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South Korean officials say death toll increases to 146 at Halloween crowd surge in Seoul
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Tag: South Korea
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At least 120 killed in Seoul Halloween incident | CNN
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At least 59 people were killed in the Halloween incident in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood Saturday night, according to the Yongsan Fire Department chief.
At least 150 others were also injured, the chief added.
The cause of the deaths was not immediately provided, but the chief said many people fell during the Halloween festivities, resulting in casualties.
Yonhap News Agency reported dozens of people suffered from “cardiac arrest,” according to fire authorities, and at least 81 people told emergency officials they had “difficulty breathing.”
A total of 848 emergency forces have been dispatched, including 364 firefighters and 400 police officials, according to the chief.
Police have closed off the area in the neighborhood, and social media videos are showing people lying in the streets.
Authorities have not yet provided exact details on the cause of the incident or conditions of those injured.
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Officials: 100 injured after Halloween crowd surge in Seoul
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SEOUL, South Korea — About 100 people were injured and an unspecified number were feared dead after being crushed by a large crowd pushing forward on a narrow street during Halloween festivities in the capital Seoul, South Korean officials said.
Choi Cheon-sik, an official from the National Fire Agency, said around 100 people were reported as injured during the crowd surge Saturday night in the Itaewon leisure district and around 50 were being treated for cardiac arrest as of early Sunday.
Choi said it was believed that people were crushed to death after a large crowd began pushing forward in a narrow alley near Hamilton Hotel, a major party spot in Seoul.
He said more than 400 emergency workers and 140 vehicles from around the nation, including all available personnel in Seoul, were deployed to the streets to treat the injured.
Officials didn’t immediately release a death toll, as they usually don’t until the deaths are confirmed at hospitals. The National Fire Agency separately said in a statement that officials were still trying to determine the exact number of emergency patients.
TV footage and photos from the scene showed ambulance vehicles lined up in streets amid a heavy police presence and emergency workers moving the injured in stretchers. Emergency workers and pedestrians were also seen performing CPR on people lying in the streets. Multiple people, apparently among those injured, were seen covered in yellow blankets.
Police also confirmed that dozens of people were being given CPR on Itaewon streets while many others have been taken to nearby hospitals.
A local police officer said he was also informed that a stampede occurred on Itaewon’s streets where a crowd of people gathered for Halloween festivities. The officer requested anonymity, saying the details of the incident was still under investigation.
Some local media reports earlier said the crush happened after a large number of people rushed to an Itaewon bar after hearing an unidentified celebrity visited there.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement calling for officials to ensure swift treatment for those injured and review the safety of the festivity sites. He also instructed the Health Ministry to swiftly deploy disaster medical assistance teams and secure beds in nearby hospital to treat the injured.
Local media said around 100,000 people flocked to Itaewon streets for the Halloween festivities, which were the biggest in years following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
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Poland picks Westinghouse to build its first nuclear plant
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Poland awarded a contract to build its first nuclear power plant to a U.S. bid as the country seeks to burn less coal and increase its energy independence.
The government in Warsaw chose Westinghouse for the nuclear project, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said late Friday in a tweet praising the U.S. company’s “reliable, safe technology.”
“A strong Poland-U.S. alliance guarantees the success of our joint initiatives,” Morawiecki said.
Westinghouse reportedly beat out France’s EDF and South Korean state-run company Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power for the contract.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller said on Saturday that the administration would adopt a decision at a meeting on Wednesday that will launch environmental approval and investment procedures, the Associated Press reported. Mueller said the nuclear plant in northern Poland would require improving infrastructure in the area, including roads.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm welcomed Warsaw’s decision, calling it a “huge step in strengthening our relationship with Poland for future generations to come.”
“This announcement also sends a clear message to Russia: We will not let them weaponize energy any longer,” Granholm said in a tweet. “The West will stand together against this unprovoked aggression, while also diversifying energy supply chains and bolstering climate cooperation.”
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Jones Hayden
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Time to treat North Korea’s nuclear program like Israel’s? | CNN
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Seoul, South Korea
CNN
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As a statement of intent, it was about as blunt as they get.
North Korea has developed nuclear weapons and will never give them up, its leader, Kim Jong Un, told the world last month.
The move was “irreversible,” he said; the weapons represent the “dignity, body, and absolute power of the state” and Pyongyang will continue to develop them “as long as nuclear weapons exist on Earth.”
Kim may be no stranger to colorful language, but it is worth taking his vow – which he signed into law – seriously. Bear in mind that this is a dictator who cannot be voted out of power and who generally does what he says he will do.
Bear in mind too that North Korea has staged a record number of missile launches this year – more than 20; claims it is deploying tactical nuclear weapons to field units, something CNN cannot independently confirm; and is also believed to be ready for a seventh underground nuclear test.
All this has prompted a growing number of experts to question whether now is the time to call a spade a spade and accept that North Korea is in fact a nuclear state. Doing so would entail giving up once and for all the optimistic – some might say delusional – hopes that Pyongyang’s program is somehow incomplete or that it might yet be persuaded to give it up voluntarily.
As Ankit Panda, a Stanton senior fellow in the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, put it: “We simply have to treat North Korea as it is, rather than as we would like it to be.”
From a purely factual point of view, North Korea has nuclear weapons, and few who follow events there closely dispute that.
A recent Nuclear Notebook column from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimated that North Korea may have produced enough fissile material to build between 45 and 55 nuclear weapons. What’s more, the recent missile tests suggest it has a number of methods of delivering those weapons.
Publicly acknowledging this reality is, however, fraught with peril for countries such as the United States.
One of the most compelling reasons for Washington not to do so is its fears of sparking a nuclear arms race in Asia.
South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are just a few of the neighbors that would likely want to match Pyongyang’s status.
