Free Republic

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has conducted a test of its underwater nuclear weapons system in a protest against this week's joint military drills by South Korea, the United States and Japan, state media KCNA said on Friday. The test of the "Haeil-5-23" system, a name North Korea has given to its nuclear-capable underwater attack drones, was carried out by the defence ministry's think tank in the waters off its east coast, the report said, without specifying a date.

Seoul, South Korea CNN — South Korea’s parliament passed a bill Tuesday banning the breeding and slaughter of dogs for consumption, ending the traditional yet controversial practice of eating dog meat after years of nationwide debate. The bill received rare bipartisan support across South Korea’s divided political landscape, highlighting how attitudes toward eating dog have transformed over the past few decades during the country’s rapid industrialization. The law will ban the distribution and sale of food products made or processed with dog ingredients, according to the corresponding committee of the National Assembly.

SEOUL — North Korea fired more than 200 artillery rounds into the sea on Friday near a tensely defended maritime border with South Korea, a military official said, while residents of two South Korean islands were ordered to evacuate due to an unknown “situation.” The defense ministry would not confirm if the order was prompted by the North’s artillery firing or South Korean drills in response. However, a text message sent to residents and confirmed by an island official cited “naval fire” to be conducted by South Korean troops from 3 p.m.(0600 GMT) Friday. An official on Yeonpyeong island, which...

Footage showing the Stabbing Attack earlier against the Leader of the Democratic Party of South Korea, Lee Jae-myung while he was Speaking to a Crowd in the Southeastern City of Busan. VIDEO AT LINK..............

The leader of South Korea's political opposition was stabbed at a news conference in the southern port city of Busan, Yonhap news agency reports. Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost the presidential elections in 2022, was stabbed on the left side of his neck on Tuesday morning. The male attacker was arrested at the scene. Lee was transferred to a hospital about 20 minutes after the attack. He was conscious at the time, Yonhap said. Mr Lee is not currently a member of South Korea's legislature but is widely expected to run for a seat in the next general election, which...

The shipping giant Maersk says it will resume operations in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden waters... Israel facing a 20 billion US dollar budget shortfall due to the war... A new legal filing from President Donald Trump's lawyers to the federal circuit court of appeals... Violent Protest Incident In Belgrade, Serbia This Evening Dozens Of Arrests Police Injured Russia Thanked For Advance Warning About Incident... "Tonight our heart is in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is again rejected by the useless logic of war" Part of the message delivered tonight by Pope Francis... Citizens of Israel, we are...

South Korea is facing “extinction” and needs to embrace immigration to stave off its “demographic catastrophe”, the country’s justice minister has warned. “When it comes to immigration policies, we have passed the stage of deliberating whether to implement them or not. Because if we don’t, we cannot escape the fate of extinction due to the demographic catastrophe,” Han Dong-hoon, told a parliamentary meeting in Seoul, reported the Korea Times.

SEOUL, South Korea — Dressed in borrowed camouflage fatigues, they fumbled with their ammunition belts and K2 assault rifles. Some had white hair and a slow, shuffling gait; their average age was 63, the oldest 75. It was the most unconventional batch of trainees that the 52nd Infantry Division's Seocho Reserve Forces Training Center had ever seen, and Lt. Col. Hwang Hyeon-seok received them with a strained smile, desperately hoping that none of them would get hurt.

South Korea from Monday will re-impose a ban on short-selling shares at least until June to promote a "level playing field" for retail and institutional investors, financial authorities said on Sunday. The ban was lifted in May 2021 for trades involving the shares of companies with large market capitalisation included in the KOSPI200 and KOSDAQ150 share price indices. The restriction has remained in place for most other stocks. The FSC will review market activity in June to decide whether there is significant improvement to allow the ban to be lifted, he said. The regulator last week said it would establish...

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to meet with the President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul today and said he will raise the issue of LGBT rights.South Korea’s constitutional court recently upheld a law banning same-sex relations in the military. Mr. Varadkar is currently in the country on a trade mission and speaking to reporters in Seoul, he said he respected the right of any democratic country to make its own rules, but that it is certainly one of the issues he will have a chance to mention to the President. […] The two leaders are also expected to...

South Korea says China has forcibly repatriated a "large number" of North Korean defectors.This follows recent reports from human rights groups claiming that as many as 600 North Koreans have been sent back. Seoul said on Friday that the reports appear to be true, but did not confirm the exact number who were repatriated. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the defectors, mostly women, could face imprisonment, sexual violence or even death once back in the North.

This better not be Israel's 9/11 because that means nothing will end up being done in its aftermath as was the case with 9/11. The enduring legacy of 9/11 was not the elimination of Wahabbi Sunni Isla in Saudi Arabia that inspired the Al Qaeda terrorists (15 of the 19 actually Saudi citizens). Neither was it a military victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan who sheltered Al Qaeda. The Taliban created and sustained by Pakistan even Bin Laden hid in Pakistan before was killed. The ultimate force behind the Taliban Pakistan was never ever dealt with and it's no wonder...

Researchers at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Chung-Ang University in South Korea have developed a lightweight exosuit that enhances a human’s natural ability to sprint, paving the way for a more robust medical rehabilitation process and helping people with mobility issues and concerns. Designed to be a seamless extension of the human body, this exosuit aids in sprinting, a fundamental human ability. Exosuits are made of soft, flexible fabrics, and unlike their cousin technology, the exoskeleton, they have minimal supporting structures. Exoskeletons are more rigid, usually designed to provide support with weight-bearing. Exosuits, however, work to allow for increased...

South Korean police are investigating 17 US soldiers and five other people who allegedly smuggled or used synthetic marijuana via military mail. This follows raids in at least two US army bases in May, including Camp Humphreys, its largest overseas base. A Filipino and a South Korean have been arrested, while prosecutors review the cases against all 22 suspects. A tip from the US Army's enforcement arm had sparked a four-month investigation by Korean authorities. It was one of the largest in recent years involving American soldiers, US media reported citing Cha Min-seok, a senior detective in South Korea. Joint...

Just days ahead of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Vietnam for key talks on trade and closer diplomatic relations, the president paid homage to events from an earlier and very different time – when Washington and Hanoi were at war. At the White House on Tuesday, Biden presented the Medal of Honor, the United States military’s highest award, to 81-year-old Larry Taylor, a retired army captain who had flown a Cobra attack helicopter during the height of the Vietnam War in 1968. — When Biden lands at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport on Sunday, he steps into a very...

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...