分类： world

In a high-profile public event that has drawn international attention, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has publicly celebrated North Korean troops who carried out suicide attacks using hand grenades while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, formally confirming an extreme battlefield policy that intelligence communities have suspected for months.

The comments, delivered during a Monday ceremony unveiling a memorial for fallen North Korean soldiers in Pyongyang, were carried by North Korean state media outlet KCNA. Kim labeled troops who “unhesitatingly opted for self-blasting suicide attacks to defend the great honor” of the country as true heroes, and framed their actions as the pinnacle of military loyalty. “Their self-sacrifice expecting no compensation, and the devotion expecting no reward… This [is] the definition of the height of loyalty of our army,” Kim told attendees, which included top Russian officials: Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

South Korean intelligence estimates that Pyongyang has deployed at least 15,000 troops to support Russia’s efforts to retake territory in western Kursk Oblast, with more than 6,000 of those service members killed in combat to date. Neither North Korea nor Russia has publicly verified these casualty and deployment figures. Multiple intelligence agencies and North Korean defectors have long corroborated that North Korean troops are under standing orders to take their own lives rather than allow themselves to be captured by Ukrainian forces. Within North Korea’s military doctrine, capture by enemy forces is classified as an act of treason against the state and ruling party.

Evidence of this policy has emerged through multiple channels in recent months. Last year, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service recovered handwritten orders from deceased North Korean soldiers that explicitly outlined the requirement for self-harm to avoid capture. Earlier this year, South Korean broadcaster MBC released an interview with two North Korean prisoners of war held by Ukraine, where one fighter expressed open regret for failing to take his own life, saying, “Everyone else blew themselves up. I failed.”

Beyond his praise for suicide attackers, Kim also extended recognition to all troops who have died in combat in Ukraine. He noted that even those who fell while leading frontline charges, or who died frustrated at failing to complete their assigned duties rather than mourning their physical wounds from bullets and shrapnel, deserve recognition as faithful party warriors and patriots.

The public commemoration comes amid rapidly deepening military and political cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow. In June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense pact that committed both nations to provide mutual assistance in the event of armed aggression against either party, with Kim describing the agreement as the “strongest ever” bilateral treaty between the two countries. Beyond deploying combat troops to support Russia’s war effort, North Korea has also pledged to send thousands of civilian workers to assist with reconstruction efforts in war-damaged Kursk Oblast.

While a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran has paused open military hostilities, the fragile peace has done little to mend deep, often painful divisions that have torn through the Iranian-American diaspora community. What outsiders see as explosive clashes on social media and competing street protests—one side cheering US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the other condemning them—masks the most wrenching friction that plays out far from public view: inside family homes, across dinner tables, where differing visions for Iran’s future have pitted loved ones against one another.

Newly released satellite imagery has put to rest lingering questions over the fate of two historic Armenian churches in Khankendi, the city known to ethnic Armenians as Stepanakert, located in Azerbaijan’s disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The visual evidence, published by Radio Free Europe, confirms early reports that both the Holy Mother of God Cathedral — a modern spiritual center consecrated only in 2019 — and the smaller Church of St. Jacob have been completely destroyed.

Initial claims of the cathedral’s demolition first circulated across Armenian media outlets back in April, sparking outrage among Armenian religious and political communities before the satellite confirmation. As the primary site of Christian worship for Khankendi’s longstanding Armenian population, the cathedral held deep cultural and spiritual significance for the local community.

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the administrative and spiritual heart of the global Armenian Apostolic Church, was quick to condemn the destruction when reports first emerged. The institution accused Azerbaijan of a deliberate campaign targeting Armenian Christian sacred sites, framing the damage as part of a broader effort to erase traces of Armenian cultural and historical presence in the disputed region.

To understand the context of this development, Nagorno-Karabakh held a decades-long status as a majority ethnic Armenian enclave that was self-governed by the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh following the conclusion of the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in the 1990s. But in September 2023, a rapid military offensive by Azerbaijani government forces retook full control of the entire territory, bringing it back under Baku’s official rule consistent with international legal recognition of the area as Azerbaijani sovereign territory. The 2023 offensive triggered a mass exodus, with more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians — the vast majority of the region’s remaining Armenian population — fleeing across the border into the Republic of Armenia to escape the new governance.

Tensions remain high between the two neighboring states in the aftermath of the 2023 offensive, with the continued detention of Armenian separatist figures by Azerbaijani authorities serving as a persistent flashpoint that fuels widespread anger in Armenia. In line with standard journalistic practice, Middle East Eye reached out to both the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs to request official comment on the confirmed church destructions, but neither side had issued a response by the time of this report’s publication.

One of Israel’s most senior former intelligence leaders has delivered a scathing rebuke of unaddressed settler violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, drawing a deeply personal, provocative comparison to the Holocaust that has reignited debate over the Israeli government’s failure to curb escalating attacks.

Tamir Pardo, who led Israel’s iconic Mossad intelligence agency from 2011 to 2016, shared his searing observations during a recent on-the-ground interview with Israel’s Channel 13. The interview took place during a tour of violence-ravaged Palestinian villages, which Pardo joined alongside a group of retired senior Israeli military officials.

Pardo, whose mother survived the Nazi Holocaust that killed 6 million European Jews, opened up about the visceral reaction he had to what he witnessed during the tour. “My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw reminded me of the events that happened against Jews in the last century,” he stated. The former intelligence director went further, adding, “What I saw today made me feel ashamed to be Jewish.”

