SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret to Pyongyang on Monday over drones sent into North Korea earlier this year, actions he called &quot;irresponsible.&quot; Seoul initially denied any official role in the January drone incursion &mdash; with authorities suggesting it was the work of civilians &mdash; but Lee said a probe had revealed government officials had been involved. The North warned in February of a &quot;terrible response&quot; if it detects more drones crossing the border from the South, prompting Seoul to investigate the claims. Pyongyang said it downed a drone carrying &quot;surveillance equipment&quot; in early January. Photos released by state media showed the wreckage of a winged craft scattered across the ground alongside grey and blue components that allegedly included cameras. &quot;It has been confirmed that a National Intelligence Service official and an active-duty soldier were involved,&quot; Lee told a cabinet meeting. &quot;We express regret to the North over the unnecessary military tensions caused by the irresponsible and reckless actions of some individuals.&quot; He added that South Korea&#39;s constitution bans private individuals from conducting acts that could &quot;provoke the North.&quot; &quot;Such actions, even when deemed necessary for national strategy, must be approached with extreme caution,&quot; he said. Lee has sought to repair ties with North Korea since taking office last year, criticizing his predecessor for allegedly sending drones to scatter propaganda over Pyongyang. His repeated overtures, however, have gone unanswered by the North. Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol is standing trial over charges that his administration sent drones into the North to provoke a backlash and create a pretext for declaring military rule. Yoon was impeached and ousted from office in April last year and has been sentenced to life in prison over his declaration of martial law. &#39;Most hostile state&#39; Lee&#39;s expression of regret follows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un&#39;s labelling of Seoul as the &quot;most hostile state&quot; in a policy address in March, in which he vowed to &quot;thoroughly reject and disregard it.&quot; Kim also reaffirmed his commitment to maintaining the country&#39;s nuclear arsenal, describing it as an &quot;irreversible course.&quot; During Yoon&#39;s presidency, relations between Seoul and Pyongyang hit rock bottom, with the North sending balloons filled with garbage, including animal manure, in response to propaganda leaflets send northward by South Korea-based activists, many of them North Korean defectors. The two Koreas technically remain at war, as the 1950&ndash;53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and both enforce mandatory military service for men.

Asia

Seoul initially denied any official role in the January drone incursion — with authorities suggesting it was the work of civilians — but Lee says a probe had revealed government officials had been involved.



South Korea president says regrets 'reckless' drones sent to North

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: The United States may relocate parts of its advanced Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system from South Korea to the Middle East, according to BBC and South Korean media outlets. The reported move comes after two weeks into the ongoing conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, during which Iran has launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles targeting Israeli territory and US military bases across the region. &ldquo;While we have expressed opposition, the reality is that we cannot fully push through our position,&rdquo; South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said, adding that the move would not weaken South Korea&rsquo;s overall deterrence strategy. He acknowledged the reports during a cabinet meeting and said Seoul had expressed opposition to the withdrawal of US weapons from the country. The relocation is believed to be linked to the intensifying missile exchanges in the Middle East and the growing pressure on US missile defense capabilities as Iran continues large-scale missile launches, BBC reported. THAAD, manufactured by US defense contractor Lockheed Martin, is designed to intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missiles at high altitude using &ldquo;hit-to-kill&rdquo; technology that destroys incoming warheads through kinetic impact. An Iranian strike earlier this month destroyed a radar component of an existing THAAD system in Jordan, which reportedly cost around $300 million. The United States currently operates eight THAAD systems worldwide, including two in the Middle East deployed in Jordan and Israel, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates operate three additional systems in the region. The&nbsp;New York Times reported that Iran has fired more than 500 ballistic missiles since the start of the conflict, although many of them were intercepted by Israeli and US defense systems. Analysts say the high volume of missile attacks could be straining Washington&rsquo;s missile defense inventory, particularly as Tehran appears prepared for a prolonged conflict that could draw in more regional actors and US allies, according to BBC. A US official told the Washington Post that the possible redeployment from South Korea was a &ldquo;precautionary measure.&rdquo;&nbsp; Meanwhile, South Korean media outlets, including SBS and Yonhap, reported that THAAD launchers were already being transported from the Seongju airbase south of Seoul.

Middle East

Americas

The United States is relocating parts of its THAAD missile defense system from South Korea to the Middle East amid the ongoing Iran war, prompting concern in Seoul over regional security and defense preparedness.

