S. Korean ambassador to Ukraine returns home amid dispute over NK POW disclosure
South Korea's ambassador to Ukraine returned home Saturday after being recalled in protest of Kyiv's disclosure of the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) to Seoul, the foreign ministry said. Ambassador Park Ki-chang arrived two days after the foreign ministry announced the recall in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's disclosure of the transfer and Kyiv's subsequent denial that it had agreed with Seoul to keep the matter confidential. The two North Korean soldiers were captured in January 2025 while fighting for Russia in the Kursk region and arrived in South Korea in mid-September, according to officials here. Seoul has said a non-disclosure agreement was reached with Kyiv at Ukraine's request to protect the soldiers and their families, who remain in North Korea, and that Zelenskyy breached the agreement when he revealed the transfer during an address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York last month. Kyiv has said there was no such agreement. It is rare for the government to recall an ambassador as a form of protest, and the last time South Korea did so
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US expects S. Korea to 'uphold' alliance standards amid intelligence cooperation concerns: senior official
WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. official said Friday that Washington expects Seoul to "uphold" the standards of their decadeslong alliance, amid heightened concerns over apparent friction in the countries' intelligence cooperation. "We expect the ROK to uphold the standards of our decadeslong alliance, in particular concerning matters of intelligence and counterintelligence," the senior U.S. administration official told Yonhap News Agency in a written statement, referring to South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea. The statement was provided in response to an inquiry from Yonhap News Agency regarding the state of bilateral intelligence cooperation. The remarks follow growing speculation over bilateral friction after South Korea's National Intelligence Service acknowledged it was excluded from a June trilateral meeting, also involving Japan, on North Korean cyber threats. Local media reports indicated the agency was left out at Washington's request. South Korea and the United States have faced signs of friction in the intelligence field after Seoul Unification Minister Chung Dong-
N. Korea slams US human trafficking report as grave provocation
North Korea on Saturday slammed a U.S. government report on its human trafficking situation as a "grave politically-motivated provocation" revealing Washington's "hostile" policy toward Pyongyang. The U.S. State Department released the 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report on Thursday (local time), placing North Korea in the lowest Tier 3 group of countries for anti-human trafficking efforts, alongside China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. It was the 24th consecutive year Pyongyang was placed in the category. "Recently the U.S. Department of State committed another grave politically-motivated provocation of malignantly slandering the DPRK through the '2026 Trafficking in Persons Report' which is full of lies, fabrications, prejudice and hostility," a spokesperson for North Korea's foreign ministry said in an English statement carried by the country's Korean Central News Agency. "This clearly proved once again the U.S. vicious and malicious intention to politicize and weaponize human rights and use them as the primary lever for its hostile policy toward the DPRK." DPRK stands for North Korea's offici
Heartbroken mum pays tribute to 'wild child' daughter, 10, after fatal crash
Arliyah James, 10, and her stepmother Lisa died when their car plunged into a dam on Queensland's Fraser Coast in Australia
Why a Communist Party boss had a coffee shop date with Chinese content creators
The setting may have been casual but the choice was not when the Communist Party boss of a northeastern Chinese province sat down with digital content creators at a coffee shop on Wednesday. Jilin province party secretary Huang Qiang invited the influencers to the relaxed setting of the Songyuan Coffee Shop in Changchun to encourage them to “actively promote mainstream values and spread positive energy”. According to a local government statement, Huang and the participants also exchanged views...
Pedestrian injured and driver wanted after alleged hit-and-run near Brisbane
The man in his 50s was found with serious injuries after the driver of a ute fled the scene.
Pedestrian injured and driver wanted after alleged hit-and-run near Brisbane
The man in his 50s was found with serious injuries after the driver of a ute fled the scene.
Modi and Xi can’t bridge the India-China divide by themselves
Last month, President Xi Jinping travelled to New Delhi to attend the Brics summit – his first visit in seven years. On the summit’s sidelines, Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had an in-depth conversation that explored topics of shared interest between them, such as leveraging open-weight artificial intelligence (AI) for mutual benefit. Even so, such sanguine signals were soon drowned out by a spate of downbeat headlines. One recent story warned of the “asymmetric” relationship...
Teenager dies in head-on collision south-west of Sydney
Two cars collided in a head-on crash on a major arterial road connecting Wollongong and Sydney.
How much fibre do you really need? Here’s what an expert says
Social media diet trends come and go, but experts say this one might be worth keeping.
'I wish she was here to see it': Canberra young gun pays tribute to late mum after stunning Bathurst
Zach Bates has recorded the fastest Bathurst 1000 time of the Gen3 era.
The Age photos of the week, October 10, 2026
The week in photos from our award-winning staff photographers and regular contributors at The Age.
Lack of heat action plan leaves Hong Kong’s vulnerable residents at risk, experts warn
Environmentalists and academics have criticised the omission of a systemic heat-health action plan in Hong Kong’s first five-year plan and latest policy address, warning that relying on “common sense” is failing to protect vulnerable residents from rising temperatures. Their comments came as new research from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) found that extreme heat may have contributed to as many as 3,238 excess deaths in the city over the past decade. In response to the South China Morning...
