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The KF-21, South Korea’s first home-grown fighter jet, successfully landed its debut test flight on July 19, 2022. The next-generation aircraft, developed by Korea Aerospace Industries in a project partially backed by Indonesia, faces more testing until 2026, when mass production is set to begin. South Korea unveile…
North Korea says it is on the path to “finally defuse” the country’s Covid-19 crisis, according to a state media report issued July 18, 2022, claiming that the country has beaten the pandemic and that several provinces are reporting zero new cases. The report said 99.99 per cent of the nation’s 4.77 million “fever c…
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin has travelled to Japan to meet his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The three days of meetings starting July 18, 2022, aim to repair a bilateral relationship that has fallen to all-time lows. The officials discussed a possible resolution …
South Korea’s first locally developed fighter jet, the KF-21, took off for an inaugural test flight from an Air Force base in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province on July 19, 2022. The jet, developed by the country’s military and Korea Aerospace Industries, is meant to replace South Korea’s fleet of obsolete F-4 and F…
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More than 1,200 bakeries across South Korea shut their doors during the first half of 2022 as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a price spike for essential ingredients including wheat, flour and cooking oil. Ukraine was a major exporter of wheat and cooking oil until the war cut off supplies, and South Korea is al…
K-pop has ascended to become one of the world’s most popular musical genres. While it originated in South Korea, recruiters have begun hosting auditions in cities around the world to identify the next big star. One of them is AleXa, a Korean-American singer who was recruited by a K-pop talent agency. The K-pop artis…
On July 13, 2022, South Korea’s Unification Ministry released photographs of two North Korean fishermen being dragged across the border from South to North Korea. At the time of the 2019 deportation, the government of then-president Moon Jae-in called the fishermen “dangerous criminals”, who had killed 16 fellow shi…
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called an unprecedented meeting during the first week of July 2022, aiming to boost “monolithic” party rule, according to state media reports. During the conference, Kim highlighted the importance of the Party Life Guidance Section within the Workers’ Party of Korea. The powerful sect…
A heatwave has struck North Korea where people on the streets of the capital Pyongyang have been seen using fans and umbrellas to try and keep cool as temperatures soared to about 30 degrees Celsius (86°F) on July 5, 2022. According to the country’s Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, 491 patients were trea…
Inflation is at a 14-year high in South Korea, and with rising lunch menu prices at restaurants, some office workers in the East Asian country are turning to convenience stores for lunch food. For under US$5, they can pick from a range of food items, including rice rolls, instant noodles and sandwiches. Government s…
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un approved plans to bolster the country’s defence capabilities during a three-day meeting with the top military brass in Pyongyang. State media reported that Kim urged the country to boost its defence capabilities with a stronger “war deterrent” – a phrase that typically means a nuclear…
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed the country’s first case of monkeypox on June 21, 2022, as the viral disease continues to spread across the world. The agency pledged to strengthen its monitoring and response systems, raising the alert level to “caution” for the infectious disease. Th…
South Korea’s domestically built Nuri rocket successfully placed a payload into orbit on June 21, 2022. This made South Korea the 7th country in the world to put a satellite weighing over a tonne into orbit. Its first attempt in October 2021 failed after the engine of the rocket’s third stage burned out earlier than…
Squid Game, the hit show that became a global phenomenon, will return for a second season, Netflix announced on June 12, 2022. The South Korean series, which follows debt-strapped contestants through a mysterious and brutal game to win cash, was the streaming service’s most popular show within 12 days of its release…
South Korea’s military released footage of a joint air force demonstration on June 7, 2022, when it joined the United States in the flying of 20 fighter jets over waters off the South Korean west coast. Officials said it was meant to demonstrate a swift response to a North Korean provocation, and follows the recent …
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For two years, North Korea has said it has kept Covid-19 at bay. But on May 12, 2022, leader Kim Jong-un announced the country’s “first” outbreak. Within a matter of weeks, cases have blown up to over 3 million “fevers”, the term used for suspected Covid-19 cases, as the isolated nation lacks the testing capacity to…
Ten years after Gangnam Style turned Psy into a global phenomenon, the South Korean artist is living his best life. The hit’s music video was the first to reach one billion views on YouTube, and its success on the platform changed the way Billboard ranks their charts. He says he is proud of his “greatest trophy” but…
Famous landmarks around the world were recreated at the Haeundae Sand Festival 2022 in Busan, South Korea. Including Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, the Sydney Opera House and many more, the festival has drawn thousands of visitors. The Haeundae Sand Festival is an environmentally friendly event as each …
Chinese and Russian jet bombers carried out joint flights near Japan on May 24, 2022, during meetings in Tokyo involving US President Joe Biden and the leaders of three major Asia-Pacific countries including Australia, India and Japan. Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said his government expressed “grave concer…
