South Korea

19 February 2020; AFP: Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was taken to prison Wednesday to begin a 17-year term for bribery and embezzlement after losing an appeal against a lighter sentence.

Lee, in office from 2008 to 2013, was briefly jailed in 2018 after being sentenced to 15 years and fined 13 billion won ($11 million), but was granted bail while he appealed.

SEOUL, Feb 18 (NNN-YONHAP) — A South Korean presidential aircraft headed to Japan on Tuesday to evacuate four nationals and a Japanese spouse from a quarantined cruise ship docked near Tokyo, officials said, after a rapid increase in onboard infections of the new coronavirus.

The VCN-235 of the Air Force took off at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, south of the capital, at around noon, bound for Japan’s Haneda Airport. The plane plans to return to Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Wednesday morning.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday the government should make an all-out effort to cushion the economic impact from China’s coronavrius outbreak, boosting expectations of further monetary easing.

“(The government) shouldn’t quibble over whether anything is unprecedented or not, rather, we should take every possible measure we can think of on the table to deploy them,” Moon said in a cabinet meeting.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Oil prices were mixed on Thursday as concerns about falling demand caused by travel restrictions tied to the coronavirus outbreak in China, the world’s biggest oil importer, outweighed expectations of supply cuts from major producers.

Brent crude LCOc1 fell 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $55.73 per barrel at 0735 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 was up 5 cents, or 0.1%, to $51.22 a barrel. Brent rose 3.2% on Wednesday while WTI gained 2.5% as a slowdown in new Chinese coronavirus cases boosted expectations of a demand recovery.

SEOUL, Feb 10 (NNN-YONHAP) — Bong Joon-ho’s sensational black comedy “Parasite” has bagged four Oscar titles, including best picture and best director, to become the first non-English language film to achieve such a feat.

At the 92nd Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday (U.S. local time), Bong’s seventh feature film, a tale of class division, won the ceremony’s highest prize — best film.

It outclassed “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “Little Women,” “Joker,” “Marriage Story,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “1917.”

SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday that as a close neighboring country of China, South Korea stands ready to continue to actively support China in its effort to fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Moon made such remarks as he accepted the credentials from newly appointed Chinese ambassador to the Republic of Korea Xing Haiming at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A scary new virus from China has spread around the world. So has rising anti-Chinese sentiment, calls for a full travel ban on Chinese visitors and indignities for Chinese and other Asians.

Restaurants in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Vietnam have refused to accept Chinese customers. Indonesians marched near a hotel and called on Chinese guests there to leave. French and Australian newspapers face criticism for racist headlines. Chinese and other Asians in Europe, the United States, Asia and the Pacific complain of racism.

SEOUL, Feb 1 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea’s export kept falling for 14 straight months through Jan, on the lowered number of working days, caused by the Lunar New Year holiday, a government report showed today.

Export, which takes up about half of the export-driven economy, amounted to 43.35 billion U.S. dollars in Jan, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The outbound shipment continued to slide for the 14th consecutive month, since Dec, 2018.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has named a sharp-tongued former army officer with little foreign policy experience as its top diplomat, in a possible indication it will take a harder line with Washington in stalled nuclear negotiations.

Ri Son Gwon’s new title as foreign minister was disclosed Friday in a Korean Central News Agency dispatch that said he attended a reception for foreign diplomats in Pyongyang the previous day. South Korean and other outside media outlets have recently reported North Korea informed foreign diplomats in Pyongyang of Ri’s job last week.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In the first such case in South Korea, military officials will determine next week whether to discharge a soldier who recently undertook gender reassignment surgery, officials said Friday.

South Korea bans transgender people from joining its military but has no specific regulations on what to do with those who have sex change operations during their time in the service.

The non-commissioned officer entered the military as a man and had a sex change operation last year and is currently at a military-run hospital, army spokesman Jeon Ha Gyu said.