Free Republic

Explosions reported after an air raid warning in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa... US politics a Reuters/Ipsos poll out on the Democrat and Republican Presidential contests... Changes in the French cabinet relatively minor... The "Wall Street Journal" reports Chinese hackers got into the email account of the US Ambassador in China... A US F-16 fighter targeting a Russian warplane in Syria... "Dame Alison Rose's apology is a start, but it is no more than that" British media host and political activist Nigel Farage... A tense situation in Baghdad following the early morning torching of the Swedish Embassy... Opponents of...

Sgt Kim Jae-kyung stands, unflinching, outside the Colombian embassy in Seoul, dressed in full military gear. The day before, he was in front of the Dutch embassy. The day before that, it was the Greek. This one-man demonstration by the former special forces soldier is his way of showing gratitude to all 22 countries who sent troops or medics to support South Korea after it was invaded by its neighbour North Korea in 1950. Now he wants his country to help Ukraine, following its invasion by Russia in February 2022. "We are lucky enough to now be the 10th most...

South Korea's military said on Wednesday it has retrieved the wreckage of a North Korean spy satellite that plunged into the sea in May after a botched launch, Reuters reports. The South Korean military added it had found that the satellite did not appear to be capable of military surveillance. North Korea said after the failed launch that the rocket plunged into the sea "after losing thrust due to the abnormal starting of the second-stage engine." Last month, the North said the botched satellite launch had been the "gravest failure" and announced it will be preparing for another launch in...

The leader of the Justice Party, a South Korean formation in the opposition, began a hunger strike Monday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to protest Tokyo’s plan to dump water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant at sea. Lee Jeong-mi, leader of liberal bloc, told the media in front of the embassy that she took the decision because the government of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol “remains in silence at a time when the water spill is imminent.” “We cannot bear to see our government accept the lies of the Japanese government,” said Lee, who accused Yoon and...

President Joe Biden and visiting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday signed an agreement that would increase U.S. support for South Korea’s security and give Seoul more input in responses to North Korean aggression. In exchange, Yoon abandoned his proposal for South Korea to devel op its own nuclear weapons. A major element of the “Washington Declaration,” as the deal has been dubbed, is an agreement for U.S. nuclear submarines to resume docking in South Korea — a practice that was discontinued in the early 1980s. Soon afterward, the United States withdrew all of the nuclear weapons it had...

Presidents Joe Biden and Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday will sign an agreement that includes plans to have U.S. nuclear-armed submarines dock in South Korea for the first time in more than 40 years, a conspicuous show of support to Seoul amid growing concern about nuclear threats by North Korea, according to senior Biden administration officials. The planned dock visits are a key element of what’s being dubbed the “Washington Declaration,” aimed at deterring North Korea from carrying out an attack on its neighbor.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) will travel to four countries overseas as part of an international trade mission as he prepares to make a decision on whether to enter the 2024 Republican presidential primary. DeSantis will travel to Israel, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. The Florida governor will meet with business and government leaders such as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, a press release detailed. “This trade mission will give us the opportunity to strengthen economic relationships and continue to demonstrate Florida’s position as an economic...

The Russia-Ukraine war sparked an international drive to increase the production of arms. Despite not directly arming Ukraine, South Korea has taken the lead in arms production & its export. Ally South Korea reached an agreement to lend the US 500,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery shells. This could give Washington greater flexibility to supply Ukraine with ammunition. ...

SEOUL, April 13 (Yonhap)--North Korea fired an intermediate-range or longer ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Thursday, South Korea's military said, following its continued refusal to answer what used to be daily cross-border calls. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch in the vicinity of Pyongyang at 7:23 a.m. It did not elaborate pending further analysis...

The electric vehicle market has been experiencing explosive growth, with global sales surpassing $1 trillion (approx. KRW 1,283 trillion) in 2022 and domestic sales exceeding 108,000 units. Inevitably, demand is growing for high-capacity batteries that can extend EV driving range. Recently, a joint team of researchers from POSTECH and Sogang University developed a functional polymeric binder for stable, high-capacity anode material that could increase the current EV range at least 10-fold. A research team led by POSTECH professors Soojin Park (Department of Chemistry) and Youn Soo Kim (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) and Professor Jaegeon Ryu (Department of Chemical...

