South Korea

December 16, 2024 12:57 PM

South Korea court begins review of Yoon impeachment over martial law attempt

South Korea's Constitutional Court on Monday began reviewing the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol over his Dec. 3 martial law attempt, starting a process to decide if he will be removed from office, while investigators plan to question him this week. The court will hold the first public hearing on Dec. 27, spokesperson Lee Jean told a news conference, after the court's six justices met to discuss plans for reviewing the impeachment by the opposition-controlled parliament on Saturday. The...

December 13, 2024 3:54 PM

South Korea opposition leader urges president’s party to support impeachment over martial law

South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said on Friday the best way to restore order in the country is to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, a day ahead of a planned parliamentary vote over Yoon's short-lived imposition of martial law. Yoon's move to impose military rule on Dec. 3 was rescinded barely six hours later but it plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and widespread calls for him to step down for breaking the law. The beleaguered president survived an initial impeachmen...

December 12, 2024 2:28 PM

South Korean President Yoon vows defiance amid rising impeachment threats, accuses North Korea of election interference

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would "fight to the end" on Thursday as his own political party shifted closer to voting with the opposition to impeach him over his short-lived martial law order that threw the U.S. ally into turmoil. In a lengthy televised address, the embattled leader of Asia's fourth-largest economy also claimed North Korea had hacked South Korea's election commission, throwing doubt on his party's landslide election defeat in April. Yoon is hoping his political...

December 11, 2024 10:08 AM

South Korea police raid Yoon office over failed martial law as impeachment vote looms

South Korean police raided the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol, a presidential security official said on Wednesday, in a widening investigation into the embattled leader's failed attempt to impose martial law. Separately, Kim Yong-hyun, former defence minister and a close confidant of Yoon, attempted suicide at a detention centre where he is held after being arrested, a Justice Ministry official told a parliament hearing. A presidential security service official confirmed to Reuters that pol...

December 3, 2024 11:03 PM

South Korea parliament rejects president’s martial law declaration

President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday night in a move that stunned South Koreans and triggered a short-lived attempt by troops to enter parliament, as lawmakers and protesters quickly voiced opposition to the most serious challenge to the country's democracy since the 1980s. The speaker of parliament declared the martial law announcement invalid and lawmakers early on Wednesday voted to reject it. Yoon's move, which he cast as aimed at his political foes, was vocally opposed ...

December 3, 2024 10:42 PM

South Korea President Yoon declares martial law

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television, claiming he would eradicate "shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces". It is the first time since 1980 that martial law was declared in South Korea. Yonhap news agency cited the military as saying activities by parliament and political parties would be banned, and that media and publishers would be under the control of the martial law command. Yoon d...

November 5, 2024 12:47 PM

South Korea fines Meta about $15 million over collection of user data.

South Korea has ordered Facebook owner Meta Platforms to pay 21.62 billion won ($15.67 million) in fines after finding it had collected sensitive user data and given it to advertisers without a legal basis, Seoul's data protection agency said. The U.S. tech giant obtained information from about 980,000 South Korean Facebook users on issues such as their religion, political views, and sexuality while failing to seek agreement from users, the Personal Information Protection Commission said in a s...

October 31, 2024 9:28 AM

North Korea fires long-range ballistic missile, South Korean military says

North Korea fired a suspected long-range ballistic missile towards the sea off its east coast on Thursday (October 31), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, a day after Seoul reported the North was making preparations to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile. The launch, at a sharply raised angle, was from an area near the North's capital, Pyongyang, at 7:10 a.m. (2210 GMT, October 30) and may have used a newly developed solid-fuel booster, South Korea's military added. The la...

October 21, 2024 8:21 PM

What we know about North Korean troops joining Russia’s war in Ukraine

Officials in Ukraine and South Korea have accused North Korea of dispatching troops, estimated to number in the thousands perhaps, to aid Russia in the war in Ukraine. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the claims and U.S. officials have said they are still investigating the reports. Here is what we know so far: WHAT ARE THE REPORTS? Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused North Korea on Thursday of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to help ...

October 17, 2024 11:31 AM

North Korea calls South Korea ‘hostile state’ indicating constitution change

North Korea has designated South Korea a "hostile state", its state media said on Thursday, confirming that its national assembly had amended the constitution in line with their leader's vow to drop unification as a national goal. The North's KCNA news agency reported that the military had blasted sections of road and rail links with South Korea on Tuesday as legitimate action against a hostile state as defined by the constitution. Sixty-metre (66-yard) sections of the road and railway on the ...