Category Archives: South Korea

Factory behind India gas leak operated illegally until 2019

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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

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North and South Korea exchange gunfire across DMZ at border

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.”

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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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