But some experts say that refusing to acknowledge North Korea’s nuclear prowess – in the face of increasingly obvious evidence to the contrary – does little to reassure these countries. Rather, the impression that allies have their heads in the sand may make them more nervous.
“Let’s accept (it), North Korea is a nuclear arms state, and North Korea has all necessary delivery systems including pretty efficient ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles),” said Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul and a preeminent academic authority on North Korea.
A better approach, some suggest, might be to treat North Korea’s nuclear program in a similar way to Israel’s – with tacit acceptance.
That’s the solution favored by Jeffrey Lewis, an adjunct professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey.
“I think that the crucial step that (US President Joe) Biden needs to take is to make clear both to himself and to the US government that we are not going to get North Korea to disarm and that is fundamentally accepting North Korea as a nuclear state. You don’t necessarily need to legally recognize it,” Lewis said.
Both Israel and India offer examples of what the US could aspire to in dealing with North Korea, he added.
Israel, widely believed to have started its nuclear program in the 1960s, has always claimed nuclear ambiguity while refusing to be a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while India embraced nuclear ambiguity for decades before abandoning that policy with its 1998 nuclear test.
“In both of those cases, the US knew those countries had the bomb, but the deal was, if you don’t talk about it, if you don’t make an issue out of it, if you don’t cause political problems, then we’re not going to respond. I think that’s the same place we want to get to with North Korea,” Lewis said.
At present though, Washington shows no signs of abandoning its approach of hoping to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nukes.
Indeed, US Vice President Kamala Harris underlined it during a recent visit to the DMZ, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
“Our shared goal – the United States and the Republic of Korea – is a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Harris said.
That may be a worthy goal, but many experts see it as increasingly unrealistic.
“Nobody disagrees that denuclearization would be a very desirable outcome on the Korean Peninsula, it’s simply not a tractable one,” Panda said.
One problem standing in the way of denuclearization is that Kim’s likely biggest priority is ensuring the survival of his regime.
And if he wasn’t paranoid enough already, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (in which a nuclear power has attacked a non-nuclear power) will have served as a timely reinforcement of his belief that “nuclear weapons are the only reliable guarantee of security,” said Lankov, from Kookmin University.
Trying to convince Kim otherwise seems a non-starter, as Pyongyang has made clear it will not even consider engaging with a US administration that wants to talk about denuclearization.
“If America wants to talk about denuclearization, (North Korea is) not going to talk and if the Americans are not talking, (North Korea) will launch more and more missiles and better and better missiles,” Lankov said. “It’s a simple choice.”
There is also the problem that if North Korea’s increasingly concerned neighbors conclude Washington’s approach is going nowhere, this might itself bring about the arms race the US is so keen to avoid.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, a Korean think tank, is among the growing number of conservative voices calling for South Korea to build its own nuclear weapons program to counter Pyongyang’s.
Efforts to prevent North Korea developing nuclear weapons have “ended in failure,” he said, “and even now, pursuing denuclearization is like chasing a miracle.”
Still, however remote the denuclearization dream seems, there are those who say the alternative – of accepting North Korea’s nuclear status, however subtly – would be a mistake.
“We (would be) basically (saying to) Kim Jong Un, after all of this tug of war and rustling, (that) you’re just going to get what you want. The bigger question (then) of course is: where does that leave the entire region?” said Soo Kim, a former CIA officer who is now a researcher at US think tank RAND Corporation.
That leaves one other option open to the Biden administration and its allies, though it’s one that may seem unlikely in the current climate.
They could pursue a deal in which Pyongyang offers to freeze its arms development in return for sanctions relief.
In other words, not a million miles away from the deal Kim offered then US President Donald Trump at their summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019.
This option has its backers. “A freeze is a really solid way to start things out. It’s very hard to get rid of weapons that exist, but what is possible … is to prevent things from getting worse. It takes some of the pressure off and it opens up space for other kinds of negotiations,” said Lewis of the James Martin Center.
However, the Trump-era overtones might make this a non-starter. Asked if he thought President Biden might consider this tactic, Lewis smiled and said, “I’m a professor, so I specialize in giving advice that no one is ever going to take.”
But even if the Biden administration was so inclined, that ship may have sailed; the Kim of 2019 was far more willing to engage than the Kim of 2022.
And that, perhaps, is the biggest problem at the heart of all the options on the table: they rely on some form of engagement with North Korea – something entirely lacking at present.
Kim is now focused on his five-year plan for military modernization announced in January 2021 and no offers of talks from the Biden administration or others have yet turned his head in the slightest.
As Panda acknowledged, “There’s a set of cooperative options which would require the North Koreans being willing to sit down at the table and talk about some of those things with us. I don’t think that we are even close to sitting down with the North Koreans.”
And, in fairness to Kim, the reticence is not all down to Pyongyang.
“Big policy shifts in the US would require the President’s backing, and I really see no evidence that Joe Biden really sees the North Korean issue as deserving of tremendous political capital,” Panda said.
He added what many experts believe – and what even some US and South Korean lawmakers admit behind closed doors: “We will be living with a nuclear armed North Korea probably for a few decades to come at least.”
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Small earthquake shakes central South Korea
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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean officials say there were no immediate reports of damage after a 4.1-magnitude earthquake shook a small agricultural county in the country’s central region.
South Korea’s weather agency said Saturday’s small earthquake in the town of Goesan was still the strongest of the 38 quakes that have occurred in the country this year and would have been powerful enough to topple objects or break windows.
Lee Jae-yeong, an official from the Safety Ministry’s disaster headquarters, said emergency officials from the central North Chungcheong province and surrounding regions received more than 50 calls from residents saying they felt the ground shaking. Lee said emergency workers haven’t yet received any reports of actual damage.
The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he instructed officials to also review the safety of electricity and telecommunication systems, although there were no immediate reports of problems.
