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Typhoon Bavi has been causing floods and heavy downpours in eastern China since August 26, 2020. Bavi landed in North Korea on Thursday, and then moved towards northeastern China, affecting provinces such as Shandong and Heilongjiang.
As the global coronavirus pandemic has stymied overseas travel, families in South Korean have turned to a new form of staycation — transforming their home into their favourite vacation spots.
South Korea reported 397 new coronavirus cases on August 23, its highest daily number since early March, as authorities warned the country was ‘on the brink of a nationwide outbreak’.
South Korea reported 279 new coronavirus cases on August 16, 2020, the biggest surge since March. The new infections centred around the Sarang Jeil Church led by Reverend Jun Kwang-hoon. The controversial right-wing pastor had encouraged his followers to join an anti-government protest in defiance of a ban on rallies.
The finishing touches are being put on one of the world’s largest container ships, the HMM St Petersburg, on the island of Geoj on the southern tip of South Korea. The ship is 62 metres (203ft) wide and 400 metres (1,300ft) long. If it stood on end, it would be 100 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. The ship is sc…
At least 30 people have died and 12 others have gone missing in South Korea since the monsoon season started in late June 2020, the largest number of casualties caused by torrential rain since 2011. Heavy torrential rains that triggered flooding and landslides, had forced nearly 6,000 people from 11 provinces to lea…
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Japan reacted angrily on July 28, 2020, to a pair of newly erected statues in South Korea. One of the statues appears to depict Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kneeling and bowing to a “comfort woman”. The term refers to women mainly from Korea, but also the Philippines, China and other East Asian countries who w…
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has handed out commemorative pistols to dozens of military officers during an event to mark the date an armistice was signed to end hostilities in the Korean war. North Korean state media released footage on the day after the July 26, 2020, presentation.
North Korea placed the city of Kaesong under lockdown on July 24, 2020 following what media reports described as the reclusive state’s first suspected Covid-19 case. Pyongyang’s state media said the person with suspected Covid-19 symptoms is a defector who was found in the city after he crossed back into the North f…
Park Won-soon, mayor of the South Korean capital Seoul, was found dead by police on July 10, 2020. He had been missing since the afternoon of July 9, when his daughter said Park’s phone was turned off and that he had left a message that sounded “will-like”. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the mayor’s body …
With games being played in stadiums left empty to fight the coronavirus, Japanese baseball team Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have come up with an alternative way to keep their players fired up about winning. At a game on July 7, 2020, robots were in the stands to pinch-hit for fans until they can start returning later in …
Hundreds of drones lit up the night sky in the South Korean capital for a spectacular light show last week. The aerial vehicles delivered many motivational and safety messages, and also gave thanks to frontline healthcare workers.
A cosmetics shop in the South Korean capital Seoul has found a hi-tech way to help protect customers from Covid-19. A mirror that uses augmented reality (AR) allows shoppers to “try out” make-up products without any need to touch their faces.
China and South Korea say they will collaborate on IT, high-end equipment and intelligent manufacturing, food, medicine and other fields through a new zone made up of several industrial estates. The China-ROK (Changchun) International Cooperation Demonstration Zone was unveiled on June 29, 2020, near Changchun, the …
South Korean health authorities on June 22, 2020, said that the country is now facing a "second wave" of coronavirus infections. Partygoers at Seoul nightclubs and bars are being blamed for the new cluster of infections that has hit the South Korean capital.
North Korea says it has prepared 12 million propaganda leaflets to send across the border to South Korea as “retaliatory punishment”, the North’s state media said on June 22, 2020. Pyongyang has slammed defectors living in the South for launching balloons carrying propaganda pamphlets across the border.
US President Donald Trump's first campaign rally in months took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20, 2020, but only hosted only a fraction of the number of supporters his staff expected. Some of the no-shows may have been teenagers who registered to attend the rally but stayed home. Days before the event, calls wen…
A group led by North Korean defectors living in the South were preparing relief supplies to send to the reclusive neighbouring nation on June 18, 2020, despite rising tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang. North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in its territory on June 16, reportedly in response to defect…
On June 16, 2020, an inter-Korean liaison office was demolished in North Korea after Kim Yo-jong said it was "useless" and would soon be seen "completely collapsed." Many were intrigued by the high-profile remarks from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s only sister. Though small in stature, Kim Yo-jong is emerging as…
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New video released June 17, 2020, by North Korean state TV shows the destruction on June 16 of the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong.
