South Korea

Seoul, South Korea – South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is set to meet United States President Donald Trump for the first time in a high-stakes visit to his country’s closest and most important ally.

After a one-day meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo, Lee arrived in Washington, DC, on Sunday ahead of an official working-level meeting at the White House with Trump.

It will be the first time the two heads of state meet.

Their summit follows a trade deal in July in which Washington agreed to cut its reciprocal tariff on South Korea to 15 percent from an initially proposed 25 percent.

The meeting is crucial for South Korea, whose engagement with the Trump administration was disrupted by domestic political turmoil, ignited by the brief declaration of martial law announced in December by the country’s impeached former president, Yoon Suk-yeol.

Discussion will focus on ironing out details of the unwritten July trade deal, which involves South Korea agreeing to buy $100bn in US energy and invest $350bn in the US economy.

On top of those dizzying sums are direct investments in the US, which are expected from South Korean companies, and which Trump has mentioned will be decided during their talks.

Accompanied by first lady Kim Hea-kyung, Lee will lead a delegation formed by the heads of South Korean top conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor and LG Group.

The four companies alone are already known to contribute approximately 126 trillion won ($91.2bn) in direct investments to the US, according to the South Korean daily Maeil Business Newspaper.

Choi Yoon-jung, a principal research fellow at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said Lee needs to be deliberate and direct with Trump in the talks, as “South Korea is in a tough predicament in terms of trade with the US compared to the past”.

“It will be important for President Lee to explain how investments will be designed to serve US national interests and to remind Trump that the two nations are close trading partners who went through large ordeals to realise their Free Trade Agreement over two decades ago,” Choi told Al Jazeera.

Mason Richey, a professor of international politics at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), said the direction of the talks on investments is likely to be “unpredictable”.

“Not only are the current 15 percent tariffs overwhelmingly likely to stay on, but the investment part of the deal is likely to remain unclear and subject to unpredictable adjustment by the White House,” Richey told Al Jazeera.

Analysts say shipbuilding is one area where Trump clearly desires to have South Korea as a key partner to play catch-up to China’s naval fleet, which leads in terms of sheer numbers and is also making technological advancements.

Officials in Seoul have previously stated that a key component of the tariff deal with Washington would include a partnership worth about $150bn to assist in rebuilding the US shipbuilding industry.

To that end, after visiting the White House, Lee will head to Philadelphia to visit the Philly Shipyard, which was bought by the South Korean company Hanwha Group last year.

Analysts also say that battery production and semiconductors are some other sectors where Trump has set clear objectives to increase US capacity, and where South Korea has shown willingness and interest in being that partner.

“The South Korean government is also willing to actively participate in the ‘modernisation’ of its alliance with the US, that could include increasing contributions to upholding the region’s security and development,” said the Sejong Institute’s Choi.

Another major discussion point will be Seoul and Washington’s defence posture regarding the growing threats from North Korea, as well as the development of a strategic alliance to address the changing international security and economic environment.

“The pressures for the role of US forces on the Korean Peninsula to evolve has been growing for years,” Jenny Town, the director of the Washington, DC-based research programme 38 North, told Al Jazeera.

This evolution was especially so with great power competition increasing from China, Town said.

“The Trump administration is focused on how to maximise resources for US interests and priorities, so it is likely that some changes will be made during this term,” Town said.

“How drastic or dramatic those changes will depend on a number of factors, including the state of the US domestic political infrastructure that provides checks and balances to executive decisions,” she said.

A US Senate defence policy bill for fiscal year 2026 includes a ban on the use of funds to reduce the number of US Forces Korea (USFK) troops to below the current level of 28,500 service members.

“This makes it unlikely that there will be an immediate change in troop deployment numbers in South Korea,” Choi said.

“So, the big point of contention will be the job assignment of the troops to match US interests. I think there’s a possibility of Trump asking South Korea to take on a bigger role in regional security, such as taking part in the conflict involving Taiwan.”

Financial negotiations between Trump and Lee may also tip into security details, as the US president has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the US troops stationed on its soil.

Trump has made that same call since his first presidential term.

In addition to providing more than $1bn for the presence of USFK forces, South Korea also paid the entire cost of building Camp Humphreys, the largest US base overseas, situated 64km (39 miles) south of Seoul.

Trump has said that he wants defence spending to reach closer to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for all US allies.

Today, South Korea’s defence budget is at 3.5 percent of GDP.

Transfer of wartime operational command – referring to the transfer of control of South Korean forces during wartime from the US to South Korea – has long been a point of discussion between Seoul and Washington.

Under the Lee administration’s five-year governance plan, Seoul hopes to have the transition happen by 2030.

The Trump-Lee meeting also comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister recently dismissed Washington and Seoul’s stated desires to restart diplomacy aimed at defusing Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Kim Yo Jong said that Seoul could never be a “diplomatic partner” with Pyongyang.

For Town, there were “interesting nuances” in Kim Yo Jong’s statements.

“While rejecting any kind of denuclearisation narrative as the basis of negotiations, her statements did create an opening for the US to engage North Korea to improve overall relations,” Town said.

“Kim suggested that there’s a reason for two countries with nuclear weapons to avoid confrontational relations. This begs the question of whether the US is actually interested in building a different relationship with North Korea that is not hinged on denuclearisation, and how US allies would see such an agenda,” Town said.

For Richey, the HUFS professor, the possibility of “Trump bypassing Lee in diplomacy with North Korea” poses a serious risk for South Korea down the road, in terms of influence and security.

In contrast to today’s lack of contact between Washington and Pyongyang, Trump’s first presidential term featured a suspension of US military exercises with South Korea and three separate meetings between the US president and North Korea’s Kim.

His desire to earn a Nobel Peace Prize could also offer another set of motivations for Trump to extend a US hand of friendship to Kim.

The South Korean president’s White House visit also coincides with annual, large-scale South Korean and US joint military exercises, which run for 11 days.

During a visit to North Korea’s most advanced warship last week, Kim denounced the drills as rehearsals for an invasion of North Korea and “an obvious expression of their will to provoke war”.

Also, last week, Beyond Parallel, a project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, unveiled an undocumented North Korean missile base about 25km (15.5 miles) from the border with China, which likely has intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the US.

Town added that Russia could also play a cameo role in this summit.

“Lee may bring up the issue of how Russia’s relations with North Korea, especially their military cooperation, poses potential dangers to the alliance’s security interests,” she said.

“Talks could wind up to consideration of whether Trump’s relationship with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin may help mitigate the situation,” she said.

North Korea’s recent dealings with Russia adds another dimension to these inter-country relationships, as reciprocal exchanges of military troops for the receipt of food, energy, cash, weapons and technology have created a stable strategic bond between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Furthermore, North Korea has shown an interest in strengthening ties with another of the US’s biggest rivals – China.

“Ultimately, I believe Trump will continue to make overtures toward North Korea,” Choi said.

“He may seem to be pushing an isolationist strategy, but the matter of fact is that the US continues to be in the middle of negotiations and talks whenever a big conflict arises in the world,” she said.

Report comes a day before US President Donald Trump’s summit with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, in Washington, DC.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the firing of two new air defence missiles, state media reported, announcing that the tests showed the weapons had “superior combat capability”.

The report on Sunday comes a day before United States President Donald Trump meets his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, in Washington, DC.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests, which took place on Saturday, showed that the missiles demonstrated a “fast response” to aerial targets such as attack drones and cruise missiles.

The report did not explain the new missiles in any detail, only that their “operation and reaction mode is based on unique and special technology”.

It also did not say where the test had been carried out.

The launches also come as South Korea and the US continue their annual joint military drills and as the South Korean military announced that it had fired warning shots at several North Korean soldiers who had briefly crossed their heavily militarised border on Tuesday.

The United Nations Command in South Korea put the number of North Korean troops that crossed the border at 30, the Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korean state media, meanwhile, quoted Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol as saying the incident was a “premeditated and deliberate provocation”.

“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.

Earlier this month, Kim condemned the US-South Korea joint military drills as their intent to remain “most hostile and confrontational” to his country, pledging to speed up nuclear build-up.

