
Navy chiefs of S. Korea, Ecuador discuss strengthening cooperation
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Yang Yong-mo met his Ecuadorian counterpart, Miguel Santiago Cordova Chehab, at the Navy's headquarters in Gyeryong, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul, for the talks on bilateral cooperation.
The two sides discussed increasing personnel exchanges and warship port visits, and signed a memorandum of understanding for their navies to hold regular talks.
Cordova will attend a ceremony Wednesday for the transfer of a 3,000-ton Coast Guard patrol vessel to the Ecuadorian Navy at a shipyard in Mokpo, some 310 kilometers south of Seoul.
The government announced last year it would donate the ship, which has been renamed the Jambeli. (Yonhap)
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Korea Herald
07-08-2025
- Korea Herald
North Korean swims across border to defect to South
A North Korean man was discovered by South Korean troops in neutral waters in the Han River estuary on the west coast, last week, the South's military said Thursday. Swimming across the maritime border to arrive in the South, the man expressed his intention to defect to the South, according to a Joint Chiefs of Staff official, requesting anonymity. 'Our military was able to secure a North Korean citizen and (his) identity in the neutral waters of the Han River at the early hours of July 31, before handing him over to related agencies,' the JCS said later in a statement. The Navy first spotted the man with makeshift floating materials attached to his body in neutral waters off the Incheon island of Gyodongdo on the night of July 30, according to the JCS official and sources close to the matter. The soldiers remained alert and monitored the man for the next 10 hours before deciding to rescue him from waters 11 meters deep at around 4 a.m. the next day. The North Korean man reportedly waved while asking troops to rescue him. A warrant officer introduced himself as representing the South Korean Navy and asked the North Korean if he was defecting to the South. Details of the rescue operation were shared with the United Nations Command. Any unusual signs involving North Korean troops were not detected at the time of the operation, the JCS said. A Unification Ministry official, declining to be named, said that related government agencies are carrying out a joint investigation. It is difficult to share the exact details at the moment due to the ongoing investigations, it explained. This marks the second time that a North Korean has crossed the border to defect to the South since President Lee Jae Myung took office in early June. On July 3, a North Korean man crossed a midwestern portion of the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas and later confirmed his wish to defect to the South. North Korean defectors are legally entitled to government support to resettle in South Korea, with the Constitution recognizing the entire Korean Peninsula as its territory and all Koreans as its nationals. The two Koreas technically remain at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce, not a formal peace treaty.


Korea Herald
28-07-2025
- Korea Herald
Gwangju Biennale Foundation's new president tasked with balancing local, global demands
Soon after his inauguration, Youn Bum-mo, the newly appointed president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, shared his concerns about how to expand the "May 18 spirit" to the global stage as a new generation emerges. Youn, a former director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, said Gwangju is a rare case globally as the city is associated with a 'spirit." In turn, this has formed the identity of the biennale. The May 18 spirit derives from the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980 against the military dictatorship, which brutally suppressed the uprising, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries. The spirit remains today as a symbol of resistance to oppression and commitment to democracy and human rights. 'Now that a generation has passed, younger people are less familiar with the May 18 spirit. It is time to move toward a more mature phase. But how do we move forward? That is the question, and we need specific strategies and actions for that,' Youn said. Youn's remarks come at a time when the 30-year-old biennale, which has become one of the leading art events in Asia, faces challenges to its identity. Youn said the demand to dilute the city's spirit in the biennale has existed for many years among the civic groups in the city. 'There is a growing sense that the spirit of Gwangju should be artistically sublimated," he said. 'But at the same time, we should pursue a biennale that only Gwangju can realize — one that is distinct and has a clear character.' Youn, who will serve a three-year term, previously served as a member of the executive committee for the inaugural Gwangju Biennale in 1995. 'Gwangju (Biennale) has grown into a leading art event not only in Korea but also internationally. I was entrusted with its leadership at a turning point where we began writing the next 30 years of its history. I feel the weight of that responsibility. 'There is a significant gap between how things appear on the outside and the complex realities I face from within,' Youn said. There are calls from local communities to better support and highlight artists from the region, Youn noted. When asked whether such demands could affect the artistic director's autonomy, he said that would not be the case, pledging that the foundation will fully support the director. Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen will helm the 16th Gwangju Biennale in 2026 as artistic director. The upcoming 2025 Gwangju Design Biennale in September will be curated by Choi Soo-shin, a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the US, exploring how design embraces humanity. Next year's biennale will have national pavilions on a similar scale as last year, when 31 national pavilions participated, according to Youn. 'We will have to come up with ways to secure better spaces for the national pavilions next year. We have been receiving a lot of applications,' he said.


Korea Herald
28-07-2025
- Korea Herald
Russia scales down celebrations honoring its navy as Ukraine launches more drone attacks
Russia on Sunday scaled down the festivities honoring its Navy citing security concerns as continuing Ukrainian drone attacks posed a challenge to the Kremlin. Russian authorities canceled the parades of warships in St. Petersburg, in the Kaliningrad region on the Baltic and in the far-eastern port of Vladivostok that are usually held to mark the annual Navy Day celebrations. Asked about the reason for the cancellation of the parade in St. Petersburg even as President Vladimir Putin arrived in his home city to visit the navy headquarters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that "it's linked to the overall situation, security reasons, which are above all else.' The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 99 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight. Later in the day, it said another 51 drones were shot down near St. Petersburg. A man was killed and three other people were injured by drone fragments in the region around St. Petersburg, according to local authorities. St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport suspended dozens of flights early Sunday because of the drone threat. On a trip to St. Petersburg, Putin visited the historic Admiralty building to receive reports on four-day naval maneuvers that wrapped up Sunday. The July Storm exercise involved 150 warships from the Baltics to the Pacific. Putin vowed to build more warships and intensify the navy's training, adding that 'the navy's strike power and combat capability will rise to a qualitatively new level.' He also visited the Admiral Grigorovich frigate of the Baltic Fleet at the Kronstadt naval base just west of St. Petersburg to hail its crew for fending off a Ukrainian drone attack in the region earlier in the day. Reducing the scale of the Navy Day celebrations reflects Moscow's worries about Ukraine's sweeping drone attacks across the country. In a series of strikes earlier in the war now in its fourth year, Ukraine sank several Russian warships in the Black Sea, crippling Moscow's naval capability and forcing it to redeploy its fleet from Russia-occupied Crimea to Novorossiysk. And in an audacious June 1 attack code-named 'Spiderweb,' Ukraine used drones to hit several Russian air bases hosting long-range bombers across Russia, from the Arctic Kola Peninsula to Siberia. The drones were launched from trucks covertly placed near the bases, taking the Russian military by surprise in a humiliating blow to the Kremlin. The raid destroyed or damaged many of the bombers that had been used by Moscow to launch aerial attacks on Ukraine, providing a major morale boost for Kyiv at a time when Kyiv's undermanned and under-gunned forces are facing Russian attacks along the 1,000-kilometer front line. Russia continued to batter Ukraine with drone and missile strikes Sunday. In Sumy in Ukraine's northeast, a drone attack damaged civil infrastructure objects, an administrative building and nonresidential premises, leaving three people wounded. Elsewhere in the region, two men died after being blown up by a land mine and another woman was injured from a drone attack on another community in the region, the regional military administration said. French President Emmanuel Macron had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday and said later on X that he reaffirmed France's support for Kyiv and vowed to raise pressure on Moscow to force it to 'agree to a ceasefire that paves the way for talks leading to a solid and lasting peace, with full European involvement.' (AP)