South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean jets fired warning shots after a Russian military plane violated South Korea’s airspace on Tuesday, Seoul officials said, in the first such incident between the countries.

Three Russian military planes initially entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone off its east coast before one of them entered the country’s territorial sky, the South’s Defense Ministry said.

South Korean fighter jets then scrambled to the area to fire warning shots, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity due to department rules.

19 July 2019; AFP: Beer-loving South Koreans angered by a trade row with Tokyo are boycotting Japanese brews in a surge of patriotism that has even seen popular beauty bloggers targeted.

Japan this month unveiled tough restrictions on exports crucial to tech titans like Samsung, fuelling fears about the impact on the global tech sector, while South Korea's central bank warned it could have "no small impact" on the economy.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean man set himself on fire in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Friday, police said, amid rising trade disputes between Seoul and Tokyo.

The man in his 70s ignited a fire inside his car parked in front of the building where the Japanese Embassy is located, Seoul police said in a statement.

Police said the man, surnamed Kim, survived and was taken to a hospital but was unable to communicate. South Korean media reported the man is unconscious.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s central bank on Thursday cut its policy rate for the first time in three years to shore up growth threatened by a trade dispute with Japan.

The Bank of Korea lowered its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.50% following a meeting of its monetary policy committee, which also cut its growth forecast for the country’s economy this year from 2.5% to just above 2%.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says the United States fully understands the seriousness of Seoul’s growing trade dispute with Tokyo.

Senior presidential official Kim Hyun-chong made the comments Wednesday after meeting with David Stilwell, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia policy, in Seoul.

Kim says he told Stilwell about Seoul’s position on the trade dispute and that the U.S. diplomat “sufficiently understood the seriousness of this problem.”

15 July 2019; AFP: After enduring months of constant harassment at work, South Korean office worker Christine Jung finally confronted her aggressor -- only to be fired and sued for defamation by her employer.

Her situation is not unusual in South Korea, where employees have traditionally been expected to turn a blind eye to abusive behaviour by those in power -- a phenomenon so commonplace that locals have coined a word for it, "gabjil". But that could soon change thanks to a revised labour law.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea and Japan on Friday failed to immediately resolve their dispute over Japanese export restrictions that could hurt South Korean technology companies, as Seoul called for an investigation by the United Nations or another international body.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is requesting the United States mediate in a bitter diplomatic row with Japan over Tokyo’s moves to tighten controls on high-tech exports to its neighboring U.S. ally.

South Korea said Thursday its Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha discussed the issue with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone and conveyed Seoul’s view that Japan’s “undesirable” trade curbs could disrupt global supply chains and hurt trilateral cooperation among the countries.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president said Monday the country is committed to finding a diplomatic solution to a bitter dispute over tightened Japanese control of exports of high-tech materials used by South Korean companies to produce semiconductors and displays.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Saturday that an Australian student who it detained for a week had spread anti-Pyongyang propaganda and engaged in spying by providing photos and other materials to news outlets with critical views toward the North.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said North Korea deported Alek Sigley on Thursday after he pleaded for forgiveness for his activities, which the agency said infringed on the country’s sovereignty.