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N Korea fires missiles toward sea as US warns over nukes
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea on Friday in its first ballistic weapons launches in two weeks, as the U.S. military warned the North that the use of nuclear weapons “will result in the end of that regime.”
South Korea’s military detected the two launches from the North’s eastern coastal Tongchon area around midday on Friday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains readiness amid close coordination with the United States, it said.
The U.S. Indo Pacific Command said the launches did not pose an immediate threat to the United States or its allies but highlighted the “destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The back-to-back launches, the North’s first ballistic missile tests since Oct. 14, came on the final day of South Korea’s annual 12-day “Hoguk” field exercises, which also involved an unspecified number of U.S. troops this year. Next week, South Korean and U.S. air forces plan to conduct a large-scale training as well.
North Korea sees such regular drills by Seoul and Washington as practice for launching an attack on the North, though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature.
Next week’s “Vigilant Storm” aerial drills are to run from Monday to Friday and involve about 140 South Korean warplanes and about 100 U.S. aircraft. The planes include sophisticated fighter jets like F-35 from both nations, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement earlier Friday.
Since late September, North Korea has launched a barrage of missiles toward the sea in what it called simulated tests of tactical nuclear weapons systems designed to attack South Korean and U.S. targets. North Korea says its testing activities were meant to issue a warning amid a series of South Korea-U.S. military drills. But some experts say Pyongyang has also used its rivals’ drills as a chance to test new weapons systems, boost its nuclear capability and increase its leverage in future dealings with Washington and Seoul.
Tongchon, the launch site for the North’s Friday launches, is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from the inter-Korean border. The area was apparently closer to South Korea than any other missile launch site North Korea has used so far this year.
South Korea and the United States have strongly warned North Korea against using its nuclear weapons preemptively.
The Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy report issued on Thursday stated that any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners “will result in the end of that regime.”
“There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive,” the report said. The Pentagon said it will continue to deter North Korean attacks through “forward posture,” including nuclear deterrence, integrated air and missile defenses, and close coordination and interoperability with South Korea.
During a visit to Tokyo on Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman reiterated that the United States would fully use its military capabilities, “including nuclear,” to defend its allies South Korea and Japan.
There are concerns that the North could up the ante in the coming weeks by conducting its first nuclear test since 2017.
Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday that a new nuclear test explosion by North Korea “would be yet another confirmation of a program which is moving full steam ahead in a way that is incredibly concerning.”
He said the U.N. agency has been observing preparations for a new test, which would be the North’s seventh overall, but gave no indication of whether an atomic blast is imminent.
In recent days, North Korea has also fired hundreds of shells in inter-Korean maritime buffer zones that the two Koreas established in 2018 to reduce frontline military tensions. North Korea has said the artillery firings were in reaction to South Korean live-fire exercises at land border areas.
On Monday, the rival Koreas exchanged warning shots along their disputed western sea boundary, a scene of past bloodshed and naval battles, as they accuse each other of violating the boundary.
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North Korea fires another ballistic missile toward East Sea, South Korea says
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[ad_2]South Korea says North Korea has fired a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch occurred on Friday but gave no further details including how far the weapon flew.
The launch, the latest in a series of weapons tests by North Korea in recent weeks, came as South Korea is wrapping an annual military drill that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
This comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is preparing to soon carry out a tactical nuclear test, according to U.S. and South Korean officials.
“We think they’re ready to go. Kim just has to give the thumbs up,” a senior U.S. State Department official told CBS News Thursday.
It would mark North Korea’s first atomic test in five years.
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Samsung names billionaire scion Jay Y. Lee as chairman | CNN Business
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Hong Kong/Seoul
CNN Business
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Samsung has appointed Jay Y. Lee, its longtime de facto leader, as executive chairman.
The move was announced Thursday, making official who would continue to head up South Korea’s most valuable and well-known company. Lee had previously held the title of vice chairman.
Samsung’s board, which approved the change, “cited the current uncertain global business environment and the pressing need for stronger accountability and business stability,” the tech giant said in a statement.
It comes just months after Lee, the scion of one of South Korea’s most powerful families, was pardoned for crimes including embezzlement and bribery.
In August, Lee was personally excused by the country’s president for his alleged wrongdoing, with officials citing an economic crisis that required the attention of its top business leaders.
The pardon ended a five-year ban on Lee holding a formal position at Samsung. The billionaire was twice sent to prison but had been out on parole since last year.
Lee, also known widely as Lee Jae-yong, has been operating as Samsung’s de facto leader since 2014, when his father fell into coma after suffering a heart attack. The senior Lee died in 2020.
This week, the younger Lee marked the second anniversary of his father’s death, vowing in a staff meeting Tuesday “to preserve his legacy.”
“During this period, we have had to confront many challenges, and at times, we have struggled to make breakthroughs,” he said, according to a readout of remarks that Samsung shared with CNN Business. “Without a doubt, we are at a pivotal moment.”
“Now is the time to plan our next move,” Lee added.
The pledge coincides with an ambitious drive announced by Samsung in May, which will see the conglomerate pour more than $350 billion into its businesses and create 80,000 new jobs over the next five years.
Most of the jobs are expected to be in South Korea, and the funds will primarily go toward businesses such as chipmaking and biopharmaceuticals.
Samsung reported a 31% drop in operating profits Thursday, logging nearly 10.9 trillion Korean won ($7.6 billion) in the third quarter compared to 15.8 trillion won ($11.1 billion) in the same period last year.
In an earnings presentation, the company warned that “weak demand for mobile phones and TVs” were hurting its bottom line. While the company expects “demand to recover partially in 2023,” global economic pressure will likely continue to affect its performance, it said.
However, the group also enjoyed record sales. It said revenue had reached 76.8 trillion won (nearly $54 billion) in the third quarter, despite “a challenging business environment,” and still forecast its full-year revenue to surpass that of 2021.
Samsung shares ticked up nearly 1% in Seoul on Thursday following the announcements.
