International

* N.Korea accuses S.Korean ships of crossing contested border * S.Korea says N.Korea troops shot man, burned his body last week * N.Korea says shooting "should not have happened"  North Korea said on Sunday it is searching for the body a South Korean official killed by its troops, but warned that South Korean naval operations in the area threatened to raise tensions by intruding across a disputed sea border. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a rare apology on Friday for the fatal shooting of the South Korean fisheries official in North Korean waters, according to Seoul. South Korea's military has accused the North's soldiers of killing the man, dousing his body in fuel and setting it on fire near the sea border. After South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened a ministers' meeting to discuss North Korea on Sunday, the presidential Blue House reiterated calls for Pyongyang to allow a joint investigation into the killing. It urged the restoration of military communication hotlines that the North severed earlier this year as relations soured. North Korean state news agency KCNA called the killing an "awful case which should not have happened" but accused South Korean naval operations near in the area of crossing into North Korean waters. "We urge the south side to immediately halt the intrusion across the military demarcation line in the west sea that may lead to escalation of tensions," KCNA said. A spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of National Defense had no immediate comment on the North's accusations. The South has been searching only in waters south of the Northern Limit Line, a contested sea demarcation between the two Koreas that dates to the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unnamed coast guard official. South Korea has mobilised 39 vessels, including 16 naval ships, and six aircraft for the search, which continued on Sunday despite the North Korean complaints, Yonhap said. North Korea was beginning its own search operation to recover the body, KCNA said. "We also took more necessary security measures in order to make sure that no more incident spoiling the relations of trust and respect between the north and the south would happen in any case," the report added, without elaborating. 

* N.Korea sent letter to convey Kim's apology -Blue House * S.Korea said missing man was shot and set on fire * Moon, Kim exchanged letters early this month -official * Moon faces public backlash, political fallout over shooting * Shooting was a day before Moon's peace gesture toward N.Korea North Korea expressed regret on Friday for having shot dead a South Korean man to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the South's national security adviser said, amid growing public and political outrage. The apology figured in a letter from the North's United Front Department, which handles cross-border ties, to South Korean President Moon Jae-in a day after Seoul officials said the North's soldiers killed the man, doused his body in oil and set it on fire. The rare message came as Moon faced intense political fallout over the incident, which coincided with a renewed push for steps to engage Pyongyang this week. "Chairman Kim Jong Un asked to convey his feeling that he is greatly sorry that an unexpected and unsavory incident occurred in our waters which hugely disappointed President Moon Jae-in and compatriots in the South," said Suh Hoon, the adviser. "The letter was a quick response to our requests and included the explanations for the incident, an apology and promises to prevent recurrence," he told a briefing. North Korea's leadership hopes the incident does not undermine recent efforts to foster trust between the neighbours, Suh cited the North's letter as saying, adding that Moon and Kim had exchanged letters this month in hopes of better ties. Moon praised Kim's "strong resolve to save lives" and steer virus control and flood recovery work in his Sept. 8 letter, his office said. In a Sept. 12 reply, Kim said Moon would win the COVID-19 battle and "good things" would happen after that. The leaders have held three summits and signed pacts to ease tension since 2018, but relations have soured since the collapse last year of a second summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, at which Moon had offered to be a mediator. The shooting of the man, a fisheries official who had gone missing this week, shocked many South Koreans, sparking a fierce backlash from the opposition and the public, prompting an unusually stringent response from Moon, who called it "unpardonable". Critics accused Moon of failing to save a citizen's life while being still soft on North Korea, saying the military did not attempt to save him despite spotting him six hours before the shots were fired. "Now is not the time to speak of ending the war," said opposition lawmaker Thae Young-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who called for a formal investigation by the government. The North Korean soldiers fired more than 10 shots at the man after he tried to flee without revealing his identity, Suh cited the North's letter as saying. But the letter said they burned a floatation device he was using, according to their anti-virus manuals, and not his body. "The troops could not locate the unidentified trespasser during a search after firing the shots, and burned the device under national emergency disease prevention measures," Suh added. In 2008, North Korean troops shot and killed a South Korean tourist who had strolled into an off-limits area while staying at a resort complex in the North, bringing a halt to joint tourism projects. Moon has pledged to resume the tours. News of the shooting came a day after Moon proposed a new regional initiative including North Korea to the U.N. General Assembly to tackle crises such as the coronavirus and strained ties with Pyongyang. Moon also reiterated that the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, should be formally terminated. On Friday, in a speech for Armed Forces Day, Moon did not mention the incident, or North Korea, but pledged to safeguard the public. 

Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said he had “fruitful” talks in Iran yesterday regarding “peace, economic development and human rights”.  The Swiss embassy in Tehran handles US interests in Iran, since ties were cut in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.  Switzerland has also played a major role in prisoner swaps between Tehran and Washington.  Iran-US tensions have escalated since 2018, after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear agreement and reimposed tough sanctions on the Islamic republic.  Cassis held talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohamed Javad Zarif before later meeting with President Hassan Rouhani. The Swiss top diplomat held the meetings as part of a three-day visit to Tehran celebrating a century of diplomatic relations between the two countries. “Peace, economic development and human rights – fruitful discussion with my counterpart,” Cassis wrote on Twitter after the talks.  Zarif called the talks “excellent” on Twitter and said “while appreciating Swiss efforts to mitigate US sabotage, a return to normal trade is global priority”. Rouhani reiterated that Iran was “open” to the United States to reverse its “mistakes”, repair “its illegal actions” and rejoin the nuclear agreement, said state news agency IRNA.  According to the US Department of State, Secretary Mike Pompeo had a phone call with Cassis before his Tehran visit, raising speculation the visit involved talks on Tehran-Washington relations. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denied the “speculations” on Monday, saying it was a planned visit delayed over the novel coronavirus outbreak and “not related to Iran and the US”.  “I’m glad we could establish together the Swiss Humanitarian Channel for the transfer of food and medical supplies to the people of Iran,” Cassis said on Twitter.  The Swiss channel is a payment mechanism aimed at enabling food, medicine and other humanitarian aid to be sent to Iran without breaking US sanctions.   Humanitarian goods are theoretically exempt from sanctions, but international purchases of such supplies are almost impossible since banks are wary of falling foul of the US over doing business with Iran. The channel – known by its acronym SHTA – was established and conducted its first transaction earlier this year.

South Korea hunkered down as Typhoon Haishen rolled northwards along the country’s east coast yesterday, a day after the powerful storm battered Japan’s southern islands, where four people are missing following a landslide. The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 112km per hour, temporarily cut power to more than 75,000 households and displaced some 3,100 people in South Korea after making landfall on the southeastern tip of the peninsula, according to the safety ministry. At least two people died, two more were missing and five others were injured, mostly in southern regions hit by flooding, the ministry said. The wild weather uprooted trees and caused landslides near apartment buildings on Geoje Island, off the southeastern tip of the peninsula, local media footage and photos showed. Two nuclear reactors in the city of Gyeongju, around 375km southeast of Seoul were shut down, according to Yonhap news agency. More than 340 flights and 114 shipping routes around the country were cancelled, while nearly 6,000 schools switched to remote learning or cut class hours. Entry to national parks and some national train services have been suspended, the ministry said. But the weather agency eased safety warnings later in the day as the typhoon moved off towards North Korea. President Moon Jae-in expressed concerns about potential further damage to some regions already pummelled by earlier typhoons, requesting a quick on-site survey so that hard-hit areas could be designated as special disaster zones and receive extra aid. In Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported that four people were missing and more than 50 people were injured in the wake of the typhoon. The four went missing in a village in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki after a mudslide hit the office of a construction firm, Kyodo said. Among the injured were a woman who fell down a flight of stairs in the dark and four people who sustained cuts after the glass windows of an evacuation centre were blown in. Kyushu Electric said about 290,000 houses were still without power as of 1pm. Almost 2mn people had been ordered to evacuate the region, which was still recovering from heavy rains and flooding in July that killed 83 people. Typhoon Haishen comes just days after Typhoon Maysak smashed into the Korean peninsula, leaving at least two dead and thousands without power. North Korea, which bore the brunt of both Maysak and Typhoon Bavi a week earlier, was on high alert as the storm approached its southeastern province of Kangwon on Monday afternoon. Live footage on state TV, a rarity that has now been broadcast for three weeks, showed shaking trees, high waves and flooded bridges and roads in Tongchon and Wonsan, both in Kangwon, bordering the South. All Tongchon residents and many others in the province had been evacuated, the broadcaster said. “Flood warnings were issued for rivers, streams and reservoirs as many of them have not yet been able to shed the water swollen by the earlier typhoon,” the official KCTV said, adding some northern rivers could be hit by up to 200 millimetres in rainfall until Tuesday. North Korea’s agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to severe weather, and this summer’s storms and floods have raised concerns over the country’s tenuous food situation. The country’s leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday toured coastal areas hit by Maysak, and ordered party members to join the recovery effort.

