Free Republic

On September 24, 2025, a South Korean court confirmed Pastor Son Hyun-bo’s detention, rejecting his appeal for review. To most Western readers, this name may mean little. But in Korea, Son is no fringe figure. He leads Segero Church in Busan, one of the country’s largest congregations, baptizing over 1,000 new believers annually. His arrest marks a chilling escalation in what many now call a war on religious liberty. Son’s story reads like a Korean epic. In 1993, he took over Noksan Jeil, a dying Presbyterian church in Busan with twenty members. He renamed it “Segero”—“To the World”—and built it...

Since Beijing announced a new visa to attract young science and technology graduates, a backlash has erupted online, forcing the government to respond.When the Chinese government announced a new visa to attract young science and technology talent, it advertised the move as another step toward becoming the leading scientific power, one to which people from around the globe would flock.To many in China, it was a gross mistake.In the days before and since Oct. 1, when the visa was supposed to come into effect, commenters have accused the government of inviting foreigners to steal jobs from Chinese people, at a...

The Department of Defense has ordered a review of all labs following revelations that the number of labs that received live anthrax samples is larger than first reported."As of now, 24 laboratories in 11 states and two foreign countries are believed to have received suspect samples. We continue to work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who is leading the ongoing investigation pursuit to its statutory authorities. The Department will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates to the public," Defense Department said in a statement.The Defense Department had previously reported labs in nine states...

If there's any recording worth keeping of Charlie, or sharing with the likes of those who don't know what he stood for, it's this one. It's no accident that God had this speech be one of the final marks he left on earth.

[Catholic Caucus] Three heroic Catholic priests were massacred by North Korean communists 75 years agoServants of God Msgr. Patrick Brennan, Fr. Tommie Cusack, and Fr. Jack O'Brien were imprisoned and murdered by North Korean forces after refusing to divulge the names of Korean Catholics. This week marked the 75th anniversary of the massacre of the Taejon Martyrs in the Korean War. Three priests – whose cause for sainthood has been opened by the Vatican – were executed by the North Korean communists after a heroic imprisonment where they spent their final days praying and ministering to others. The massacre at...

President Donald Trump had South Korea’s new leftist President Lee Jae-myung panicking after his Truth Social post a few hours before meeting in late August. Here’s what Trump wrote: "WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there. I am seeing the new President today at the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!" Trump was referring to the Lee administration’s aggressive efforts to punish former President Yoon Suk Yeol and to intimidate conservative opponents, including religious groups. A South Korean government investigative raid on...

Suicide has overtaken cancer as the main cause of death among South Koreans in their forties for the first time since records began in 1983, amid growing concerns that the country is facing a mental health crisis. The country recorded 14,872 suicides last year – a 6.3 per cent rise from the previous year and the highest figure since 2011 – according to the latest “2024 Cause of Death Statistics” published by Statistics Korea on Thursday. While suicide has long been the leading cause of death among teenagers and people under 30, it became the top cause of death among...

Henry McVey, KKR CIO of balance sheet, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the state of the economy, the Fed's interest rate outlook, latest market trends, opportunities in the Asian markets, and more. There's a productivity boom in the U.S. similar to the 1990s, says KKR's Henry McVey | 9:06CNBC Television | 3.23M subscribers | 38,798 views | September 25, 2025

Crowds are chanting "We are Charlie Kirk." Need to see this in America as well... and where can I buy a T-shirt with that message?

In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing U.S. political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a "globalist menace" in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. In Seoul on Friday, he spoke about how he "brought Trump to victory", while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference that has previously featured speakers including Donald Trump Jr. "The phenomenon of young people, especially men, turning conservative is occurring simultaneously across multiple continents," Kirk told the audience, who waved their phones and chanted 'USA' as he entered the stage...

More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in the United States last week were brought back home on a charter plane and reunited with their loved ones on Friday. They were among about 475 people detained during the Sept. 4 immigration raid at a battery factory under construction on the campus of Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. Their roundup and the US release of video showing some Korean workers shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists have caused public outrage and a sense of betrayal in South Korea, a key US ally....