— CNN’s Yoonjung Seo in Seoul contributed to this report.
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South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix worries about China future
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean computer chipmaker SK Hynix said Wednesday it might be forced to sell its manufacturing operations in China if a U.S. crackdown on exports of semiconductor technology and manufacturing equipment to China intensifies.
SK Hynix’s chief marketing officer, Kevin Noh, raised those concerns during a conference call on Wednesday after the company reported its operating profit dropped 60% in the last quarter from 2021, a decline it blamed on a deteriorating business environment.
Global inflation amplified by Russia’s war on Ukraine and rising interest rates imposed by central banks to counter surging prices have slowed consumer spending on the kinds of high-tech products requiring computer chips. SK Hynix and other semiconductor makers are also navigating new U.S. restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors and chipmaking equipment to China. Such limits were in part imposed to prevent use of American advanced technology in China’s military development.
SK Hynix said this month that the U.S. Department of Commerce granted the company a one-year exemption from such requirements, allowing it to provide equipment and other supplies to its Chinese factories making memory chips.
Other major chip and chip-manufacturing equipment makers like Samsung and Taiwan’s TSMC are thought to have also gotten exemptions.
SK Hynix may find it difficult to equip its manufacturing line in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi with the most advanced chipmaking machines, including extreme ultraviolent lithography (EUV) systems, Noh said. He said SK Hynix doesn’t expect major disruptions at the plant at least until the late 2020s, but things could quickly turn for the worse if Washington refuses to extend temporary exemptions at some point and begins to fully enforce its export controls.
“If it becomes a situation where we would have to obtain (U.S.) license on a tool-by-tool basis, that will disrupt the supply of equipment … and we could face difficulties in operating (Chinese) fabrication facilities at a much earlier point than the late 2020s,” Noh said.
“If we face problems that make it difficult for us to operate our Chinese fabrication facilities including the Wuxi plant, we are considering various scenarios, including selling those fabrication facilities or their equipment or bringing them to South Korea,” Noh said.
He said those contingency plans would apply to a “very extreme situation,” and the company hopes to avoid such problems and operate as normal.
Citing an “unprecedented deterioration” in market conditions, SK Hynix said it would cut its investment next year by more than 50% as it anticipates supply will continue to exceed demand for the time being. The country’s operating profit for the three months through September was at 1.65 trillion won ($1.16 billion), compared to 4.17 trillion won ($2.92 billion) during the same period last year. Revenue fell 7% to 10.98 trillion won ($7.7 billion).
Some experts say that the U.S.-China technology standoff could force SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, another major South Korean chipmaker, to significantly modify their Chinese operations over the next few years.
According to market analysis firm TrendForce, SK Hynix’s Wuxi plant accounts for about 13% of the world’s total DRAM production capacity. About 40% of Samsung’s NAND flash chips are reportedly produced from its factory in the Chinese city of Xi’an, accounting for around 10% of global production.
“The existing (principles) we accepted as common sense, such as finding a certain region where we could produce most efficiently at the cheapest cost and shipping those products globally, are becoming increasingly uncertain as (our) decision making is being influenced by various layers of factors beyond just business,” Noh said.
Samsung, the world’s largest provider of memory chips, is widely believed to have received a similar exemption from the U.S. restrictions, although the company has not publicly confirmed it. Noh during the call said SK Hynix’s “competitors” have also been granted the U.S. waivers, in a possible reference to Samsung and Taiwan’s TSMC.
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North Korea put on notice: Nuclear test would draw
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The United States, Japan and South Korea warned Wednesday that a North Korean nuclear test would warrant an “unprecedentedly strong response,” vowing unity after a blitz of missile launches from the hermit state.
Following talks in Tokyo, the three nations’ deputy foreign ministers said they would ramp up their deterrence in the region.
“We agreed to further strengthen cooperation … so that North Korea can immediately stop its illegal activities and return to denuclearization talks,” said South Korea’s Cho Hyun-dong.
“The three countries agreed on the need for an unprecedentedly strong response if North Korea proceeds with its seventh nuclear test,” he told reporters.
Seoul and Washington have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang could be close to testing an atomic bomb for the first time since 2017, after a flurry of ballistic missile launches.
One missile flew over Japan last month, and North Korea has separately claimed to have carried out tactical nuclear drills.
“All of this behavior is reckless and deeply destabilizing,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, urging North Korea to “refrain from further provocations.”
Eugene Hoshiko / Pool via Reuters
According to The Associated Press, Sherman stressed that the U.S. commitment to the security of South Korea and Japan is “ironclad,” adding that the U.S. would “use the full range of U.S. defense capabilities to defend our allies, including nuclear, conventional and missile defense capabilities.”
Last month, the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, declared the country an “irreversible” nuclear power, effectively ending negotiations over his banned arms programs.
Kim met three times with President Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, reducing tensions but resulting in no lasting agreement, and the country has shown little interest in taking up Mr. Biden’s offer of working-level talks.
Japan’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Takeo Mori, said North Korea’s “intensifying nuclear and missile activities … are a clear and serious challenge to the international community.”
“We agreed to ramp up the deterrence in our region with a view towards the denuclearisation of North Korea,” he said.
The trio said they had also discussed a wide range of issues including the war in Ukraine, China and Taiwan.
But Mori and Cho said there’d been no discussion of bilateral relations between Japan and South Korea, which have long been strained.
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Koreas exchange warning shots along sea border amid tensions
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SEOUL, South Korea — The rival Koreas exchanged warning shots along their disputed western sea boundary on Monday, their militaries said, amid heightened animosities over North Korea’s recent barrage of weapons tests.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that its navy broadcast warnings and fired warning shots to repel a North Korean merchant ship that it says violated the sea boundary early Monday.
