SEOUL, September 27 (Reuters): North Korea said on Sunday it is searching for the body a South Korean official killed by its troops, but warned that South Korean naval operations in the area threatened to raise tensions by intruding across a disputed sea border. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a rare apology on Friday for the fatal shooting of the South Korean fisheries official in North Korean waters, according to Seoul. South Korea's military has accused th

Seoul, September 26 (IANS): Seoul will demand North Korea for an additional probe into the killing of a South Korean official near the sea border, the presidential office here said on Saturday. According to the South Korean military, North Korean troops on September 22 shot the 47-year-old official who was adrift in its waters and incinerated his body. He was reported missing the previous day while on duty near the Yellow Sea border island of Yeonpyeong. Although North Korea admi

TOKYO/SEOUL, September 24 (Reuters): Japan's new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, spoke to South Korea's president for the first time on Thursday, calling for both countries to repair their frayed ties and cooperate to counter any threat from North Korea. Relations between the two U.S. allies have deteriorated sharply over the past year over war-time history and trade, in particular the issue of Korean labourers forced to work at Japanese firms during Japan's 1910-19

SEOUL, September 24 (Reuters): North Korean troops shot dead a South Korean fisheries official who went missing earlier this week, before dousing his body in oil and setting it on fire in what was likely an effort to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, South Korea's military said on Thursday. South Korea's military said evidence suggested the man was attempting to defect to the North when he was reported missing from a fisheries boat on Monday about 10 km (6 miles) sou

SEOUL, September 21 (Reuters): Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has expressed hopes for improved relations in a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Moon's office said on Monday, amid strained ties over history and trade. Feuds dating back to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea continue to dog bilateral relations, including the issues of Korean labourers forced to work at Japanese firms and women at military brothels during World War II.

SEOUL, September (Reuters): The metropolitan government in South Korea's capital Seoul said on Friday it would seek 4.6 billion won ($4 million) in damages against a church for causing the spread of the coronavirus by disrupting tracing and testing efforts. A fresh wave of infections erupted at a church whose members attended a large protest in downtown Seoul in mid-August, becoming the country's largest cluster in the greater capital area. The outbreak has driven triple-dig

SEOUL, September 16 (Reuters): South Korean President Moon Jae-in has told Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, that he was willing to sit down anytime in a bid to improve ties strained by historical and economic disputes, Moon's office said on Wednesday. Disputes dating from the neighbouring nation's colonial occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945 deepened over a 2018 order by South Korea’s Supreme Court for a Japanese steelmaker to pay compensat

SEOUL, September 8 (Reuters): South Korea's latest COVID-19 outbreak has triggered a public backlash against conservative Christian churches for defying government orders aimed at preventing the disease's spread. At least a third of the 4,500 COVID-19 cases confirmed in the greater Seoul area over the past three weeks have been traced to church members and others who attended a Aug. 15 anti-government rally, the country's largest cluster in months. Authorities sa

SEOUL, September 8 (Reuters): South Korea's Celltrion Inc will begin commercial production of its experimental treatment for COVID-19 this month, it said on Tuesday, as it pushes ahead with clinical trials of the antibody drug. The company said it planned to make a request soon to regulators for emergency use authorisation of the drug, but that it would start mass production - likely to amount to around 1 million doses - before receiving that approval. The treatment beca

SEOUL/TOKYO, September 7 (Reuters): South Korea hunkered down as Typhoon Haishen rolled northwards along the country's east coast on Monday, a day after the powerful storm battered Japan's southern islands, where four people are missing following a landslide. The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 112 km (70 miles) per hour, temporarily cut power to more than 75,000 households and displaced some 3,100 people in South Korea after making landfall on the southeastern

SEOUL, September 6 (Reuters): South Korea on Sunday reported the smallest daily rise in coronavirus infections in three weeks as tighter restrictions cap a second wave. The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 167 new cases of the virus in the 24 hours until midnight on Saturday, down from 168 the previous day. This brings South Korea's total number of COVID-19 infections to 21,177, with 334 deaths. South Korea's success in crushing early o

SEOUL, SEPTEMBER 4 (IANS): South Korea on Friday announced its decision to extend the tightened social-distancing campaign for one more week through September 13 amid the continued triple-digit growth in daily Covid-19 cases. Under the tightened social-distancing guidelines, only takeaway or delivery are permitted to restaurants from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while doing normal business during the remaining hours, reports Xinhua news agency. Franchise coffee shops and bakeries are banned

SEOUL, September 3 (Reuters): At least two people were reported killed and thousands were temporarily without power as Typhoon Maysak smashed into the Korean peninsula on Thursday, bringing heavy rain and lashing winds to areas still recovering from Typhoon Bavi. The ninth typhoon of the season and the fourth to hit the peninsula this year left about 120,000 households without power across South Korea, officials said. Flights were cancelled or delayed and downed trees and ot

SEOUL, August 21 (Reuters): South Korea's battle to contain a new outbreak of the coronavirus has been complicated by a political and religious fight between President Moon Jae-in's administration and some of his fiercest critics. Sarang Jeil Church is the second religious group at the centre of a major coronavirus outbreak in South Korea. The government accuses the church of obstruction by not providing complete lists of its members and spreading fake news that is h

SEOUL, August 20 (Reuters): South Korea's intelligence agency believes that Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, is serving as his "de facto second-in-command" but has not necessarily been designated his successor, a South Korean lawmaker said on Thursday. Believed to be in her early 30s, Kim Yo Jong is the leader's only close relative with a public role in politics, recently spearheading a new, tougher campaign to put pressure on South

SEOUL, August 20 (Reuters): South Korea's coronavirus infections are back "in full swing" and spreading nationwide after members of a church attended a political demonstration, authorities said on Thursday, threatening one of the world's COVID-19 success stories. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 288 new cases as of midnight on Wednesday, marking a week of triple-digit daily increases, although down slightly from the previous

SEOUL, August 17 (Reuters): South Korea warned on Monday of a looming novel coronavirus crisis as new outbreaks flared, including one linked to a church where more than 300 members of the congregation have been infected but hundreds more are reluctant to get tested. The outbreak linked to the Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul is the country's biggest in nearly six months and led to a tightening of social distancing rules on Sunday. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Pre

SEOUL, August 16 (Reuters): South Korea accused a conservative pastor on Sunday of violating self-isolation rules and obstructing contact tracing at a church where 240 infections have fuelled the country's worst outbreak in over five months. The focus on the Sarang Jeil Church, led by Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon, revived bad memories of the country's biggest outbreak, among followers of a secretive Christian sect back in February. South Korea on Sunday reported 279 new cases

CHEONAN, South Korea, August 14 (Reuters): President Moon Jae-in vowed on Friday to spotlight the plight of South Korea's last few surviving "comfort women", as those forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels are known, in efforts to resolve a dispute with its neighbour over the thorny issue. The comments figured in a recorded message to a 100-strong gathering of activists, government officials, and others in the city of Cheonan to commemorate the victims of

SEOUL, August 12 (Reuters): A combination of coronavirus border closures and an unprecedented pressure campaign by a South Korean government keen to engage with North Korea may destroy networks defectors have long used to start new lives, activist groups say. South Korea's Unification Ministry said last month it will "inspect" 25 defector-run NGOs, citing their failure to file necessary documents, and check if 64 others are following conditions to stay registered.