news highlight

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  Korean rescuers pull Chinese worker alive from Nepal tunnel SEOUL, September 05 (AJP) -A Chinese worker was pulled alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal on Saturday, 10 days after catastrophic floods swept through the Himalayas, in the first successful live rescue involving South Korea's 44-member disaster relief team dispatched to the disaster zone. The rescue carries particular significance for Seoul because the man was found at the Upper Trishuli-1, or UT-1, hydropower project in Rasuwa District, where nine South Korean workers rema September 5, 2026
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  Korea's foreign min heads to Nepal as 9 Koreans still missing SEOUL, September 05 (AJP) -Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is heading to flood-ravaged Nepal as the search for nine missing South Koreans stretches into a second week, taking Seoul's diplomatic and emergency response directly to a disaster zone where thousands remain unaccounted for. Cho will visit Nepal from Saturday through Monday and hold talks with Nepalese Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal, the foreign ministry said. A central focus of the talks will be securing continued Nepa September 5, 2026
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  Lee, Macron to hold summit next week in France SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) -South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will make a state visit to France from Sunday to Wednesday as Seoul and Paris mark the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday. Lee will travel at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, completing reciprocal state visits just five months after Macron came to Seoul in April, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said at a briefing. The trip will begin in southern F September 4, 2026
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  Yasukuni visit casts shadow over Seoul Defense Dialogue SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi is expected to skip next week's Seoul Defense Dialogue amid controversy over his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, cooling a recent run of high-level defense exchanges between the two neighbors. Japan will instead send a vice-minister-level official to the 15th Seoul Defense Dialogue, an annual multilateral security forum hosted by South Korea's Ministry of National Defense from Sept. 7 to 9, as the minist September 4, 2026
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  Trump renews pressure on Korea, Japan over Alaska LNG SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - U.S. President Donald Trump renewed pressure on South Korea and Japan on Wednesday (local time) to participate in Alaska energy development, again speaking as though the two Asian allies were already moving toward involvement in one of his administration’s signature energy projects. “You have Japan, you have South Korea, you have all these people now going to Alaska to load up with fuel, load up with oil, build pipelines, everything else,&rd September 3, 2026
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  Will America risk New York for Seoul? SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - U.S. President Donald Trump wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and ordered scale-back in U.S.-South Korea military drills that anger Pyongyang and cost Washington heavily, reigniting a long-running question in Seoul: Should South Korea arm itself with nuclear weapons? Once taboo, the idea is gaining broader public acceptance. Sixty-five percent of South Koreans support the country possessing nuclear weapons, while 30 percent oppose it, acc September 3, 2026
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  Uzbekistan looks to its Islamic golden age to build a new future SEOUL, September 02 (AJP) - The Center for Islamic Civilization, sprawling across a site roughly the size of 14 soccer fields, embodies in its glittering magnificence and grandeur what “New Uzbekistan” envisions: ushering a young, increasingly digital population into the AI age while keeping it firmly anchored in Islamic heritage and spirituality. The sprawling cultural and research complex cost about $161.8 million to build, according to a government construction dire September 2, 2026
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  Kazakhstan offers to host SCO Development Bank headquarters SEOUL, September 02 (AJP) - A development bank that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has not yet agreed to create already has a country volunteering to house it. Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State in Bishkek on Sept. 1 that Kazakhstan would take the lender and its headquarters if the bloc's members reached agreement on building it. He backed the proposal, which China has pushed, and s September 2, 2026
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  South Korea sends 44 rescuers to Nepal at Kathmandu's request SEOUL, September 01 (AJP) - An emergency South Korean relief team was set to fly to Nepal late Tuesday to search for nine workers missing since a massive flash flood engulfed a Himalayan valley last week. South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the deployment in a statement released Tuesday. Nepal had asked Seoul to send a team to support search and rescue work in the flood zone, and a public-private council approved the mission the same day under South Korea's September 1, 2026