South Korea hunkered down as Typhoon Haishen rolled northwards along the country’s east coast yesterday, a day after the powerful storm battered Japan’s southern islands, where four people are missing following a landslide.  The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 112km per hour, temporarily cut power to more than 75,000 households and displaced some 3,100 people in South Korea after making landfall on the southeastern tip of the peninsula, according to the safety ministry. At least two people died, two more were missing and five others were injured, mostly in southern regions hit by flooding, the ministry said. The wild weather uprooted trees and caused landslides near apartment buildings on Geoje Island, off the southeastern tip of the peninsula, local media footage and photos showed. Two nuclear reactors in the city of Gyeongju, around 375km southeast of Seoul were shut down, according to Yonhap news agency. More than 340 flights and 114 shipping routes around the country were cancelled, while nearly 6,000 schools switched to remote learning or cut class hours. Entry to national parks and some national train services have been suspended, the ministry said. But the weather agency eased safety warnings later in the day as the typhoon moved off towards North Korea. President Moon Jae-in expressed concerns about potential further damage to some regions already pummelled by earlier typhoons, requesting a quick on-site survey so that hard-hit areas could be designated as special disaster zones and receive extra aid. In Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported that four people were missing and more than 50 people were injured in the wake of the typhoon. The four went missing in a village in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki after a mudslide hit the office of a construction firm, Kyodo said. Among the injured were a woman who fell down a flight of stairs in the dark and four people who sustained cuts after the glass windows of an evacuation centre were blown in. Kyushu Electric said about 290,000 houses were still without power as of 1pm. Almost 2mn people had been ordered to evacuate the region, which was still recovering from heavy rains and flooding in July that killed 83 people. Typhoon Haishen comes just days after Typhoon Maysak smashed into the Korean peninsula, leaving at least two dead and thousands without power. North Korea, which bore the brunt of both Maysak and Typhoon Bavi a week earlier, was on high alert as the storm approached its southeastern province of Kangwon on Monday afternoon. Live footage on state TV, a rarity that has now been broadcast for three weeks, showed shaking trees, high waves and flooded bridges and roads in Tongchon and Wonsan, both in Kangwon, bordering the South. All Tongchon residents and many others in the province had been evacuated, the broadcaster said. “Flood warnings were issued for rivers, streams and reservoirs as many of them have not yet been able to shed the water swollen by the earlier typhoon,” the official KCTV said, adding some northern rivers could be hit by up to 200 millimetres in rainfall until Tuesday. North Korea’s agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to severe weather, and this summer’s storms and floods have raised concerns over the country’s tenuous food situation. The country’s leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday toured coastal areas hit by Maysak, and ordered party members to join the recovery effort.

South Korea’s parliament was shut down yesterday and a group of lawmakers were in self-quarantine as the country recorded more than 400 new coronavirus infections.  The country endured one of the worst early outbreaks of Covid-19 outside mainland China before bringing it broadly under control with extensive tracing and testing, but is now battling several clusters mostly linked to Protestant churches.  Yesterday’s 441 new cases were mostly in the greater Seoul area and are the latest in a series of near-six-month highs after several weeks with numbers generally in the 30s and 40s.  The National Assembly was closed after a photojournalist who covered a ruling party meeting on Wednesday was later tested and confirmed to have contracted Covid-19.  The result prompted more than 10 top Democrats — including the party chairman and its parliamentary leader — to undergo tests of their own and go into self-isolation.  Officials on Wednesday held late-night talks on how to handle the situation and ordered all parliamentary activities suspended from Thursday, with both the assembly and a building housing lawmakers’ offices closed.  Opposition parties also cancelled scheduled meetings. The parliamentary shutdown is the second over coronavirus concerns, after a February closure when an attendee at an event tested positive.  Yesterday was the 14th consecutive day of triple-digit increases in case numbers, bringing the country’s total to 18,706.  The largest current cluster is centred on the Sarang Jeil church in Seoul, headed by a controversial right-wing pastor who is a leading figure in protests against President Moon Jae-in.  Pastor Jun Kwang-hun spoke at an anti-government rally held earlier this month in defiance of calls to avoid large gatherings, and has since tested positive.  Authorities have filed police complaints against him, accusing him of deliberately hindering efforts to contain the epidemic. All religious services were banned earlier this month in the greater Seoul area to try to prevent the virus spreading and Moon met with more than 15 Protestant church leaders yesterday, asking for their co-operation.   “Worship or prayer may give you peace of mind, but it cannot protect you from the virus,” he told them, according to his office.   “All religious organisations have to accept that prevention measures are not a matter of faith, but a matter of science and medicine.”  But Kim Tae-young, who heads the United Christian Churches of Korea, one of the country’s biggest Protestant groupings, said that for believers, religious freedom was a value “that cannot be surrendered even if it costs one’s life”.  South Korea is the world’s 12th largest economy and a capitalist democracy, but during its decades of military rule its widespread evangelical Christian churches framed North Korea and Pyongyang sympathisers as evil.  Such churches still have enduring political influence in the South, and many are critical of Moon’s left-leaning government.

