SEOUL, Nov 30 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un highlighted the Air Force’s role in exercising nuclear war deterrence as he celebrated the Air Force’s 80th anniversary along with his young daughter, state media reported on Sunday.
Photos released by North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed Kim observing what appeared to be unmanned aircraft and mobile missile launchers among others.
North Korea has launched mass production of small, short-range First Person View (FPV) drones, as well as larger medium-range battlefield attack drones, a Ukrainian intelligence official told Reuters earlier.
Dressed in long leather coats, Kim and his daughter watched an air show to mark the anniversary and toured a display of aircraft such as an airborne early-warning aircraft that North Korea unveiled earlier this year, state media photographs showed.
The country’s expectations for the Air Force which, “will play a role in the exercise of the nuclear war deterrent” are truly “great”, state media KCNA cited Kim as saying.
“The Air Force should resolutely repulse and control all sorts of espionage acts and possible military provocations of the enemies,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
Kim added the Air Force would be given new strategic assets, without elaborating.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Diane Craft)
A worker accused of “stealing” snacks worth less than a dollar in South Korea has finally been acquitted after a legal battle lasting nearly two years.
The logistics firm he was working for had filed a claim against him last year for taking a Choco Pie — a popular South Korean snack — and a mini custard worth 1,050 won (73 cents) from an office fridge last year.
Deeming the offence minor, prosecutors had filed a summary indictment, but the driver insisted he was innocent and requested a formal trial.
A court found him guilty and fined him 50,000 won — around fifty times the value of what he had eaten.
But the worker immediately appealed, and finally won the legal challenge.
“The defendant was acquitted,” an official from the Jeonju District Court told AFP Friday.
The company had argued that unlike its staff, subcontracted workers like the accused were not allowed to open the refrigerator without permission.
But the appellate court said in its final ruling that the drivers were in fact told “they could eat snacks in the office, and the security employees ate snacks during night shifts.”
With 39 other subcontracted workers offering statements that they also ate snack from the fridge, the appellate court ruled that “it is difficult to conclude that the defendant had the intent to steal.”
The defendant’s lawyer told reporters after the ruling the driver “felt deeply ashamed that it led to a trial,” as “he was simply hungry in the early morning and ate a Choco Pie.”
“There were various ups and downs along the way, but I am very grateful for this outcome, and I believe the defendant feels the same,” said the defendant’s lawyer.
The case has sparked public outcry in South Korea, with labour unions comparing the worker to Jean Valjean, the protagonist of French classic novel “Les Miserables” jailed for stealing bread to feed his siblings.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea launched its largest satellite yet on its nationally developed space rocket early Thursday in the fourth of six launches planned through 2027.
The three-stage Nuri rocket lifted off from a spaceport on an island off the southwestern coastal county of Goheung. Aerospace officials said the rocket placed a 516-kilogram (1,137-pound) science satellite and 12 microsatellites into a target orbit about 600 kilometers (372 miles) above Earth.
The Korea Aerospace Administration said the main satellite made contact with a South Korean ground station in Antarctica about 40 minutes after liftoff at 1:55 a.m., confirming normal function and deployment of its solar panels. The satellite later established links with ground stations in South Korea’s central Daejeon city and Svalbard, Norway, as well as further contact with the King Sejong Station in Antarctica.
Five of the 12 microsatellites had contacted ground stations as of Thursday afternoon, and the rest were expected to do so in a scheduled sequence.
Kyunghoon Bae, the country’s science minister, said the successful launch reaffirmed that South Korea had independent space launch and transport capability.
He said the launch was a turning point as the first time a private company, Hanwha Aerospace, assembled the rocket under a technology transfer from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the national space agency.
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“Building on today’s success, we will steadfastly pursue the development of next-generation launch vehicles, lunar exploration and deep-space missions,” Bae said.
The main satellite launched Thursday is equipped with a wide-range airglow camera to observe auroral activity and separate systems for measuring plasma and magnetic fields and for testing how life-science experiments perform in space.
The dozen smaller “cube” satellites, developed by university teams and research institutions, include GPS systems to study Earth’s atmosphere, infrared cameras to track plastic in the oceans, and systems for testing solar cells or communication equipment.
