Category Archives: South Korea

Coronavirus: South Korea to test 200,000 sect members as pandemic fears hit markets

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Nation brings in ‘maximum measures’ to contain outbreak at secretive church

South Korea has stepped up its “maximum measures” to contain the coronavirus with plans to test around 200,000 members of a secretive church believed to be at the centre of the country’s outbreak.

Along with an emergency budget and a crackdown on the hoarding of face masks, the government in Seoul will test members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus after its founder agreed to provide authorities with the names of all its members in the country.

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Aerial footage shows huge queues for masks in South Korea amid coronavirus panic – video

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A queue of hundreds of people wanting to buy face masks from a supermarket stretched round several streets in Daegu on Monday.

Customers queued outside one of Daegu's E-mart stores, which began to sell face masks at half price in the city, according to local media reports. South Korea has raised its infectious disease alert level to its highest for the first time since 2009 

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World is approaching coronavirus tipping point, experts say

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78,000 cases confirmed, as Italy and Iran scramble to contain major outbreaks

The world is fast approaching a tipping point in the spread of the coronavirus, according to experts, who warn that the disease is outpacing efforts to contain it, after major outbreaks forced Italy and Iran to introduce stringent internal travel restrictions and South Korea’s president placed the country on red alert.

Some of the countries most affected by the virus are scrambling to halt its progress two days after Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the international community needed to act quickly before the narrowing “window of opportunity” closed completely.

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Coronavirus outbreak: four cruise ship passengers test positive in UK – live news

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Turkey and Pakistan close borders with Iran after eight deaths, while in northern Italy towns are on lockdown after jump in cases

Here’s Angela Giuffrida, Patrick Wintour and Sam Jones’s roundup of today’s coronavirus developments across the globe.

Four of the 32 British and Irish Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers taken to Arrowe Park, Merseyside on Saturday have tested positive for coronavirus strain Covid-19, the chief medical officer for England has said.

Prof Chris Whitty said: “Four further patients in England have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 13.

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South Korea screens thousands of religious sect members for coronavirus

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Country confirms more than 430 cases as WHO head voices concern over fifth death in Iran

Thousands of members of a secretive religious sect in South Korea are being screened for the new coronavirus after more than 430 cases were confirmed in the country by officials, one of several fresh clusters of the disease globally.

More than 78,000 people around the world have been infected by the Covid-19 virus, with most cases in mainland China, though clusters that have unclear origins have emerged in Singapore, Iran and South Korea.

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Coronavirus: China prison reports 200 cases, as virus spreads in South Korea – live updates

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Justice chief sacked in Shandong province with prison guard reported to be source of outbreak, as South Korea adds 52 new cases. Follow latest news

China’s Global Television Network is reporting that 200 prisoners in a facility in the eastern province of Shandong are infected with Covid-19. The sources of the infection is reported to be an affected prison guard.

These prison cases may partly explain the spike in new cases today to 889, up from 394 reported on Thursday.

East China's Shandong Province reported 200 #COVID19 cases from the Rencheng Prison on Thu., bringing the total to 207 in the facility

- Virus brought in by affected prison guard
- Treatments underway
- Provincial justice chief among eight officials removed from office pic.twitter.com/yyMWa21a86

Car sales plummeted in China in February, state media is reporting.

Retail of domestic passenger #vehicles in China plummeted 92% y-o-y in the first half of Feb, a record decline, due to #COVID19: industrial report pic.twitter.com/SkLUjtOdqA

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North Korea’s most senior defector to run for parliament in the South

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Thae Yong-ho was deputy ambassador at the North Korean embassy in London when he defected in 2016

The most senior diplomat to have defected from North Korea will run for parliament in South Korea to “give hope” to tens of thousands of others who have fled the regime, media reports said on Tuesday.

Thae Yong-ho was deputy ambassador at the North Korean embassy in London when he defected with his wife and two sons in August 2016, and has since become one of the regime’s most vocal critics.

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Parasite: Bong Joon-ho’s historic Oscars win celebrated in South Korea – video

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South Korean film Parasite dominated the Academy Awards with its haul including best picture and director for Bong Joon-ho. The comedy-crime-drama also won the original screenplay and international feature film awards. 

The moment Parasite was awarded best picture – a first for any non-English language film in the Oscars’ 92-year-history – prompted outpourings of joy in Bong’s native country. Many were glad the film propelled South Korea - and reflection on its gaping wealth gap - into the global spotlight 

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Parasite makes Oscars history as first foreign language winner of best picture

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Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean satire wins top prize after taking best director, international film and original screenplay

After an awards season marked by its predictability, the Oscars delivered a spectacular final-reel twist on Sunday evening, naming capitalist satire Parasite best picture.

Bong Joon-ho’s comedy-drama about an impoverished family who infiltrate the household of a wealthier one is the first film not in the English language to take the top prize. It also took best director, best original screenplay and best international film.

