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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Hours after South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was formally arrested, triggering rioting by his supporters, his lawyers said Sunday that he remains defiant in his refusal to answer questions over the probe into his declaration of martial law last month. Yoon was formally arrested early on Sunday, days after being apprehended at his presidential compound in Seoul. He faces possible imprisonment over his short-lived imposition of martial law, which set off the country's most serious political crisis since i...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's anti-corruption agency has dispatched investigators to execute a warrant to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol as hundreds of his supporters are gathered at his residence in Seoul, vowing to block their approach. Investigators of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials were seen loading boxes into several vehicles before leaving their building in the city of Gwacheon early Friday. The office didn't immediately confirm how many investigators were sent. A Seoul court issued a w...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's parliament on Saturday impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his stunning and short-lived martial law decree, a move that ended days of political paralysis but set up an intense debate over Yoon's fate, as jubilant crowds roared to celebrate another defiant moment in the country's resilient democracy. The National Assembly passed the motion 204-85. Yoon's presidential powers and duties were subsequently suspended and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country's No. 2 official, took over presidential p...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean law enforcement authorities will request that impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol appear for questioning this week over his short-lived martial law decree as they expand a probe into whether his ill-conceived power grab amounted to rebellion. A joint investigative team involving police, an anti-corruption agency and the Defense Ministry plans to convey a request to Yoon's office that he appears for questioning on Wednesday, the police said Monday. Yoon was impeached by the opposition-controlled National A...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In an era of rising authoritarianism, at the heels of a six-hour martial law decree that unfolded while many South Koreans slept, something noteworthy happened: Democracy held. The past week in Seoul, officials and academics warn, is what a threat to democracy looks like in 2024. It's a democratically-elected president declaring martial law over the nation he leads, asserting sweeping powers to prevent opposition demonstrations, ban political parties and control the media. It's members of the military attempting to b...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean prosecutors on Sunday detained a former defense minister who allegedly recommended last week's brief but stunning martial law imposition to President Yoon Suk Yeol, making him the first figure detained over the case. The development came a day after Yoon avoided an opposition-led bid to impeach him in parliament, with most ruling party lawmakers boycotting a floor vote to prevent the two-thirds majority needed to suspend his presidential powers. The main opposition Democratic Party said it will prepare a n...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The president of South Korea early Wednesday lifted the martial law he imposed on the country hours earlier, bending to political pressure after a tense night in which troops surrounded parliament and lawmakers voted to reject military rule. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who appeared likely to be impeached over his actions, imposed martial law late Tuesday out of frustration with the opposition, vowing to eliminate "anti-state" forces as he struggles against opponents who control parliament and that he accuses of s...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Yoon Suk Yeol's stunning martial law declaration lasted just hours, but experts say it raised serious questions about his ability to govern for the remaining 2 1/2 years of his term and whether he will abide by democratic principles. The opposition-controlled parliament overturned the edict, and his rivals on Wednesday took steps to impeach him. One analyst called his action "political suicide." Yoon's political fate may depend on whether a large number of people in coming days take to the streets to push f...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Thursday that it would consider sending arms to Ukraine, a major policy change that was suggested after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other's defense in the event of war. The comments from a senior presidential official came hours after North Korea's state media released the details of the agreement, which observers said could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. It comes at a time when R...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Don't believe the name: The Demilitarized Zone between the two rival Koreas might be the most heavily armed place on earth. Two million mines, barbed wire fences, tank traps and tens of thousands of troops from both countries patrol a divided swath of land 248 kilometers (154 miles) long and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide. So how are North Korean soldiers continuing to wander over the line separating North from South, causing South Korea to fire warning shots for the third time this month? The short answer appears to be...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in North Korea early on Wednesday, after saying the two countries want to cooperate closely to overcome U.S.-led sanctions in the face of intensifying confrontations with Washington. Putin was met at Pyongyang's airport by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. They shook hands and embraced, and Kim later joined Putin in his car to personally guide him to Pyongyang's Kumsusan State Guest House, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said. The agency described their m...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Vladimir Putin is in North Korea for a summit with its leader, Kim Jong Un, as the two nations deepen their cooperation. The visit comes amid growing concerns about an arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel Russia's war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology to enhance the threat posed by Kim's nuclear weapons and missile program. Despite their often aligning interests, relations between Russia and North Korea have experienced highs and l...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's military on Monday said it's detecting signs that North Korea is installing its own loudspeakers along their heavily armed border, a day after the South blared anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts over its speakers for the first time in years as the rivals engage in a Cold War-style psychological warfare. The South's resumption of its loudspeaker broadcasts on Sunday was in retaliation for the North sending over 1,000 balloons filled with trash and manure over the last couple of weeks. North Korea has des...
