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  A Brief Overview of the History and Culture of Korea (.pptx - download powerpoint file)    A Brief Overview of the History and Culture of Korea (.pdf - with speaker's note)

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About South Korea

South Korea is an extraordinary country filled with beautiful beaches, thriving cities, ancient temples, remarkable natural scenery and most importantly, friendly people. South Korea has come a long way since The Korean War ended in 1953. Almost all of South Korea was completely leveled during the war which is hard to imagine if you have seen Korea recently.

Summary of an Extraordinary Country

Korea’s dense urban centers, developed parks and recreation facilities, high tech infrastructure and ultra modern public transportation systems are just some of the things that have made Korea a recognized hotspot for international business and travel.  Seoul Olympic Park , located in the capital city of Seoul, preserves the spirit of the 1988 Summer Olympics and is open all day providing multipurpose areas for sports, leisure and a variety of cultural activities.

To this day, South Korea remains one of the world’s most ethnically homogenous countries. It is believed that the people of South Korea are direct descendants of several migratory Mongol tribes who ventured into the Korean Peninsula about a half million years ago. Today South Korea is home to approximately 49 million people making it one of the most densely populated countries in the world. South Korea currently maintains diplomatic relationships with over 170 different nations.

What is South Korea Famous For?

High speed trains, k-pop, broadband internet, hi-tech manufacturing, taekwondo.

South Korea is home to an endless number of world class attractions and annual festivals that foreigners and locals alike enjoy each year. There’s something for everyone in Korea and a person could easily spend years traveling around the country exploring all that it has to offer.

South Korea boasts one of the world’s largest international airports , the third largest subway system and the third fastest land train, the KTX, carrying people from one end of Korea to the other in less than 3 hours at speeds in excess of 360km/hour.

South Korea is one of the most law abiding countries in Asia, leaving foreigners to the country, men and women alike, feeling quite safe in rural and metropolitan areas . Koreans are interested in you but not aggressive in nature; however, one should always use caution when travelling alone in a foreign place.

Per capita, South Korea has the highest number of broadband internet users in the world; a token to its achievement as a high-tech economy. South Korea is also the world’s largest cargo ship builder which is part of the reason why Korea is now one of the world’s 12 biggest economies.

At times, Koreans may stop and stare at westerners, this isn’t meant to intimidate them, it’s simply because they find westerners intriguing and they’re interested in their appearance, culture and attitudes. It’s not unusual for Koreans to offer you food or drinks at a bar or restaurant in order to hear you speak and practice their English.

What is the climate of South Korea?

The climate in South Korea is temperate with 4 distinct seasons. There are heavy monsoon rains in the summer months June through September with temperatures exceeding 35°C. The winter months can see temperatures dropping to -14°C in the northern provinces.

TaeKwon-do is South Korea’s national Martial Art

The World TaeKwon Do Federation

Interesting facts about Korea

• Land Mass In Korea – South Korea occupies 98,477 sq kilometers of land mass.
• National Holidays In Korea – Korea celebrates 12 Korean national holidays . As an English teacher in Korea you have the benefit of enjoying these days off of work.
• Official Language In Korea – The official language of South Korea is Hangul. If you would like to learn more about their official language, or you’re interested in learning how to read, write and speak Hangul, there are various online courses to help.
• South Korea Government –South Korea is a republic nation with shared power between the president, legislature and the courts. In 2012, the Korean people elected the first ever female president – Park Geun Hye.
• South Korea Sports – South Korean people are very active and many sports that westerners are familiar with are common place. You will find Koreans practicing and playing baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, hiking, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, scuba diving, fishing, dance, mountain biking, bowling, table tennis and badminton…just to name a few. South Korea also has an active break-dancing and salsa culture.

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This Teaching Resource is an Introductory PDF Presentation (15 Slides) on South Korea. This Digital Resource can be great for Geography, Asian History and Social Studies Classes. Suitable Learners for this kind of lesson are students from 7th Grade to 12th Grade.

This Geography + Social Studies Presentation on South Korea (Country Study) aims to introduce learners to South Korea (its most important and basic facts, language, history, environment, economy and basic Korean vocabulary). No or little preparation is needed.

Within this Introductory Presentation on South Korea (PDF Country Study Teaching Resource) it is offered:

a first slide with greetings in Korean Language (안녕하세요; "annyeonghaseyo) with QR Codes and link to YouTube Video to learn how to pronounce it properly in Korean language

2 slides on South Koreae + its basic geography and borders (Google Maps Link directed to South Korea's geographical location included)

a "quick data on South Korea" slide (currency, population, kind of government etc)

2 slides on Korean Language (one as an introduction to Korean and Hangeul Writing System and a second one with basic Korean Language Vocabulary)

2 slides with Korea's History timeline (from the Sejong the Great to nowadays' Relationships between South Korea and North Korea)

1 Slide on Geographical facts (size, kind of territory and weather)

1 on South Korea Economy

1 on other cities in South Korea (little map of South Korea with cities such as Incheon, Busan, Daegu etc.)

