Korean

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (UPI) — South Korean rescue crews are searching for workers believed to be trapped after a large structure collapsed at a power plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan on Thursday, according to reports from authorities and local media.

At least seven people were trapped when a 200-foot-tall boiler tower gave way at the Ulsan branch of the state-run utility Korea East-West Power, news agency Yonhap reported, citing the National Fire Agency. The collapse occurred shortly after 2 p.m. local time.

Two people were pulled from the debris earlier, while emergency responders continue to search for others feared buried beneath twisted metal and concrete.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok ordered the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, National Fire Agency, Korean National Police Agency and local authorities to “mobilize all available equipment and personnel to prioritize saving lives.”

“In particular, we will make every effort to ensure the safety of firefighters working on-site and thoroughly implement safety measures such as on-site control and evacuation guidance for residents,” Kim said in a statement.

Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung also issued an emergency directive calling for mass mobilization of personnel and equipment to the accident site, adding that a situation-management officer had been dispatched to coordinate on-site operations.

Photos shared by local media showed a massive steel structure toppled on its side with a heap of crumpled beams and scaffolding at its base.

The disaster has renewed scrutiny of South Korea’s industrial safety regime, which has faced criticism following a series of fatal workplace accidents.

President Lee Jae Myung has repeatedly called for tougher safety enforcement to curb such tragedies.

“When fatal accidents occur in the same way, it ultimately amounts to condoning these deaths,” Lee said at a July cabinet meeting.

In August, he ordered that every workplace fatality be reported directly to his office and proposed sanctions such as revoking business licenses and restricting bids from companies with repeated deaths.

Lee, who suffered a factory accident as a teenager, has pledged to reduce South Korea’s industrial accident mortality rate — the highest among the 38 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries — to the OECD average within five years.

SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) — North Korea on Saturday denounced the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as a “pipe dream” that can never be realized, as Seoul has said President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to discuss the issue during their summit talks.

Lee and Xi are scheduled to hold their first summit talks Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the southeastern city of Gyeongju. The presidential office said denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is on the agenda.

North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong-ho criticized South Korea for seeking to raise the denuclearization issue whenever an opportunity arises, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“We will show with patience that no matter how many times it talks about denuclearization, it will remain a pipe dream that can never be realized,” Pak said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

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North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui praised the ‘spiritual closeness’ between the two states.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has met North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the latest high-level engagement between the two countries, which have strengthened ties during the Ukraine war.

Footage released by Russian state news agencies showed Putin greeting Choe in the Kremlin on Monday. Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov also appeared at the meeting.

Putin said the countries’ “relations and development prospects” are progressing “according to plan”, and extended regards to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to Russia’s Sputnik news agency. Choe, in turn, passed on “warm wishes” from Kim, having earlier praised the “spiritual closeness” of the two nations’ relationship in talks with Lavrov.

Russia and North Korea, both under extensive Western sanctions, have significantly bolstered ties in recent years, including signing a 2024 defence pact committing each country to provide military support to the other in the event of “aggression”.

Since then, North Korea has sent around 10,000 troops to join Russia’s war against Ukraine, at least 600 of whom have died in combat, according to estimates from Seoul and Kyiv.

Pyongyang first acknowledged its soldiers’ involvement in the war in April, saying they helped Russia retake its strategic Kursk region after a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Several days ago, Kim held a ceremony marking the opening of a museum in Pyongyang to honour the North Korean troops killed in the conflict. He said their deployment “marked the beginning of a new history of militant solidarity” with Russia, with which there is an “invincible” alliance.

Putin last met Kim in person on September 3 in Beijing, where the leaders held official talks after attending a military parade hosted by China’s President  Xi Jinping. At the time, Putin praised North Korean soldiers for fighting “courageously and heroically” in the Ukraine war.

“I would like to note that we will never forget the sacrifices that your armed forces and the families of your servicemen have suffered,” Putin said.

The deepening Russia-North Korea relationship has drawn concern from the United States, which says there is evidence that Russia is increasing technology support for North Korea, including in space and satellite programmes. After Putin and Kim’s September meeting, US President Donald Trump claimed they were conspiring against the US – a statement dismissed by the Kremlin.

The incident is the first alleged defection of a North Korean soldier in more than a year.

South Korea says it has taken a North Korean soldier into custody after he crossed the country’s heavily guarded border.

The soldier crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) that divides the peninsula on Sunday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which said it “tracked and monitored” the soldier before securing him.

South Korea’s military said it would investigate the circumstances of the soldier’s crossing – a relatively rare incident in the mine-strewn border zone between the two nations still technically at war.

South Korean media described the crossing near the central part of the border as a “defection”, with the Chosun Ilbo daily saying the soldier expressed his wish to defect after being approached by a South Korean soldier.

If confirmed, the soldier would join tens of thousands of North Koreans who have fled poverty and repression in North Korea since the peninsula was split by war in the 1950s. Last year, 236 North Koreans arrived in the South, with women accounting for 88 percent of the total.

The last time a soldier from North Korea, which derides defectors as “human scum”, escaped to the South was in August last year.

Most defectors, however, take a different route – escaping across North Korea’s border with China before eventually making their way to the South. Direct crossings between the two Koreas are relatively rare and extremely risky, as the border area is full of mines and well-monitored on both sides.

Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the latest soldier who crossed the border may have been able to navigate the dangerous terrain due to his “likely familiarity with the area”.

“The latest crossing will not be received positively by Pyongyang, as he could provide the South with information on its troop movements and operations in the border area,” the analyst told the AFP news agency.

In July, a North Korean civilian crossed the border by foot in a 20-hour operation aided by the South’s military.

The latest crossing came four months after liberal politician Lee Jae-myung took office as South Korean president, following months of political chaos, which began with the conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived attempt to impose martial law in December.

Lee has taken a different stance from his predecessor on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, promising to “open a communication channel with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through talks and cooperation”.

Diplomatic efforts have stalled on the Korean Peninsula since the collapse of denuclearisation talks between Washington and Pyongyang in 2019 during the first United States President Donald Trump administration, after a series of Trump-Kim summits, globally watched spectacles that bore little concrete progress.

