At the hands of Mother Nature, 2017 was a deadly, devastating year. Wildfires in the US, volcanos in Indonesia, and mudslides and hurricanes across the world. Natural disasters took homes, power, water and lives. Arash Arabasadi looks back at some of the stories that made headlines.
Kim Jong Un wants to turn the art of kimchi-making into a science. And the North Korean leader is putting his money where his mouth is.
On the outskirts of Pyongyang, surrounded by snow-covered farms and greenhouses, stands one of Kim’s latest pet projects, the Ryugyong Kimchi Factory, which produces 4,200 tons of the iconic Korean pickled vegetable dish a year. The shiny new facility replaces an older factory and opened in June last year after getting Kim’s final seal of approval, according to manager Paek Mi Hye.
The factory is intended to showcase Kim’s efforts to boost North Korea’s domestic economy and produce more, and better, consumer products. His strategy, known as “byungjin,” aims to simultaneously develop the national economy and North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
North Korea’s repeated underground nuclear tests and launches of long-range missiles that could conceivably reach the U.S. mainland have brought more sanctions down on the North than ever before. But outside experts believe the country, while still struggling in many areas, is showing signs of modest economic growth and improved agricultural production. It could be just a year or two away from having an operational, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.
Transforming Pyongyang
Applied science, according to the North’s policymakers, is absolutely essential on all fronts.
Kim has transformed the Pyongyang skyline with high-rise apartments to house his prized rocket scientists and nuclear engineers, and Paek repeatedly stressed while giving a tour of the facility to The Associated Press how even an ancient delicacy like kimchi can benefit from scientific innovation.
Paek, who accompanied Kim on his “on-the-spot guidance” visits, said the factory has 150 workers but is for the most part automated.
She said the primary objective of the factory is to operate in a “scientific manner at every stage.” In kimchi-making, that means inspections all along the production line to ensure quality and hygiene. The factory boasts of a one-of-a-kind “kimchi analyzer” to maintain the proper levels of saltiness and lactic acid — its signature ingredient.
Age-old tradition
Koreans North and South have been making kimchi for generations, often passing family recipes down from mother to daughter or mother-in-law to daughter-in-law.
In 2015, UNESCO added kimchi to its “intangible cultural heritage of humanity” list, noting that the traditional sharing of know-how and materials to prepare large quantities of kimchi for the winter months “boosts cooperation among families, villages and communities, contributing to social cohesion.”
Paek acknowledged that some people might resist giving up the cherished tradition of communal kimchi-making. “But they also recognize the quality and reliability of our factory-made product,” she said.
The factory produces eight kimchi products, from the very spicy staple “tong kimchi,” which has a red tint and is made of whole cabbages, to a milder variety designed for children. Its kimchi products are distributed to restaurants and grocery stores around Pyongyang.
“This is the model,” Paek said. “Other factories like ours are being planned in every province.”
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Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea at least three times in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, according to two senior Western European security sources, providing an economic lifeline to the secretive communist state.
The sales of oil or oil products from Russia, the world's second-biggest oil exporter and a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, breach U.N. sanctions, the security sources said.
The transfers in October and November indicate that smuggling from Russia to North Korea has evolved to loading cargoes at sea since Reuters reported in September that North Korean ships were sailing directly from Russia to their homeland.
"Russian vessels have made ship-to-ship transfers of petrochemicals to North Korean vessels on several occasions this year in breach of sanctions," the first security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
A second source, who independently confirmed the existence of the Russian ship-to-ship fuel trade with North Korea, said there was no evidence of Russian state involvement in the latest transfers.
"There is no evidence that this is backed by the Russian state, but these Russian vessels are giving a lifeline to the North Koreans," the second European security source said.
The two security sources cited naval intelligence and satellite imagery of the vessels operating out of Russian Far Eastern ports on the Pacific but declined to disclose further details to Reuters, saying it was classified.
Russia's Foreign Ministry and the Russian Customs Service both declined to comment when asked Wednesday whether Russian ships had supplied fuel to North Korean vessels. The owner of one ship accused of smuggling oil to North Korea denied any such activity.
