North Korea will sever road and railway access to South Korea from Wednesday in a bid to “completely separate” the two countries.

Its military said the North would “permanently shut off and block the southern border” and fortify areas on its side.

The Korean People’s Army (KPA) described the move as “a self-defensive measure for inhibiting war”, claiming it was in response to war exercises in South Korea and the frequent presence of American nuclear assets in the region.

It marks an escalation of hostility at a time when tensions between the Koreas are at their highest point in years.

“The acute military situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula requires the armed forces of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to take a more resolute and stronger measure in order to more creditably defend the national security,” the KPA said in a report published by state media outlet KCNA.

The declaration is a largely symbolic step by Pyongyang. Roads and railways leading from North Korea to the South are rarely used, and have been incrementally dismantled by North Korean authorities over the past year.

It also comes amid a broader push by Pyongyang to change how it relates to the South, and follows a string of inflammatory incidents that have worsened relations between the two countries.

Those incidents have ranged from missile tests to hundreds of trash balloons being sent over North Korea’s southern border.

Notably, North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un announced at the start of 2023 that he was no longer striving towards reunification with the South, raising concerns that war could resume in the Korean peninsula.

“I think it is necessary to revise some contents of the Constitution of the DPRK,” Kim said at a meeting of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) in January.

“In my view, it is necessary to delete such expressions in the constitution as ‘northern half’ and ‘independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity’,” he added, suggesting that the constitution should be revised “at the next session”.

That next session was held this week, and concluded on Tuesday. Yet while many onlookers had expected Pyongyang to ratify Kim’s earlier comments and make constitutional amendments to unification and border policies, no such changes were publicised.

One analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification think tank suggested that Pyongyang could be waiting for the outcome of the US election before making any concrete decisions.

Officials could “consider adjusting the extent of constitutional revisions to align with the direction of the new (US) administration”, Hong Min told news agency AFP.

It is unclear whether North Korea’s decision to cut off all roads and railways linking it to the South was a result of discussions during the SPA session.

(BBC News)

Florida residents are rushing to finish emergency preparations – or just leave – as Hurricane Milton races toward landfall on the heavily-populated Tampa Bay.

Milton is currently a category five storm, packing ferocious winds of up to 165mph (270km/h). It is expected to hit with full force on Wednesday night, less than two weeks after the state was struck by the devastating Hurricane Helene.

President Joe Biden warned people in Florida on Tuesday to leave their homes as a “matter of life and death” while the state undertakes its largest evacuation effort in years.

“A category five, that is like a giant tornado coming at you,” one resident of the Gulf Coast city of Bradenton told the BBC from the hotel that he has evacuated to in Kissimmee.

“I wouldn’t want to be there,” said Gerald Lemus. “This will be a life-changing storm no matter where it hits.”

Mr Lemus, who has lived in Bradenton his entire life, said he has never evacuated for any previous storm. But he decided he has to for the safety of his eight-year-old daughter.

“I just looked at her and I couldn’t traumatise her to something like this,” he said on Tuesday night. “It’s a gamble we weren’t willing to make.”

ML Ferguson has been struggling to rebuild her home in Anna Maria, Florida, after it was severely damaged last month by Helene, a powerful category four hurricane when it hit.

“This one is going to be way worse than Helene,” she said on the phone while stalled in highway traffic out of the city.

“My car is totalled, we all were laid off of our job, and [my] belongings were ruined. After this storm hits, I will officially become homeless.”

Governor Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday that Florida had prepared dozens of shelters outside of evacuation zones to help house residents left stranded in the wake of the “monster” storm.

Long queues at petrol stations formed in south Florida, as some stations began running out of fuel.

Chynna Perkins told the BBC she is remaining in Tampa, where she lives in a newly constructed home outside the mandatory evacuation zones.

“I don’t think people really understand how much planning has to go into a decision like this,” she said, adding that she has two large Great Danes.

“There’s so much traffic and barely any gas available right now. People are running out of gas on the highway.”

DeSantis said that petrol was being trucked to stations, and electric vehicle charging stations also were deployed along roadways to ease the evacuation.

Tampa resident Steve Crist, spoke to the BBC while boarding up the windows of his dentist office. “Everyone’s gone. I’ve never seen it so quiet,” he said.

Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, President Biden said the storm could be one of Florida’s worst in a century.

“Evacuate now, now, now,” he told Florida residents.

The White House cancelled Biden’s planned visit to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for Milton and ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene.

(BBC News)

Japan’s government has admitted an official photo of its new cabinet was manipulated to make members look less unkempt after online speculation that it had been edited.

Photos taken by local media showed the new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and his defence minister with small patches of white shirt showing under their suits.

But in the official photo issued by the prime minister’s office on Thursday, the untidiness had disappeared.

After plenty of online mockery, a government spokesperson on Monday said “minor editing was made” to the image.

Spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters the image had been manipulated as group photos taken by the prime minister’s office “will be preserved forever as memorabilia”.

He added that “minor editing is customarily performed on these photos”.

His comments come after a barrage of mockery on social media.

“This is more hideous than a group picture of some kind of a seniors’ club during a trip to a hot spring. It’s utterly embarrassing,” one user wrote on X.

Another user said it was clear the cabinet members were wearing suits in the incorrect size.

Other users have been referring to the cabinet – and their trousers – as “ill-fitting”, according to local media.

The photograph was taken on Thursday following the first meeting of Japan’s new cabinet.

A few days earlier, Ishiba, 67, replaced outgoing prime minister, Fumio Kishida, as chief of the country’s ruling party.

He was officially appointed to the role of prime minister on Tuesday.

Ishiba has already announced plans for a snap election on 27 October.

“It is important for the new administration to be judged by the people as soon as possible,” he told a news conference in Tokyo, according to Reuters.

The election, which is set to take place more than a year before it is due, will decide which party controls parliament’s lower house.

An image taken by the media on the left, and the official photo issued by the prime minister’s office on the right

(BBC News)