The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-02)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Wednesday, December 2, 2020 |A

WORLD NEWS

JIN LIWANG/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS (2)

WORLD WATCH

soccer player Son Heung-min

and classical musicians are

sometimes exempted from

military service for the pres-

tige they bring the country.

One senior lawmaker, Noh

Woong-rae of the governing

Democratic Party, supported de-

ferring military service for K-

pop artists, helping to swing the

balance in the group’s favor. The

singers had received govern-

ment medals for helping to ex-

pand South Korea’s soft power,

as diplomats call it, and which

now make them eligible to defer

service when the last year for

military conscription—28—

comes around. Those choosing

to put their service in early can

do so as soon as they are 18.

Members of BTS and their

management couldn’t be

reached to comment.

The draft remains a sensi-

tive topic given that North Ko-

rea sits just across the border.

Each year, tens of thou-

sands of new recruits are con-

scripted into the military to

safeguard South Korea’s de-

fense. Each serves for at least

18 months. The Military Man-

power Administration, which

enforces conscription proce-

dures, made a point of saying

it wouldn’t exempt BTS or

other K-pop superstars from

serving entirely, and would al-

BRAZIL

Bank Robbers Spark

A ‘Night of Terror’

The small Brazilian city of Cri-

ciuma was rocked by gunfire

and explosions when a heavily

armed gang of robbers broke

into a bank, took hostages and

fired their guns indiscriminately

to keep police at bay.

The group of about 30 gun-

men made off with an undis-

closed amount of money from

the Banco de Brasil branch, leav-

ing a large amount of cash

strewn in the streets as they fled.

“It was a night of terror,” Cri-

ciuma Police Chief André Mila-

nese said. “The center of town

was like a battlefield, with more

than a thousand shots fired.”

A police officer and a bank

guard were wounded. No deaths

were reported.

The robbers carried out their

operation in just under two

hours, sweeping into the city of

about 200,000 near midnight

Monday. They took a group of

municipal workers who were

painting signs on the street as

human shields as they broke

into the bank, police said.

Some of the gang began to

shoot at random, while others

set off explosives to blast

through bank doors and walls,

Mr. Milanese said. The robbers

stopped firing and fled about

1:45 a.m. Tuesday, driving in sev-

eral vehicles a few miles away

to the town of Nova Veneza. Po-

lice said they didn’t know where

they went from there.

—Luciana Magalhaes

EGYPT

Rights Advocates

Appear in Court

Three prominent human-

rights defenders appeared in a

Cairo terrorism court in a case

that has drawn international

pressure to release them.

The three members of the

Egyptian Initiative for Personal

Rights were arrested in November

after the group briefed 13 West-

ern diplomats, including ambassa-

dors from several European coun-

tries, on human rights.

The arrests sparked outcry

from European governments,

United Nations officials, members

of Congress, and Antony Blinken,

President-elect Joe Biden’s nomi-

nee for secretary of state.

Gasser Abdel-Razek, Karim

Ennarah and Mohammed

Basheer are facing charges of

“belonging to a terrorist organi-

zation” and “spreading false

news” that could harm public se-

curity. The group said there is no

evidence to support any of the

charges. The Egyptian govern-

ment hasn’t elaborated on the

terrorism allegations.

The hearing, which was the

first time all three men ap-

peared in court together, came

after a decision by prosecutors

to freeze the group’s assets.

The Egyptian Ministry for

Foreign Affairs has said that

EIPR was operating in violation

of a licensing law for nongovern-

mental organizations, a charge

the human-rights group dis-

putes.

—Jared Malsin

IRAN

Lawmakers Press for

Changes After Killing

Iranian lawmakers urged the

Rouhani government to restrict

United Nations inspections of its

nuclear activities and boost ura-

nium enrichment, after last week’s

killing of a top nuclear scientist.

On Tuesday, a majority of

members of parliament agreed

on the outlines of a motion that

would allow Iran to curtail ac-

cess for U.N. inspectors to Ira-

nian facilities that aren’t de-

clared nuclear sites, and begin

stocking highly enriched uranium,

an essential step in producing

fissile material for a possible nu-

clear weapon. The law has been

under discussion for weeks.

