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Korea plane crash probe to focus on bird strike, landing gear failure

RESCUE WORKERS at the crash site at Muan International Airport on Dec. 29, 2024. — BLOOMBERG

INVESTIGATORS probing the cause of the worst civil aviation accident ever in South Korea will focus on a bird strike and the unusual landing-gear failure in the final moments of the fateful flight that left all but two of the 181 occupants of the Boeing Co. 737 jet dead.

The 737-800 aircraft operated by Jeju Air Co. crashed at Muan International Airport on Sunday morning, skidding along the runway on its belly before smashing into a wall, where it exploded into a ball of fire. Only a pair of flight attendants survived.

While the aircraft was almost entirely destroyed, investigators will have valuable data to work with as they reconstruct the event. One vital key will be a readout of the two flight recorders, which were already pulled from the wreckage, though one device is damaged and may need longer to analyze.

Then there’s footage showing the aircraft during approach with one engine apparently flaming out, alongside videos of the plane coming into the airport and sliding along the runway at high speed, appearing largely intact, before the impact with the embankment.

In another incident on Monday, a Jeju Air plane returned safely to South Korea’s Gimpo Airport after it was found to have a problem with the landing gear immediately after takeoff, Yonhap News reported. South Korean authorities will launch a special inspection into all of the 101 Boeing 737-800 planes operating in the country, while asking Boeing and the maker of the engine to join the investigation.

They will also probe other factors, such as whether the airliner’s personnel followed safety manuals properly, the airport’s measures to prevent bird strikes and if the plane’s power system was shut down before the crash, transport ministry officials said at a briefing Monday.

They will also look into whether the so-called localizer, an instrument set to guide the landing of the plane, had any relevance to the crash.

Shares of Jeju Air declined as much as 16% to a record low in Seoul trading on Monday, while parent AK Holdings, Inc. fell 12%.

The accident poses several unusual mysteries, and investigators have said it’s too soon to speculate what may have caused the crash. Mid-air bird strikes are rare but not entirely uncommon and seldom deadly because aircraft can operate on one engine for some time. Why the landing gear didn’t deploy also remains unclear, or indeed if there’s a link between that malfunction and the bird strike that was discussed between the cockpit and control tower just before the landing.

The pilot, considered an experienced captain with close to 7,000 hours of active duty, issued a mayday emergency call minutes after the control tower warned of a bird strike. He aborted his first landing, started a go-around and switched direction on the runway in his second attempt. The control tower granted clearance to land in the opposite direction, and officials said it’s unlikely that the runway length caused the crash.

The pilot didn’t seem to have sufficient time to try alternative measures such as dumping fuel, a transport ministry official said at Monday’s briefing.

The Boeing 737 involved in the crash is a predecessor to the latest Max variant. It’s considered a reliable workhorse that passed routine maintenance checks, in a country with deep expertise for aircraft servicing. Around the world, there are more than 4,000 planes of this type in service.

Even if one of the black boxes was damaged in the crash, the data storage units can often be reconstructed to aid the investigation. The fortified devices contain vital statistics and performance metrics of a flight, as well as taped conversations and sounds from the cockpit.

Muan’s control tower warned of the risk of a bird strike at 8:57 a.m. local time, about two minutes before the pilot declared an emergency, officials said. The airport had four staffers working to prevent bird strikes at the time of the crash, including one outside the tower.

Birds are an aviation hazard because they can be ingested into the turbine or damage other parts of the plane and cause engine failure. In 2009, an Airbus A320 landed in the Hudson River in New York after a bird strike damaged both engines, in what has become known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” because everyone on board survived.

Jeju Air’s 15-year-old plane, registered HL8088, entered service with the carrier in 2017. It was initially delivered in 2009 to Irish discount airline Ryanair Holdings Plc, according to the Planespotters.net database. The jet was configured to seat as many as 189 passengers. Founded in 2005, Jeju Air operates 42 aircraft, according to its website.

There was no sign of malfunction during regular maintenance checks, Jeju Air Chief Executive Officer Kim E-Bae said at a news briefing. The jet was returning from Bangkok — a 4 1/2 hour flight. The plane, which YTN said had been chartered by a local travel agency for a Christmas holiday trip, earlier left Muan for the Thai capital on Saturday evening.

Muan is a small regional airport located in the country’s south that opened in 2007. It was built to help connect cities including Gwangju and Mokpo and increased its regular service of international flights this year, including those of Jeju Air.