US to shift missile defense system from South Korea to Middle East

SEOUL: South Korean conglomerate Samsung unveiled on Sunday a plan to invest $310 billion over the next five years, mostly in technology powering artificial intelligence, aiming to meet growing demand driven by a global boom.&nbsp;The business group&#39;s flagship Samsung Electronics is already one of the world&#39;s top memory-chip makers, providing crucial components for the AI industry and the infrastructure it relies on.&nbsp;South Korea is also home to SK hynix, another key player in the global semiconductor market.&nbsp;The five-year investment package includes plans to build a new semiconductor facility, Pyeongtaek Plant 5, designed &quot;to meet the needs of memory-chip demands&quot;, Samsung said in a statement.&nbsp;Once fully operational, &quot;the Pyeongtaek plant is expected to play an even greater strategic role in both the global semiconductor supply chain and South Korea&#39;s domestic chip ecosystem,&quot; it said.&nbsp;The new line is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.&nbsp;Samsung SDS, the group&#39;s IT and logistics arm, will establish two AI data centres in South Jeolla and Gumi, the company said, without providing further details.&nbsp;Samsung Group is a network of affiliated companies with complex cross-shareholdings under the Samsung brand, rather than a single legal holding company.&nbsp;It is South Korea&#39;s largest chaebol, a family-run conglomerate that dominates the country&#39;s economy.&nbsp;The $310-billion plan also includes some projects unrelated to AI.&nbsp;Under the investment package, the company said that Samsung SDI, its electric-vehicle battery affiliate, was exploring the creation of a domestic production line &quot;for next-generation batteries, including all-solid-state batteries&quot;.&nbsp;The AI boom has delivered a major tailwind for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, whose high-performance memory chips have become indispensable for AI computing.&nbsp;Samsung Electronics has reported that its profit increased more than 30% year-on-year in the third quarter, driven by AI-fuelled demand.&nbsp;AI-related spending is soaring worldwide, and sky-high tech share valuations have fed concerns of an AI market bubble that could eventually burst, like the dot-com boom that imploded at the turn of the millennium.&nbsp;The investment package announced on Sunday comes after the South Korean government had pledged to triple spending on artificial intelligence next year.&nbsp;President Lee Jae Myung has vowed to &quot;usher in the AI era&quot; and make the country one of the world&#39;s top three AI powers, behind the United States and China.

Artificial Intelligence

Samsung announced a $310 billion five-year investment focused on AI technologies, including a new chip plant and AI data centers. The plan strengthens South Korea’s semiconductor ecosystem amid booming global AI demand and government efforts to expand AI leadership.

Samsung plans $310B investment to power AI expansion

SEOUL: Ten South Koreans have been arrested in Cambodia for alleged involvement in cyber scams and two more rescued, Seoul&#39;s top diplomat said on Monday, days after dozens accused of working in the vast fraud operation were repatriated. A multibillion-dollar scam industry has ballooned in Cambodia in recent years, with thousands involved, some willingly and others forced by the organized criminal groups, experts say. Over the weekend, Cambodia sent home 64 South Korean nationals who had been held for their alleged links to &quot;pig butchering&quot; scams -- so-called for the method of building trust with victims over time before stealing funds. On Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said that 10 more people were arrested and two individuals rescued. They were detained on Thursday and will be repatriated this week, he said. Seoul is also working to locate 80 South Korean nationals still unaccounted for in Cambodia, Cho said. About 550 South Koreans had been reported missing or held against their will after entering Cambodia since last year, the foreign ministry said last week. Seoul has estimated around 1,000 South Koreans are among the 200,000 people working in scam operations in Cambodia. Some have been forced under threat of violence to execute &quot;pig butchering&quot; or romance scams. Those deported over the weekend were detained as soon as they boarded a chartered flight home and were escorted off the plane in handcuffs. Seoul&#39;s National Police Agency said Monday it was seeking arrest warrants for 59 of them. The repatriated individuals have been implicated in crimes like voice phishing, romance scams and so-called &quot;no-show&quot; fraud schemes, Park Sung-joo, head of the National Office of Investigation, told reporters last week. The group included both &quot;voluntary and involuntary participants&quot;, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac has said. The high-profile repatriations follow public outcry over the torture and killing of a South Korean college student in Cambodia this year, reportedly by a crime ring. Last week, South Korean foreign ministry officials met with Cambodia&#39;s prime minister and local police to discuss fake jobs and scam centres.

Cambodia has cracked down on a major scam ring, arresting 10 South Koreans and rescuing two. Dozens were recently repatriated amid growing concerns over forced involvement and missing nationals linked to fraud operations.

10 South Koreans arrested, two rescued in Cambodia scam crackdown

SEOUL: South Korea&rsquo;s president apologized Thursday for poorly managed foreign adoption programs that were rife with abuses and fraud, months after the country&rsquo;s truth commission acknowledged state responsibility for such practices for the first time. President Lee Jae Myung said in a Facebook post that he was offering &ldquo;a heartfelt apology and words of comfort&rdquo; on behalf of the country to South Koreans adopted abroad and to their adoptive and birth families. Findings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and recent court rulings confirmed cases of human rights abuses in the course of international adoptions, Lee said, adding that the government failed to fulfill its role in such cases. He did not elaborate. Lee said he &ldquo;feels heavy-hearted&rdquo; when he thinks about the &ldquo;anxiety, pain and confusion&rdquo; that South Korean adoptees suffered when they were sent abroad as children. He asked officials to create systems to safeguard the human rights of adoptees and support their efforts to find their birth parents. South Korea has faced growing pressure to address widespread fraud and abuse that plagued its adoption programs, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, when thousands of children were sent abroad each year. Many adoptees later discovered their records had been falsified to portray them as abandoned orphans, while others were removed&mdash;or even stolen&mdash;from their birth families.In a landmark report in March, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded the government bore responsibility for facilitating adoption programs driven by efforts to reduce welfare costs. The report followed a nearly three-year investigation into complaints from 367 adoptees in Europe, the United States and Australia. Its findings broadly aligned with a 2024 Associated Press investigation, in collaboration with PBS Frontline, which detailed how South Korea&rsquo;s governments, Western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply around 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence that many were procured through questionable or unscrupulous means. After years of delay, South Korea in July ratified the Hague Adoption Convention, an international treaty meant to safeguard international adoptions. The treaty took effect in South Korea on Wednesday.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers his speech during a celebration to mark 77th Armed Forces Day in Gyeryong, South Korea Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Kim Hong-Ji/Pool Photo via AP)

