
South Korea arrests ex-leader Yoon on obstruction of justice charges
TETSUYA FUJITA
SEOUL -- Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested early Thursday on charges related to his declaration of martial law in December, including suspicion of special obstruction of public duties, the country's media reported.
Yoon had also been arrested in January in connection with the martial law decree. He was released in March.

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Yomiuri Shimbun
43 minutes ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Russian Foreign Minister Arrives in North Korea, KCNA Says
SEOUL, July 12 (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in North Korea on Friday, North Korea's state media KCNA said on Saturday, the latest visit by a senior Russian official to the isolated state amid warming ties between the countries. Lavrov's visit, scheduled to Sunday, includes a meeting between the countries' foreign ministers, KCNA reported. Lavrov flew out of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur following the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting and arrived in Wonsan, North Korea's eastern coastal city, which is home to a recently opened resort and known for its missile and naval facilities. Lavrov's visit is the latest high-level meeting between the two countries amid a dramatic upgrading of their strategic cooperation that now includes a mutual defence pact. The South Korean intelligence service has said North Korea may be preparing to deploy additional troops in July or August, after sending more than 10,000 soldiers to fight with Russia in the war against Ukraine. North Korea has agreed to dispatch 6,000 military engineers and builders for reconstruction in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a mass cross-border incursion nearly a year ago. Russian news agencies also reported Lavrov's arrival and said after North Korea he is expected to travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, which is set to take place on Monday and Tuesday. Russia's state TASS news agency said Lavrov and his North Korean counterpart, Choi Son Hui, would discuss the 40-month-old Ukraine conflict and the situation on the Korean peninsula. TASS said the new coastal resort could boost Russian tourism to North Korea, citing the resumption of direct trains from Moscow to Pyongyang and a project to build a bridge across the Tumen River forming part of the boundary between North Korea, China and Russia. TASS quoted Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko as saying more high-level delegations would visit North Korea later this year. Rudenko said the accord on strategic partnership 'clearly meets the changing needs over recent decades and strengthens traditionally friendly, good-neighbourly Russian-Korean relations to a qualitatively new level as allies.'


Japan Today
7 hours ago
- Japan Today
China to resume Japanese beef imports after 24-year hiatus
Japan's government said Friday China completed a key step toward resuming Japanese beef imports, paving the way for their restart after a 24-year hiatus. China's completion of its domestic quarantine procedure came after Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks with a senior Japanese ruling party lawmaker earlier in the day. The vice premier, a close aide to President Xi Jinping, told Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, that China would soon validate a pact signed by the two countries in 2019, a prerequisite for beef shipments to resume, according to diplomatic sources. The meeting took place in Osaka where He was visiting to attend the World Exposition. Beef shipments to China were halted following the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan in 2001. The Japanese government said it will continue to advance related bilateral consultations "toward an early resumption" of beef exports based on the agreement's validation. The vice premier was also quoted as saying at the meeting that panda leases are "important for exchanges among the public." Moriyama, who heads a cross-party lawmakers' group working to promote friendly relations with China, has been calling on Beijing to lease more giant pandas. Four pandas based in the western prefecture of Wakayama were returned to China last month, leaving only two pandas in Japan. The lease contract for the remaining pair at Tokyo's Ueno zoo will expire in February. The latest development regarding beef shipments follows the lifting by China in June of its blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports, introduced in 2023 after Japan began releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea. Chinese customs authorities have registered three Japanese marine product exporters, its website showed Friday. The positive moves in bilateral relations reflect China's desire to strengthen ties with Japan as Beijing's rivalry with Washington intensifies. In Tokyo, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Keiichiro Tachibana said at a press conference that the government will call on China "at various levels" to speed up necessary procedures for the resumption of Japanese beef imports. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Xi agreed to maintain communication on the issue when they met in Peru in November on the fringes of an international conference. Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and China's top diplomat Wang Yi also discussed the quarantine accord during their meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to "expedite the process" to restart the Japanese beef trade, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry. © KYODO

14 hours ago
Japan, U.S., S. Korea Top Uniformed Officers Vow Cooperation
News from Japan World Jul 11, 2025 22:37 (JST) Seoul, July 11 (Jiji Press)--Top uniformed officers from Japan's Self-Defense Forces, the U.S. military and the South Korean military on Friday agreed to continue their trilateral security cooperation, condemning North Korea's nuclear and missile development. The agreement was included in a joint statement released following a meeting in Seoul between Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, chief of staff at the SDF's Joint Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Kim Myung-soo, chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Caine also called for coordination to deter China's military threats. While South Korea considers the trilateral security cooperation as a deterrent against North Korea, Caine said in the meeting that North Korea and China are promoting an unprecedented military buildup. He also said that the United States is focusing on rebuilding the deterrence, indicating his intention to use the trilateral framework to check China. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press