DHAKA – Pope Francis on Thursday arrived in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees have sought sanctuary after fleeing a crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar, in the second stage of a tour dominated by the plight of the persecuted minority.

The pope will spend three days in mainly-Muslim Bangladesh, which is also grappling with a rise in Islamist extremism that has seen Catholics attacked for their faith.

In Myanmar he walked a diplomatic tightrope, staying away from allegations that the army is waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims, despite pressure to confront the incendiary issue publically.

He also refrained from mentioning the minority by name during his four-day trip in which he held two masses and private meetings with civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing.

In Dhaka he will meet some of the refugees from the Rohingya community, whom he has described as his “brothers and sisters”, and led a mass for Bangladesh’s tiny Catholic minority.

Nearly a million refugees from the Muslim minority now languish in camps on the border and the Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper, said in an editorial Thursday it hoped he could change their fate.

“Thanks to the large body of evidence documenting severe rights abuses of the Rohingya minority of Myanmar, the extent of the atrocities carried out by Myanmar’s security forces is known to all,” it said.

“We remain hopeful that given Pope Francis’ legacy of standing up for the oppressed, he will speak out against the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya during this very important visit.” .

‘MORAL AUTHORITY’

Myanmar’s government denies the Rohingya are an ethnic group, insisting they are “Bengali” immigrants who are not entitled to full citizenship. But the Vatican has rejected suggestions that the pope’s reticence to tackle the Rohingya crisis head-on represented a failure of moral leadership.

A spokesman late Wednesday said the pope’s presence alone drew attention to Myanmar’s myriad troubles and his “moral authority” remained undimmed.

“He’s not afraid of minefields,” Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told a press conference, hinting the pope’s discussions in private may have been more strident.

Francis had been urged not to utter the Rohingyas’ name in Myanmar to avoid provoking hardline Buddhists and making the country’s Catholic community a target.

“He seemed to comprehend the dilemma he faced,” David Mathieson, a Yangon-based analyst, told AFP, applauding his diplomatic dexterity in a country where the army still holds great power.

“He is the Pope, not a pugilist… he was here to help the country work through this horrific humanitarian crisis and listen to both the civilian and military leadership.”

The pontiff was warmly embraced by Myanmar’s Catholics, who make up just over one per cent of the population.

On Friday he will lead a mass in central Dhaka that is expected to be attended by around 100,000 Bangladeshi Catholics.

The country’s Catholic community accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of the population of 160 million and have for centuries lived in relative harmony with their Muslim neighbours.

But the country has seen a rise in Islamist attacks in recent years targeting religious minorities, foreigners and secular figures.

Pope Francis’s visit coincides with the disappearance of a Catholic priest on Monday in the same village where suspected Islamist extremists hacked a Catholic grocer to death last year.

Walter William Rosario, 40, had been making arrangements for some 300 Catholics to travel to Dhaka for the pope’s mass.

Since 2015 at least three Christians, including two converts from Islam, have been hacked to death in attacks blamed on the militant Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Thirty-two star-rated hotels on the resort island of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara are offering discounts of up to 50 per cent amid eruptions at Mount Agung.

The policy was taken to facilitate domestic and international tourists who must extend their stays due to flight changes and airport closures.

“The discounts are being offered to help tourists,” said Mohammad Faozal of the West Nusa Tenggara Tourism Agency at a press conference in Mataram on Thursday.

He added that the discounts had been agreed to by hotel managements and the Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI).

Faozal also said the tourism agency had prepared three buses to offer free transportation. “One bus is on standby at the airport, while two buses are provided to tourists who want to move to other parts of the province,” he added.

Meanwhile, Lombok International Airport general manager I Gusti Ngurah Ardita announced on Thursday morning that the airport would halt operations from 10:37 a.m. until midnight on account of the spread of volcanic ash from Mt. Agung,

The airport was previously closed on Nov 26 and 27.

Oh Chong-song, the North Korean soldier who defected to the South through the Joint Security Area at Panmunjeom on Nov. 13, is the son of a ranking North Korean military official, reported a Korean cable news channel.