1 slides on Korean Culture (Korean Cuisine +introduction to K-Pop and K-Drama)

1 last slide with Goodbye written in Korean (안녕히 가세요; annyeonghi gaseyo) with QR Code-Linked YouTube Video on how to pronounce it

This Social Studies + Geography Country Study on South Korea PDF Digital Teaching Resource (15 slides) can be great for learners from 7th grade to 12th grade to introduce South Korea and its Culture.

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• South Korea

Meetings And Presentations In South Korea

Meetings and presentations in South Korean companies serve primarily to pass on information. As a rule, no discussions are held that lead to concrete decisions.

Discussions

Each participant in a discussion will express themselves very cautiously and indirectly. This is because Gibun dictates that harmony and respect between the interlocutors are of prime importance. Instead of trying to convince others of their position, South Koreans will always be careful to avoid any confrontation. This often results in unclear statements, frequent changes of the topic or long silences in order to avoid potential disagreements.

Negotiations In South Korea

In most cases, therefore, discussions do not follow the agenda sent out earlier but take place in a circular manner. Individual topics are dropped repeatedly to be picked up again at a later time as the talks turn to another subject as soon as disagreements arise. The more you can reach an agreement in one area, the easier it will be to approach more difficult questions in another area.

Don’t expect a South Korean to spell it out in plain language. Instead, use your powers of deduction to put together the individual pieces of mosaic to form an overall picture. Make sure to always tune in to the subtext. And keep in mind that South Koreans will also interpret a lot of what you say and how you behave. Therefore, you should also express yourself very carefully.

Meeting participants

In strongly hierarchically organized South Korean companies it is of utmost importance to pay attention to the rank of the invited meeting participants. In principle, the higher the hierarchical levels of the participants, the more important the topic of the meeting.

The highest-ranking South Koreans will enter the meeting room first and sit in the middle of one side of the long conference table. To their left and right, the other employees will take their place in descending hierarchical order. The one with the least to say sits the furthest away from the leaders. Make sure that your delegation places itself according to the South Korean hierarchy levels.

The ranking officer usually appoints a meeting leader, who moderates the meeting and gives the participants the floor. It is therefore not necessarily the decision-maker who speaks, but often simply the person who speaks the best English.

In South Korean meetings, only people who are on the same hierarchical level interact with each other. No one will ever argue or comment on a superior’s opinion. If you want to know the personal points of view of individuals, the number of participants in a meeting must be kept as small as possible and at the same hierarchical level. Alternatively, you can have many one-on-one conversations.

Presentations

South Koreans like to be extensively informed. Therefore, depending on the topic of a presentation, a large number of facts and figures are welcome. In addition, South Koreans use many images, film sequences and other visual elements.

In a manner similar to their communication style, South Koreans can process a lot of scattered information and gradually assemble it into an overall picture—which can lead to extremely overloaded and unstructured presentation slides that are also shown at a comparatively fast pace. Conversely, as the presenter you will be expected to present not only the essential facts but also as many details as possible.

Your South Korean listeners will not interrupt you during your presentation—and you should not interrupt a South Korean presenter either—but it can happen that some participants whisper to each other in Korean or leave the room for a phone call. Don’t let this irritate you or take this as a show of indifference. Frequent nodding, on the other hand, means that you are being listened to carefully. But be careful, this does not mean approval as a nod does in various other cultures!

It is a good idea to keep minutes in meetings with South Koreans. It will help you to better process the high flow of information. You can also propose to review the protocol with all participants in case any additions might be necessary.

You should not expect any concrete decisions by the end of a meeting or presentation and should not force them either. You’d only be jeopardizing harmony. Your South Korean partners will withdraw and discuss the matter further internally. Ultimately, the authority to decide lies with the highest ranking manager, who will inform you in due course. Patience is your top priority here.

Eating together

After a meeting in a more formal setting, South Koreans will propose to have dinner together. This helps to build the relationship, especially if difficult questions are still unsolved. Do something to foster harmony before returning to the conference table the next day.

Visitors From South Korea

Business Meals And After Work In South Korea

Body Language In South Korea

Communication In South Korea

First Business Meeting In South Korea

How to close deals in any foreign market.

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Insooni Breaks Racial Barrier to Become Beloved Singer in South Korea

Born to a South Korean mother and a Black American soldier, she rose to a pioneering stardom in a country that has long discriminated against biracial children.

By Choe Sang-Hun

Choe Sang-Hun spent several hours with Insooni at her school for biracial children in Hongcheon, South Korea.

When she took the stage to perform at Carnegie Hall in front of 107 Korean War veterans, the singer Kim Insoon was thinking of her father, an American soldier stationed in South Korea during the postwar decades whom she had never met or even seen.

“You are my fathers,” she told the soldiers in the audience before singing “ Father ,” one of her Korean-language hits.

“To me, the United States has always been my father’s country,” Ms. Kim said in a recent interview, recalling that 2010 performance. “It was also the first place where I wanted to show how successful I had become — without him and in spite of him.”

Ms. Kim, born in 1957, is better known as Insooni in South Korea, where she is a household name. For over four decades, she has won fans across generations with her passionate and powerful singing style and genre-crossing performances. Fathered by a Black American soldier, she also broke the racial barrier in a country deeply prejudiced against biracial people, especially those born to Korean women and African-American G.I.s.

Her enduring and pioneering presence in South Korea’s pop scene helped pave the way for future K-pop groups to globalize with multiethnic lineups.

