Focus on Headline

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting that North Korea's troop deployment in Russia constituted security threats to both South Korea and the world, denouncing what he calls "illegal" military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

2.North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday reported that North Korea’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, left Pyongyang to visit Russia amid international criticism over the North’s participation in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

3.The South Korean Embassy in China said Monday that a South Korean man has been detained on espionage charges in China, the first time for a South Korean in such a case. The suspect in his 50s, whose identity has been withheld, was reportedly arrested late last year and had been working at a semiconductor company.

1.South Korea’s National Security Advisor Shin Won-sik, and his U.S. and Japan counterparts, held a trilateral meeting in Washington last Friday to address concern over North Korea’s recent troop deployment to Russia.

2.South Korea’s finance minister Choi Sang-mok on Monday vowed to enhance market monitoring and swiftly respond to excessive volatility under contingency plans amid weaker growth data and global uncertainties.

3.Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling coalition, the Liberal Democratic Party, lost its parliamentary majority at Sunday's national election, as voters punished the party over a funding scandal and inflation. The results raise Japan's political uncertainty and sent the yen currency to a three month low on Monday.

1.According to the Presidential office on Friday, President Yoon Suk Yeol said weapons manufactured in South Korea will safeguard Poland's national security, as Yoon hosted a state dinner for Polish President Andrzej Duda Thursday.

2.Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his country's military cooperation with North Korea is "our business," as he addressed a question about Pyongyang's troop dispatch to support Russia's war in Ukraine.

3.The first annual Dokdo Day ceremony took place on Ulleung Island in the East Sea on Friday afternoon. According to the local government of Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province, October 25 is Dokdo Day under an ordinance enacted in May.

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged support for South Korea's efforts to sign an additional deal with Poland to supply K2 tanks by the end of the year, during a summit with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday.

2.The White House on Wednesday confirmed that North Korea deployed at least three-thousand soldiers to Russia earlier this month. NATO also said its allies have "confirmed evidence" of the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia.

3.According to data from the Bank of Korea on Thursday, South Korea's economy grew at a slower-than-expected rate in the third quarter of the year amid softening export growth. The country's real GDP gained 0.1 percent on-quarter in the July-September period.

1.The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday it kept the 2024 growth outlook for South Korea unchanged at 2.5 percent amid a stable global economic expansion. The IMF also maintained its growth forecast for South Korea next year at 2.2 percent.

2.Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong on Wednesday vowed to make efforts to resolve a prolonged walkout by trainee doctors throughout talks with a consultative body comprising ruling, opposition parties and the medical community.

3.According to an analysis by the intelligence unit at South Korea's defense ministry on Wednesday, North Korea is estimated to have secured enough wartime supplies, including weapons, to last a maximum of three months.

1.During their meeting on Monday evening, People Power Party chief Han Dong-hoon pressed President Yoon Suk Yeol to remove a group of presidential aides allegedly under first lady Kim Keon-hee’s command.

2.South Korea on Monday strongly urged Russia to take "immediate" action to withdraw North Korean troops from the war in Ukraine, after Seoul's spy agency confirmed the North's deployment of its soldiers to Russia to help the war effort.

3.According to data from Statistics Korea on Tuesday, workers aged 60 and over outnumbered those in their 50s for the first time last month, to rank first among all age groups in employment.

1.During a ceremony marking 79th Police Day on Monday, President Yoon Suk Yeol urged police to step up efforts to crack down on crimes affecting ordinary citizens, new types of crime enabled by artificial intelligence, such as deepfake, and fake news.

2.The Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute announced Sunday that only 266 people passed this year’s exam, which is less than one-tenth of last year’s figure. The sharp decline is the result of medical students boycotting the exam in protest of the government’s plans to increase medical school admissions.

3.South Korea’s National Intelligence Service on Friday presented images confirming North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia for its war in Ukraine, which were captured by satellite the South has been operating.

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday held an emergency security meeting at the Yongsan Presidential Office, focusing on North Korea’s deployment of combat troops to Russia's war in Ukraine.

2.The Ministry of Economy and Finance said Friday that South Korea's economy continues to recover with solid exports and manufacturing gains, as it presented its monthly economic report, known as the “Green Book,” for October.

3.Israel on Thursday claimed that its forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Western leaders said his death offered an opportunity for the war to end, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would go on.

1. Rival parties won crucial regional by-elections in their respective strongholds. The ruling People Power Party won the mayoral races in Busan's Geumjeong District and Incheon's Ganghwa County, while the main opposition Democratic Party won in the South Jeolla Province counties of Yeonggwang and Gokseong.

2. Senior diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan strongly denounced North Korea on Wednesday for deliberately escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

3. The South Korean government on Thursday expressed disappointment and "deep regret" after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine, which is seen as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past.

1.Voting for the by-elections kicked off at about 24-hundred polling stations in five electoral districts on Wednesday. The by-elections will fill the post of the education chief of Seoul and four local government heads. Final results are expected to come in around midnight.

2.Senior diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan met in Seoul on Wednesday amid rising tensions following North Korea's destruction of roads to the South and accusations of drone flights by the South over Pyongyang.

3.According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the number of employed people in South Korea came to 28-point-8 million in September, up 144-thousand from a year earlier. Jobs in the construction sector, however, fell by the most ever amid an industry slowdown.