South Korea’s new leader, Lee, has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed neighbour, and has promised to build “military trust”, but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul.

Lee’s visit comes two days before his crucial first summit in Washington, DC with US President Donald Trump.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Tokyo for a visit aimed at reaffirming security cooperation and showcasing friendly ties between the two East Asian neighbours facing common challenges from their mutual ally, the United States.

On his first official visit to Japan since taking office in June, Lee met Ishiba on Saturday at the premier’s residence to discuss bilateral ties, including closer security cooperation with the US under a trilateral pact signed by their predecessors.

“As the strategic environment surrounding both our countries grows increasingly severe, the importance of our relations, as well as trilateral cooperation with the United States, continues to grow,” Ishiba said in a joint announcement with Lee after their meeting.

The leaders agreed to resume shuttle diplomacy, expand exchanges such as working holiday programmes, and step up cooperation in defence, economic security, artificial intelligence and other areas. They also pledged closer coordination against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

大韓民国　李在明大統領をお迎えしました。就任後初の二国間訪問先に日本を選んでいただき、6月のカナダ以来の面会となります。新たな時代のニーズに沿った日韓関係を築いていきたいと思います。 pic.twitter.com/DVFAgKVJgA

— 石破茂 (@shigeruishiba) August 23, 2025

The snap election victory of the liberal Lee – following the impeachment of conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol for declaring martial law – raised concerns in Tokyo that relations with Seoul could sour.

Lee has criticised past efforts to improve ties strained by lingering resentment over Japan’s colonial rule. The South Korean government last week expressed “deep disappointment and regret” after Japanese officials visited a shrine in Tokyo to Japan’s war dead that many Koreans see as a symbol of Japan’s wartime aggression.

In Tokyo, however, Lee reaffirmed support for closer relations with Japan as he did when he met Ishiba for the first time in June on the sidelines of a Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada.

Lee’s decision to visit Tokyo before Washington has been well received by Japanese officials, who see it as a sign Lee is placing great importance on relations between the two neighbours.

For Ishiba, who faces pressure from right-wing rivals within his governing party to resign over its July election loss, Lee’s visit and a successful summit could shore up his support.

Despite their differences, the two US allies rely heavily on Washington to counter China’s growing regional influence. Together, they host about 80,000 US soldiers, dozens of US warships and hundreds of military aircraft.

Japan and South Korea also share common ground on trade, with both agreeing to 15 percent tariffs on US imports of their goods after Trump had threatened steeper duties.

We “agreed that unwavering cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan is paramount in the rapidly changing international situation, and decided to create a virtuous cycle in which the development of South Korea-Japan relations leads to stronger cooperation”, Lee said alongside Ishiba.

Lee’s visit comes two days before his crucial first summit in Washington with US President Donald Trump. The two men are expected to discuss security concerns, including China, North Korea, and Seoul’s financial contribution for US forces stationed in South Korea – something the US leader has repeatedly pressed it to increase.

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.

Powerful sister of North Korea’s leader rejects peace overtures from South Korea, denouncing its continued military drills with the US.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister has again dismissed peace overtures from South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, declaring that Pyongyang will never see Seoul as a partner for diplomacy, according to state media.

The report by KCNA on Wednesday came as South Korea and its ally, the United States, continued their joint military drills, which includes testing an upgraded response to North Korea’s growing nuclear capabilities.

Kim Yo Jong, who is among her brother’s top foreign policy officials, denounced the exercises as a “reckless” invasion rehearsal, according to KCNA, and said that Lee had a “dual personality” by talking about wanting to pursue peace while continuing the war games.

She made the comments during a meeting on Tuesday with senior Foreign Ministry officials about her brother’s diplomatic strategies in the face of persistent threats from rivals and a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape, KCNA reported.

“The Republic of Korea [ROK], which is not serious, weighty and honest, will not have even a subordinate work in the regional diplomatic arena centred on the DPRK [The Democratic Republic of Korea],” Kim said, using the official names for the two countries.

“The ROK cannot be a diplomatic partner of the DPRK,” she added.

The statement followed the latest outreach by Lee, who said last week that Seoul would seek to restore a 2018 military agreement between the two countries aimed at reducing border tensions, while urging Pyongyang to reciprocate by rebuilding trust and resuming dialogue.

Since taking office in June, Lee has moved to repair relations that worsened under his conservative predecessor’s hardline policies, including removing front-line speakers that broadcast anti-North Korean propaganda and K-pop.

In a nationally televised speech on Friday, Lee said his government respects North Korea’s current system and that Seoul “will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts”.

But he also stressed that South Korea remains committed to an international push to denuclearise North Korea and urged Pyongyang to resume dialogue with Washington and Seoul.

Kim Yo Jong, who previously dismissed Lee’s overtures as a “miscalculation”, described the latest gestures as “a fancy and a pipe dream”.

“We have witnessed and experienced the dirty political system of the ROK for decades… and now we are sick and tired of it,” she said, claiming that South Korea’s “ambition for confrontation” with North Korea has persisted both under the conservative and liberal governments.

“Lee Jae-myung is not that man to change this flow of history” she continued, adding that “the South Korean “government continues to speak rambling pretence about peace and improving relations in order to lay the blame on us for inter-Korean relations never returning again”.

Kim Yo Jong’s comments follow Kim Jong Un’s statements, carried by KCNA on Tuesday, which called the US-South Korea military exercises an “obvious expression of their will to provoke war”. He also promised a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces as he inspected his most advanced warship being fitted with nuclear-capable systems.

The North Korean leader last year declared that North Korea was abandoning longstanding goals of a peaceful unification with South Korea and rewrote Pyongyang’s constitution to mark Seoul as a permanent enemy.

His government has repeatedly dismissed calls by Washington and Seoul to revive negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear and missile programmes, which derailed in 2019, after a collapsed summit with US President Donald Trump during his first term.

Kim has also made Moscow the priority of his foreign policy since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sending troops and weapons to support President Vladimir Putin’s war, while also using the conflict as a distraction to accelerate his military nuclear programme.

Seoul/Mokpo, South Korea – In 2018 when Kim Ji-ung lived in the South Korean capital, Seoul, he felt alone all the time. Single and in his early 30s, the salesman spent most of his day at work or holed up in his apartment.

“I pondered about dying during my morning commute,” Kim told Al Jazeera.

“The most difficult thing was that I had no one to talk to. After work, I would be at home scrolling through TV channels or playing video games,” he said.

Finding it difficult to make connections at work, Kim was feeling increasingly desperate and isolated. Then a close friend of his collapsed at their workplace and died.

“That’s when I really started to ask myself, ‘Will I be next?’” he said.

It was then that Kim made one of the toughest decisions of his life – to pack his bags and move away from Seoul, a city of 9.6 million people that offered him the best chance of a career and a stable salary.

The capital’s population, which peaked at 10.97 million in 1992, has been decreasing steadily in recent decades, sparking alarm among officials. The city’s population of those aged 19 to 39 has been on the decline as well, falling from 3.18 million in 2016 to 2.86 million in 2023.

While Seoul continues to draw people with its promise of high-paying corporate jobs, census figures show the city is failing to retain its young population with nearly as many leaving it as moving to it over the past decade.

‘Hell Joseon’

This trend comes despite South Korea’s capital becoming a technological and cultural powerhouse that is consistently ranked among the world’s most exciting cities by international travellers.

Fortune 500 companies such as LG, Hyundai Motors and SK Group employ thousands of young professionals in their headquarters in the bustling downtown. The ultra-fashionable Gangnam district hosts one of the premier art fairs in the world, Frieze Seoul, and the country’s cosmetics and beauty industry, pop culture and cuisine are popular worldwide.

Seoul’s international allure is also evident in the hip bars, eateries and clubs in the Hongdae and Seongsu neighbourhoods, where foreign tourists flood the streets seven days a week.

But Seoul’s young adults – disillusioned by a housing bubble that has made homes unaffordable and a competitive work culture marked by long hours and low pay – have branded the capital’s work-to-survive lifestyle “Hell Joseon”. The term references the ancient kingdom that was once based where Seoul is today.