“Insooni overcame racial discrimination to become one of the few singers widely recognized as pop divas in South Korea,” said Kim Youngdae, an ethnomusicologist. “She helped familiarize South Koreans with biracial singers and break down the notion that K-pop was only for Koreans and Korean singers.”

Thousands of biracial children were born as a result of the South Korea-U.S. security alliance. Their fathers were American G.I.s who fought the Korean War in the 1950s or who guarded South Korea against North Korean aggression during the postwar decades.

Most of their mothers worked in bars catering to the soldiers. Although South Korea depended on the dollars the women earned, its society treated them and their biracial children with contempt. Many mothers relinquished their children for adoptions overseas , mostly to the United States.

Those children who remained often struggled, keeping their biracial identity a secret if they could, in a society where, until a decade ago, schools taught children to take pride in South Korea’s racial “purity” and ‘‘homogeneity.”

“Whenever they said that, I felt like being singled out,” Insooni said.

In school, boys pelted her with racist slurs based on her skin color, said Kim Nam-sook, a former schoolmate, “but she was a star during school picnics when she sang and danced.”

Now a self-assured sexagenarian, she has started a Golden Girls K-pop concert tour with three divas in their 50s.

But Insooni’s confidence turned into wariness when she discussed her childhood in Pocheon, a town near the border with North Korea. Topics she still found too sensitive to discuss in detail included her younger half sister, whose father was also an American G.I. When she was young, she said, she hated when people stared at her and asked about her origins, wishing that she were a nun cloistered in a monastery.

She said her mother had not worked in a bar, recalling her as a “strong” woman who grabbed whatever odd work she could find, like collecting firewood in the hills, to feed her family. Virtually all she knew about her father was that he had a name that sounded similar to “Van Duren.”

The mother and daughter never talked about him, she said. Nor did Insooni try to find him, assuming he had his own family in the United States. Her mother, who died in 2005, never married. Because of the stigma attached to having biracial children, she lost contact with many of her relatives. When the young Insooni saw her mother crying, she didn’t ask why.

“If we went there, both of us knew that we would fall apart,” she said. “I figured this out early even as a child: You have to do your best with the card you are dealt, rather than going down the rabbit hole of asking endless whys. You can’t fix bygones.”

Insooni’s formal education ended with middle school. She and her mother were then living in Dongducheon, a city north of Seoul with a large U.S. military base. One day, a singer who performed for American soldiers came to her neighborhood to recruit biracial background dancers.

“I hated that town and this was my way out,” she said.

Insooni debuted in 1978 as the only biracial member of the “ Hee Sisters ,” one of the most popular girl groups at the time. TV producers, she said, made her cover her head to hide her Afro. In 1983, she released her first solo hit, “ Every Night ,” still a karaoke favorite for Koreans.

A slump followed. Ignored by TV, she performed at nightclubs and amusement parks.

But her time in the entertainment wilderness helped shape her artistic identity, as she honed her live-performance skills and versatility, learning to sing and communicate with children, elderly people and whoever else showed up to hear her.

“I don’t tell my audience: ‘This is the kind of song I sing, so listen to them,’” she said. “I say: ‘Tell me what kind of song you like, and I will practice and will sing them for you next time.’”

She constantly prepared for her comeback to TV. Whenever she watched a TV music show, she imagined herself there and practiced “songs I would sing, dresses I would wear and gestures I would make.” Her chance came when the national broadcaster KBS introduced its weekly “ Open Concert ” for cross-generational audiences in 1993. She has been in demand ever since.

Although she did not have as many original hits as some other top singers, Insooni often took others’ songs, like “ Goose’s Dream ,” and made them nationally popular, reviewers said. She kept reinventing herself, adopting everything from disco and ballads to R&B and soul, and collaborating with a young rapper in “ My Friend .”

“Many singers faded away as they aged, but Insooni’s popularity only expanded in her later years, her status rising as a singer with songs appealing across the generational spectrum,” said Kim Hak-seon, a music critic.

South Koreans say Insooni’s songs — like “Goose’s Dream,” which starts “I had a dream” — and her positive onstage manner resonate with them in part because of the difficulties she has lived through.

“You first come to her songs feeling like you want to hug her,” said Lee Hee-boon, 67, a fan. “But you end up feeling encouraged.”

Insooni, who married a South Korean college professor, gave birth to her only child, a daughter, in the United States in 1995, to make her an American citizen, she said. She worried that if her child resembled her, she would suffer the same discrimination as she did.

Today, South Korea is becoming increasingly multiethnic. One out of every 10 weddings is bi-ethnic, as men in rural areas marry women from poorer countries in Asia. Its farms and small factories can’t run without migrant workers from abroad.

One of South Korea’s most popular rappers — Yoon Mi-rae, or Natasha Shanta Reid — sings about her biracial identity. K-pop groups like NewJeans have biracial or foreign members as their markets globalize.

Insooni welcomed the change but doubted that the country was embracing multiculturalism “with hearts,” not out of economic needs.

In 2013, she founded the tuition-free Hae Mill School for multicultural children in Hongcheon, east of Seoul, after learning that a majority of biracial children still didn’t advance to high school, decades after her own school life ended so early.