Thursday’s event was the country’s first launch involving a Nuri rocket since May 2023, when it successfully placed a 180-kilogram (397-pound) observation satellite into orbit, and the fourth overall since its first attempt in October 2021, which failed to deliver a dummy device.
Further launches are planned in 2026 and 2027 to advance the country’s space technologies and industries, and to reduce the gap with leading Asian space powers, such as China, Japan and India.
Nuri is a three-stage rocket powered by five 75-ton-class engines in its first and second stages and a 7-ton-class engine in its third stage, which releases the payloads at the desired altitude. It’s the country’s first space launch vehicle built primarily with domestic technology, a core asset for a nation that had largely relied on other countries to launch its satellites since the 1990s.
The Naro Space Center, South Korea’s lone spaceport, saw its first successful launch in 2013 with a two-stage rocket built with Russian technology, following years of delays and repeated failures. The rocket reached its target altitude during its first test in 2009 but failed to deploy a satellite, and then exploded shortly after liftoff during its second test in 2010.
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean police and Labour Ministry officials raided on Thursday the shipyard of Hanwha Ocean in Geoje in the southeast of the country after the death of a worker, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
A spokesperson for Hanwha Ocean said in a text message that company officials were “cooperating with the investigation as much as possible.”
A spokesperson at the Labour Ministry was not immediately available for comment.
WASHINGTON/TAIPEI (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is negotiating a deal that could commit Taiwan to fresh investment and training of U.S. workers in semiconductor manufacturing and other advanced industries, according to five people familiar with the matter.
Under the arrangement, Taiwanese companies including TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, would send new capital and workers to expand their U.S. operations and train U.S. workers.
Taiwan’s exports to the United States are currently subject to a 20% tariff, and Taipei has been in talks to reduce that figure as part of an overarching deal with Washington. Semiconductors, vital for all kinds of high-tech products, are currently exempt from tariffs while the U.S builds domestic capacity.
One of the people said the total U.S. investment to be pledged by Taiwan would be smaller than that of its main regional economic rivals, and would include support to help Washington build science park infrastructure drawing on Taiwanese know-how. The person and others spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
South Korea and Japan have pledged a total of $350 billion and $550 billion in investment in the U.S., respectively, under deals to trim U.S. tariffs on most of their goods to 15% from 25%.
It was unclear when the Taiwan deal would close or what specifics would make it into the final agreement, according to the people. They cautioned that any deal terms could change until they were finalized in negotiations. The workforce training aspect of the deal has not previously been reported.
“Until announced by President Trump, reporting about potential trade deals is speculation,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. The U.S. trade representative’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump has previously said some skilled foreign workers may be necessary to train Americans in state-of-the-art factories.
TAIWAN LOOKS TO REPLICATE ITS MODEL
TSMC, which declined to comment on the trade talks, has struggled to find the right workers for its U.S. projects.
CEO and Chairman C.C. Wei said in January building the new factory in Arizona has taken at least twice as long as in Taiwan, citing a shortage of skilled workers and gaps in the supply chain. TSMC, for example, brought half of the construction workers from Texas to Arizona, increasing costs due to relocation and accommodation, he said.
Taiwan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said in a statement that its team was continuing to discuss supply chain cooperation with the United States under a “Taiwan model.”
Taiwan began developing its science parks, where the bulk of its semiconductor manufacturing takes place, in the 1980s, building up a whole supply chain for seamless production.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Wednesday, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said the two sides are at the stage of exchanging documents to firm up certain details.
“It is very difficult for other countries to do this kind of work, because only we have this concept, practice, and track record of service parks, which allows us to undertake this kind of initiative in the United States,” he added.
Last month, Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who is leading talks aimed at reducing Trump’s tariffs on Taiwanese exports, said she was hopeful both sides could reach a consensus on expanding investment in the United States.
While Taipei has been keen to show its commitment to Trump’s call to boost U.S. manufacturing, it has also said the most advanced semiconductor technologies and research will remain on Taiwan.
Last week, Trump acknowledged criticism of programs that welcome skilled foreign workers but said doing so was necessary to dominate in key industries. In a speech at a U.S.-Saudi investment forum, Trump referenced opening up “a big plant with your friend from Taiwan, where we’re going to have 40 or 50% of the computer chip business.”