The latest report came as China, responding Friday to criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, denied it had illicitly shipped oil products to North Korea.
North Korea relies on imported fuel to keep its struggling economy functioning. It also requires oil for its intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear program that the United States says threatens the peace in Asia.
"The vessels are smuggling Russian fuel from Russian Far Eastern ports to North Korea," said the first security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Satellite positioning data
Reuters was unable to independently verify that the vessels had transferred fuel to North Korean vessels, whether the Russian state knew about the sales or how many Russian vessels were involved in the transfers. It was also unclear how much fuel may have been smuggled.
Ship satellite positioning data consulted by Reuters and available on Reuters Eikon shows unusual movements by some of the Russian vessels named by the security sources, including switching off the transponders, which give a precise location.
The security sources said the Russian-flagged tanker Vityaz was one vessel that had transferred fuel to North Korean vessels.
The Vityaz left the port of Slavyanka near Vladivostok in Russia on October 15 with 1,600 tons of oil, according to Russian port control documents.
Documents submitted by the vessel's agent to the Russian State Port Control authority showed its destination as a fishing fleet in the Japan Sea. Shipping data showed the vessel switched off its transponder for a few days as it sailed into open waters.
According to the European security sources, the Vityaz conducted a ship-to-ship transfer with the North Korean-flagged Sam Ma 2 tanker in open seas during October.
Reuters could not independently verify the transfer as ship tracking data showed that the Sam Ma 2 had turned off its transponder from the start of August.
The owner of the Russian vessel denied any contact with North Korean vessels but also said it was unaware that the vessel was fueling fishing boats.
Yaroslav Guk, deputy director of the tanker's owner, Vladivostok-based Alisa Ltd., said the vessel had no contacts with North Korean vessels.
"Absolutely no, this is very dangerous," Guk told Reuters by telephone. "It would be complete madness."
When contacted a second time, Guk said the vessel did not have any contacts with North Korean ships and that he would not answer further questions.
An official at East Coast Ltd., the vessel's transport agent, declined to comment.
Two other Russian-flagged tankers made similar journeys between the middle of October and November, leaving from the ports of Slavyanka and Nakhodka into open seas, where they switched off their transponders, shipping data showed.
In September, Reuters reported that at least eight North Korean ships that left Russia loaded with fuel this year headed for their homeland despite declaring other destinations, a ploy that U.S. officials say is often used to undermine sanctions.
A Russian shipping source with knowledge of Far Eastern marine practices said North Korean vessels had stopped loading fuel in Russia's Far Eastern ports but that fuel is delivered at sea by tankers using ship-to-ship transfers, or even by fishing vessels.
Accusations against China
China on Friday denied reports it had been illicitly selling oil products to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, after Trump said he was unhappy that China had allowed oil to reach the isolated nation.
China's denial came a day after it blocked a U.S. effort at the United Nations to blacklist six ships Washington believes had engaged in illicit trade with North Korea, a U.N. Security Council diplomat said.
According to documents seen by Reuters this month, the United States had proposed that the U.N. Security Council blacklist 10 ships for illicit trade with North Korea.
It accused the vessels of "conducting illegal ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products to North Korean vessels or illegally transporting North Korean coal to other countries for exports."
Three North Korean ships among the 10 were blacklisted, along with a Panama-registered vessel.
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For only the second time since 9/11, America’s defense secretary didn’t visit U.S. troops in a war zone during December, breaking a long-standing tradition of personally and publicly thanking service members in combat who are separated from their families during the holiday season.
Pentagon boss Jim Mattis, who spent more than four decades in the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, made a five-day trip through the Middle East in early December. He stopped in Kuwait and Pakistan — countries adjacent to Iraq and Afghanistan — but didn’t cross the borders to see troops at war in either country. Last week, he visited troops in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at military bases in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, wishing them holiday cheer.
Streak ends at 15 years
It has been 15 years since a U.S. defense chief didn’t travel to a war zone during the festive season. And the only time a holiday visit was skipped since Americans began fighting in Afghanistan was in December 2002. That year, then-Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went to a command post in Qatar that would be used a few months later to coordinate the launch of the Iraq war.
