South Korea has fined Google and Meta more than $71 million collectively for gathering users' personal information without consent for tailored ads, regulators said Wednesday, the country's highest-ever data protection fines.

A woman who is believed to be related to two children whose remains were found in suitcases in New Zealand is in South Korea, Seoul police told AFP Monday.

South Korea and the United States began their largest joint military drills in years on Monday with a resumption of field training, officials said, as the allies seek to tighten readiness over North Korea's potential weapons tests.

A South Korean food manufacturer is currently in discussion with potential companies in Qatar and its Gulf Co-operation Council neighbours that have expressed interest in its automated vertical farming technology.

A week-long strike by truck drivers in South Korea has disrupted shipments to China of a key cleaning agent used by makers of semiconductor chips, the Korean International Trade Association (KITA) said on Tuesday.

North Korea's recent missile tests were "serious, unlawful" provocations, senior officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan said on Wednesday, urging Pyongyang to return to dialogue and accept offers of Covid-19 aid.

South Korea and the United States flew warplanes including stealth fighter jets over waters around the Korean peninsula Tuesday in a fresh show of force following recent missile tests by the North, Seoul said.

South Korea and the United States fired eight ballistic missiles on Monday in response to North Korean weapons tests the previous day, Seoul's military said.

Officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan met in Seoul on Friday for talks on North Korea amid signs the isolated country is preparing to conduct a nuclear test for the first time since 2017.

The de-facto leader of South Korea's sprawling Samsung group Lee Jae-yong was convicted Tuesday of illegally using the anaesthetic drug propofol, the latest legal travail to beset the multi-billionaire.

North Korea fired a missile towards the sea off its east coast on Tuesday, South Korea's military said, as Pyongyang called on the United States and South Korea to scrap their "double standards" on weapons programmes to restart talks.

North Korea is willing to consider another summit with South Korea if mutual respect between the neighbours can be assured, state news agency KCNA said on Saturday, citing Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North's leader Kim Jong Un.