The two surviving flight attendants were taken to the hospital, and one of the two survivors is in the intensive care unit with a thoracic spine fracture, the doctor at the hospital said in a press briefing.

Boeing said it’s in contact with Jeju Air and ready to offer support. Aircraft manufacturers typically send specialists to crash sites to aid an investigation. Recovery of the victims, some of whom were ejected from the aircraft after the impact, has been completed and salvage crews are now searching the wreckage for passengers’ belongings, Yonhap said.

More than 1,500 people including police, military, coast guard and local government personnel are assisting at the crash site, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. The airport’s runway will remain closed in the coming days.

The accident is the deadliest passenger airline disaster in South Korea, surpassing an Air China plane crash near Busan in 2002 that killed 129 people, according to the Aviation Safety Network. The crash is also among the worst globally this decade.

South Korea is currently experiencing a deepening political crisis after its president provoked public outrage by briefly imposing martial law earlier this month. Acting President Choi Sang-mok declared a week of mourning.

The crash is the second major air disaster in less than a week. An incident in Russian airspace led to the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft on Dec. 25, killing dozens.

After a year of not a single fatal accident among the 37 million commercial aircraft movements in 2023, this year has seen a rising number of cases. Early in January, an approaching Japan Airlines Co. Airbus A350 crashed into a small plane on a runway in Tokyo, killing five occupants in the stationary aircraft.

A few days later, a door plug blew out of an airborne Boeing 737 Max 9 flying in the US. Though nobody was killed in that accident, the episode threw the US planemaker into deep crisis because it exposed sloppy workmanship at the company.

In August, a smaller ATR turboprop plane operated by Brazil’s VoePass crashed near Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport, killing 58 passengers and four crew members. — Bloomberg

Lottery’s $1.26-B winner will need tax attorney, therapist

A customer purchases a lottery ticket for the Mega Millions lottery from a store in Hawthorne, California, on Dec. 27. — FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES VIA BLOOMBERG

FOR THE WINNER of a $1.26-billion Mega Millions jackpot ticket sold in California, the ecstasy of the big win may soon give way to the anxiety over some big choices.

“This is a life-changing moment and they don’t need to make every decision right away,” said Matthew Liebman, chief executive officer and founding partner of Amplius Wealth Advisors.

Mr. Liebman’s first advice was to build strong relationships with four different advisers: a wealth adviser, a tax accountant, an estate attorney and a therapist before making any decision about payout.

Friday’s jackpot was the fifth-largest Mega Millions prize in US history and the winning ticket was sold at Sunshine Food and Gas in Cottonwood, a census designated area with a population of about 6,000 people, in Shasta County, about 150 miles (241.4 kilometers) north of Sacramento. The identity of the winner (or winners) wasn’t immediately known.

While most lottery grand prize winners typically chose the cash payout, which in this case will be about $571.9 million, financial planners still say there’s reason to opt for the annuity — distributed over 30 annual payments.

“The annuity typically is a bigger payout,” said Anthony Love, managing director of tax and trust at Quotient Wealth Partners. If the winner is young and healthy, it’s probably a better option, he advised. Those who take the annuity can also avoid the potential pitfall of watching their earnings evaporate through bad investments or other financial decisions.

If the winner is older, the lump sum may be the better choice, Mr. Love said. “If you accept the lump sum, you get all the money at one time, you get to invest the money however you want it to be invested, and you’re paying tax at a time where the effective tax rate is the lowest in a generation,” he said.

Massive lottery prizes in the US have become increasingly common in recent years, attributed to changes in game rules and higher ticket prices. Since 2016, more than 10 jackpots have exceeded $1 billion, including three in 2024 alone.

Billionaire Mark Cuban has also had some well-considered advice for lottery winners. He told the Dallas Morning News in 2016 that winners should hire a tax attorney, avoid taking the lump sum and say no to friends and relatives who ask for money. Having a lot of money won’t instantly make you a good investor, so winners should also put money in the bank and keep it safe, he said.

Mr. Liebman, of Amplius Wealth Advisors, also advised the winning ticket holder to take a deep breath.

“I say that seriously because, from what I have understood from past lottery winners, is that it can be a big strain on their mental health,” he said.

