Page 18 - South Korea

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 ...

South Korea, EU worry about Russia's technology transfer to North Korea

South Korea and the European Union on Monday strongly condemned North Korea's reported dispatch of troops to aid Russia's war against Ukraine and expressed concerns that Russia could reward North Korea with transfers of sensitive technology to enhance its nuclear and missile programs. North Korea's troop deployment, confirmed by the US and NATO, threatens to expand the almost 3-year-long war and is causing security jitters in South Korea and elsewhere about what Russia could give North Korea in return. After a meeting in Seoul, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell issued a joint statement condemning in the strongest possible terms North Korea's deployment and voicing worries about Russia's possible provision of materials and technology to North Korea in support of its military objectives. We are also deeply concerned about the possibility for any transfer of nuclear- or ballistic missile-related technology to the DPRK, which would ...

South Korea, EU condemn North Korea's reported troop dispatch to Russia

Top South Korean and European Union officials on Monday strongly condemned North Korea's reported troop dispatch to aid Russia's war against Ukraine and agreed to work together to try to block deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. North Korea's alleged troop deployment threatens to expand the almost 3-year-long war and is causing security jitters in South Korea, where many worry Russia might reward the North by giving it sophisticated weapons technology or offering a defense commitment in the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula. In a meeting in Seoul, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun and the EU's visiting foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed serious concerns about North Korea's reported troop dispatch and strongly condemned it, according to a statement from the South Korean Defense Ministry. The two agreed to work together with the international community to try to obstruct Russian-North Korean security cooperation, the statement .

US, Japan, South Korea hold drills after N Korea's ballistic missile launch

"Amid gradually increasing security cooperation between the three countries, (we) will strengthen coordination to deter and jointly respond to North Korea's threats," it said in the statement cited

US and South Korea condemn China's military exercises around Taiwan

The report further indicates that sources from the U.S. and Japan indicate that approximately 10,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and may collaborate with Russian forces in actions aga

France credit rating outlook cut to negative by Moody's on deficit woes

Moody's put the negative outlook on its Aa2 assessment, a rating France shares with South Korea and United Arab Emirates

US, Japan and, South Korea join hands to support digital infra in India

The United States, Japan and S Korea on Friday announced the launch of a new framework that furthers their collaboration with the Indian private sector to support digital infrastructure in India. An announcement in this regard was made by the US International Development Finance Corporation, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank). DFC CEO Scott Nathan, JBIC Governor Nobumitsu Hayashi, and Korea Eximbank Chairman and CEO Hee-sung Yoon signed the Digital Infrastructure Growth Initiative for India Framework (DiGi Framework) to support projects in the information and communications technology sector such as 5G, Open RAN, submarine cables, optical fiber networks, telecom towers, data centres, smart city, e-commerce, AI, and quantum technology, a media release said. The DiGi Framework creates a streamlined process where DFC, JBIC, and Korea Eximbank, in partnership with the Indian private sector, can provide support to mee

South Korean prez vows response as North Korean troops head to Ukraine

South Korea's president said Thursday his government won't sit idle as North Korea allegedly sends troops to support Russia's war on Ukraine, as he met with the leader of Poland to discuss expanding defence cooperation amid the ongoing conflict. The meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Polish President Andrzej Duda came a day after US and South Korean officials said they believe around 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations. South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers that North Korea likely aims to send a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by the end of the year. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the presence of North Korean troops. We agreed that North Korea's troop deployment to Russia, which is in direct violation of the UN charter and U.N. Security Council resolutions, is a provocation that threatens global security, Yoon said after the summit. Yoon said South Korea will work with allies and partners to .

Lonely deaths rise in South Korea: Can a $327 mn plan end the isolation?

Seoul's new initiative offers 24x7 access to loneliness counsellors via hotline, online platform, and follow-up visits for those needing extra support