#south-korea

#south-korea

WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump said Monday he is increasing tariffs on South Korean goods because the country's national assembly has yet to approve the trade framework announced last year. Trump said on social media that import taxes would be raised on autos, lumber and pharmaceutical drugs from South Korea with the rate on other goods going from 15% to 25%.

South Korea has launched a landmark set of laws to regulate AI before any other country or bloc (the EU's regulations are set to go into effect in stages through next year). Under Korea's AI Basic Act, companies must ensure there is human oversight for "high-impact" AI in fields like nuclear safety, drinking water, transport, healthcare, and financial uses like credit evaluation and loan screening.

Tesla has captured the hearts of South Korea's 20s-30s demographic, emerging as the group's top-selling imported car brand in 2025. From January to November, young buyers purchased over 21,000 Teslas, putting it far ahead of fellow imported rivals like BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Industry experts cited by The Economist attributed this "Tesla frenzy" to fandom culture, where buyers prioritize the brand over traditional car attributes, similar to snapping up the latest iPhone.

Jane Newman spent her evenings watching K-dramas on her recliner during the pandemic lockdowns. She didn't expect they'd spark a curiosity about South Korea that would eventually lead her to move there and start over.

A trial got underway in Seoul last week for 46 South Koreans, mostly men in their 20s, accused of participating in online scam operations in Cambodia. Since mid-October, South Korea has repatriated 107 nationals from Cambodia where officials estimate upwards of 1,000 of its citizens are working either "voluntarily or involuntarily" in scam compounds. The repatriation effort follows public outrage over the death of a South Korean college student, who was reportedly lured to Cambodia and forced to work in a scam center.

My identity, my immediate family, my extended family, everything was erased,' says adoptee Ju-rye Hwang. Sydney, Australia Ju-rye Hwang grew up assuming her parents in South Korea were dead and that she was alone in the world after being adopted to North America at about six years of age. That was until a phone call from a journalist in Seoul turned her world upside down.

For 75 years, the US has wielded wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces. The set-up has its origins in the Korean War which erupted in 1950 and largely ended with the truce of 1953. In simple terms, Seoul can command its troops only as long as there is no open conflict, and despite South Korean leadership taking on more and more responsibility in the intervening decades, a major breakout of hostilities would still see Washington take command.

I was like, that's a good question. I don't have an answer for it,

The headpiece Mr. Trump received is a replica of one of six gold crowns excavated from Gyeongju's royal tombs, alongside gilded jewelry, belts and other ornaments. The crown was excavated in 1973 from a tomb, known as the Cheonmachong, that researchers believe belonged to the 21st or 22nd Silla king. It is the "largest and most extravagant" of the six crowns, a spokesman for Mr. Lee told Mr. Trump during the ceremony.

As the world races to stay ahead in the deep tech revolution - from AI and semiconductors to quantum computing - innovation has become the new currency of power. For many companies, that pressure has translated into heavier workloads and more intense work cultures. Yet they face a real dilemma: they can't simply ease up while competitors across the globe push harder to win.

South Korea is nearing a decision on whether to allow Google and Apple to export high-resolution geographic map data to servers outside the country. The detailed maps, which use a 1:5,000 scale, would show streets, buildings, and alleyways in far greater detail than currently available on these platforms. However, several regulatory and security hurdles remain unresolved. Earlier this week, South Korea's National Assembly Defense Committee held a parliamentary audit of Google Korea.

With no clear government agency acting as 'first responder' following a cyberattack, the country's cyber defenses are struggling to keep pace with its digital ambitions. "The government's approach to cybersecurity remains largely reactive, treating it as a crisis management issue rather than as critical national infrastructure," Brian Pak, the chief executive of Seoul-based cybersecurity firm Theori, told TechCrunch.

Eighteen years ago, people didn't even know the name of this ingredient, says 58-year-old Gil Sa-hyeon, holding up a cluster of dried brownish stems. Now it's everywhere. His shop, Joseon Yakcho, sits in the heart of Seoul's Yangnyeongsi Market, South Korea's largest traditional medicinal herb market, its streets lined with shops displaying buckets of herbs such as liquorice root and cinnamon bark that spill on to the pavements, filling the air with their distinct, earthy aroma.

The North Korean vessel crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) near the South Korean border island of Baengnyeong at about 5am local time on Friday (20:00 GMT) and remained on the southern side of the maritime frontier for an hour while also advancing up to 5km (3.1 miles) south of the demarcation line, South Korea's military said. Our military broadcasted a warning and fired warning shots, after which the North Korean merchant ship retreated from our territorial waters, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.

Less than four months after being elected, South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung has announced an ambitious campaign to reform the constitution in way which would allow future presidents to serve two consecutive four-year terms instead of stepping down after a single five-year stint. The initiative is at the top of the administration's 123-item policy agenda. Proponents say the reform would also synchronize presidential elections with votes for members of the National Assembly in order to encourage continuity of policies and greater responsibility while in office.

South Korea's negotiations with the U.S. on a trade deal to lower tariffs have stalled amid concerns over the foreign exchange implications of a $350 billion investment fund, part of an agreement reached with President Donald Trump in July. What has Japan agreed to? South Korean officials, who had argued that the package would mostly comprise loans and guarantees with limited direct investment, said last week they could not accept terms similar to those of a $550 billion investment package finalised this month by Japan.

South Korea's government has said it will launch an investigation into whether human rights violations were committed when hundreds of its citizens were detained in a US immigration raid. About 475 people, mostly South Korean nationals, were arrested at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery factory in the US state of Georgia on 4 September. The raid was the largest single-site operation conducted since the US president, Donald Trump, launched a sweeping immigration crackdown.

On Tuesday, Apple announced its newest product, the iPhone 17, featuring new colors, better cameras, and a slim variation of the worst almond-mom dreams. To flaunt the phone's svelte figure, Apple released a bunch of different ads displaying the phone mid-air, side-by-side with other objects, and, in some cases, being pinched by two fingers. Because nothing texts as good as skinny feels.

Choi's actions at the time are now deemed an attempt to escape an unjust infringement on her bodily integrity and sexual self-determination, the court said in a statement.