North Korea’s military said its coastal defense units responded by firing 10 rounds of artillery warning shots toward its territorial waters, where “naval enemy movement was detected.” It accused a South Korean navy ship of intruding into North Korean waters on the pretext of cracking down on an unidentified ship.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean artillery firings breached a 2018 inter-Korean accord on reducing military animosities and undermines stability on the Korean Peninsula. It said the North Korean shells didn’t land in South Korean waters but South Korea is boosting its military readiness.
There were no reports of clashes between the Koreas, but the poorly marked sea boundary off the Korean Peninsula’s west coast is a source of long-running animosities between the Koreas. It’s a scene of several bloody inter-Korean naval skirmishes and violence in recent years, including the North’s shelling of a South Korean island and its alleged torpedoing of a South Korean navy ship that killed a total of 50 people in 2010.
In recent weeks, North Korea has carried out a string of weapons tests in response to what it calls provocative joint military drills between South Korea and the United States. Some observers say North Korea could extend its spate of testing or launch provocations near the western sea border as South Korean and U.S. militaries are continuing their combined military exercises.
Washington and Seoul had scaled back or canceled their regular drills in recent years to support their now-dormant nuclear diplomacy with North Korea or guard against the COVID-19 pandemic. But the allies have been reviving or expanding those trainings since the May inauguration of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who vows a tougher stance on North Korean provocation.
In its Monday statement, the General Staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army accused South Korea of provoking animosities near their land border as well with its own artillery tests and propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts. South Korea has already confirmed it performed artillery firings last week as part of its regular military exercises, but didn’t immediately respond to the North’s claim on the loudspeaker broadcasts.
“The KPA General Staff once again sends a grave warning to the enemies who made even naval intrusion in the wake of such provocations as the recent artillery firing and loudspeaker broadcasting on the ground front,” the North’s statement said.
In 2018, the two Koreas dismantled huge loudspeakers used to blare Cold War-style propaganda across their tense border as part of their reconciliation steps at the start of the now-dormant nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington. If South Korea had restarted its propaganda broadcasts, that could trigger a strong North Korean response as it was previously extremely sensitive to South Korean broadcasts of criticism of its human rights situation, world news and K-pop songs. Most of North Korea’s 26 million people have no official access to foreign TV and radio programs.
“Pyongyang’s politics of blaming external threats and projecting confidence in military capabilities can motivate greater risk taking,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “North Korean probing of South Korean perimeter defenses could lead to a serious exchange of fire and unintended escalation.”
Since Sept. 25, North Korea has fired 15 missiles and hundreds of artillery shells toward the sea.
The missile launches were largely designed to protest U.S.-South Korean trainings near the Korean Peninsula that involved an U.S. aircraft carrier for the first time in five years. North Korea said its artillery firing drills were staged as countermeasures against similar South Korean artillery drills at border areas.
Seoul and Washington routinely conduct military drills to maintain their readiness against potential North Korean aggressions. The allies say their drills are defensive in nature, but North Korea views them as an invasion rehearsal.
South Korean military is under annual field exercises set to end this Friday. This year’s drills involve an unspecified number of U.S. troops.
Next week, South Korea and the United States are to hold joint air force drills involving some 240 warplanes, including F-35 fighters operated by both nations. The drills are aimed at inspecting the two countries’ joint operation capabilities and improve combat readiness, the South Korean military said Tuesday.
Some experts say North Korea’s recent missile tests suggest its leader Kim Jong Un has no intentions of resuming stalled nuclear diplomacy with Washington anytime soon as he would want to focus on further modernizing his nuclear arsenal to boost his leverage in future negotiations with the United States.
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Kakao’s co-CEO steps down after widespread outage at South Korea’s top chat app | CNN Business
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Kakao Corp’s co-CEO Namkoong Whon has stepped down, the company said on Wednesday, after an outage that shut down South Korea’s largest mobile chat app and other services, triggering widespread backlash from authorities and the public.
The resignation, effective Wednesday, leaves co-CEO Hong Euntaek as sole CEO.
The company apologized for the outage that started on Saturday due to a fire at a data center run by SK C&C near Seoul.
Most of its systems were restored by Wednesday, but miscellaneous functions remain shaky and disruptions to a wide range of services from payments to taxis and restaurant bookings have raised questions about public reliance on the app.
KakaoTalk, launched in 2010, has more than 47 million active accounts in South Korea, making it one of the most ubiquitous apps in the country of 51.6 million.
Hong, who is also leading the company’s response to the outage, said Kakao would look into why service recovery work was slow, prepare compensation for users and businesses affected by service disruptions and build its own data centers.
“We’ll build our own infrastructure including data centers to ensure our services will not be affected by similar incidents going forward,” Kakao said in a statement.
The company plans to invest 460 billion won ($325 million) to start operating its own data center from next year, and another one will be completed in the following year, it said.
More than 500 small businesses complained about lost sales due to the Kakao outage, lobby group Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise said.
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North Korea fires artillery shells near border with S. Korea
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired artillery shells near its sea boundaries with South Korea late Tuesday, a day after the South began annual military drills to better deal with North Korean provocations.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement early Wednesday that North Korea fired about 100 shells off its west coast and 150 rounds off its east coast. It said the South Korean military broadcast messages several times asking North Korea to stop the firing, but there were no reports of violence between the rivals.
South Korea’s military said the shells didn’t land in South Korean territorial waters but fell inside the northern part of the maritime buffer zones the two Koreas established under a 2018 inter-Korean agreement aimed at reducing front-line animosities.
It’s the second time North Korea has fired shells into the buffer zones since last Friday, when it shot hundreds of shells there in its most significant direct violation of the 2018 agreement.
South Korea’s military said North Korea must halt provocations that undermine peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. It added that it is boosting its military readiness and, in coordination with the United States, is closely monitoring North Korea’s moves.
