Lee set to hold talks with Vietnamese leader in Hanoi SEOUL, April 22 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung is set to sit down for talks with Vietnamese President Tô Lâm in Hanoi on Wednesday. Lee's meeting with Lâm, who also serves as General Secretary of the Communist Party, comes about eight months after the Vietnamese leader visited Seoul in August last year. Their meeting also comes after South Korea agreed with its third-largest trading partner to further enhance bilateral relations in 2022, when the two co April 22, 2026

Korea's March producer price surge by steepest in nearly four years SEOUL, April 22 (AJP) - South Korea’s producer prices surged at their fastest monthly pace in nearly four years in March, driven by supply-chain disruptions stemming from an energy shock triggered by the outbreak of war in the Middle East, coupled with a global semiconductor shortage, in a prelude to a broader spike in inflation. The Bank of Korea (BOK) reported on Wednesday that the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 1.6 percent from the previous month, the sharpest increase sin April 22, 2026

South Korea expresses regret over Japanese PM's offering to war shrine SEOUL, April 21 (AJP) - South Korea expressed "regret" on Tuesday after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead but also enshrines convicted war criminals from World War II. "We express deep disappointment and regret that responsible leaders in Japan have repeatedly made offerings to or visited the shrine," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The stat April 21, 2026

Lee heads to Hanoi after wrapping up visit to India SEOUL, April 21 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung is heading to Hanoi on Tuesday, after wrapping up his trip to India earlier in the week. Lee is scheduled to hold talks on Wednesday with Vietnamese President Tô Lâm, who also serves as general secretary of the Communist Party. Lee's trip is a reciprocal visit, coming about eight months after Lâm visited Seoul in August last year. As the first leg of his itinerary in Viet Nam, Lee will meet with South Ko April 21, 2026

Lee set to deliver speech at business forum in India SEOUL, April 20 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung, who is on a state visit to India for a summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, is set to attend a business forum later in the day to promote investment and cooperation between companies in the two countries. Lee is scheduled to deliver opening remarks at the forum, co-hosted by the two countries, where he is expected to emphasize stronger supply-chain cooperation. The forum, being held for the first time in eight April 20, 2026

S. Korea hits the accelerator on nuclear pivot after Hormuz lesson SEOUL, April 20 (AJP) - Nuclear energy has become hot. It already was due to the exponential demand for electricity to power hyperscalers to train and deploy artificial intelligence. But it has got even hotter due to the Gulf war crisis. South Korea is the world’s fifth-largest energy importer by value and one of the four largest importers of LNG globally, regularly purchasing around 40 million tonnes per year. With virtually no domestic fossil fuel reserves, the country April 20, 2026

S. Korea, U.S. finance chiefs share concerns over won volatility Seoul, April 19 (AJP) —South Korean and U.S. finance chiefs agreed a volatile exchange rate is undesirable for the interests of the two countries, the Ministry of Finance and Economy said in a statement Monday. Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Washington, D.C., last Friday to discuss key bilateral issues including the action plan for Seoul's pledge of inv April 20, 2026

Korea and India to elevate ties to "entirely new level" SEOUL, April 20 (AJP) -South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Seoul and India are entering “an entirely new level” in bilateral ties, positioning each other as “the most critical strategic partners” as global supply chains fracture under prolonged geopolitical shocks stemming from the Middle East conflict. Speaking at a dinner meeting with the Korean community in New Delhi Sunday, Lee framed his state visit as a turning point in bilateral ties, s April 20, 2026

Korea's first tanker slipping past Hormuz on its way home SEOUL, April 19 (AJP) -A tanker carrying petroleum products is heading to South Korea after passing through the Strait of Hormuz during a brief reopening, in what would mark the first such arrival since the waterway’s intermittent blockade began amid tensions between the United States and Iran. According to shipping industry sources on Sunday, the vessel — identified as the Navik 8 McAllister — transited the strait on the evening of April 18, when access was tempor April 19, 2026

A quarter of the unemployed in South Korea are under 30 as jobless tops 1 million SEOUL, April 19 (AJP)-One in four unemployed South Koreans are young people under 30, as the country’s total jobless climbed back above 1 million for the first time in five years, pointing to a structural cliff at the entry level in the labor market. According to data released Sunday by Statistics Korea via KOSIS, the number of unemployed averaged 1.029 million in the January–March quarter, up 49,000 from a year earlier. It marked the first time since 2021 that first-q April 19, 2026