North Korea launched more trash-carrying balloons toward the South after a similar campaign earlier in the week, according to South Korea's military, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border. South Korea's Defense Ministry did not immediately comment on the number of balloons or how many landed in South Korea. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing anonymous military sources, said officials as of Saturday night found about 90 balloons that dropped paper and plastic trash and...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has shipped around 7,000 containers filled with munitions and other military equipment to Russia since last year to help support its war in Ukraine, South Korea's defense minister said Monday. Shin Won-sik shared the assessment at a news conference hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said the North fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern waters, adding to a streak of weapons displays amid growing tensions with rivals. Since the start of 2022, North Korea has used R...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his willingness to visit the North at an unspecified "early date" as the countries continue to align in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States. The North Korean Foreign Ministry highlighted Putin's intent for a visit following North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui's meetings with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow last week. The ministry said in a statement published by state m...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has secured the release of a U.S. soldier who sprinted across a heavily fortified border into North Korea more than two months ago, and he is on his way back to America, officials announced Wednesday. U.S. ally Sweden and rival China helped with the transfer. Left unanswered were questions of why Pyongyang—which has tense relations with Washington over the North's nuclear program, support for Russia's war in Ukraine and other issues—had agreed to turn him over and why the soldier had fled in the first place. North...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Jong Un arrived Friday in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in far eastern Russia and is expected to visit a plant that builds fighter jets as South Korea has said it's concerned his visit is focused on expanding military cooperation in a possible arms-for-technology deal. The visit to Komsomolsk-on-Amur is one of several the North Korean leader is making on a days-long trip to Russia. Arriving on an armored train from North Korea, he rolled into Russia Tuesday and was met by officials at a station near the Russia-North Korea b...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ending a global guessing game on when and where they would meet, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin got together at a rocket launch facility in the Russian Far East on Wednesday for their first summit in four years. The talks between the isolated, nuclear-armed leaders lasted for more than four hours and focused on expanding the military cooperation of two countries in intensifying confrontations with the West. The decision to meet at Vostochny Cosmodrome, a major satellite launch f...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday its new submarine has nuclear attack capabilities after years of development. Leader Kim Jong Un described the milestone as crucial in his efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy to counter the United States and its Asian allies. The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the vessel, named "Hero Kim Kun Ok," is designed to launch tactical nuclear weapons from underwater but did not specify the number of missiles it could carry and fire. South Korean officials were skeptical that the s...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired several cruise missiles toward its western sea Saturday, South Korea's military said, marking the second launch event this week apparently in protest of the docking of a nuclear-armed U.S. submarine in South Korea. While adding to its barrage of missile launches in recent months, North Korea remained publicly silent for a fifth day on the fate of an American soldier who bolted into the North across the heavily armed Korean border this week. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches were d...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his increasing range of weapons. The report in state media Tuesday followed a series of missile launches — seven launch events in this month alone — and rising threats to use the weapons against his enemies. North Korea's weapons tests and U.S.-South Korea military exercises have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle, underscoring heightened tensions in the region. Officials say N...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Saturday fired a long-range missile from its capital into the sea off Japan, according to its neighbors, a day after it threatened to take strong measures against South Korea and the U.S. over their joint military exercises. According to the South Korean and Japanese militaries, the missile was fired on a high angle, apparently to avoid reaching the neighbors' territories, and traveled about 900 kilometers (560 miles) at a maximum altitude of 5,700 kilometers (3,500 miles) during an hourlong flight. T...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A pair of dogs gifted by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 are now mired in a South Korean political row, with the country's former president blaming his conservative successor for a lack of financial support as he gave the animals up. Moon Jae-in, a liberal who left office in May, received the two white "Pungsan" hunting dogs – a breed known to be indigenous to North Korea – from Kim following their peace summit in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang in September 2018. The dogs are officially considered state...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired at least six missiles into the sea on Thursday, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that triggered evacuation warnings and halted trains in northern Japan, adding to a recent barrage of weapons tests. The ICBM test was followed by launches of two short-range ballistic missiles in the morning, drawing swift condemnation by North Korea's neighbors and the United States, which reacted by extending ongoing joint air force exercises with South Korea. South Korea's military said North Korea l...
