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North Korea unsuccessfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile during a new salvo of launches Thursday, the South Korean military said, with Washington urging all nations to enforce sanctions on Pyongyang.

In response to the launches, South Korea and the United States said they would extend their ongoing joint air drills, the largest-ever such exercises — a move Pyongyang immediately branded “an irrevocable and awful mistake”.

People in parts of northern Japan were ordered to seek shelter during the North’s latest launches, which included five short-range missiles and followed a blitz of projectiles fired Wednesday.

The largest of Thursday’s launches, however, “is presumed to have ended in failure”, the South Korean military said.

The United States slammed the ICBM launch, while the G7 club of rich nations said it condemned the flurry of missiles “in the strongest terms”.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin described the ICBM launch as “illegal and destabilising” and branded the North’s actions “irresponsible and reckless” during a joint news conference at the Pentagon alongside his South Korean counterpart Lee Jong-sup.

Austin issued a stern warning to Pyongyang that “any nuclear attack against the United States or its allies and partners” would “result in the end” of Kim Jong Un’s regime.

Washington confirmed information provided by the South Korean military, which said it had detected the launch of the long-range ballistic missile at around 7:40 am (2240 GMT Wednesday) in the Sunan area of Pyongyang.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the ICBM — which flew about 760 kilometres (470 miles) at a top altitude of 1,920 kilometres — appeared to have failed during “second-stage separation”.

The South’s military also detected what were “believed to be two short-range ballistic missiles fired at around 8:39 am from Kaechon, South Pyongan province”.

That was followed late in the day by three more short-range ballistic missiles fired towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

South Korea’s military “is maintaining a full readiness posture while closely cooperating with the US and strengthening surveillance and vigilance”, it said.

– ‘Shocked and frightened’ –

Pyongyang fired more than 20 missiles on Wednesday, including one that landed near South Korea’s territorial waters, triggering an air raid siren warning on Ulleungdo, an island about 130 kilometres off the country’s east coast.

“We were shocked and frightened, as something like this had never happened before. We didn’t know where to take refuge,” said Chae Young-sim, a 52-year-old shopkeeper on the island.

One short-range ballistic missile crossed the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, on Wednesday, prompting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to call it “effectively a territorial invasion”.

The launches come as Seoul and Washington stage their largest-ever joint air drills, involving hundreds of warplanes from both sides.

Pyongyang has called the exercise, dubbed Vigilant Storm, “an aggressive and provocative military drill targeting the DPRK”.

The exercise had been due to end Friday, but South Korea’s air force said Thursday that the joint drills would be extended in response to the latest launches.

Pyongyang said this was “a very dangerous and false choice” and warned that Washington and Seoul’s “provocative military acts” were taking the situation into “an uncontrollable phase”.

America “and South Korea will get to know what an irrevocable and awful mistake they made”, Pak Jong Chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said in a statement carried by news agency KCNA.

Japan confirmed Thursday’s launches, with the government issuing a special warning to residents of northern regions to stay indoors or seek shelter.

Tokyo initially said the ICBM had flown over Japan, prompting a “J-Alert” to be issued, but defence minister Yasukazu Hamada later said “the missile did not cross the Japanese archipelago, but disappeared over the Sea of Japan”.

– ‘Tactical nuclear drills’ –

Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned that the North’s recent missile launches could culminate in another nuclear test — which would be Pyongyang’s seventh.

“They are ready to conduct the nuclear test,” but the timing is still unclear, Lee said at the news conference with Austin.

Chad O’Carroll of Seoul-based specialist site NK News said on Twitter that it is “quite possible tactical nuclear weapons test(s) will be next. Possibly very soon.”

Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean studies scholar, agreed. 

“These are North Korea’s pre-celebration events ahead of their upcoming nuclear test,” he told AFP.

“They also seem like a series of practical tests for their tactical nuclear deployment.”

North Korea revised its laws in September to allow for pre-emptive nuclear strikes, with Kim declaring the country to be an “irreversible” nuclear power — effectively ending negotiations over its banned arms programmes.

On October 4, North Korea fired a missile over Japan that also prompted evacuation warnings. It was the first time North Korea had fired a missile over Japan since 2017.

