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Members of Samsung Electronics’ largest labour union chant slogans during a protest against the company’s compensation levels in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, last month. Photo: Reuters
South Korea

South Korea weighs the cost of stepping into Samsung’s US$400,000 bonus row

Seoul is considering using a rarely used emergency power to halt a strike that could cost the economy US$67 billion.

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North Korea

North Korea to turn southern border into ‘impregnable fortress’

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South Korea

South Korea weighs arbitration to avoid Samsung semiconductor plant strike

North Korea

North Korean footballers arrive in South, match tickets sell out

The rare visit comes as North Korea has in ‌recent years labelled the South its ‘most hostile state’.

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North Korean Naegohyang Women’s FC soccer team arrives at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE
North Korean Naegohyang Women’s FC soccer team arrives at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE
South Korea

Reality deficit: how South Korea lost the plot on AI

A viral ‘baseball goddess’, a wolf that never was and a deepfake epidemic. Generative AI is rewriting South Korea’s reality.

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Japan

Japan’s ‘ibasho’ sense of belonging helps disaster survivors heal, study finds

Research into the 2011 earthquake and tsunami shows fostering social connection and purpose helps survivors rebuild and staves off dementia.

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South Korea

South Korea uses AI to prevent suicides, track crime on Seoul’s Han River bridges

AI sounds an alarm if it identifies a person staying for more than 300 seconds in a bridge’s ‘loitering zones’, allowing humans to swoop in.

A ship sails in the Han River after leaving the Jamsil pier in Seoul’s Songpa ward on September 18, 2025. Photo: Yonhap/EPA
A ship sails in the Han River after leaving the Jamsil pier in Seoul’s Songpa ward on September 18, 2025. Photo: Yonhap/EPA
Japan

Japan’s restaurant sector feels bite of sudden foreign worker visa freeze

The number of foreigners holding Type I visas in the food industry has reached roughly 46,000, on course to surpass the quota of 50,000.

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2026 Xi-Trump summit

Trump and his CEOs want China’s business – but has Asia moved on?

The US delegation went to Beijing looking for deals, but a ‘super cycle’ of capital expenditures across Asia is already fuelling enormous growth.

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Japan

To cut reliance on China, Japan eyes bespoke ship for rare earth extraction

Tokyo also aims to become a major global supplier despite the project facing technological, cost and geopolitical hurdles.

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A Japanese research vessel leaves a port in Shizuoka prefecture to collect rare earth mud off Minamitorishima Island in January. Photo: Kyodo
Japan

Why Japan’s ruling party is pushing for 5% military spending

The ruling party is expected to debate raising outlays to as much as 5 per cent of GDP, in line with that of many Nato members.

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Japan Ground Self-Defence Force soldiers fold a US flag during a Balikatan drill in the Philippines on May 6. Photo: Reuters
Japan Ground Self-Defence Force soldiers fold a US flag during a Balikatan drill in the Philippines on May 6. Photo: Reuters
South Korea

Samsung union’s strike threat fuels fears of South Korea’s economic slowdown

The AI boom and SK Hynix’s profit-sharing arrangement with its workers have reportedly galvanised Samsung’s biggest union to take action.

Japan

Japan-South Korea ‘comfort women’ row stoked by statues abroad

The removal of wartime sex slave memorials in Germany and New Zealand has electrified certain LDP hardliners, risking a diplomatic rift.

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South Korea

‘Like whale bones’: South Korea’s war memorial sparks conflict over symbolism

Critics argue the Korean war memorial should not be in a space in Seoul long associated with pro-democracy protests and its imperial past.

A row of 23 stone monuments in central Seoul representing South Korea and 22 other countries that fought alongside one another during the 1950-53 Korean war. Photo: Park Chan-kyong
South Korea

South Korea adds ‘extreme heat emergency’ to first major alert update in decades

Over the past five years, the average number of heatwave days and tropical nights has surged nearly threefold compared to the 1970s.

Children play in a fountain at Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul on April 26. Photo: Yonhap/EPA
Children play in a fountain at Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul on April 26. Photo: Yonhap/EPA
South Korea

South Korea signals ‘phased’ support for US-led Hormuz mission after ship attack

Defence Minister Ahn said the support could include political backing, personnel dispatches and sharing of information and military assets.

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Japan

Japan’s Takaichi backs aide over smear claims against LDP rivals

Analysts say Japan’s prime minister used an ‘excellent non-answer’ to shield an aide against claims of orchestrating a smear campaign.

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Japan

Oil crunch drains colour from 1 of Japan’s favourite snacks

Calbee says it is using monochrome designs for some of its products, as the Iran war has caused a shortage of naphtha used in packaging.

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Calbee, a major Japanese snack food maker, says the switch to monochrome packaging for some of its products would not affect quality. Photo: Shutterstock
Calbee, a major Japanese snack food maker, says the switch to monochrome packaging for some of its products would not affect quality. Photo: Shutterstock
South Korea

South Korea cautious on blaming Iran for ship strike ahead of US-China summit

Seoul has footage of the May 4 attack on the HMM Namu but analysts say it is biding its time, hoping ‘the dust will settle’.

Japan

Japan’s ‘cutest’ envoy shows Britons how to love Britain

‘He has made me feel more proud to be British than any politician or any figure since I was born,’ a content creator says.

Japan

Japan’s new spy agency: a shield against China or ‘militarist surveillance’?

Japan has not had a centralised intelligence service since World War II. Sanae Takaichi wants to change that.

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Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi waves as she departs from Canberra on May 5 after a three-day official visit to Australia. Photo: AFP
Japan

Japan’s late-night cafes open doors to soothe mothers of crying babies

The idea of a ‘nighttime crying cafe’, which appeared in an online comic nearly a decade ago, is now gaining real-world traction.

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The Creative French Toast in Tokachi cafe turns into a night-time haven for mothers of crying babies. Photo: Facebook/Creative French Toast in Tokachi
The Creative French Toast in Tokachi cafe turns into a night-time haven for mothers of crying babies. Photo: Facebook/Creative French Toast in Tokachi
South Korea

Robots to the rescue? South Korea looks for solutions to falling army numbers

South Korea’s standing forces have shrunk by 20 per cent in the past six years to 450,000 amid a record-low birth rate.

The Philippines

Remote control: the inmates running crime empires from Philippine prison

What do a South Korean drug ring and a Japanese robbery syndicate have in common? They were both allegedly run from Philippine prison cells.

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South Korea

‘Unidentified aircraft’ hit Korean cargo ship in Hormuz on Monday: Seoul

Iran has denied responsibility for the attack, with its embassy in Seoul stating that it rejects and denies any allegations of involvement.

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Iranian ambassador to South Korea Saeed Koozechi (centre) leaves the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Sunday. Photo: AFP
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