Beyond the emotional condemnation, Pardo issued a stark warning about the long-term consequences of unchecked settler aggression. He argued that ongoing settler crimes, which have been largely unpunished by Israeli authorities and in some cases actively enabled by state actors, are laying the groundwork for another devastating escalation of conflict similar to the October 7, 2023 attacks that killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel.

“It will be in a different format, much more painful, because the region is much more complicated. The state has chosen to sow the seeds for the next October 7,” Pardo warned. He added that while Israeli law enforcement agencies are fully aware of the scale and severity of settler violence, political leadership has deliberately chosen to look the other way. “What I saw today is the existential threat to the State of Israel,” he emphasized.

Pardo specifically called out the outsized political influence held by hardline settler groups, which enjoy open backing from top figures in Israel’s current far-right governing coalition, including controversial ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. While Pardo acknowledged that it is still possible to reverse course and address the crisis, he warned that doing so would come at a profound cost, even raising the prospect of internal civil conflict within Israel. “If we want, we can correct this, but the price will be very high,” he said. “It is very much in our interest not to reach that point.”

The former Mossad chief also reflected on a decades-old warning from prominent Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who publicly condemned Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War. In his 1968 essay *The Territories*, Leibowitz argued that permanent military rule over millions of Palestinians would inevitably corrupt Israeli society as a whole, writing that “the corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the state of Israel” and calling for an immediate full withdrawal from occupied lands. Pardo noted that he once rejected Leibowitz’s assessment as wrong, but his recent tour of affected West Bank villages has convinced him the philosopher’s prediction held significant truth.

Pardo’s comments come amid a well-documented surge in settler violence and territorial expansion in the West Bank that has accelerated dramatically since October 2023. According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli settlers have killed at least 16 Palestinians in the West Bank so far in 2025. A United Nations report published in March 2025 added further context, documenting that more than 36,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in the West Bank between November 2024 and October 2025, driven by a wave of coordinated military raids and settler attacks. Over that same 12-month period, the UN recorded 1,732 separate incidents of settler violence that resulted in casualties or property damage – a 25% increase compared to the previous year. Many of these attacks have taken the form of systematic forced displacement of Palestinian communities from their historical land, with settlers increasingly using live fire against unarmed civilian residents.

For two weeks, a massive fallen glacial serac had put all spring climbing plans on hold at Mount Everest, trapping teams below Base Camp and threatening to upend the annual prime climbing season. But following urgent days of work by elite high-altitude crews, a usable alternative path has been carved through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall, opening the way for climbing teams to resume their acclimatization rotations toward the summit.

Ram Krishna Lamichhane, director general of Nepal’s Department of Tourism, confirmed to the BBC that specialized icefall doctors have successfully installed fixed ropes all the way to Camp 2, which sits at an altitude of roughly 6,400 to 6,500 meters (21,000 to 21,325 feet) above sea level. “Still there are some risks, but icefall doctors have picked up the most convenient available route and identified the path forward,” Lamichhane said. He added that climbers are expected to begin moving toward Camp 1 and Camp 2 for acclimatization exercises starting tomorrow.

The disruption began in early April, when rope-fixing teams launching preparations for the 2026 spring season encountered the 100-foot (30-meter) tall serac that had calved off the glacier and blocked the standard route. Crews were forced to pause work for two weeks as they waited for the unstable ice block to begin melting naturally, putting all season preparations roughly two weeks behind the original schedule. This delay has sparked growing concerns that the backlog will lead to the dangerous summit queues that have plagued crowded Everest seasons in past years.

The route-clearing work was a collaborative effort carried out by experienced icefall doctors from Nepal’s Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) alongside veteran sherpas from expedition operator associations, who specialize in navigating the constantly shifting icefall terrain. Lakpa Sherpa, a veteran climber and expedition manager who oversaw part of the work, explained that modern technology played a key role in speeding up the operation. Airlift support was used to deliver critical supplies including fixed ropes, aluminum ladders, snow stabilizer bars and food to high-altitude crews during the most challenging phases of the work. Teams also leveraged cutting-edge survey tools: “3D photogrammetry and real-time drone surveys to map the Khumbu Icefall and assess hazards like seracs and crevasses,” he said.

While the route to lower camps is now open for traffic, officials and expedition leaders have stressed that major hazards remain in the area. Lakpa Sherpa warned that the original massive unstable serac is still at high risk of collapse within the next four to five days, and urged climbing teams to avoid carrying heavy payloads through the affected section of the icefall. “Safety is our highest priority; further rotations should proceed with extreme caution and at your own risk,” he said. Acknowledging the delays to the season timeline, he urged permit holders to remain calm: “The season is slightly delayed but the summit will come,” he added.

Nepal’s Department of Tourism echoed that safety message in a post to X, noting, “As climbers navigate the route, utmost caution is urged, particularly in the serac-affected section. Wishing all a safe ascent.”

This year, 425 climbers have received official permits to attempt a summit of Mount Everest from the Nepali side of the border. According to the Department of Tourism, these permits will generate roughly 924.2 million Nepalese Rupees, equivalent to approximately $6.1 million or £4.5 million, in government revenue, making the spring climbing season a key contributor to Nepal’s tourism-driven economy.