The 500t Marine 711 with about 40 Ghanaian and three South Korean sailors was boarded by the Nigerian pirates on 26 March.

The pirates seized the three South Koreans and escaped on a separate speedboat, with their current whereabouts unknown.

The Marine 711, registered in Ghana, later arrived at a port at Ghana where the Ghanaian sailors disembarked, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.

South Korea’s military said the pirates had been identified as Nigerians, Yonhap reported.

According to the news agency, Munmu the Great, a South Korean warship that had been involved in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, had been sent to the nearby sea.

It’s expected to arrive at the destination near West Africa around April 16, carrying some 30 SEAL members.

The destroyer also carries Lynx multi-role choppers armed with 12.7-mm machine guns.

‘We are closely coordinating with local countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Benin as well as the US and the EU to locate our nationals and secure their release,’ the foreign ministry said.

The pirates have not yet demanded a ransom in return for the release of the abducted sailors.

In 2011, the Unit successfully carried out a gunfight operation to rescue the South Korean crew of a cargo vessel hijacked by Somali pirates.

–

Source: AFP

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It would be the first summit in more than a decade between Korean leaders.

Mr Moon said the Koreas should “make it happen” and encouraged the north to return to negotiations with the US.

The handwritten invitation was delivered by Mr Kim’s influential sister, Kim Yo-jong, at a landmark meeting in the presidential palace in Seoul, before the Winter Olympics.

Ms Kim and the north’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam made up the most senior delegation from the north to visit the south since the Korean War in the 1950s.

The figures from the two Koreas shared kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage) and soju rice liquor, and spoke for three hours.

Ms Kim invited Mr Moon to visit “at the early date possible”, a spokesman for South Korea’s presidential palace said.

According to a tweet by the Washington Post’s Tokyo bureau chief, Ms Kim left a note at the palace expressing hope that “Pyongyang and Seoul will become closer in the heart of Koreans” and for “unification and prosperity in the near future”.

The meeting comes after the US warned against engagement with Pyongyang.

The Trump administration is cautious of Seoul falling for North Korea’s charm offensive during the Winter Olympics, which are taking place amid tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Correspondents say the invitation puts Mr Moon in a difficult position as he campaigned on a promise to engage with the North, but his moves in that direction go contrary to the wishes of his ally the US.

Earlier, US Vice-President Mike Pence briefly encountered Kim Yong-nam at the Games but the two tried to avoid directly facing each other, Yonhap news agency reports.

At the opening ceremony for the Games, Mr Pence, Kim Yo-jong and Kim Yong-nam were seated in close proximity to each other.

Mr Pence stayed seated when the athletes of the host nation marched in to the arena alongside those from the north.

Later on Saturday Mr Moon and Mr Kim will attend the first ice hockey match played by athletes from both North and South Korea on Saturday, according to reports.

It was not immediately reported whether Ms Kim would attend the evening match against Switzerland.

–

Source: BBC

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The annual event is usually held in April, but Pyongyang hit back at US criticism of its decision to bring it forward.

State TV began showing patriotic films in what appeared to be a prelude to a live broadcast.

But reports later surfaced that it had already taken place.

“It seems that North Korea opened the parade at 10:30 a.m. (Seoul time),” anonymous government sources told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

On Thursday, North Korea said it has no intention of meeting US officials during the Games, according to the North’s official KCNA news agency.

South Korean government officials had said last month that some 13,000 troops and 200 pieces of equipment had been spotted near an airport in Pyongyang in what appeared to be a rehearsal for the parade.

Experts say North Korea was expected to showcase its long-range missiles.

–

Source: BBC

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North Korea confirmed Kim Yong-nam’s attendance at the opening ceremony, set for Friday.

Both Koreas will march under one flag at the opening ceremony.

Although this signals a thaw in relations between the Koreas, experts say it unlikely to have any impact on the North’s nuclear ambitions.

Mr Kim will be in the South for a three-day visit and will lead a 22-member delegation.

