, they have been exported to eight nations including the Netherlands, UK, Fiji, Jamaica, New Zealand, and Indonesia."

Bushmasters could be retro-fitted with missiles

This month's Defence Strategy Review recommended the Australian Army focus on long-range strike capability and the ability to move around with more agility at the edges of land and sea.

Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said the Bushmasters could be used to strike naval targets as part of the Land 4110 project.

"This is a land-based maritime strike. So, this is to give the Australian Army the ability to strike maritime or naval targets," he said.

"I know for a fact, one of the tenders will be strike master option, which is a Bushmaster-produced here at Thales Bendigo equipped with naval strike missiles that we are equipping our destroyers and frigates with.

"That project is being brought forward and given extra resources given the importance of long-range strikes for the Australian Army.

"I have to be very careful because while we don't have a live tender, at some stage there will be a live tender and I'm sure Thales will be part of a bid, but the sort of capability produced at Thales Bendigo will be carefully examined."

A Bushmaster bound for Ukraine waits to be loaded onto a C-17A Globemaster at RAAF Base Amberley. (Supplied: Department of Defence, LACW Emma Schwenke)
© Provided by ABC Business

Reuters
In first, Kyiv says it shoots down volley of Russian hypersonic missiles

Story by By Gleb Garanich and Sergiy Karazy • 9:14 pm - 16-5-2023

By Gleb Garanich and Sergiy Karazy

"The enemy's mission is to sow panic and create chaos. However, in the northern operational zone (including Kyiv), everything is under complete control," General Serhiy Naev, Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces, said.

The six Kinzhals, ballistic missiles which travel at up to 10 times the speed of sound, were among a volley of 18 missiles Russia fired at Ukraine overnight, lighting up Kyiv with flashes and raining debris after they were blasted from the sky.

Russia's defence ministry said it had destroyed a U.S.-built Patriot surface-to-air missile defence system with a Kinzhal missile, the Zvezda military news outlet reported.

But the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said all had been successfully intercepted.

City authorities in the Ukrainian capital said three people were wounded by falling debris.

The Daily Digest
Trump found guilty of abuse: how will it affect his plans to regain the White House?

Story by Zeleb.es • 15-5-2023

Liable for sexual battery and defamation

A Manhattan jury has found former president Donald Trump liable in the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit accusing him of sexual battery and defamation, several media outlets reported.

Abuse in the 90’s

As reported in Newsweek, the nine-person jury determined that Trump likely abused then-Elle magazine columnist Carroll in a Manhattan department store nearly three decades ago.

Defamation ruling

Moreover, the jury also found Trump had defamed Carroll by calling her claims a “hoax” and a “con job” in an October 2022

$5 million in damages

According to The Hill, the jury decided Trump will have to pay Carroll $5 million in damages for her battery and defamation

The verdict might damage his chances of presidency

While the verdict may not affect Trump’s base of supporters, who view the US legal system with scepticism and have stood by him through worse, it may lower his chances to regain the White House in 2024, according to several Republican
Senators.claims.Truth Social post.

“I Don’t think he could win the presidency”

“The fact is, I do not think he could win the presidency,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told reporters at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "Regardless of what you think about him as an individual, to me, electability is the sole criterion."

Unlikely to support someone liable for abuse

In the same way, asked whether he could support someone who has been found liable for sexual misconduct as a candidate for president, Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota told reporters, “I would have a difficult time doing so.”

Republicans concerned

The Washington Post reported on the feelings of several senators regarding the matter: “He’s been found to be civilly liable. How could it do anything else but create concern?” Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.

An ongoing drumbeat

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota suggested that the verdict would most likely be part of “an ongoing drumbeat” throughout Trump’s candidacy.

Drama surrounding Trump

Thune added that while many voters appear to have adopted the view that prosecutors “are out to get” Trump, “people are gonna have to decide whether they want to deal with all the drama that’s going to surround him.”

“I have absolutely no idea who this woman is”

Trump himself has continued to deny Carroll’s claims. "I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE — A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!" he wrote on Truth Social.

Trump successfully bashing De Santis

Up until now, Trump has been building up grass-roots support in key primary states across the US, with a disciplined campaign, political analysts have said, and has managed to methodically undercut his main rival Ron DeSantis.

An avenue for his opponents to attack

However, the abuse and defamation ruling could now give his Republican opponents an avenue for attack as well.

Another historic first for Trump

Furthermore, the ruling is another historic first for a former president who already faces one criminal indictment and, possibly,
has others to come.

