DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ North Korea locks down capital city over ‘respiratory illness’
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

SEOUL, South Korea — Authorities in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, have ordered a five-day lockdown due to rising cases of an unspecified respiratory illness, the Russian Embassy and Seoul-based NK News reported on Wednesday, citing a government notice. On Tuesday, the website reported that Pyongyang residents appeared to be stocking up on goods in anticipation of stricter measures. North Korea acknowledged its first Covid-19 outbreak last year, but by August had declared victory over the virus. Instead, Pyongyang reported daily numbers of patients with fever, a tally that rose to some 4.77 million, out of a population of about 25 million. On Tuesday, state news agency KCNA said the city of Kaesong, near the border with South Korea, had intensified public communication campaigns “so that all the working people observe anti-epidemic regulations voluntarily in their work and life.”

☆ South Korean police seek manslaughter charges over deadly Halloween crush
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

SEOUL, South Korea — Police in South Korea are seeking charges of involuntary manslaughter and negligence against 23 officials, including law enforcement officers, for a lack of safety measures they said were responsible for a crowd surge last year that killed nearly 160 people. Despite anticipating a Halloween weekend crowd of more than 100,000, Seoul police had assigned 137 officers to the capital’s nightlife district Itaewon on the day of the crush. Those officers were focused on monitoring narcotics use and violent crimes, which experts say left few resources for pedestrian safety. Son Je-han, who headed the National Police Agency’s special investigation into the incident, said Friday his team will now send the case to prosecutors. However, Son said the special investigation team will close its investigations of the Interior and Safety Ministry, the National Police Agency, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, saying it was difficult to establish their direct responsibility.

☆ Why Singapore isn't imposing new travel rules on visitors from China
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

watch nowBut he said travel volumes between Singapore and China are "very low" — with fewer than 1,000 people arriving from China daily. "As of now, we run 38 weekly flights from China to Singapore, compared to around 400 flights pre-Covid," he said. Current rules are effectiveSo far, more than a dozen countries have announced new rules for visitors from China. In the same month, seven imported cases became severely ill, and only one was from China, he said. 'We do not discriminate'Ong noted that while some countries are imposing a pre-departure test requirement on visitors from China, Singapore will "not discriminate because severe cases can originate from any country."

South Korea on Tuesday hit back at claims that its Covid rules for Chinese travelers are "discriminatory," saying more than half of its imported cases are coming from China. Citing South Korea's proximity to China, Choi said a surge in infections in China could put South Korea at risk. But South Korea and Japan — two top destinations for Chinese travelers — said they are not increasing flights in response to China's border reopening. China's embassies in South Korea and Japan announced Tuesday that they would stop issuing visas to "Korean nationals" and "Japanese citizens." Choi said South Korea's new Covid travel restrictions are "only temporary" and were made to "place the highest priority on the health and safety of people residing in South Korea."

☆ North Korea to boost nuclear warhead production 'exponentially,' leader says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to increase the production of nuclear warheads “exponentially” and build a more powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, state media reported Sunday, signaling deepening animosities with the United States, South Korea and others. KCNA cited Kim as saying North Korea is compelled to boost the production “exponentially” to mass-produce tactical nuclear weapons. It said U.S. commitments to defend South Korea and Japan “remain ironclad.”North Korea test-fired more than 70 missiles last year. South Korea acknowledged it failed to shoot down any of the five North Korean drones it said were found south of the border. But South Korea has vowed to bolster its air defense network and get tough on future provocations by North Korea.

☆ North Korea fires 3 missiles amid tensions over drone flights
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters in its latest weapons display on Saturday, a day after rival South Korea launched a solid-fueled rocket as part of its efforts to build a space-based surveillance capability to better monitor the North. It said South Korea closely monitors North Korean moves in coordination with the United States and maintains a readiness to “overwhelmingly” deter any provocation by North Korea. Friday’s unannounced launch triggered a brief public scare of a UFO appearance or a North Korean missile firing in South Korea. South Korea currently has no military reconnaissance satellites of its own and depends on U.S. spy satellites to monitor strategic facilities in North Korea. This week, North Korea is under a major ruling party meeting in Pyongyang to review past policies and new policy goals for 2023.

Wuhan resident Xie Zhicong said he and everyone in his family, aside from his grandmother, had been infected. Xie, a 25-year-old salesman, said it was difficult to see a doctor when he went to a hospital for an examination last week. The hospital that Xie visited did not respond to requests for comment on his claims. People who have recovered, Xie said, are looking ahead to life after three years of “zero-Covid” restrictions. Though China is experiencing a massive outbreak much as it did at the start of the pandemic, once it’s over the virus won’t have many places left to go, Sridhar said.

☆ Kim Jong Un claims North Korean success as key party meeting begins
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for stronger effort to overcome hardships and challenges facing his country as he opened a key political meeting after carrying out a record number of missile tests this year. The Workers’ Party meeting is expected to last several days, and Kim is likely to address issues such as his arms buildup, relations with the United States and the economy in later sessions. On Monday, animosities on the Korean Peninsula rose further after South Korea accused North Korea of flying drones across their tense border for the first time in five years and responded by firing warning shots and scrambling warplanes. It was not known whether any of the North Korean drones were shot down. South Korea said it also sent its own surveillance assets, in an apparent reference to unmanned drones, across the border.

☆ South Korea lifts ban on imported sex dolls
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has formally lifted a ban on the import of full-body sex dolls, ending years of debate over how much the government can interfere in private life. The customs service said it will still ban the import of child-like sex dolls or others embodying certain people. It said other countries like the United States, Australia and Britain also ban child-like sex dolls. It said South Korea must reform other regulations that have a negative impact on the economy. Customs officials said they still most likely held more than 1,000 sex dolls that had been sent to South Korea since 2018.

☆ South Korea launches jets and fires shots after North flies drones
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

The military responded by firing warning shots and launching fighter jets and attack helicopters to shoot down the North Korean drones. The attack helicopters fired a combined 100 rounds but it wasn’t immediately known if the North Korean drones were shot down. It’s the first time for North Korean drones to enter South Korean airspace since 2017, when a suspected North Korean drone was found crashed in South Korea. North Korea has previously touted its drone program, and South Korean officials said the North has about 300 drones. North Korea released low-resolution photos of South Korean cities as viewed from space, but some experts in South Korea said the images were too crude for surveillance purposes.

☆ A China ‘spending boom?’ Your guide to emerging market investing in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Fred Imbert | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

"We're going to have a spending boom in China, at least in the first half of the year," said Mehran Nakhjavani, emerging market strategist at MRB Partners. How to play emerging markets in 2023 Regardless, there are several ways for investors to get exposure to emerging markets. Perhaps the easiest way is by investing in the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM). Another vehicle through which to play emerging markets is the First Trust Emerging Markets Small Cap AlphaDex ETF (FEMS) . The fund is the best-performing emerging markets ETF this year, according to Morningstar, with a year-to-date return of just over 1%.

☆ North Korea fires 2 ballistic missiles in resumption of testing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

South Korea’s military detected the launch of two North Korean ballistic missiles from its northwest Tongchangri area. It said the missiles were fired about 50 minutes apart but gave no further details, like precisely what type of weapons North Korea fired and how far they flew. Its coast guard said the missiles fired from North Korea fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. North Korea has defended its weapons testing as self-defense measures to cope with the expanded U.S.-South Korea military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea already has a growing arsenal of short-range, solid-fueled ballistic missiles targeting key locations in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there.

☆ South Koreans set to become younger as traditional way of counting age is scrapped
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Thursday passed laws to scrap its traditional method of counting ages and adopt the international standard, a shift that will make its citizens either one or two years younger on official documents. Koreans are deemed to be a year old when born and a year is added every Jan. 1. A separate system also exists for conscription purposes or calculating the legal age to drink alcohol and smoke, in which a person’s age is calculated from zero at birth and a year is added on Jan. 1. Since the early 1960s, however, South Korea has for medical and legal documents also used the international norm of calculating from zero at birth and adding a year on every birthday. “The revision is aimed at reducing unnecessary socioeconomic costs because legal and social disputes as well as confusion persist due to the different ways of calculating age,” Yoo Sang-bum of the governing People Power Party told Parliament.

☆ North Korea fires more artillery shells into sea in response to South Korea drills
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Tuesday it had ordered military units to fire more artillery shells into the sea, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported, in response to South Korea’s ongoing drills across the border. The firing comes a day after North Korea said it fired more than 130 shells into the sea off its east and west coasts, some of which landed in a buffer zone near the sea border between the two Koreas. South Korean and U.S. troops have been conducting live-fire drills near the border since Monday. “The enemy must immediately cease provocative military actions in the zone near the front lines,” a spokesperson for the North Korean army said, according to KCNA. In addition to the artillery fire, the North Korean army issued a combat emergency alert to units at all levels and troops were ordered to step up surveillance, the spokesperson said.

☆ Despite stark gender inequality in South Korea, hostility to feminism is growing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Haeryun Kang | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

SEOUL, South Korea — Lee Yunju has poked her head in the feminism aisle of the library at her university in Daegu, South Korea. President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol. In South Korea, it’s the gender issue.”To some, the gender ministry is a symbol of what they see as the excesses of feminism. The gender ministry was founded in 2001 under the Kim Dae-jung administration, South Korea’s first left-leaning government. The gender ministry aims to protect the marginalized in our society.

☆ ‘Squid Game’ actor indicted on indecent assault charges
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

SEOUL, South Korea — Award-winning “Squid Game” actor Oh Young-soo will stand trial on charges of indecent assault after a woman accused him of inappropriately touching her in 2017, a South Korean court said. The district court in Seongnam city said Thursday that prosecutors indicted the 78-year-old Emmy nominee last week over the allegations and that his trial will begin in February. South Korean cable channel JTBC said Oh denied wrongdoing when reached by a reporter, saying that he had only held the woman’s hands to “show her the way” as they walked around a lake. Oh became the first South Korean actor to win a Golden Globe in January after he was named the top supporting actor for his role in “Squid Game,” a brutal Netflix drama about a desperate group of adults competing in deadly children’s games for a chance to escape severe debt. Oh was also nominated for an Emmy for his performance as Oh Il-nam, a mysterious elderly contestant who joined the games after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

☆ South Korea extradites suspect in New Zealand suitcase murders
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea extradited a 42-year-old woman to New Zealand, two months after she was arrested following the discovery of the bodies of two long-dead children in abandoned suitcases. New Zealand police said the woman arrived at Auckland Airport on Tuesday after they sent three officers to South Korea to bring her back. New Zealand police said the South Korean warrant for the suspect’s arrest was in connection with two murder charges. South Korean police say the woman was born in South Korea and later moved to New Zealand, where she gained citizenship. Immigration records show she returned to South Korea in 2018.

☆ South Korea's LGBTQ community confronts crushing headwinds in fight for equality
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Michael Mitsanas | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

NBC News spoke with South Korean lawmakers, human rights organizations and dozens of LGBTQ South Koreans in three of the country’s largest cities: Seoul, Daegu and Busan. Most say a bill that would outlaw discrimination against all minority groups — including the LGBTQ community — is the critical first step toward legal equality. The documentary filmmaker turned progressive lawmaker calls herself an advocate for this country’s LGBTQ community. This, he added, “includes South Korea.”While support for a comprehensive nondiscrimination bill is strong in South Korea, Jang concedes that the odds of one passing, at least in the near future, are slim. The country’s conservative president and People Power Party oppose a comprehensive nondiscrimination bill, while the left-leaning Democratic Party has expressed lukewarm support.

☆ Kim Jong Un’s sister warns U.S. of ‘a more fatal security crisis’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

After the meeting, Thomas-Greenfield also read a statement by 14 countries that supported action to limit North Korea’s advancement of its weapons programs. During the Security Council meeting, the United States and its allies strongly criticized the ICBM launch and called for action to limit North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. But Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the Security Council, opposed any new pressure and sanctions on North Korea. The status of North Korea’s nuclear capability remains shrouded in secrecy. Some analysts say North Korea already has nuclear-armed missiles that can strike both the U.S. mainland and its allies South Korea and Japan, but others say the North is still years away from possessing such missiles.

☆ From digital wallet accounts to shares in project ownership, the metaverse will reimagine money as we know it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Mastercard With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In Asia, brands have an opportunity to drive value by creating new experiences for customers in the metaverse. At its core, the metaverse is an interconnection of immersive, real-time virtual experiences. It's still more idea than reality — virtual or otherwise. Making virtual reality realFor "value" in the metaverse, we can substitute the word "experiences." Money will be expressed in new ways, from digital wallet accounts to tokens (like cryptocurrency) that represent rewards, vouchers, or a slice of ownership in a project or service.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile Friday, the South Korean and Japanese governments said, a day after it resumed weapons tests as it vowed “fiercer” military responses to the U.S.’s strengthening its alliances with South Korea and Japan. It would be the second ICBM North Korea has fired this month and the third this year, after it refrained from conducting such tests since 2017. Japan’s Defense Ministry also said it appeared to be an ICBM-class ballistic missile. In a statement Thursday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said the summit would lead to a “more unpredictable phase” in the situation on the Korean Peninsula. U.S. and South Korean officials say North Korea is also preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test, which would be its first since 2017.

☆ North Korea fires ballistic missile as it vows ‘fiercer’ military response to U.S. and allies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, hours after the North threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan. It said South Korea has strengthened its surveillance of North Korea while maintaining military readiness in close coordination with the United States. It was North Korea’s first ballistic missile firing in eight days and the latest in its barrage of tests in recent months. North Korea previously said some of the tests were simulations of nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets. Many experts say North Korea would eventually want to enhance its nuclear capability to wrest bigger concessions from its rivals.

☆ North Korea fires ballistic missile toward sea, South says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile toward its eastern sea on Wednesday as it extended a recent barrage of weapons demonstrations including what it described as simulated attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets last week. Some experts earlier said the results of the U.S. elections were not likely to change the Biden administration’s policies on North Korea. North Korea fired dozens of missiles last week, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that set off evacuation warnings in northern Japan, in an angry reaction to the U.S.-South Korea military exercises. Some experts say it’s possible that North Korea reached into the inventory of some of its older weapons to support the expanded scale of last week’s launches. “It may be in North Korea’s interest to hold some of its modern capabilities in reserve and test them at opportune occasions.

☆ North Korea denies supplying weapons to Russia for war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Tuesday it has never had arms dealings with Russia and has no plans to do so, its state media reported, after the United States said North Korea appears to be supplying Russia with artillery shells for its war in Ukraine. White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said last week the United States has information that indicates North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a “significant” number of artillery shells. Kirby said North Korea was attempting to obscure the shipments by funnelling them through countries in the Middle East and North Africa and that Washington was monitoring to see whether the shipments are received. North Korea was one of the only countries to recognize the independence of breakaway Ukrainian regions, and it has expressed support for Russia’s proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine. “North Korea is clearly using the Ukraine war to tighten its relations with Russia,” Victor Cha, of the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a statement.

☆ In Halloween crush, South Koreans see young people being failed again
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Soo Youn | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Then they placed white chrysanthemums on a memorial altar for the 156 mostly young victims of the Halloween crowd crush, and wrote condolences for scores of people who had departed this life decades too soon. Older generations, she said, failed them like they failed the costumed partygoers on Oct. 29. “Why couldn’t the police have gotten there sooner?”South Koreans across the country are asking the same questions. On Monday, Yoon apologized for the crowd crush, vowing to improve police and safety management systems and hold accountable anyone found responsible. The anti-Yoon protests have been going on for weeks with a heavy police presence, including the night of the Halloween crush, which has also angered critics, as has Yoon’s move out of the official presidential residence into a luxury apartment building.

Search resuls for: "South Korea —"

25 mentions found