During the recent interview, at the school, students on campus rushed to hug her.

“You can tell me things you cannot even tell your mom and dad because I am one of you,” she told children during an entrance ceremony this month.

Insooni sometimes questions her decision not to look for her father. She once told South Korean military officers that if they were posted abroad, they should never do what American G.I.s did in Korea decades ago: “spreading seeds you cannot take responsibility for.”

“At Carnegie Hall, I was thinking that there might be a chance, however small, that some of the American veterans might have left children like me behind in Korea,” she said. “If they did, I wanted to tell them to take their burden off their minds. Whether successful or not, children like me have all tried to make the best of our lives in our own way.”

Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun

South Korea hopes new speed train links will help boost birthrate

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Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Jihoon Lee; Editing by Josh Smith and Miral Fahmy

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Explainer: What are the security deals Ukraine is signing with allies?

Finland on Wednesday became the eighth NATO member to sign a 10-year agreement on security cooperation with Ukraine, pledging to keep up its long-term support as the 25-month full-scale war with Russia drags on with no end in sight.

Watch CBS News

South Korea's birth rate is so low, one company offers staff a $75,000 incentive to have children

By Jen Kwon

Edited By Tucker Reals , Stephen Smith

Updated on: March 29, 2024 / 8:30 AM EDT / CBS News

Seoul  — South Korea's overall birth rate hit a record low of 0.72 in 2023, and with that figure projected to fall even further in 2024, some Korean businesses have started offering remarkably generous incentives to convince their workers to become parents.

"The declining fertility rate leads to a decline in the workforce and purchasing power and slowing economic growth, which in turn directly affects the sustainability of corporate management, meaning companies need to actively address the issue," Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) president Chul Chung said recently at a Korean-Japanese business seminar dedicated to the topic.

Jin Sung Yoo, a senior research fellow at KERI, said the main reason for South Korea's worryingly low birth rate was the "effect on career progression" associated with having children.

• Fewer babies born in U.S. in 2022 as teen birth rate hits record low  

Many solutions were discussed at the seminar, and some eye-opening incentives have been announced in recent weeks.

The Lotte Group, a massive cross-industry conglomerate, said it had found success through "various in-house family-friendly policies." The company said the existing program had helped push the internal birth rate among employees up to 2.05 during 2022, no small feat when the national average was 0.81.

Ok-keun Cho, head of corporate culture at the Lotte Group, said starting this year, the company would also be offering employees with three or more children a 7-9 seat family vehicle, free of charge.

The most generous parenthood incentive, however, is likely the one for workers at the construction and housing group Booyoung, which has been offering employees a $75,000 bonus for each new child they parent. 

• Japanese government playing match-maker to boost birth rates

So far, the company says 66 employees have taken advantage — at a cost to Booyoung of about $5 million.

Company chairman Lee Joong Keun said he sees it as an investment in the nation's future, warning that if the birth rate continues to fall, "Korea will face a crisis of national existence 20 years from now, including a decline in the economically productive population and a shortage of defense personnel to ensure national security and maintain order."

Under South Korea's rules, $75,000 is the largest handout a parent can receive without having to pay additional tax on the month. But Booyoung's boss said he wanted to go even further, announcing that he would work to help provide employees who become the parent of a third child with "housing with no tax burden on tenants and no maintenance responsibilities."

The construction company chief said he was hoping to get the South Korean government to agree to provide the land necessary for his plans.

Meanwhile, city officials have said that Seoul's local government plans to invest more than $1.3 billion during 2024 in the Birth Encouragement Project, an upgrade to an existing incentive policy.

The project has been largely focused on helping South Korean's maintain their careers around family planning, but it's been expanded to make more people eligible for the benefits, and those benefits now include infertility treatment and more childcare services.

• South Korea

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‘Luxury’ skiing in North Korea: the Russians allowed behind the border

Kim Jong-un’s selected few are ‘100% satisfied’ but find a country steeped in hopelessness under sanctions

Gliding down pristine, untouched mountain runs, Olga Shpalok said she was “getting 100% satisfaction”.

After a full day of skiing, the Russian designer from Vladivostok wound down with a visit to her hotel’s well-equipped spa and sauna.

“They said it was very hard to get into the country. But fate smiled upon us,” she said.

Shpalok was part of the first group of foreign tourists to visit North Korea since it shut down its borders at the start of the pandemic in 2020.

In early February, she travelled to the country with 100 other Russian tourists on a four-day skiing trip summed up by the Russian embassy as “Pyongyang opens its doors”.

More than 200 Russian tourists have visited North Korea so far this year in total across three trips in February and March. Their interviews and accounts give a rare insight into life in Kim Jong-un’s regime.

Closely watched by government “minders”, who restricted what they could see and where they could go, the Russian tourists described spending time in otherwise empty luxurious ski resorts. Some said they felt deep unease over the poverty and total control they witnessed.

Russia’s access to the pariah state is no coincidence. It comes at a time when the two countries have been moving closer at an unprecedented pace, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea has emerged as Russia’s largest supplier of weapons , shipping artillery shells, missiles and other equipment for Moscow’s continuing war. In exchange, Russia appears to be sending North Korea food, raw materials and parts used in weapons manufacturing, bypassing international sanctions imposed on the country.