Both moves would gut the

key remaining limits in the 2015

nuclear deal and likely push Eu-

ropeans to leave the accord, ef-

fectively burying it after the U.S.

withdrew in 2018.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a chief

architect behind Iran’s nuclear-

weapons program in the 1990s

and early 2000s, was killed in an

ambush Friday outside Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

has accused Israel of killing the

scientist, but said Iran wouldn’t

retaliate immediately, as Tehran

seeks to keep open a path to

diplomatic re-engagement with

Washington. Israel hasn’t con-

firmed or denied its involvement.

President-elect Joe Biden has

said he would re-enter the deal if

Iran reverses its breaches of some

key limits of the nuclear deal.

—Aresu Eqbali

dents at the two main burial

sites near the towns of Karup

and Holstebro worry they

could contaminate nearby wa-

ter sources, though environ-

mental officials have said

drinking-water supplies are

safe.

Opposition parties are pres-

suring the government to ex-

hume the carcasses and find

some other way to handle the

problem. Officials laid out the

available options to Denmark’s

Parliament on Monday, which

included incinerating them or

storing them in slurry tanks.

They could also be disinfected

The lander is expected to

operate and depart from the

moon within one lunar day-

time, giving it about two

weeks of Earth days.

After collecting samples, it

is scheduled to blast off the

moon and connect with a lu-

nar orbiter before returning to

Earth midmonth.

China launched its first

manned space flight in 2003

and in space has explored

quantum communications,

erected a large radio telescope

and built a system of satellites

to support a GPS-like naviga-

tion system.

China deliberately crashed

a spacecraft into the moon in

2009 after mapping it from

orbit and has now returned

there with three successful

unmanned landings, including

one in early 2019, when it put

a probe on the dark side of

the moon, in a first for hu-

manity.

China hasn’t tried to put a

person on the moon.

A Chinese Mars lander is

due at the Red Planet around

February.

China hopes to establish a

manned base on the moon

during the current decade,

China said it landed a probe
on the moon in its latest space
endeavor and humanity’s first
bid since the 1970s to return
lunar samples to Earth.
The successful touchdown
came a little more than a week
after the unmanned Chang’e 5
probe lifted off from southern
China on Nov. 24, state media
said late China time Tuesday,
quoting China’s National Space
Administration.
A round of applause broke
out in the Beijing control room
where the landing was moni-
tored after an announcement
the probe had “landed on the
surface of the moon,” accord-
ing to a broadcast on China
Central Television.
Only the U.S. and the for-
mer Soviet Union have man-
aged to return lunar samples,
and not in almost 45 years.
The plan is to retrieve
around 4.4 pounds of rock
samples and materials from
just below the lunar surface.
The moon is central to
China’s fast-advancing scien-
tific and strategic space ambi-
tions.

BYJAMEST.AREDDY
ANDLIYANQI

China Lands

Probe on Moon

To Collect Soil

from which it could further ex-

plore deep space.

The moon’s supply of he-

lium-3, a potential energy

source, has been of particular

interest to Beijing.

The potential for water on

the moon is important as a

possible rocket fuel if it is

found and can be broken into

hydrogen and oxygen.

Any permanent Chinese

presence on the moon prom-

ises to rewrite the global or-

der in space, and scientists say

Beijing is eager to build capac-

ity there in terms of rules of

exploration and access to re-

sources.

Partly with an eye on

China’s efforts, President

Trump last year announced

creation of the Space Com-

mand to coordinate activity

and a Space Force military

branch under the Air Force.

China’s space authority released photographs it said showed the

Chang’e 5 probe landing on the moon on Tuesday. At right, a

photo said to have been taken by the lander of the lunar surface.

before being buried again.

Rasmus Prehn, minister for

food, agriculture and fisheries,

told TV 2 that the government

won’t rush to a decision, and

that there is no immediate en-

vironmental threat.

Opposition politicians such

as Thomas Danielsen, from the

center-right Liberal Party, say

it would be cheaper to act

sooner rather than later, as

pressure builds on Ms. Freder-

iksen’s government.

Farmers have protested the

cull, which involved gassing

the mink, and demanded sig-

nificant compensation. Gov-

ernment officials have ac-

knowledged that the cull was

mishandled. Mogens Jensen

resigned from his role as agri-

culture minister to be replaced

by Mr. Prehn after it emerged

there was no legal basis to im-

pose the order; the govern-

ment later introduced retroac-

tive legislation to provide

legal backing for the cull. Le-

gal experts had described it as

unconstitutional, with opposi-

tion lawmakers calling for

more heads to roll.