Daily Mail
Putin 'is preparing a contingency plan for defeat,' sources claim

11h ago - 4-5-2023

Putin 'is preparing a contingency plan for defeat,' sources claim

Vladimir Putin is reportedly preparing a contingency plan in the event that Russia sustains more losses in the war against Ukraine, sources have said. Russia's presidential administration sent an instruction manual to the Kremlin's team of propagandists, urging not to 'underestimate' Ukraine's planned counter-offensive and not to spread the idea Kyiv is not ready for it. Ukraine's strategy is thought to focus on the eastern side of the Dnipro River, near Kherson city.

Infiltration of the area is an attempt to dislodge Russian forces from positions they are using to shell Ukraine-held Kherson. Independent news outlet Meduza - which obtained a copy of the manual - said the aim is to provide Russians with morale regardless of the outcome of the attack. 'If the offensive is unsuccessful, it will be possible to say: the army [of Russia] skillfully fended off an attack that was superior in power.' But should the Ukrainian military take back territories and achieve victories 'with the help of weapons from the US and Europe,' then Russia's losses should be 'understandable' as they were up against the 'entire West,' the sources said. Pictured: Rescuers work at the site of a residential area heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 3, 2023.

Propagandists are advised to use material to show citizens that Russia is upgrading buildings, hospitals and schools in its territory, rather than shooting funds into new ones. 'It's clear there will be problems with the economy, and it's clear why. Spending on the "special military operation" isn't going anywhere,' a source close to Putin said. 'It is better not to show in specific amounts how much was taken [for the new regions].' It is a rapid turn from last year, when spin doctors tried to convince the population that Russia was on the way to revitalizing itself as a grand empire as it takes control of Ukraine. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers pull a Soviet-made 82mm gun-mortar in a truck, as Ukrainian Armed Forces units train for a critical and imminent spring counteroffensive against Russian troops, in the Donbas region, Ukraine, on April 26, 2023.

Sky News Australia
Taiwan's Foreign Minister predicts when China will attack

Story by Sky News Australia • Yesterday 10:01 am - 2-5-2023

China is assembling a coalition of "rogue" states to up-end the world order, according to Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

Mr Wu told Sky News Australia that China’s efforts threaten the future of all democracies.

Mr Wu also revealed when he thinks Beijing will attack Taiwan.

While some analysts have predicted war within the next two years, the Foreign Minister told Sky News he believes 2027 is the year China may strike.

It’s when Chinese military officials said their forces will be strong enough to successfully invade and when President Xi Jinping starts his fourth term.

Taiwan's Foreign Minister predicts when China will attack
© Provided by Sky News Australia

Reuters
U.S. negotiator says Biden would be warmly welcomed in Pacific

Story by Reuters • 11h ago - 29-4-2023

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States needs to accelerate diplomatic "catch up" with the Pacific island region in the face of Chinese competition, a U.S. diplomat said on Friday, adding that he was sure President Joe Biden would be warmly welcomed there if he decided to visit.

Joseph Yun, a special presidential envoy who leads renegotiation of agreements with three Pacific island states, was asked at a U.S. think tank about what officials from Papua New Guinea say are plans by Biden to make a brief stop there on May 22.

"Obviously for the Pacific, I am sure they would welcome President Biden, if he were to go there," Yun told the Hudson Institute.

"I don't think that decision has been fully made," he said while adding: "It is a good thing whenever heads of state get engaged on new issues."

A spokesperson from the PNG prime minister's office told Reuters on Thursday that Biden will stop in the capital Port Moresby for three hours on the way from a G7 meeting in Japan to Australia to attend the a summit of the Quad countries - the United States, Japan, India and Australia.

A Pacific islands source told Reuters that Biden was also expected to meet with more than a dozen Pacific islands leaders, but the White House National Security Council has not responded to request for comment on the plans.

Yun said the level of Chinese coercion in the region that is crucial to U.S. national security, but that had been neglected by the United States, is concerning.

"So now we're playing ... a little bit of catch up, I would say, and but you know, we need to accelerate our catch up."

Yun has been leading talks to renew so-called Compact for Free Association (COFA) agreements with the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia under which the United States retains responsibility for the islands' defense and gains exclusive access to huge strategic swaths of the Pacific. The deals are due expire this year and next.

Yun said the "topline" agreements in the negotiations with the nations would provide them with a total of about $6.5 billion over 20 years.