Oct. 14 (UPI) — China on Tuesday blacklisted five U.S. subsidiaries of South Korean shipmaker Hanwha Ocean, escalating the trade row between Beijing and Washington.

The countermeasures prohibit Chinese entities and individuals from engaging in business with Hanwha Ocean America in Houston, Texas; Hanwha Ocean USA in San Diego, Calif.; Hanwha Ocean Defense Systems in Norfolk, Va.; Hanwha Ocean Marine Engineering in New York City, N.Y.; and Hanwha Ocean Procurement Services in Bridgeport, Conn.

Beijing’s Commerce Ministry said the companies were blacklisted to counter actions the United States has taken against China targeting its maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors.

“These subsidiaries have assisted and supported relevant U.S. government investigations and actions, thereby endangering China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” the ministry said in a statement.

China’s Ministry of Transport is also charging U.S.-linked vessels special port fees.

The countermeasures were announced as the first phase of fees the United States is leveling against China’s ship industry is to go into effect following findings of an April 2024 investigation launched by the U.S. Trade Representative under the previous Biden administration into China’s alleged unfair practices in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors.

The investigation was launched at the behest of five national labor unions accusing China of employing non-market policies far more aggressive and interventionist than employed by any other country in an effort to dominate the global shipbuilding, maritime and logistics sectors.

As remedy, the U.S. Trade Representative in March proposed services fees and port-entry fees against Chinese-origin ships, effective Tuesday.

A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce alleged to reporters Tuesday that the United States’ action “severely violates” World Trade Organization rules and “breaches the principle of equality and mutual benefit” of a 1980 agreement between Beijing and Washington concerning maritime transport cooperation.

“China has repeatedly express its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition,” the spokesperson said, while accusing the United States of being unwilling to cooperate with Beijing on the matter.

“China’s countermeasures are necessary acts of passive defense and are aimed at maintaining the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese industries and enterprises, as well as the level playing-field of the international shipping and shipbuilding markets,” the spokesperson said.

“It is hoped the U.S. will face up to its mistake, move with China in the same direction and return to the right track of dialogue and consultation.”

U.S.-China trade relations, which deteriorated sharply during Trump’s first term, have further strained under his current administration, which has repeatedly imposed tariffs on Chinese goods that are being challenged in U.S. courts and at the World Trade Organization.

The two countries have been in a trade squabble since last week when Beijing’s Commerce Ministry announced tightened export restrictions on rare earth items and materials. In response, Trump announced a 100% tariff threat on his Truth Social media platform. China, whose imports are currently subject to a 30% tariff, responded by threatening to retaliate.

The back and forth comes after representatives from Washington and Beijing held trade talks in Beijing last month with prospects of further negotiations continuing this month in South Korea.

However, whether those discussions will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju remains unclear.

SEOUL, Oct. 8 (UPI) — North Korea-backed hackers have stolen more than $2 billion in cryptoassets so far this year, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

In a report published on the company’s website Tuesday, researchers said that the sum was the result of more than 30 hacks and represented “the largest annual total on record, with three months still to go.”

This year’s record haul was driven by the theft of nearly $1.5 billion in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit by the North’s state-sponsored Lazarus Group, in what has been described as the biggest heist in history.

Other attacks publicly attributed to North Korea in 2025 include $14 million stolen from nine users on crypto exchange WOO X in July and $1.2 million in tokens stolen from blockchain funding platform Seedify in September.

While North Korea remains under heavy international sanctions, it has increasingly turned to hacking and cybertheft in recent years to bankroll its missile and nuclear programs.

Pyongyang funds 40% of its weapons programs through “illicit cybermeans,” the U.N. Security Council’s now-disbanded Panel of Experts estimated in an annual report released last year.

The cumulative known value of cryptoassets stolen by North Korea since 2017 is more than $6 billion, Elliptic said, adding that the actual figure may be higher.

“We are aware of many other thefts that share some of the hallmarks of North Korea-linked activity but lack sufficient evidence to be definitively attributed,” the report said. “Other thefts are likely unreported and remain unknown.”

Elliptic noted that the tactics used by North Korean hackers are evolving. While earlier attacks focused on exploiting vulnerabilities in crypto infrastructure, the majority of the hacks in 2025 have been perpetrated through “social engineering” — deceiving or manipulating individuals to gain access to their digital assets.

“This shift highlights that the weak point in cryptocurrency security is increasingly human, rather than technical,” the report said.

North Korea has unveiled what it says is a new hypersonic missile dubbed Hwasong-11Ma, designed to be fired from a 10-wheeled transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) that can carry two of the weapons at once. Derived from the earlier Hwasong-11 series of short-range ballistic missiles, the Ma variation has an unpowered boost-glide vehicle on top instead of a traditional warhead and, as a result, is designed to function in a completely different manner.

The Hwasong-11Ma, or a mockup thereof, was among the weapon systems showcased at what has become an annual exhibition of the North Korean military’s latest capabilities this past weekend. Another hypersonic missile design, the Hwasong-8, was a prominent feature at the first of these events in 2021.

The original Hwasong-11, also known as the KN-23 in the West, is a traditional short-range ballistic missile that can reach out to 430 miles (690 kilometers) and has a 1,000-pound (500-kilogram) class unitary high-explosive warhead. First shown publicly back in 2018, it is now a combat-proven weapon, as well. Russia has been employing them against targets in Ukraine since December 2023. Several other Hwasong-11 variations have already emerged in recent years.

Details about the Hwasong-11Ma, also referred to as the Hwasong-11E, are still limited. From the size and shape of the main body, the new missile looks to be based more directly on the previous Hwasong-11Da/Hwasong-11C version. This would make sense as the Da/C, another traditional short-range ballistic missile, is already an enlarged derivative designed to carry larger warheads than the original Hwasong-11. North Korea has previously said it has tested subvariants of the Da/C type with 2.5-ton and 4.5-ton conventional high-explosive warheads, and that it can also be fitted with a nuclear warhead.

In line with its apparent size, Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E looks to use a similar, if not identical, 10-wheeled TEL as the Hwasong-11Da/Hwasong-11C. The original Hwasong-11 is fired from an eight-wheeled TEL.

The Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E’s boost-glide vehicle is similar, in broad strokes, to other wedge-shaped types that North Korea has shown in the past as payloads for much larger missiles. However, the previously seen designs have distinctly different tail fin configurations from the one on the newly unveiled missile, which also has two long strakes extending on either side from the nose.

In general, hypersonic boost-glide vehicles are unpowered and use ballistic missile-like rocket boosters to get them first to an optimal altitude and speed. They then detach from the booster and follow a relatively shallow, atmospheric flight path at hypersonic speeds, defined as anything above Mach 5, to their targets. Boost-glide vehicles are also designed to be able to maneuver erratically along the way. All of this creates significant challenges for defending forces to detect and track the incoming threat, let alone attempt any kind of intercept.

How close the Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E might be to becoming an operational capability is unknown. North Korea claims to have flight-tested multiple hypersonic boost-glide vehicle designs since at least 2021, but there continue to be questions about what degree of actual capability the country has achieved in this regard. Viable wedge-shaped boost-glide vehicles have historically been extremely difficult to design and then bring to an operational state. It is possible, if not very plausible, that North Korea has and continues to receive assistance in the development of hypersonic weapons from Russia and/or China. The Russian and Chinese armed forces have both fielded hypersonic boost-glide weapons with wedge-shaped vehicles. Russia has used military and other technology transfers of various kinds as part of its ‘payments’ to North Korea in exchange for the latter’s now direct involvement in the war in Ukraine.

The North Korean regime’s pursuit of hypersonic capabilities is certainly real and is a clear response to efforts by the South Koreans and their U.S. allies to expand air and missile defenses. The original Hwasong-11, which is very similar in form and function to the Russian Iskander-M and the South Korean Hyunmoo-2 series, itself is reportedly capable of performing a “pull-up” maneuver in its terminal phase of flight to complicate attempts to intercept it.

In principle, Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11Es could offer North Korea a useful additional layer of hypersonic strike capability for use against better-protected targets inside South Korea. Road-mobile TELs would offer additional flexibility, even if the missiles are relatively short-ranged, as well as a way to create complications for opponents trying to find and fix their locations.

“As the U.S. military buildup in the South Korean region intensifies, our strategic interest in the area has also increased. Therefore, we have allocated our special assets to key targets of interest accordingly,” Kim Jong Un said, speaking generally, during remarks at the opening of the weapons exhibition in Pyongyang, according to state media. “Can the South Korean territory ever be considered a safe place? That is for them to judge.”

The Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E’s development may also reflect lessons learned from Russia’s use of Hwasong-11s in Ukraine. The missile’s initial performance in the war was dismal, but Ukrainian officials have made clear that the Russians and North Koreans subsequently took corrective actions and that it is now a very threatening weapon. Earlier this year, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat also mentioned both the Iskander-M and the KN-23 while openly discussing how the Russians had made further improvements to their ballistic missile capabilities that have put serious pressure on the country’s air defenses.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), via an unclassified Special Inspector General report published in August, confirmed “the UAF [Ukrainian Air Force] struggled to consistently use Patriot air defense systems to protect against Russian ballistic missiles due to recent Russian tactical improvements, including enhancements that enable their missiles to change trajectory and perform maneuvers rather than flying in a traditional ballistic trajectory,” something that TWZ was first to report. The Special Inspector General’s report does not name the ballistic missiles that have proven challenging, but the Iskander-M and the KN-23 are understood to be, by far, the types Russia most commonly employs in strikes on Ukraine.

Last week, the Financial Times newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that Russia’s improvements to its ballistic missile capabilities may have notably helped them evade Ukrainian defenses in attacks on at least four drone production facilities this past summer, citing unnamed U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

As it stands now, U.S.-made Patriots are the only air defense systems in Ukraine’s inventory that offer real anti-ballistic missile capability, and then only in the terminal phase. Ukraine’s Patriots are in high demand, in general.

The Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E also simply underscores the still-growing scale and scope of North Korea’s missile arsenal, overall, when it comes to ballistic and cruise, as well as hypersonic types. As already noted, the Hwasong-11 series has already become particularly prolific, with rail, silo, and submarine-launched variants and derivatives having been demonstrated, in addition to ones fired from wheeled TELs.

It is often the case that North Korea follows up the public debut of new missiles with equally public tests, and more details about at least the Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E’s claimed capabilities may now begin to emerge.

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SEOUL, Sept. 26 (UPI) — The International Monetary Fund said this week that South Korea’s economy would rebound next year after a sluggish 2025. But concerns linger over the impact of steep U.S. tariffs on Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

According to the IMF, the country’s economic growth is projected to be 0.9% for 2025, less than half of the 2.1% average recorded over the past three years, before recovering to 1.8% in 2026.

“Prolonged domestic political and global trade policy uncertainties have weighed on growth in 2025,” the IMF said in a statement. “Revitalizing domestic demand and diversifying Korea’s export structure will be essential for more resilient growth.”

Seoul recently suffered political turmoil when former President Yoon Suk-yeol was impeached in April after declaring martial law late last year. President Lee Jae Myung was then elected and took office in June.

In addition, the export-driven Korean economy has been hit by the 25% U.S. tariffs, which went into effect in August. Previously, it enjoyed zero or very low duties, thanks to the free trade deal between Seoul and Washington that entered into force in 2012.

The Bank of Korea has expressed less optimism for 2026 than the IMF. In a recent report, the central bank estimated that the U.S. tariff policy would shave 0.45 percentage points off growth this year and 0.6 percentage points next year.

“U.S. tariff policies are predicted to trigger not only short-term economic impacts, but also broader changes in the global trade order and even in domestic and international politics, the economy and industrial structures,” the bank said in its August report.

It warned that exports redirected from other countries to Korea could disrupt local industries, while the expansion of U.S. domestic production might hollow out Korean manufacturing, reduce employment and even spark a brain drain.

The report is based on the understanding that the U.S. tariffs on Korean-made products will drop to 15% in return for Korea’s $350 billion investment pledge in accordance with an agreement in late July.

However, the two sides have yet to agree on details like the exact timeline to apply the 15% tariffs, as working-level negotiations are still underway. Some observers worry that the bilateral talks may fall apart.