The Russian tourist groups visiting North Korea illustrate another way Moscow can help Pyongyang. Before the pandemic, an estimated 5,000 westerners visited North Korea every year as part of pricey tours but since Covid-19 the borders have been sealed.

Faced with increasingly tightening international sanctions and a reported food crisis triggered by the pandemic isolation , any hard currency is a welcome addition to Pyongyang’s cash-strapped coffers.

“It’s a telling reflection of the regime’s priorities that North Korea has opted to allow Russian tourists access, yet continues to rebuff appeals from humanitarian organisations pleading for entry,” said Hanna Song, of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul.

The group tours, first announced in January by several Russian tourist agencies, cost $750 (£600). This includes the round-trip air fare to Pyongyang, North Korea’s sole international airport in the capital. Also covered were the domestic flight to the ski resort on North Korea’s eastern coast, the hotel stay, and meals.

The $40 daily ski pass, souvenirs and other expenses, including alcohol and cigarettes, were paid out of pocket in cash.

The tours begin with a two-hour flight from the far-eastern Russian city of Vladivostok to Pyongyang, operated by the North Korean state-owned Air Koryo airlines. It is made up of an ageing fleet of mostly Russian-made Tu-154 aircraft.

“When I boarded the plane, I wondered if we were going to make it at all,” recalled Alexandra Daniyelko, a PR manager from Moscow who joined one of the tours.

On arrival at Pyongyang, the Russian tourists visited central Kim Il-sung Square , bowed to the bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on Mansu Hill and attended a youth musical performance at the Mangyongdae Children’s Palace, where members of communist youth groups put on patriotic music and dance performance.

These carefully staged shows are traditionally steeped in government propaganda aimed at instilling North Koreans with national pride and loyalty to Kim’s family, which has ruled ruthlessly since it came to power in 1948.

“I cried at the purity, kindness and talent of these kids,” said Daniyelko, describing the performance.

Another Russian tourist described the children as “perfectly disciplined and obedient”, adding that the local minders confiscated the chocolates that some Russian tourists brought for the children.

But for many on the trip, the holiday truly kicked off on the second day, when the tourists boarded an internal flight to the coastal town of Wonsan near the Masikryong ski resort.

The resort is one of the large-scale construction projects built at the behest of Kim in recent years, thought to have cost £24m. Guests are ferried to the slopes on old Austrian-made gondolas imported from China.

Ahead of the resort’s opening in 2014, a ski-less Kim was photographed in a lift chair smoking a cigarette .

The Russian tourists were told they would be staying at a “five-star Swiss Alps-style resort” which was built on the orders of Kim, himself educated in Switzerland.

Images published on Instagram showed polished hotel rooms, a modern swimming pool, a sauna, a massage area and a hair salon.

“There weren’t any people on the main slopes, which was just perfect,” said Yekaterina Kolomeetsa, a travel blogger from Vladivostok.

Empty ski pistes are hardly surprising considering that there are reportedly just 5,500 skiers among a population of 24 million.

Despite North Korea’s best efforts to present a highly curated image of their country, some Russian tourists said they left disturbed.

“You could sense hopelessness and constant control in the country during the entire trip,” said Shpalok. In Pyongyang, as she rode on a bus with other tourists, she said she rarely saw any cars or people on the roads. “We asked our guides where everyone was. They told us people were happily at work.”

The tourists were strictly forbidden from filming ordinary houses or people and couldn’t venture on walks alone. The few people Shpalok did see looked “short and hungry”, while some children were “barely dressed” despite the cold.

Yulia Mishkova, another Russian tourist, said the trip was worth it for those “looking for a dose of absurdity”.

“I just felt sorry for the frightened North Koreans,” Mishkova said, adding that it was hard to ignore the fact that her daily ski pass cost more than the average monthly salary. “I will not go again for moral and ethical reasons.”

Still, both countries appear to have big plans for the future. According to a report by the government of Primorsky Krai, a region in Russia’s far east on the border of the two countries, North Korea is also building another mass ski resort for Russian tourists that will include 17 hotels, 37 guesthouses and 29 shops.

Tatyana Markova, a representative of the Vostok Intur travel agency, said two hiking trips to North Korea have already been planned for the Russian holidays in May.

“This is just the start,” said a recent advertisement promoting the May tours to North Korea. “Make sure you book your spot fast!”

• North Korea
• Kim Jong-un
• Asia Pacific
• Skiing holidays

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US urges South Korea to join the China sanctions regime, adjust export controls to prevent the country from getting chipmaking tools

The U.S. hopes to patch another China semiconductor industry loophole.