“The soldier-defector is the son of a North Korean military police official with a rank equivalent to a South Korean lieutenant colonel,” a member of the parliamentary committee on national defence was quoted as saying by Channel A.

It has not been confirmed, however, whether his father is still in active service.

North Korea watchers have assumed Oh to be an elite, as soldiers with good family backgrounds are usually deployed to the JSA.

The fact that he drove a military vehicle and wore socks instead of foot muffs that ordinary soldiers wear was another indicator of his family connections.

Oh also told Lee Cook-jong, the surgeon who performed surgery on him, that he wanted to study law.

North Korea’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile is a newly developed weapon rather than a variant of existing models, South Korea’s military said Thursday.

North Korea tests its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile Wednesday. (Yonhap)

“(We) are assessing that the Hwasong-15 is a new type,” Army Col. Roh Jae-cheon, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a press briefing.

The announcement follows North Korea’s release of photos that showcased updated features of its new intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday.

“There are clear differences in the appearance of the Hwasong-15’s warhead, the connection part between the first and second stage (of the missile), and the overall size.”

The photos depicting Wednesday’s liftoff of the Hwasong-15, which the North said was an upgraded model of the two-stage ICBM Hwasong-14, portrayed a much rounder warhead shape compared to its previous version. The photos were published by its state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun.

Experts here said that the new warhead design is linked to North Korea’s efforts to build a missile that can carry multiple warheads.

Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that the North Korean missile broke into three pieces before falling into the East Sea, which sparked concerns that the North had succeeded in building a multiple re-entry vehicle. The vehicle enhances the warheads’ first-strike proficiency with its capability to hit different targets with multiple missiles.

“It seems the rounder warhead shape and the part that protects the re-entry vehicle was designed in consideration to carry multiple warheads in the future,” Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at Korea Aerospace University, told The Korea Herald.

Chang also suspected a technological upgrade in the engine system.

“For the first-stage rocket, the North seems to have clustered two Paektusan rocket engines to increase its overall flight durability and range,” said Jang, highlighting how Hwasong-14 was equipped with only one Paektusan engine.

“North Korea seems to have changed the engine system for the second-stage rocket,” he added.

“Although it is difficult to determine whether the engine is solid-fueled at the moment, there’s a possibility that it carries a bigger fuel tank and more vernier thrusters.” Thrusters refer to the device used to control and stabilize the missile, according to Chang.

Another expert also said there were the first-stage rocket was equipped with two engines, a sign that it was a new type of missile.

“There are two engines in the first stage rocket — it’s a new type,” Kim Dong-yup, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Far East Institute said in a Facebook post.

“(Considering the engines), its altitude and 53-minute flight time, it is capable of striking the entire US mainland.”

There were also clues hinting at the change in the length of the missile, as it was carried on a transporter elector launcher with a total of 18 wheels, whereas the Hwasong-14 was transported on a 16-wheel vehicle. Rodong Sinmun mentioned its new TEL with nine wheels on each side in an article released Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Hwasong-15 reached an altitude of around 4,500 kilometers and flew 960 kilometers before landing in the East Sea, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. It puts the US mainland within its target range and is capable of carrying a heavy nuclear warhead, the North’s mouthpiece Korea Central News Agency said.

Experts in both South Korea and the US said it would have a range of more than 10,000 to 13,000 kilometers if launched at a range-maximizing trajectory, which could easily reach Washington.

But many believe North Korea has yet to secure the missile’s atmospheric re-entry technology, a core element in completing its ICBM programme. As an ICBM re-enters the atmosphere and falls at a top speed of Mach 24, it must endure temperatures of 6,000-7,000 degrees Celsius.

North Korea claimed that it had completed its “nuclear force” while underlining that its new ICBM is capable of hitting all areas of the United States and delivering a “super-sized heavy” nuclear warhead, in a separate Rodong Sinmun article.

Meanwhile, Seoul’s Unification Minister labelled the announcement a “hasty declaration.”

“Until recently, there were indications that North Korea has faced limits in connection with atmospheric re-entry technology, guiding and sending (an ICBM) to an intended point, and blowing up (the warhead) at a timing it wants,” he said at a Seoul Forum on Thursday.