Page 5 - South Korea

EAM greets South Korea, Liechtenstein and Congo on their national days

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday extended his warm greetings to the governments and people of South Korea, Liechtenstein, and the Republic of Congo on the occasion of their respective national days.In a series of posts on X, Jaishankar conveyed his regards and extended greetings to these nations.Notably, the national days for these three countries also coincide with the Independence Day of India, with the nation celebrating the 79th Independence Day this year.In his message to South Korea, Jaishankar conveyed his congratulations to Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, stating, "Heartfelt congratulations to FM @FMChoHyun, the Government and the people of the Republic of Korea on their National Liberation Day. Look forward to welcoming you to India."Marking Liechtenstein's National Day, Jaishankar extended greetings to their Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sabine Monauni, saying, "Greetings to DPM & FM Sabine Monauni, the Government and the people of the ...

S Korea's President vows to restore 2018 inter-Korean military agreement

South Korea's new liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, said Friday he will seek to restore a 2018 military agreement with North Korea aimed at reducing border tensions and urged Pyongyang to respond to Seoul's efforts to rebuild trust and revive dialogue. Speaking on the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee's overture came amid soaring tensions fuelled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions and deepening ties with Russia over the war in Ukraine. The 2018 military agreement, reached during a brief period of diplomacy between Kim and South Korea's former liberal President Moon Jae-in, created buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes. South Korea's previous conservative government suspended the deal in 2024, citing tensions over North Korea's launches of trash-laden balloons toward the South, and moved to resume frontline military activities and propaganda campaigns. The step came after North Korea

IREL seeks Japan, South Korea partnerships for rare earth magnet production

The miner aims to formalise talks with other countries on rare earth mining and technology partnerships and plans to seek IREL board approval for commercial magnet production this year, source said

South Korea's ex-First Lady to face questioning after corruption arrest

This comes less than 48 hours after her arrest on corruption charges, when the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday, citing concerns that she might destroy evidence

Heavy rain devastates South Korea's capital, leaving 1 person dead

Torrential rain battered South Korea's greater capital region for a second day Thursday, leaving at least one person dead, flooding or damaging hundreds of roads and homes, and forcing more than 1,000 people to evacuate. About 250 to 300 millimetres of rain fell in parts of Seoul and nearby cities Paju, Incheon, and Gimpo through Thursday morning, leaving vehicles stranded on roads that became chocolate-coloured rivers and residents salvaging belongings from properties damaged by flash floods. Authorities issued flood and landslide warnings for areas near rivers, streams, and hills, while emergency workers rescued at least 145 people and responded to hundreds of reports of road disruptions. As of Thursday morning, power was restored to some 4,000 households that had been knocked out of electricity overnight, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said. South Korea's weather agency said the greater Seoul area will continue to be affected by downpours through Thursday ...

Wife of S Korea's jailed ex-President Yoon held over corruption allegations

The wife of South Korea's jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested as investigators seek to charge her over various suspected crimes, including bribery, stock manipulation and meddling in the selection of a candidate. In granting a special prosecutor's request for an arrest warrant late Tuesday, the Seoul Central District Court said Kim Keon Hee posed a risk of destroying evidence. The investigation into Kim is one of three special prosecutor probes launched under Seoul's new liberal government targeting the presidency of Yoon, a conservative who was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his brief imposition of martial law in December. While Yoon's self-inflicted downfall extended a decades-long run of South Korean presidencies ending badly, he and Kim are the first former presidential couple to be jailed simultaneously over criminal allegations. Yoon's surprising yet poorly planned power grab on December 3 came amid a seemingly routine standoff

South Korean President Lee to meet Trump in Washington on August 25

South Korea's new President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Washington later this month to meet with US President Donald Trump, Lee's office said Tuesday, for talks on trade and defence cooperation in the face of nuclear-armed North Korea and other threats. Their August 25 summit will follow a July trade deal in which Washington agreed to cut its reciprocal tariff on South Korea to 15 per cent from the initially proposed 25 per cent and to apply the same reduced rate to South Korean cars, the country's top export to the United States. South Korea also agreed to purchase USD 100 billion in US energy and invest USD 350 billion in the country, and the leaders could use their meeting to discuss expanding cooperation in key industries such as semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding, Lee's spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said. The meeting also comes amid concerns in Seoul that the Trump administration could shake up the decades-old alliance by demanding higher payments for the US troop presence

Tariffs on South Korea's products threaten the 'K-beauty' boom in the US

When Amrita Bhasin, 24, learned that products from South Korea might be subject to a new tax when they entered the United States, she decided to stock up on the sheet masks from Korean brands like U-Need and MediHeal she uses a few times a week. I did a recent haul to stockpile, she said. I bought 50 in bulk, which should last me a few months. South Korea is one of the countries that hopes to secure a trade deal before the Aug. 1 date President Donald Trump set for enforcing nation-specific tariffs. A not-insignificant slice of the U.S. population has skin in the game when it comes to Seoul avoiding a 25 per cent duty on its exports. Asian skin care has been a booming global business for a more than a decade, with consumers in Europe, North and South America, and increasingly the Middle East, snapping up creams, serums and balms from South Korea, Japan and China. In the United States and elsewhere, Korean cosmetics, or K-beauty for short, have dominated the trend. A craze for ...