One way China's chip manufacturers have been getting advanced chip fabrication equipment capable of making processors on 14nm and smaller process technologies is through South Korea. The U.S. government is now working with its peers in the country to adopt export restrictions on semiconductor technology to China. These restrictions are akin to those imposed by Washington, reports  Bloomberg . The U.S.'s proposition to South Korea includes limiting exports of fab tools and parts for fab tools that could be used to build logic chips in non-planar 14nm process technologies. The limitations would also impact more advanced nodes and DRAM on nodes with an 18nm or smaller half-pitch size. This move aligns with measures the U.S. Department of Commerce introduced in 2022, which Japan, the Netherlands, and Taiwan then adopted. However, South Korea is treading cautiously due to its significant trade ties with China. Major South Korean tech firms, such as Samsung and SK Hynix, have substantial operations there. As a result, South Korean officials are concerned about the potential repercussions, including retaliatory measures from China, that could arise from imposing export controls on wafer fab tools. Samsung and SK Hynix are the world's largest 3D NAND and DRAM memory manufacturers, and they are the largest memory suppliers in China. While replacing them today with China-based YMTC, CXMT, and Xi'an UniIC is impossible, China may still retaliate. South Korea is also a major exporter of chipmaking materials and parts to China, ranking second after Japan. South Korea is exploring a multinational framework to review export controls for sensitive products, including semiconductor-related equipment. This approach, articulated by the country's trade minister, Cheong Inkyo, may complicate U.S. efforts to curtail China's influence on technology supply chains, reports Bloomberg. U.S. officials have held detailed discussions with the South Korean government, led by President Yoon Suk Yeol, to persuade Seoul to agree to these restrictions before the upcoming G7 summit in mid-June. Given the complexities involved, it's currently unclear whether South Korea will cooperate. Either way, implementing any export restrictions by South Korea is expected to take several months, and the People's Republic will have time to buy everything it needs in the interim.

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North Korea says it tested a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile that uses solid propellants

North Korea said Wednesday it had tested a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile powered with solid propellants, extending a run in weapons demonstrations that’s deepening a nuclear standoff with neighbors and the United States.

With the supposed success of the test, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared his country had acquired the ability to build solid-fuel, nuclear-capable systems for missiles of all ranges as he pursues an arsenal that could viably threaten rivals in Asia and the United States.

The report by North Korean state media came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the North launching a missile from near its capital toward its eastern sea.

North Korean state media said the test was supervised by Kim, who described the Hwasong-16B missile as a key piece of his nuclear war deterrent he vowed to further build up to counter his “enemies,” a reference to the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Kim said the North has now developed nuclear-capable, solid-fuel systems for “all the tactical, operational and strategic missiles with various ranges,” the Korean Central News Agency said.

In recent years, North Korea has been focusing on developing more weapons with built-in solid propellants. Those weapons are easier to move and hide and can be made to launch quicker than liquid-propellant missiles, which need to be fueled before launch and cannot stay fueled for long periods of time.

North Korea last year tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time, adding to its arsenal of long-range weapons targeting the U.S. mainland.

The country also has an extensive lineup of short-range and mid-range solid-fuel missiles that can be fired from land vehicles, ships and submarines and are potentially capable of reaching targets throughout South Korea and Japan. The North in recent months demonstrated some of these missiles in drills it described as simulated nuclear strikes while issuing provocative threats of nuclear conflict.

The North has since 2021 also been testing hypersonic weapons designed to exceed five times the speed of sound. If perfected, such systems could potentially pose a challenge to regional missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. However, it’s unclear whether the North’s hypersonic vehicles consistently maintained a desired speed exceeding Mach 5 during tests in 2021 and 2022.

During Tuesday’s test, the missile’s hypersonic glide warhead after being separated from the launch rocket reached a peak altitude of 62 miles and flew about 621 miles while performing various flight maneuvers before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, the KCNA said. The South Korean and Japanese militaries had assessed that the missile flew around 372 miles although Japan’s Defense Ministry announced a similar apogee with the North Korean report.

The North had also tested a purported hypersonic IRBM in January, which came years after it flight-tested liquid-fuel IRBMs. Experts say such weapons if perfected is potentially capable of reaching remote U.S. targets in the Pacific, including the military hub of Guam.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the missile tested on Tuesday was likely different from the system tested in January, which state media didn’t name but would likely be the Hwasong-16A.

North Korea in previous tests have unveiled two different types of hypersonic vehicles — a conical one and a wedge-shaped one. State media images show that the January launch involved a conical warhead while the wedge-shaped design was used for Tuesday’s launch.

While North Korea had initially tested its hypersonic warheads with liquid-fuel systems, the ability to load them on solid-fuel rockets would allow for faster launches and operation, said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at South Korea’s Research Institute for National Strategy.

“North Korea, in declaring that it has fully accomplished the nuclear weaponization of its missiles, also emphasized its commitment to arm its hypersonic missiles with nuclear weapons,” Chang said. “North Korea’s development of hypersonic IRBMs targets Guam, which hosts U.S. military bases, and even Alaska.”

Tensions in the region have risen since 2022 as Kim used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate his testing of missiles and other weapons. The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. assets.

While supervising Tuesday’s test, Kim Jong Un called for his country to further expand its nuclear and missile program to acquire “overwhelming power capable of containing and controlling” his enemies, who have “recently run higher fever in boosting their military alliance and staging all sorts of war drills.”

Hours after the launch, Seoul’s Defense Ministry announced that South Korea, the United States and Japan conducted a combined aerial exercise above waters near South Korea’s Jeju island that involved at least one nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 bomber.

The United States in recent months has been increasing its deployment of strategic assets to the region, also including aircraft carriers and missile-firing submarines, in a show of force against North Korea.

