South Korea

Lee Jae Myung says ‘bewildering’ incident may scare off future investment after Ice detained about 475 peopleUS politics live – latest updatesSouth Korea’s government has said it will launch an investigation into whether human rights violations were committed when hundreds of its citizens were detained in a US immigration raid.About 475 people, […]

US president says he doesn’t want to ‘disincentivize investment’ after images of workers chained and handcuffed caused widespread alarm in South KoreaPresident Donald Trump has said foreign workers sent to the United States are “welcome” and he doesn’t want to “frighten off” investors, 10 days after hundreds of South Koreans were arrested at […]

The clandestine networks were almost decimated by Covid border closures and are now under threat from a crackdown in South KoreaWhen Park Seung-hwan* has a moment to himself, he opens Google Earth and searches for his family home. The 30-year-old has been able to check that the roof was repaired and that crops are growing – tangible proof that the money […]

Three people have died in two years at the South Korean Hyundai-LG battery plant in EllabellA week after a federal immigration raid on a South Korean battery plant under construction in Georgia, concerns over the economic fallout have reverberated between the United States and South Korea. The detention of more than 300 Korean workers at the Hyundai-LG […]

As Hyundai-LG workers fly home after visa ordeal, Koreans bristle at ‘humiliation’ and sense of betrayal by Seoul’s allyMore than 300 South Korean workers arrived at Incheon international airport on Friday afternoon, ending a week-long ordeal that began with the US Department of Homeland Security’s largest ever single-site raid by Immigration and […]

The US rightwing activist also addressed supporters in South Korea and visited Greenland with Donald Trump JrCharlie Kirk shooting: latest updatesFull report: FBI says it found weapon as hunt for suspect continuesCharlie Kirk directed most of his rhetoric at the US political scene, but he also strayed into foreign affairs, drawing both favourable and […]

The International IDEA’s survey of democratic markers finds US is offering ‘encouragement’ to populist leadersPress freedom around the world has suffered its sharpest fall in 50 years as global democracy weakens dramatically, a landmark report has found.According to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance […]

Choi Mal-ja’s appeal gained momentum after #MeToo movement inspired her to seek justiceA court in South Korea has acquitted a woman convicted six decades ago for biting off part of a man’s tongue during an alleged sexual assault, after she challenged the ruling, inspired by the country’s #MeToo movement.Choi Mal-ja was 19 in 1964 when she was attacked […]

Exclusive: critics accuse Ice of ‘outrageous’ and ‘unlawful’ detention of Korean manAt least one of the Korean workers swept up in a huge immigration raid on a Hyundai Motor factory site in Georgia last week was living and working legally in the US, according to an internal federal government document obtained by the Guardian.Officials then […]

Footage of raid by US immigration officials showed detained workers in handcuffs and with chains around their anklesSouth Korea announced on Sunday that the roughly 300 of its nationals detained during an immigration raid in Georgia would be released and flown home, as the sudden detention of workers appeared to strain the longstanding diplomatic and […]

South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, has promised to make 'all-out efforts' to resolve the arrest of hundreds of the country's citizens by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during a raid at a factory being built in Georgia, Atlanta, to make car batteries. The incident could exacerbate tensions between the Trump administration and Seoul, a […]

Total of 475 detained in Georgia at construction site of factory to make batteries for Hyundai and Kia carsSouth Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, has ordered “all-out efforts” to respond to the arrest of hundreds of its citizens by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during a raid at a factory being built in Georgia to manufacture car […]

US president ‘very disappointed’ in Russian ruler; Trump had promised to get Putin to negotiating table with Volodymr Zelenskyy. What we know on day 1,288 Continue reading...

Venice film festivalAn unemployed paper worker hatches a cunning plan to murder his way back into the job market in this continually surprising black comedy from the director of The Handmaiden and OldboyKorean director Park Chan-wook’s new film brings his usual effortlessly fluent, steely confidence and a type of storytelling momentum that can accommodate […]

In an Oval Office meeting with South Korea's new president, Lee Jae Myung, Donald Trump says he would like to meet the North Korean leader this year. Trump said, 'I have a great relationship with Kim Jong-un ... I spend a lot of free time with him talking about things that we probably aren't supposed to talk about.' Lee, deploying a well-worn strategy by […]

South Korean president Lee Jae Myung uses Oval Office meeting to encourage Trump to engage with North Korean leaderDonald Trump has said he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, possibly this year, in an attempt to revive the failed nuclear diplomacy of his first term as US president.“I’d like to have a meeting. I look forward to meeting with […]

Seoul says military fired warning shots on Tuesday after troops from the North briefly crossed borderSouth Korea fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the heavily fortified border earlier this week, Seoul said on Saturday, after Pyongyang accused it of a “deliberate provocation” that risks “uncontrollable” tensions.South […]

The demilitarised zone between North and South Korea has become an ecological oasis with nearly 6,000 species documented, including rare cranes, deer and bearsStanding on top of a small mountain, Kim Seung-ho gazes out over an expanse of paddy fields glowing in their autumn gold, the ripening grains swaying gently in the wind. In the distance, North Korea […]

Kim’s meditation on the disruptions experienced by family members during the Korean war and North Korean dictatorship explores absence, searching and separationSearch Engine: Notes from the North Korean-Chinese-Russian BorderBy which a strip of land became a hole in time – Durs Grünbein Continue reading...

Renewables face a bureaucratic maze in a country built on top-down and carbon-intensive development• This article was corrected on 18 August 2025. A previous version attributed a quote to Kim Jeongduk. In fact, the comments were made by Jungwon Kim. Also, 475bn won is £258m, not £258bn. Continue reading...