“Our society is known for its infamous jobs that force employees to work long hours, cut off the careers of women who give birth and make it hard for men to apply for paternity leave,” said Yoo Hye-jeong of the think tank Korean Peninsula Population Institute for Future.

“Seoul’s abnormally high costs for housing and child education translate to difficulty in creating a stable economic foundation for families,” Yoo said, describing an incompatibility between work and having a family life in the capital.

‘Don’t Worry Village’

For Kim, his chance to move away from Seoul came by coincidence when he spotted an online ad for a getaway programme at Don’t Worry Village.

Located in Mokpo, a city tucked away in the southwestern corner of the country with a population of 210,000 and an abundance of abandoned buildings, the village got its start from another deserter from Seoul, Hong Dong-joo.

After receiving his high school education in Seoul’s upmarket Daechi-dong neighbourhood, Hong was destined to enter a top university in the capital and work for a major corporation – a direct route to the upper echelons of South Korean society.

But when he turned 20, he knew that “life in Seoul, working at a high-paying job was not the life I wanted,” the 38-year-old told Al Jazeera. “I didn’t want to spend long hours at the office every day.” And so, when Hong became a mechanical engineering major at a Seoul university, he did the improbable: He moved away from the city.

He came up with the plan to create Don’t Worry Village after setting up a travel agency and meeting hundreds of young adults who shared stories of isolation and struggling with corporate and social life in Seoul and elsewhere.

“The blueprint for our village was to make a hometown that would act as a community – something that so many people in our country lack in their lives,” he said.

“In some ways, I was in the business of providing protection for people in our society who needed it.”

‘National emergency’

Analysts describe the situation for many young people in the country as a “national emergency” that is being largely overlooked.

“In the process of becoming a developed nation really fast, our society forgot to establish a support net for our young population,” said Kim Seong-a, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA),

“The side effects of a society going through extreme industrialisation in a very short amount of time was the gradual disappearing roles of families” in the modern lifestyle and work becoming its primary focus, she said.

Findings from a 2021 Pew Research Center survey support her assessment. Participants from 17 advanced economies were asked: “What makes life meaningful?” The most common answer for people from 14 of the 17 nations – which included Japan, the United States and New Zealand – was family. South Korean respondents, however, chose material wellbeing as their top answer. For them, family came in third place.

Kim, the KIHASA researcher, said South Korean society now prioritises “money over people”.

“We’ve seen significant improvements in the country’s GDP, life expectancy and other areas that can be improved through policy changes,” she said. “But social factors like faith in others, trust in society and generosity towards others have relatively been less developed in our country.”

In surveys of satisfaction with life, South Korea ranked 33 among 38 member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), scoring 6.4 on a 10-point scale in 2023. It also has the highest number of suicides among OECD countries with a suicide rate of 24.3 per 100,000 people. Compare that with Lithuania, which came in at a distant second place with 18.5 per 100,000 people.

In the ensuing years, the South Korean suicide rate has only increased, reaching 28.3 per 100,000 people in 2024, a 13-year high.

Young people account for a significant number of the suicides. Of the 14,439 cases of suicide reported last year, 13.4 percent of the cases were people in their 30s.

“In our country, there are many young people who bear all the social risks that they accumulate from failing to get a job, struggling in school and going through family troubles,” Kim Seong-a said.

“They’re by themselves, so there’s a great chance that they can become isolated. They need someone around to talk to or ask for help when they’re going through a setback. This way, they can deal with it or overcome it,” she said.

Official figures, however, show the number of young people living alone in Seoul is on the rise. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, more than a third of the city’s population lives alone with young people accounting for 64 percent of single-person households, up from 51.3 percent a decade ago.

A recent survey of 3,000 single-person households in the city by The Seoul Institute, a leading think tank, found that 62.1 percent of respondents experienced persistent loneliness. Another 13.6 percent were identified as socially isolated, a term that refers to individuals with no support network during times of emotional distress, physical illness or sudden financial problems.

‘Seoul Without Loneliness’

South Korea’s government is well aware of the issues of social isolation and a punishing work culture in Seoul and has moved to address the issue in recent years.

Last year, it launched its “Seoul Without Loneliness” plan, which is investing 451.3 billion won ($322m) over five years in initiatives such as a 24-hour emotional support hotline and community centres called Seoul Maeum Convenience Stores, where people can seek counselling and drop in for free bowls of ramen noodles.

Authorities in Seoul have also promoted special date nights for singles in the city, and the government has introduced numerous stimulus packages for newlyweds and new parents to address South Korea’s declining birthrate, which is currently ranked the lowest in the world.

The government is also looking for solutions outside Seoul’s gates.

In fact, Don’t Worry Village was one of the first prototypes for inclusive communities outside Seoul that could potentially develop into youth-centred regions that create homes and jobs for young adults while populating rural regions.

With sponsorship from the Ministry of Interior and Safety, applicants to Don’t Worry Village receive financial assistance to relocate to Mokpo and attend workshops organised by Hong on useful skills required in the local community and networking with fellow residents.

Kim Ji-ung, the former salesman from Seoul, attended one such workshop in 2018 and then eventually moved there. After he did so, he said he was surprised by how easy it was to form social connections.

“Because the city is quite small, it’s likely that you’ll meet other young people through one way or another,” Kim said. “People ask favours to each other, and you make friends here by just saying ‘hi’ to them.”

That was such a stark contrast to Seoul, where people do not have time to greet each other and do not want to become involved in other people’s businesses, he said.

Kim worked various jobs in Mokpo until 2022 when he put his university degree to use and started a one-person interior design company. Hong is his neighbour, and the pair frequently grab lunch together. In addition to doing what he loves, Kim said the biggest change he has experienced is starting to enjoy leisure time.

“On random nights, I’ll just go down to the ferry terminal and get on a midnight boat to Jeju Island,” he said. “I’ll just stay there for the morning, but it’s the small things like this that tell me that I’m having a good time here.”

Looking outside Seoul

Hong’s life, too, has changed dramatically.

Back in his days in Seoul, he did not think too much about getting married. But he soon met the woman who became his wife in Mokpo and is now a father as well.

“In Seoul, the individual has to sacrifice so much of their own lives for their companies, to make a living and for the good of society as a whole,” Hong said. “But in Mokpo, I have control over my time. I’m able to do what I want for work, and money is not that intimidating to me any more.”

Two other residents in Don’t Worry Village, husband and wife Park Myung-ho and Kim Min-jee, also gave up lucrative careers in Seoul for what they described as a more “relaxed life” in Mokpo.

Park, 38, worked for one of South Korea’s biggest arms manufacturers while Kim was an employee at the country’s largest advertising company.

The couple married after meeting in Don’t Worry Village.

“There’s just too much competition in Seoul. It seemed like only people who possessed a lot of capital succeeded in starting a business,” Park said. “As someone who wanted to start my own business, it was more reasonable to look outside of Seoul.”

Park is now the CEO of a local property development company while Kim runs a guesthouse in downtown Mokpo that was developed by her husband’s company.

Kim, 35, also gave birth to a son more than a year ago whom she did not expect to have so soon.

“I always pictured having a child late in my years or being married without kids,” she said.

“Working for a major company meant nearly no time at home and weekends spent in the office. It’s almost impossible to raise kids in Seoul without the help of parents or childcare services, and finding an affordable housing arrangement is even harder,” she said.

‘You’re judged for literally everything’

While Don’t Worry Village has become a prototype for more than 50 youth-centred communities around the country that the government has created in recent years, the reality for young adults moving away from Seoul to live in rural regions has proven to be difficult.

Workplaces, jobs and key infrastructure are still concentrated in Seoul.

And that is why, despite Hong hosting more than 21 workshops for people considering moving to Don’t Worry Village and attracting more than 2,000 visitors, only 20 people have remained there.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety, which helped start the youth villages, said about 10,000 people have participated in workshops at youth-centred communities across the country, but only about 900 ended up moving to them.

For many South Korean youth, starting a second chapter in life outside the country has become increasingly popular.