The Associated Press

Foreign company CEOs request larger gov't incentives, improved infrastructure to expand investments in Korea

Trade minister invites foreign businesspeople to Buddhist temple in Seoul

Foreign companies operating in Korea hope for the government to provide larger incentives and improve local infrastructure so that they can invest more in the country, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Wednesday.

A delegation of CEOs of foreign companies and representatives of foreign chambers made these suggestions during their meeting with Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Ahn Duk-geun at Jingwan Temple in northwestern Seoul.

They included CEOs of Korean offices of global firms in cutting-edge industries such as semiconductors, batteries and petrochemicals including Dupont, S-Oil, Boeing, Renault, Toray and Axa, as well as representatives of chambers of commerce of the U.S., Germany, France, the U.K., Japan and China.

European Chamber of Commerce in Korea Chairperson Philippe Van Hoof expressed appreciation to the ministry's support for European firms in Korea and asked for further efforts so that European companies can commit investments in Seoul in a consistent manner, according to the ministry.

S-Oil President Ryu Yul requested that the Korean government extend its tax exemption service and improve its licensing approval procedures for the Shaheen Project, a large-scale petrochemical infrastructure construction project in Ulsan launched by Saudi Aramco, the largest shareholder of S-Oil, investing 9.3 trillion won ($6.9 billion).

Kim Seung-rok, CEO of the Korean office of the U.S.-based Air Products, also requested stronger tax exemptions so that the company can make more investments in clean hydrogen projects in Korea.

Sean Blakeley, CEO of the British Chamber of Commerce in Korea, asked the government to introduce an improved electricity distribution network so that British firms make more investments in offshore wind farm projects in Korea. Son Geon-seog, vice-president for battery materials research at Belgium-based Umicore, proposed that the government expand electricity provision for local industrial complexes so that the company can increase investments for facility expansion here.

Dschun Song, managing director for German-headquartered BASF, requested that the government introduce more specified, detailed standards and policies for certifying carbon footprints and decarbonizing businesses so that the company can invest more for eco-friendly projects in Korea.

The dignitaries experienced Buddhist practices at the temple such as a tea ceremony and meditation and enjoyed vegan meals.

"We wanted to show you that Korea, with its rich roots in culture, history and its coexistence with society, has an ideal environment for communicating with global communities and inviting global firms and experts here," Ahn said during the meeting.

He pledged to cater to the companies' needs, saying the ministry this year aims to meet the goal of drawing $35 billion in foreign investments.

"We've expanded state funds and raised maximum financial supports for foreign companies investing in here. And we'll provide them with our local talents, for which we have passed a new special bill. Amid the fast-changing global trade environment and tricky supply chains to keep up, we'll keep bolstering our efforts to host foreign firms here," he said.

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Taiwan earthquake

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7.4 magnitude quake hits Taiwan, strongest in 25 years

By Nectar Gan , Wayne Chang , Jerome Taylor, Antoinette Radford, Deva Lee and Maureen Chowdhury , CNN

Watch landslide engulf road after 7.4 magnitude earthquake hits Taiwan

A dashcam camera has caught the moment a large landslide came down a mountain in Taiwan, triggered by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday morning.

The quake is the strongest to have rattled the island in 25 years, killing at least nine people and leaving more than 150 trapped.

At least 930 injured in earthquake, Taiwan's fire agency says

From CNN's Wayne Chang

The number of injuries from the earthquake that struck Taiwan on Wednesday has risen to 934, according to Taiwan's National Fire Agency (NFA). The death toll remains at nine people .

The NFA did not indicate the severity of the injuries.

Seventy-five people stranded in various tunnels in Hualien County have all been rescued by emergency responders. As of 7 a.m. ET, 137 people remain trapped.  

Death toll in Taiwan earthquake rises to 9, according to the National Fire Agency

The death toll due to an earthquake that struck Taiwan on Wednesday has risen to nine, while 882 people have been injured, according to Taiwan's National Fire Agency (NFA).

Dozens trapped: 131 people are currently trapped, including 50 employees of the Silks Place Hotel Taroko, who were traveling in four minibuses. Authorities have been unable to reach them by phone, and have listed them as trapped for the time being.

Two German citizens who were trapped earlier in a tunnel in Hualien County have been rescued, the NFA added.  

Hospitals in Taipei City are operating normally despite structural damage

From CNN’s Wayne Chang and Duarte Mendonca

Hospitals across Taiwan’s capital, Taipei City, are operating normally despite being damaged by Wednesday’s earthquake, according to the Municipal Government.

At least seven hospitals in the city are reported to have suffered some structural damage including “fallen tiles, partially fallen ceilings, cracks in the wall and electricity outage,” according to a government statement.

It said only one hospital was still offline following the quake.

“All hospitals are operating normally except the Tri-Service General Hospital Songshan Branch which has temporarily suspended service due to power outages, fallen ceilings and water leakages,” the statement said.

Taiwan has been rattled by its strongest earthquake in 25 years. Here's what we know

From CNN Staff

At least seven people have died after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan on Wednesday.

About 77 are trapped or stranded, including four foreign nationals .

About 60 of those are trapped in the Jinwen Tunnel in northern Hualien County, Taiwan's National Fire Agency (NFA) said.