Asked recently why he wasn’t going to Iraq or Afghanistan, Mattis said he didn’t want to discuss his travel. “I carry out my duties to the best of my ability,” said Mattis, who visited Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this year.
Dana White, his chief spokeswoman, said the secretary “wanted the troops to enjoy their holiday uninterrupted. He is keenly aware of the logistical challenges of a senior leader visit, especially in a war zone.”
Boost for morale
Defense secretary trips historically have been aimed at boosting troop morale, letting service members know that senior leaders and the U.S. public recognize their sacrifice. And generals who have chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff have routinely done their own December trips to war zones, taking celebrities on their flights as part of a USO entertainment tour.
It is less of a tradition for U.S. presidents to make December visits to conflict zones. Such trips require much greater logistical and security planning.
President George W. Bush visited Afghanistan twice and Iraq four times, including a secret Thanksgiving voyage to Baghdad in 2003 and a trip to both nations’ capitals in December 2008. President Barack Obama flew to Iraq once as commander in chief and four times to Afghanistan. Only a December 2010 trip came during the holidays.
Pence visits Afghanistan
President Donald Trump hasn’t yet gone to the war front, but Vice President Mike Pence flew to Afghanistan last week.
Less than three months after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan, Rumsfeld flew into Bagram Air Base under extraordinarily high security, telling service members the World Trade Center “is still burning as we sit here, they're still bringing bodies out.”
He said he made the trip to talk face-to-face with “real people who are doing real things that are part of our plan.”
In two subsequent years, Rumsfeld went to Afghanistan and Iraq on Christmas Eve, mingling with troops and donning an apron to serve them holiday dinner. He fielded questions or complaints, too. In one such December troop talk, when a soldier asked Rumsfeld why troops went into battle in Iraq badly equipped, the secretary gave a now-famous response: “You go to the war with the Army you have ... not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
Gates made 5 holiday trips
Rumsfeld’s successor, Robert Gates, maintained the tradition, traveling to the war zone around the holidays during each of his five years in office. His first trip was on Dec. 20, 2006, two days after taking the job.
Like his predecessor, Gates ended his troop talks with the traditional lineup for handshakes, photos and the much-desired commemorative coin. The coins — different for each secretary or military commander and emblazoned with their names or unit designs — are ceremonial gifts that young service members embrace. Many collect them or use them to get free drinks in bars. One game stipulates the service member with the highest-ranking coin wins.
Secretaries Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel and Ash Carter followed suit, trailed by a military aide carrying the coins that they often handed out to hundreds after each event.
“Christmastime's coming up and from our family to your families, thank you,” Carter, Obama's final Pentagon boss, told troops in Afghanistan during a December 2015 visit. “You're not with them, you’re here. We don’t take that for granted.”
Mattis rarely gives public troop talks, in any season. Usually he meets privately with small groups of service members. And he has declined to hand out coins.
Thanks for the lift
While the December visits often have been promoted as a way to thank troops, they have sometimes brought a special Christmas gift.
In 2010, Gates gave four soldiers a ride home from Afghanistan on his military plane. Beyond the faster, more comfortable flight, they got a one-night layover in the luxurious Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi, where Gates stopped to meet local leaders.
“The next time you’re in touch with your families, I hope you’d let them know, whether it’s email or a phone call or whatever, just pass along to them my personal thanks to them for their support to you and their patience with all of us,” he told troops at Forward Operating Base Howz-e-Madad, Afghanistan, that December.
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The launch of Angelina's Jolie's Khmer language feature "First They Killed My Father" promised to deliver a much needed shot of exposure and enthusiasm into the arm of Cambodia's emergent film industry.
Instead of using the spotlight to springboard their productions though, leading Cambodian filmmakers are fearing a proposed tax enforcement drive could kill the industry entirely.
Cambodia's Ministry of Culture called filmmakers to a meeting in October to discuss the planned imposition of taxes on filmmakers.
The clampdown echoes a broader push by the country's General Department of Taxation to transition from an opaque and dysfunctional system of negotiated tax to a more sustainable government revenue base.