Who is Kim Yong-nam?

The 90-year-old Kim Yong-nam has seen the rule of all three North Korean leaders in his career.

He is the ceremonial head of state who receives credentials from foreign diplomats in Pyongyang. As such, he is usually responsible for sending condolences or congratulatory messages to foreign leaders.

He has been the president of North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, since 1998.

Unlike the current leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Yong-nam has travelled abroad on official visits. In August 2017, he travelled to Iran to attend President Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration ceremony for his second term in office.

He also attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

Mr Kim is said to be a loyal follower of the top leadership. “As Kim is known to be acting and speaking under the country’s guidance, he makes no mistakes. That’s why he could keep his high-level post in a country where political purges are common,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted one North Korean defector as saying.

What is the significance of his visit?

An unnamed official from the South’s presidential Blue House told the BBC that they believed Mr Kim’s visit reflected a willingness on the part of North Korea to improve inter-Korean relations, and demonstrated the North’s sincerity.

Seoul has said it will seek high-level talks with the North Korean delegation during the visit, Yonhap reported.

Mr Kim’s attendance at the opening ceremony will also put him in the company of US Vice President Mike Pence, at a point of high tension with Washington over the North’s nuclear ambitions.

In another development on Sunday, the Washington Post reported that Fred Warmbier, whose son Otto Warmbier was jailed by North Korea and died days after returning to the US, would attend the opening ceremony as a guest of Mr Pence.

Mr Warmbier and his wife, Cindy, were guests of US President Donald Trump at last week’s State of the Union address.

–

Source: BBC

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The blaze is thought to have started in the emergency room at Sejong Hospital in the south-eastern city of Miryang.

About 200 patients were inside the building and an adjoining nursing home at the time.

It is South Korea’s deadliest fire in almost a decade and the toll is expected to rise with several of the injured in critical condition.

Firefighters told the Yonhap news agency that the victims appeared to have died from smoke inhalation. Hospital medical staff, including a doctor and a nurse, are among the victims.

Authorities have given varying death tolls, with fire officials confirming 39 victims to the BBC, but police announcing 41 dead.

Fire chief Choi Man-woo told reporters the cause of the fire was not yet known.

“The victims came both from the hospital and the nursing home. Some died on their way to another hospital,” news agency AFP quoted him as saying.

The hospital building did not have any fire sprinklers installed, local media said.

Under current laws, the building was not required to have fire sprinklers, but was in the process of fitting sprinklers in its adjoining nursing home.

A new law that is due to be rolled out by 30 June would have made sprinklers compulsory for nursing homes.

Mr Choi said the fire started around 07:30 local time (22:30 GMT on Thursday) and was put out in about three hours.

According to Yonhap, 94 patients from the nursing home were safely evacuated from the building.

Pictures from the scene show the building engulfed by heavy grey smoke as well as patients being rescued.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in arranged an emergency meeting to discuss ways of dealing with the fire.

According to Yonhap news agency, senior officials from both the governing and the opposition parties travelled to Miryang to offer their condolences and call for a thorough investigation into what caused the tragedy.

“We hope that all-out efforts are made to prevent additional victims,” Kim Hyun, the spokeswoman of the ruling Democratic Party, said according to Yonhap.

Miryang is about 270km (168 miles) south-east of the capital, Seoul.

The hospital has been operating since 2008. The nursing home and hospital between them have about 200 beds.

About 35 medical staff work at the hospital, according to provincial officials.

The fire comes just a month after 29 people in the South Korean city of Jecheon were killed in a blaze at a public gym.

–

Source: BBC

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The North Korean leader struck an unusually conciliatory note in his annual New Year’s Day address Monday, declaring his wish “for a peaceful resolution with our southern border.”

In the televised address, Kim called for peace on the Korean peninsula and said North Korean representatives should start talks with their South Korean counterparts “as soon as possible” to discuss sending a delegation to the 2018 Winter Games, to be hosted in South Korea next month.