Hours later, an unidentified spokesperson for the North Korean People’s Army’s General Staff issued a statement describing the latest artillery firings as a response to the South Korean artillery training that it claimed took place earlier Tuesday at a border area. Seoul didn’t immediately confirm it had conducted such artillery drills on Tuesday.
“The enemies should immediately stop the reckless and inciting provocations escalating the military tension in the forefront area,” the North Korean military spokesperson said.
The North Korean spokesperson also lashed out at the South Korean military for kicking off an annual 12-day field exercise on Monday, calling it an invasion rehearsal. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the training is aimed at improving operational capabilities to counter various types of North Korean provocations and that an unspecified number of U.S. troops will take part in this year’s drills.
The North’s artillery tests draw less outside attention than its missile launches. But its forward-deployed long-range artillery guns pose a serious security threat to South Korea’s populous metropolitan region, which is about 40 to 50 kilometers (25 to 30 miles) from the border with North Korea.
In recent weeks, North Korea has conducted a spate of weapons tests in what it calls simulations of nuclear strikes on South Korean and U.S. targets in response to their “dangerous military drills” involving a U.S. aircraft carrier. North Korea views regular military exercises between Washington and Seoul as an invasion rehearsal.
North Korea has test-launched 15 missiles since it resumed testing activities on Sept. 25. One of them was an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and demonstrated a range capable of reaching the Pacific U.S. territory of Guam and beyond.
Some foreign experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would eventually aim to use his expanded weapons arsenal to pressure the United States and others to accept his country as a legitimate nuclear state and lift economic sanctions on the North.
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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
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See more AP Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
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Kakao co-CEO resigns after mass outage locked 53 million users out
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A top executive at Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, will step down. His resignation comes after a fire at a data center led to a mass outage over the weekend and disrupted services for its messenger’s 53 million users worldwide.
Co-CEO Namkoong Whon apologized following the outage and said he would resign.
“I feel the heavy burden of responsibility over this incident and will step down from my position as CEO and lead the emergency disaster task force overseeing the aftermath of the incident,” Namkoong said at a press conference at the company’s office in the outskirts of Seoul on Wednesday.
“We will do our best to restore our users’ faith in Kakao and make sure incidents like these never happen again,” he said, according to a CNBC translation.
Namkoong was appointed CEO in March, according to the company’s website. Kakao reported 47.5 million monthly active users in Korea during the second quarter. That’s more than 90% of South Korea’s population of 51.74 million people, as of Nov. 1, 2021.
Hong Eun-taek, who led the company alongside Namkoong as co-CEO, will remain the sole head of the company, according to a company filing.
“We sincerely apologize to all those that have suffered from the disruptions during the outage,” Hong said as he bowed alongside Namkoong.
Shares of the company traded 4% higher in Korea’s morning session ahead of the press conference.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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Concerns mount over Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi after she competed without hijab | CNN
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CNN
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A female Iranian climber, who did not wear a hijab at an international competition in South Korea, left for Iran on Tuesday as Iranian groups based abroad raised alarms over her fate back home.
Elnaz Rekabi, 33, competed without a hijab during the International Federation of Sport Climbing’s Asian Championships in Seoul on Sunday. Videos of her wearing a headband with her hair in a ponytail while competing, spread on social media.
Her return to Iran comes amid nationwide protests in Iran calling for greater freedoms for women, following the death of a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody after her arrest for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly.
Protester says Iranian security forces firing ‘military-grade bullets’ at houses
In a story posted on Rekabi’s Instagram page on Tuesday, the athlete said she was called to climb the wall “unexpectedly” which “unintentionally” created a problem with her hair covering.
“Due to bad timing and unexpectedly being called to climb the wall, I inadvertently created a problem with my head covering,” she wrote.
“Apologizing for the worries that I caused … currently, according to the pre-determined schedule I am returning to Iran with the team,” the IG story post said.
Iran mandates women wear a hijab when officially representing the country abroad.
A news website critical of the Iranian regime, IranWire, alleged that Rekabi will be transferred to prison upon arrival, prompting rights groups to worry about what would happen to her.
Amnesty International said Monday it was alarmed by the prospect of Rekabi’s return.
“Elnaz Rekabi should not be forcibly returned to Iran,” Amnesty said in a statement, adding that “she is at real risk of arbitrary arrest, torture, and other ill-treatment for violating the authorities’ compulsory veiling rules,” Amnesty wrote.
CNN cannot independently verify reports of Rekabi being forced to return to Iran.
The Iranian embassy in Seoul said that Rekabi departed on Tuesday along with “other members of the team” and “strongly denied all the fake, false news and disinformation.”
In the Twitter post, the embassy posted a picture of Rekabi from previous games in Russia where she was competing wearing the hijab.
“It is understood that all members of the Iranian delegation including Elnaz Rekabi have already left Korea after attending the sport event,” South Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry told CNN in a statement.
“The punishment has already started,” director of Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights Mahmood Reza Amiry-Moghaddam told CNN on Tuesday.
“You know, the fact that she was incommunicado for one full day…and then she just wrote this one message on her Instagram. So, the pressure on her started already from South Korea,” he said, “I don’t think anyone believes in what Iranian authorities say.”
The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) said it’s “fully aware of news” regarding Rekabi and it’s their “understanding” that she is returning to Iran.
“There is a lot of information in the public sphere regarding Ms Rekabi and as an organisation we have been trying to establish the facts. We have also been in contact with Ms Rekabi and the Iranian Climbing Federation,” a statement by the IFSC said.
“We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops on her arrival,” the statement said.
In response to an inquiry, the South Korean government said they could not reveal private information on whether a person has left the country.
Calls placed to two Iranian team coaches currently in Seoul were not answered.
Correction: an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the day Rekabi was said to depart Seoul.