“Our businesspeople are desperate to know when the tariffs will be cut, but the discussions between Seoul and Washington appear to be stalled over how to proceed with the investments,” Lee Phil-sang, an adviser at Aju Research Institute of Corporate Management and former Seoul National University economics professor, told UPI.

“I am not sure about whether the two sides will be able to reach a final agreement. Frankly speaking, South Korea may be better off saving $350 billion and continuing under the 25% tariffs. In that case, however, U.S. President Donald Trump may impose even higher tariffs than 25%,” he said.

Lee and his aides voiced frustration, complaining that the United States has demanded too much. To complicate the situation, U.S. authorities detained more than 300 Korean workers at a Hyundai Motor battery plant in Georgia early this month due to visa issues.

Unnerving the Korean society, the measure fueled fears that the country’s companies would not be able to invest properly in the United States without addressing the visa issue.

Even if tariffs decrease to 15%, some industries still are likely to suffer, particularly automobiles. Korea is home to Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia — two of the world’s largest carmakers.

“Hyundai Motor and Kia have to pay 25% tariffs compared to their competitors in Japan and Europe, which pay only 15%,” Kim Kyeong-joon, formerly vice chairman at Deloitte Consulting Korea, said in a phone interview.

“Because the auto industry is closely tied to many related sectors, its downturn can drag down overall economic performance. That is the biggest headache for us coming from U.S. tariffs,” he said.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the country’s carmakers saw their U.S. exports decline for the past six consecutive months. In particular, the year-on-year shipments dipped 15.2% last month.

As a result, Hyundai Motor and Kia expect to lose billions of dollars in operating profits this year.

SEOUL, Sept. 17 (UPI) — To address its low fertility rate, the South Korean government has gone all out. Now, the country’s private corporations are joining the campaign by offering higher savings interest rates for families with multiple children.

The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives said Wednesday that its newly launched savings product attracted more than 30,000 customers. With more than 1,250 financial cooperatives, it is the nation’s largest apex organization.

The product provides 10% interest for customers with a newborn this year. If the child is their second, the rate increases to 11%, and for a third child, it rises to 12%. A monthly deposit limit applies, though.

“We will develop various programs to uphold our responsibility as a local financial institution, and to contribute to building a sustainable community,” cooperative Chairman Kim In said in a statement.

KB Kookmin Bank, Korea’s largest lender in terms of assets, also has a savings account that offers interest rates up to 10% to families with multiple children.

Last year, Seoul-based builder Booyoung started to award a $72,000 bonus to employees each time they had a baby. The company told UPI that it had spent $7.1 million for the initiative so far.

Cosmetics maker Kolmar Korea provides a childbirth grant of $7,200 for the first and second children, and $14,400 for the third. It has also made parental leave mandatory.

South Korea’s fertility rate has been plummeting, falling to 0.72 in 2023 before slightly going up to 0.75 last year. This means that for every 100 women, only 75 babies are expected to be born.

It is one of the lowest rates in the world. Only a handful of places recorded fertility rates below 1 in recent years, including Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Sept. 12 (UPI) — Former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo’s eldest son has been nominated to serve as the country’s next ambassador to China, according to reports.

The nomination of Roh Jae-heon, 60, was reported Thursday by Yonhap, JoongAng Ilbo and other local media, citing unidentified diplomatic sources.

Roh, director of the East Asia Culture Center in Seoul, would become the first ambassador to China under the administration of President Lee Jae-myung, who was sworn in ln June 4.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, told reporters during a regular scheduled press conference on Thursday that he has noted the reports of Roh’s nomination.

“Diplomatic envoys are important bridges for friendly cooperation and development of relations between countries,” he said. “China is waiting for the ROK’s formal nomination.”

The Republic of Korea is the country’s official name.

While Roh has no public service experience as a diplomat, he has been involved in relations between South Korea and China for over a decade, reports said.

He was among Lee’s delegation to China last month, just before a South Korea-U.S. summit in Washington.

Roh established the Korea-China Culture Center in 2012, which marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of ties between the two countries, which occurred during his father’s presidency. The center has since been renamed the East Asia Culture Center.

Critics of the appointment called it an “insult” to the families of the victims of the Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980. Roh’s father was associated with a brutal military crackdown against the pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju.

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president said Thursday that Korean companies probably will hesitate to make further investments in the United States unless Washington improves its visa system for their employees, as U.S. authorities released hundreds of workers who were detained at a Georgia factory site last week.

In a news conference marking 100 days in office, Lee Jae Myung called for improvements in the U.S. visa system as he spoke about the Sept. 4 immigration raid that resulted in the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers at a battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that U.S. authorities had released the 330 detainees — 316 of them South Koreans — and that they were being transported by buses to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where they will board a charter flight scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Friday afternoon. The group also includes 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and one Indonesian.

The massive roundup and U.S. authorities’ release of video showing some workers being chained and taken away sparked widespread anger and a sense of betrayal in South Korea. The raid came less than two weeks after a summit between President Trump and Lee, and just weeks after the countries reached a July agreement that spared South Korea from the Trump administration’s highest tariffs — but only after Seoul pledged $350 billion in new U.S. investments, against the backdrop of a decaying job market at home.

Lawmakers from both Lee’s Liberal Democratic Party and the conservative opposition decried the detentions as outrageous and heavy-handed, while South Korea’s biggest newspaper compared the raid to a “rabbit hunt” executed by U.S. immigration authorities in a zeal to meet an alleged White House goal of 3,000 arrests a day.

During the news conference, Lee said South Korean and U.S. officials are discussing a possible improvement to the U.S. visa system, adding that under the current system South Korean companies “can’t help hesitating a lot” about making direct investments in the U.S.

Lee: ‘It’s not like these are long-term workers’

U.S. authorities said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others entered legally but had expired visas or entered on visa waivers that prohibited them from working.

But South Korean officials expressed frustration that Washington has yet to act on Seoul’s years-long demand to ensure a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers, though it has been pressing South Korea to expand U.S. industrial investments.

South Korean companies have been mostly relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System for Travel Authorization to send workers who are needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks, a practice that had been largely tolerated for years.