He said he was very optimistic the agreements would be finalized and that the U.S. Congress would approve them in a short time, but there is still some hard work ahead.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; writing by Jasper Ward; Editing by Alistair Bell)

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun arrives at a meeting with the media in Bangkok, Thailand
© Thomson Reuters

Reuters
Iran seizes oil tanker in Gulf, U.S. Navy says

Story by Reuters • 15h ago - 28-4-2023

UBAI (Reuters) - Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international waters on Thursday, the U.S. Navy said, the latest in a series of seizures and attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf waters since 2019.

Iran's state television IRIB News reported on its Telegram channel that the Iranian navy had seized a Marshall Islands-flagged ship, but gave no further details.

The U.S. Navy identified the vessel as the Advantage Sweet which, according to Refinitiv ship tracking data, is a Suezmax crude tanker which had been chartered by oil major Chevron and had last docked in Kuwait.

Its manager is listed as Genel Denizcilik Nakliyati AS, a Turkey-based company which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Iran's continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are a threat to maritime security and the global economy," the U.S. Navy said, adding that Iran has in the past two years unlawfully seized at least five commercial vessels in the Middle East.

Iranian authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Since 2019 there have been a series of attacks on shipping in the strategic Gulf waters at times of tension between the United States and Iran.

Iran last November released two Greek-flagged tankers it had seized in the Gulf in May in response to the confiscation of oil by the United States from an Iranian-flagged tanker off the Greek coast.

Almost a fifth of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman which the Advantage Sweet had passed through, according to ship tracking data.

Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear pact with world powers have stalled since September over a range of issues, including the Islamic Republic's violent crackdown on popular protests, Tehran's sale of drones to Russia and acceleration of its nuclear program.

The U.S. Navy, whose Fifth Fleet is based in the Gulf island state of Bahrain, called on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy (IRGCN) to immediately release the tanker.

The ship issued a distress call during the seizure, the U.S. Navy statement said.

Maritime security company Ambrey said the tanker was boarded via helicopter and seized by the IRGCN off the coast of Bandar-e Jask in Iran.

According to the International Maritime Organisation shipping database, the Advantage Sweet is owned by a China-registered company called SPDBFL No One Hundred & Eighty-Seven (Tianjin) Ship Leasing Co Ltd.

(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru, Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; writing by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Macfie)

Reuters
Japan will keep calling for China to act responsibly, Kishida says

Story by By Yukiko Toyoda • Yesterday 8:23 pm

By Yukiko Toyoda

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan will keep calling for China to act responsibly on the world stage, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday, a sign of Tokyo's deepening concern about stability in the Taiwan Strait following Beijing's recent military drills.

The comments from Kishida, after China conducted drills in the waters off Taiwan earlier this month, highlight Tokyo's growing alarm about the possibility of an attack on nearby Taiwan.

Japan would "continue to call on China to take the responsibility it should be taking as a major country on the world stage," Kishida said during a roundtable interview with members of the foreign media.

"Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is not just important for Japan, but the international community and the world more broadly as well," he said.

"We have been consistent with our position on Taiwan, that any issues should be resolved peacefully through dialogue. In any case... we will comply with our constitution, international laws, and our domestic laws including the relevant defence laws."

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations met in Japan this week and urged Beijing to "abstain from threats, coercion intimidation and the use of force".

Beijing, which views Taiwan as Chinese territory and has not renounced the use of force to take the democratically governed island, has rebuffed the G7 comments as gross interference in its internal affairs.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen says only the island's people can decide their future.

COMPLICATED POSITION

Kishida also stressed the importance of stability between China and the United States, illustrating Japan's sometimes complicated position as both Washington's closest ally in Asia and a major Chinese trading partner. Japan has joined the United States in putting export restrictions on chip-making tools but in doing so avoided mentioning China so as not to antagonise its neighbour.

Kishida also said Japan was calling on China to allow for the return of a Japanese executive detained there. Chinese authorities detained the executive from pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma Inc in late March.

Likewise, he said he hoped Russia would "correct" its actions over the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Kishida, who was targeted with an explosive device while campaigning over the weekend, said it was important to revisit security ahead of the G7 leaders summit in Hiroshima next month.

He said he hoped to see deeper discussions on same-sex marriage in Japan's parliament, although he stopped short of throwing his weight behind the issue, saying situations in individual countries also needed to be considered. ($1 = 134.5600 yen)

(Reporting by Yukiko Toyoda; Additional reporting by Sakura Murakami, Kentaro Sugiyama, Yoshifumi Takemoto and Nobuhiro Kubo; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Alexander Smith, Simon Cameron-Moore and Alex Richardson)

Sydney Morning Herald
When it comes to defending Taiwan, Biden should keep China guessing

Story by Marcus Ray • 8h ago - 19-4-2023

Strategic clarity also amounts to a blank cheque that does not allow for the same changes in interpretation that strategic ambiguity permits as circumstances evolve. Beijing could choose when Washington fights a war it is not certain it can win. This is not an enviable position for the US.

