South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened military action against South Korea as she bashed Seoul on Saturday over declining bilateral relations and its inability to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

Describing South Korea as an “enemy,” Kim Yo Jong repeated an earlier threat she had made by saying Seoul will soon witness the collapse of a “useless” inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong.

SEOUL (Reuters) - An outside panel will weigh the validity of an investigation into Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee over a 2015 merger and alleged accounting fraud, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said on Thursday.

The planned panel’s recommendations could help pave the way for Lee’s attorneys to challenge the legality of the prosecution’s claims.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office will form the panel composed of 15 experts from fields including legal circles, academia and civic groups, the ministry of government legislation said.

SEOUL, June 11 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's presidential Blue House said on Thursday that the country will sternly deal with any act to scatter leaflets criticizing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) across the inter-Korean border.

Kim You-geun, first deputy director of the Blue House National Security Office (NSO), told a press briefing that the government will thoroughly clamp down on the dispersion of anti-DPRK leaflets and materials, saying any violation will be sternly dealt with according to law. 

SEOUL, June 11 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea’s automotive export, more than halved last month, as the COVID-19 outbreak weakened global demand, a government report showed today.

The number of vehicles exported was 95,400 in May, down 57.6 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

It was the first time in almost 17 years since July, 2003, that the number of car export fell below 100,000.

SEOUL (Reuters) - A day after North Korea suspended communication hotlines with South Korea over defectors who send propaganda and contraband into the North, South Korea said it would take legal action against two organisations that conduct such operations.

North Korea gets enraged when the defectors in the South send material such as anti-North leaflets and rice - usually by balloon over the heavily fortified border or in bottles by sea - and its media has in recent days denounced the “mongrel dogs” who do it.

SEOUL, June 10 (NNN-YONHAP) — South Korea will fully implement a military tension-reduction agreement with North Korea despite Pyongyang’s threat to scrap it, the defense ministry said Wednesday, amid heightened tensions over anti-Pyongyang leaflets.

During a meeting of top commanders presided over by Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, officers said the agreement signed in 2018 has “specifically and practically” contributed to reducing tensions between the two Koreas, according to the ministry

9 June 2020; AFP: A South Korean court on Tuesday declined to issue an arrest warrant for the heir to the country's Samsung empire over a controversial merger of two business units seen as a key step to his succession.

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, is already being re-tried on charges of bribery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with a corruption scandal that brought down former South Korean president Park Geun-hye.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea at noon Tuesday as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their tense border.

South Korea’s liberal government, which espouses greater ties with North Korea, repeated that it will work toward restoring peace on the Korean Peninsula in its response to the warning.

8 June 2020; AFP: The heir to South Korea's Samsung empire appeared in court Monday as judges deliberate on whether to detain him over a controversial merger of two business units seen as a key step to his succession.

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, is already being re-tried on charges of bribery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with a corruption scandal that brought down former South Korean president Park Geun-hye.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In the latest blow for inter-Korean cooperation, North Korea threatened to permanently shut a liaison office with South Korea as it continued to condemn its rival for failing to prevent activists from sending anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.