The last Mega Millions jackpot win happened in September, when a ticket claimed an $810-million prize. The record-setting Mega Millions jackpot of $1.58 billion was won in Florida in August 2023. Only three larger jackpots, all from Powerball, have surpassed that amount. — Bloomberg

Finland finds drag marks on Baltic seabed after cable damage

FINLAND’s flag is seen on a ferry in Helsinki, June 20, 2023. — BW FILE PHOTO

OSLO — Finnish police said on Sunday they had found tracks that drag on for dozens of kilometers along the bottom of the Baltic Sea where a tanker carrying Russian oil is suspected of breaking a power line and four telecoms cables with its anchor.

The Cook Islands-registered Eagle S was boarded by Finnish police and coast guard officials on Thursday and sailed into Finnish waters where the crew of the impounded tanker is being questioned.

Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said on Friday it would boost its presence in the region.

A break in the 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia occurred at midday on Wednesday, leaving only the 358 MW Estlink 1 linking the two countries, grid operators said. They said Estlink 2 might not be back in service before August.

Finnish police suspect the Eagle S caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed.

Investigators have identified a “dragging track” but have yet to find a missing anchor, Sami Paila, tactical leader and detective chief inspector of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, said in a statement.

“The track is dozens of kilometers in length,” Mr. Paila said.

Photos taken of the Eagle S on Friday showed the vessel missing its port side anchor.

Finland’s customs service believes the ship is part of a “shadow fleet” of aging tankers being used to evade sanctions on exports of Russian oil.

The Kremlin said on Friday that Finland’s seizure of the ship was of little concern to it.

Russia has denied involvement in any of the previous Baltic infrastructure damage incidents. — Reuters

South Korea investigators request arrest warrant for Yoon over martial law

YOUTUBE.COM

SEOUL — South Korean investigators have sought an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol over this month’s short-lived imposition of martial law, an official said on Monday, the first time an incumbent president has faced such action.

Mr. Yoon has failed to respond to a summons for questioning by police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials who are jointly investigating whether his Dec. 3 martial law declaration amounted to insurrection.

Police have tried but failed to successfully raid the presidential office as part of the investigation.

A Seoul court will decide whether to issue an arrest warrant following the request.

Insurrection is one of the few charges for which a South Korean president does not have immunity.

Yoon Kab-keun, a lawyer for the suspended president, said the arrest request was “unfair” and the anti-corruption agency has no authority to do so.

“Emergency martial law is within the president’s authority,” the lawyer told reporters outside the Seoul Western District Court after submitting a written opinion about the arrest warrant request as well as a letter of appointment of lawyers.

Mr. Yoon was suspended from presidential powers after being impeached by parliament over his decision to briefly impose martial law.

Masked martial law troops equipped with rifles, body armor and night-vision equipment entered the parliament where they faced off with staffers who opposed them with fire extinguishers.

The decree lasted just hours until the parliament voted it down and Mr. Yoon backed down.

The move shocked the nation, which has been a democracy since the 1980s, and caused international alarm among allies like the United States and trading partners with Asia’s 4th largest economy.

A Constitutional Court trial has commenced into whether to reinstate Mr. Yoon or remove him permanently from office. It has 180 days to reach a decision. — Reuters

China’s December manufacturing activity seen expanding for third month — Reuters poll

REUTERS

BEIJING — China’s factory activity likely expanded for a third straight month in December, offering a glimmer of optimism to officials trying to steady the world’s No. 2 economy as they brace for further US trade tariffs under a second Trump administration.

A Reuters poll of 28 economists forecast the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) would remain at 50.3, matching November’s reading and staying above the 50-point threshold that separates growth from contraction in activity.

China’s leaders are hoping policy support measures late this year will bolster the struggling property market, which significantly impact domestic demand.

This move could benefit manufacturers amid a global economic slowdown, reducing their exposure to US President-elect Donald J. Trump’s threat of additional tariffs on Chinese goods.

Mixed industrial output and retail sales data for November released earlier this month underscores how challenging it will be for Beijing to mount a durable economic recovery heading into 2025. Government advisers are recommending that the $19 trillion economy maintain a growth target of around 5% next year and that policymakers ramp up consumer-focused stimulus.

Mr. Trump has vowed to impose a 10% tariff on Chinese goods to compel Beijing to halt the trafficking of Chinese-made chemicals used in fentanyl production. He also threatened tariffs in excess of 60% on Chinese goods during his campaign, posing a major growth risk for the world’s top exporter of goods.

At an agenda-setting meeting earlier this month, policymakers pledged to increase the budget deficit, issue more debt and loosen monetary policy to support economic growth.