Kim Jong Un's sister rejects appeasement overture by S Korea's new prez

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed an appeasement overture by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo Jong's comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with South Korea, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae ...

Probe into S Korea's Jeju Air crash hints at pilot error, angering families

The initial results of an investigation into December's devastating Jeju Air crash in South Korea showed that, while the plane's both engines sustained bird strikes, its pilots turned off the less-damaged one just before its crash-landing. The finding, which implied human errors, drew quick, vehement protests from bereaved families and fellow pilots who accuse authorities of trying to shift responsibility for the disaster to the dead pilots. South Korea's Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board initially planned to publicise the results of an investigation of the plane's engines on Saturday. But it was forced to cancel its press briefing in the face of strong protests by relatives of crash victims who were informed of the findings earlier in the day, according to government officials and bereaved families. If they want to say their investigation was done in a reliable, independent manner, they should have come up with evidence that backs up their explanation, said Kim ...

13th high-level meeting between coast guards of India, Korea held in Delhi

Top officers from the Indian and Korean coast guard forces held a key meeting in Delhi on Monday, seeking to boost cooperation in maritime law enforcement, search and rescue and pollution response. The defence ministry said this in a statement. "Both sides engaged in discussions to boost cooperation in Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR), Pollution Response (PR), and Maritime Law Enforcement (MLE), while reaffirming their commitment to share best practices and enhance interoperability under the 2006 MoU, it said. This was the 13th High-Level Meeting (HLM) between the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Korea Coast Guard (KCG) in Delhi. The meeting was co-chaired by Paramesh Sivamani, Director General, ICG, and KIM Yong Jin, Commissioner General, KCG, who is currently leading a five-member delegation on an official visit to India from July 20-24, the ministry said. As part of the visit, the KCG delegation will travel to Mumbai from July 23-24 for an industrial visit to Mazagon Dock ...

Jeju Air pilots shut off less-damaged engine before crash: Report

A government source said examinations of the plane's recovered engines found that no defects had been present before the bird strike and crash

Heavy downpours in South Korea kill 14 and leave 12 others missing

Torrential rains that slammed South Korea for five days have left 14 people dead and 12 others missing, the government said Sunday. One person was killed on Sunday after their house collapsed during heavy rain and another person was found dead after being swept by a swollen stream in Gapyeong, a town northeast of Seoul, the Interior and Safety Ministry said. The ministry said eight people were discovered dead and six others were reported missing in the southern town of Sancheong on Saturday after heavy downpours caused landslides, house collapses and flash floods there. A ministry report said that six people remain missing in Gapyeong and the southern city of Gwangju. Earlier last week, three people were found dead in a submerged car, and a person was also killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain. As of 9 a.m. on Sunday, about 3,840 people remain evacuated from their homes,

South Korea's ousted President Yoon indicted on additional criminal charges

South Korea's ousted conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted Saturday on additional criminal charges related to his ill-fated imposition of martial law, about three months after he was formally thrown out of office. Yoon's additional indictments mean he will remain in jail for up to six months as he faces a trial at the Seoul Central District Court on his Dec 3 martial law declaration that plunged South Korea into huge political turmoil. Yoon was sent back to prison last week after the Seoul court approved his arrest warrant requested by a team of investigators headed by independent counsel Cho Eun-suk. Cho's team indicted Yoon on abuse of power that obstructed the rights of some of his Cabinet members. The charge was imposed because Yoon summoned only select Cabinet members to approve his emergency martial law when South Korean law requires approval of all Cabinet members for such a measure, Park Ji-young, a senior investigator at Cho's team, told a briefing. Park said Yo

South Korea wins appeal in legal dispute with Elliott over Samsung merger

In 2023, the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration had directed the South Korean government to pay approximately $100 million in damages to Elliott

Samsung billionaire Lee's legal battle ends, cleared of all charges

The top court upheld a Seoul High Court ruling that acquitted Lee and other Samsung officials of all 19 charges stemming from the 2015 merger of Samsung C&T Corp. and Cheil Industries

South Korea to order fuel switch checks on Boeing jets after AI171 crash

A spokesperson for the South Korean transport ministry said the checks were in line with a 2018 advisory from the FAA, but did not give a timeline for inspections

North Korea sent over 12 million artillery shells to Russia, says Seoul

South Korea's DIA reports that Pyongyang has sent 28,000 containers of munitions missiles, troops, and workers to aid Russia's war and reconstruction efforts in Ukraine

South Korean drama on teacher-student romance scrapped after public uproar

South Korea drops teacher-student romance drama after outcry as educators, unions and critics warn of grooming glorification and urge stricter oversight of webtoons and media content

Russia warns US, South Korea, Japan against alliance targeting North Korea

Russia's foreign minister on Saturday warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited his country's ally for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew to North Korea's eastern Wonsan city on Friday for a meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui. Relations between Russia and North Korea have been flourishing in recent years, with North Korea supplying troops and ammunition to support Russia's war against Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance. That has raised concerns among South Korea, the US and others that Russia might also transfer to North Korea sensitive technologies that can increase the danger of its nuclear and missile programs. After a meeting with Choe on Saturday, Lavrov accused the US, South Korea and Japan of what he called their military buildups around North Korea. We warn against exploiting these