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un attended the mass funeral of a top official on May 22, 2022, according to state media KCNA. Amid the country’s first reported outbreak of Covid-19, he was the only official not wearing a mask to the funeral of Hyon Chol-hae, the late marshal of the Korean People’s Army. Pyongyang ack…
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Every day for the past week, a North Korean health official named Ryu Yong-chol has appeared on state television at 9:30am to report on the country’s Covid-19 outbreak. He has become the public face of the isolated country’s battle against the epidemic, similar to Dr Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the US Pr…
US President Joe Biden began his widely anticipated Asia trip on May 19, 2022, his first presidential trip to the region. Arriving in Seoul before travelling onwards to Tokyo, Biden began the trip with an emphasis on trade. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on May 18 that apart from addressing…
Unvaccinated North Korea is battling drug shortages amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. As of May 17, 2022, North Korea has reported 1.72 million cases of “fever” and 62 deaths. The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, slammed officials for their “non-positive attitude, slackness and non-activity” in handling the Covid-19 out…
In South Korea, more women are choosing to freeze their eggs. Many say they feel the pressure of their biological clocks, but are not ready to start a family, especially in a country where the cost of living is rising and education is expensive and highly competitive. South Korea has reportedly the lowest fertility …
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said on May 14, 2022, that the country’s first reported Covid-19 outbreak has put the country in “great turmoil” and called for an all-out battle to overcome the epidemic. The statement, reported by the country’s state media, followed Pyongyang’s first official report on May 12 of a C…
North Korea officially confirmed what it said was its first outbreak of Covid-19 on May 12, 2022, following the discovery of a sub-variant of the highly transmissible Omicron virus in Pyongyang. State media KCNA reported it as “the biggest emergency incident in the country”. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, ordere…
In his inaugural address on May 10, 2022, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol announced ambitious plans to denuclearise the North Korean economy. Yoon follows in his predecessor’s footsteps by proposing economic packages in exchange for North Korean denuclearisation. The country’s 20th president, who won the electi…
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Baseball is a national obsession in South Korea and Japan and for the first time since the pandemic, crowds returned to the stands to sing, dance and cheer on their favourite teams. The sport takes on a unique flavour in Asia, where fans perform theme songs for individual players and cheerleaders, which are absent f…
South Korean pop star Psy released his latest album ‘Psy 9th’ on April 29, 2022. He said the album signals ‘saying farewell to Gangnam Style’, the song that made him an international star 10 years ago. As of May 3, 2022, Gangnam Style has had over 4 billion views on YouTube.
The war in Ukraine and a ban on palm oil exports by Indonesia have sent price shocks across Asia, as typically cheap comfort foods start costing consumers more. In South Korea, fried chicken prices are on the rise after Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, banned exports to control domestic prices. I…
South Korean professor Kang Dong-wan used to learn about North Korean culture by meeting with tourists in Chinese cities. Restricted travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic has made his job more difficult, but not impossible. Since September 2020, Dong-wan has collected some 2,000 pieces of rubbish washed ashore on Sout…
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presented a few of his loyalists with new riverside flats in the capital Pyongyang, including local veteran television anchor Ri Chun-hee and radio announcer Choe Song-won. Expressing gratitude to the North Korean leader, the pair doubled down on their commitment to Kim’s leadership, …
Restaurant owners across Asia, from South Korea to Pakistan, are feeling the pinch, as prices of staple ingredients soar because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war. Supply chains have been disrupted, transportation costs have risen sharply and consumers have cut back spending. To avoid closing their…
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has presented veteran news anchor Ri Chun-hee with a new Pyongyang riverside home, state media reported on April 14, 2022. The apartment complex was completed just before the 110th birthday of Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s late founding ruler. As a television anchor, Ri has delivered som…
Young people wearing face masks danced in Pyongyang to commemorate the 10th anniversary of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un coming to power. A national meeting on April 10, 2022, kicked off a week of celebrations for Kim. A new portrait of the country’s leader was unveiled, while top party leaders touted his bolsteri…
North Korea's state-run television aired a dramatised video of its latest missile launch on March 25, 2022, a day after South Korea and Japan detected the country’s first long-range test since 2017.
North Korea faces international condemnation as it confirmed the test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on March 24, 2022. It was the first time since 2017 that Pyongyang has tested one of the long-range missiles believed to be capable of reaching the United States. North Korean state media said…
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The Pyongyang Children's Department Store is disinfecting three times a day and conducting temperature checks for customers as ‘anti-epidemic work’. North Korea maintains that it is “Covid-free”.
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