Lee said that whether Washington establishes a visa system allowing South Korean companies to send skilled workers to industrial sites will have a “major impact” on future South Korean investments in America.

“It’s not like these are long-term workers. When you build a factory or install equipment at a factory, you need technicians, but the United States doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work,” he said.

“If that’s not possible, then establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies. They will wonder whether they should even do it,” Lee added.

Lee said the raid showed a “cultural difference” between the two countries in how they handle immigration issues.

“In South Korea, we see Americans coming on tourist visas to teach English at private cram schools — they do it all the time, and we don’t think much of it, it’s just something you accept,” Lee said.

“But the United States clearly doesn’t see things that way. On top of that, U.S. immigration authorities pledge to strictly forbid illegal immigration and employment and carry out deportations in various aggressive ways, and our people happened to be caught in one of those cases,” he added.

South Korea, U.S. agree on working group to settle visa issues

After a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Wednesday that U.S. officials have agreed to allow the workers detained in Georgia to later return to finish their work at the site. He added that the countries agreed to set up a joint working group for discussions on creating a new visa category to make it easier for South Korean companies to send their staff to work in the United States.

Before leaving for the U.S. on Monday, Cho said more South Korean workers in the U.S. could be vulnerable to future crackdowns if the visa issue isn’t resolved, but said Seoul does not yet have an estimate of how many might be at risk.

The State Department announced Thursday that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau would visit Seoul this weekend as part of a three-nation Asia-Pacific trip that will also include Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands.

The Georgia battery plant is one of more than 20 major industrial sites that South Korean companies are building in the United States. They include other battery factories in Georgia and several other states, a semiconductor plant in Texas and a shipbuilding project in Philadelphia, a sector that Trump has frequently highlighted in relation to South Korea.

Min Jeonghun, a professor at South Korea’s National Diplomatic Academy, said it’s chiefly up to the United States to resolve the issue, either through legislation or by taking administrative steps to expand short-term work visas for training purposes.

Without an update in U.S. visa policies, Min said, “Korean companies will no longer be able to send their workers to the United States, causing inevitable delays in the expansion of facilities and other production activities, and the harm will boomerang back to the U.S. economy.”

Hyung-jin and Tong-Hyung write for the Associated Press. Tong-Hyung reported from Seoul.

Sept. 10 (UPI) — The exit of 300 Korean workers detained in Georgia has been delayed due to “a cause from the U.S. side,” according to the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The detainees were scheduled to board a Korean Air charter plane from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to head home Wednesday afternoon. The ministry hasn’t said what is causing the delay, The Korea Times reported.

“The government is continuing consultation with the U.S. for as swift a departure as possible. We will provide further updates once a new schedule is confirmed,” it said.

Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement conducted the raid on Thursday and said those who were detained are not authorized to work in the United States.

Three of those detained are from Japan, and others were from Central and South American nations.

The electric battery plant in Ellabell, Ga., near Savannah, is still under construction. It’s a joint project by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution to provide batteries for Hyundai electric vehicles.

Many of those working at the plant had B-1 visas, which are issued for short-term business travel, The Korea Herald reported.

Many others got electronic travel authorization to visit the United States, but neither B-1 visas nor the travel authorizations allowed their respective holders to work.

The Korean government has stressed that the workers will leave under the rules of voluntary departure, which don’t have the same legal consequences as deportation. But, U.S. immigration law allows for bans depending on the length of the unlawful stay, so individual penalties are possible.

Complicating matters, some detainees signed forms early on that included a $1,000 payment for voluntary departure to avoid a 10-year entry ban, The Korea Times reported.

Adding to the confusion, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Monday that the Korean nationals detained in the raid will be “deported.”

In South Korea, people are upset, said James Kim, chair and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Seoul.

“The sentiment is obviously very, very negative,” James Kim, told CBS News. “In my office, I usually have my TV turned on to the news — and this is obviously covered from morning to evening constantly. But everyone who I speak to, they view America as its number — one partner here from South Korea. Yes, we’re going to have some challenging times.”

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun heard demands from angry lawmakers during a parliamentary session in Seoul on Monday, before he departed for meetings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials, CBS News reported.

Lawmaker Kim Joon-hyun demanded that Cho respond to the ICE raid by launching investigations into every U.S. national teaching English in South Korea who could be working illegally on a tourist visa.

“Are we giving our money, technology, and investment to the United States only to be treated like this?” CBS News reported that Kim Joon-hyun said.

During his meeting Wednesday in Washington with Cho, Rubio said, “the United States welcomes ROK (South Korea) investment into the United States and stated his interest in deepening cooperation on this front,” according to a readout shared by the State Department.

Rubio and Cho discussed advancing U.S.-South Korean ties “through a forward-looking agenda” that “revitalizes American manufacturing through ROK investment in shipbuilding and other strategic sectors, and promotes a fair and reciprocal trade partnership,” the State Department said.

Seoul and Washington have clashed over administrative and technical procedures, including the terms under which the Koreans are released and the conditions for their transfer to the airport, The Korea Herald reported.

Kim Yong-beom, presidential chief of staff for policy, on Tuesday also said that “(U.S.) law enforcement authorities have their own methods they insist on when it comes to transporting detainees by bus.

“They insist on certain practices, such as handcuffing detainees again, but we are making every effort in the final administrative negotiations to ensure that such methods are not applied,” Kim Yong-boem said.

“We are working to complete the procedures so that our nationals can safely return in the form of voluntary departure, not deportation, and are striving to conclude this within a timely period – within a day or two.”

The drive from the ICE detention facility in Folkston, Ga., to the Atlanta airport takes about four and a half hours.

Sept. 6 (UPI) — South Korea might send a government official to Washington to resolve issues after hundreds of South Koreans were arrested at an under-construction Hyundai battery plant in Georgia.

South Korean officials convened an emergency meeting following the Thursday raid by federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other law enforcement, who arrested 457 “unlawful aliens” working at the electric vehicle battery plant in Bryan County, Ga.

About 300 are South Koreans, who were working at the plant run by the HL-GA Battery Co., which is jointly owned by South Korean firms Hyundai Motor Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd.