Pyongyang later claimed that the launch and a blizzard of other tests around the same time were “tactical nuclear drills” that simulated showering South Korea with nuclear-tipped missiles.

Tropical depression Lisa, downgraded from a hurricane after battering Belize, threatened parts of Mexico with flash floods Thursday, according to an improved forecast.

Lisa caused flood damage in Belize and plunged parts of the country into darkness Wednesday as it weakened over land on its way to Mexico.

By 1500 GMT on Thursday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Lisa had weakened to a depression “still bringing heavy rains to portions of southeast Mexico.”

It was moving westward at about 17 kilometers (10 miles) per hour with maximum sustained winds of about 55 km/h.

“Lisa is expected to produce rainfall amounts of four to six inches (about 10-15 centimeters) with local amounts to 10 inches across the Mexican states of Tabasco, northwestern Chiapas, and far eastern Veracruz,” said an NHC advisory.

Lisa slammed into the Sibun River southwest of economic hub and former capital Belize City on Wednesday, uprooting trees with winds of up to 140 km/h, downing power lines and flooding streets.

A state of emergency was declared in two areas, while a curfew was in effect until dawn on Thursday.

Some parts of Belize were left without power as the storm lashed the country of about 405,000 people.

Schools and most businesses were closed in anticipation of the storm and the government set up shelters. 

In Belize City and neighboring areas, local media showed weather-battered buildings, flooded streets and yanked out trees after Lisa landed.

– Evacuations in Guatemala –

In neighboring Guatemala, heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in the northernmost department of Peten, where classes were canceled.

About 143 people were evacuated, Oscar Cossio, secretary of the National Coordination for Disaster Reduction (CONRED), told a press conference.

Lisa arrived less than three weeks after the passage of Julia, another Category 1 hurricane, which caused dozens of deaths in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Lisa is the 12th named storm this season, a designation given to systems that produce winds of 39 mph (63 kph) or greater, according to the NHC.

Last year’s active Atlantic hurricane season, which officially runs from June through November, saw 21 named storms.

Major new protests erupted in Iran on Thursday as people mourned victims of a deadly crackdown by the authorities, with police opening fire on stone-throwing protesters in deadly clashes outside Tehran.

Iran has for over six weeks been gripped by protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested by the notorious morality police — a movement that poses the biggest challenge to the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.

The clerical leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 83, has responded with a crackdown that as well as killing dozens has seen 1,000 people charged so far and according to activists risking the death penalty.

With the movement no signs of abating, the problems for the authorities are compounded by the tradition in Iran of holding a “chehelom” mourning ceremony 40 days after a death, meaning each new killing can fuel new protest actions.

Norway-based group Iran Human Rights said large numbers attended a 40-day ceremony in Karaj west of Tehran mourning the death of Hadis Najafi, a 22-year-old woman activists say was killed by security forces in September.

IHR said police had blocked the highway leading to the cemetery to prevent even larger numbers attending while military helicopters patrolled above.

“This year is the year of blood, Seyyed Ali (Khamenei) will be toppled,” the video showed them chanting.

But crowds massed and 1500tasvir monitoring channel posted pictures from Karaj of a large column of people marching in protest down a highway and there was clashes between protesters and police.

Security forces had also opened fire on the protesters, it said. It posted a video of some demonstrators throwing stones at a police vehicle, while others set fire to a garbage bin and a police patrol post.

A member of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force and two other unidentified people were killed, and 10 police officers and a cleric were injured Thursday during the clashes in Karaj, state media said.

Similar mourning ceremonies were held in several other cities including Arak, in central Iran, where IHR said large crowds shouted “freedom!” in memory of protest victim Mehrshad Shahidi.

Large numbers also shouted anti-government slogans at a memorial rally for protester Mahsa Mugoi in Fouladshahr outside the city of Isfahan, 1500tasvir said.

– ‘No mercy’ –

The Kurdish rights organisation Hengaw reported a sequence of protests had taken place Wednesday in the Kurdish-populated regions of northwestern Iran where Amini hailed from, including the city of Sanandaj which has become a major protest flashpoint.

It said Momen Zandkarimi, 18-year-old from Sanandaj, was killed by direct fire from Iranian security forces.

