South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s incoming president said Sunday he will abandon the mountainside presidential palace of Blue House and establish his office at the Defense Ministry compound in central Seoul to better communicate with the public.

The plan drew an immediate backlash from critics of the relocation plan, who warned that a hasty movement of top government offices would undermine South Korea’s national security, require excessive spending and violate property rights of residents in the new presidential office area.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea reached another daily record in COVID-19 deaths on Thursday as health officials reported more than 621,000 new infections, underscoring a massive omicron surge that has been worse than feared and threatens to buckle an over-stretched hospital system.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A North Korean missile fired from its capital region exploded soon after its liftoff in an apparent failed weapons launch on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, amid speculation that the North has been preparing to launch its longest-range missile in its most significant provocation in years.

SEOUL, March 15 (Reuters) - The USS Abraham Lincoln aicraft carrier led military exercises in the Yellow Sea, and air defence artillery at Osan air base intensified drills, U.S. forces in Asia said on Tuesday amid signs of an imminent North Korean long-range missile test.

Tension on the Korean Peninsula has been growing amid speculation North Korea could test its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at full range as soon as this week, after threatening to break a self-imposed 2017 moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear testing. 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea had its deadliest day yet of the pandemic on Tuesday, with 293 deaths reported in the latest 24 hours, as the country grapples with a record surge in coronavirus infections driven by the fast-moving omicron variant.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — After winning a bitterly contested presidential election, South Korean conservative Yoon Suk Yeol will enter office facing a quickly growing North Korean nuclear threat — and with few easy choices ahead to deal with it.

A former prosecutor with no foreign policy experience who kickstarted his political career nine months ago, Yoon will face a turbulent moment in global affairs and the decades-old standoff with the North, over which many experts see Seoul as having lost leverage under the policies of outgoing President Moon Jae-in.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his officials to expand a satellite launch facility to fire a variety of rockets, state media reported Friday, as the U.S. and South Korean militaries concluded the North is testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile system.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday he will solidify an alliance with the United States, build a powerful military and sternly cope with North Korean provocations, hours after he won a hard-fought election to become the country’s next leader.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Koreans were voting for a new president Wednesday, with an outspoken liberal ruling party candidate and a conservative former prosecutor considered the favorites in a tight race that has aggravated domestic divisions.

SEOUL, March 7 (Reuters) - The leader of South Korea's ruling party was hospitalised on Monday after being attacked while campaigning for this week's presidential election, a race already overshadowed by controversy and in which early voting has been marred by irregularities.

Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil was attacked in Seoul by a man wearing a traditional robe who approached him from behind and struck him on the head with a smaller hammer, a video uploaded to YouTube by a Democrat campaigner showed.