Moon, who has long advocated for closer relations with the North, described Kim’s remarks “as a response to our proposal to turn the Pyeongchang Olympic Games into an epoch-making opportunity to improve inter-Korean relations and establish peace.

“Moon said he would ask the Unification Ministry — the government department responsible for inter-Korean relations — and the Ministry of Culture and Sports “to quickly come up with follow-up measures for the speedy restoration of South-North Korean dialogue and realize the North Korean delegation’s participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics.”
The 2018 Winter Olympics, which are scheduled to begin on February 9, have been championed by Moon as an opportunity to open dialogue with Kim and help ease tensions on the Korean peninsula. In an interview with CNN in November, the South Korean president described the games as an opportunity for inter-Korean peace and reconciliation, and expressed his hope that North Korea would participate.

The games are due to take place 30 years after Seoul hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics, a turbulent era in which a number of nations — including North Korea — decided to boycott the games.

To date, only two North Korean athletes had qualified for the games, figure skaters Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik, however, the country’s National Olympic Committee did not meet an October 30 deadline to accept their spot. There has been talk of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) granting an additional quota, something previously proposed by Choi Moon-soon, governor of the Gangwon province that will host the Winter Games.

On Tuesday, South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon proposed high-level government talks with North Korea on January 9 at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

“The government proposes the North to hold high level inter-Korean government talks at the Peace House of Panmunjom in consideration that the Winter Olympics is about a month away and to discuss related matters such as the participation of North Korea’s delegation in the PyongChang Olympics,” Cho said during a press briefing in Seoul on Tuesday.

He also reaffirmed that the South Korean government is willing to have a dialogue with North Korea and is “open to suggestions for the timing, venue and format.”

–

Source: CNN

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At the same time, the country has grappled with a much more ignominious distinction — its suicide rate is the highest in the industrialized world.

These contrasting facets of South Korea’s identity collided this week with the apparent suicide of one of the nation’s most-famous K-pop stars, Kim Jong-hyun, who used the mononym Jonghyun.

The singer, songwriter, producer and member of the boy band SHINee was found unconscious Monday in a multi-family building in Seoul’s Gangnam district, a neighborhood made famous internationally by fellow K-pop star Psy. Authorities found burned coal briquettes, which produce carbon monoxide, in a frying pan in the room, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

Jonghyun’s death, which shocked and saddened fans worldwide, is one prominent example of South Korea’s alarming suicide mortality rate, which two years ago surpassed all but nine countries worldwide.

South Korea’s rate also leads all nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 35 industrialized countries that includes the United States, Japan and Germany.

In 2015, South Korea reported 13,500 suicides, or about 37 a day. Suicides were the second-leading cause of death by injury, after vehicle accidents, according to the World Health Organization.

A musician friend of Jonghyun’s posted a note on Instagram that she described as his suicide note. The writer of the undated note speaks of suffering from depression, questions whether he was cut out for fame, and says, “No one alive is more tormented nor weaker than myself.” Jonghyun’s management company said the note was made public after discussion with his family.

onghyun’s death has highlighted a societal ill that has grown more common over the last generation — even as other developed nations have seen a decrease in suicides.There is some evidence that rates are beginning to decline, though they remain high.

“It is a social phenomenon that stems from a combination of individual, societal and generational issues,” said Kim Hyun-jeong, a psychiatrist at the National Medical Center who also works with the Korean Assn. for Suicide Prevention.

Some suicide causes transcend borders, but many here are unique to South Korea, a nation that in two generations was transformed from a poor, agrarian society to the world’s 11th-largest economy.

That rapid development after the Korean War helped cause income inequality and a society that many think values competition and achievement over individuals and quality of life. Another theory, Kim said, is that many South Koreans think they would rather die than suffer humiliation when honor is at stake.

The suicide rates are particularly high among young people and the elderly, two of the nation’s most vulnerable cohorts.

The country’s economic transformation, for example, hurt many elderly residents, some of whom struggle after they leave the workforce — and some of whom were left behind entirely. Roughly half of the elderly live in poverty or have limited incomes because a government pension plan began only three decades ago, according to the OECD.

