Category Archives: South Korea

Why do female leaders seem to be more successful at managing the coronavirus crisis?

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Plenty of countries with male leaders have also done well. But few with female leaders have done badly

On 1 April, the prime minister of Sint Maarten addressed her nation’s 41,500 people. Coronavirus cases were rising, and Silveria Jacobs knew the small island country, which welcomes 500,000 tourists a year, was at great risk: it had two ICU beds.

Jacobs did not want to impose a strict lockdown, but she did want physical distancing observed. So she spelled it out: “Simply. Stop. Moving,” she said. “If you don’t have the bread you like in your house, eat crackers. Eat cereal. Eat oats. Eat … sardines.”

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Why South Korea’s coronavirus death toll is comparatively low – video explainer

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​On 29 February​, South Korea reported a peak of 909 new Covid-19 cases and was suffering one of the worst outbreaks outside of China. But this week, the government announced a single-digit number of new cases for the first time in almost two months. As of 22 April, there were 238 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in South Korea.

Experts say that the country is one of few to succeed in 'flattening the curve' despite never having a formal lockdown in place​. And with life slowly beginning to return to something like normality, Seoul-based journalist Nemo Kim has been looking at what lessons can be learned

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Coronavirus live news: WHO says nothing was hidden from US on Covid-19

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Spain proposes €1.5tn EU Covid-19 fund; US blocks pro-WHO statement by G20; Trump backs anti-lockdown protesters; deaths in Italy and Spain fall

Italy reported 454 new deaths from coronavirus on Monday, 21 more than on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 24,114.

For the first time, the number of people who are currently infected fell by 20 to 108,237.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday that he understood why some people are protesting the closing down of businesses in response to the coronavirus but argued relaxing restrictions needed to be done in a way that prevented further outbreaks.

“You don’t need protests to convince anyone in this country that we have get back to work and we have to get the economy going and we have to get out of our homes. Nobody,” Cuomo told a briefing.

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South Korean businessman convicted of rape gets suspended sentence

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Ex-chair of DB Group Kim Jun-ki ‘forgot his responsibilities’, says Seoul court

The former head of a South Korean conglomerate who was convicted of raping his maid and sexually assaulting a secretary has been given a suspended sentence.

Kim Jun-ki, the 75-year-old former chair of DB Group, which has activities in finance and steel, repeatedly violated the two women, the Seoul central district court found.

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South Korea’s ruling party wins election landslide amid coronavirus outbreak

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Voters reward Moon Jae-in for response to pandemic with biggest majority since transition to democracy in 1987

South Korea’s ruling party has won a landslide victory in national assembly elections, in what is being seen as an endorsement of President Moon Jae-in’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Moon’s left-leaning Democratic party and its smaller affiliate won 180 seats in the 300-seat assembly – the biggest majority in the national assembly by any party since South Korea’s transition to democracy in 1987 – according to the Yonhap news agency. The conservative opposition United Future party and its smaller sister party won 103 seats.

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South Korea’s first feminist party holds out hope of election miracle

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Formation of the Women’s party comes after campaigns to end spy cam porn and rebellions against strict beauty standards in the conservative nation

Two years year after South Korea became the centre of Asia’s #MeToo movement, the country’s first feminist party is hoping to keep women’s issues on the political agenda by winning seats in Wednesday’s national assembly elections.

In a campaign dominated by the government’s response to the coronavirus epidemic, the newly formed Women’s party has warned that South Korea’s poor record on sexual discrimination and violence risked being overlooked.

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Kim Jong-un’s sister returns to key role in North Korean reshuffle

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Kim Yo-jong reinstated to position she lost last year after collapse of US summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful younger sister has been reinstated to a key decision-making body, state media have reported, marking her rise in the isolated nation.

Long one of her brother’s closest advisers, Kim Yo-jong was reappointed an alternate member of the political bureau of the central committee in a reshuffle of top officials on Saturday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

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Coronavirus: who will be winners and losers in new world order?

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Are state responses to the virus shifting the balance of power between China and the west?

Andrà tutto bene, the Italians have taught us to think, but in truth, will everything be better the day after? It may seem premature, in the midst of what Emmanuel Macron has described as “a war against an invisible enemy”, to consider the political and economic consequences of a distant peace. Few attempt a definitive review of a play after the first three scenes.

Yet world leaders, diplomats and geopolitical analysts know they are living through epoch-making times and have one eye on the daily combat, the other on what this crisis will bequeath the world. Competing ideologies, power blocs, leaders and systems of social cohesion are being stress-tested in the court of world opinion.

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Coronavirus live news: confirmed global cases pass 1.5m as Boris Johnson leaves intensive care

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Italy’s curve flattening but deaths rise by 610; UK’s PM improves in hospital; virus could push 500m people into poverty

The UK’s housing secretary Robert Jenrick has responded on Twitter to The Guardian’s story about him visiting his parents.

For clarity - my parents asked me to deliver some essentials - including medicines.