He added: “Our people have to be taught. This is something they’ve never done, and we’re not going to be successful if we don’t allow people that invest billions of dollars in plant and equipment to bring a lot of their people from their country to get that plant open, operating and working.”
Young Liu, chairman of Taiwan’s Foxconn, Nvidia’s largest server maker, said last week the company was looking to work with the U.S. and other countries to build science parks, adding that he hoped this could help trade negotiations.
RISING TRUMP TARIFFS PROMPTED TALKS
Taiwan’s representative to the APEC summit, Lin Hsin-i, said this month that he and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had discussed supply chains and semiconductors during a meeting on the sidelines of the event in South Korea.
Lin said Bessent had been keen to hear about Taiwan’s experience in building up its semiconductor clusters.
Trump said in August the U.S. would impose a tariff of about 100% on imports of semiconductors but exempted companies that are manufacturing in the U.S. or have committed to do so, which includes TSMC, though U.S. officials are privately saying that they might not levy them soon, Reuters reported this month.
TSMC, whose business is surging on strong demand for artificial intelligence applications, is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in Arizona, though the bulk of its production will remain in Taiwan.
Other Taiwanese companies have announced new plans for investment in the United States, including silicon wafer manufacturer GlobalWafers.
Any agreement with Taiwan could rile Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping told Trump in a call on Monday that Taiwan’s “return to China” was an important matter for the country. The White House has not commented on that element of the call.
The United States is Chinese-claimed Taiwan’s most important international backer and the ultimate guarantor of its security, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Jeanny Kao in Taipei and Andrea Shalal in Washington)
After South Korea began receiving Chinese tour groups under a temporary visa-free policy, a nearly decade-old photo resurfaced in posts falsely claiming it showed a tourist let into the country under the scheme who proceeded to kill a local person. The posts blame President Lee Jae Myung for the murder, but the crime in fact occurred nine years before Lee was elected president.
“Lee Jae Myung’s visa-free policy… ended up causing a murder,” reads Korean-language text on a Facebook graphic shared on November 21, 2025.
“A mentally ill Chinese entered the country and ended up killing a person.”
The graphic includes a screenshot of a news report dated November 15, 2025 and headlined, “‘The Chinese government planted a chip in my brain’… A Chinese man who entered the country visa-free with a murder planned, eventually acted on it”.
Anti-Chinese sentiment has intensified in South Korea, with street demonstrations, boycott campaigns and highly polarised online commentary prompting China’s embassy to warn its nationals to “remain cautious” while visiting the country (archived link).
Immigration and tourism have become focal points in these debates, coinciding with the government’s temporary visa-free entry system for Chinese group tourists, which began on September 29 and will remain in place until June 30, 2026 (archived link).
The initiative aims to boost the struggling tourism sector, but has also become a target for misleading claims linking Chinese visitors to violent crime.
Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on November 25, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
The same graphic was also shared on Facebook and multiple forums on Naver Band, attracting comments criticising the Lee government for the policy.
“Why let the Chinese in and sacrifice [South Korean] people,” one user wrote.
Another said: “That’s what you get for electing a Chinese spy as president.”
As of November 24, there have been no official reports about murders linked to Chinese nationals who visited South Korea under the visa-free programme.
The incident referenced in the graphic in fact occurred in 2016.
A keyword search led to the news report used in the circulating graphic — published by right-wing outlet Maeil Shinbo on November 15 (archived link).
The report references the murder of a 61-year-old South Korean woman inside a church by Chinese national Chen Guorui on Jeju island in September 2016.
Chen had entered Jeju through the island’s long-standing Jeju-only visa-free scheme, introduced in 2002 to attract foreign visitors (archived link).
The case was widely covered in South Korean media at the time and has no connection to the 2025 tourism programme (archived here, here and here).
A separate keyword search found the photograph used in the report was taken by the Yonhap News Agency on February 16, 2017, when Chen was escorted to Jeju District Court ahead of his sentencing (archived link).
The Jeju District Court sentenced Chen to 30 years in prison the following day, noting in its written judgment that he had concealed a weapon inside church materials, attacked the victim without provocation and attempted to hide evidence (archived link).
Although the defendant was reported to have certain mental-health issues, the court rejected the defence this impaired his judgement and found him fully criminally responsible.
AFP has debunked several false claims related to Seoul’s visa-free scheme for Chinese group tourists.