A government healthcare reform plan in South Korea has sparked opposition from doctors, prompting strikes, threats of legal action and public debate even as it grapples with one of its biggest outbreaks of novel coronavirus infections. Thousands of teaching hospital doctors, trainee doctors and private-practice physicians began a three-day strike yesterday despite government orders that they stay at work at key locations in the greater Seoul area. At the heart of the dispute are government proposals to boost the number of medical students over several years, establish public medical schools, allow government insurance to cover more traditional medicine and introduce more telemedicine options. The government says the measures are necessary, in part to help prepare for future public health crises by boosting the number of doctors in unpopular but important fields of medicine, as well as enticing more of them to rural areas. The Korean Medical Association (KMA), which has helped organise the strikes, argues that the concentration of physicians in urban areas is due to poor medical infrastructure and work conditions in rural areas, and the plan to train more “public doctors” instead of tackling the systemic problems is inexplicable. Reuters spoke to four medical students at the Seoul National University (SNU) College of Medicine who are supporting the show of opposition by withdrawing from their next semester, along with some 10,000 of their fellow students. At SNU, the most popular fields include dermatology, plastic surgery, radiology, rehabilitation medicine and orthopaedics, students say. Kim Jee-hyun, the 26-year-old president of the SNU College of Medicine student council, said he was studying to become a cardiothoracic surgeon — one of the less popular fields — because of the sense of responsibility and achievement he could gain through helping people. Instead of simply boosting numbers or creating new medical programmes, the government should improve the system to make the important fields more desirable, Kim said. “The reason many are avoiding the fields is because of a poor work and training environment and intensive workload,” he said.  “So rather than just increasing the number of personnel, it is more important for the government to build infrastructure so more can apply to these fields and work with a sense of duty.” Youk Kang-min, 25, said government plans to send more trainee doctors to rural areas won’t change the situation in the long run, because Seoul and its surrounding areas would always be more attractive.  Only in Seoul will medical students and doctors be able to study or operate on the most severe cases, he said. “Patients with severe illness don’t seek treatment outside Seoul,” he said. But the policy proposal Youk most disagrees with is a government plan to provide more insurance subsidies for traditional medicine. The government plans to spend 5bn won on a trial project to subsidise such medicine, but the KMA said there was “no scientific evidence regarding their efficacy and safety” and that subsidising it would tarnish South Korea’s reputation.  Hong Min-jung, 21, deputy president of the student council, said students had no choice but to speak out, despite the coronavirus.  “If we keep quiet now and problems occur 10 years later, it will be irrevocable,” she said, noting that students and trainee doctors had volunteered to continue to help with the coronavirus response during their strike. Hong said a medical school admissions increase would only be seen in a decade, but the government should be establishing better infrastructure for new medical staff now, attracting more doctors to key fields like epidemiology. Ju Ui-jin, 21, said he strongly opposed the government plan to build new public medical schools because there has been no effort to reform the teaching curriculum.  “Perhaps, if the curriculum was ready, they could apply it to the existing medical schools and not waste an exorbitant amount of taxes building new ones,” he said. But the bottom line for Ju is that he fears the policies could endanger his dream of saving lives and helping improve people’s quality of life. “I’m concerned that the policies the government is pushing for might become a roadblock for me to serve as such a doctor in 10 or 20 years.”

South Korea yesterday ordered most schools in Seoul and surrounding areas to close and move classes back online, the latest in a series of precautionary measures aimed at heading off a resurgence in coronavirus cases.  The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 280 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Monday, bringing the country’s total to 17,945 with 310 deaths. That represents a drop in daily new infections from 397 reported as of midnight Saturday, the highest daily tally since early March.  With most of the new cases centred in the densely populated capital area, however, health authorities say the country is on the brink of a nation-wide outbreak and have called on people to stay home and limit travel. “It would be too hasty to say that the curve has flattened,” KCDC deputy director Kwon Jun-wook told a briefing. “There is still a high risk that cases could continue to rise.” The past week has seen three times as many serious cases compared to past spikes, he said, raising concerns that the death toll could rise. All students, except for high school seniors, in the cities of Seoul and Incheon and the province of Geonggi will take classes online until Sept 11, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The beginning of the spring semester had been postponed several times since March, but as daily coronavirus cases dropped sharply since a February peak, most of South Korea’s schools reopened in stages between May 20 and June 1. Over the past two weeks, at least 150 students and 43 school staff have tested positive in the greater Seoul area, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae told a briefing.  Seoul on Monday ordered masks to be worn in both indoor and outdoor public places for the first time, and has ordered places like churches, nightclubs, karaoke bars and other high-risk venues closed.  Health Minister Park Neung-hoo yesterday pleaded with thousands of doctors who have been staging walkouts to return to work. “We sincerely ask the medical staff to promptly return to the medical ground, where the patients are awaiting,” he said at a meeting.  The doctors are protesting several government proposals, including a plan to increase the number of medical students by 4,000 over the next 10 years. The government says the plan is necessary to be better prepared for public health crises like the coronavirus pandemic, but doctors’ associations have said it would unnecessarily flood the market and do little to fix more systemic problems.