Young people here face intense familial and societal pressures to perform well in school, spending hours in special academies to learn English, for example. High-paying, salaried jobs in South Korea’s highly competitive workplace also have become more scarce since an economic crisis in the late 1990s.

“Our society pressures us too much,” said a 23-year-old Yonsei University student who asked to be identified only by her family name, Shin. “When I think about studying in high school, I don’t wish that kind of pressure on anyone.”

In 2015, suicide was the No. 1 cause of death for people ages 10 to 39, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service.

Jonghyun, who was 27, had long left school. As a band member and solo artist, he achieved the highest levels of fame afforded K-pop stars, with crossover appeal in places like Japan and the United States.

Last year, his band headlined KCON Los Angeles — a two-day K-pop festival that included 26,000 fans at Staples Center. The group last visited the United States in March as part of a tour that stopped in Los Angeles again.

South Korea is used to high-profile suicides such as Jonghyun’s, including those involving numerous celebrities and even a former president, Roh Moo-hyun, who leapt to his death from a cliff in 2009 amid scandal.

Such prominent deaths have a way of glamorizing suicide in South Korea, which also can make it more difficult for prevention experts to lower the rates, said Kim Hyun-jeong, the psychiatrist.

Media coverage aside, suicide remains an issue that permeates the society and has stumped public policy and health experts over the years.

“Suicide is everywhere,” South Korean author Kim Young-ha wrote a few years ago in the New York Times. “Now, whenever I hear news that a young person has passed away, suicide is the first possibility that comes to mind.”

In addition to conventional strategies, such as trying to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and spending more money on the issue, officials and experts have employed some practical measures. They have placed barriers on high-rise rooftops and bridges that cross the Han, the wide, swirling river that intersects Seoul.

Those may have helped, but they have not fundamentally changed the cultural underpinnings of suicide.

“In Korea, we care a lot about expectations, and maybe people are sick of living up to them,” said the Yonsei student, Shin. “Maybe even celebrities get sick of being who they’re asked to be.”
–
By:latimes.com

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Two others were missing, South Korea’s coast guard said, as a search and rescue operation continued.

The chartered fishing boat, the Seonchang-1, had been carrying 20 passengers and two crew during a fishing tour at the time of the crash.

Footage from the scene showed the upturned boat being searched by divers.

Navy helicopters and dozens of ships were taking part in the search southwest of Incheon, near Yeongheung island.

Seven people were taken to hospital for treatment. The captain of the 10-tonne fishing boat was among the missing, according to one report from AFP.

There were no reported injuries on board the 336-tonne fuel tanker.

South Korean news agency Yonhap said the collision happened nine minutes after the boat departed from the shoreline, possibly as the two vessels passed each other under a bridge.

“There’s no specific problem related to weather conditions, sailing reports or other (pre-departure) preparations,” a coast guard official told reporters. “We are investigating how the accident happened.”

Cold water temperatures may also have contributed to casualties, the official said.

The accident is believed to be the worst in South Korea since 15 people died on a fishing tour near Jeju in 2015.

The year before, a passenger ferry capsized and more than 300 people died, most of them school children on an outing.

–

Source: BBC

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State news agency, KCNA, has announced that North Korea will set its clocks back by 30 minutes to “Pyongyang time” on August 15–the 70th anniversary of liberation from Japan.
 
That will reset the time to GMT+08:30, as it was before Japanese colonization.
 
“The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land with 5 000 year-long history and culture and pursuing the unheard-of policy of obliterating the Korean nation,” KCNA reported on Friday.
 
North Koreans already have their own calendar. Instead of counting from the birth of Christ, they count from the birth of founding leader, Kim Il Sung. Kim was born in 1912 — known in North Korea as Juche 1, making this year Juche 104.
 
The new time will put Pyongyang half an hour behind Tokyo and Seoul.
 