Brianna Lee is one of the tens of thousands of young adults who apply every year for working holiday visas to live and work abroad for a set time.

“Life in South Korea is just too intensive,” 30-year-old Lee said.

“You’re expected to get a job, get married, buy a house and have an amount of money at a certain age. And you’re judged for literally everything,” she said.

Working as a nurse in Ilsan, a city just north of Seoul, Lee said there is widespread discrimination inside hospitals, where people are critical towards nurses and view them as socially inferior.

“On top of working 11-hour shifts, we would be asked to do tasks that we weren’t required to perform,” she said.

After facing burnout, Lee applied for a working holiday in Canada, where she worked at restaurants and attended classes at an English-language academy for about a year.

Today, she is back home preparing to take a test to become a nurse in the US.

“They pay much better, and people give a lot of respect towards nurses in the US,” Lee said.

“Most importantly, people aren’t nosy,” she said.

“I think people care less about what you do for work and how you choose to live your life there.”

North Korea’s leader threatens to speed up Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal expansion over a sign of ‘hostile intent’.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has threatened to accelerate the expansion of his country’s nuclear arsenal, condemning ongoing United States-South Korea military exercises as a sign of “hostile intent”, according to state media.

Kim, who made the remarks during a visit to a naval destroyer, called the drills “an obvious expression of their will to provoke war”, according to a report published on Tuesday.

He insisted North Korea must “rapidly expand” its nuclear weapons programme, pointing to the inclusion of what he called “nuclear elements” in the drills.

The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills began this week, combining large-scale field manoeuvres with upgraded responses to what the US and South Korea claim are North Korea’s growing nuclear capabilities.

The exercises will run for 11 days, with half of the 40 field training events rescheduled to September.

Purely defensive

South Korean officials said the adjustment reflects President Lee Jae Myung’s call to lower tensions, though analysts doubt Pyongyang will respond positively.

Seoul and Washington claim the exercises are purely defensive, but Pyongyang regularly denounces them as preparations for invasion and has often replied with weapons tests.

North Korea’s position is expected to feature in talks between US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee in Washington later this month, with efforts to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions high on the agenda.

“Through this move, North Korea is demonstrating its refusal to accept denuclearisation and the will to irreversibly upgrade nuclear weapons,” said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

Research published by the Federation of American Scientists last year estimated that North Korea may have produced enough fissile material for up to 90 nuclear warheads, though the number actually assembled was likely closer to 50.

Alongside its nuclear ambitions, Pyongyang is also advancing its naval capabilities. The North Korean public broadcaster KCNA reported that the country aims to complete construction of a third 5,000-tonne Choe Hyon-class destroyer by October next year, and is testing cruise and anti-air missiles for the vessels.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung said he will restore a military agreement to rebuild trust with North Korea.

South Korea has said it intends to restore an agreement suspending military activity along its border with North Korea and revive inter-Korean cooperation, as President Lee Jae-myung attempts to dampen soaring tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme and deepening ties with Russia.

Marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule on Friday, Lee said he will seek to restore the so-called September 19 Military Agreement and rebuild trust with North Korea.

“To prevent accidental clashes between South and North Korea and to build military trust, we will take proactive, gradual steps to restore the [2018] September 19 Military Agreement,” Lee said in a televised speech.

Lee added that his government “will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts” against its northern neighbour.

The September 19 agreement was signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, where the leaders of both countries declared the start of a new era of peace.

But Seoul partially suspended the deal in late 2023 after it objected to North Korea launching a military spy satellite into space, with Pyongyang then effectively ripping up the deal as it deployed heavy weapons into the Demilitarized Zone between both countries and restored guard posts.

Tensions then spiralled between the two Koreas under Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s conservative ex-president who was elected in 2022 but removed from office in April and is now serving jail time for his brief imposition of martial law in December.

South Korea and North Korea – separated along the heavily militarised buffer zone known as the 38th parallel – are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Making clear his desire to resume dialogue with Pyongyang since winning a snap election in June, South Korea’s new left-leaning President Lee has taken a softer tone and sought rapprochement with North Korea.

Soon after his inauguration and in his government’s first concrete step towards easing tensions, Lee halted the South blasting propaganda messages and K-pop songs across the border into the North.

Earlier this month, South Korea began removing its loudspeakers from its side of the border, while Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed it had evidence that Pyongyang was doing the same.

But, on Thursday, Kim Yo Jong – the powerful sister of North Korea’s long-ruling leader Kim Jong Un – dampened any suggestion of warming ties between the Koreas.

Kim, who oversees the propaganda operations of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which has ruled the country since 1948, accused Seoul of misleading the public and “building up the public opinion while embellishing their new policy” towards Pyongyang.

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

Charges against Kim, punishable by years in prison, range from stock fraud to bribery and illegal influence peddling.

South Korea’s former first lady, Kim Keon-hee, has appeared in court for a five-hour hearing, but the judge has yet to issue a ruling on a prosecution request for a warrant to arrest her on accusations of interfering with an investigation.

If detained, she would be South Korea’s only former first lady to be arrested, joining her husband, former President Yoon Suk-yeol, in jail as he faces trial, following his removal in April, over a botched bid to impose martial law in December.

Kim, wearing a black suit, bowed as she arrived on Tuesday, but did not answer reporters’ questions or make a statement.

After the hearing ended, she left to await the ruling at a detention centre in Seoul, the capital, in line with customary practice.

The charges against her, punishable by years in prison, range from stock fraud to bribery and illegal influence peddling that have implicated business owners, religious figures and a political power broker.

She has been accused of breaking the law over an incident in which she wore a luxury Van Cleef pendant reportedly worth more than 60 million won ($43,000) while attending a NATO summit with her husband in 2022.

The item was not listed in the couple’s financial disclosure as required by law, according to the charge.

Kim is also accused of receiving two Chanel bags together valued at 20 million won ($14,500) and a diamond necklace from a religious group as a bribe in return for influence favourable to its business interests.

Kim denies accusations

The prosecution sought Kim’s arrest because of the risk of her destroying evidence and interfering with the investigation, a spokesperson for the special prosecutor’s team told a news briefing after Tuesday’s hearing.

The spokesperson, Oh Jeong-hee, said Kim had told prosecutors the pendant she wore was a fake bought 20 years ago in Hong Kong.

The prosecution said it was genuine, however, and given by a domestic construction company for Kim to wear at the summit, Oh said.

Kim’s lawyers did not immediately comment on Tuesday, but they have previously denied the accusations against her and dismissed as groundless speculation news reports about some of the gifts she allegedly received.

The court is expected to announce its decision late on Tuesday or overnight, media said, based on the timing of the decision to arrest Yoon.

Yoon is on trial on charges of insurrection, which could result in life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

The former president, who also faces charges of abuse of power among others, has denied wrongdoing and refused to attend trial hearings or be questioned by prosecutors.

US President Donald Trump said the tariff will not impact companies if they have already invested in US facilities.

United States President Donald Trump says he will impose a 100 percent tariff on foreign-made semiconductors, although exemptions will be made for companies that have invested in the US.

“We’ll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100 percent on chips and semiconductors, but if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge, even though you’re building and you’re not producing yet,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Wednesday evening.

The news came after a separate announcement that Apple would invest $600bn in the US, but it was not unexpected by US observers.

Trump told CNBC on Tuesday that he planned to unveil a new tariff on semiconductors “within the next week or so” without offering further details.

Details were also scant at the Oval Office about how and when the tariffs will go into effect, but Asia’s semiconductor powerhouses were quick to respond about the potential impact.

Taiwan, home of the world’s largest chipmaker TSMC, said that the company would be exempt from the tariff due to its existing investments in the US.

“Because Taiwan’s main exporter is TSMC, which has factories in the United States, TSMC is exempt,” National Development Council chief Liu Chin-ching told the Taiwanese legislature.

In March, TSMC – which counts Apple and Nvidia as clients – said it would increase its US investment to $165bn to expand chip making and research centres in Arizona.

South Korea was also quick to extinguish any concerns about its top chipmakers, Samsung and SK Hynix, which have also invested in facilities in Texas and Indiana.