But the idea an industry struggling to stay afloat can shoulder the implementation of full tax compliance is unrealistic, said Motion Picture Association of Cambodia president Chhay Bora.
"If the taxes are to be implemented [now],risk in the film industry will occur," he said. "I think not less than 80 percent of production houses will close down because it is a heavy burden to them.
"All the artists will lose their job," he added. 'The technical team will no longer be in the film industry. Perhaps it will be the same as what happened in the 2000s."
Cambodia's film industry experienced a brief resurgence in the early 2000s fuelled by surging nationalist tensions with Thailand but with little support or direction interest soon fell away.
About seven years into a second boom, filmmakers have now been informed of just under a dozen taxes they are obligated to pay from pre-production to screening that cover monthly production incomes, cast and crew salaries.
They are also in the firing line for taxes on equipment rental, studio rental, full time staff, revenue from screening, annual VAT and withholding tax.
Bora, the director of feature films 3.50, which delved into the deplorable world of the virginity trade, and Lost Loves, the story of a mother fighting for her family's survival under the Khmer Rouge, believes good cinema has a critical role to play in Cambodian society .
"It has influence in promoting culture, literature, and sending other educational messages," he said, adding the art-form also brings national prestige.
In recent years Cambodian films have garnered some notable attention on the world stage with features such as Davy Chou's Diamond Island and Rithy Panh's The Missing Picture gracing Cannes and the Oscars.
Their success has helped inspire a new generation of filmmakers and slowly the quality of productions is lifting.
International distribution remains extremely rare though, confining most Cambodian filmmakers to a handful of theaters across the country that screen films on average just 26 times — or for about two weeks.
Filmmakers and distributors have told VOA cinemas commonly take a cut of 55 percent from these limited ticket sales.
Rampant copyright violation has made web based sales effectively pointless with most filmmakers outright refusing to do it or exhausting every other possible alternative first before risking illegal downloads.
As a result the production of serious feature films is far from a lucrative enterprise with local Cambodian attempts rarely managing to break even. Instead the filmmakers work largely for exposure.
Salaries are low and work scarce forcing freelance crew members to rely on a few jobs a year while supplementing their incomes through menial jobs, such as driving Tuk Tuks.
Huy Yaleng, 38, rode the wave of the first cinema resurgence in the early nineties at the start of his career and felt the pain of having to turn to TV execs as cinemas shut their doors, reopening as pubs and restaurants.
"The industry has just recovered in the past few years, as we all can see that we are not strong enough to make profit yet," he said.
Huy said his latest thriller "Psychotic" had once again failed to turn a profit and vowed to throw in the towel if his upcoming feature "The Witch" brought no return again.
"I am worried. I have put my love into film for my entire life, and now it has problems," Huy said. "I haven't made any profit yet, but in my mind I told myself to continue because I love it and vow to serve this industry till the end. We will try until the end."
The proposal to apply 10 percent salary tax to crew members along with taxes on other subcontractors such as those providing transportation or catering is particularly onerous, Chhay said, because their inability to pay left the burden with the production house.
Worse, such taxes would be backdated to the time each production house registered itself — leaving filmmakers struggling to break even with huge retrospective tax bills.
So he is leading the push for a 10-year tax holiday for the entire industry.
Pok Bora, Acting Director of the Film and Cultural Diffusion Department, said that request had been forwarded to higher authorities in the government but no decision had been made.
"The immediate solution by the Ministry of Economy [and Finance], is to offer a tax break until the end of 2018 for the Withholding Tax on cinema screening," he said.
The government had also created a National Arts Support and Development Fund in June 2016 — only available to registered productions that fulfilled tax obligations.
"Therefore, there is a need to emphasize on tax reforms to make sure that the funds go to the right production," he said.
Chea Sopheap, executive director of the Bophana Audio Visual Resource Center, said solutions to the industry's financial woes hinged on research and clear understanding.
"So the best way is to have a good discussion, good study in order to find a balance between cinemas, film productions and the government," he said.