South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman, Jeong Joon-hee told a briefing on Friday that could cause some problems.
 
“Some difficulties are likely to come in inter-Korean exchanges, including flows to and from the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” he said.
 
Jeong added it could have negative effects on inter-Korean integration in the long-term.
South Korea too?

South Korea has made similar moves in the past. Its time zone was set at GMT+08:30 — the new Pyongyang time — between 1954 and 1961.
 
There have been proposals to move it back again over the past few years — most recently in 2013.
 
Defector-turned-ruling-party politician, Cho Myung-chol, introduced a bill in parliament to make the change.
 
He told CNN resetting the time zone is part of regaining South Korea’s sovereignty and getting rid of the remaining vestiges of Japanese imperialism.
 
South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman, Jeong Joon-hee says Seoul time is based on practical considerations and not on colonial history.
 
Cho admits experts advised him that the current system is more practical, and warned the half hour change could cause chaos and confusion.
 
But he likens the warnings to the Y2K doomsday scenarios that did not eventuate and believes any confusion would be temporary.
 
Cho says his original proposal was for both North and South Korea to set their clocks back by 30 minutes, and intends to revive his push for a change in Seoul, following Pyongyang’s announcement.

–
Source: CNN

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The ousted president faces charges including bribery, abusing state power and leaking state secrets.

In her first appearance in public since her arrest in March, she arrived at court handcuffed in a prison van.

The maximum sentence for corruption in South Korea is life.

Ms Park is accused of colluding with her friend, Choi Soon-sil, to extort money from some of South Korea’s biggest companies, including Samsung, in return for political favours.

Ms Choi Soon-sil, who is also facing charges, sat alongside Ms Park at the opening of the trial. She also denies wrongdoing.

As the trial opened in Seoul, the ex-president’s lawyers said there was “no reason for President Park to force companies to donate money which she was unable to use for herself”.

Analysis: Stephen Evans, South Korea correspondent

At the start of the trial which will determine whether she completes a transition from the presidential palace to a prison cell, Park Geun-hye was asked what her occupation was. She replied “unemployed”.

She now faces months of trying to persuade the judges that she didn’t pressure companies into giving millions of dollars to the life-long friend who sits alongside her in court number 417, the two separated only by a lawyer. They did not greet each with either a word or even a glance.

Ms Park wore a black suit rather than her prison garb. On her chest, worn like a broach: a badge with the number 503 – her prison number. She had a hairclip provided by the prison because her normal hairpins were taken away as potentially dangerous.

Ms Park is facing a total of 18 charges, with the charge sheet running to about 120,000 pages, South Korean media report.

Prosecutors say she allowed Ms Choi to use her presidential connections to pressure companies to give money to a foundation she established, earning them tens of millions of dollars.

In exchange, the companies would receive favourable treatment from the government, it is alleged.

Ms Park is also accused of leaking state secrets by giving Ms Choi access to her work – including asking her to edit her speeches – and of running a blacklist of media figures who were to be barred from receiving state support because they had been critical of her government.

Ms Park is the third South Korean leader on trial for corruption but the first democratically elected one.

The two previous cases involved former military dictators imprisoned on corruption in the 1990s.

Ms Park’s hearing takes place in the very same court room as the previous trials.

Dozens of people have now been investigated or arrested in connection with the scandal. All have maintained their innocence.

Ms Choi, who also denies wrongdoing, has been on trial since December, while her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra – alleged to have received help getting a university placement – was arrested in Denmark in January.

The acting head of Samsung Group, Lee Jae-Yong, and four other Samsung executive are on trial for allegedly giving bribes to Ms Park and Ms Choi in exchange for government support for a controversial merger.

Former health minister Moon Hyung-pyo and the chief investment officer of the National Pension Service (NPS) Hong Wan-seon are on trial for allegedly pressuring the NPS to accept the merger.

And last week, two plastic surgeons who treated the image-conscious former president – including one who injected her with human placenta extracts – were convicted of lying about having treated her.

–

Source: BBC

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