Trade envoy Yeo Han-koo said South Korean companies would be exempt from the tariff and that Seoul already faced “favourable” tariffs after signing a trade deal with Washington earlier this year.

TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix are just some of the foreign tech companies that have invested in the US since 2022, when then-President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS Act offering billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits to re-shore investment and manufacturing.

Less lucky is the Philippines, said Dan Lachica, president of Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation.

He said the tariffs will be “devastating” because semiconductors make up 70 percent of the Philippines’ exports.

Trump’s latest round of blanket tariffs on US trade partners is due to go into effect on Thursday, but the White House has also targeted specific industries like steel, aluminium, automobiles and pharmaceuticals with separate tariffs.

Already the home of Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles is now also the home of South Korea’s Shohei Ohtani.

Like Ohtani, Son Heung-min has been the most popular athlete in his home country by a wide margin for close to a decade. Like Ohtani, Son has a pleasant disposition that has endeared him to people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Son was introduced as the latest addition to LAFC at a news conference on Wednesday at BMO Stadium, and he was everything he was made out to be.

He came across as sincere.

He was warm.

He was funny.

“I’m here to win,” Son said. “I will perform and definitely show you some exciting …

“Are we calling it football or soccer?”

None of this means Son will turn LAFC into the Dodgers overnight, of course. By this point, Major League Soccer and its teams understand that profile players aren’t transformative figures as much as they are building blocks. Son will be the newest, and perhaps most solid, block that will be stacked on the foundation established by the club’s first designated player, the now-retired Carlos Vela.

Outside of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, there might not be a player in the world who could be of a greater value than Son to LAFC, which continues to fight for relevance on multiple fronts. There was a reason the transfer fee paid by LAFC to Tottenham Hotspur of England was the highest in MLS history, a reported $26 million.

“Son’s arrival marks a new chapter, not just for LAFC but for the league and for football in the United States,” general manager John Thorrington said. “He brings not only incredible quality on the field but a magnetic presence off it, someone who inspires millions around the world and now will do so here in Los Angeles.”

The most talented Mexican player of his generation, Vela forged an immediate connection with the community, carving out a place for LAFC in the congested Los Angeles sports market. Son will do the same, as this city is home to a large Korean community.

Supporters of Mexico’s national soccer team also share a fondness of Son because of a late goal he scored against Germany in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup, which enabled El Tri to advance to the round of 16.

More than ethnic background, Vela’s success with LAFC was driven by performance. Son is expected to deliver on that front as well. Son might be 33, but he remains a world-class attacker. He should be one of MLS’ best players from the moment he steps on the field, if not the best after Messi of Inter Miami.

“We can say I’m old, but I still have good physicality, good legs and still I have good quality,” Son said.

South Korean national team Son Heung-min poses for a photo with his new LAFC jersey.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

LAFC has become a model franchise in MLS not just because of how it markets itself. The club makes smart soccer decisions and Son is the latest.

What will distinguish Son from Vela is the opportunity he will present LAFC to build its global brand.

“From the early days of building this club, we’ve dreamt of building a club that would win trophies and make a major positive impact in our community and Los Angeles, but also make a mark on the world stage of global football,” lead managing owner Bennett Rosenthal said.

As much success as it has enjoyed domestically, as much attention as it received for participating in the recent Club World Cup, LAFC doesn’t have as much international name recognition as Inter Miami, which employs Messi; or the Galaxy, for which David Beckham played; or even the New York Cosmos, which made its name by signing Pele in the 1970s.

Son played 10 seasons with Tottenham, and by one estimate, the club had 12 million supporters in South Korea — or about one in four people in the country. Koreans traveled to London to watch Son play for Tottenham, just as many Japanese people travel to watch Ohtani at Dodger Stadium. Korean companies sponsored the Spurs.

The eyes of South Korea have shifted to LAFC. The team scheduled Son’s introductory news conference for 2 p.m. local time — or 6 a.m. in South Korea. An estimated 40 Korean journalists were issued credentials to cover the event.

Son acknowledged that as he prepared for life after Tottenham, LAFC was “not my first choice.” A conversation with Thorrington after the season changed his mind.

“He showed me the destination where I should be,” Son said.

Son attended LAFC’s Leagues Cup victory over Tigres of Mexico on Tuesday night and received a loud ovation when he was shown on the video scoreboard.

“It was just insane,” he said. “I just wanted to run into the pitch.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass presents new LAFC star Son Heung-min with a certificate of recognition during an introductory news conference on Wednesday.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Son will be reunited with goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, his former teammate at Tottenham.

“He’s back to [being] my captain,” Son said. “So I have to say something good about him because otherwise in the locker room, he’s just going to kill me.”

Son laughed.

His personality will play in Los Angeles, just as it did in London. He will make LAFC a known commodity in South Korea, perhaps beyond. He will further enhance a structure that was built by Vela, ensuring the team’s next star will have an even greater platform on which to perform. He won’t be as prominent locally as Ohtani or Luka Doncic, but he doesn’t have to be.

Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min has confirmed he will be leaving the Premier League club this summer.

South Korean sportsman Son Heung-min was in transit to the United States on Tuesday to officially join Los Angeles FC, a record-breaking signing for Major League Soccer, which is expected to be announced in the coming days.

Videos on social media showed Son signing autographs for fans at Incheon airport in Seoul before he boarded a flight to Los Angeles.

The Athletic and GiveMeSport reported on Tuesday that LAFC is paying a transfer fee of about $26.5m to $27m to acquire Son, shattering the current MLS record of $22m that Atlanta United paid for Emmanuel Latte Lath last offseason.

Son, 33, announced over the weekend that he planned to leave Tottenham Hotspur, saying he had achieved everything that he could with the North London club and was interested in a new challenge.

Son scored 172 goals and added 94 assists in 451 matches for Tottenham across all competitions, with 127 coming in Premier League play. A team captain, he helped the Spurs win the 2025 Europa League for the first major trophy of his career.

Son has also scored 51 goals in 134 matches for South Korea, the country’s second-leading goal-scorer of all time. Son played in the past three World Cups.

The forward made his last appearance for Spurs, waving to the club’s travelling fans after their preseason friendly against Newcastle United on Sunday.

Son was given an emotional farewell by his teammates, Newcastle players and almost 65,000 fans at Seoul World Cup Stadium in his native South Korea.

The game between the Premier League teams ended 1-1, with the high point being Son’s second-half exit when he was surrounded by both sets of players before eventually sitting on the bench in tears.

“First, we had the walk around, and then the teammates gathered around, and he was emotional,” Tottenham coach Thomas Frank said. “In the changing room, it was more of the same. I just said a few things, but not much, because it’s about Sonny, and then he said a few things. It was beautiful.”

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe also paid tribute to the South Korea forward.

“The reaction was instinctive from my players. I think that speaks volumes about him,” Howe said. “I think he’s seen as one of the game’s great Premier League players. It’s not just the talent he has but the way he has carried himself over the years.”

SEOUL — South Korea has begun dismantling loudspeakers that blare anti-North Korean propaganda across the border, as President Lee Jae Myung’s liberal administration seeks to mend fractured relations with Pyongyang.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the defense ministry said the removal was “a practical measure to ease inter-Korean tensions without impacting the military’s readiness posture.”

The move follows the suspension of propaganda broadcasts in June on orders from Lee, an advocate of reconciliation who has framed warmer relations with North Korea as a matter of economic benefit — a way to minimize a geopolitical liability long blamed for South Korea’s stock market being undervalued.

“Strengthening peace in the border regions will help ease tensions across all of South Korea, and increasing dialogue and exchange will improve the economic situation,” Lee said at a news conference last month.

Elementary school students watch the North Korean side from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea.

(Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)

First used by North Korea in 1962, with South Korea following suit a year later, propaganda loudspeakers have long been a defining feature of the hot-and-cold relationship between Seoul and Pyongyang, switched on and off with the waxing and waning of goodwill.

The last major stoppage was during a period of detente in 2004 and lasted until 2015, when two South Korean soldiers stationed by the border were maimed by landmines that military officials said had been covertly installed by North Korean soldiers weeks earlier.

