Page 16 - South Korea

South Korean politician calls for probe into biomass imports from Indonesia

A South Korean National Assembly member has called for a moratorium on wood pellet imports from Indonesia and an investigation into their environmental impacts after government data and satellite analysis linked the country's biomass imports to deforestation in Indonesia. We should stop imports of wood pellets and it's important for our government to investigate exactly what kinds of environmental destruction is occurring on the spot, Moon Dae-Lim, a lawmaker with South Korea's main liberal opposition Democratic Party, said in recent written responses to questions from The Associated Press. Identifying and correcting potential risks in supply chains and value chains is key to a sustainable project. Biomass can come from organic material like plants, wood and waste, and many coal-fired power plants can be easily modified to burn it alongside coal to make energy. As countries accelerate their energy transitions, demand for biomass is growing: The use of bioenergy has increased an ...

Starbucks offers glimpse of North Korean life from new South Korea cafe

Starbucks Coffee Korea's new riverbank cafe at an observatory tower in South Korea's Gimpo city promises coffee aficionados a chance to gaze at normal village life in Gaepung county across border

India proposes fund to help developing nations fight plastic pollution

The fund would be modelled on the successful multilateral fund established under the Montreal Protocol, which addressed ozone depletion

Breaking the glass ceiling: Why Kim Kyung-Ah's Samsung CEO role matters

Kim Kyung-Ah's appointment as CEO of Samsung Bioepis breaks an 86-year tradition, making her the first woman outside the founding family to lead a Samsung company

India aiming to finalise carbon deals with Japan, Singapore, and S Korea

Talks over prospective future deals also are taking place with Germany and Sweden

Japan holds Sado mines memorial despite South Korean boycott amid tensions

Japan held a memorial ceremony on Sunday near the Sado Island Gold Mines despite a last-minute boycott of the event by South Korea that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the issue of Korean forced laborers at the site before and during World War II. South Korea's absence at Sunday's memorial, to which Seoul government officials and Korean victims' families were invited, is a major setback in the rapidly improving ties between the two countries, which since last year have set aside their historical disputes to prioritize U.S.-led security cooperation. The Sado mines were listed in July as a UNESCO World Heritage site after Japan moved past years of disputes with South Korea and reluctantly acknowledged the mines' dark history, promising to hold an annual memorial service for all victims, including hundreds of Koreans who were mobilized to work in the mines. On Saturday, South Korea announced it would not attend the event, saying it was impossible to settle unspecified .

United States leads global Network Readiness Index 2024; India ranks 49th

Singapore has retained the second position, while South Korea has risen to fifth, making them the only Asian countries in the top 10

Russia supplied air defence missiles to N Korea in return for troops: Seoul

Russia has supplied air defence missiles to North Korea in exchange for sending its troops to support Russia's war efforts against Ukraine, a top South Korean official said Friday. The US, South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia in October, some of whom have recently began engaging in combat. It has been unclear what Russia would give North Korea in return. Shin Wonsik, national security adviser for President Yoon Suk Yeol, told a SBS TV program Friday that South Korea has found Russia provided missiles and other equipment to reinforce its air defence network for Pyongyang, the capital. Many observers say North Korea likely feels the urgent need to boost its air defence capabilities for the capital after the North last month accused South Korea of dropping propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang. North Korea threatened to take military action if leaflets were again dropped. South Korea's military has refused to confirm whether or not it was behind t

S Korea finds Russia supplied missiles to North Korea in return for troops

A top South Korean official says Russia has supplied anti-air missiles to North Korea in exchange for it sending troops. The US, South Korea and others say North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. What Russia would give North Korea in return has been the focus of keen attention. National Security Director Shin Wonsik told a SBS TV programme Friday that South Korea has found Russia has provided anti-air missiles and other equipment to reinforce its air defence network for Pyongyang, the capital. Shin says Russia has also give diverse economic assistance to North Korea. Seoul and Washington have voiced worries about possible Russian transfers of sensitive nuclear and missile technology to North Korea.