A 33-year-old South Korean man was sentenced to life in prison Monday for running an online blackmail ring that sexually exploited or abused 261 victims, including more than a dozen minors he raped or assaulted, over a four-year period before his arrest in January.
The Seoul Central District Court said the severity of Kim Nok-wan’s crimes warrants his “permanent isolation from society.” It sentenced 10 accomplices to prison terms ranging from two to four years in what law enforcement authorities describe as the country’s largest cybersex crime case to date.
He was the head of the so-called Vigilantes: a large-scale, pyramid-style group that blackmailed victims into producing explicit content and sharing it in online chatrooms, BBC News reported. Calling himself the “pastor” of the group, Kim targeted both male and female victims, according to the BBC News.
Starting around August 2020, Kim targeted women who posted sexually suggestive content on social media, and men attempting to join secret Telegram chat rooms for sharing digitally-manipulated sexual images of acquaintances. He threatened to expose them and coerced them into recruiting new victims, forming a pyramid-like blackmail ring on the app that produced and shared manipulated sexual images of their targets, most of whom were minors, according to details of the crimes revealed in court.
Kim raped or assaulted 16 victims, including 14 minors, and recorded videos of his crimes in 13 of those cases. He created roughly 1,700 sexually exploitative images or videos targeting about 70 victims, disseminating around 260 of them online to threaten those who refused to cooperate, and also attempted to blackmail some of the victims’ family members and work colleagues, the court said.
“[Kim Nok-wan] says in court that he is remorseful, but he committed countless crimes over the past four to five years,” the court said, per BBC News. “Considering the brutality of the crimes and the lack of restitution for victims, it is necessary to permanently isolate him from society.”
A TV screen shows a file image of Kim Nok-wan, center, the leader of a Telegram- based sex crime ring, during a news program at a express bus terminal in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. The words on screen read: “Court sentences Kim Nok-wan to life imprisonment for sexual exploitation, production and distribution.”
Ahn Young-joon / AP
The other defendants, including five minors, knew that the victims they recruited through threats involving video and images would face the same sexual exploitation they had endured, but carried out the acts anyway to prevent their own images from being circulated, the court said.
“Most of the victims were children or adolescents, and it appears they would have suffered extreme physical and psychological pain as a result of the crimes,” the court said in a statement.
“Digital sex crimes can rapidly amplify the damages of the victims to an irreparable level in the digital space, and once sexually exploitative materials are distributed, it’s physically very difficult to completely remove them, making recovery from damage practically impossible.”
The revelation of Kim’s crimes following his January arrest triggered public shock and concern over the growing risk of sexual violence enabled by digital technologies. Monday’s ruling came almost five years after the same court issued a 40-year prison term for Cho Ju-bin on charges of blackmailing dozens of women, including minors, into filming sexually explicit videos and selling them to others.
A United States commander said treaty allies South Korea, Japan and the Philippines could form a “strategic triangle” to contain China if military planners view the region from a nontraditional perspective, with east orientation at the top.
General Xavier T. Brunson, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, wrote in a Sunday article that the east-up map, rather than the standard north-up one, shows the collective potential of connecting the three allied nations as a triangle, creating what he called “an integrated network” for situational awareness and coordinated responses.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry for comment.
Why It Matters
The U.S. has long leveraged the territories of allied and partner nations in the western Pacific to deter potential Chinese aggression. Under its island chain strategy, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines form a north-south defensive line east of China, intended to help U.S. forces project power in the region amid China’s growing military presence.
Brunson’s concept of the east-up map comes as the U.S. and South Korea modernize their 72-year alliance to address security challenges outside the Korean Peninsula. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently suggested that the U.S. Forces Korea could be deployed for “regional contingencies” in addition to deterring North Korea’s threats.
What To Know
In an article published on the U.S. Forces Korea website, Brunson said the Indo-Pacific is a region where geographic relations determine “operational possibilities and alliance effectiveness,” noting that hidden strategic advantages could be revealed by simply rotating the standard north-up map to show Japan and the Philippines above China.
“When the same region is viewed with east orientation toward the top, the strategic picture transforms dramatically,” the general wrote, adding that this new perspective revealed his forces are no longer “distant assets” but are “positioned inside the bubble perimeter that the U.S. would need to penetrate in the event of crisis or contingency.”