“We are deeply concerned and feel a heavy sense of responsibility over the arrests of our nationals,” South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said during the meeting.

“If necessary, I will personally travel to Washington to hold consultations with the U.S. administration,” Cho said.

Homeland Security Investigations said the raid was the largest in its history and occurred after investigating the plant for several months, NPR reported.

Most of those who were arrested are being held at a Folkston, Ga., detention center, many of whom have expired visas or entered the United States via a waiver program that does not allow them to work.

Officials with LG Energy Solution have suspended all the company’s business-related trips to the United States and have encouraged employees in the United States to either stay at their places of residence or return to South Korea.

Construction on the battery plant has stopped, and HL-GA Battery officials are cooperating with U.S. investigators.

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (UPI) — South Korea’s state-backed companies and private enterprises promised significant investments in the United States to coincide with President Lee Jae Myung’s summit with his American counterpart Donald Trump at the White House on Aug. 25.

From Washington’s perspective, more investments from South Korea contribute to the U.S. economy, and Seoul’s ruling Democratic Party described President Lee’s U.S. trip that led to those investments as a success.

But suspicions arise about whether such measures would also help South Korea. The main opposition People Power Party, for example, accused the Lee administration of overpromising.

“The Lee Jae Myung administration pledged another $150 billion in direct U.S. investment in addition to the existing $350 billion commitment, thus offering a massive ‘gift package’ totaling $500 billion,” the party’s chief spokesman, Park Sung-hoon, said in a statement.

“However, on critical issues directly tied to our national interest, not a single concrete achievement or clear outcome was secured,” he added.

Park pointed to Washington’s continued 25% tariff on made-in-Korea automobiles, despite a July understanding to reduce it to 15% in return for Korea’s $350 billion investment pledge.

Other Observers echoed concerns, as well.

“Just let me know what President Lee gained in return for promising much. At the very least, he should have secured a definite timeline for the 15% tariff reduction,” economic commentator Kim Kyeong-joon, formerly vice chairman at Deloitte Consulting Korea, told UPI.

“Our foreign exchange reserves are just above $400 billion. I don’t think it’s plausible to invest more than our total reserves in a single foreign country. And if we do so, we risk losing the ability to invest within our own borders, which would be disastrous for our economy,” he said.

Lee Phil-sang, an adviser at Aju Research Institute of Corporate Management and former Seoul National University economics professor, concurred.

“My real concern is that President Lee may have made undisclosed concessions. I hope that hasn’t happened,” he said in a phone interview.

“The worst part of the summit is that we made lots of promises, while the U.S. offered little in return. I fear Washington will demand more in upcoming working-level talks following the Lee-Trump meeting,” he added.

By contrast, Leaders Index CEO Park Ju-gun downplayed the criticism. His company is a Seoul-based business tracker.

“Many Korean companies did not sign binding contracts. Most agreements were [memoranda of understanding], which might never materialize. And I don’t think that the overall investment in the U.S. would reach $500 billion. Many concerns are overblown,” Park said.

New investment promises from South Korean firms

Hyundai Motor Group announced that it would invest $26 billion in the U.S. between 2025 and 2028, expanding its push into automotive, steel and robotics. It marks a $5 billion increase from its original $21 billion commitment unveiled earlier this year.

With the funds, Hyundai Motor plans to boost vehicle production, build a new steel mill in Louisiana and construct a robotics facility with an annual capacity of 30,000 units.

Korean Air said the flagship carrier would channel $36.2 billion to buy 103 aircraft from Boeing, including 95 passenger planes and eight freighters, by the end of the 2030s.

Once finalized, the deal would raise the Seoul-based company’s total Boeing orders to 175 aircraft, up from the 72 already on its books.

Hanwha Group vowed to funnel $5 billion into Hanwha Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia to install additional docks and quays to crank up the capacity of the shipyard, which Hanwha acquired late last year from Norway’s Aker ASA.

Nuclear cooperation was another area where the South Korean side, led by state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Corporation, or KHNP, inked several agreements to support various U.S. projects.

Together with POSCO International, KHNP agreed to cooperate with Fermi America to take part in the construction of an 11-gigawatt power complex. It will explore potential investment by joining with Centrus Energy.

KHNP also teamed up with Korea’s Doosan Enerbility to collaborate with X-energy of Maryland and Amazon Web Services of Seattle with the aim of accelerating the deployment of small modular reactors and fuel in the United States.

Not all accords centered on U.S. investment. Korea Zinc, the world’s largest zinc smelter, signed a memorandum of understanding with Lockheed Martin to procure and supply of germanium, whish is used primarily in fiber optics, infrared optics and electronics.

They are plan work together in the critical minerals supply chain.

Aug. 30 (UPI) — The Seoul Central District Court on Friday indicted former South Korean first lady Kim Keon Hee for alleged corruption during her husband’s presidency.

Kim is the wife of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who also was indicted on corruption charges on Friday and is being held in detention.

Kim is charged with influence peddling during South Korea’s 2022 by-elections, bribery and stock manipulation.

“I am truly sorry for the distress this situation has caused the public, but I will not make excuses under any circumstances,” Kim said, as reported by The Korea Herald.

“I will endure this time by holding on to the truth,” she said.

A special counsel investigation began two months ago and accuses Kim of receiving free polling data on 50 occasions during her husband’s 2022 presidential election race.

The special counsel also accuses Kim of helping former People Power Party Rep. Kim Young-sun to win that party’s nomination in 2022.

She also is accused of engaging in a stock market manipulation scheme from 2009 to 2012 involving shares in Deutsch Motors and receiving a diamond necklace worth $34,244.

A high-ranking Unification Church official allegedly gave Kim two Chanel designer handbags in exchange for supporting related projects in Cambodia.

More charges might be filed against Kim as the special counsel continues its investigation through Nov. 29.

Her husband in December briefly imposed martial law in South Korea amid the political scandal that resulted in his impeachment and the current charges against him and Kim.

In a related case, former South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was indicted for assisting Yoon in the martial law declaration.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with current South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday in the United States, CNBC reported.

Pyongyang claims South Korea’s army fired more than 10 warning shots from a machinegun towards North Korean troops.

