Tag Archives: South Korea

NPR reports: At Sunday’s Oscars, on a night when almost everything went as planned and as usual, the one true surprise came in the biggest moment of all. For the first time ever, a film in a foreign language won best picture when Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, a comedy-drama-thriller about class and secrets, took the big prize. Bong also won the …

Reuters reports: Hit South Korean boy band BTS will not be given exemption from mandatory military service, the defense ministry has said, reaffirming its policy of no exceptions for pop stars. The decision is likely to fuel debate in South Korea, which remains technically at war with North Korea, about whether entertainers and athletes should have to do their full …

The Korea Daily reports: Seoul’s festival had the theme “Queeround,” signifying that there are LGBT people all around us. According to its organizers, a record number of about 120,000 people took part in the festivities despite the sweltering heat, which reached a high of 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Although the festival was organized by Koreans, there was a …

Reuters reports: A senior North Korean official is headed to New York to discuss an upcoming summit, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, the latest indication that an on-again-off-again meeting between Trump and North Korea’s leader may go ahead next month. Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, was scheduled to fly to the …

The Los Angeles Times reports: In a dramatic diplomatic setback, President Trump on Thursday abruptly pulled out of his scheduled nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with a letter to Kim blaming recent harsh statements from officials in Pyongyang. About two hours later, speaking at the White House, Trump called the cancellation “a tremendous setback for North …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that there’s a substantial chance that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “may not work out” for June. Trump made the remark while he met with Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, for pivotal discussions ahead of the American president’s planned meeting with the North Korean dictator. The summit is scheduled …

The Telegraph reports: North Korea threatened Wednesday to cancel a much-anticipated and unprecedented summit between its leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported. Pyongyang also cancelled high-level talks due Wednesday with Seoul over the Max Thunder joint military exercises between the US and the South, Yonhap said citing the North’s official news …

Politico reports: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said U.S. President Donald Trump would be a deserving winner of the Nobel Peace Prize if he can solve problems in Iran and on the Korean peninsula. “If Trump can fix North Korea and the Iran nuclear deal then I don’t see why he’s any less of a candidate for the Nobel Peace …

NBC News reports: With just weeks to go before President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are expected to hold their first-ever summit, Pyongyang on Sunday criticized what it called “misleading” claims that Trump’s policy of maximum political pressure and sanctions are what drove the North to the negotiating table. The North’s official news agency quoted a …

The BBC reports: North Korea is changing its time zone to match the South after last week’s inter-Korean summit, according to its state media. The country will move its clocks forward by 30 minutes on Saturday, said the official KCNA news agency. The reset is “the first practical step” to “speed up the process for the North and the South …

The New York Times reports: Keeping diplomatic developments coming at a head-snapping pace, the South Korean government said on Sunday that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, had told President Moon Jae-in that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States agreed to formally end the Korean War and promise not to invade his country. In a confidence-building gesture …

CBS News reports: With a single step over a weathered, cracked slab of concrete, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made history Friday by crossing over the world’s most heavily armed border to greet South Korean President Moon Jae-in for talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Kim then invited Moon to cross briefly back into the north with him before …

The Washington Post reports: CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a top-secret visit to North Korea as an envoy for President Trump to meet with Kim Jong Un, and plans for a possible summit between the two leaders are underway, Trump confirmed Wednesday. The extraordinary meeting between one of Trump’s most trusted emissaries and the authoritarian head of a rogue state …

Bloomberg reports: South and North Korea are discussing plans to announce an official end to the military conflict between the two countries that are still technically at war, the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified South Korean official. At next week’s summit between South Korea President Moon Jae-in and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, the two neighbors may …

The New York Times reports: North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has invited President Trump to meet for negotiations over its nuclear program, an audacious diplomatic overture that would bring together two strong-willed, idiosyncratic leaders who have traded threats of war. The South Korean official, Chung Eui-yong, who conveyed the invitation told reporters that Mr. Trump had accepted it and would …

The New York Times reports: North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has told South Korean envoys that his country is willing to begin negotiations with the United States on abandoning its nuclear weapons and that it would suspend all nuclear and missile tests while it is engaged in such talks, South Korean officials said on Tuesday. During the envoys’ two-day visit …

ABC News reports: The U.S. women’s hockey team finally returned to the top of the Olympic podium with a dramatic, heart-stopping display of hockey against rival Canada. The USA won in a nail-biting shootout — 20 years after they last won gold in 1998 when women’s hockey made its debut as an Olympic sport. The U.S. broke Canada’s streak of …

In the first of a three-clip series, this afternoon Samsung published a short video which chronicles gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy’s “Road To Pyeongchang.” Samsung is just one of the major endorsements earned by Kenworthy, who won a silver in Sochi and is a favorite to medal in South Korea. On an unrelated note, there’s this: Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy …

Reuters reports: Pyeongchang Winter Olympics organizers confirmed on Monday that the Games had fallen victim to a cyber attack during Friday’s opening ceremony, but they refused to reveal the source. The Games’ systems, including the internet and television services, were affected by the hack two days ago but organizers said it had not compromised any critical part of their operations. …

People Magazine reports: Figure skater Adam Rippon and skier Gus Kenworthy made history on Friday as the two first openly gay U.S. athletes to qualify for the Winter Olympics. And the significance of marching with the massive Team USA at the opening ceremony in PyeongChang isn’t lost on the Olympians. The pals shared several Twitter shots of themselves at the …