Category Archives: South Korea

‘Comfort women’ crisis: campaign over wartime sexual slavery hit by financial scandal

Posted on by

South Korean survivor claims support group failed to spend donations on welfare

It began with a call by a South Korean former “comfort woman” to end protests outside Japan’s embassy in Seoul – a rare attempt at reconciliation that has quickly spiralled into the biggest crisis the campaign for justice for survivors of wartime sexual slavery has faced in its three-decade history.

Lee Yong-soo, a 92-year-old veteran campaigner, told reporters last month that she would no longer attend weekly rallies outside the embassy, claiming that they had only engendered hatred between young South Koreans and their Japanese counterparts.

Continue reading...

Anger at huge shareholder payout as US chain Kohl’s cancels $150m in orders

Posted on by

Retailer paid $109m in dividends just weeks after cancelling clothing orders, leaving suppliers in Bangladesh facing financial crisis

Kohl’s, one of the US’s largest clothing retailers, cancelled millions of dollars worth of existing orders from Bangladeshi and Korean garment factories just weeks before paying out $109m (£85m) in dividends to shareholders, the Guardian can reveal.

The company cancelled orders of clothing worth approximately $100m from Korea and $50m from Bangaldeshi factories after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and refused petitions from suppliers asking for the option to renegotiate payments. 

Continue reading...

North Korea to cut all communications with ‘enemy’ South

Posted on by

Pyongyang has said it will make Seoul ‘suffer’ during worsening spat over anti-North Korean leaflets sent from South

North Korea says it will sever hotlines with South Korea as the first step toward shutting down all means of contact with Seoul, state news agency KCNA has reported.

For several days, North Korea has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if the South does not stop activists and defectors from sending leaflets and other anti-Pyongyang material into the North.

Continue reading...

Kim Yo-jong warns South Korea to tackle ‘evil’ propaganda balloons

Posted on by

North Korean leader’s sister says continued air drops by defectors could jeopardise peacekeeping agreement

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has warned South Korea to stop propaganda leaflets coming over the border, warning it could wreck an agreement to reduce military tensions.

Her statement came after anti-Pyongyang leaflets were sent across the border earlier this week by a group of North Korean defectors. The leaflets concealed in 500,000 balloons criticised Kim Jong-un’s nuclear threats, according to the Yonhap news agency. Previous messages have also condemned North Korea’s human rights record.

Continue reading...

Global report: EU countries block hydroxychloroquine, South Korea fears new spike

Posted on by

France, Italy and Belgium respond to safety fears around drug; UN issues food insecurity warning for Africa; mosques reopen in Syria

France, Italy and Belgium have all taken steps against the use of hydroxychloroquine in treating patients with Covid-19 as safety concerns over the drug, touted by Donald Trump and Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, continue to grow.

Paris on Wednesday revoked a decree allowing doctors to use the drug with severely ill coronavirus patients, while the Italian and Belgian medicine agencies either suspended or warned against its use except in clinical trials.

Continue reading...

Covid-19 track and trace: what can UK learn from countries that got it right?

Posted on by

Pledge of ‘world-beating’ system will have to look to likes of South Korea and Germany

Boris Johnson’s insistence that the UK will be able to roll out a “world-beating” coronavirus test, track and trace regime by 1 June has inevitably drawn comparisons with countries around the world that have already set up effective Covid-19 tracing programmes.

It has also raised questions about timing, as some experts insist a system would have been more useful at the beginning of the pandemic.

Continue reading...

South Korea football league imposes record fine on FC Seoul over sex dolls outrage

Posted on by

K-League says club ‘deeply humiliated’ female football fans and damaged the league’s reputation

South Korea’s professional football league has imposed a record fine on one of its clubs for placing sex dolls in empty seats during a recent match played without spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic.

FC Seoul was forced to apologise this week after TV and online viewers spotted about two dozen sex dolls dotted around the stadium during the club’s 1-0 win over Gwangju FC on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Global report: WHO says Covid-19 ‘may never go away’ and warns of mental health crisis

Posted on by

Trump brands Fauci’s caution over reopening ‘unacceptable’; Russia has second highest infections; Japan eyes lifting national emergency

The World Health Organisation has warned that coronavirus “may never go away” as its experts predicted that a global mental health crisis caused by the pandemic was looming.

The global health body on Wednesday cautioned against trying to predict how long coronavirus would keep circulating, and called for a “massive effort” to overcome it.

Continue reading...

Global report: Fauci warns of ‘needless death’ as WHO urges vigilance in lifting lockdowns

Posted on by

Health body says coronavirus restrictions must be eased carefully; Iran to reopens mosques; China reports one new case

The World Health Organization has called on countries to show “extreme vigilance” when loosening Covid-19 restrictions as the top US infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, warned that prematurely reopening the American economy would cause “needless suffering and death”.

The WHO’s emergencies chief, Michael Ryan, has hailed the gradual lifting of coronavirus lockdowns in some countries whose death and infection rates were dropping, as a sign of “hope”, but he cautioned that “extreme vigilance is required”.

Continue reading...

Factory behind India gas leak operated illegally until 2019

Posted on by

Company that owns factory admitted it did not have valid environmental clearance

The chemical factory that leaked gas into a coastal Indian city on Thursday morning, killing at least 12 people and putting hundreds in hospital, was operating illegally until at least the middle of 2019, documents show.