South Korea reported its highest daily number of coronavirus cases since early March yesterday as authorities warned the country was “on the brink of a nationwide pandemic” and tightened social distancing rules.  The majority of the 397 new infections were in the greater Seoul region — home to half the country’s 51mn people, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.  Authorities warned of tougher social distancing rules, which may include closing schools and businesses, if the number of new cases continues to grow at a fast pace after South Korea had largely brought its earlier outbreak under control.  “The situation is very grave and serious as we are on the brink of a nationwide pandemic,” KCDC chief Jung Eun-kyeong told reporters.  “Please stay home if possible,” Jung said, adding the number of infections has not peaked yet.  Virus curbs were tightened in the Seoul region last week and were further expanded to the rest of the country on Sunday. The measures include restrictions on large gatherings such as religious services and the closing of nightclubs, karaoke bars and cyber cafes.  All beaches have also been closed.  The Seoul Metropolitan Government said yesterday that face masks would be mandatory for indoor and crowded outdoor areas in the capital from midnight.  South Korea has reported a total of 17,399 coronavirus infections with 309 deaths. The country endured one of the worst early outbreaks outside mainland China but brought it broadly under control with extensive tracing and testing while never imposing the kind of lockdowns ordered in much of Europe and other parts of the world.  South Korea has been seen as a model on how to combat the pandemic with the public largely following safety health measures such as face masks.  It even started allowing limited numbers of spectators at sports events in July – which was reversed for the greater Seoul area last week and nationwide from Sunday. South Korea ramped up coronavirus restrictions yesterday to try to contain a growing outbreak, as many countries around the world battled worrying surges in infections.  The pandemic has killed more than 800,000 people globally, and continues to unleash destruction with areas such as Western Europe detecting spikes in infections not seen for many months.   Infections have soared past 23mn globally, and some countries are still facing their first waves – such as India, which crossed three million cases on Sunday.  South Korea, which had largely brought its outbreak under control, tightened curbs to try to contain a new, growing cluster of cases. “The situation is very grave and serious as we are on the brink of a nationwide pandemic,” warned Jung Eun-kyeong, chief of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

South Korea said yesterday it held talks with China’s top diplomat over trade, denuclearisation and the coronavirus response, in the first visit by a high-level Beijing official since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted late last year. Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party Politburo, met with South Korea’s new national security adviser, Suh Hoon, in the southern port city of Busan, the South Korean government said. The two sides discussed topics such as accelerating free-trade agreement negotiations, expanding cultural exchanges as well as the election of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General, South Korea’s presidential Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a statement. Kang added that Yang addressed China’s position regarding the current US-China relations and Suh in return emphasised the importance of co-operative US-China relations for peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia. The talks come after the Covid-19 pandemic had undercut bilateral exchanges and stalled denuclearisation negotiations involving North Korea. The two countries resumed exchanges last month when Seoul sent a high-level diplomat for a bilateral economic meeting. Suh, who took up the top security job last month after serving as intelligence chief, also discussed a potential trip to Seoul by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Kang said the two countries agreed to make Xi’s visit to South Korea happen promptly once the Covid-19 situation stabilised, adding that China called South Korea a priority for President Xi to visit.

South Korea reported yesterday its highest daily rise in novel coronavirus cases since early March as outbreaks from churches around the capital spread, prompting a warning of a nationwide wave of infections.  The 297 new infections mark the sixth straight day of triple-digit increases in a country that has managed to blunt several previous outbreaks. The national tally rose to 16,058 infections with 306 deaths, according to data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Nearly 90% of the new cases appeared in the capital, Seoul, and surrounding areas, raising concern of the rapid spread of the virus in a metropolitan area of more than 25mn people.  “We’re in a desperately dangerous crisis where infections are spreading in the Seoul metropolitan area and threatening to lead to a massive nationwide transmission,” Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told a briefing. “The government cannot contain the current spread only with tracing and isolation ... please stay home unless you must go out.” At least 166 of the new infections are linked to the Sarang Jeil Church, taking the number of cases from it to 623.  Authorities have mobilised some 8,500 police to trace another 600 members of the church’s congregation who should be in isolation, and they are trying to test all of its 4,000 members.  Some members of the church, which is run by a radical conservative preacher, are reluctant to come forward and get tested, or to self-isolate, officials have said. Many of them also attended anti-government rallies in Seoul on the weekend where thousands of people gathered from across the country, raising fears infections were seeded there. KCDC deputy director Kwon Jun-wook said 10 people at the protests with no ties to the church had been infected and urged everyone who attended to get tested. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun vowed to take legal action against the church for any attempt to disrupt tracing and testing efforts by failing to provide accurate membership lists.  At least three other smaller clusters have been traced to churches in Seoul and one to a church in the city of Yongin. More than 50 cases have been linked to a coffee outlet in the city of Paju. Nightclubs, karaoke bars, buffets and cyber cafes have been ordered to close in Seoul and surrounding regions.  In-person church services have also been banned while indoor and outdoor gatherings have been restricted to no more than 50 and 100 people, respectively.  Authorities said if the number of infections rises or continues at the current rate of spread, they will likely impose the highest level of social distancing rules, under which schools are closed, businesses advised to work from home and gatherings limited to 10 people. Kwon said the country would be at a “crossroads” for the next few days and the government might have to impose tougher curbs if there was a spike in cases with no obvious origin.