South Korea’s president apologized Thursday for poorly managed foreign adoption programs that were rife with abuses and fraud, months after the country’s truth commission acknowledged state responsibility for such practices for the first time.

South Korea's president apologizes over poorly managed foreign adoption programs

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SEOUL: Japan&rsquo;s outgoing prime minister and his South Korean counterpart underscored the need to strengthen cooperation between their nations, as US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s transactional approach to allies and trade wars are bringing the often-feuding Asian neighbors closer. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tuesday&#39;s meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the South Korean southeastern port city of Busan is their third and likely final summit. Earlier this month, Ishiba offered to resign over his ruling coalition&rsquo;s recent election defeat, triggering a contest to find his successor. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;I hope that (South) Korea and Japan can grow closer emotionally, economically, socioculturally, and in terms of security, just as they are in physical distance,&rdquo; Lee said at the start of the meeting. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ishiba said that it was &ldquo;deeply meaningful&rdquo; to conclude his final diplomatic activities as prime minister with a summit with Lee. &quot;By sharing each other&rsquo;s wisdom and experience, we can strengthen relations between our two countries while addressing our common challenges,&rdquo; Ishiba said through a translator. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The two leaders issued a joint statement vowing further bilateral consultations on shared issues like low birth rates, rural revitalization and enhanced disaster prevention steps. Lee&#39;s office said the two also reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a reference to efforts to end North Korea&#39;s nuclear program. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Korea and Japan are both key US allies and major trading partners. But their ties have experienced constant shifts because of history disputes stemming from Japan&rsquo;s past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Relations began improving under Lee and Ishiba&rsquo;s predecessors. But the impending departure of Ishiba, who has acknowledged Japan&rsquo;s wartime aggression and shown empathy toward the Asian victims, could pose a foreign policy challenge to Lee. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both governments said the summit was part of earlier agreements to maintain close communication and high-level exchanges between the countries. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When Lee traveled to Tokyo in August for his second summit with Ishiba, he became the first South Korean leader to pick Japan as their first destination for a bilateral summit since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965. In Tokyo, Lee said he intended to pursue pragmatic diplomacy and build future-oriented relations with Japan. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Korea and Japan have sought ways to tackle together challenges like North Korea&rsquo;s expanding nuclear arsenal and supply chain vulnerabilities. They are now being pushed closer together by Trump&rsquo;s push to reset global trade. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lee&rsquo;s national security director, Wi Sung-lac, earlier told reporters that Tuesday&#39;s summit would provide a venue to expand discussions in the midst of &ldquo;the rapidly changing geopolitical environment and trade order.&rdquo; He said that the meeting would also discuss Ishiba&rsquo;s possible active role in developing bilateral ties even after his departure. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Korea and Japan have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in US industrial investments in hopes of avoiding the Trump administration&rsquo;s highest tariffs. But South Korean officials acknowledge they remain at odds with Washington over how Seoul&rsquo;s proposed $350 billion package would be structured and operated. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Korean officials have proposed delivering the investment through loans and loan guarantees and have balked at U.S. demands for upfront payments, which they say would put the country at risk of a financial crisis given the size of its foreign-currency reserves. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unlike Seoul, Tokyo has already put its trade deal with Washington in writing. Trump earlier this month signed an order to lower tariffs on Japanese automobiles and other critical imports, from the initially proposed 25% to 15% while the two governments simultaneously signed a joint statement in Washington confirming $550 billion in Japanese investment in US projects.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a meeting in Busan, South Korea

Japan’s outgoing prime minister and his South Korean counterpart underscored the need to strengthen cooperation between their nations, as US President Donald Trump’s transactional approach to allies and trade wars are bringing the often-feuding Asian neighbors closer.

Articles tagged with "South Korea"

South Korea president says regrets 'reckless' drones sent to North

US to shift missile defense system from South Korea to Middle East

Samsung plans $310B investment to power AI expansion

10 South Koreans arrested, two rescued in Cambodia scam crackdown

South Korea's president apologizes over poorly managed foreign adoption programs

Japan and South Korea leaders commit to closer ties in their final summit