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Tens of thousands of Thai protesters cheered and chanted into the night in central Bangkok in a show of mass defiance to a ban on demonstrations designed to end more than three months of anti-government action. As they dispersed at 10 pm on Thursday protesters pledged to return to the same place every day. Thousands of pro-democracy protesters rallied in central Bangkok late into the evening, raising the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of the protest movement. Photo: AFP Growing demonstrations have targeted King Maha Vajiralongkorn as well as Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader, in the biggest challenge for years to an establishment long dominated by the army and palace. "Like dogs cornered, we are fighting till our deaths," Panupong "Mike Rayong" Jadnok, one the high-profile protest leaders who remains free, told the crowd. "We won't fall back. We won't run away. We won't go anywhere." Protesters ignored police appeals to disperse and spilled from the Ratchaprasong Intersection across streets and walkways, their mobile phones shimmering in the night. The location was the scene of bloodshed in 2010, during more than a decade of violence between supporters and opponents of the Thai establishment. "All protesters will be prosecuted," the deputy head of Bangkok police, Piya Tawichai, told a news conference. "I would like us to warn the children and youth: participating in these protests could impact you in the future." Police put the number of protesters at 10,000. Protesters chanted for the release of some 40 activists arrested this week. Some also called out insults against the king - until recently almost unheard of behaviour in a country where the constitution says he must be revered. A pro-democracy protester faces off against a police officer in Bangkok on Thursday. Photo: AFP Closing the protest, student leader Jutatip Sirikhan called on people to return at 5 pm on Friday and daily thereafter. Three months of protests in the country of 70 million have been largely peaceful, as was a march by tens of thousands on Wednesday. But in one incident, police pushed jeering protesters away from a motorcade carrying Queen Suthida. Overnight the government banned political gatherings of five or more people and the publication of news and online information that could threaten national security. Riot police swiftly cleared a protest camp outside Prayuth's office. "The measures were necessary to ensure peace and order," government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said in a statement. He rejected accusations from some government critics that the motorcade incident was an excuse to crack down. Arrests Thai media reported that arrest warrants had been issued against two people for injuring the queen - which can carry a life sentence, whereas the maximum penalty for insulting the monarch under lese majeste laws is 15 years in jail. Student leader Panusaya "Rung" Sithijirawattanakul. Photo: AFP Police said they had arrested protest leaders Parit "Penguin" Chiwarak and rights lawyer Arnon Nampa overnight. Student leader Panusaya "Rung" Sithijirawattanakul was taken away in a wheelchair. Arnon said on Facebook he was taken to Chiang Mai, where he faces sedition charges over a speech in August. Panusaya and Parit also face sedition charges over comments at previous protests, their lawyer said. They all deny the charges. In a handwritten note embellished with a rainbow, Panusaya urged protesters to keep fighting. "You might all see leaders disappearing one by one, but we're actually always with you," she wrote. The protest movement aims to remove Prayuth, saying he manipulated an election last year to keep hold of power. He says the election was fair. Those marching on the streets also want a new constitution and have called for a reduction in the powers of the king. They want his role to be clearly subject to the constitution and seek the reversal of orders that gave him control of the palace fortune and some army units. Anger in Thailand has been exacerbated by the economic impact of the coronavirus - even greater than in other parts of Southeast Asia because of the importance of tourism. The Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, agreed at a meeting with Prayuth on Thursday to speed up the transfer of people and goods and on future economic cooperation, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. The European Union, meanwhile, called on Thailand to respect the rights of detainees and urged restraint from all sides. - Reuters

Two US hostages held by Houthi rebels in Yemen have been released, seemingly as part of a large prisoner exchange. US national security adviser Robert O'Brien. Photo: AFP Sandra Loli, a humanitarian worker held for about three years, and businessman Mikael Gidada, held for about one, were freed on Wednesday (local time), US officials said. The remains of a third US captive, Bilal Fateen, were repatriated as well. It comes after the Houthis reported receiving more than 200 Yemenis from Oman, where many had been stranded after receiving medical treatment. A much-anticipated swap between Yemen's internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government and the Houthi rebels had been expected to take place on Thursday. In a statement, the US state department welcomed the release of Loli and Gidada, and extended its condolences to the family of Fateen. US national security adviser Robert O'Brien thanked Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman and King Salman of Saudi Arabia for their assistance, and credited President Donald Trump for his support. A Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, earlier tweeted that the 240 or so Yemenis who returned to the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, included either people who had been stranded or who were injured and had travelled to the Omani capital Muscat to receive medical treatment. Abdulsalam added that they included casualties who had travelled to the Gulf state during UN-brokered peace talks between the warring parties in Stockholm in 2018. "The United Nations did not bring [them] back" in line with the agreement reached, he said. Abdulsalam also thanked Oman for its "humanitarian efforts" but did not mention the release of US hostages. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news about the US hostages, said the state department had been working urgently to secure the deal because Loli was in ill-health. It reported the deal also included delivery of medical aid for Yemen. The operation was reportedly overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in March 2015, when the rebels seized control of much of the west of the country and forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad. The civil war has also triggered the world's worst humanitarian disaster, with thousands of civilians dying from preventable causes, including malnutrition, disease and poor health. - BBC

US first lady Melania Trump says her 14-year-old son Barron tested positive for coronavirus but has since returned a negative result. Photo: AFP Melania Trump says she also has now tested negative for Covid-19. The White House initially said Barron Trump had tested negative after both his parents tested positive earlier this month. However Melania Trump said on Wednesday subsequent test results showed Barron had also come down with Covid-19 but showed no symptoms. "Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms," Melania Trump said in a statement. Melania Trump said her symptoms were "minimal" and that she hoped to resume her duties as first lady "as soon as I can". "I experienced body aches, a cough and headaches, and felt extremely tired most of the time," she said. "I chose to go a more natural route in terms of medicine, opting more for vitamins and healthy food," Melania Trump said. Donald Trump spent three nights in a military hospital after announcing on 2 October that he and Melania had tested positive. To treat the virus, he received an experimental dual antibody therapy developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral remdesivir, as well as the steroid dexamethasone. "In one way I was glad the three of us went through this at the same time so we could take care of one another and spend time together," Melania Trump said. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is no longer capable of actively spreading Covid-19 and has been given the all clear to attend an upcoming town hall interview with NBC News without putting others at risk. Top American public health official Anthony Fauci says he and a colleague at the National Institute of Health have reviewed the Covid tests taken by the president to reach the conclusion that the president is not contagious. - Reuters

France has introduced curfews in major cities and other European nations are closing schools, bars and restaurants and cancelling operations as authorities battle a second wave of Covid-19 at the onset of winter. Health workers speak to people prior to being tested for Covid-19 at Lyon's sports arena Palais des Sports, which has been turned into a huge testing centre, Photo: AFP See all RNZ coverage of Covid-19 French President Emmanuel Macron announced that people must stay indoors from 11pm to 6am in Paris and eight other cities. The curfew will come into effect from Saturday and last for at least four weeks, Macron said in a televised interview. A state of emergency has also been declared. A further 22,951 infections were confirmed on Wednesday. A partial lockdown comes into force in the Netherlands at 11pm local time and cafes and restaurants are closing. Spain's north-eastern region of Catalonia said that bars and restaurants will close for 15 days from Thursday. European infections have been running at an average of almost 100,000 a day - about a third of the global total. The United Kingdom, France, Russia and Spain accounted for more than half of Europe's new cases in the week to 11 October, according to the World Health Organisation. Europe has by a wide margin overtaken the United States, where more than 51,000 Covid-19 infections are reported on average every day. While 22 states have so far in October set records for increases in new cases, deaths are trending downward and have averaged 700 a day over the last week. Most European governments eased lockdowns over the summer to start reviving economies already battered by the pandemic's first wave. Hand sanitiser on the bar of a restaurant in Paris where a four-week overnight curfew has been announced to fight the rapid spread of Covid-19. 