The world community has greeted the new year seeing out 2024 replete with fortunes and misfortunes.

Last year was a year of uneasiness and turbulence.

In retrospect, big risks cropped up in various aspects.

Severe natural disasters stoked fears, and sporadic outbreaks of highly infectious viruses heightened vigilance.

What was more noticeable and troubling, however, was the international situation that grew more volatile than ever before.

Last year’s international situation attested to the fact that a weak nation can neither defend its sovereignty and dignity and the safety of its people nor enjoy a peaceful life.

Throughout the year such issues as ceasefire, peace and settlement of disputes topped the list of global subjects among governments, politicians, diplomats, media outlets, international organizations and experts around the world.

Peace-related issues were often brought to the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

Yet, every draft resolution on Mideast peace that reflects the consensus of the international community was vetoed by the US hell-bent on high-handedness and arbitrariness.

Tides of international criticism and furore failed to prevail over US tyranny.

Even the UN committed to global peace and security did little to take the responsibility for the destiny of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who were crying for help after losing their families and neighbours. The future of the small nation in the Middle East was threatened by the reckless bombardment and missile attacks.

At this moment the Palestinians are waiting anxiously for peace while lamenting their miserable, precarious fate.

Lebanon and other Mideast countries had their sovereignty violated and sustained heavy causalities and massive material losses due to Israel’s outrageous acts of terrorism and indiscriminate military provocation.

Israel, which has grown into a ferocious “predator” in the Middle East with the full connivance and patronage of the US, has seized many parts of Palestine and other countries in the region.

Not content with this, it overtly revealed its intention to wipe Palestine off the map and build a Jewish empire on it.

With Israel as a stooge, the US set itself to redraw the map of Middle East rich in energy sources in favour of its hegemonic ambition.

To this end, it has aided and abetted Israel in its war criminal acts by repeatedly handing huge amounts of war materiel over to the latter.

Guns continued to roar on the Ukrainian soil.

The Ukrainian war is an outcome of the strategic ambition of the US and the West to realize their global domination by redrawing the Eurasian political map as a whole while bringing down Russia occupying a vast swathe of east Europe and north Asia and then containing and crushing Asian powers in all directions.

Last year the US and NATO nations overtly supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine, allowing it to strike the depth of Russia, and went to great lengths to make the Ukrainian lackeys invade and occupy part of Russia’s Kursk.

This laid bare their attempt to broaden their war experiences and expand the scope of military intervention to the rest of the world.

The international security landscape was risky enough to cause fears that the third world war was on the horizon.

Ri Kyong Su