South Korea

South Korea faces a persistent youth employment crisis spanning 46 months, with young job seekers struggling against shrinking entry-level opportunities and increased workplace automation. The employment challenge has become severe enough to achieve rare bipartisan consensus among lawmakers seeking policy solutions. According to Arirang News,...

South Korea's exports reached $71.4 billion during the first 20 days of September 2026, marking a record high for that period, with semiconductors accounting for 48% of outbound shipments. The surge reflects broad-based strength across multiple industries, with the automobile and steel sectors also reporting...

South Korea's Korea Exchange (KRX) launched an after-hours trading session one week ago, with average daily turnover reaching approximately 1.1 trillion won (roughly $800 million USD) across five trading days — about 4 to 4.5% of regular session levels, according to Arirang News citing KRX...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung held bilateral meetings with Tajikistani President Emomali Rahmon and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zaparov on September 16, 2026, in Seoul, according to AP Archive pool footage. The meetings mark a diplomatic engagement between South Korea and two Central Asian nations.

Three women were killed in separate domestic violence-related incidents across New South Wales within a 24-hour period, including a 90-year-old grandmother stabbed 19 times, according to ABC News Australia. A 47-year-old man accused in one of the killings claimed the medication Ozempic affected his mental...

U.S. Southern Command's Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere conducted a lethal strike against a high-speed vessel in the Caribbean Sea that intelligence indicated was actively involved in drug trafficking, according to WION. The source reports four individuals described as narco-terrorists were killed in the operation....

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung announced that Seoul will not deploy military assets to the Middle East if doing so risks involving South Korea in regional conflicts, according to Al Jazeera reporting. The statement addresses international pressure on Seoul to increase military commitments in...

Iran-backed Houthi forces have seized the southwestern coast of Yemen and taken control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, according to a WSJ report. The Wall Street Journal explains how the group and other Iranian allies have moved to choke off oil shipments and attack Saudi...

Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.'s top human rights body reported Thursday that they have found "reasonable grounds" to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including a strike on a school in the southern city of Minab. The...

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun traveled to Paris on September 17, 2026, for talks with Emmanuel Macron aimed at securing international support and a framework agreement to address the ongoing conflict with Israel. According to France 24 correspondent Renée David reporting from Beirut, many Lebanese citizens...

South Korea's second disaster relief team returned home on September 17 after a seven-day mission in flood-affected Nepal, where nine Korean workers remain unaccounted for following severe flooding. According to Seoul's Foreign Ministry, a joint government response team stayed behind to support families of the...

Seoul and Washington are finalizing negotiations on the inaugural project under Korea's U.S. investment initiative, with an official announcement expected imminently despite a government delay in briefing the National Assembly this week.

SK Hynix, the world's leading high-bandwidth memory manufacturer, is investing $720 billion in what the company says will be the largest network of memory factories globally, with production facilities in South Korea despite the country's mountainous terrain presenting significant construction challenges. This investment matters globally...

The Southwest U.S. is being hit simultaneously by wildfires and flash floods, creating compounded hazard conditions across the region, according to NBC News.

Heavy rain and extreme winds struck central and southern Arizona on Monday, with WeatherNation describing conditions as hurricane-like in intensity. The National Weather Service upgraded the flood risk to moderate (3 out of 4 severity) across the Four Corners region, including Phoenix and Tucson, as...

The Global Green Growth Institute held an AI-Energy Nexus forum in Busan, South Korea on Wednesday, bringing together technology, energy, and climate leaders to address how rapidly expanding artificial intelligence demands can be met sustainably. The forum directly confronts a critical infrastructure challenge: AI systems...

South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will meet U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on September 18 in Washington to discuss major ROK-U.S. alliance issues, including potential deployment of Korean troops to the Strait of Hormuz, Korean investment in the U.S., and nuclear submarine cooperation....