14 October 2020. Photo: AFP But the return of normal activity - from packed restaurants to new university terms - fuelled a sharp spike in cases all over the continent. Bars and pubs were among the first to shut or face earlier closing in the new lockdowns, but now the surging infection rates are also testing governments' resolve to keep schools and non-Covid-19 medical care going. The Czech Republic, with Europe's worst rate per capita, has shifted schools to distance learning and plans to call up thousands of medical students. Hospitals are cutting non-urgent medical procedures to free up beds. "Sometimes we are at the edge of crying," said Lenka Krejcova, a head nurse at Slany hospital near Prague, as builders hurried to turn a general ward into a Covid-19 department. Poland is ramping up training for nurses and considering creating military field hospitals, Moscow is to move many students to online learning, and Northern Ireland is closing schools for two weeks and restaurants for four. "I don't have any good information. We are on the brink of disaster," said immunologist Pawel Grzesiowski in Poland, which reported a record 6,526 infections and 116 deaths on Wednesday. Major European economies such as Germany, England and France have so far resisted pressure to close schools, but in Germany, politicians are debating whether to extend the Christmas-New Year school break to reduce contagion. The Netherlands' return to partial lockdown has not included shutting schools. In Lisbon, football fans were unsurprised after Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo tested positive, saying it simply showed everyone was at risk of getting infected - and famous athletes were no exception. Even Pope Francis was subject to new coronavirus rules, staying at a safe distance from well-wishers at his weekly audience on Wednesday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces opposition calls for another national lockdown in England, but has so far resisted. Hospital admissions, however, are climbing and field hospitals constructed in the spring are once more being readied. In Belgium, with Europe's second worst infection rate per capita, hospitals must now reserve a quarter of their beds for Covid-19 patients. - Reuters / BBC

Pro-democracy protesters in Thailand have confronted a motorcade carrying King Maha Vajiralongkorn as it passed through a rally in Bangkok. The protesters, who were pushed back by ranks of police, raised the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of the protest movement. They have called for curbs on the king's powers and for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. The protests on Wednesday follow months of escalating tension in the country. The king, who spends most of his time abroad but has returned from Germany for several weeks, travelled in a car alongside Queen Suthida through a crowd of peaceful protesters, who chanted and raised their hands in the three-finger salute. The gesture is thought to have been inspired by the Hunger Games films in which it is used as a symbol of unity and defiance. The royal couple were on their way to a Buddhist ceremony on Ratchadamnoen Avenue, where demonstrations had taken place earlier in the day, before the protesters moved on towards Government House. The protesters had vowed not to block the royal motorcade's passage and they did not. Thailand's Queen Suthida and Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti in the motorcade as anti-government protesters (back) hold up their three-finger salute. Photo: AFP Supporters of the monarchy, dressed in t-shirts in royal yellow colour, staged rival protests in the capital, with some filmed violently attacking the pro-democracy protesters. Some witnesses accused the government of disguising police as royalist demonstrators. The two sides gathered separately along Ratchadamnoen Avenue on Wednesday afternoon and were kept largely apart by police. The anti-government protesters linked arms and marched chanting "Prayuth, get out!" - referring to the prime minister - and "Long live the people!" The protesters were prevented from reaching Government House by what appeared to be ranks of royalist supporters wearing yellow t-shirts who linked arms and shouted insults at the protesters. "We want to show that we love the king," 47-year-old Sirilak Kasemsawat told AFP news agency, accusing the pro-democracy movement of wanting to "overthrow" the monarchy - a charge the movement has always denied. "We're not asking them to be toppled, forgotten, or not to be respected," said Dear Thatcha, a pro-democracy protester. "We're just asking them to change with us. Our country needs to adapt to many things, and the monarchy is one of the issues that needs to be adapted as well," she said. The growing student-led protest movement, which began in July, has become the greatest challenge in years to Thailand's ruling establishment. Protests over the weekend in the capital were some of the largest in years, with thousands defying authorities to gather and demand change. The protesters' calls for royal reform are particularly sensitive in Thailand, where criticism of the monarchy is punishable by long prison sentences. Pro-democracy protesters walk towards Government House, as people dressed in pro-monarchy yellow t-shirts look on. Photo: AFP / Anadolu Agency Why are there protests? Thailand has a long history of political unrest and protest, but a new wave began in February after a court ordered a fledgling pro-democracy opposition party to dissolve. The Future Forward Party (FFP) had proved particularly popular with young, first-time voters and garnered the third-largest share of parliamentary seats in the March 2019 election, which was won by the incumbent military leadership. Protests were re-energised in June when prominent pro-democracy activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit went missing in Cambodia, where he had been in exile since the 2014 military coup. His whereabouts remain unknown and protesters accuse the Thai state of orchestrating his kidnapping - something the police and government have denied. Since July there have been regular student-led street protests. Demonstrators have demanded that the government headed by Prime Minister Prayuth, a former army chief who seized power in the coup, be dissolved; that the constitution be rewritten; that the authorities stop harassing critics. - BBC