In an affidavit [pdf] filed by LG Polymers in May 2019, as part of its application to expand the plastic plant’s operations, the South Korean multinational admitted it was operating its polystyrene plant without the mandatory environmental clearance from the Indian government.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: China reports possible new wave of cases; Germany sees infections rise again

Posted on by

Anthony Fauci and top advisers from CDC and FDA to work remotely because of potential exposure to Covid-19; global cases pass 4 million; Russia cases approach 200,000

While many people in Iran’s capital are taking advantage of loosened COVID-19 controls, some worry about a new spike in infections in what remains the Middle East’s deadliest virus epicentre.

“The line of fools,” muttered shopkeeper Manouchehr, peering disdainfully at a queue of customers outside a foreign currency dealer in the Sadeghieh district of western Tehran.

New clusters of coronavirus infections are igniting concerns about a second wave even as calls grow in some countries to relax restrictions even further.

In Germany, where thousands have protested in recent days against the remaining restrictions, health officials say the number of people each confirmed coronavirus patient infects rose above one again, reflecting a renewed increase in cases. The number must be below one for outbreaks to decline.

Continue reading...

South Korea takes first cautious steps into a post-Covid world

Posted on by

Some bars and restaurants are open – with distancing – and schools are starting back, but the country isn’t taking freedom for granted

On a recent evening in Seoul, colleagues and students sat around plastic tables outside restaurants, their chatter interrupted only by the filling of tiny glasses with soju spirit.

They had something to celebrate. Last week, South Korea, once the hardest-hit country outside China, took a cautious first step into a post-coronavirus world, less than four months since it reported its first case.

Continue reading...

India chemical leak: more evacuations amid fears of second gas release

Posted on by

Everyone within 5km of the plant in Andhra Pradesh told to leave over fear of repeat of accident that has left at least 11 dead

Indian officials have evacuated more people from the area around a chemical plant in the south of the country that leaked toxic gas, killing at least 11 people and sickening hundreds more.

There was confusion about whether the wider evacuation orders were sparked by a renewed leak at the LG Chem factory in Andhra Pradesh, or by the fear that rising temperatures at the plant could lead to another leak.

Continue reading...

Gas leak at chemical factory in India kills at least nine and hospitalises hundreds

Posted on by

Styrene gas leaked from the LG Polymers plant, part of the Korean conglomerate LG, in Andra Pradesh state

A gas leak at a chemical factory in southern India has killed at least nine people and led to hundreds being taken to hospital, amid fears that the death toll could climb higher.

Styrene leaked from the Korean-owned LG Polymers plant during the early hours of Thursday morning when families in the surrounding villages were asleep, a local official in Andra Pradesh state said.

Continue reading...

North Korean defectors say sorry after false Kim Jong-un speculation

Posted on by

Thae Yong-ho and Ji Seong-ho both said in South Korea that leader was gravely ill or dead

A former senior North Korean diplomat has apologised after saying Kim Jong-un was probably so ill he could not stand, days before he emerged on state media smoking and walking briskly at an event attended by hundreds of officials.

Kim disappeared from state media for three weeks, an unusually long time, leading to concerns over the nuclear-armed state in the event of an unexpected succession.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus ‘reinfections’ were false positives, says WHO technical lead – video

Posted on by

Test results suggesting people in South Korea had been reinfected after recovering from Covid-19 were actually false positives caused by dead lung cells, the World Health Organization's technical lead, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, has told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show

Continue reading...

North and South Korea exchange gunfire across DMZ at border

Posted on by

Seoul says military responded with shots after North Korean soldiers fired towards the South

North and South Korea exchanged gunfire over the demilitarised zone between the two nations, South Korean military officials have said.

The exchange began when North Korean soldiers shot at a South Korean guard post at 7.41 am local time on Sunday. The South Korean military shot back twice, Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Shots fired from North Korea at guard post across border in DMZ, says South

Posted on by

Joint chiefs of staff says no one was injured and that South responded with two shots and a warning broadcast

Multiple gunshots have been fired from North Korea towards a South Korean guard post in the demilitarised zone that separates the two countries, military chiefs in the South reported.

South Korea responded by firing two shots towards North Korea, the South’s joint chiefs of staff said on Sunday. No injuries were reported.

Continue reading...

Danes and Czechs say easing lockdowns has produced no Covid-19 surge

Posted on by

Encouraging signs from EU states who acted early, as South Korea reports no new cases

Denmark and the Czech Republic have said partially easing their lockdowns has not led to a surge in new coronavirus infections, as the WHO continued to urge extreme caution and Germany relaxed some restrictions but extended others.

As EU governments grappled with the complex and conflicting imperatives of easing the lockdowns crippling their economies while avoiding a disastrous second wave of infections, meanwhile, South Korea reported no new cases for the first time.

Continue reading...

Kim Jong-un is ‘alive and well’, says South Korea’s security adviser

Posted on by

Moon Chung-in quashes health rumours, saying North Korean leader has been in Wonsan – a resort town in the country’s east – since 13 April

South Korea has said that Kim Jong-un, is “alive and well”, downplaying rumours that that the North Korean leader was seriously ill after undergoing heart surgery.

“Our government position is firm,” Moon Chung-in, a special adviser on national security to the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “Kim Jong-un is alive and well.”

Continue reading...