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US ambassador’s moustache gets up South Korea’s nose

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Harry Harris has been criticised for his facial hair, which reminds many South Koreans of the days of Japanese colonial rule

Tensions may be running high on the Korean peninsula, but Harry Harris’s facial hair is vying with denuclearisation as the defining theme of his tenure as US ambassador to South Korea.

Harris, a former navy admiral who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and an American navy officer, has been accused of insulting his hosts by growing a moustache that reminds many South Koreans of the days of Japanese colonial rule.

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Japanese officials helped procure wartime sex slaves, report claims

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News agency says diplomatic dispatches contradict claims that so-called ‘comfort women’ worked willingly

The Japanese imperial army asked the government to provide one wartime sex slave for every 70 soldiers serving in China in the late 1930s, according to dispatches that offer evidence of official involvement in the recruitment of women to work in military brothels.

The dispatches from Japanese diplomatic missions in China include requests to the foreign ministry in Tokyo to provide “comfort women”, Kyodo news agency reported. The term was a euphemism used to describe tens of thousands of women from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and other countries who were forced into sexual servitude before and during the second world war.

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South Korean pop star and actor Cha In Ha found dead aged 27

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Cha becomes third young Korean star to die in space of two months

South Korean pop star and actor Cha In Ha has been found dead at the age of 27, the third young Korean star to die in the space of two months.

Cha, who was a member of the K-pop group Surprise U and also had a fledgling acting career, was found at his home. His South Korean talent agency Fantagio saying it was “filled with grief at this news that is still hard to believe”.

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K-pop stars jailed for gang-rape in South Korea

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Singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young also convicted of sharing footage without consent

A South Korean court has sentenced two K-pop stars to six and five years in prison for gang-rape and additionally convicted one of them for distributing videos of the assaults and other sexual encounters.

Jung Joon-young, a singer-songwriter, and Choi Jong-hoon, a former member of the boy band FT Island, were found guilty of gang-raping two different women in two incidents in 2016.

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Go game master quits saying machines ‘cannot be defeated’

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Lee Se-dol retires from Chinese strategy game after playing against Google algorithm

The only human ever to beat Google’s algorithm at the ancient Chinese strategy game Go has said he decided to retire because machines cannot be defeated.

Lee Se-dol’s five-match showdown with Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo in 2016 raised both the game’s profile and fears of computer intelligence’s seemingly limitless learning capability.

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K-pop singer Goo Hara found dead aged 28

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Police trying to establish cause of death of girl group Kara’s former member

The K-pop singer Goo Hara has been found dead at her home in Seoul, according to police.

The body of the 28-year-old, a former member of the girl group Kara, was found early on Sunday evening, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Police said they were trying to establish the cause of death.

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Outcry as conservative South Korean MPs seek to curtail LGBT rights

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Campaigners condemn attempt to remove protection for ‘sexual orientation’ from new legislation

Campaigners in South Korea have condemned an attempt by conservative MPs to remove homophobia and transphobia from a list of violations of a proposed anti-discrimination law.

An amendment submitted this month by Ahn Sang-soo, a member of the main opposition Liberty Korea party, seeks to remove sexual minorities from groups protected by the law, sparking protests by rights groups and members of the LGBT community.

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Japan’s rising sun flag is not a symbol of militarism | Letter

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Ohtaka Masato of Japan’s foreign affairs ministry says his country’s flag should not be banned at the 2020 Olympics

Alexis Dudden’s opinion piece presents an argument on the rising sun flag based on the misunderstanding of Japan’s sincere dealings with the past (Japan’s rising sun flag has a history of horror. It must be banned at the Tokyo Olympics, 1 November).

Looking at Prime Minister Abe’s statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war – issued by cabinet consensus – it is clear that Japan has squarely faced the facts of history and repeatedly expressed feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war, which this opinion piece fails to recognise.

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North Korea hails test of ‘super-large multiple rocket launcher’

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Kim Jong-un ‘expressed satisfaction’ with the test and congratulated weapons scientists, state media said

North Korea conducted another test of super-large multiple rocket launchers on Thursday afternoon, calling it a success, the state news agency KCNA said on Friday.

The latest test of the “super-large multiple rocket launchers”, following two tests in August and September of the same weapon that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw, according to KCNA, indicates the progression of North Korea’s weapons development while talks with the US remain in limbo.

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Quarter of world’s pig population ‘to die of African swine fever’

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World Organisation for Animal Health warns spread of disease has inflamed worldwide crisis

About a quarter of the global pig population is expected to die as a result of the African swine fever (ASF) epidemic, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

Global pork prices are rising spurred by growing demand from China, where as many as 100 million pigs have died since ASF broke out there last year. In recent months, China has been granting export approval to foreign meat plants and signing deals around the world at a dizzying rate. US pork sales to China have doubled, while European pork prices have now reached a six-year high.

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