It is rare for the virus to

pass from one species to an-

other, but mink have been

shown to be one of the ani-

mals most susceptible to

Covid-19, partly because they

are farmed in big numbers in

close proximity with one an-

other.

Denmark’s government is
facing a grisly problem: What
to do with the carcasses of
some 17 million mink it or-
dered culled to stop the
spread of a potentially danger-
ous mutation of Covid-19.
Farmers were instructed to
kill the animals, which are
raised for their fur, after re-
searchers last month found
they could serve as a reservoir
for a strain of the virus that can
resist the vaccines being devel-
oped. At least 12 Danes have
been infected with the mutated
strain connected to mink.
The cull order effectively
ends what had been Denmark’s
third-largest agricultural ex-
port industry, generating some
$750 million in sales last year.
Prime Minister Mette Fred-
eriksen wept while visiting a
mink farm last week, where its
owners, a father and son, had
seen their lives’ work destroyed.
“It’s been emotional for them,”
she said. “For me as well.”
The big question has been
what to do with the bodies. So
many have been buried in
mass graves—some 10,
metric tons of mink in all—
that some have resurfaced in
gruesome fashion, propelled
up through the soil by the re-
lease of gases as they decom-
pose. Newspapers have called
them “zombie mink,” and resi-

BYJAMESHOOKWAY

Millions of Dead Mink Pose

Gruesome Problem for Danes

Denmark'sannualproduction

ofminkfurs

Source: Statistics Denmark

20 million

0

5

10

15

1990 2000 ’10 ’

low only a deferment.

An opinion poll published by

news outlet E-Today found that

53% of respondents supported

relaxing the conscription rules

for BTS, while 47% were against

it, despite the world-wide fan

base the group has developed.

So far, BTS has twice topped

the Billboard song chart, re-

leased a bestselling album, and

performed at the Grammys, all

by singing in Korean.

The band’s management

company, Big Hit Entertain-

ment Co., went public on the

South Korean stock exchange

in October, raising around

$840 million through its initial

public offering with a valua-

tion of about $4 billion.

The merits of mandatory

military service are an edgier

debate elsewhere.

In Thailand, an opposition

movement is aiming to abolish

the practice. Each spring, tens

of thousands of young men

who have turned 21 in the pre-

ceding year are called to draft

centers where they are sub-

jected to a lottery. In a nerve-

racking ritual, they are required

to line up and pick cards. If it is

black, they are exempt. If it is

red, they are assigned for duty.

Medical personnel are sta-

tioned at recruitment centers

to help those who collapse in

shock if they draw red.

The draft is in decline in

other countries, particularly in

Europe. Germany, Poland and

Serbia all gave up conscription

in the past decade or so. Many

economists have contended that

it misallocates resources, and

that people who might be better

employed in the private sector

or learning new skills shouldn’t

be required to spend a year or

two wearing a uniform.

There is less popular resis-

tance against the idea of mili-

tary service in South Korea,

where young men grow up

knowing that they will almost

certainly serve. “As a Korean,

it’s natural,” Mr. Kim told CBS

TV in 2019. “And some day,

when duty calls, we’ll be ready

to respond and do our best.”

Fans of K-pop sensations
BTS were relieved to learn
that one of the seven-member
band wouldn’t have to quit to
join South Korea’s military for
his mandatory service for an-
other two years.
The country’s National As-
sembly on Tuesday amended
South Korea’s conscription law
in a way that would allow
BTS’s oldest member, Kim
Seok-jin, who is just shy of
turning 28, when he would be
required to report for duty, to
postpone his military service
until he is 30.
Currently top of the Bill-
board Hot 100 with their song
“Life Goes On,” the members
of BTS already were riding
high. But the group’s fans
were ecstatic at the prospect
of seeing Mr. Kim, better
known as Jin, singing and
dancing for another two years.
Many took to Twitter, Insta-
gram and other social-media
channels to celebrate, posting
images and videos of the
seven members.
The reprieve came after
months of campaigning to rec-
ognize the cultural clout of the
country’s K-pop superstars,
the same way sports stars
such as Tottenham Hotspur

BYJAMESHOOKWAY

K-Pop’s BTS Superstar Can Defer Military Service for Two Years

Chart-topping BTS performed at the New Year’s Eve celebration last year in Times Square.

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