South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea imposed a nationwide lockdown Thursday to control its first acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak after holding for more than two years to a widely doubted claim of a perfect record keeping out the virus that has spread to nearly every place in the world.

SEOUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Yoon Suk-yeol of the biggest conservative People Power Party on Tuesday was sworn in as South Korea's 20th president.

The inaugural ceremony was held in the National Assembly plaza, attended by over 40,000 ordinary people as well as dignitaries.

Yoon started his career as a public prosecutor at the age of 35, after failing to pass a bar exam for nine years.

Yoon gained fame and went from strength to strength with his investigation into political heavyweights and business tycoons.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative political neophyte, took office Tuesday as South Korea’s new president with a vow to pursue a negotiated settlement of North Korea’s threatening nuclear program and an offer of “an audacious plan” to improve its economy if it abandons its nuclear weapons.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea flight-tested a ballistic missile that was likely fired from a submarine on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, continuing a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations that may culminate with a nuclear test in the coming weeks or months.

SEOUL, May 4 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea reported 49,064 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight, compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 17,395,791, the health authorities said today.

The daily caseload was down from 51,131 the previous day and lower than 76,775 tallied a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The health authorities believed that the daily caseload has been on the decline following the Omicron variant-driven resurgence, which may have peaked in the middle of March.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters on Wednesday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to bolster his nuclear arsenal “at the fastest possible pace” and threatened to use them against rivals.

The launch, the North’s 14th round of weapons firing this year, also came six days before a new conservative South Korean president takes office for a single five-year term.

SEOUL, May 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday named his national security adviser, five senior secretaries and four other members of the presidential office, according to Yoon's presidential transition team.

Yoon, who is set to take office on May 10, nominated Kim Sung-han, a former vice foreign minister who is currently leading the foreign affairs and security subcommittee of the transition team, as the top presidential security adviser.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned again that the North could preemptively use its nuclear weapons if threatened, as he praised his top army officials for a massive military parade in the capital, Pyongyang, this week.

Kim expressed “firm will” to continue developing his nuclear-armed military so that it could “preemptively and thoroughly contain and frustrate all dangerous attempts and threatening moves, including ever-escalating nuclear threats from hostile forces, if necessary,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean activist said Thursday he launched a million propaganda leaflets by balloon into North Korea this week, in his first such campaign while standing trial for past leafleting under a contentious new law that criminalizes such actions.

The law that took effect in March 2021 and punishes anti-Pyongyang leafleters with up to three years in prison has been hotly debated in South Korea, with critics saying Seoul’s liberal government was sacrificing freedom of speech to improve ties with rival North Korea.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to accelerate the development of nuclear weapons and threatened to use them if provoked in a speech he delivered at a military parade that featured powerful missiles capable of targeting the country’s rivals, state media reported Tuesday.