Played by loudspeakers set up in the DMZ, or demilitarized zone, a 2.5 mile-wide stretch of land between the two countries, South Korea’s broadcasts once featured live singing and propagandizing by soldiers stationed along the border. In recent years, however, the speakers have played pre-planned programming that ranges from outright opprobrium to more subtle messaging intended to imbue listeners with pro-South Korea sympathies.

The programming has included K-pop songs with lyrics that double as invitations to defect to South Korea, such as one 2010 love song that goes: “come on, come on, don’t turn me down and come on and approach me,” or weather reports whose power lies in their accuracy — and have occasionally been accompanied by messages like “it’s going to rain this afternoon so make sure you take your laundry in.”

With a maximum range of around 19 miles that makes them unlikely to reach major population centers in North Korea, the effectiveness of such broadcasts has come under question by some experts.

Still, several North Korean defectors have cited the broadcasts as part of the reason they decided to flee to South Korea. One former artillery officer who defected in 2013 recalled being won over, in part, by the weather reports.

“Whenever the South Korean broadcast said it would rain from this time to that time, it would always actually rain,” he told South Korean media last year.

South Korean army K-9 self-propelled howitzers take positions in Paju, near the border with North Korea.

(Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)

North Korea, however, sees the broadcasts as a provocation and has frequently threatened to retaliate with military action. In 2015, Pyongyang made good on this threat by firing a rocket at a South Korean loudspeaker, leading to an exchange of artillery fire between the two militaries.

Such sensitivities have made the loudspeakers controversial in South Korea, too, with residents of the border villages complaining about the noise, as well as the dangers of military skirmishes breaking out near their homes.

“At night, [North Korea] plays frightening noises like the sound of animals, babies or women crying,” one such resident told President Lee when he visited her village in June, shortly after both sides halted the broadcasts. “It made me ill. Even sleeping pills didn’t work.”

But it is doubtful that the dismantling alone will be enough for a diplomatic breakthrough.

Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have been in a deep chill following the failure of the denuclearization summits between Trump and Kim Jong Un in 2018, as well as a separate dialogue between Kim and then-South Korean president Moon Jae-in.

Tensions rose further during the subsequent conservative administration of Yoon Suk Yeol, who was president of South Korea from 2022 until his removal from office earlier this year. Yoon is currently being investigated by a special counsel on allegations that he ordered South Korean military drones to fly over Pyongyang last October.

Ruling party lawmakers have alleged that the move was intended to provoke a war with North Korea, and in doing so, secure the legal justification for Yoon’s declaration of martial law in December.

During Yoon’s term, Kim Jong Un formally foreswore any reconciliation with Seoul while expanding his nuclear weapons program.

That stance remains unchanged even under the more pro-reconciliation Lee, according to a statement by Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s younger sister, published by state news agency KCNA last month.

“No matter how desperately the Lee Jae Myung government may try to imitate the fellow countrymen and pretend they do all sorts of righteous things to attract our attention, they can not turn back the hands of the clock of the history which has radically changed the character of the DPRK-ROK relations,” she said.

The recorded temperatures were 41.6C (106.8F) and 41.8C (107.2F), as weather agency warns of hotter days ahead.

Japan has logged two new heat records in a day with the mercury hitting 41.6 degrees Celsius (106.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and then 41.8C (107.2F), according to the country’s Meteorological Agency, warning that temperatures may rise further.

The scorching temperatures in the city of Isesaki, located in southern Gunma Prefecture in the country’s northern Kanto region, on Tuesday surpassed the previous record seen in the western Hyogo region of 41.2C (106.2F) last week.

The previous high was 41.1C (106F) – seen in 2020 and 2018.

The record temperatures came as last month was declared the hottest since records began in 1898, the weather agency said on Friday, with the average monthly temperature 2.89C above the 1991-2020 average.

Last week in tourist hotspot Kyoto, the mercury hit 40C (104F), the first time any of its observation points – the oldest opened in 1880, the newest in 2002 – had seen such a high, authorities said.

Heatstroke alerts were issued in 44 of Japan’s 47 prefectures.

Japan’s summer last year was the joint hottest on record, equalling the level seen in 2023, followed by the warmest autumn since records began 126 years ago.

Temperatures around the world have soared in recent years as climate change creates ever more erratic weather patterns, and Japan is no exception.

Experts warn Japan’s beloved cherry trees are blooming earlier due to the warmer climate – or sometimes not fully blossoming – because autumns and winters are not cold enough to trigger flowering.

The famous snowcap of Mount Fuji was absent for the longest recorded period last year, not appearing until early November, compared with the average of early October.

Neighbouring South Korea also saw its second-hottest July, with an average temperature of 27.1C (80.8F), according to the meteorological office, which has been collecting such data since 1973.

The hottest July on record in South Korea was in 1994, when the average temperature reached 27.7C (81.9F) .

In Japan, some dams and paddies nationwide are experiencing a water shortage, with farmers complaining that the sizzling heat combined with the lack of rain is slowing rice cultivation.

Precipitation in July was low over wide areas of Japan, with northern regions facing the Sea of Japan experiencing record low rainfall, it added. The rainy season ended about three weeks earlier than usual in western regions of Japan, another record.

Every summer, Japanese officials urge the public to seek shelter in air-conditioned rooms to avoid heatstroke, stay hydrated and avoid outdoor activities during peak heat hours.

The elderly in Japan – which has the world’s second-oldest population after Monaco – are particularly at risk.

This year, Western Europe saw its hottest June on record, as extreme temperatures blasted the region in punishing back-to-back heatwaves, according to the EU climate monitor, Copernicus.

Dangerous weather stretched into July, with separate research estimating that climate change made the temperature up to 4C hotter, pushing the thermometer into deadly territory for thousands of vulnerable people and greatly worsening the projected death toll.

Millions were exposed to high heat stress as daily average temperatures in Western Europe climbed to levels rarely seen before – and never so early in the summer.

Seoul removes propaganda loudspeakers to signal a shift in policy under President Lee’s administration.

South Korean authorities began removing loudspeakers blaring anti-North Korea broadcasts along the country’s border, Seoul’s Ministry of National Defence has said, as the new government of President Lee Jae-myung seeks to ease tensions with Pyongyang.

“Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,” Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman of South Korea’s Defence Ministry, told reporters on Monday.

Shortly after he took office in June, Lee’s administration switched off propaganda broadcasts criticising the North Korean regime as it looks to revive stalled dialogue with its neighbour.

But North Korea recently rebuffed the overtures and said it had no interest in talking to South Korea.

The countries remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, and relations have deteriorated in the last few years.

“It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military’s state of readiness,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

All loudspeakers set up along the border will be dismantled by the end of the week, he added, but did not disclose the exact number that would be removed.

President Lee, recently elected after his predecessor was impeached over an abortive martial law declaration, had ordered the military to stop the broadcasts in a bid to “restore trust”.

Relations between the two Koreas had been at one of their lowest points in years, with Seoul taking a hard line towards Pyongyang, which has drawn ever closer to Moscow in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The previous government started the broadcasts last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southward by Pyongyang.

But Lee promised to improve relations with North Korea and reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Despite his diplomatic overtures, North Korea has rejected pursuing dialogue with its neighbour.

“If the ROK… expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words, nothing is [a] more serious miscalculation…,” Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said last week, using the acronym for South Korea’s official name, Republic of Korea.

Lee has said that he would seek talks with North Korea without conditions, following a deep freeze under his predecessor.

TOTTENHAM star Son Heung-min was cradled like a baby by a 7ft 2in former MMA star at an open training session earlier today.

The South Korean superstar and his team-mates took part in the session at the home of Anyang FC in Seoul.

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After training, Son was joined pitchside by Korean ex-MMA fighter Choi Hong-man.

The enormous wrestler competed in MMA between 2006 and 2016, and even fought arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time Fedor Emelianenko.

During the interaction, Choi picked Son up and began cradling him.

The Tottenham captain, not exactly small at 6ft, was in fits of giggles while being picked up, even sheepishly covering his face.