Another 15 are trapped in the Dachingshui Tunnel, and two German nationals are trapped in a third tunnel.

If you're just joining our coverage, here's what we know:

• The quake:  The earthquake  hit  at 7:58 a.m. local time, 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of the city of Hualien at a depth of 34.8 kilometers, according to the US Geological Survey.
• Casualties : At least seven people have died in the earthquake. Of them, three were hiking when the quake struck.
• Structural damage : More than 100 buildings have been damaged , according to the National Fire Agency (NFA). Pictures show buildings tilted to one side, and collapsed onto the ground. About half of the damaged buildings are in Hualien County, the epicenter of the earthquake.
• Aftershocks : The quake was followed by several strong aftershocks, with tremors felt across the island, including in Taipei. Tremors as high as magnitude 7 are  expected  in the following days.
• Hualien County: The region where the quake struck, Hualien County, has a population of about 300,000, around 100,000 of whom live in the main city of Hualien. But many in the region live in remote coastal or mountain communities that can be hard to reach , so it might take time to understand the extent of Wednesday's quake.
• Power cuts : More than 91,000 households were without electricity, according to Taiwan's Central Emergency Command Center.
• Tsunami warnings: Tsunami warnings were issued across Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines in the wake of the earthquake, but have since been lifted. The warnings prompted airlines and airports to suspend flights.

The majority of those trapped after Taiwan earthquake are caught in one tunnel

About 60 of the approximately 77 people trapped after an earthquake struck Taiwan Wednesday are caught in the Jinwen Tunnel in northern Hualien County, Taiwan's National Fire Agency (NFA) said.

Separately, 15 people are trapped in the Dachingshui Tunnel, also in northern Hualien County, NFA said, adding that two German nationals were trapped in a third tunnel.

At least seven people have died in the 7.4 magnitude quake .

Some background: The 400-meter Jinwen Tunnel is one of more than a dozen that thread the Suhua Highway, a treacherous and narrow road that runs for 118 kilometers (73 miles) along Taiwan's eastern coast.

Winding along cliffs high above the Pacific Ocean, it is one of Taiwan's most dangerous — yet most scenic — drives.

The highway, which connects Hualien with the north of Taiwan, has been closed after it suffered severe damage from landslides and fallen rocks in the quake.

How earthquakes are measured

From CNN's Jennifer Gray

Measuring earthquakes is no easy task, given they strike suddenly and sometimes on a global scale.

When the Earth’s crust shifts abruptly, an earthquake occurs, with energy radiated out as seismic waves and shaking that’s sometimes experienced by people, buildings and infrastructure.

Seismic waves and factors related to the shifting ground determine an earthquake’s  magnitude , as measured through 10 on the scale most commonly used to describe quakes.

How strong the shaking feels is an earthquake’s  intensity , as measured on a scale that uses Roman numerals to assign categories based on assessed damage and people’s observations.

Read more about what the scales indicate .

23 million people live in Taiwan. Hualien County is home to 300,000. Here's what to know about the epicenter

From CNN's Jerome Taylor

Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy of about 23 million people, the vast majority of whom live in the capital Taipei and the cities that dot the heavily industrialized western coast.

Taipei has around 2.5 million inhabitants while the wider New Taipei City is home to a further 4 million people. The southern port city of Kaohsiung has 2.7 million residents.

In contrast, the eastern coast — where Wednesday's quake struck — is much less populated.

The island is regularly rocked by earthquakes. 

Here's what to know about the epicenter: Hualien County has a population of about 300,000, around 100,000 of whom live in the main city of Hualien.

But many in the region live in remote coastal or mountain communities that can be hard to reach, so it might take time to understand the extent of Wednesday's quake.

A magnitude 6.2 quake hit  the area in 2018 , killing at least  17 people and injuring more than 300 others.

Taiwan's global role: The small island is a major economy that has an outsized impact on global business and trade , mainly because of its world-beating chips industry .

It also lies at the center of geopolitical tensions.

China's Communist Party has claimed the island as its territory, despite never having controlled it. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has ramped up economic, political and military pressure on Taiwan and vowed to one day "reunify" the island, by force if necessary.

Taiwanese people have largely shrugged off that threat. Earlier this year, voters handed the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which Beijing loathes, a historic third consecutive presidency . Incumbent president Lai Ching-te will be inaugurated next month, replacing current president Tsai Ing-wen.

Foreign nationals trapped in Taiwan after earthquake

At least four foreign nationals are trapped in Taiwan after the island was hit by its most powerful earthquake in 25 years on Wednesday, according to the National Fire Agency (NFA).

Two Canadian citizens are among a dozen people trapped in Taroko Gorge, a popular tourist destination in Hualien County, the epicenter of the quake.

The 12 people are awaiting rescue on the Shakadang Trail, a popular walkway along turquoise water near the entrance of the famed marble-walled canyon, the NFA said.

Two German citizens are trapped in a tunnel on the Suhua highway on the island's eastern coast, the NFA said. The highway was severely damaged in the earthquake and has been closed.

Winding along cliffs high above the Pacific Ocean, the Suhua Highway is known as one of Taiwan's most dangerous — yet also the most scenic — drives. It's the main highway connecting Hualien with the north of the island and dotted with natural attractions.

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