South Korea tightened social distancing rules yesterday as it reported a three-digit increase in novel coronavirus cases for a fifth day and authorities scrambled to trace hundreds of members of a church congregation.  The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 246 new cases as of midnight on Monday, bringing its total infections to 15,761, with 306 deaths. South Korea has been one of the world’s coronavirus mitigation success stories but it has suffered repeated spikes in cases. Two days after re-imposing stricter social distancing in Seoul, the government expanded the curbs to include the port city of Incheon, while ordering the closure of nightclubs, karaoke bars, buffets and cyber cafes. It also banned all in-person church services and indoor gatherings of 50 people or more and outdoor ones of 100 or more. “If we can’t get the virus under control now we’ll have to notch up social distancing to higher levels, and that would have a big impact on our economy and people’s livelihoods,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a news conference after an emergency meeting.  At least 457 infections have been linked to the Sarang Jeil Church, 10 of whom were confirmed to have attended anti-government demonstrations on the past two weekends in Seoul, Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told a briefing. Authorities were trying to trace some 500 other members of the congregation to tell them to self-quarantine and get tested as they posed the highest transmission risk, Kim said.  This was the second time a church was at the centre of a serious outbreak in South Korea. In February, authorities struggled with an outbreak that emerged in a secretive Christian sect in the city of Daegu, which turned into the country’s deadliest cluster. The KCDC has warned that the new cases posed a greater crisis than the earlier church outbreak and could swamp the health system. “If we fail to contain the spread in the Seoul metropolitan area of 25mn population this week, it can not only halt the daily routine of everyone but also put the safety of the elderly and the weak at risk,” KCDC deputy director Kwon Jun-wook told a briefing. Another cluster has been traced to a Starbucks Corp outlet outside Seoul with seven new cases taking the tally there to 49. Two new cases were reported in the military, bringing the total number of infections on bases to 88, the defence ministry said. Some 461 military personnel were in quarantine, and all troops have been confined to base, with leave cancelled and visits halted. Authorities have set out social distancing rules in three stages, with stage 1 the least strict and stage 3 the toughest, when schools are shut, businesses are advised to work from home and gatherings limited to 10 people. Seoul is at stage 2 but Kwon said the effort was at a “grave crossroads” and stage 3 might be inevitable. “High-risk gatherings in the greater Seoul area could spread nationwide,” he said.

A spike in new coronavirus cases in South Korea has prompted authorities to reimpose tighter social distancing curbs in Seoul, but that didn’t stop thousands of demonstrators from protesting against President Moon Jae-in’s policies. For the second day in a row in over four months, the country has reported a sudden jump in locally transmitted cases, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. The KCDC reported 166 new cases as of Friday, of which 155 were domestic, prompting authorities to re-introduce anti-virus measures as they worried about the spectre of a fresh wave of the disease. The tougher rules come as thousands staged demonstrations in downtown Seoul, despite a ban on rallies in the capital city, with some conservative groups protesting against President Moon’s recent real estate market policy and a series of sex scandals involving leaders of his administration. LIBERATION DAY  The protests, with some carrying placards reading “Expel Moon Jae-in”, coincided with the National Liberation Day from Japan’s 1910-1945 colonisation of the peninsula. South Korea used invasive tracing and widespread testing to contain its first outbreak of the novel coronavirus, but Asia’s fourth-largest economy has experienced persistent outbreaks in recent weeks, mostly in the densely populated capital area. The new cases took South Korea’s tally to 15,039 with 305 deaths by Friday midnight. The recent spike in infections are emerging in multiple clusters, including church gatherings and restaurants. Over 100 infections were linked to members of a Seoul church alone and those who came into contact with the churchgoers. The authorities are testing 4,000 members of the church, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a briefing.The authorities decided to upgrade the social distancing guidelines to second stage for Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a meeting yesterday. “We are facing a desperately dangerous situation that could lead to another wave of epidemics if we cannot overcome this crisis,” said Chung. Health authorities had categorised social distancing rules in three stages — stage 1 being the least intense and stage 3 the toughest, where schools and businesses are urged to close. Second stage limits indoor gatherings to below 50 and outdoor gatherings to below 100, and bans spectators in sports matches, disappointing fans who had just gone back into baseball and soccer stadiums after a five-week delay to the season.

