South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has conducted artillery firing exercises to bolster its defense capability, state media reported Sunday, its latest weapons test as Pyongyang continues to pressure Washington and Seoul to abandon what it calls their hostile policy toward it.

An artillery firing competition among mechanized units was held on Saturday, with senior government and military officials present, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

SEOUL, Nov 5 (Reuters) - South Korea's main opposition party on Friday chose a former top prosecutor as its presidential candidate, hoping to ride voter anger over rising home prices and corruption scandals involving President Moon Jae-in's party to victory in a 2022 election.

Yoon Seok-youl, who served as prosecutor-general until March after being appointed by Moon in 2019, was picked at a party convention to represent the People Power Party in the March 9, 2022 presidential election.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics on Thursday reported its highest quarterly profit in three years as it continues to see robust global demand for its computer memory chips.

SEOUL, Oct 27 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea reported 3,363 more cases of COVID-19 variants for the past week, bringing the total number of such cases to 46,417, the health authorities said today.

Among the new cases found for one week, till Oct 23, 125 were imported from overseas, while the remaining 3,238 were locally transmitted, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The far higher number of local transmissions indicated the domestic spread of the variants.

Of the new cases, 3,362 came from the Delta variant, and one from Alpha.

SEOUL, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy for North Korea arrived in South Korea on Saturday amid stalled denuclearisation talks and tension over Pyongyang's recent missile tests.

Special Representative Sung Kim's visit came days after North Korea fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile(SLBM), which prompted criticism from Washington and calls for a return to talks aimed at denuclearising the North in return for U.S. sanctions relief.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Saturday accused the Biden administration of raising military tensions with China through its “reckless” backing of Taiwan, and said that the growing U.S. military presence in the region constitutes a potential threat to the North.

In comments carried by state media, North Korea Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Ho criticized the United States for sending warships through the Taiwan Strait and providing Taiwan with upgraded weapons systems and military training.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea was preparing to test-launch its first domestically produced space rocket Thursday in what officials describe as an important step in its pursuit of a satellite launch program.

If weather and other conditions prevail, the three-stage Nuri rocket was scheduled to be launched at around 4 p.m. (700 GMT) with an aim to deliver a dummy payload — a 1.5-ton block of stainless steel and aluminum — into orbit 600 to 800 kilometers (372 to 497 miles) above Earth.

SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong Wednesday said the country will consider sanctions relief if the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) accepts dialogue offer.

Chung made the remark during a parliamentary audit of government offices, saying some actions should be rapidly taken to prevent the DPRK from developing nuclear and missile capabilities further.

He said sanctions relief can be considered for sure among ways to prevent the further development, on condition that the DPRK accepts the dialogue proposal.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday that it had test-fired a newly developed ballistic missile from a submarine, in its first such underwater test-launch in two years and one it says will bolster its military’s undersea capabilities.

The test Tuesday was the fifth round of missile launches since September and came as North Korea steps up pressure on Washington and Seoul to abandon what Pyongyang sees as hostile policies such as joint U.S.-South Korea military drills and international sanctions on the North.

GWANGYANG, South Korea (AP) — Abandoned, he feels, by three countries, Cho Guk-gyeong shows a visitor his South Korean alien registration card, which describes him as “stateless.” It’s an apt description for what his life is like in South Korea, 15 years after he fled North Korea.