The World Bank last week raised its growth forecasts for China for 2024 and 2025, but warned that subdued household and business confidence, along with headwinds in the property sector, would weigh on economic growth next year.

Stabilizing the property sector, which at its peak in 2021 accounted for around a quarter of the economy and where 70% of household savings are parked, is critical for Beijing to revive domestic consumption and improve sentiment among factory owners.

Analysts polled by Reuters forecast the private sector Caixin PMI at 51.7. The data will be released on Thursday. Reuters

Japan’s factory activity shrinks at slower pace, PMI shows

REUTERS

TOKYO — Japan’s factory activity shrank at a slower pace in December as declines in production and new orders eased, a private-sector survey showed on Monday, edging closer to stabilization after recent falls.

The final au Jibun Bank Japan manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 49.6 in December, indicating the softest contraction in three months. The index was slightly higher than 49.5 in the flash reading and 49.0 in November but stayed below the 50.0 threshold that separates growth from contraction for the sixth straight month.

“The headline reading moved closer to neutrality amid softer reductions in both production and new order intakes,” said Usamah Bhatti at S&P Global Market Intelligence, which compiled the survey.

The subindex of production shrank for a fourth straight month in December but the contraction was also slower than last month. Manufacturers noted that subdued new orders were the main factor behind the decline in output.

New orders contracted for the 19th straight month on subdued demand in both domestic and key overseas markets. Some firms in the survey suggested the semiconductor market was behind the weakness in new orders.

Employment expanded in December, reversing its fall in November, to reach its highest level since April. Firms in the survey said they hired more workers due to labor shortages as well as in preparation for future demand.

Input prices grew at the strongest pace since August, with firms citing higher costs of raw materials and labor. The weak yen also boosted inflation. To cope with rising prices, firms raised their output prices at the fastest rate in five months.

Manufacturers stayed confident about their outlook as they expect business to expand thanks to the launch and mass production of new products. Reuters

Fiery plane crash kills 179 in worst airline disaster in South Korea

RESCUE WORKERS take part in a salvage operation at the site where an aircraft crashed after it went off the runway at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, Dec. 29, 2024. — REUTERS

MUAN COUNTY, South Korea (UPDATE) — The deadliest air accident ever in South Korea killed 179 people on Sunday, when an airliner belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall at Muan International Airport.

Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was trying to land shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) at the airport in the south of the country, South Korea’s transport ministry said.

Two crew members survived and were being treated for injuries.

The deadliest air accident on South Korean soil was also the worst involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades, the transport ministry said.

The twin-engine Boeing 737-800 was seen in local media video skidding down the runway with no visible landing gear before crashing into navigation equipment and a wall in an explosion of flames and debris.

“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognise,” Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a press briefing.

The two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane, Lee said. They were being treated at hospitals with medium to severe injuries, said the head of the local public health centre.

Investigators are examining bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee said. Yonhap news agency cited airport authorities as saying such a strike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction.

The crash was the worst for any South Korean airline since a 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam that killed more than 200 people, transportation ministry data showed. The previous worst on South Korean soil was an Air China crash that killed 129 in 2002.

Experts said the bird strike report and the way the aircraft attempted to land raised more questions than answers.

“At this point there are a lot more questions than we have answers. Why was the plane going so fast? Why were the flaps not open? Why was the landing gear not down?,” said Gregory Alegi, an aviation expert and former teacher at Italy’s air force academy.

Under global aviation rules, South Korea will lead a civil investigation into the crash and automatically involve the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States where the plane was designed and built.

The NTSB said later it was leading a team of U.S. investigators to help South Korea’s aviation authority. Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration were also taking part.

‘MY LAST WORDS’
Hours after the crash, family members gathered in the airport’s arrival area, some crying and hugging as Red Cross volunteers handed out blankets.

Many victims appeared to be residents of nearby areas returning from vacation, officials said.

Family members screamed and wept as a medic announced the names of victims identified by their fingerprints.

One relative stood at a microphone to ask for more information from authorities. “My older brother died and I don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

Mortuary vehicles lined up outside to take bodies away, and authorities said a temporary morgue had been established.

A transport ministry official said the control tower had issued a bird strike warning and shortly after the pilots declared mayday and then attempted to land from the opposite direction the plane had come in.

A passenger texted a relative to say a bird was stuck in the wing, the News1 agency reported. The person’s final message was, “Should I say my last words?”

