Thẻ: South Korea

South Korean court confirms impeachment of President Park

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ChannelNewsAsia

  • Posted 10 Mar 2017 10:22  Updated 11 Mar 2017 00:09

SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-hye was fired on Friday (Mar 10) as a court upheld her impeachment over a corruption scandal that has paralysed the nation at a time of mounting tensions in East Asia.

The unanimous decision brought to a climax months of political turmoil that saw millions of people take to the streets in weekly protests, and triggers a new presidential election to be held within 60 days.

That will offer South Korea a chance to draw a line under the scandal, which has occupied its attention for months, even as the North has unleashed new missile launches and threats that have raised international alarm. Tiếp tục đọc “South Korean court confirms impeachment of President Park” →

South Korea closes biggest dog meat market in run-up to Olympics

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The Guardian

Animals at market in Seongnam were kept in inhumane conditions and killed using electrocution, hanging and beating

Dogs are kept in a cage before they are slaughtered in Seongnam in South Korea.
Dogs are kept in a cage before they are slaughtered in Seongnam in South Korea. Photograph: Yun Suk-Bong/Reuters

in Tokyo

Tuesday 28 February 2017 04.01 EST Last modified on Tuesday 28 February 2017 04.10 EST

The shutters have started coming down at South Korea’s biggest dog meat market as the country seeks to head off international criticism over its practice of killing dogs for human consumption before it hosts the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Moran market in Seongnam sells more than 80,000 dogs, dead or alive, every year and accounts for about a third of South Korea’s dog meat consumption, according to local media. Tiếp tục đọc “South Korea closes biggest dog meat market in run-up to Olympics” →

After night in cell, Samsung scion taken for questioning

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ChannelNewsAsia

  • Posted 18 Feb 2017 14:25

Samsung Group chief, Jay Y. Lee arrives at the office of the independent counsel team in Seoul, South Korea, February 18, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

SEOUL: Handcuffed and tied with white rope, the scion of one of the world’s biggest conglomerates, Samsung Group, was taken on Saturday for questioning by South Korean authorities after spending a night in a small detention cell.

Samsung Group chief Jay Y. Lee was arrested on Friday for his alleged role in a corruption scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

The 48-year-old Lee, who has a net worth of US$6.2 billion, heads the technology giant that is the world’s biggest manufacturer of smartphones, flat-screen televisions and memory chips. Tiếp tục đọc “After night in cell, Samsung scion taken for questioning” →

China expels 32 South Korean missionaries amid tension over THAAD missile defense system

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Japan  Times

Reuters Feb 11, 2017

SEOUL – China has expelled 32 South Korean Christian missionaries, a South Korean government official said on Saturday, amid diplomatic tension between the two countries over the planned deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in the South.

The 32 were based in China’s northeastern Yanji region near the border with North Korea, many of whom had worked there more than a decade, South Korean media have reported.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Friday it briefed Christian groups on the case of the missionaries, adding that they were expelled in January.

The ministry advised the groups on the importance of complying with the laws and customs of the areas where they work, it said. Tiếp tục đọc “China expels 32 South Korean missionaries amid tension over THAAD missile defense system” →

Granny prostitutes reflect South Korea’s problem of elderly poverty

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“In order to survive, I just close my eyes and get it over with,” a 78-year-old sex worker tells the investigative programme Get Rea!

An elderly ‘Bacchus lady’ approached by the programme Get Rea! on the streets of Seoul.

SOUTH KOREA – It’s 10.30am and Madam Park (not her real name) is out prowling the streets of central Jongo district, Seoul, waiting to make a quick sale.

This 78-year-old targets grey-haired men, in practising the world’s oldest profession.

At Seoul’s heart, next to the busy business district, is a street where sex is for sale by women old enough to be grandmothers. These so-called ‘Bacchus ladies’ – named after a popular energy drink – are the subject of an investigation by Channel NewsAsia’s Get Rea! documentary on South Korea’s elderly poor, which premieres on Jan 31.

At her age, Mdm Park should be at home, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Instead, she stands on the streets for at least 6 hours a day, waiting for customers.

“In order to survive, I just close my eyes and get it over with,” she said in Korean. “In one day, if there is good luck, we meet three to four men and receive about 100,000 won (S$120).”

She does this so that she can afford the US$250 (S$350) worth of arthritis medicine a month. Her arthritis is so severe that she can barely walk.

When Channel NewsAsia approached her on the street, she said: “You came to play? To meet someone? The room fee is US$10. The fee for the woman is US$30.” Tiếp tục đọc “Granny prostitutes reflect South Korea’s problem of elderly poverty” →

North Korea might test-launch ICBM as soon as Friday: South Korean media

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Reuters, AFP-JIJI, Jan 19, 2017

SEOUL – North Korea may be preparing to test-launch a new, upgraded prototype of an intercontinental ballistic missile, South Korean media reported on Thursday, citing military sources.