The U.S. military deploys about 28,500 troops in South Korea, along with fighter jets and unmanned aircraft. Its primary mission is to deter aggression and defend South Korea to maintain regional stability, a role the U.S. has held since the Korean War.
“This shift in perspective illuminates [South] Korea’s role as a natural strategic pivot,” the commander said, noting that the ally is positioned to address threats from Russia while providing reach against Chinese activity in the waters between the two nations, demonstrating its significant strategic potential to influence adversary operations.
The U.S. general was referring to China’s military presence in the disputed waters of the Yellow Sea, where Beijing and Seoul have yet to establish a maritime boundary.
Regarding the strategic triangle framework, Brunson said South Korea has what he called the “added advantage of cost-imposition capabilities” against both Russian and Chinese forces, due to its strategic depth and central position on the east-up map.
While Japan has advanced technologies and controls key maritime chokepoints along Pacific shipping lanes, the Philippines provides southern access points and oversight of vital sea lanes connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the general explained.
The commander urged military planners to experiment with east-up mapping when analyzing opportunities for alliance coordination and existing force positioning advantages in the Indo-Pacific, which traditional north-up mapping still obscures.
What People Are Saying
General Xavier T. Brunson, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, wrote in an article on Sunday: “The geographic advantages we seek may already exist, waiting to be recognized through a simple shift in perspective. The question for military planners is not whether geography matters, it is whether we are seeing it clearly enough to recognize the strategic opportunities it provides, and whether we have the courage to view familiar perspectives through fresh eyes.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on November 4: “There’s no doubt flexibility for regional contingencies is something we would take a look at, but we are focused on standing by our allies [in South Korea] and ensuring the threat of the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea] is not a threat to the Republic of Korea and certainly continue to extend nuclear deterrence as we have before.”
What Happens Next
It remains unclear how the U.S. Forces Korea will adjust its posture to respond to regional contingencies while continuing its mission to deter North Korea’s aggression.
BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares tumbled on Tuesday, with benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul sinking more than 3%, after Nvidia and other artificial-intelligence -related shares pulled U.S. stocks lower.
U.S. futures dropped, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 0.6% while the future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4%.
Computer chip giant Nvidia, at the center of the craze over AI, is due to report its earnings on Wednesday. Worries that stock prices of such companies have shot too high have roiled world markets recently, with big swings in places that rely heavily on trade in computer chips such as South Korea and Taiwan.
Also hanging over the markets is the release due Thursday of U.S. employment data that was delayed by the prolonged government shutdown.
Regional markets felt a chill after the yield on 30-year Japanese government bonds surged to 3.31%, reflecting rising risks as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi prepares to boost government spending and push back the timetable for bringing down Japan’s huge national debt.
The yen was trading above 155 to the U.S. dollar, near its highest level since February. On Monday, the yen fell to its lowest level against the euro since 1999, when the unified European currency was launched.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was down 3% at 48,835.20 by midday, with selling of tech shares leading the decline. Chip maker Tokyo Electron shed 5.4%, while equipment maker Advantest dropped 4.6%.
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In Seoul, the Kospi fell 3.1% to 3,960.82. Samsung Electronics dropped 2.9%, while chip maker SK Hynix shed 5.7%.
In Taiwan, the Taiex fell 2.3% as TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, declined 2.4%.
Chinese markets were not immune from heavy selling.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.5% to 25,997.20, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.6% to 3,949.83.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave up 2.1% to 8,452.50.
On Monday, the S&P 500 fell 0.9% to 6,672.41, pulling further from its all-time high set late last month. The Dow industrials dropped 1.2% to 46,590.24, while the Nasdaq composite sank 0.8% to 22,708.07.
Nvidia dropped 1.8%, though it is still up nearly 40% this year. Losses for other AI winners included a 6.4% slide for Super Micro Computer.
Other areas of the market that had been high-momentum winners also sank. Bitcoin extended its decline, dragging down Coinbase Global by 7.1% and Robinhood Markets by 5.3%. Early Tuesday, it was down 2% at $90,110.