Finally, strategic ambiguity gives Washington’s allies more room to manoeuvre. They value this flexibility. It allows them to hedge against uttering steadfast commitments to Taipei while remaining supportive of US strategic direction. They can juggle complex regional relationships.

US strategic clarity would compel these allies instead to make a decision they have not yet had the time or the ability to make. Such expectations and red lines would stress an already laboured transatlantic relationship, which lacks internal coherence and is beset by the ongoing Russia threat. Only recently, France’s President Macron framed potential cross-Strait conflict as a crisis that is “not ours”.

It would also constrain the options for other regional players who carefully tread a tightrope between competing superpower interests. The prospect of further integration with US defence and foreign policy with possible involvement in conflict may well nudge them towards Beijing. Washington cannot risk accelerating the bifurcation of the Indo-Pacific.

While strategic clarity would increase co-ordination between loyal allies, the US should not foist a premature decision on countries when it would go against Washington’s interests. These discussions are still worth holding now and in public, however. It is time to make difficult decisions on whether – and to what extent – allies, including Australia, should follow Washington’s lead.

For the US, formally committing to Taiwan’s defence is not the answer right now, but it should still commit forcefully in other ways. It should help Taiwan become the prickliest of prickly porcupines that could repel an invasion.

This in itself is a formidable deterrent. It also sends a clear message to Beijing of support for Taiwan without an official change in policy. Even in ambiguity, some clarity can be found. But anything more would be too much, too soon. Strategic ambiguity should remain Washington’s unambiguous policy for now.

US President Joe Biden with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit meeting in November 2022.
© AP

GIZMODO AU
This Weird Australian Drone Is a Tailsitter Biplane That Can Launch From a Helipad

Kelsey D. Atherton - Published 5 days ago: March 21, 2023 at 3:00 pm

“The platform ideally will be operated as a predominantly autonomous system most of the time. Take-off and landing and the transition from vertical to horizontal flight will be fully autonomous,” said Mic Crump, principal technologist for autonomy for BAE Systems Australia. “Autonomous technologies aren’t intended to replace the human in the modern battlefield, but rather to augment them.”

To make the STRIX useful to the humans commanding it, it is designed to have a range of nearly 805 km while carrying 159 kg of payload. This can include sensors and communications relays, as well as bombs or missiles. With a human operator remotely guiding the drone, autonomous systems can handle the basics of flight while a human controller would be expected to make the important decisions. The airframe of the STRIX is designed to fit into a shipping container, and launch upon assembly once wheeled out.

One reason Australia and the United States are so interested in planes that can launch without runways is the expectation that, should war be fought in the Pacific and against China, such runways will be hard to maintain and secure. (This war planning often, though not always, focuses on the operational problems of supply and repair, without spending too much time factoring the risk of nuclear exchange cutting short such a war with apocalyptic fury). In order for a campaign to work from the island chains of the Pacific and any land beyond that, being able to operate armed drones from cleared fields and helipads expands how the war can be effectively fought, instead of relying on paved and reinforced 1,829 m stretches of runway.

For now, STRIX is a concept, though a prototype is in development, and BAE claims the drone could be ready to enter service as soon as 2026.

News 360
North Korea successfully launches underwater nuclear drone

Story by Barbara O’Sullivan • 7h ago - 24-3-2023

North Korea on Friday ''successfully'' launched an underwater nuclear drone off the coast of Riwon, South Hamgyong Province, which successfully reached the waters of Hongwon Bay, 116 kilometers away.

The nuclear drone, which was placed on Tuesday, has detached a warhead that has sailed at a depth of 80 to 150 meters in waters of the Sea of Japan, known to Korea as the East Sea, for 59 hours and 12 minutes, Yonhap news agency reported, citing KCNA.

The day before, South Korean authorities reported that North Korea had carried out the launch of several cruise missiles into the Sea of Japan in the midst of rising tension on the Korean peninsula.

The launching of such projectiles comes as Seoul and Washington conduct a series of joint military exercises under the name 'Freedom Shield', maneuvers that have repeatedly drawn criticism from Pyongyang, which has warned that it would take action.

Source: (EUROPA PRESS)

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un - KIM JAE-HWAN / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO
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