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SEOUL, Feb 29, 2024 (AFP) – Most striking doctors have not returned to work despite a deadline, South Korea’s health minister said Thursday, warning of legal action if medics do not end work stoppages that have plunged hospitals into chaos. Nearly 10,000 junior doctors — about 80 percent of the trainee workforce — handed in notice and walked off the job last week to protest government plans to sharply increase medical school admissions to cope […]
By Kang Jin-kyu SEOUL, Feb 28, 2024 (AFP) – South Korea’s birth rate fell to a record low last year, the government said Wednesday, despite having poured billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability. The country has one of the world’s longest life expectancies and lowest birth rates, a combination that presents a looming demographic challenge. Neighbouring Japan is grappling with the same issue, and on […]
SEOUL, Feb 19, 2024 (AFP) – South Korea ordered trainee doctors back to work Monday after they resigned en masse to protest medical training reforms, with the government looking at using military medics to cope with shortfalls. South Korea says it has one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed countries, and the government is pushing hard to increase the number of doctors, partly to help a fast-ageing society. But doctors have voiced fierce opposition […]
SEOUL, Feb 14, 2024 (AFP) – The former fiance of South Korean Olympic fencing medallist Nam Hyun-hee was sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud Wednesday over a scandal that reverberated across the country last year. The former fiance, Jeon Cheong-jo, was arrested last year on charges of stealing over 3 billion won ($2.2 million) from 27 people between April 2022 and last October, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Jeon on Wednesday […]
SEOUL, Feb 14, 2024 (AFP) – A South Korean court sentenced two former senior police officers Wednesday for destroying evidence linked to Seoul’s deadly 2022 Halloween crush — the first police officials to be sentenced over the disaster. Tens of thousands of people — mostly in their 20s and 30s — had been out on October 29, 2022, to enjoy the first post-pandemic holiday celebrations in the popular Itaewon nightlife district. But the night turned […]
SEOUL, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles Friday, Seoul’s military said, continuing a fresh streak of weapons testing as Kim Jong Un’s regime ramps up what it calls “war preparations”. So far this year, Kim has declared South Korea his country’s “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement. Pyongyang has also carried out ever more weapons tests, including […]
SEOUL, Jan 25, 2024 (AFP) – A South Korean ruling party lawmaker was “attacked” on a street in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district on Thursday by an unidentified assailant, Yonhap news agency reported. Bae Hyun-jin, 40, was struck with an “object believed to be a blunt instrument” and was taken to hospital, the report said, adding her condition was “not life threatening”. The attack comes just about a month after the country’s opposition party leader Lee […]
SINGAPORE, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – South Korean entrepreneur Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs, whose cryptocurrencies crashed dramatically in 2022, is seeking bankruptcy protection in the United States, according to court documents filed Sunday. The collapse of the Singapore-based firm’s TerraUSD and Luna wiped out around $40 billion in investments and caused wider losses in the global crypto market estimated at more than $400 billion. Kwon, who co-founded Terraform in 2018, was arrested last year in […]
SEOUL, Jan 19, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea said Friday that it had tested an “underwater nuclear weapon system” in response to joint naval exercises by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo that involved a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The drills were “seriously threatening the security” of the North, so in response, Pyongyang “conducted an important test of its underwater nuclear weapon system ‘Haeil-5-23’ under development in the East Sea of Korea,” according to a statement from […]
SEOUL, Jan 15, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea said Monday it had successfully test-fired a new ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic manoeuvrable warhead, the latest breakthrough in its pursuit of advanced weaponry to threaten South Korean and US targets. The launch, Pyongyang’s first known weapons test this year and its first ever test of a solid-fuel hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), was detected by Seoul’s military Sunday afternoon. A short report in the official […]
SEOUL, Jan 14, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday, Seoul’s military said, days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the tense maritime border with the South. “North Korea fires unidentified ballistic missile towards East Sea,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said had it detected the launch but gave […]
SEOUL, Jan 14, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday, Seoul’s military said, days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the tense maritime border with the South. “North Korea fires unidentified ballistic missile towards East Sea,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. This is a developing story…