Due to the pressure from Iranian security agencies who fear his funeral could turn into a protest, his body has been moved to another village for burial, it added.

Meanwhile, Hengaw said police had arrested the father of Komar Daroftadeh, 16, who it said was shot and killed by government forces in Piranshahr in western Iran. The father Hasan had at his son’s funeral bitterly denounced the security forces who he said showed “no mercy”.

According to an updated death toll issued Wednesday by IHR, 176 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests sparked by Amini’s death.

Another 101 people have lost their lives in a distinct protest wave in Zahedan in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Of all those killed, 40 were under 18 years of age, it added.

On Thursday, state media said masked assailants shot dead the Friday prayer leader at a Zahedan mosque.

Thousands have been arrested nationwide, rights activists say, while Iran’s judiciary has said 1,000 people had already been charged over what it describes as “riots”.

The trial of five men charged with offences that can carry the death penalty over the protests opened Saturday in Tehran.

– ‘Under duress’ –

Activists condemned as a forced confession a video published by state-run Iranian media of Toomaj Salehi, a prominent rapper arrested at the weekend after backing the protests, in which a blindfolded man saying he is Salehi admits to making “a mistake”.

Freedom of expression group Article 19 said it was “extremely disturbed Iran state media are sharing forced confessions” with the subject “under clear duress”.

At least 51 journalists have been detained in the protest crackdown, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Fourteen are confirmed to have been released on bail.

Journalist Yaghma Fashkhami became the latest prominent figure to be arrested, his wife Mona Moafi wrote on Twitter.

There is also growing concern over the wellbeing of Wall Street Journal contributor and freedom of expression campaigner Hassan Ronaghi, who was arrested in September and according to his family is on hunger strike with two broken legs sustained in custody.

Citing Saudi and US officials, The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that Saudi Arabia had shared intelligence with the United States warning of an imminent attack from Iran on targets in the kingdom in a bid to divert attention from the protests.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said his country’s “policy is based on mutual respect and international principles” and that it “continues its policy of good neighbourliness”.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Spain’s capital on Thursday to demand higher pay to cope with soaring inflation and energy costs.

Protestors waved red union flags and banged drums as they made their way to the Spanish capital’s landmark Plaza Mayor square behind a large banner that read: “Salary or Conflict”.

Police estimate some 25,000 people took part in the demonstration, which was called by Spain’s two main unions, the CCOO and UGT. 

“Either there is a rise in salaries or work conflicts will increase exponentially in our country over the next year,” CCOO secretary general Unai Sordo told reporters at the protest.

Like other countries, Spain has been struggling with soaring inflation as a result of the fallout from the war in Ukraine and the reopening of the economy after pandemic-related lockdowns.

Inflation in Spain peaked this summer at 10.8 percent in July, its highest level in 38 years, before moderately slowing to 7.3 percent in October — still well above normal levels.

“Salaries are still super low” while the cost of “essentials” has soared, Maria Luisa Ortega, a 57-year-old service sector worker, told AFP at the protest.

She said salary raises must match the rise in inflation.

The protest comes as Spain’s leftist government is negotiating with unions and business groups a new increase in the minimum wage, which is currently set at 1,000 euros ($987) a month.

Far-left party Podemos, the junior partner in Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s coalition government, is calling for a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage.

But Spain’s main business association CEOE has ruled out pay hikes in line with inflation, arguing they will hurt firms, especially smaller ones, although it is open to discuss more modest increases.

The government has vowed to lift the minimum wage to 60 percent of Spain’s average salary by the end of its term in office in December 2023, bringing it in line with the level of its European neighbours.

Six police were wounded Thursday in the latest prison riot to hit Ecuador, officials said, as the country is gripped by violence blamed on organized crime groups waging a deadly drug war.

The six were hurt while trying to put down an uprising at the infamous Guayas 1 prison in southwestern port city Guayaquil, police said on Twitter.

A source at the SNAI prison authority who asked not to be named told AFP that the police officers were confronted by inmates with guns and explosives.

Ecuador — once a relatively peaceful neighbor of major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru — has seen a wave of violent crime that authorities blame on turf battles between gangs with ties to Mexican cartels.   

Civilians have increasingly been caught up in the bloodshed that has claimed more than 60 police lives since last year.  