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Beijing may have turned a corner in its battle against the city's notorious smog, according to Reuters calculations, and environmental consultants say the Chinese government deserves much of the credit for introducing tough anti-pollution measures.
The Chinese capital is set to record its biggest improvement in air quality in at least nine years, with a nearly 20 percent change for the better this year, based on average concentration levels of hazardous breathable particles known as PM2.5.
The dramatic change, which has occurred across North China, is partly because of favorable weather conditions in the past three months but it also shows that the government's strong-arm tactics have had an impact.
The Reuters' estimates show that average levels of the pollutants in the capital have fallen by about 35 percent from 2012 numbers, with nearly half the improvement this year.
"The improvement in air quality is due both to long-term efforts by the government and short-term efforts this winter," said Anders Hove, a Beijing-based energy consultant. "After 2013, the air in summers got much cleaner, but winter had not shown much improvement. This year is the first winter improvement we've seen during this war on pollution."
Government officials this week signaled they were confident they were starting to get on top of the problem.
"The autumn and winter period is the most challenging part of the air pollution campaign. However, with the intensive efforts all departments have made, we believe the challenge is being successfully overcome," Liu Youbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Environmental Protection, told reporters Thursday.
Still a long way to go
But environmental experts say that while they are optimistic, it may be too early to celebrate.
"The turning point is here but we cannot rule out the possibility we can turn back," said Ranping Song, developing country climate action manager for the World Resources Institute. "We need to be cautious about challenges and not relax now that there have been improvements. There are lots of issues to be solved."
And while China has scored an initial victory over smog, it still has to reverse public opinion outside China on its air quality.
New York-based travel guidebook publisher Fodor's advised tourists in mid-November in its "No List" for 2018 to shun Beijing until the city's anti-pollution campaign had reduced the "overwhelming smog." Fodor's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Beijing there is certainly plenty of room for further progress as average air quality is still significantly worse than the World Health Organization's recommendations.
And the region still sees bouts of heavy smog. On Friday afternoon, the U.S. embassy's website said Beijing's air was "very unhealthy" and the city issued a pollution alert Thursday.
Embassy monitoring
The Reuters calculations showing the improvement were based on average hourly readings of PM2.5 concentrations at the United States Embassy in Beijing from April 8, 2008 to Dec. 28, 2017.
The data was compiled from figures from the U.S. embassy's air monitoring website, as well as data provided by AirVisual, a Beijing company that analyses air quality data.
The data from the embassy, though not fully verified or validated, is the only set available for PM2.5 levels in the capital over that time period. AirVisual provided the hour-by-hour air pollution data from the embassy for recent months.
PM2.5 levels are the most closely monitored because they account for the majority of air pollutants in China and can be harmful to the body when breathed.
Beijing's air was actually worse in the first nine months of this year than in the same period last year, but PM2.5 concentrations from October to Dec. 28 this year were nearly 60 percent lower than last year, the Reuters figures show.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Huang Wei said that less than half of the improvement is due to favorable weather — particularly stronger northerly winds and low humidity — with the government's policies behind most of the change.
The Chinese government launched a winter smog "battleplan" in October for 28 northern cities that called for strict rules on emissions during the winter heating months when pollution typically worsens.
The authorities also sought to make sure that Beijing wasn't too polluted during October's Communist Party congress, which is only held once every five years, at which Xi Jinping consolidated his power as the nation's leader. Some of the more-polluting businesses in and around the capital were told to shut down for a period before and during the gathering.
The plan for the winter months included switching millions of households and some industrial users to natural gas from coal for their heating and some other needs. There were also mandated cuts in steel production by up to 50 percent in some of the areas surrounding the city.
Contrast with India
Beijing's improving air quality stands in stark contrast to India's capital New Delhi, where pollution has steadily become worse over the past few years, and is now well above Beijing's.
China's improvement, and deterioration in some other countries, means China is now not among the 10 worst countries for pollution in the world anymore, according to at least one measure.
"At the national level, India tops the index rankings, followed by Bangladesh and Thailand," said Richard Hewston, global head of environment and climate change at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, which measures 198 countries for air quality.