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Worry grows for Iran woman athlete who climbed without hijab
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SEOUL, South Korea — An Iranian female competitive climber left South Korea on Tuesday after competing at an event in which she climbed without her nation’s mandatory headscarf covering, authorities said. Farsi-language media outside of Iran warned she may have been forced to leave early by Iranian officials and could face arrest back home, which Tehran quickly denied.
The decision by Elnaz Rekabi, a multiple medalist in competitions, to forgo the headscarf, or hijab, came as protests sparked by the Sept. 16 death in custody of a 22-year-old woman have entered a fifth week. Mahsa Amini was detained by the country’s morality police over her clothing.
The demonstrations, drawing school-age children, oil workers and others to the street, represent the most-serious challenge to Iran’s theocracy since the mass protests surrounding its disputed 2009 presidential election.
Rekabi left Seoul on a Tuesday morning flight, the Iranian Embassy in South Korea said. The BBC’s Persian service, which has extensive contacts within Iran despite being banned from operating there, quoted an unnamed “informed source” who described Iranian officials as seizing both Rekabi’s mobile phone and passport.
BBC Persian also said she initially had been scheduled to return on Wednesday, but her flight apparently had been moved up unexpectedly.
IranWire, another website focusing on the country founded by Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari who once was detained by Iran, alleged that Rekabi would be immediately transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison after arriving in the country. Evin Prison was the site of a massive fire this weekend that killed at least eight prisoners.
In a tweet, the Iranian Embassy in Seoul denied “all the fake, false news and disinformation” regarding Rekabi’s departure on Tuesday. But instead of posting a photo of her from the Seoul competition, it posted an image of her wearing a headscarf at a previous competition in Moscow, where she also took a bronze medal.
Calls to the Iranian Embassy in Seoul were unanswered Tuesday.
Rekabi didn’t put on a hijab during Sunday’s final at the International Federation of Sport Climbing’s Asia Championship, according to the Seoul-based Korea Alpine Federation, the organizers of the event.
Federation officials said Rekabi wore a hijab during her initial appearances at the one-week climbing event. Rekabi was a member of Iran’s 11-member delegation, which comprises of eight athletes and three coaches, to the event, according to the federation.
Federation officials said they were not initially aware of Rekabi competing without the hijab but looked into the case after receiving inquires about her. They said the event doesn’t have any rules on requiring female athletes wearing or not wearing headscarves. However, Iranian women competing abroad under the Iranian flag always wear the hijab.
South Korea’s Justice Ministry refused to confirm whether the Iranian athlete is still in South Korea or has left the country, citing privacy-related regulations. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it has no comments on the issue.
Rekabi, 33, has finished on the podium three times in the Asian Championships, taking one silver and two bronze medals for her efforts.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers John Marshall in Phoenix and Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul contributed to this report.
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BTS to enlist in South Korean military and regroup ‘around 2025’ – National | Globalnews.ca
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The longstanding debate is over — the seven members of BTS will fulfil their legal duty to perform military service in South Korea.
BigHit Music, the management company responsible for the internationally successful K-pop band, released a statement on Monday confirming the member’s upcoming miliary service.
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For years, BTS fans have called for the members — Park Jimin, Kim Seok-jin (Jin), Jeon Jung-kook, Kim Nam-joon (RM), Min Yoon-gi (Suga), Jung Ho-seok (J-Hope) and Kim Tae-hyung (V) — to be exempt from mandatory service for their contributions to the South Korean economy and country’s reputation.
However, as is mandatory of all able-bodied South Korean men, the members of BTS will each serve almost two years in the military.
![Click to play video: 'George Floyd protests: K-Pop superstars BTS donate $1 million to Black Lives Matter']()
“Group member Jin will initiate the process as soon as his schedule for his solo release is concluded at the end of October,” BTS’ management wrote in the statement. “He will then follow the enlistment procedure of the Korean government. Other members of the group plan to carry out their military service based on their own individual plans.”
The two-time Grammy nominated band BTS will regroup “around 2025” when all seven men have finished military service, their management claimed.
In June, the members of BTS announced they would pause their group activities to pursue solo projects.
The break now allows the members to fulfil the South Korean military requirement for all men under 30 to serve between 18 and 21 months. (The members of BTS were all born between 1993 and 1997.)
Refusing military service is a crime in South Korea that carries a possible jail sentence and negative social stigma.
The South Korean government has long since upheld that military service must be mandatory to protect against possible attack from North Korea. The two countries are still technically at war and have been since the 1950s.
There have only been a very select few South Koreans exempted from military service because of their international careers, including pianist Seong-jin Cho and Tottenham footballer Son Heung-min.
Earlier this year, BTS released their first anthology album Proof.
“We support and encourage our artists and are beyond proud that they will each now have time to explore their unique interests and do their duty by being of service to the country they call home,” wrote BTS’ agency.
The agency referenced the BTS song Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment), writing that the ballad “is more than a track from their latest album, it is a promise, there’s much more yet to come in the years ahead from BTS.”
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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BTS reunite for free concert to support South Korea’s World Expo bid | CNN
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K-pop boy band BTS reunited on Saturday for a concert in Busan in support of South Korea’s bid to host the World Expo 2030 in the southern port city.
The free concert – titled “BTS Yet To Come in Busan” – drew an audience of about 52,000 people to a stadium, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
A total of 100,000 were expected to visit the stadium and other areas, according to Busan Metropolitan City authorities, with some fans watching the event live on large screens set up at several places around Busan.
The concert followed the seven-member band’s announcement of a break in June from group musical activities to pursue solo projects, raising questions about the band’s future.
With BTS’ oldest member, Jin, who is turning 30 next year, facing South Korea’s mandatory military service, the country’s defense minister said in August that BTS might still be able to perform overseas while serving in the military.
Under a 2019 revision of the law, globally recognized K-pop stars were allowed to put off their service until 30. Military service is hugely controversial in South Korea where all able-bodied men aged between 18 and 28 must fulfill their duties as part of efforts to defend against nuclear-armed North Korea.
