South Korea stops short of toughest coronavirus measures despite case rise

SEOUL – South Korean authorities stopped short of shifting the country up to the highest level of social distancing measures on Friday, despite recording another triple-digit increase in daily new coronavirus cases.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun instead said the government would extend the current Phase 2 social distancing, which was due to expire this weekend, for at least another week.

“Phase 3 social distancing is the choice of last resort given the economic and social ripple effect,” Chung said at a government meeting.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 371 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Thursday, bringing the country’s total to 19,077, including 316 deaths.

After using aggressive tracing and testing to contain a large outbreak earlier this year, South Korea suffered a setback this month after a church cluster spread to a political rally.

Health authorities had re-imposed Phase 2 social distancing rules on Aug. 16 in the Seoul metropolitan area, expanding the measures nationwide last week.

Earlier this week, Seoul officials ordered the closure of most schools in the capital and surrounding areas. Seoul has also mandated that masks to be worn in both indoor and outdoor public places, and has ordered places like churches, nightclubs, karaoke bars and other high-risk venues closed.

US seeks to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts tied to NKorean hacks

The U.S. government sought on Thursday to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts it said were used by North Korean hackers who stole millions of dollars of cryptocurrency from two virtual exchanges, and used Chinese traders to launder their funds.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint after having in March charged two Chinese nationals with laundering more than $100 million in cryptocurrency on behalf of North Korea.

Earlier court filings detailed what U.S. authorities have characterized as Pyongyang’s use of hackers to circumvent sanctions.

“Today’s action publicly exposes the ongoing connections between North Korea’s cyber-hacking program and a Chinese cryptocurrency money laundering network,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s criminal division said in a statement.

Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether, are created through a computer process called mining, which requires powerful hardware.

Once generated, they can be exchanged on anonymous online platforms for other currencies such as the U.S. dollar, enabling illegal activity such as money laundering and sanctions violations.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

North Korea has generated an estimated $2 billion for weapons of mass destruction programs using “widespread and increasingly sophisticated” cyberattacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, a U.N. report said last year.

The U.N. experts said attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges have allowed North Korea to generate income without the oversight common in traditional banking channels.

North Korea denied those U.N. allegations, calling them a “fabrication” aimed at tarnishing its image.

Australia open to talks over where NZ mosque shooter serves life sentence

SYDNEY – Australia’s prime minister said on Friday he was open to discussions over whether Australian mass killer Brenton Tarrant, jailed for life without parole this week for the New Zealand mosque shootings, should serve his sentence in his home country.

Scott Morrison told broadcaster Channel Seven he had not received a formal request from New Zealand for such a transfer, although New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters suggested it after Tarrant was sentenced on Thursday.

“We’ll have an open discussion and look at the issues around this,” Morrison said, adding that the views of the affected families would need to be considered first.

“I know all Australians and all New Zealanders would want to see this character locked up forever and never see the light of day again. And I agree with that. Whether he’s held in New Zealand or Australia.”

Tarrant, who grew up in a rural town north of Sydney, admitted to 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one charge of committing a terrorist act for the 2019 shooting rampage at two mosques in Christchurch.

While Australia and New Zealand have close visa arrangements, they do not have a prisoner transfer deal, creating a hurdle to any near-term change in Tarrant’s imprisonment.

Special security measures for Tarrant are expected to cost taxpayers NZ$3.6 million ($2.4 million) over two years or nearly NZ$5,000 a day, according to New Zealand government estimates.

The issue of Tarrant’s nationality was raised several times during this week’s sentencing hearings in Christchurch.

High Court Judge Cameron Mander said he believed Tarrant came to New Zealand to carry out the attacks to cause fear in what is otherwise one of the safest countries in the world.

John Milne, who lost a son in the attack, told the court on Wednesday that Tarrant had to be sent “back to Australia where he came from.”