Tag: South Korea

Japan protests unified Korea Olympic flag with disputed isles

  TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan said Monday it had lodged a protest with South Korea over the “unacceptable” use of a unified Korean Olympic flag that features a set of disputed islands. The two Koreas have agreed to march together under the unification flag — a pale blue silhouette of the peninsula — at the Games’ opening ceremony on February 9, and to form a combined women’s ice hockey team. The flag shows a […]

N. Korea flouts sanctions, earning $200 mln from banned exports: UN

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – North Korea is flouting UN sanctions by exporting coal, iron, steel and other commodities banned under UN sanctions, earning nearly $200 million in revenue last year, a UN report said Friday. A UN panel of experts also found evidence of North Korea’s ongoing military cooperation with Syria to develop its ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs, and with Myanmar. North Korea “continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the […]

N. Korean athletes to fly South for Winter Olympics

by Hwang Sunghee Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean skiers and skaters were due to arrive in the South Thursday to take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Games, setting the stage for a “peace Olympics” after a year of high tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. Eight days before the opening ceremony, 10 North Korean skiers and skaters were to fly in on a chartered Asiana Airlines plane, in a rare direct flight […]

Samsung Electronics reports record Q4 and full year profits

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Samsung Electronics reported a 73 percent jump in its fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday, setting a record for any three-month period, mainly driven by demand for its memory chips and display panels. Net profit for the October to December period rose to 12.26 trillion won ($11.4 billion), up from 7.09 trillion won a year earlier, the South Korean tech giant said in a statement. Samsung Electronics, the flagship subsidiary of […]

Families voice anger over deadly South Korea hospital fire

by Jung Ha-Won © Agence France-Presse MIRYANG, South Korea (AFP) — Distraught relatives of those killed in a deadly South Korean hospital fire voiced anger Saturday at what they perceived as another man-made disaster in Asia’s fourth largest economy, just as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics. The huge blaze that erupted at the hospital in the southeastern city of Miryang Friday killed at least 37 people including 34 patients — mostly elderly women — and three […]

South Korea’s long toll of disasters

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – South Korea’s rapid transformation from a war-torn, impoverished backwater to Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a flourishing democracy is a source of great national pride. But a series of preventable disasters — the latest being the hospital fire that killed at least 37 people on Friday — has shaken public confidence in the foundations of the country’s development. Many South Koreans have questioned whether safety standards were sidelined and regulations ignored in […]

Dozens dead in South Korea hospital blaze

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A huge fire tore through a South Korean hospital on Friday killing at least 37 people, the government said, in the country’s worst blaze for a decade. Around 130 others were hurt in the fire, which comes just weeks before thousands of athletes and foreign visitors are expected in the country for the Winter Olympics. While South Korea has risen to become the world’s 11th-largest economy, some of its infrastructure […]

Huge hospital blaze kills 41 in South Korea: Yonhap

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A huge fire tore through a South Korean hospital Friday killing at least 41 people, reports said, in the country’s worst blaze for over a decade. More than 80 others were hurt in the blaze, which comes just weeks before thousands of athletes and foreign visitors are expected in the country for the Winter Olympics. Videos posted on social media showed a patient hanging on to a rope dangling from […]

UPDATED: 33 dead in South Korea hospital blaze: firefighters

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — At least 33 people were killed in a blaze at a hospital in South Korea on Friday, in the country’s worst fire disaster for a decade. More than 70 people were also injured in the second devastating blaze in just a month in one of Asia’s most advanced countries and its fourth-largest economy. Videos posted on social media showed a patient hanging on to a rope dangling from a helicopter above […]

Trump takes ‘America First’ message to Davos elite

by Andrew Beatty and Jitendra Joshi Agence France-Presse DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – The world’s political and business elite headed Thursday into a compelling encounter with President Donald Trump as the United States bids to carve out a competitive edge in trade, taxes and currency rates. A day after appearing to cast aside decades of US support for a strong currency, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was relaxed about the dollar’s short-term value, doing little to […]

LG will increase washing machine prices due to US tariffs

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The US subsidiary of South Korea’s LG Electronics warned retailers on Wednesday that it will raise prices of its washing machines following import duties imposed by the Trump administration this week. It was the first concrete reaction to the trade measures announced this week that have angered US trading partners. “As a result of the trade situation, we will be initiating pricing actions,” Thomas Yoon, executive vice president of […]

S. Korea’s ‘Peace Olympics’ meet backlash at home

by Jung Ha-Won Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s efforts to bring the North to its Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month are provoking a backlash among its own people, with accusations that Seoul risks turning the Games into a “Pyongyang Olympics.” Many are fuming over what they see as exploitation of the South’s own athletes for political purposes, and accusing President Moon Jae-In’s government of making too many concessions to […]