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Ju-min Park
Choi Min-kyong (right), a North Korean defector who said she was deported by China four times before making it to South Korea in 2012, and Shin Ju-ye (left), who fled North Korea in the 1990s and settled in China before defecting to South Korea last year, speak during an interview in Seoul on July 19.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 25, 2024
China cracks down on North Korean defectors with biometric surveillance
Facial-recognition cameras now monitor China's border with North Korea, documents show, while police have collected biometric data of North Koreans in the country.
Activists attend a news conference after a ruling by the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 30, 2024
Top South Korean court says climate law doesn't protect basic rights
The court asked the legislature to revise the carbon neutrality act by the end of February 2026.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at a recent meeting at the Blue House in Seoul on May 27
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 8, 2024
South Korea's Yoon to discuss Pyongyang's 'distinct threat' to Europe at NATO meet
Yoon, who became the first South Korean leader to attend a NATO summit in 2022, was to take part in his third such meeting later this week.
A monitor shows the GPS tracking of balloons built by a Seoul-based activist group that are designed to distribute anti-Pyongyang messages over North Korean territory, in Seoul on June 3.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 11, 2024
Seoul activists develop 'smart balloons' to send into North Korea
The aim is to drop cargoes deeper into North Korea, including over Pyongyang.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a trilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang during their meeting at the Blue House in Seoul on May 27.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 3, 2024
South Korea to explore vast oil and gas prospects off east coast, Yoon says
The 500 billion won ($363 million) drilling project is slated to begin towards the end of the year, aiming for results by mid-next year.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol delivers remarks during the Third Summit for Democracy in Seoul on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 18, 2024
South Korea-hosted summit warns of AI risks to democracy
South Korea is hosting the Summit for Democracy conference, an initiative aimed at discussing ways to stop the erosion of rights and freedoms.
South Korean doctors take part in a protest against the government medical policy in front of the Presidential office in Seoul on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 26, 2024
Overworked and unheard, South Korean doctors on mass walkout say
"The current medical system in South Korea, which is a great one, is run by making cheap trainee doctors keep grinding."
Medical school students discuss striking against the government's medical policies, in Seoul in August 2020. The proposal at the time was shelved after intense opposition.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 16, 2024
South Korean trainee doctors quit to protest plan to add more physicians
Doctors throughout the country held rallies on Thursday, calling on the government to scrap the plan.
Workers on a production line manufacturing false eyelashes at a workshop of Monsheery in Pingdu, China, in November
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 4, 2024
How North Korean eyelashes arrive in the West as 'made in China'
North Korea exported 1,680 tons of false eyelashes, beards and wigs to China in 2023, worth around $167 million.
South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee have been plunged into controversy after hidden camera footage emerged appearing to show Kim accepting a Dior bag as a gift.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 24, 2024
'Dior bag scandal' mars South Korean ruling party before election
The controversy over the apparent acceptance of a gift by his wife may threaten Yoon Suk-yeol's bid to reclaim a parliamentary majority in April's election.
South Korean marines patrol the entrance to a beach on Yeonpyeong Island, near the Northern Limit Line sea boundary with North Korea, on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 9, 2024
New tensions stir old fears on island near North Korean border
The breakdown of a military accord between the Koreas has left many on Yeonpyeong Island fearing they could be back in the firing line.
People watch a news broadcast showing file footage of North Korea firing artillery, at a railway station in Seoul on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 5, 2024
South Korea evacuates islands after North fires artillery nearby
The firing by North Korea caused no civilian or military damage in the South, South Korea's military said.
South Korea's opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung, in Busan, South Korea, on Tuesday before he was attacked
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 2, 2024
South Korea opposition chief attacked during visit to Busan
Lee was stabbed in the neck as he spoke with reporters, and his attacker was captured at the scene.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (center) meets his South Korean counterpart, Shin Won-sik (left), in Seoul on Sunday with Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara joining them online.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 12, 2023
U.S., Japan and South Korea defense chiefs to share North Korea missile data
The defense chiefs of the U.S. and South Korea met in Seoul on Sunday with Japan's defense minister joining the meeting online.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen attends the launching ceremony of Narwhal, its first domestically built submarine, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Sept. 28.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 16, 2023
Fearing China, South Korea targets Taiwan navy submarine contractors
Seoul has avoided arming the island, even as its companies ink weapons deals with other Asian neighbors.
South Korea's government and international rights organizations have said defectors who are deported back to the North face harsh punishment.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 13, 2023
South Korea protests to China over suspected North Korea repatriations
South Korea had been unable to determine the number of people involved and whether there were defectors among them.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 20, 2023
How a U.S. soldier made a mad dash into North Korea
The U.S. military was scrambling on Wednesday to determine the soldier's fate, as well as his motive.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jul 6, 2023
South Korean doctors flee pediatrics as low birth rate makes funding unviable
Fewer children combined with a failure of the insurance system to adapt to the situation has left the sector starved of resources, with specialists shunning a field they think has no future.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 19, 2023
South Korea's Yoon opens door for possible military aid to Ukraine
It was the first time that Seoul suggested a willingness to provide weapons to Ukraine, more than a year after ruling out the possibility of lethal aid.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 16, 2023
South Koreans skeptical as Yoon offers olive branch to Japan
South Korean opposition likely poses little domestic political problem for Yoon, but could affect how far he is able to go in winning cooperation from Japan, experts said.

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