Hundreds of inmates have died in Ecuador’s overcrowded prisons since February last year — many beheaded or burned as the gang war is waged also behind bars — especially at Guayas 1.

Widespread corruption among guards allows inmates to lay their hands on guns and explosives, among other contraband.

Following attacks Tuesday in which five police officers and a civilian were killed, President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency and nightly curfews in the western provinces of Guayas, of which Guayaquil is the capital, and Esmeraldas.   

Groups armed with weapons including car bombs hit more than 18 targets in the two provinces, including police and gas installations, a clinic — where a civilian was critically wounded — and a bus terminal.  

Prisoners at a facility in Esmeraldas also took hostage eight guards on Tuesday to protest the inmate transfer, but later freed them. In the same city on Monday, two headless bodies were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge.

Tuesday’s attacks were said to be in response to a mass transfer of inmates from the Guayas 1 prison, which is largely in the control of gangs.

Clashes at the prison on Wednesday left two inmates dead and six wounded. 

Ecuador has gone from being a drug transit route in recent years to an important distribution center in its own right. 

The United States and Europe are the main destinations of drugs from Latin America. 

The murder rate in Ecuador nearly doubled in 2021 to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, and reached 18 per 100,000 between January and October this year, according to official data. 

In 2021, law enforcement seized a record 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. So far this year’s seizures total 160 tons.   

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was in stable condition after being shot in the leg at a political rally on Thursday in what the country’s president deemed “a heinous assassination attempt”.

The former international cricket star has been leading a chaotic convoy of thousands since Friday from the city of Lahore towards the capital, Islamabad, campaigning for fresh elections after being ousted from office in April.

“This was an attempt to kill him, to assassinate him,” senior aide, Raoof Hasan, told AFP.

Khan escaped with a bullet wound to his right calf, while several of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party officials were also hit by the spray of gunfire aimed at their modified container truck as it slowly drove through a thick crowd near Gujranwala.

“Everyone who was standing in the very front row got hit,” former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, who was standing behind Khan, told AFP.

He said supporters in the crowd tried to snatch the gun from the attacker.

“In that scuffle he missed the target.”

Six people were hit and one supporter killed, he said.

– Crack of gunfire –

A video captures the crack of gunfire as Khan and his team duck behind banners tied around the edge of the container.

In a tweet, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi called it “a heinous assassination attempt”.

Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said the attacker had been taken into custody and that a confession video was circulating online.

“I did it because (Khan) was misleading the public, I tried to kill him, I tried my best,” says a dishevelled man in the video, shown with his hands tied behind his back in what appears to be a police station.

He adds that he was angry with the procession for playing music during the call to prayer that summons Muslims to the mosque five times a day.

Police have yet to comment on the incident or confirm earlier reports that a second attacker was killed at the scene.

Faisal Sultan, the doctor treating Khan at a Lahore hospital, confirmed he was in a stable condition.

Jemima Goldsmith, the ex-wife of the former cricketing superstar who shares two children with him, tweeted her relief.

“Thank you from his sons to the heroic man in the crowd who tackled the gunman,” she said.

– Politicians targeted –

Pakistan has been grappling with Islamist militants for decades, and politicians are frequently targeted by assassination attempts.

The attack on Khan had echoes of the 2007 assassination of another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who died when a huge bomb detonated near her vehicle as she greeted supporters in Rawalpindi while standing up through the roof hatch.

Just months earlier she had survived another attempt on her life when her motorcade was targeted in Karachi, killing more than 130 people.

Each day since starting his so-called “long march” 70-year-old Khan has mounted a shipping container towed by a lorry, making speeches from the open top to crowds of thousands in cities and towns along the way.

He was booted from office in April by a no-confidence vote after defections by some of his coalition partners, but he retains mass public support in the South Asian country.

Khan was voted into power in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform by an electorate tired of dynastic politics.

But his mishandling of the economy — and falling out with a military accused of helping his rise — sealed his fate.

Since then, he has railed against the establishment and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government, which he says was imposed on Pakistan by a “conspiracy” involving the United States.

Khan has repeatedly told supporters he was prepared to die for the country, and aides have long warned of unspecified threats made on his life.

bur-/fox/ecl/mca