North Korea executes people for drugs, sharing South Korean media, and religious activities as it stifles its citizens' human rights and freedom, its rival, South Korea, said in a report on Thursday (Mar 30). South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, based the 450-page report on testimony collected from 2017 to 2022 from more than 500 North Koreans who fled from their homeland. "North Korean citizens' right to life appears to be greatly threatened," the ministry said in the report."Executions are widely carried out for acts that do not justify the death penalty, including drug crimes, distribution of South...

South Korea’s government has been forced to rethink a planned rise in working hours after a backlash from younger people who said the move would destroy their work-life balance and put their health at risk. The government had intended to raise the maximum weekly working time to 69 hours after business groups complained.But protests from the country’s millennials and generation z prompted the president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to order government agencies to reconsider the measure. The plan has also been criticised as out of step with other major economies, including Britain, where dozens of companies last year trialled a four-day week...

...Witnessing how Shenzhen had become a showcase for affluence, he wrote a letter in 2002 to the Commercial Press, one of Hong Kong's biggest publishers, to pitch his book called "Treatise on the '66 Movement" ― a memoir about his young adulthood during the Cultural Revolution. He later said he handwrote the letter while being under the illusion of Shenzhen's reforms and was mistaken that there was greater room for political speech than the rest of China. "I believe that the Commercial Press in Hong Kong is a free publishing house," Wu said, reciting a part of his letter. He...

Converting people to another religion is illegal in Nepal, but missionaries are willing to risk prosecution to spread the Christian faith. "Victory to Jesus," Korean pastor Pang Chang-in cries as he blesses a new church in the village of Jharlang, in the foothills of the Himalayas. The congregation of the newly converted raise their hands in prayer. Most are from the indigenous Tamang community, who used to follow the Lama faith, an ancient spiritual practice. In Pang's eyes the Tamang people are "poor financially and spiritually". "So, a miracle takes place and the whole village converts," he says. Missionaries, many...

SEOUL, Jan3(Yonhap)--The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that South Korea and the United States are in talks over sharing information and jointly implementing plans involving U.S. nuclear assets, after U.S. President Joe Biden denied the allies were discussing joint nuclear exercises. Yoon said in a recent newspaper interview that the two sides were in talks over joint planning and exercises involving U.S. nuclear assets to counter North Korea's nuclear threats. When asked by a reporter at the White House on Monday (local time) if such discussions were under way, Biden said, "No"...

After the experience of Covid-19, many people may be sensitive to reports of a rare disease surfacing anywhere in the world. So it won’t help matters that a South Korean man has recently passed away due to something known by the scary name of “brain-eating amoeba”. He was the first case reported in the country. Man had stayed in Thailand for 4 months In a press release on Monday (26 Dec), the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the case had returned to South Korea after staying in Thailand for four months. He was a man in his...

Nearly 400 South Koreans adopted as children by families in the West have requested South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigate their adoptions through Friday’s application deadline, as Seoul faces growing pressure to reckon with a child export frenzy driven by dictatorships that ruled the country until the 1980s. The commission on Thursday said it decided to investigate 34 cases among the 51 adoptees who first submitted their applications in August, which could possibly develop into the country’s most far-reaching inquiry into foreign adoptions yet. A total of 63 adoptees from the United States, Europe and Australia submitted applications to...

SEOUL, Nov. 18 (Yonhap)-North Korea fired an apparent long-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Friday, the South Korean military said, in apparent protest over the United States' move to reinforce its "extended deterrence" protection of South Korea and Japan. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 10:15 a.m. It did not provide other details...

Japanese government officials say North Korea launched what may have been a ballistic missile Thursday morning. But they confirmed that it did not fly over Japan, as earlier feared. Japan's Defense Ministry has confirmed that the missile has disappeared over the Sea of Japan. The Japan Coast Guard has announced that North Korea may also have launched two additional missiles. All are believed to have fallen. The government continues to monitor the situation...

SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap)--North Korea launched at least three short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) into the East Sea on Wednesday, one of which flew across its de facto maritime border with South Korea, according to the South's military. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missile firing from a site in or around the North's eastern coastal city of Wonsan was detected at around 8:51 a.m. The North's latest provocation came in apparent protest of the five-day large-scale combined air drills of South Korea and the United States that kicked off Monday. One of the SRBMs fell into high seas...