“If the seven BTS members feel the same way and if you guys have faith in us, we will overcome whatever happens to us in the future and we will perform with you guys and make music. Please have faith in us,” BTS leader RM told fans during the concert, without elaborating further.
Four countries – South Korea, Italy, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia – have submitted competing candidatures to organize World Expo 2030, according to the expo organizing body Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). The host country of the World Expo 2030 is expected to be elected next year.
In July, BTS were made official ambassadors for the World Expo 2030 in Busan, over 300 km (190 miles) southeast of capital Seoul.
BTS made their debut in June 2013 and became a worldwide sensation with its upbeat hits and social campaigns aimed at empowering young people.
Last year, BTS became the first Asian band to win artist of the year at the American Music Awards. The group met US President Joe Biden at the White House in May to discuss hate crimes targeting Asians.
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NKorea fires missile and shells, further inflaming tensions
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea early Friday fired an additional ballistic missile and 170 rounds of artillery shells toward the sea and flew warplanes near the tense border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests.
The North Korean moves suggest it is reviving an old playbook of stoking fears of war with provocative weapons tests before it seeks to win greater concessions from its rivals.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the short-range missile lifted off from the North’s capital region at 1:49 a.m. Friday (1649 GMT Thursday; 12:49 p.m. EDT Thursday) and flew toward its eastern waters.
It was North Korea’s 15th missile launch since it resumed its testing activities on Sept. 25. North Korea said Monday its recent missile tests were simulations of nuclear strikes on South Korean and U.S. targets in response to their “dangerous” military exercises involving a U.S. aircraft carrier.
After the latest missile test, North Korea fired 130 rounds of shells off its west coast and 40 rounds off its east coast. The shells fell inside maritime buffer zones the two Koreas established under a 2018 inter-Korean agreement on reducing tensions, thus violating the accord, South Korea’s military said.
North Korea separately flew warplanes, presumably 10 aircraft, near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There were no reports of clashes between the two countries.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea’s provocations are becoming “indiscriminative'” but that his country has massive retaliation capabilities that can deter actual North Korean assaults to some extent.
“The decision to attack can’t be made without a willingness to risk a brutal outcome,” Yoon told reporters. “The massive punishment and retaliation strategy, which is the final step of our three-axis strategy, would be a considerable psychological and social deterrence (for the North).”
Maj. Gen. Kang Ho Pil of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff later said in a televised statement that South Korea issued “a stern warning to (North Korea) to immediately halt” its weapons tests. He said South Korea has the ability to deliver an “overwhelming response” to any North Korean provocations.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it imposed sanctions on 15 North Korean individuals and 16 organizations suspected of involvement in illicit activities to finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. They were Seoul’s first unilateral sanctions on North Korea in five years, but observers say they are a symbolic step because the two Koreas have little financial dealings between them.
Most of the North’s recent weapons tests were ballistic missile launches that are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions. But the North hasn’t been slapped with fresh sanctions thanks to a divide at the U.N. over U.S. disputes with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and with China over their strategic competition.
The missile launched Friday traveled 650-700 kilometers (403-434 miles) at a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers (30 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to South Korea and Japanese assessments.
“Whatever the intentions are, North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches are absolutely impermissible and we cannot overlook its substantial advancement of missile technology,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said.
He said the missile flew on an “irregular” trajectory — a possible reference to describe the North’s highly maneuverable KN-23 weapon modeled on Russia’s Iskander missile.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement the North Korean launch didn’t pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to its allies, adding that the U.S. commitments to the defense of South Korea and Japan remain “ironclad.”
Other North Korean tests in recent weeks included a new intermediate-range missile that flew over Japan and demonstrated a potential range to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam; a ballistic missile fired from an inland reservoir, a first for the country; and long-range cruise missiles.
After Wednesday’s cruise missile launches, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the tests successfully demonstrated his military’s expanding nuclear strike capabilities. He said his nuclear forces were fully prepared for “actual war to bring enemies under their control at a blow” and vowed to expand the operational realm of his nuclear armed forces, according to North Korea’s state media.
Some observers had predicted North Korea would likely temporarily pause its testing activities this week in consideration of its ally China, which is set to begin a major political conference Sunday to give President Xi Jinping a third five-year term as party leader.
North Korea’s ongoing testing spree is reminiscent of its 2017 torrid run of missile and nuclear tests that prompted Kim and then U.S.-President Donald Trump to exchange threats of total destruction. Kim later abruptly entered high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump in 2018 but their negotiations fell apart a year later due to wrangling over how much sanctions relief Kim should be provided in return for a partial surrender of his nuclear capability.
Kim has repeatedly said he has no intentions of resuming the nuclear diplomacy. But some experts say he would eventually want to win international recognition of his country as a nuclear state and hold arms control talks with the United State to wrest extensive sanctions relief and other concessions in return for partial denuclearization steps.
The urgency of North Korea’s nuclear program has grown since it passed a new law last month authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear weapons over a broad range of scenarios, including non-war situations when it may perceive its leadership as under threat.
Most of the recent North Korean tests were mostly of short-range nuclear-capable missiles targeting South Korea. Some analysts say North Korea’s possible upcoming nuclear test, the first of in five years, would be related to efforts to manufacture battlefield tactical warheads to be placed on such short-range missiles.
These developments sparked security jitters in South Korea, with some politicians and scholars renewing their calls for the U.S. to redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea as deterrence against intensifying North Korean nuclear threats
North Korea’s military early Friday accused South Korea of carrying out artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border, forcing it to take unspecified “strong military countermeasures” in response.
South Korea’s military later confirmed it conducted artillery training at a site 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away from the Koreas’ military demarcation line and said the training did not violate the conditions of the 2018 agreement.
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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed.
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