However, Alphabet gained 3.1% after Berkshire Hathaway said it has built a $4.34 billion ownership stake in Google’s parent company. Berkshire Hathaway, run by famed investor Warren Buffett, is notorious for trying to buy stocks only when they look like good values while avoiding anything that looks too expensive.
Another source of potential disappointment for Wall Street is what the Federal Reserve does with interest rates. The expectation had been that the Fed would keep cutting interest rates in hopes of shoring up the slowing job market.
But the downside of lower interest rates is that they can make inflation worse, and inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.
A strong jobs report on Thursday would likely stay the Fed’s hand on rate cuts, while figures that are very weak would raise worries about the economy.
In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 42 cents to $59.49 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 43 cents to $63.77 per barrel.
The dollar fell to 155.08 Japanese yen from 155.26 yen. The euro rose to $1.1600 from $1.1593.
___
AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.
North Korea has warned that U.S. approval for the South to build a nuclear-powered submarine will set off a nuclear weapon “domino” effect and trigger a “hot” arms race.
Why It Matters
North Korea has pushed ahead with its development of nuclear weapons and the missiles with which to strike its perceived enemies, including the United States, despite sanctions and efforts over the years to engage it in negotiations in exchange for sanctions relief.
Pyongyang’s warning comes after the leaders of both the U.S. and North Korea suggested they could meet to renew the dialogue that they began during President Donald Trump’s first term in office.
North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which reflects the thinking of the North Korean leadership, said in a commentary that recent agreements between Trump and Lee “reveal the true colors of the confrontational will of the U.S. and the ROK to remain hostile towards the DPRK.”
South Korea’s official name is the Republic of Korea (ROK), while North Korea is officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
“The U.S. allowed the ROK’s possession of nuclear submarine, disregarding the danger of the global nuclear arms race…and gave green light for the enrichment of uranium and the reprocessing of nuclear waste fuel, thus laying a springboard for its development into the ‘quasi-nuclear weapons state,’” KCNA said.
“The ROK’s possession of a nuclear submarine is a strategic move for ‘its own nuclear weaponization’ and this is bound to cause a ‘nuclear domino phenomenon’ in the region and spark a hot arms race,” KCNA said.
Upgrading South Korea’s submarine fleet, which will remain conventionally armed, would help ease the operational burden on the U.S. military in the Indo-Pacific region, where it has deployed nuclear-powered submarines to counter China, its main military rival.
North Korea, which is estimated to have 50 nuclear warheads, is also developing a nuclear-powered submarine program—possibly with Russia’s help, according to South Korean officials.
In March, North Korea’s state media released photographs of what it said was an inspection tour by leader Kim Jong Un of a shipyard where its first nuclear submarine is being built.
KCNA did not refer to Trump by name in its commentary but it said the U.S-South Korean cooperation proved U.S. hostility “irrespective of regime change.”
What People Are Saying
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said in its commentary: “The U.S. and the ROK are openly ignoring the DPRK’s legitimate security concern and aggravating the regional tension…. The DPRK will take more justified and realistic countermeasures to defend the sovereignty and security interests of the state and regional peace, corresponding to the fact that the confrontational intention of the U.S. and the ROK to remain hostile towards the DPRK was formulated as their policy.”
What Happens Next
Trump told reporters on October 24 he was “open” to a potential meeting with Kim, citing their “great relationship.” It remains unclear when such a meeting might take place, and whether concessions would be on the table without steps toward denuclearization.
DUKOVANY NUCLEAR PLANT, Czech Republic (AP) — The eight huge cooling towers of the Dukovany power plant overlook a construction site for two more reactors as the Czech Republic pushes ahead with plans to expand its reliance on nuclear energy.
Mobile drilling rigs have been extracting samples 140 meters below ground for a geological survey to make sure the site is suitable for a $19 billion project as part of the expansion that should eventually at least double the country’s nuclear output and cement its place among Europe’s most nuclear-dependent nations.
South Korea’s KHNP beat France’s EDF in a tender to construct a new plant whose two reactors will have an output of over 1,000 megawatts each. After becoming operational in the second half 2030s, they will complement Dukovany’s four 512-MW reactors that date from the 1980s.
The KHNP deal gives the Czechs an option to have two more units built at the other nuclear plant in Temelín, which currently has two 1,000-megawatt reactors.