South Korea's foreign minister may visit the United States to respond to a raid on a Huyndai plant in Georgia that detained 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals. Cho Hyun said Seoul was considering an imminent visit to discuss the arrests on behalf of President Lee Jae Myung, who was all smiles with Donald Trump at a White House meeting two weeks ago. 'We are deeply concerned and feel a heavy sense of responsibility over the arrests of our nationals,' Cho said at an emergency meeting Saturday, according to Yonhap News Agency. Cho confirmed that approximately 300 of...

A group of Navy SEALs emerged from the ink-black ocean on a winter night in early 2019 and crept to a rocky shore in North Korea. They were on a top secret mission so complex and consequential that everything had to go exactly right. The objective was to plant an electronic device that would let the United States intercept the communications of North Korea’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-un, amid high-level nuclear talks with President Trump. The mission had the potential to provide the United States with a stream of valuable intelligence. But it meant putting American commandos on North Korean...

Guest post from our trusted source in South Korea A shocking development in South Korea took place recently: a senior official of the ruling Democratic Party, a former lawyer who now leads the Party’s Education and Training Institute, openly advocated for the elimination of opposition voters during a public book talk. He referred to conservative voters as “No. 2 voters” (a derogatory label for supporters of the People Power Party, South Korea’s main opposition), and stated that if they were “all gathered in one day and buried, democracy would advance.” He also targeted the Yeongnam region (Daegu, Busan, Gyeongbuk, etc.),...

South Korea said Friday that it had expressed “concern and regret” to the U.S. Embassy over an immigration raid on a Hyundai facility in Georgia during which it said “many” South Korean nationals had been detained. “The economic activities of our companies investing in the U.S. and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated,” said Lee Jae-woong, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry of the key U.S. ally, according to the Yonhap news agency. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as Homeland Security Investigations and other federal agencies were involved in the...

In a large-scale immigration enforcement sweep at a Hyundai facility in Georgia on Thursday, 475 immigrants suspected of living and working in the U.S. illegally were detained, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told CBS News.The operation involved law enforcement agents from multiple federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Border Patrol; the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the IRS, underscoring the government-wide nature of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.Earlier, the Atlanta office of the ATF had said 450 people were detained in a post on...

Korean Air announced a $50 billion order on Monday for 103 Boeing airplanes and GE Aerospace engines and servicing, coinciding with the visit of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung to Washington. The order, the largest in the Korean air carrier’s history, includes a mix of 787s, 777s and 737 Boeing airplanes worth about $36.5 billion. Reuters first reported the deal earlier Monday. Korean Air also announced a separate deal Monday with GE on the purchase and maintenance of engines valued at $13.7 billion. Many countries negotiating trade deals with the Trump administration have announced or plan to announce significant...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has paid an emotional tribute to soldiers killed while fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine, saying his ‘heart aches’ in a rare admission of military losses. Kim made the comments on Thursday at a ceremony in Pyongyang, where he met with commanders of a unit that had fought for Russia in the western Kursk region, according to North Korean state media KCNA. He praised them as “a heroic army,” with state media photos showing Kim pinning commendation badges on soldiers’ uniforms. Photos released by KCNA also showed Kim pinning badges on the...

The writing has been on the wall for a long time: South Korea’s birth rate has dropped throughout much of the past decade, spelling trouble for the military as regional threats and global conflicts simmer. Now, a new report has found that the number of South Korean troops declined by 20% in the past six years, in large part because of the dwindling pool of young men – reflecting the shrinking workforce and swelling elderly population in one of the world’s most rapidly aging countries. The Defense Ministry report attributed the drop to “complex factors” including population decline and fewer...

At North Korea’s new beach resort, the white sand glistened against the crystal-clear waters. Ten minutes of Wi-Fi cost $1.70. Food arrived in abundance, albeit with the same three beverage choices: water, tea or beer. The weeklong trip cost roughly $2,000. The catch? All travelers had to be Russian. Welcome to North Korea’s Wonsan Kalma coastal complex, a megaresort built by the regime to portray the country as modern and affluent. It is opening to foreign vacationers for the first time, as part of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s drive to attract more tourism to his cash-strapped country and...