Spurs will take on Newcastle in front of 66,000 fans at Seoul World Cup Stadium, home of the South Korean national team, tomorrow.

The match is likely to be Son’s last for Tottenham, after he announced that he will be leaving the club after 10 years earlier today.

Sitting alongside manager Thomas Frank, Son began an emotional press conference by saying: “I’ve decided to leave the club in the summer.

“And respectfully, the club is helping me with my decision.

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“So I just want to share this information before we start the press conference.”

On how he came to the decision, Son added: “It was the most difficult decision of my football career.

“I’ve been here ten years at a beautiful club with beautiful fans and having such amazing memories.

“And after all that, it was so hard to make this decision. But as I said, I feel like I need a new environment and to push myself.

“And to get more of me, I feel like I need a little bit of change. Ten years is a lot of time when you’re thinking about it.

He added: “I came to London as a kid. 23-years-old, a very young age, [and] a young boy came to London who even didn’t speak English.

“And [I’m] leaving this club as a grown man. This is a very, very proud moment.

“So I just wanna say thank you to all of the Spurs fans that gave me so much love.

“I felt like it was my home. But yeah, it was, it was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made.”

A MODERN DAY LEGEND

Son signed for Tottenham from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015 aged 23 in a deal worth around £22million.

The popular forward went on to score 173 goals in 454 appearances for the North Londoners, placing him fourth on the club’s all-time list of goalscorers.

Son was appointed club captain by former boss Ange Postecoglou in 2023.

The Tottenham legend went on to lift the Europa League trophy in May, as the club ended its 17-year drought.

On the timing of his White Hart Lane exit, Son said: “The goodbye is always also in a good timing. But I think it’s the right time to make this decision.

“I hope that everybody understands my decision and I hope that everybody respects that.”

Son has been strongly linked with a move to MLS side LAFC.

The switch would see him reunite with his predecessor as Spurs captain Hugo Lloris.

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SEOUL  — When South Koreans start to obsess over a movie or TV series, they abbreviate its name, a distinction given to Netflix’s latest hit “K-pop Demon Hunters.” In media headlines and in every corner of the internet, the American-made film is now universally referred to as “Keh-deh-hun” — the first three syllables of the title when read aloud in Korean.

And audiences are already clamoring for a sequel.

The animated film follows a fictional South Korean girl group named “HUNTR/X” as its three members — Rumi, Mira and Zoey — try to deliver the world from evil through the power of song and K-pop fandom.

Since its release in June, it has become the most watched original animated film in Netflix history, with millions of views worldwide, including the U.S. and South Korea, where its soundtrack has topped the charts on local music streaming platform Melon. Fans have also cleaned out the gift shop at the National Museum of Korea, which has run out of a traditional tiger pin that resembles one of the movie’s characters.

Much of the film’s popularity in South Korea is rooted in its keenly observed details and references to Korean folklore, pop culture and even national habits — the result of having a production team filled with K-pop fans, as well as a group research trip to South Korea that co-director Maggie Kang led in order to document details as minute as the appearance of local pavement.

There are nods to traditional Korean folk painting, a Korean guide to the afterlife, the progenitors of K-pop and everyday mannerisms. In one scene, at a table in a restaurant where the three girls are eating, viewers might notice how the utensils are laid atop a napkin, an essential ritual for dining out in South Korea — alongside pouring cups of water for everyone at the table.

“The more that I watch ‘Keh-deh-hun,’ the more that I notice the details,” South Korean music critic Kim Yoon-ha told local media last month. “It managed to achieve a verisimilitude that would leave any Korean in awe.”

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“K-pop Demon Hunters” has nods to traditional Korean folk painting, a Korean guide to the afterlife, the progenitors of K-pop and everyday mannerisms.

(Netflix)

Despite its subject matter and association with the “K-wave,” that catch-all term for any and all Korean cultural export, “K-pop Demon Hunters,” at least in the narrowest sense, doesn’t quite fit the bill.

Produced by Sony Pictures and directed by Korean Canadian Kang and Chris Appelhans — who has held creative roles on other animated films such as “Coraline” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — the movie is primarily in English and geared toward non-Korean audiences. But its popularity in South Korea is another sign that the boundaries of the K-wave are increasingly fluid — and that, with more and more diaspora Korean artists entering the mix, it flows in the opposite direction, too.

Those barriers have already long since broken down in music: many K-pop artists and songwriters are non-Korean or part of the Korean diaspora, reflecting the genre’s history of foreign influences such as Japanese pop or American hip-hop.

“Once a cultural creation acquires a universality, you can’t just confine it to the borders of the country of origin, which is where K-pop is today,” said Kim Il-joong, director of the content business division at the Korea Creative Content Agency, a government body whose mission is to promote South Korean content worldwide. “Despite what the name ‘K-pop’ suggests, it is really a global product.”

In “K-pop Demon Hunters,” Zoey is a rapper from Burbank. In addition, the soundtrack was written and performed by a team that includes producers, artists and choreographers associated with some of the biggest real-life K-pop groups of the past decade.

Streaming productions are increasingly flying multiple flags, too: Apple TV’s “Pachinko” or Netflix’s “XO, Kitty” are both American productions that were filmed in South Korea. But few productions have been able to inspire quite the same level of enthusiasm as “K-pop Demon Hunters,” whose charm for many South Koreans is how accurately it captures local idiosyncrasies and contemporary life.

While flying in their private jet, the three girls are shown sitting on the floor even though there is a sofa right beside them. This tendency to use sofas as little more than backrests is an endless source of humor and self-fascination among South Koreans, most of whom would agree that the centuries-old custom of sitting on the floor dies hard.

South Korean fans and media have noted that the characters correctly pronounce “ramyeon,” or Korean instant noodles. The fact that ramyeon is often conflated with Japanese ramen — which inspired the invention of the former decades ago — has long been a point of exasperation for many South Koreans and local ramyeon companies, which point to the fact that the Korean adaption has since evolved into something distinct.

It’s a small difference — the Korean version is pronounced “rah myun” — but one that it pays to get right in South Korea.

Apple TV’s “Pachinko,” with Sungkyu Kim, Eunchae Jung and Minha Kim, is an American production filmed in South Korea.

(Apple)

The girls’ cravings for ramyeon during their flight also caught the eye of Ireh, a member of the real-life South Korean girl group Purple Kiss who praised the film’s portrayals of life as a K-pop artist.

“I don’t normally eat ramyeon but whenever I go on tour, I end up eating it,” she said in a recent interview with local media. “The scene reminded me of myself.”

South Korean fans have also been delighted by a pair of animals, Derpy and Sussy, which borrow from jakhodo, a genre of traditional Korean folk painting in which tigers and magpies are depicted side by side, popularized during the Joseon Dynasty in the 19th century.

In the film, Derpy is the fluorescent tiger with goggle eyes that always appears with its sidekick, a three-eyed bird named Sussy.

“K-pop Demon Hunters” is peppered with homages to Korean artists throughout history who are seen today as the progenitors of contemporary K-pop.

(Netflix)

Though they have long since been extinct, tigers were once a feared presence on the Korean peninsula, at times coming down from the mountains to terrorize the populace. They were also revered as talismans that warded off evil spirits. But much like Derpy itself, jakhodo reimagined tigers as friendlier, oftentimes comical beings. Historians have interpreted this as the era’s political satire: the magpie, audacious in the presence of a great predator, represented the common man standing up to the nobility.

The movie is peppered with homages to Korean artists throughout history who are seen today as the progenitors of contemporary K-pop. There are apparent nods to the “Jeogori Sisters,” a three-piece outfit that was active from 1939 to 1945 and is often described as Korea’s first girl group, followed by the Kim Sisters, another three-piece that found success in the U.S., performing in Las Vegas and appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Longtime K-pop fans might recognize the demon hunters from the 1990s as S.E.S., a pioneering girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment, the label behind present-day superstars Aespa and Red Velvet. (Bada, S.E.S.’s main vocalist, recently covered “Golden,” the film’s headline track, on YouTube.)

For a long time, South Korean audiences have often complained about outside depictions of the country as inauthentic and out of touch. Not anymore.