An investigation by the Cook Islands financial watchdog is currently underway into a major government contract for the island of Penrhyn that was tendered earlier this year. Penrhyn in the Cook Islands Photo: Ewan Smith Tenders for the Infrastructure Ministry contract closed in February. The Public Expenditure Review Committee and Audit was looking into the contract which was awarded to Civil Contractors Ltd., a company which was registered in 2019. The contract was to construct two-story cyclone centres on Omoka and Te Tautua villages in Penrhyn. According to the tender, the contract also included all associated building services, including water and waste systems, electrical, communications, plumbing and furnishings. Scrutiny was being placed on how the contract was awarded, possible conflicts of interest and the claim significant payments had already been made to the contractor before the commencement of any work. The committee's reports have to be tabled with parliament before being publicly released although parliament was no longer required to be in session to deal with such reports. Penrhyn, Cook Islands Photo: RNZI / Mary Baines

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned her state is "on the verge" of another seeding event which saw a surge in coronavirus cases across Sydney. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Photo: AFP Health authorities in NSW confirmed 14 new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday. Eleven of those are locally acquired, and all have been traced back to known clusters or cases. Three cases of coronavirus were identified within hotel quarantine, health authorities said. Berejiklian said the state was "on the verge of being where it was" in early July, when an infected Victorian man sparked a cluster of cases at the Crossroads Hotel in Sydney's south-west. "I cannot stress enough that this is the most concerned we've been since that first incident when the Victorian citizen came up, infected his colleagues and went for a drink at a hotel," Berejiklian said. Nine of the cases are linked to the Lakemba GP cluster, and the other two are linked to the Liverpool Hospital cluster. That brings the Lakemba GP total cluster number to 12, while the source of the cluster is unknown. Two of today's confirmed cases were linked to a private clinic cluster in Liverpool, bringing that total cluster number to 10. One additional case was confirmed outside yesterday's reporting period, found in Bargo, 100km south-west of Sydney. Berejiklian said the location of the additional infection falling beyond the fringe of Sydney, was concerning. NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said the elderly man in Bargo was still being interviewed to determine the source of his infection. Berejiklian said her government had intended to further ease restrictions in the wake of yesterday's loosening of rules in hospitality and dining. "But we will be holding off until Dr Chant gives us the green light to say we are over the existing current concerns." Berejiklian confirmed the easing of social-distancing restrictions on outdoor dining and events announced yesterday would go ahead. But she said further changes to the amount of patrons in a group booking, as well as capacity limits for small venues and weddings, were all on hold. More than 16,000 people came forward for coronavirus testing yesterday, but Berejiklian said that was "not enough under the existing circumstances". - ABC

Drugmaker Eli Lilly has paused a US government-sponsored clinical trial of its Covid-19 antibody treatment has been paused because of a safety concern. Photo: AFP The drug is similar to the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals treatment President Donald Trump received after he contracted Covid-19. "Out of an abundance of caution, the ACTIV-3 independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) has recommended a pause in enrolment," an Eli Lilly spokeperson said. "Lilly is supportive of the decision by the independent DSMB to cautiously ensure the safety of the patients participating in this study." Lilly had already asked US regulators to authorise its antibody therapy, LY-CoV555, for emergency use after publishing data in September showing it helped cut hospitalization and emergency room visits for COVID-19 patients. The treatment is being developed with Canadian biotech AbCellera. Safety panel reviews illness that led to J&J vaccine trial pause Johnson & Johnson said it would take at least a few days for an independent safety panel to evaluate an unexplained illness of a study participant that led to a pause in the company's Covid-19 vaccine trial. Rival AstraZeneca's US trial for its coronavirus vaccine candidate - which uses a similar technology - has remained on hold for more than a month after a participant in the company's UK trial fell ill. J&J said the illness was being reviewed by an independent data and safety monitoring board as well as by its own clinical and safety team. The data board, which is also reviewing AstraZeneca's US trial, is required to submit its findings to the US Food and Drug Administration before the study can be restarted. Mathai Mammen, head of research & development at J&J's drugs business, said it would be "a few days at minimum for the right set of information to be gathered and evaluated". He said because the study is blinded, the company did not yet know if the ill person had been given the vaccine or a placebo. Mammen added that J&J remains on track to complete recruitment for its 60,000-person trial in the next two to three months. The company said such pauses are not unusual in large trials. It noted that the voluntary "study pause" in giving doses of the vaccine candidate to trial participants was different from a "regulatory hold" imposed by health authorities. J&J has said it expects to have enough data to apply for US regulatory clearance by the end of the year. Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc have said they expect to be able to apply for FDA clearance for their vaccine candidates even sooner. Health experts have voiced concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump could put pressure on the FDA and drugmakers to rush an unsafe vaccine to market to bolster his re-election prospect. He has repeatedly said a vaccine could be available prior to the Nov. 3 election. AstraZeneca last month paused late-stage trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine developed with the University of Oxford due to a serious unexplained illness in a British study participant. While AstraZeneca's trials in Britain, Brazil, South Africa and India have since resumed, its US trial remains on hold. The J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines both use modified, harmless - although different - versions of adenoviruses to deliver genetic instructions to human cells in order to spur an immune response to the target virus, in this case the novel coronavirus. - Reuters

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said at her US Senate confirmation hearing she is not hostile to the Obamacare law, as Democrats have suggested, and declined to specify whether she believes landmark rulings legalizing abortion and gay marriage were properly decided. US Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett gives answers at her US Senate confirmation. Photo: AFP / Getty Barrett, a conservative federal appellate judge, answered questions from senators for the first time on the second day of her Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. It gave Barrett a chance to respond to Democrats who have opposed her because of her potential as a justice to undermine the 2010 healthcare law and its protection for patients with pre-existing conditions. Trump has asked the Senate to confirm Barrett before the 3 November election in which he is seeking a second term in office. Barrett declined to say if she would step aside from any election-related cases that reach the court. The Republican president has said he expects the Supreme Court to decide the election's outcome as he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Barrett said no one at the White House sought a commitment from her on how she would rule on that or any issue. "It would be a gross violation of judicial independence for me to make any such commitment or for me to be asked about that case," Barrett told the committee of possible election cases. Barrett declined to say whether she would consider stepping aside, as Democrats have requested, from an Obamacare case due to be argued at the court a week after Election Day in which Trump and Republican-led states are seeking to invalidate the law formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Barrett noted that the new case centers upon a different legal issue than two previous Supreme Court rulings that upheld Obamacare, which she had criticized. Barrett declined to say how she would approach the new case, but said, "I am not hostile to the ACA." Barrett also said the White House did not seek her assurance that she would vote to strike down the law. "Absolutely not. I was never asked - and if I had, that would have been a short conversation," Barrett said. The Affordable Care Act is Democratic former President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement and has enabled millions of Americans to obtain medical coverage. Democrats have blasted Trump for trying to kill Obamacare amid a deadly pandemic. Republicans have a 53-47 Senate majority, making Barrett's confirmation a virtual certainty. If confirmed, Barrett, 48, would give conservatives a 6-3 Supreme Court majority. She is Trump's third Supreme Court appointment. Abortion ruling Like other Supreme Court nominees before her, Barrett opted to sidestep some questions on some matters that could come before the court. Abortion rights advocates have expressed concern that Barrett would vote to overturn the 1973 ruling called Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. Asked about that ruling, Barrett said she would consider the various factors usually applied when justices weigh whether to overturn a precedent. "I promise to do that for any issue that comes up, abortion or anything else. I'll follow the law," Barrett said. US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP Senator Dianne Feinstein, the panel's top Democrat, asked Barrett whether she agreed with her mentor, the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overturned. After Barrett declined to answer, Feinstein told her, "So on something that is really a major cause with major effects on over half of the population of this country - who are women, after all - it's distressing not to get a straight answer." Religious conservatives are hoping the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade. Republican committee chairman Lindsey Graham, asked Barrett, a devout Catholic and a favourite of religious conservatives, whether she could set aside her religious beliefs in making decisions as a justice. "I can," Barrett said, adding that she expected that as a nominee her religious faith would be "caricatured." During her 2017 confirmation hearing after Trump nominated her to her current post on the Chicago-based 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, Feinstein told Barrett that "the dogma lives loudly in you" - a comment that some Republicans said represented anti-religious bigotry. Questioned by Feinstein, Barrett declined to say whether she agreed with Scalia that the 2015 Supreme Court ruling called Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing gay marriage nationwide was wrongly decided. "I have no agenda and I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and I would not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference," Barrett said. Asked about George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis in May in an incident that triggered widespread protests, Barrett said the issue was "very, very personal for my family" because of her seven children, two - adopted from Haiti - are Black. Barrett said she and one of her daughters, Vivian, cried together after seeing the video. "It's a difficult one for us like it is for Americans all over the country," Barrett said. Barrett said "racism persists" in the United States but declined to give her view on whether it is systemic or how it should be addressed. Barrett was nominated to a lifetime post on the court on 26 September by Trump to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The four-day confirmation hearing is a key step before a full Senate vote by the end of October on Barrett's confirmation. - Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to shed tears at the weekend as he thanked citizens for their sacrifices. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as seen from a KCTV broadcast on October 10, 2020, pausing as he makes a speech prior to a military parade on Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang. Photo: STR / KCTV / AFP Though the young leader has consolidated his rule over the isolated nation with ruthless purges, North Korea watchers say he has also sought to portray himself as a more traditional political leader than his eccentric father, Kim Jong Il. Speaking at a military parade on Saturday, Kim became emotional as he paid tribute to troops for their response to national disasters and preventing a coronavirus outbreak and apologised to citizens for failing to raise living standards. "Kim's modesty and candour, and his tears and choking, were all highly unusual, even for someone who publicly acknowledges shortcomings and has an established pattern of being expressive," said Rachel Minyoung Lee, an independent researcher and former open-source North Korea analyst for the US government. The speech, which was clearly carefully designed to resonate with the domestic audience, likely cemented Kim's image as a competent, charismatic leader who also has a human side to him, she said. 'I am sorry' Kim - who broke into wide smiles when huge new ballistic missiles were displayed in the parade - blamed North Korea's continuing economic hardships on international sanctions, the coronavirus crisis and a series of damaging typhoons and floods. Since succeeding his father in 2011, Kim has made economic progress a cornerstone of his agenda. He also met with US President Donald Trump, forming an unprecedented personal relationship that included flowery letters. But ambitious plans for international trade, construction projects, and other economic measures have stalled in the face of sanctions imposed over his nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. The economy took a further hit when North Korea closed its borders to nearly all traffic due to the pandemic, and summer typhoons caused flooding that further threatened food supplies. "Our people have placed trust, as high as sky and as deep as sea, on me, but I have failed to always live up to it satisfactorily," Kim said, at one point appearing to choke up. "I am really sorry for that." Kim said the country's success in preventing a coronavirus outbreak and overcoming other challenges was a "great victory achieved" by the citizens. "Our people have always been grateful to our Party, but it is none other than themselves who surely deserve a bow of gratitude," he said. So much focus on citizens was a major departure for such events, where speeches are usually filled with more ideological themes and lauding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said Lee. "The speech was clearly intended to be for and about the people," she said. Personal approach In contrast to his remote father, Kim has taken his wife to political summits with foreign leaders, often stoops to hug children and mingles with workers at public appearances. Some of this folksy approach has shaped his public response to the country's economic challenges, said Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, a North Korean economy expert at the US-based Stimson Center think-tank. "Kim has been more personally present and visible at disaster reconstruction sites and the like, and he's prioritised a lot of the symbolic construction projects designed to show economic progress," he said. But despite some early moves towards embracing markets, Kim is not an out-an-out reformer and his policy prescriptions have tended to draw on the North Korea playbook honed by his father and grandfather, state founder Kim Il Sung, Silberstein said. The United Nations says that, under Kim, North Korea has continued to quash basic freedoms, maintaining political prison camps and strict surveillance of its citizens. Kim had his uncle executed, according to state media, and the United States accused his government of using the chemical warfare agent VX assassinate his half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, in 2017, an allegation Pyongyang has denied. Last week Kim called on his country to embark on an 80-day "speed battle" - a campaign to attain economic goals before a congress in January to decide a new five-year plan. Such campaigns, which involve citizens performing "voluntary" extra labour, have been described by some residents as "one of the most exhausting, irritating parts of everyday life", Silberstein said. -Reuters