The North Korean government ‘blew up’ its joint liaison office with South Korea on June 16, 2020. Located in the border city of Kaesong in North Korea, the destruction of the building was confirmed by South Korea’s Unification Ministry in a report sent to journalists. Local news agency Yonhap reported the sight of s…
The North Korean government blew up up its joint liaison office with South Korea on June 16, 2020.
South Korea has vowed to take action against two anti-North Korea organisations run by North Korean defectors. The anti-Pyongyang activists have been smuggling leaflets and memory sticks with content that North Korea considers subversive.
As the traditional rice transplanting season gets into full swing in North Korea, farmers at the Sunan Cooperative Farm outside the capital Pyongyang are scrambling to transplant seedlings to their fields. A United Nations human rights expert voiced alarm on June 9, 2020, about “widespread food shortages and malnutr…
North Korea said they will shut off all lines of communication with South Korea, starting from noon on June 9, 2020. The North has been lashing out at South Korea over defectors sending leaflets and other material into the North, saying it has violated a 2018 inter-Korean agreement to stop hostile actions along the …
South Korea is relaxing its rigid social distancing rules after battling the coronavirus for months. Now close attention is being paid to whether or not the country can return to some semblance of normalcy or if it will instead face a resurgence of coronavirus cases. On May 27, South Korea added 40 new Covid-19 infe…
Hundreds of South Koreans attended a drive-in concert called “42nd Street” in Goyang, north of Seoul on May 23, 2020. Concert-goers enjoyed the music while practising social distancing in their cars.
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South Korea is racing to track down more than 3,000 people potentially linked to a new cluster of coronavirus infections at nightclubs popular among those in the capital’s gay community. But the country’s LGBT stigma is complicating tracing efforts under way by health authorities, and many of visitors to bars and cl…
At least 11 people died and an estimated 1,000 more were left with breathing difficulties and other health problems after synthetic gas leaked from a factory in southern India on May 7, 2020. A second release of toxic gas happened again the following morning from the LG Chem plant in southern India’s Andhra Pradesh,…
North and South Korea exchanged gunfire along the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that divides them on the morning of May 3, 2020, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement. The confrontation at a South Korean guard post along the DMZ was the latest between the rival Koreas, which technically remain at war. Th…
South Korea reported no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases on April 30, 2020, for the first time since the nation’s coronavirus outbreak reached a peak on February 29. The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said all four new Covid-19 infections reported on the day were imported. The lates…
At least 36 people were killed in a fire which broke out at a warehouse in Icheon, a city south of the South Korean capital Seoul. At least 10 other people were injured in the April 29, 2020, blaze that may have been triggered by an underground explosion. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has called on officials to…
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “alive and well”, said a top South Korean security adviser in an interview with CNN on April 26, 2020. Moon Chung-in, special adviser on national security, spoke amid speculation about the supreme leader’s health after he missed celebrations for his grandfather’s birthday on April …
Hong Kong and South Korea have managed to lead the way in the fight against Covid-19 despite neither place enforcing a lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus that causes the disease. Health experts say it is no coincidence that their citizens took a proactive approach to defending themselves, rather than …
President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party in South Korea won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on April 15, 2020, in what was widely seen as a referendum on the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The ruling party won 163 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, while the …
As coronavirus infections in South Korea dropped to a record low on April 10, its citizens streamed into polling stations clad in face masks and plastic gloves as early voting began for next Wednesday’s general election.
Animal cafes that had become a popular tourist attraction in South Korea are now mostly deserted because of fear about the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Research suggests that the microbe which causes Covid-19 originally emerged from bats and was spread to humans via other wild animals. There have also been conf…
As the novel coronavirus spreads to more than 180 countries and regions around the world, reaching a grim milestone on April 3, 2020, of having infected over 1 million people, some places insist they remain free of the deadly disease. Among them is North Korea. As recently as April 1, the director of the reclusive s…
A South Korean shoe shiner and repairman, Kim Byung-rok, donated his land to the local government of Paju, a city northwest of Seoul. Kim, 60, said he bought the space six years ago because he wanted to enjoy the fresh air in the mountain.
A hospital in South Korea’s Seoul has introduced phone booth-style coronavirus testing facilities that allow medical staff to examine patients safely and efficiently.
A new coronavirus cluster in South Korea was linked to a religious group in the northwestern province of Gyeonggi on March 16, 2020. The 46 members of the Grace River Church tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19 after a sprayer was used to inject salt water in their mouths in the false belief that it wo…