South Korea's 'mountain' of plastic waste highlight limits of recycling

Bi-monthly MIT Technology Review magazine has rated South Korea as 'one of the world's best recycling economies', and the only Asian country out of the top 10 on its Green Future Index in 2022

North Korea supplied more conventional weapons to Russia: South Korea

North Korea recently supplied additional artillery systems to Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine, while some of the thousands of North Korean troops deployed in Russia have begun engaging in combat, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers on Wednesday. The South Korean assessment came after Russia warned on Monday that US President Joe Biden's decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles adds fuel to the fire of the war. US officials said Biden's decision was triggered almost entirely by North Korea's entry into the war. In a closed-door briefing at parliament, the National Intelligence Service said that North Korea exported 170mm self-propelled guns and 240mm multiple rocket launch systems to Russia, according to lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting. Lee told reporters that the NIS assessed those weapons are a type of artillery the Russian military doesn't operate so North Korea likely dispatched personnel

Biden praises cooperation at meeting with S Korean, Japanese leaders

President Joe Biden on Friday praised the cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the US at countering what he described as North Korea's "dangerous and destabilising cooperation with Russia". Biden spoke at the start of a meeting in Peru with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. The talks came amid heightened concerns about North Korea's growing military partnership with Russia and Pyongyang's stepped-up cadence of ballistic missile tests. The meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru comes as North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow try to claw back land in the Kursk border region that Ukraine seized earlier this year. I'm proud of how far we've come, Biden said. Whatever the issue, we've taken it on together." North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also ordered a series of ballistic missile tests in the lead-up to this month's US election and is claiming progress on effort

Kim Jong-un orders mass production of attack drones

North Korea's Kim Jong-un has ordered testing of new ‘suicide attack drones’ and has also expressed his intention to start a mass production system for wider deployment of these drones.

Hyundai Motor names Jose Munoz as CEO, first foreign leader of automaker

Munoz, 59, joined Hyundai in 2019 as global chief operating officer, with responsibility for the carmaker's north and south American operations

South Korean actor Song Jae Rim found dead in his Seoul apartment

The 39-year-old South Korean actor, Song Jae Rim, took his last breath on Tuesday. He made his acting debut in the 2009 film Actresses

4B movement: How a South Korean feminist wave reached the US shores

Women in the United States are using TikTok and X to link the 4B movement to their struggles under Donald Trump

N Korean GPS manipulation disrupted many planes, vessels: South Korea

South Korea's military said North Korea disrupted GPS signals from border areas for the second-straight day on Saturday, affecting an unspecified number of flights and vessel operations. Tensions between the rival Koreas have escalated as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un flaunts his advancing nuclear and missile program and engages in electronic and psychological warfare, such as flying thousands of balloons to drop trash and anti-South Korean propaganda leaflets in the South. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korean operations to manipulate GPS signals were detected from around the western border city of Kaesong and the nearby city of Haeju on Friday and Saturday, and said the activities disrupted dozens of civilian aircraft and several vessels. While warning aircraft and vessels near western border areas, South Korea's military did not specify how North Korea was interfering with GPS signals or detail the extent of disruptions. We urge North Korea to stop GPS ...

South Korea's president Yoon Suk Yeol denies wrongdoing in growing scandal

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol denied wrongdoing Thursday in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife that's severely hurting his approval ratings and providing political munition to his rivals. The political firestorm coincides with South Korea facing a slew of critical foreign policy issues, such as Donald Trump's election win to become the next president of the United States and North Korea's reported entry into the Russia-Ukraine war. The scandal centers around allegations that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee exerted inappropriate influence on the ruling People Power Party to pick a certain candidate to run for a parliamentary by-election in 2022 at the request of Myung Tae-kyun, an election broker and founder of a polling agency who conducted free opinion surveys for Yoon before he became president. For weeks, the scandal has been making headlines in South Korea as Myung's leaked phone conversations show he boasted of his influence over the ...

S Korea fines Meta $15 mn for illegally collecting info from Facebook users

South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers. It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information. Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022. It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers. South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, politic

North Korea fired ballistic missiles outside Japan's economic zone

North Korea on Tuesday fired a ballistic missile toward its eastern sea, according to the South Korean military, as the country continued its weapons demonstrations ahead of the US presidential elections. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't immediately say what type of ballistic missile it was or how far it flew. The launch came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a flight test of the country's newest intercontinental ballistic missile designed to reach the US mainland. North Korean state media claimed last week that the Hwasong-19 it tested on October 31 was the world's strongest ICBM, but experts say the solid-fuel missile was too big to be useful in a war situation. Experts say the North has yet to acquire some critical technologies to build a functioning ICBM, such as ensuring that the warhead survives the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry. The latest launches came after South Korean officials said the North was likely to dial up its military ...