South Korea reported 166 new coronavirus cases as of Friday, of which 155 were domestic, prompting the reimposition of tighter social distancing curbs in Seoul area as authorities worried about the spectre of a fresh wave of the disease. South Korea used invasive tracing and widespread testing to contain its first outbreak of the novel coronavirus, but Asia’s fourth-largest economy has experienced persistent outbreaks in recent weeks, mostly in the densely populated capital area. For the second day in a row in over four months, the country has reported a sudden jump in locally transmitted cases, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. The new cases took South Korea’s tally to 15,039 with 305 deaths by Friday midnight. The recent spike in infections are emerging in multiple church gatherings. The authorities decided to upgrade the social distancing guidelines to second stage for Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a meeting on Saturday. "We are facing a desperately dangerous situation that could lead to another wave of epidemics if we cannot overcome this crisis," said Chung. Health authorities had categorized social distancing rules in three stages - stage 1 being the least intense and stage 3 the toughest, where schools and businesses are urged to close. Second stage limits indoor gatherings to below 50 and outdoor gatherings to below 100, and bans spectators in sports matches, disappointing fans who had just gone back into baseball and soccer stadiums after a five-week delay to the season.

More than a quarter of South Korea’s medical clinics closed yesterday for a one-day strike in protest at government plans to train new doctors, as the country reported the highest number of domestic coronavirus cases since the end of March.  The government plans to increase the number of medical students by 4,000 over the next 10 years, which it says is necessary to be better prepared for public health crises like the coronavirus pandemic. But the Korean Medical Association (KMA), which helped organise the protest, says the country already has more than enough physicians. Some 28,000 doctors and trainees protested nationwide on Friday, 20,000 of them in the capital Seoul, the KMA said. At least 10,584 of the country’s 33,836 medical facilities, including private clinics, staged a walkout, a health ministry official told Reuters. KMA deemed the government’s unilateral decision “backstabbing” to physicians dealing with Covid-19. “Faced with the Covid-19 in February, we – the doctors – have devoted ourselves with the single sense of duty to protect lives and the safety of the citizens,” KMA President Choi Dae-zip said at a rally outside the parliament.  “The number of physicians per 1,000 people has increased by 3.1% annually for the past 10 years, which is 6 times greater than the OECD average,” KMA said in a statement. The strike comes as South Korea yesterday reported 103 new coronavirus cases, of which 85 were domestic, the most locally transmitted cases since March 31, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. The new cases bring the country’s tally to 14,873 infections, with 305 deaths, as of midnight Thursday. The latest infections were clustered around churches, where many engaged in high-risk activities such as choir, sharing meals and not properly wearing masks, KCDC chief Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing.  Authorities said they were reviewing whether to resume tighter social distancing measures, which could include restricting gatherings to 50 people indoors and 100 outside. South Korea used invasive tracing and widespread testing to contain its first outbreak of the novel coronavirus, but Asia’s fourth-largest economy has experienced persistent outbreaks in recent weeks, mostly in the densely populated capital area.

Dozens of cows were stranded on rooftops by floods in South Korea, leaving rescue crews facing a problem the size of several bovines. The cattle floated upwards as floodwaters mounted at the weekend in Gurye, a farming town in the country’s south, and scrambled to safety on the roofs of several houses and other buildings. When the deluge receded, the animals found themselves stranded high and somewhat damp, and on the horns of a dilemma with no way to get down. Pictures showed as many as nine of them standing on one battered rooftop, looking mildly non-plussed. “The cows were swimming as the water level surged and made their way up onto the roof and stayed there even after the floodwaters subsided,” one resident told television channel JTBC. Rescuers brought in a crane and lowered the cattle one by one from the rooftops, hoisting them onto a sling. But while the cows eventually did come home, many were showing symptoms of pneumonia, according to a veterinarian volunteering with the relief efforts. South Korea has been inundated by weeks of heavy rain that have caused widespread flooding, recording 31 deaths since the start of the month.

The Red Cross has been training more than 43,000 volunteers to North Korea, including to the locked-down city of Kaesong, to help fight the novel coronavirus and provide flood assistance, an official with the relief organisation said on Monday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency last month and imposed a lockdown on Kaesong, near the inter-Korean border, after a man who defected to the South in 2017 returned to the city showing coronavirus symptoms. Heavy rain and flooding in recent days have also sparked concern about crop damage and food supplies in the isolated country. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has built an extensive network of North Korean volunteers to help residents in all nine provinces to avoid the virus and reduce damage from floods and landslides, spokesman Antony Balmain said. ‘Hundreds of homes have been damaged and large areas of rice fields have been submerged due to heavy rain and some flash flooding,’ Balmain said. In Kaesong, which was grappling with both the lockdown and floods, IFRC volunteers were providing 2,100 families most at risk with relief items including tarpaulins, kitchen sets, quilts, hygiene kits and water containers. ‘Families are being supported with psychological first aid and awareness activities to maintain hygiene and stay healthy,’ Balmain added. Kim has also sent special aid packages to Kaesong, and state media reported on Monday that grain supplies from Pyongyang had arrived in another flood-ravaged county he visited last week. North Korea has not confirmed any coronavirus cases but has enforced strict quarantine measures. South Korea has said there is no evidence the returning defector was infected. The IFRC last month provided North Korea with kits designed to run up to 10,000 coronavirus tests, alongside infrared thermometers, surgical masks, gowns and protective gears. In South Korea, at least 32 people have died after 49 days of monsoon rains, the country's longest since 1987, caused flooding, landslides and evacuations.

At least 26 people have died after 46 days of heavy rains in South Korea, with the country's longest monsoon in seven years causing more flooding, landslides and evacuations on Saturday. Nearly 5,000 people had been evacuated as of 4:30 p.m. local time on Saturday (0730 GMT), according to Ministry of the Interior and Safety data, as rains battered the southern part of the Korean peninsula. Ten people are missing. About 100 metres (109.36 yards) of levee collapsed at the Seomjin River in the southern edge of the peninsula on Saturday and flooded the area, an official at the South Jeolla province said, with about 1,900 people evacuated in the province including about 500 from around the river. The country's forestry agency has raised landslide warnings to its highest level in every region except the holiday island of Jeju. Five homes were buried in a landslide on Friday from a mountain behind a village in Gokseong, South Jeolla province, killing five people. Three people have been rescued. Twelve local flights were cancelled at the regional Gwangju airport near the southwestern tip of the peninsula after the runway was flooded, according to Yonhap news agency. The city of Seoul warned people to stay away from basements, valleys and rivers as further torrential rains were expected on Saturday night. South Korea's longest monsoon on record was 49 days in 2013. Current weather forecasts predict that this year's monsoon may last longer. In neighbouring North Korea, state media Korean Central Broadcasting also warned of additional heavy rains in areas already hit by floods, according to Yonhap. Following leader Kim Jong Un's flood relief inspection reported on Friday, KCNA said on Saturday that Pak Pong Ju, vice-chairman of the state's highest decision-making commission, inspected damage to submerged fields and crops in southwest regions of the country.

The elderly leader of a secretive South Korean sect at the centre of the country's early coronavirus outbreak was arrested on Saturday for allegedly hindering the government's effort to contain the epidemic. Lee Man-hee, 88, is the head of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which is often condemned as a cult. People linked to the church accounted for more than half of the South's 4,000-plus coronavirus cases in February when the country was enduring one of the worst early outbreaks in the world. As of July 19, those connected with the church made up 38 percent of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the country, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lee is accused of giving inaccurate records of church gatherings and false lists of its members to health authorities. He was taken into custody early Saturday "after the Suwon District Court granted an arrest warrant at 1:20 am", a court spokesperson told AFP. The judge said there "have been circumstances indicating systematic attempts to destroy evidence" by Lee, Yonhap news agency reported. Shincheonji has claimed its members face social stigma and discrimination if their beliefs become publicly known, dissuading some from responding to official inquiries. Lee is also accused of embezzling 5.6 billion won ($4.69 million) from church funds and holding religious events at public facilities without approval. He apologised back in March for the spread of the disease. The South has since been returning largely to normal, appearing to have brought the outbreak under control with an extensive "trace, test and treat" programme. Officials in the east Asian nation of 52 million announced 31 new cases Saturday, taking the total to 14,336.

North Korea introduced tougher curbs against the coronavirus on Tuesday, state media reported, after it locked down the town Kaesong, on the border with the South, to tackle what could be its first publicly confirmed infection. Strict quarantine measures and the screening of districts were in progress and test kits, protective clothing and medical equipment were being supplied, the North's KCNA state news agency said. The measures come after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency on Sunday after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the highly fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) to Kaesong this month with symptoms of Covid-19, KCNA reported. Reclusive North Korea had reported testing 1,211 people for the virus as of July 16 with all returning negative results, the World Health Organization said in a statement sent to Reuters. The report said 696 nationals were under quarantine. All those under quarantine were working at the Nampo seaport and Sinuiju-Dandong land border with China, Dr Edwin Salvador, WHO representative to North Korea, told Reuters by email, noting that the country has been quarantining labourers coming into contact with goods arriving into the country. "WHO continues to advocate to the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) to increase surveillance in the provinces bordering China, in view of the recent increase in cases in China," he added. The WHO regularly shares guidelines with MOPH, which has developed a national protocol under which all suspected cases are to be quarantined in hospitals. Temperature checks using infrared thermometers, hand washing facilities and sanitizers were in place in public places including shopping malls, restaurants and hotels, Salvador said. Primers and probes for machines capable of facilitating 1,000 tests had also arrived in North Korea, WHO said. There are 15 laboratories designated to test Covid-19 in the country. Impoverished North Korea has a limited healthcare system with hospitals that lack adequate electricity, medicine, and water. It has long depended on the WHO to procure drugs as sanctions against the country made imports difficult. In the past months, it received test kits and protective gear from the WHO and countries including Russia, but some of these were held up at the border because of the country's own restrictions. North Korea said this month it has started early clinical trial on a vaccine for the virus, but experts are sceptical. North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.