“Korea wasn’t just shown as an extra add-on as it has been for so long,” Kim said. “‘K-pop Demon Hunters’ did such a great job depicting Korea in a way that made it instantly recognizable to audiences here.”

Son Heung-min captained Tottenham Hotspur to the Europa League title last season but will leave the club this summer.

After 10 years with Tottenham Hotspur, captain Son Heung-min announced on Saturday that he plans to leave the English Premier League club.

At a media conference in Seoul, Son, appearing at times to be holding back tears, said his decision to leave the Spurs was ’the most difficult” of his career and said the club was supporting him as he looks to move on to another team.

Spurs will face Newcastle United in a preseason friendly on Sunday in Seoul in what could be the final match of Son’s time at Spurs.

“Before we start the press conference, I just want to share the information that I have decided to leave this club in this summer,” Son said. “Respectfully, this club is helping me to my decisions. So I just wanted to share this information before we start the conference.

“I came to North London as a kid, 23 years old, very young age, a young boy came to London who even didn’t speak English and leaving this club as a grown man is a very, very proud moment.”

He continued his tribute by thanking Tottenham fans.

“So I just want to say thank you to all of the Spurs fans that gave me so much love and felt like it was my home,” he said. “It was one of the toughest decisions I ever made. So I hope the goodbye is always also in a good timing you know. But I think it’s the right time to make this decision.” Son was asked in Korean on his future playing plans, and he replied: ’I don’t think I have an answer yet.”

He also confirmed in Korean that he would play for South Korea at the World Cup next year in North America.

In May, Son finally won his first title in Europe as Tottenham defeated Manchester United in the Europa League final.

“I felt the pressure. I wanted it so badly,” Son said after that match. “The last seven days, I was dreaming about this game every single day. It finally happened, and I can sleep easy now.”

The 33-year-old Son has been one of the biggest stars of the Premier League, scoring 173 goals in 454 competitive appearances for Tottenham. He was made captain in 2023 by former head coach Ange Postecoglou and helped the club lift its Europa League title, a first trophy since 2008.

Son added that the team’s recent success was a factor: “ Winning the Europa League made me feel I had achieved everything I could here. I need a new environment for a fresh challenge.”

Son has been heavily linked with a move to the United States and there is reported interest from Saudi Arabian clubs.

Thomas Frank succeeded Postecoglou in June and the Danish coach paid tribute to Son on Saturday.

“He is truly a Spurs legend in every aspect,” Frank said. “One of the best players to ever play in the Premier League, in my opinion, as a winger. I think it is probably the perfect timing, going out on a high.”

Later in the media conference, Son reiterated that he has not decided on where he will play next. But he said next year’s World Cup was his priority for his home country.

“I don’t think I have an answer yet,” he said of his future playing choices. “I think I can share more about my future after tomorrow’s game once things become more certain.

“My most important priority right now is the World Cup. It’s likely to be my last World Cup and I want to give everything I have in that environment … I want to be able to play football happily, which I think will play the biggest role in my future decision-making. I am still trying to organise my thoughts around that.”

At least 16 people have died from heat-related illnesses in South Korea this year, according to health authorities.

South Korea has shattered a 117-year record for the number of sweltering nights in July amid a scorching heatwave.

Temperatures in Seoul did not dip below 29.3 degrees Celsius (84.7 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, marking the 22nd “tropical night” so far this month, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said on Thursday.

The KMA defines a tropical night as occurring when temperatures stay above 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) from 6:01pm to 9am the following day.

The number of tropical nights in July is the highest since records began in 1908.

The previous record for July was 21 tropical nights, set in 1994.

South Korea has been grappling with blistering heat over the past week, with daily temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country.

At least 16 people have died from heat-related illnesses so far this year, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The milestone continues a recent trend of scorching temperatures across Asia, as scientists warn that human-driven climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather.

On Wednesday, Japan said it experienced its hottest day in recorded history after the mercury hit 41.2 degrees Celsius (106.16 degrees Fahrenheit) in Tamba city, Hyogo prefecture.

Earlier this month, Japan and South Korea both reported that June this year was the hottest on record, while China’s National Climate Centre said the country had experienced a record number of days with temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) or above since mid-March.

In India, the National Disaster Management Authority last month issued a red alert for New Delhi after the heat index – which looks at temperature and humidity to measure perceived temperature – hit 51.9 degrees Celsius (125.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

In April, Myanmar’s weather agency said the country experienced the hottest day ever recorded for the month when the mercury hit 48.2 degrees Celsius (118.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the central town of Chauk.

While climate change is a concern worldwide, Asia has been particularly susceptible to extreme temperatures, according to scientists.

In its latest climate report released last month, the World Meteorological Organization said Asia was warming nearly twice as fast as the global average.

The average temperature of Asia’s landmass last year was about 1.04 degrees Celsius (33.87 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1991-2020 trend, according to the WMO, making 2024 either the warmest or second warmest year on record, depending on the dataset used.

SEOUL — President Trump announced on Wednesday that the U.S. had struck a trade deal with South Korea, which will now face a 15% tariff on its exports.

Under the deal, South Korea will invest $350 billion in key U.S. industries and purchase $100 billion worth of its liquified natural gas, Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday. He added that further investments would be announced when South Korean President Lee Jae Myung visits Washington in the next two weeks.

The new rate is a significant reduction from the 25% Trump had announced via a letter earlier this month, but still a blow to the longstanding free trade regime that had, for years, kept duties on goods from either country close to zero. Trump has long decried this arrangement as unfair to the U.S., which last year recorded a $66 billion trade deficit with South Korea.

“We are seeing that the negotiations happening in many countries since April are unfolding in a way that is very different from the principles of the WTO or FTA,” said Kim Yong-beom, a senior policy official for South Korea’s presidential office, at a press conference on Thursday. “It is regrettable.”

Kim said that South Korean negotiators had pushed for a 12.5% rate on automobiles — one of the country’s most important exports to the U.S. — but that they had been rebuffed, with Trump firm on his stance that “everybody gets 15%.”

U.S. and South Korean officials appear to be interpreting the deal — whose details are still scant — in different ways.

New cars for export on a car carrier trailer arrive at a port in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on April 15, 2025.

(Lee Jin-man / Associated Press)

Calling it an “historic trade deal,” commerce secretary Howard Lutnick wrote on social media that “90% of the profits” of South Korea’s $350 billion investment would go “to the American people,” a claim that has immediately raised eyebrows in South Korea.

Trump said something similar about the $550 billion investment package included in the trade deal struck with Japan earlier this month. Japanese officials, on the other hand, have said the profits would be split proportionately, based on the amount of contribution and risk from each side.

At the press conference, Kim said that Seoul is operating under the assumption that 90% of the profits will be “re-invested” — not unilaterally claimed. He added that the specific terms still need to be laid out on a “per-project basis.”

“In a normal civilized country, who would be able to accept that we invest the money while the U.S. takes 90% of the profits?“ he asked.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has framed the $350 billion investment as a boost to South Korean shipbuilding, semiconductor and energy companies trying to make inroads into the U.S. markets.

“This agreement is the meeting of the U.S.’ interest in reviving manufacturing and our intention to make South Korea companies more competitive in the U.S. market,” he said in a social media post on Thursday. “I hope that it will strengthen industrial cooperation between South Korea and the U.S. as well as our military alliance.”

While Trump also said that “South Korea will be completely OPEN TO TRADE with the United States, and that they will accept American product including Cars and Trucks, Agriculture, etc,” Kim said that agriculture was not part of the deal and that no concessions on U.S. rice or beef — two major points of contention between Seoul and Washington — were given.

South Korea, which is the world’s top importer of American beef, currently bans beef from cattle that are older than 30 months on concerns it may introduce bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

Given its status as a staple crop and a critical source of farmers’ livelihoods, rice is one of the few agricultural goods heavily protected by the South Korean government. Seoul currently imposes a 5% tariff on U.S. rice up to 132,304 tons, and 513% for any excess.

“We were able to successfully defend a lot of our positions in those areas,” Kim said.