In his New Year’s speech, leader Kim Jong Un said North Korea was close to test-launching an ICBM, and state media have said a launch could come at any time. Experts on the isolated and nuclear-capable country’s missile program believe the claims to be credible. Tiếp tục đọc “North Korea might test-launch ICBM as soon as Friday: South Korean media” →

In a Blow to Prosecutor, South Korean Court Blocks Arrest of Samsung Group Leader

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By CHOE SANG-HUN, JAN. 18, 2017

Jay Y. Lee, the leader of Samsung, leaving court in Seoul on Wednesday. Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean court on Thursday blocked a prosecutor’s attempt to arrest Jay Y. Lee, the leader of Samsung, saying there was not enough evidence that Mr. Lee had bribed President Park Geun-hye, in a scandal that led to her impeachment.

A justice on the Central District Court in Seoul, Cho Eui-yeon, rejected the prosecutor’s request to issue an arrest warrant, saying said it was “difficult to recognize the need” to incarcerate Mr. Lee.

Mr. Lee, a third-generation scion and vice chairman of Samsung, one of the world’s biggest conglomerates, was immediately released from a detention center outside Seoul, where he had been waiting for the court to decide whether he should be formally arrested.

Former U.N. chief Ban throws weight behind THAAD deployment

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Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon waves upon his arrival at Seoul Railway Station in the South Korean capital on Thursday. | AP  

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by

Staff Writer, Jan 15, 2017

Former United Nations chief and presumptive South Korean presidential candidate Ban Ki-moon has backed the deployment later this year of a U.S. anti-missile system to the country amid North Korea’s progress in its nuclear and missile programs.

“Given the reality of the Korean Peninsula being in an almost quasi-war situation, it is right for the government to take such a measure,” Ban was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying during a trip to the South Korean Navy’s 2nd Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek, 70 km south of Seoul. “I understand that it is to be deployed for defensive purposes as North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons and accumulate ballistic missile technology,” he said. Tiếp tục đọc “Former U.N. chief Ban throws weight behind THAAD deployment” →

China, Russia take aim at U.S. anti-missile system planned for deployment in South Korea

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by Jan 13, 2017

China and Russia have agreed to take unspecified “countermeasures” in response to the planned U.S. deployment of an anti-missile system to South Korea — a move that came as Defense Minister Tomomi Inada inspected a version of the system on the U.S. territory of Guam on Friday.

The countermeasures in response to the U.S. deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system will be “aimed at safeguarding interests of China and Russia and the strategic balance in the region,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported, quoting a statement released after a meeting of Russian and Chinese security officials. Tiếp tục đọc “China, Russia take aim at U.S. anti-missile system planned for deployment in South Korea” →

South Korea to form brigade to remove North’s leadership if war breaks out

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An honor guard with a sword and North Korean media take video footage and photos as Choe Ryong Hae, (unseen), the vice chairman of North Korea’s State Affairs Commission, makes his way to the departure gates at the Pyongyang airport after inspecting honor guards on Friday in Pyongyang. Hae was heading to Nicaragua to attend the inauguration of President-elect Daniel Ortega. | AP

jAPAN TIMES

South Korea to form brigade to remove North’s leadership if war breaks out

AP Jan 6, 2017

The brigade will aim to remove the North’s wartime command and paralyze its function if war breaks out, according to an official from Seoul’s Defense Ministry, who refused to be named, citing office rules. The brigade was originally planned to be ready by 2019. The official refused to say whether the brigade will train to execute pre-emptive strikes. Tiếp tục đọc “South Korea to form brigade to remove North’s leadership if war breaks out” →

Trump’s North Korea red line could come back to haunt him

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Japan Times

by

Reuters, Jan 4, 2017

WASHINGTON – In three words of a tweet this week, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed North Korea would never test an intercontinental ballistic missile.

“It won’t happen!” Trump wrote after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday his nuclear-capable country was close to testing an ICBM of a kind that could someday hit the United States.

Preventing such a test is far easier said than done, and Trump gave no indication of how he might roll back North Korea’s weapons programs after he takes office on Jan. 20, something successive U.S. administrations, both Democratic and Republican, have failed to do. Tiếp tục đọc “Trump’s North Korea red line could come back to haunt him” →

North Korea’s Kim guides special operations drill targeting Blue House

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches a combat drill by personnel from the Korean People’s Army special operation battalion Unit 525 in this undated photo released Sunday. | REUTERS

Reuters Dec 12, 2016

SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guided a special operations drill targeting the South, the North’s media reported on Sunday, as rival South Korea remained on alert for any attempt by the North to take advantage of political turmoil in the South.

The North’s KCNA state news agency report did not say when North Korean forces conducted the combat exercise, nor did it mention the South Korean parliament’s vote on Friday to impeach its president, Park Geun-hye. Tiếp tục đọc “North Korea’s Kim guides special operations drill targeting Blue House” →

Park impeachment filed as South Koreans step up protest

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aljazeera Dec.4, 2016

Park impeachment filed as South Koreans step up protest

Up to 1.7 million people gather in Seoul in what is called the largest-ever mass protest in South Korea’s history.

 Park Geun-hye, the largest-ever mass gathering in the country’s history.

It was the sixth straight weekend that massive crowds gathered in the capital, Seoul, to force Park out of office, as the country’s three opposition parties introduced an impeachment bill in parliament.

Protest organisers told Al Jazeera the number of demonstrators swelled to 1.7 million as of 13:00 GMT on Saturday, surpassing last weekend’s 1.5 million people.
Tiếp tục đọc “Park impeachment filed as South Koreans step up protest” →