“Nuclear will generate between 50% and 60% around 2050 in the Czech Republic, or maybe slightly more,” Petr Závodský, chief executive of the Dukovany project, told The Associated Press in an interview.
The nuclear expansion is needed to help the country wean itself off fossil fuels, secure steady and reliable supplies at a reasonable price, meet low emission requirements and enable robust demand for electricity expected in the coming years to power data centers and electric cars, Závodský said.
Europe’s nuclear revival
The Czech expansion comes at a time when surging energy demand and looming deadlines by countries and companies to sharply cut carbon pollution are helping to revive interest in nuclear technology. While nuclear power does produce waste, it does not produce greenhouse gas emissions, like carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change.
Belgium and Sweden recently scrapped plans to phase out nuclear power. Denmark and Italy are reconsidering its use, while Poland is set to join a club of 12 nuclear-friendly nations in the European Union after signing a deal with U.S.-based Westinghouse to build three nuclear units.
The EU generated 24% of nuclear electricity in 2024.
CEZ, the dominant Czech power company in which the government holds a 70% stake, and Britain’s Rolls-Royce SMR have agreed on a strategic partnership to develop and deploy small modular nuclear reactors.
Money matters
The cost of the Dukovany project is estimated at over $19 billion, with the government agreeing to acquire an 80% majority in the new plant. The government will secure a loan for the new units that CEZ will repay over 30 years. The state will also guarantee a stable income from the electricity production for CEZ for 40 years. Approval is expected to be granted by the EU, which aims to become “climate-neutral” by 2050.
“We’re in a good position to argue that we won’t be able to do without new nuclear units,” Závodský said. “Today, we get some 40% electricity from nuclear, but we also currently get another 40% from coal. It’s clear we have to replace the coal.”
Uncertainty over financing has caused a significant delay in the nuclear expansion. In 2014, CEZ canceled a tender to build two reactors at the existing Temelin nuclear plant after the government refused to provide financial guarantees.
Russia’s energy giant Rosatom and China’s CNG were excluded from the Dukovany tender on security grounds following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
CEZ signed a deal wit h Westinghouse and France’s Framatome to supply nuclear fuel for its two nuclear plants, eliminating the country’s dependence on Russia. The contract with KHNP secures fuel supplies for 10 years.
Opposition
While atomic energy enjoys public support, skeptical voices can be heard at home and abroad.
The Friends of the Earth say it is too costly and the money could be better used for improving the industry. The country also still does not have a permanent storage for spent fuel.
The Dukovany and Temelín plants are located near the border with Austria, which abandoned nuclear energy after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear explosion. In 2000, a dispute over the Temelín plant resulted in a political crisis and blocked border crossings for weeks.
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday South Korea and U.S. had finalised a joint fact sheet on agreements on trade and security issues after his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump last month.
South Korea will be building nuclear-powered submarines and will be forming a new partnership with the U.S. on shipbuilding, artificial intelligence and the nuclear industry, Lee told a televised briefing.
Lee met Trump in South Korea’s Gyeongju last month and agreed to a deal that will cut U.S. import duties on South Korean products to 15% from the earlier 25%.
SEOUL (Reuters) -A South Korea court issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for former spy agency chief Cho Tae-yong who is under a probe into ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law in 2024, Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The Seoul Central District Court gave the warrant due to concerns about Cho destroying evidence, Yonhap reported, citing the judge.
A special prosecutor asked the court for the warrant, citing various charges against Cho including violation of a law that prohibits him from participating in political activities, a spokesperson told reporters last week.
Cho, the chief of National Intelligence Service, had been aware of former president Yoon’s plan to impose martial law in advance but he did not report it to the parliament, prosecutors said, according to Yonhap.
At a hearing for the warrant on Tuesday, Cho denied all of the charges against him, Yonhap said.
The court was not available to comment outside business hours.
(Reporting by Heejin Kim; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s defense ministry said on Saturday that it condemns North Korea’s launch of a missile towards the sea off the North’s east coast on Friday, urging the communist neighbour to stop escalating inter-Korean tension.
The ministry also said in a statement that it was regrettable that Pyongyang slammed the U.S.-South Korea’s annual joint drill and meeting.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Editing by Leslie Adler)
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s representative to last weekend’s APEC summit rebuffed Chinese protests on Monday about his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi while there, saying that it was “very normal” for him to meet leaders attending.