North Korea has accused South Korean forces of firing warning shots earlier this week at its soldiers who were part of a border reinforcement project, warning Seoul that its actions risked raising tensions to “uncontrollable” levels.

In a report published on Saturday, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the North ‘s Korean People’s Army Vice Chief of the General Staff Ko Jong Chol as saying that the South should stop its “premeditated and deliberate” provocation, which he described as “inciting military conflict”.

Calling the incident a “serious provocation”, Ko said the South Korean military fired more than 10 warning shots towards North Korean troops.

“This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area, where a huge number of forces are stationing, in confrontation with each other, to the uncontrollable phase,” Ko said.

The incident took place on Tuesday as North Korean soldiers were working to permanently seal the heavily fortified border that divides the peninsula, state media outlet KCNA said, citing a statement from Ko.

South Korea did not immediately comment on the reported encounter, and the country’s official news agency, Yonhap, reported that it had no immediate confirmation from officials in Seoul on Pyongyang’s claim.

The reported firing of warning shots is only the latest confrontation between North and South Korean forces, which have been at odds for decades over the heavily guarded border that divides both nations.

The last border clash between the archrivals was in early April when South Korea’s military fired warning shots after a group of 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border.

Those troops were spotted in the Demilitarized Zone between the two countries, parts of which are heavily mined and overgrown.

In more recent months, South Korea has been taking steps to ease border tensions following the election of President Lee Jae-myung in June.

‘Corresponding countermeasure’

North Korea’s army announced last October that it was moving to totally shut off the southern border, saying it had sent a telephone message to United States forces based in South Korea to “prevent any misjudgement and accidental conflict”.

Shortly after its announcement, it blew up sections of the unused but deeply symbolic cross-border roads and railway tracks that had once connected the North and South.

Ko, in the statement published by state media, warned that North Korea’s army would retaliate to any interference with its efforts to permanently seal the border.

“If the act of restraining or obstructing the project unrelated to the military character persists, our army will regard it as deliberate military provocation and take corresponding countermeasure,” he said.

Last year, North Korea sent thousands of rubbish-carrying balloons southwards, saying they were retaliation for anti-North Korean propaganda balloons sent by South Korean activists.

Later, Seoul turned on border loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in six years, which included K-pop tunes and international news. Pyongyang responded by blaring strange sounds along the frontier, unsettling South Korean residents.

Seoul has since turned off the loudspeaker broadcasts following orders from newly elected President Lee.

Aug. 18 (UPI) — President Trump, as you sit down with President Lee Jae Myung on Aug. 25, you must not be swayed by his dangerously naive stance on “respect” for North Korea‘s political system. I say this not as a politician or a pundit, but as a soldier and practitioner/strategist who has spent his life confronting the nature of authoritarian regimes and understanding what it takes to resist them. President Lee’s position, that South Korea should affirm “respect” for the North’s totalitarian system and renounce unification by absorption, is not only strategically misguided but also morally bankrupt. It plays directly into Kim Jong Un‘s political warfare playbook, undermines the very purpose of the ROK/U.S. alliance, and sends a chilling message to 25 million oppressed Koreans living under tyranny.

Let’s be crystal clear: North Korea (with its Workers Party of Korea) is not a legitimate political system (which is why many of us write “north” in the lower case, though our editors often correct this). It is not a state that deserves our diplomatic courtesies or rhetorical deference. It is a mafia-like crime family cult masquerading as a government. It is a totalitarian regime that has committed, and continues to commit, crimes against humanity, as documented exhaustively in the 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report. These are not allegations. They are facts backed by satellite images, eyewitness testimony, and escapee accounts. We are talking about gulags, torture chambers, public executions, and enforced starvation. To “respect” such a system is to betray the Korean people in the North who suffer daily under its jackboot.

President Lee’s argument is that by affirming respect and renouncing absorption, he can create space for inter-Korean dialogue and reduce tensions. But this is a fantasy built on hope, not strategy. The Kim family regime does not seek coexistence. It seeks domination. It does not want peace. It wants submission. It does not seek reconciliation. It seeks leverage. Every time a South Korean leader or American president makes conciliatory gestures without demanding reciprocal action, Kim Jong Un sees it not as good faith, but as weakness. He exploits it to gain legitimacy, extract economic concessions, and drive wedges into our alliance.

President Lee says he is not seeking unification by absorption. Fine. But he also says he “respects” the North’s political system. That is where the real danger lies. Because the more we normalize the abnormal, the more we embolden the regime to harden its rule. What the Korean people in the North deserve is not the international community’s respect for their captors, but solidarity with their longing for liberation. They deserve a unified Korea, not by force, but by freedom. That is not absorption. That is self-determination.

President Trump, you know what it means to negotiate from a position of strength. You know how dangerous it is to give away leverage before the other side has made a single concession. Do not allow your personal rapport with Kim Jong Un, or your desire for a legacy-defining deal, to cloud your judgment. You called Kim “rocket man” before you exchanged “love letters.” But love letters won’t free the Korean people, and respect for the regime won’t bring peace.

President Lee’s gestures, halting propaganda broadcasts, telling activists to stop sending leaflets and restoring the 2018 military agreement, may seem like confidence-building measures. But without reciprocity, they are simply appeasement. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and a key regime mouthpiece, has already dismissed Lee’s outreach as a “pipe dream.” That should tell us everything we need to know about Pyongyang’s intentions.

The ROK/U.S. alliance must remain grounded in shared values, freedom and liberty, human rights, and the rule of law. Any strategy that begins by legitimizing the enemy’s political system undermines those very values. You would never “respect” ISIS’s caliphate or al-Qaeda’s ideology. Why offer respect to a regime that systematically enslaves its own people and threatens nuclear war?

To be clear, no one is advocating war. We are advocating clarity of purpose and unity of message. Our strategic objective must remain what it has always been: the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula under a liberal democratic system that guarantees the rights and dignity of all Koreans. That does not require invasion. It requires principled resistance to tyranny and a long-term strategy to support internal change, what some might call a Korean-led, values-based unification.

