South Korea

SEOUL, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday vetoed a bill that made it mandatory for the government to purchase excess rice, according to the presidential office.

Yoon rejected the revised grain management act at a cabinet meeting, marking his first veto since he took office in May last year.

The National Assembly, controlled by the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, passed the revision 12 days ago.

SEOUL, April 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korea, the United States and Japan began a two-day naval exercise in international waters south of South Korea, officials said on Monday.

The anti-submarine and search-and-rescue exercise will be staged from Monday to Tuesday in international waters south of the South Korean southern island of Jeju, according to South Korea's Ministry of National Defense.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese navies began their first anti-submarine drills in six months on Monday to boost their coordination against increasing North Korean missile threats, South Korea’s military said.

The two-day drills come as North Korea’s recent unveiling of a type of battlefield nuclear warhead prompted worries the country may conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.

SEOUL, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Forest fires broke out across South Korea Sunday due to dry and windy weather in spring, Yonhap news agency said, citing the Korea Forest Service (KFS).

According to the KFS real-time forest fire information website, a total of 30 forest fires broke out across the country at 3:30 p.m. local time (0630 GMT).

Among the total, 15 fires had been extinguished. The government issued a special dry weather warning.

SEOUL/TAIPEI, March 30 (Reuters) - The criteria for new U.S. semiconductor subsidies is worrying companies such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) and SK Hynix Inc (000660.KS), South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday, a concern shared by the world's leading contract chipmaker in Taiwan.

Conditions include sharing excess profit with the U.S. government, and three industry sources said the application process itself could expose confidential corporate strategy.

SEOUL, March 30 (Reuters) - North Korea executes people for drugs, sharing South Korean media, and religious activities as it stifles its citizens' human rights and freedom, its rival, South Korea, said in a report on Thursday.

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, based the 450-page report on testimony collected from 2017 to 2022 from more than 500 North Koreans who fled from their homeland.

"North Korean citizens' right to life appears to be greatly threatened," the ministry said in the report.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his increasing range of weapons.

North Korean photos of the meeting also showed what appeared to be a small new tactical warhead that was possibly designed to fit on a variety of delivery systems developed in recent years to overwhelm South Korean defenses.

SEOUL/BUSAN, South Korea, March 27 (Reuters) - North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, just as a U.S. aircraft carrier staged combined naval exercises with South Korea in a warning to Pyongyang.

The missiles flew about 370 km (230 miles) after being launched from North Hwanghae province at 7:47 a.m. (2247 GMT on Sunday), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

SEOUL/BUSAN, South Korea, March 27 (Reuters) - North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, just as a U.S. aircraft carrier staged combined naval exercises with South Korea in a warning to Pyongyang.

The missiles flew about 370 km (230 miles) after being launched from North Hwanghae province at 7:47 a.m. (2247 GMT on Sunday), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier and its battle group began exercises with South Korean warships on Monday, hours after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles in an apparent protest of the allies’ expanding drills.

The seventh missile test this month underscored heightening tensions in the region as both the North’s weapons tests and the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat.