Seoul

A South Korean court on Friday found two K-pop stars guilty of illicit sexual relations with a woman who was unable to resist and sentenced them to up to six years in prison. The Seoul Central District Court said singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young received a six-year prison term and former boy band member Choi Jong-hoon a five-year term. The court said...

North Korea said Friday the latest test-firing of its “super-large” multiple rocket launcher was a final review of the weapon’s combat application, a suggestion that the country is preparing to deploy the new weapons system soon. South Korea’s military earlier said North Korea fired two projectiles, likely from the same “super-large” rocket launcher, on Thursday. It expressed “strong regret” over...

The parents of a former U.S. hostage who died after being released from North Korea in a coma in 2017 say they are committed to finding and shutting down illicit North Korean business assets around the world in efforts to hold its government accountable for widespread human rights abuses. In a news conference in Seoul on Friday, Fred and Cindy...

Molly Solomon began her career at NBC Sports as a researcher for its Olympics coverage. Nearly 30 years later, she will lead its coverage. NBC announced Tuesday that it has promoted Solomon to executive producer and president of the network’s Olympics unit, becoming the first woman to be an executive producer for a network sports division.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday the United States and South Korea have indefinitely postponed a joint military exercise in an “act of goodwill” toward North Korea. The move comes even as Japan’s defense minister, whose country feels threatened by repeated North Korean missile launches, told Esper “no one could be optimistic about” changing the North’s behavior. The statement...

Police said Monday they’re investigating a member of K-pop superstar group BTS over a traffic accident that left him and a taxi driver with minor injuries. BTS’ agency, Big Hit Entertainment, said 22-year-old Jungkook admitted that he caused the accident by violating traffic laws and reached a settlement with the driver. The agency said the singer and driver both avoided...

South Korean police said Saturday they beefed up security at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Seoul after a group of anti-American students used ladders to break into the compound. They were protesting demands by the Trump administration that South Korea pay more to help cover the costs of keeping U.S. troops in the country. Officials from three Seoul police stations...

Japan tried to reassure foreign diplomats Wednesday about safety at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant amid concerns about massive amounts of treated but radioactive water stored in tanks. Diplomats from 22 countries and regions attended a briefing at the Foreign Ministry, where Japanese officials stressed the importance of combating rumors about safety at the plant, which was decimated by a...

North Korea on Friday bluntly criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for continuing to hold military exercises with the U.S. and his rosy comments on inter-Korean diplomacy, and said Pyongyang has no current plans to talk with Seoul. The statement by an unidentified government spokesman came hours before South Korea’s military detected two projectiles North Korea fired into the sea...

K-pop superstar group BTS is taking an extended break to “enjoy the ordinary lives of young people in their 20s, albeit briefly,” their agency said Monday. Big Hit Entertainment said a concert Sunday in Seoul was the group’s last scheduled performance before the seven members take “vacations” for the first time since their 2013 debut. The agency didn’t say when...

South Korea said Monday that it has decided to remove Japan from a list of nations receiving preferential treatment in trade in what was seen as a tit-for-tat move following Tokyo’s recent decision to downgrade Seoul’s trade status amid a diplomatic row. It wasn’t immediately clear how South Korea’s tightened export controls would impact bilateral trade. Seoul said South Korean...

North Korea said Sunday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised test-firings of an unspecified new weapons system, which extended a streak of launches that are seen as an attempt to build leverage ahead of negotiations with the United States while driving a wedge between the U.S. and South Korea. The report by North Korean state media came hours after President...

North Korea on Saturday extended a recent streak of weapons displays by firing what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, according to South Korea’s military. The fifth round of launches in less than three weeks was likely another protest at the slow pace of nuclear negotiations with the United States and the continuance of U.S.-South Korea...

President Donald Trump said Saturday that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un wants to meet once again to “start negotiations” after joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises end. He also said Kim apologized for the flurry of recent short-range missile tests that has rattled U.S. allies in the region. Trump is tweeting more details from the “beautiful” three-page letter he told reporters...

China stabilized its currency Tuesday, suggesting it might hold off from aggressively letting the yuan weaken as a way to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, in a trade war that is wounding the world economy. The yuan declined to 7.0562 to the dollar before strengthening back to 7.0297 in the afternoon. That came a day after Beijing sent...

North Korea continued to ramp up its weapons demonstrations by firing two presumed short-range ballistic missiles into the sea Tuesday while lashing out at the United States and South Korea for continuing military exercises that the North says could derail fragile nuclear diplomacy. North Korea’s fourth round of weapons launches in less than two weeks came amid a standstill in...

North Korea said Thursday leader Kim Jong Un supervised the first test firing of a new multiple rocket launcher system that could potentially enhance its ability to strike targets in South Korea and U.S. military bases there. The report by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency differed from the assessment by South Korea’s military, which had concluded Wednesday’s launches...

Two South Koreans and 15 Russians returned to South Korea on Sunday, following 10 days of detention in North Korea after their fishing boat drifted into North Korean waters, officials said. The crew members were aboard a Russia-flagged fishing boat when it was detained by North Korea on July 17 after leaving South Korea’s eastern Sokcho port a day earlier....

South Korean air force jets fired 360 rounds of warning shots after a Russian military plane briefly violated South Korea’s airspace twice on Tuesday, Seoul officials said, in the first such incident between the countries. Three Russian military planes — two Tu-95 bombers and one A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft — initially entered South Korea’s air defense identification...