You have the power to set the tone for this summit. Do not give Kim Jong Un the propaganda victory of seeing the leader of the free world align with a South Korean president who chooses appeasement over accountability. Instead, reaffirm the alliance’s moral foundation. Remember the image of Ji Seung Ho holding up his crutches at your first State of the Union address to inspire all of us with his escape from the North. Speak directly to the Korean people in the North: We have not forgotten you. We will not abandon you. We do not “respect” your oppressors. We believe in your future.

Mr. President, history will remember what you say in that room with President Lee. Will you echo his message of concession? Or will you stand firm on the principles that made America great and the alliance strong?

I urge you, do not be persuaded by words that excuse oppression. Instead, speak truth. And let that truth be a beacon to all Koreans, North and South, who still believe in freedom.

David Maxwell is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel who has spent more than 30 years in the Asia Pacific region. He specializes in Northeast Asian security affairs and irregular, unconventional and political warfare. He is vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy and a senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation. After he retired, he became associate director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. He is on the board of directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the OSS Society and is the editor at large for the Small Wars Journal.

Kim Yo Jong denies claims that Pyongyang has removed propaganda-blaring loudspeakers at the inter-Korean border.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister has accused South Korea of misleading the public about ties between the Koreas, denying claims that Pyongyang removed some propaganda-blaring loudspeakers from their shared border.

In a statement carried by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, Kim Yo Jong blasted the claim by South Korea’s military as an “unfounded unilateral supposition and a red herring.”

“We have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them,” Kim said.

Kim accused Seoul of “building up the public opinion while embellishing their new policy” towards Pyongyang.

“It is their foolish calculation that if they manage to make us respond to their actions, it would be good, and if not, their actions will at least reflect their ‘efforts for detente’ and they will be able to shift the responsibility for the escalation of tensions onto the DPRK and win the support of the world,” Kim said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Such a “trick” is nothing but a “pipedream” and “does not arouse our interest at all,” Kim added.

“Whether the ROK withdraws its loudspeakers or not, stops broadcasting or not, postpones its military exercises or not and downscales them or not, we do not care about them and are not interested in them,” she said, using the acronym of South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

“The shabby deceptive farce is no longer attractive.”

In a statement quoted by local media, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification did not directly address Kim’s claims, but said it would continue its efforts toward the “normalisation” and “stabilisation” of inter-Korean ties.

Kim’s broadside comes after South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Saturday that Pyongyang had removed some of the loudspeakers, days after the South Korean side took down similar speakers on its side of the border.

North Korea is highly sensitive to criticism of the ruling Kim family, which has ruled the isolated state with iron first for nearly eight decades and is treated with God-like reverence in official commentary.

Since the inauguration of left-leaning South Korean President Lee Jae-myung in June, Seoul has been seeking rapprochement with its reclusive neighbour, after years of elevated tensions between the Koreas under the conservative ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol.

But Kim Yo Jong, who oversees the propaganda operations of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, has repeatedly shot down the possibility of reconciliation between the sides.

In a scathing dismissal of Lee’s rapprochement efforts last month, Kim said there was no “more serious miscalculation” than believing that relations could be repaired “with a few sentimental words.”

In her remarks on Thursday, Kim also poured scorn on South Korean media reports suggesting that Pyongyang could use Friday’s summit between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to communicate with Washington.

“This is a typical proof that the ROK is having a false dream,” she said.

“If a dream is dreamed very often, it will be an empty one, and so many suppositions will lead to so many contradictions that will not be solved. Why should we send a message to the US side.”

Cryptocurrency entrepreneur faces up to 25 years in prison over the $40bn collapse of the TerraUSD and Luna tokens.

South Korean cryptocurrency mogul Do Kwon has pleaded guilty to fraud in the United States in a case tied to the $40bn collapse of the TerraUSD and Luna tokens.

Kwon, the cofounder of Singapore-based Terraform Labs, entered the plea at the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, according to court filings.

Kwon admitted to one count of conspiring to commit commodities fraud, securities fraud and wire fraud, and one count of committing wire fraud.

As part of his plea, the crypto entrepreneur agreed to forfeit more than $19m in proceeds from his crimes, according to prosecutors.

Kwon had in January entered a plea of not guilty to nine counts in the case, including securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

“Do Kwon used the technological promise and investment euphoria around cryptocurrency to commit one of the largest frauds in history,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said.

“Kwon attracted tens of billions in funds to Terraform’s ecosystem by promising a self-stabilising stablecoin. By the time the markets discovered the ecosystem was unstable, it was too late: the system collapsed, and investors around the world suffered billions in losses.”

Kwon, who is due to be sentenced on December 11, faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

Kwon was extradited to the US in December 2024, following his arrest in Montenegro after spending months on the run from authorities.

Aug. 9 (UPI) — North and South Korea have begun removing some loudspeakers that were used to broadcast propaganda across the demilitarized zone at the 38th parallel.

The South Korean military on Saturday reported North Korea‘s removal of some of the loudspeakers, but it’s unknown if all of them will be taken away, the BBC reported.

The South Korean military “detected North Korean troops dismantling propaganda loudspeakers in some parts along the front line,” its leaders said in a prepared statement on Saturday.

“It remains to be confirmed whether the devices have been removed across all regions,” the statement said, adding that the South Korean military will continue monitoring the situation.

The BBC’s report suggested removing some of the loudspeakers might be North Korea’s way of responding positively to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s recent election win.

Lee became president in June and had campaigned on a platform that included improving relations with North Korea.

South Korea stopped broadcasting its own propaganda over loudspeakers positioned at the 38th parallel after Lee took office and earlier this week dismantled its loudspeakers.

South Korea often broadcast content that included news and K-pop music, but those broadcasts ended in June, and its military began removing its loudspeakers on Monday.

North Korea’s loudspeakers often aired annoying sounds, including the howling of wild animals.

North Korea has not confirmed its troops removed some of the loudspeakers at the demilitarized zone separating the two nations, The Independent reported.

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un seeks to eliminate the influence of South Korean culture, including language and pop music, to help preserve his standing as the nation’s supreme leader, according to The Independent.

South Korea had ceased its broadcasts at the 38th parallel for several years, but former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration resumed the broadcasts in June 2024.

Those broadcasts ended after Lee became president.