China said it had lodged a strong protest with Japan about the meeting on the sidelines of the summit in South Korea, after Takaichi had posted about it on her X account and referred to Taiwan’s representative Lin Hsin-i as a senior adviser to the presidential office.
Lin, a former economy minister, told reporters in Taipei that all the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) delegations took part on an equal footing and all the leaders and representatives talked to each other.
“There’s nothing strange about it. There were a lot of these kinds of interactions,” he said, when asked about China’s anger at the meeting with Takaichi. “We had lots of interactions and communications with lots of leaders. It’s a very normal thing.”
Japan, like most countries, has no formal ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but is a strong unofficial ally.
APEC is one of the very few international gatherings Taiwan takes part in, although its presidents do not attend.
Takaichi and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to pursue constructive and stable ties at their meeting at APEC on Friday.
Before taking office, Takaichi suggested Japan could form a “quasi-security alliance” with Taiwan, and said that any contingency there would constitute an emergency for Japan and its ally, the United States.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims over the island, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Factory activity gauges in Asia reflected a divergence across major exporting economies, as worries over U.S. tariffs continued to cause shifts in supply chains.
The latest set of S&P Global purchasing managers indexes showed that goods producers in export powerhouses South Korea and Taiwan flagged deteriorating demand last month, but Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Thailand recorded a pickup in new orders.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he apologized to President
Trump over an antitariff television ad that had angered Trump and sent the two countries’ trade talks into a tailspin.
Carney made the apology earlier this week during a dinner in South Korea for Asia-Pacific leaders, he told reporters Saturday at a news conference. Trump had been offended by the advertisement, Carney said, which was sponsored by the Ontario government and included audio of former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has said he wants to continue the policy of rapprochement with North Korea despite regular hostility from Pyongyang.
“We are taking proactive steps to build trust and make the North feel more secure,” Lee said on Saturday during a press conference after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju.
Lee met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time at the summit, and asked the Chinese head of state and party leader to help resume dialogue with North Korea.
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"I hope that the Republic of Korea and China will strengthen their strategic communication ... and work towards resuming dialogue with North Korea," Lee said. He said he viewed the recent resumption of active exchanges between Beijing and Pyongyang as a positive development.
Since taking office in June, the president has made several attempts to engage in dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which have so far been rejected.
Pyongyang repeatedly refers to South Korea as its main enemy and enshrined the definition in the North Korean constitution last year.
Kim has said he is not interested in dialogue with South Korea, regardless of which government is in power.
GYEONGJU, South Korea (Reuters) -Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Saturday that she had no plans to renegotiate a $550 billion investment package deal reached with the United States.
“I believe that even if the prime minister changes, promises made between governments should not be altered,” Takaichi told reporters at the end of a week of diplomatic events including a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Takaichi declined to comment on a trade deal that South Korea had inked with the United States, as details of the deal have not been disclosed yet.
Before becoming prime minister last month, Takaichi had said that tariff renegotiation with Washington was not off the table if something came up that seemed unfair and hurt Japan’s national interests.
Hardline conservative Takaichi was elected as Japan’s first female prime minister, breaking a political glass ceiling for women while also setting the country up for a decisive turn to the right.
In Gyeongju, South Korea, Takaichi joined other leaders from around the Asia-Pacific region for an annual gathering and met Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.
Takaichi said on Saturday that she and Xi had agreed to build a constructive and stable relationship.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Mariko Katsumura; Editing by Mark Potter and Hugh Lawson)
GYEONGJU, South Korea (Reuters) -South Korean President Lee Jae Myung told Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Saturday that he hopes the two countries will continue to cooperate in military security, building on existing collaboration such as the joint development of fighter jets, Lee’s office said.
The two leaders held talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum being held in Gyeongju, South Korea.
A decade ago, South Korea and Indonesia agreed to jointly develop KF-21 jets. Since then, the two countries agreed to cut Indonesia’s contribution to the project.Prabowo said at the meeting with Lee that discussions with South Korea over the fighter project were continuing, according to a statement from the palace. “Negotiations are ongoing, and of course they depend on economics, price and financing factors. So I think our ministers and our technical team will continue this,” he said.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Stefanno Sulaiman in JakartaEditing by Ed Davies)