Jeon Je-young, the 71-year-old father of one woman on board, played and replayed a video of the crash.

“When I saw the accident video, the plane seemed out of control,” said Jeon.

“The pilots probably had no choice but to do it. My daughter, who is only in her mid-40s, ended up like this. This is unbelievable,” he said. “She was almost home.”

The Boeing model involved in the crash, a 737-800, is one of the world’s most flown airliners with a generally strong safety record. It was developed well before the MAX variant involved in a recent Boeing safety crisis.

The aircraft was manufactured in 2009, the transport ministry said.

Boeing said in a emailed statement, “We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them. We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew.”

The two CFM56-7B26 engines were manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aerospace GE.N and France’s Safran SAF.PA, the transport ministry said.

A CFM spokesperson said, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of Jeju Air flight 2216. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of those on board.”

CHALLENGE TO COUNTRY’S NEW INTERIM PRESIDENT
Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologised for the accident, bowing deeply during a televised briefing.

He said the aircraft had no record of accidents and there were no early signs of malfunction. The airline will cooperate with investigators and make supporting the bereaved its top priority, Kim said.

No abnormal conditions were reported when the aircraft left Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, said Kerati Kijmanawat, president of Airports of Thailand.

The passengers included two Thai nationals and the rest are believed to be South Koreans, according to the transportation ministry.

It was the first fatal flight for Jeju Air, a low-cost airline founded in 2005 that ranks behind Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines as the country’s third largest carrier by passenger numbers.

The accident happened only three weeks after Jeju Air started regular flights from Muan to Bangkok and other Asian cities on Dec. 8.

Muan International is one of South Korea’s smallest airports but it has become much busier in recent years. All domestic and international flights at the airport were cancelled after the accident, Yonhap reported.

South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok, named interim leader of the country on Friday in an ongoing political crisis, arrived at the scene of the accident and said the government was putting all its resources into dealing with the crash.

Two Thai women were on the plane, aged 22 and 45, Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said.

The Thai foreign ministry later confirmed both were among those killed. The embassy in Seoul was coordinating with the South Koreans and arranging for family members to travel from Thailand, the ministry said in a statement.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra sent condolences to the families of the dead and injured in a post on X, saying she had instructed the foreign ministry to provide assistance. — Reuters

Turkey announces $14 billion regional development plan for Kurdish southeast

FREEPIK

 – Turkey announced on Sunday a $14 billion regional development plan that aims to reduce the economic gap between its mainly Kurdish southeast region and the rest of the country.

The announcement comes amid increased hopes for an end to a decades-long insurgency waged by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey as well as the advent of a new leadership in neighboring Syria with cordial ties to Ankara.

The eastern and southeastern provinces of Turkey have long lagged behind other regions of the country in most economic indicators including gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, partly as a result of the insurgency.

Turkish Industry Minister Fatih Kacir told reporters in the southeastern city of Sanliurfa that the government would spend a total 496.2 billion lira ($14.15 billion) on 198 projects across the region in the period to 2028.

“With the implementation of the projects, we anticipate an additional 49,000 lira ($1,400) increase in annual income per capita in the region,” he added.

According to 2023 data, the per capita income of Sanliurfa stood at $4,971, well below the national average of $13,243.

Regarding the prospects for peace in southeast Turkey, two Turkish lawmakers met the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday, the first such visit in a nearly a decade, and they quoted him as indicating he might be ready to call on the group’s militants to lay down their weapons.

The visit followed a call by a close ally of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Ocalan to end the PKK’s 40-year insurgency, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

The conflict between the Turkish state and PKK, now centered on northern Iraq, was mainly focused in southeast Turkey in the past.

“Terrorism has caused great harm to eastern and southeastern regions of the country… A terror-free Turkey will create great benefit to the region,” Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said on Sunday at the event in Sanliurfa.

Turkey and Western countries classify the PKK as a terrorist organization.

Yilmaz also referred to recent developments in Syria, where Islamist rebels backed by Turkey took power this month after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad and his flight to Russia.

“The opportunities that will come with the new era in Syria will increase the welfare of our entire country. Our southeastern region will benefit more from these developments,” Yilmaz said. – Reuters

South Korea orders air safety probe after the country’s worst crash kills 179

STOCK PHOTO | Image from Pixabay

 – South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operation system as investigators worked to identify victims and find what caused the country’s deadliest air disaster.

The crash on Sunday killed 179 people when a Jeju Air jet belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall at Muan International Airport. Two crew members were pulled out alive.

