Hung Shing Temple, Stanley Mosque declared monuments

When a single cello can cost $1,000 and a tuba $9,000, tariffs are straining meager band and orchestra budgets.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui has called for efforts to further strengthen bilateral ties and traditional friendship with China in a congratulatory message to her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, Pyongyang's state media reported Friday. Choe sent the message to Wang on Thursday marking the 77th anniversary of China's founding, praising the country's achievements over the past seven decades, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Choe said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed their "steadfast will" to build a better future for their peoples together during their summit talks in Pyongyang in June. The minister also expressed a commitment to working together to fully implement important agreements reached by the leaders and further develop bilateral friendly relations to a "higher stage." Earlier, Kim sent a congratulatory message to Xi on the anniversary and expressed his willingness to further develop relations and safeguard their common interests, the KCNA reported Thursday.

The South Korean and Ukrainian foreign ministers have been discussing how Kyiv should respond to South Korea's demand for an apology over the disclosure of the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) to Seoul, a senior government official here said Friday. The South Korean government demanded an official explanation and apology over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's recent disclosure of the transfer and a statement from his office denying that there had been an agreement to keep the matter confidential. "One thing I want to make clear is that there was an agreement from the outset to keep the matter confidential to protect the soldiers and their families, who remain in North Korea. There is no question about that," the foreign ministry official well-versed in the issue said during a meeting with reporters. Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, "have been in close communication on potential responses from Ukraine, including the tone and content of the message and the manner in which it would be announced," he said. The official added

South Korea's border regions saw tourism spending fall by more than 30 billion won ($22 million) and reported hundreds of millions of won in direct damage during 2024 and 2025, when North Korea's trash-filled balloon launches and tit-for-tat loudspeaker broadcasts under the former Yoon Suk Yeol administration escalated inter-Korean tensions. According to the data submitted by Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces to the office of Woo Won-shik of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Friday, Gyeonggi Province reported a total of 24 incidents of damage worth 414.42 million won across 10 cities and counties as a result of North Korea’s waste balloon launches between May 28, 2024, and November 28, 2025. Border regions also experienced a sharp decline in tourism spending during the same period. Data from the Korea Tourism Data Lab showed that combined tourism spending in the five border counties in Gangwon Province — Cheorwon, Hwacheon, Yanggu, Inje and Goseong — fell from 444.45 billion won in 2023 to 414.15 billion won in 2024, marking a decrease of more than 30 billion won. Though

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Friday proposed to North Korea talks to address issues along the border, amid heightened inter-Korean tensions over last week's mine blast inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Chung made the remark after the South's military blamed North Korea for the Sept. 21 land mine explosion on the South's side of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separating the two Koreas. The incident left three South Korean soldiers injured, two of them critically. Earlier this week, the South Korean military demanded an apology and responsible measures from the North over the blast. Pyongyang has categorically denied its involvement, accusing Seoul of fabricating its investigation result to pin the blame on the regime. "The root cause of this incident ultimately lies in the issue of the ceasefire line, the MDL line," Chung told reporters upon arriving for work. He cut short his trip to Europe and returned Thursday to handle the fallout from the land mine blast. "I, as unification minister, propose to the North: We should meet now and communicate. We should at least star

South Korea says it has written documents proving that Seoul and Kyiv agreed to keep the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) secret, as President Lee Jae Myung warned Friday that Seoul will take "additional measures" if Ukraine refuses to apologize for disclosing the transfer. The remarks are expected to deepen diplomatic standoff between the two countries after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the transfer during his U.N. General Assembly address on Sept. 23. Kyiv has denied any confidentiality agreement existed, while Seoul insists one was clearly in place and that Ukraine broke it. A senior foreign ministry official laid out Seoul's account of events in detail on Friday. "It is clear that the two countries agreed to keep the transfer secret," the official told reporters. "The Ukrainian side notified the South Korean side that Zelenskyy would make a speech at the U.N. General Assembly, without specifying its content. The South Korean side responded by text, saying it wanted Zelenskyy not to breach the agreement between the two nations on keeping the t

Wednesday's Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv erupted into bloodshed at 34,000ft after a flight captain was knifed by his co-pilot as he fought to protect the jet's controls.

Zheng Yongnian is a political scientist in China and a government adviser. His academic work is mainly about contemporary China, particularly politics, the country’s transformation and its external relations. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. Many have offered a lukewarm assessment of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington, citing the lack of a breakthrough. What is your take? There are two primary views right now. One is nihilism, which holds that China and...

Two arrests were made - but one year on, no one has been charged

Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia could use 'all weapons' in its arsenal to respond to aggression from European countries.

On Thursday, Justice William F. Sullivan denied the motion writing that the evidence 'was sufficient to have satisfied any rational trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt'.

A small Singaporean research team has beaten scientists in China and the United States to build the world’s most accurate atomic clock. The clock, built with a single ion of a rare earth metal element known as lutetium, is so precise that it would lose one second every 260 billion years – nearly 20 times the age of our universe. It is about four times as accurate as the previous record holder, a calcium-ion clock developed by a Chinese Academy of Sciences team in Wuhan, and also surpasses an...