Beijing's clean-air campaign hasn't been without its challenges.
The government this year botched the switch from coal to natural gas, leading to recent widespread shortages of gas, soaring liquefied natural gas prices, leaving some residents freezing in their homes and some factories shuttered.
There is also a wider economic cost. Growth in industrial output, especially in northern China, has slowed because of the pollution crackdown, economists say, and the prices of some key commodities, from LNG to copper, have risen.
Some of those who had been benefiting from the poor air quality by selling air filtration products have been taking a hit.
"Overall demand in China is down. ... Some companies have 100 million yuan [$15.35 million] in unsold inventory this year as a result of the improved air quality," said Liam Bates, CEO of Beijing-based Kaiterra, which makes air filters and air quality monitoring products.
"We haven't seen huge impact because we're expanding heavily overseas. While the air in China is getting better, the air in India is much, much worse and we just opened our India office," he said.
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When the 55-year-old woman stood up to speak at a meeting of shoemakers in south India earlier this month, she was seeing her employers for the first time.
She told them about the decades she had spent hunched up in her home, repeatedly pulling a needle through tough leather as she sewed shoe uppers, the meager income she earned, her failing eyesight and the wounds on her hands.
For manufacturers and brands, her story was a revelation.
The meeting brought women workers, manufacturers, charities and brands face-to-face for the first time in a bid to map the role of homeworkers - an "invisible workforce" in a global supply chain making high-end shoes - and improve conditions.
"It was a historical meeting in that sense," said Annie Delaney of the Australian RMIT School of Management, who has documented the condition of homeworkers and attended the meeting a fortnight ago in Vellore in Tamil Nadu.
"Homeworkers described their reality. It was a powerful experience for not just the women but also for the manufacturers and brands who were meeting them for the first time."
There are hundreds of thousands of women from poor, marginalized families who work for cash — stitching, embroidering and weaving at home to put the finishing touches to products that are sold globally, campaigners said.
Most of them are not recognized as formal workers so have no access to social security or fair wages.
Vellore district in Tamil Nadu is the hub of a growing industry in India producing leather footwear for export. In 2016, India exported 236 million pairs of shoes — up from 206 million in 2015, according to the World Footwear Yearbook.
It also has one of the highest concentrations of homeworkers in India - largely women hand-stitching uppers of leather shoes.
Identifying homeworkers
While factories in the area employ people at higher salaries to assemble the shoes, manufacturers find it cheaper to outsource the labor-intensive process of stitching uppers to women who work from home, using middlemen, campaigners said.
The meeting saw Britain-based Pentland Brands - the first company to map homeworkers in its supply chain - share their interventions with other participating brands including UK-based Clarks and the Switzerland-based AstorMueller Group, according to a stakeholder who attended the closed-door meeting.
None of the companies were immediately available to comment.
Pentland, with annual sales of USD $3 billion across 190 countries, owns sports, outdoor and fashion brands including Berghaus and Speedo, and holds a majority stake of JD Sports.
Since 2016, Pentland has worked with nonprofit groups Cividep in India and Homeworkers Worldwide to identify homeworkers making shoes for them and is at present mapping their pay and hours worked to ensure better wages.
No one from Pentland was immediately available to comment on the initiative, which according to their website aims to provide direct employment to homeworkers, better training and to work with suppliers for sustainable improvement of labor conditions.
Cheap labor
Campaigners say homeworkers are paid by the piece and the exact number of hours they work are not tracked.
The women are paid less than $0.14 per pair of shoes, which are sold in Britain for between $60 and $140, according to a 2016 report by Cividep India and British nongovernment organizations Homeworkers Worldwide and Labor Behind the Label.
The report highlighted how the industry relies on homeworkers who earn less than the minimum wage, lack legal rights, and suffer from chronic headaches and body pain.
"Homeworkers have been under the radar for a long time," Delaney said. "A start was made in Vellore to collaborate and ensure they get their dues."
Read More Brands Map 'Invisible' Shoemakers in South India : http://ift.tt/2lgmpKWIt is the first major art museum in New York to close within recent memory. The museum had financial challenges and has faced accusations o...