The top priority for now is identifying the victims, supporting their families and treating the two survivors, Choi told a disaster management meeting in Seoul.

“Even before the final results are out, we ask that officials transparently disclose the accident investigation process and promptly inform the bereaved families,” he said.

“As soon as the accident recovery is conducted, the Transport Ministry is requested to conduct an emergency safety inspection of the entire aircraft operation system to prevent recurrence of aircraft accidents,” he said.

Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was trying to land shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) on Sunday at the airport in the south of the country.

Investigators are examining bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors in the crash, fire officials have said. Experts say many questions remain, including why the twin-engine Boeing 737-800appeared to be travelling so fast and why its landing gear did not appear to be down when it skidded down the runway and into a wall.

The crash killed mostly local residents who were returning from holidays in Thailand, while two Thai nationals also died.

On Monday morning, investigators were trying to identify some of the last remaining victims, as anguished families waited inside the Muan airport terminal.

Park Han-shin, who lost his brother in the crash, said he was told by authorities that his brother had been identified but has not been able to see his body.

Park called on other victims’ families to unite in responding to the disaster and recovery efforts, citing a 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people. Prolonged efforts to identify the victims and cause of the sinking followed that disaster.

Emergency workers were sifting through wreckage that was nearly completely destroyed when the aircraft was engulfed in an explosion of flames and debris at the regional airport near the country’s winding western coastline.

Transportation ministry officials said the jet’s flight data recorder was recovered but appeared to have sustained some damage on the outside and it was not yet clear whether the data was sufficiently intact to be analyzed.

The Muan airport remains closed through Wednesday but the rest of the country’s international and regional airports including the main Incheon International Airport were operating as scheduled.

Shares of South Korean budget carrier Jeju Air hit their lowest level on record on Monday, trading as much as 15.7% lower.

Under global aviation rules, South Korea will lead a civil investigation into the crash and automatically involve the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States where the plane was designed and built.

The NTSB said it was leading a team of U.S. investigators to help South Korea’s aviation authority. Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration were also taking part.

Choi, who was overseeing recovery efforts and the investigation, became acting leader just three days ago after the country’s president and prime minister were impeached over the imposition of a short-lived martial law. – Reuters

Trump attacks ‘dumbest’ 2023 debt limit extension

Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends the trial of himself, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, at a Manhattan courthouse, in New York City, Oct. 2, 2023. — REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID

 – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday the 2023 debt ceiling extension agreed by then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden will “go down as one of the dumbest political decisions made in years.

Under the 2023 budget deal Congress suspended the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025. The U.S. Treasury will be able to pay its bills for several months beyond that deadline, but Congress will have to address the issue, possibly around mid-year.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said, “The extension of the Debt Ceiling by a previous Speaker of the House, a good man and a friend of mine … will go down as one of the dumbest political decisions made in years.”

He added, “The Democrats must be forced to take a vote on this treacherous issue NOW, during the Biden Administration, and not in June. They should be blamed for this potential disaster, not the Republicans!”

Republicans, however, will control both chambers of Congress beginning on Jan. 3 and at least some of the party’s lawmakers would have to go along with a debt limit increase or elimination in order for it to become law.

Without the 2023 debt limit increase, the United States would have seen a historic default on its debt payments that would have roiled financial markets worldwide.

A debt default would also likely have brought a downgrade in the U.S. credit rating, raising borrowing costs for businesses and individuals.

At the time, several far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives had pushed for deeper federal spending cuts as a condition for raising the debt limit than what had been negotiated.

About a week ago, with U.S. government discretionary funding due to expire on Dec. 20, Mr. Trump, encouraged by billionaire Elon Musk, demanded the debt limit either be eliminated or extended, possibly to 2029 when his presidency would end.

That idea was tacked onto an extension of government funding into March, but it was quickly voted down by a coalition of House Democrats and hard-right Republicans, many of whom represent districts in Trump-leaning states.

A government-funding bill without a debt-limit provision was then enacted into law.

Next month, Republicans in the newly-elected Congress are expected to insist on deep federal spending cuts as a condition for raising the country’s borrowing limit.

Democrats earlier this month argued Mr. Trump’s call for an immediate increase or elimination of the debt limit was motivated by his desire to make room for a new round of tax cuts that likely would lower revenues and thus add more to the debt.