They are both self-isolating due to age and my father's medical condition and I respected social distancing rules.https://t.co/XlRujT8S5Y

Egypt reported 139 new cases of coronavirus, bringing its total since the start of the outbreak to 1,699, according to a health ministry statement.

The Arab world’s most populous country also recorded 15 new deaths, raising the total number to 118.

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Drive-in church lets South Koreans congregate safely – video

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Christians at a church in South Korea are taking part in 'drive-in' services to comply with the country's strict social-distancing rules. While most services have been taking place online, the Seoul City Church decided to also hold a drive-in.

South Korea has largely managed to its epidemic under control, but outbreaks still occur in churches, hospitals and nursing homes

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South Korea bars entry to foreign nationals who refuse to self-isolate

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Eight people from six countries deported after failing to comply with coronavirus rules

South Korea has denied entry to eight foreign nationals after they refused to comply with strict quarantine requirements introduced this week to help the country tackle a rise in coronavirus infections, as anger mounts over visitors who have been caught breaking self-isolation rules.

The visitors, from six countries, were deported after they refused to self-isolate for two weeks, the justice ministry said. Media reports said the passengers had been informed of the rules before they boarded their flights.

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Coronavirus testing: how some countries got ahead of the rest

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Germany was quick to see the threat while South Korea took an aggressive approach

Countries have approached coronavirus testing in different ways, and in some places there was far earlier recognition than in the UK of the need to develop tests and kits and to have sufficient numbers stockpiled. Here is how some countries got ahead of the curve.

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North Korea fires two missiles as Seoul condemns ‘inappropriate’ timing

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Latest in flurry of launches draws particular criticism amid coronavirus pandemic

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the ocean off its east coast on Sunday, the latest in an unprecedented flurry of launches that South Korea decried as “inappropriate” amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Two “short-range projectiles” were launched from the coastal Wonsan area and flew 230km (143 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30km (19 miles), South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said.

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North Korea fires projectiles into sea for third time in a month

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Suspected short-range missile launches come as Pyongyang announces legislature to meet in April amid coronavirus pandemic

North Korea fired two projectiles that appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, South Korea’s military reported.

The launch on Saturday follows two earlier this month, when North Korea fired short-range missiles and multiple projectiles, according to South Korea’s military, drawing US and Chinese appeals for Pyongyang to return to talks on ending its nuclear and missile programmes.

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‘Do not let this fire burn’: WHO warns Europe over coronavirus

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Europe now centre of pandemic, says WHO, as Spain prepares for state of emergency

The World Health Organization has stepped up its calls for intensified action to fight the coronavirus pandemic, imploring countries “not to let this fire burn”, as Spain said it would declare a 15-day state of emergency from Saturday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, said Europe – where the virus is present in all 27 EU states and has infected 25,000 people – had become the centre of the epidemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined apart from China.

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North Korea fires projectiles into sea for second week running

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South Korean military says three projectiles were launched on Monday, following launch of two short-range missiles on 2 March

North Korea has fired three unidentified projectiles off its eastern coast a week after firing two short-range missiles, South Korea’s military said.

The projectiles were launched on Monday from the coastal town of Sondok, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The town hosts a military airfield and North Korea fired missiles from the area last year.

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Kim Jong-un sister condemns ‘frightened dog’ South Korea in first public statement

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Kim Yo-jong likens South Korea to ‘frightened dog barking’ after Seoul protested against Pyongyang’s live-fire military frill

The sister of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has condemned South Korea as a “frightened dog barking” after Seoul protested against a live-fire military exercise by the North.

Kim Yo-jong’s comments – her first known official statement – came after Seoul’s security ministers expressed “strong concern” over Pyongyang’s firing of two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday – its first weapons test for more than three months.

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South Korea sect leader asks for forgiveness over coronavirus surge – video

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Lee Man-hee, the reclusive founder of the Shincheonji Church at the centre of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak, has apologised over the virus’s spread. The church became the target of public anger after one of its members, known as Patient 31, tested positive for the virus and infected many others. Lee said the church had tried to prevent the spread of the virus among its members. He spoke a day after the Seoul city government asked prosecutors to begin a murder investigation into him

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Coronavirus: two patients die in France as four new cases detected in England – live updates

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South Korea reports almost 500 new cases and a second person dies in the US as UK ministers hold emergency meeting

Big businesses and wealthy people are chartering private jets for “evacuation flights” out of countries hit by the coronavirus outbreak, reports the Guardian’s wealth correspondent Rupert Neate.

Adam Twidell, the chief executive of the private jet booking service PrivateFly, said the company had been inundated with requests from multinational firms arranging the mass evacuation of staff from China and south-east Asia.

Related: Wealthy turning to private jets to escape coronavirus outbreak

British Labour MP Tulip Siddiq has had confirmation from the family of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran, that she has not been tested for coronavirus. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband told broadcasters this morning that his wife suspected she might have the virus and was displaying all the symptoms.

Just spoken to Nazanin’s family about what was said in the chamber in my Urgent Question - she told them this morning categorically that she has NOT been tested for coronavirus and remains petrified about her health #FreeNazanin

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