The national debt currently stands at about $36.1 trillion due to federal spending levels and tax cuts that have been enacted into law over several decades. – Reuters

North Korea’s Kim lauds new fish farm, calls for regional development

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves as he boards his train at a railway station in the town of Artyom outside Vladivostok in the Primorsky region, Russia, Sept. 17, 2023. — GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIA’S PRIMORSKY KRAI/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

 – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has celebrated the completion of a new fish farm in the east coast and called for developing rural areas, state media KCNA said on Monday, amid concerns over chronic economic challenges.

Mr. Kim attended an inauguration ceremony of the Sinpho City Offshore Farm on Saturday, built in the coastal town where the country also operates a submarine base and has tested submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

The farm, designed to grow and process scallops, kelp, sea cucumbers and sea urchins among others, was a centerpiece of Mr. Kim’s “Regional Development 20×10 Policy” aimed at building modernized factories in at least 20 remote counties every year for the next 10 years, visiting the site several times.

Mr. Kim lauded the farm as “a peculiar creation for regional transformation in the area which had been only a white beach with pine trees five months ago,” calling for further progress in rural development nationwide.

“This is a start of the important undertaking whereby to ensure steady progress in socialist construction, aspiring after simultaneous and multiple development on a nationwide scale,” he told the ceremony, according to KCNA.

Mr. Kim has been pushing to modernize the farming industry and rural communities as the country’s economy relies heavily on agriculture but continues to grapple with food shortages amid sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs as well as seasonal impacts from natural disasters.

At a key year-end assembly of the ruling Workers’ Party held from Dec. 23-27, Mr. Kim urged efforts to speed up the initiative and open another fish farm elsewhere for a trial program based on the experience from Sinpho, KCNA said separately on Sunday. – Reuters

Jimmy Carter, former US president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, dead at 100, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports

STOCK PHOTO | By Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center - File:James Earl "Jimmy" Carter - NARA - 558522.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8791775
STOCK PHOTO | By Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center – File:James Earl “Jimmy” Carter – NARA – 558522.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8791775

 – Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, has died, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Sunday. He was 100.

A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election. Mr. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor.

Mr. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other U.S. president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president – a status he readily acknowledged.

His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office.

In recent years, Mr. Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair.

Mr. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

Mr. Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th U.S. president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president.

“I’m Jimmy Carter and I’m running for president. I will never lie to you,” Mr. Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile.

Asked to assess his presidency, Mr. Carter said in a 1991 documentary: “The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader.”

Despite his difficulties in office, Mr. Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House.

Mr. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world.

A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Mr. Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency – walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade.

The Middle East was the focus of Mr. Carter’s foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors.

Mr. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Mr. Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy.

The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.

By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter’s presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term.

 

HOSTAGE CRISIS

On Nov. 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a U.S. hospital.

The American public initially rallied behind Mr. Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight U.S. soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert.

Mr. Carter’s final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom.

In another crisis, Mr. Carter protested the former Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the U.S. Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow.

Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade.

Mr. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full U.S. ties with China.

Mr. Carter created two new U.S. Cabinet departments – education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America’s “energy crisis” was “the moral equivalent of war” and urged the country to embrace conservation. “Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth,” he told Americans in 1977.

In 1979, Mr. Carter delivered what became known as his “malaise” speech to the nation, although he never used that word.

“After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America,” he said in his televised address.

“The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.”

As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behavior of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: “I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer.”

 

‘THERE YOU GO AGAIN’

Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary.

Mr. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Mr. Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election.

Mr. Reagan dismissively told Mr. Carter, “There you go again,” when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan’s views during one debate.

Mr. Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide.

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgiaone of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business.

He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called “the most important thing in my life.” They had three sons and a daughter.

Mr. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia’s governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election.

With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration,” despite decades of just such domination.

Mr. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states – 27 to Mr. Carter’s 23.

Not all of Mr. Carter’s post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter’s freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere.

In 2004, Mr. Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most “gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made.” He called George W. Bush’s administration “the worst in history” and said Vice President Dick Cheney was “a disaster for our country.”

In 2019, Mr. Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump’s legitimacy as president, saying “he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.” Trump responded by calling Mr. Carter “a terrible president.”

Mr. Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialogue with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant’s spent fuel.

But Mr. Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton’s administration by announcing the deal with North Korea’s leader without first checking with Washington.

In 2010, Mr. Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labor for illegally entering North Korea.

Mr. Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children’s book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book “Faith: A Journey for All,” was published in 2018. – Reuters