
South Korean first lady blasted security for not firing guns during Yoon's arrest
South Korean first lady
Kim Keon-hee expressed strong anger towards the Presidential Security Service (PSS) after suspended president Yoon Suk-yeol was arrested earlier this year, demanding to know why agents 'didn't fire' during the arrest.
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Police are now considering her remarks as key evidence suggesting an intention to obstruct law enforcement's execution of a detention warrant by force.
According to multiple sources the Hankook Ilbo contacted, these statements were included in the warrant request submitted to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office for Kim Sung-hoon, deputy chief of the PSS, and Lee Kwang-woo, chief of the service's bodyguard division. Prosecutors reviewed additional evidence submitted by police before filing the request.
Kim Keon-hee reportedly visited the family protection desk within the Hannam-dong presidential residence in Seoul on January 15, shortly after
Yoon's arrest , and became visibly angry.
She criticised the security officers for not preventing the execution of the warrant, saying, 'I'm disappointed in the security service. Guns are meant to be used for this. What were you doing not firing them?'
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She also reportedly said: 'Honestly, I feel like shooting (Democratic Party of Korea leader) Lee Jae-myung and taking my own life.'

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RTHK
12 hours ago
- RTHK
All quiet on the Korean front amid reciprocal moves
All quiet on the Korean front amid reciprocal moves South Korean soldiers go about the process of putting up a loudspeaker at the border last June when the Yoon Suk-yeol administration was in place. File photo: Reuters North Korea appears to have stopped broadcasting strange and unsettling noises along the border, Seoul's military said on Thursday, a day after South Korea stopped blaring its own loudspeaker propaganda northwards. The North has been broadcasting a horror movie-esque soundtrack into border areas since last year, as part of an escalating propaganda war between the arch foes. But South Korea's new President Lee Jae-myung, who took office last week after his predecessor was impeached over an abortive martial law declaration, ordered the military to stop blasting K-pop and news reports into the North in an attempt to "restore trust". "Today, there was no region where North Korea's noise broadcasts to the South were heard," Seoul's military said on Thursday. "The military is closely monitoring related trends in North Korea." Relations between the two Koreas have been at one of their lowest points in years, with Seoul taking a hard line towards Pyongyang, which has drawn ever closer to Moscow in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But South Korea's new president has vowed to improve relations with the North and reduce tensions on the peninsula, halting the loudspeaker broadcasts Seoul had begun last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southwards by Pyongyang. The North claimed the balloons – which contained toilet paper and other garbage – were retaliation for similar missives floated northwards by activists in the South, carrying anti-Kim Jong-un propaganda. North Korea resumed its own propaganda broadcasts soon after, sending strange and eerie noises – such as chilling music and what sounds like bombs exploding – into the South, prompting complaints from border residents. On Ganghwa island, which is close to the North, the strange noises were last heard on Wednesday at around 6pm, its county councillor Park Heung-yeol said. "And from 8pm to 9pm yesterday, the North broadcast its propaganda music, instead of the strange noise," he added. "I slept so well last night. I had not been able to do that for so long," another Ganghwa resident An Mi-hee said. South Korea's Lee has promised a more dovish approach towards Pyongyang, compared with his predecessor Yoon Suk-yeol. (AFP)


Asia Times
a day ago
- Asia Times
Asia's shaky economies need a US-China trade truce, fast
As Asian governments go through the motions of negotiating with the US, Donald Trump's trade war is inflicting serious and ever-increasing damage on the region's largest economies. It remains to be seen what the US and China will ultimately agreed on in London this week. Vague talk of a preliminary strategy to ease trade tensions, with zero specifics or timelines, has so far left global markets with more questions than answers. The final readout said the two sides agreed in principle on a framework for de-escalating trade tensions, which will next be presented to Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for approval, according to reports. In the meantime, Japan and South Korea, Asia's No 2 and No 4 economies, are officially in negative territory, both down 0.2% in the first quarter on an annualized basis. What's important to consider is that these contractions predate the worst of Trump's tariffs. As the full brunt of those import taxes hits, Japan and Korea are sure to slide deeper into the red. Those levies include 30% on China, down from 145% earlier, 25% on autos, 50% on steel and aluminum and 10% across the board globally. Things could quickly get worse from there if China's factory gate deflation deepens. In May, China's producer prices fell to the lowest level in nearly two years. Consumer prices, meanwhile, extended declines as trade headwinds collide with a prolonged housing downturn. The 3.3% year-on-year drop in the May producer price index was even steeper than the 2.7% decline in April — and the deepest contraction in 22 months. China, says economist Zhiwei Zhang at Pinpoint Asset Management, 'continues to face persistent deflationary pressure.' Given the magnitude of the headwinds, says Johns Hopkins University economist Steve Hanke, it's 'no surprise' why this is the fourth-straight month in which China's consumer price trajectory 'has been gripped with an outright deflation.' The collateral damage from Trump's trade war is rising, in part because no one knows where the tariffs are headed. On China, it's still an open question whether Trump will lower Chinese taxes to 10% or raise them to 100%. For Japan and Korea, only Trump can say whether or not reciprocal tariffs of 24% and 25%, respectively, will soon return. Risks abound as neither Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba nor new South Korean President Lee Jae-myung seems in any hurry to sign a bilateral trade pact with the US that might disadvantage their populations. That risks enraging a Trump White House desperate for any deal at all. Declarations by Trump trade Peter Navarro and Howard Lutnick have aged terribly. Trade advisor Navarro earlier assured that Trump would seal 90 deals in 90 days. Commerce Secretary Lutnick's late April statement that Trump already had 200 agreements nailed down is now a punchline. As Trump becomes more desperate for a win, real or imagined, the odds of him making tariffs great again increase. Especially since Chinese leader Xi Jinping hasn't rolled out lots of concessions, as Trump hoped. Optimism that Xi's government might increase the flow of now-restricted rare-earth minerals hasn't come to fruition. On Sunday, Kevin Hassett, Trump's National Economic Council head, told CBS News: 'We want the rare earths, the magnets that are crucial for cell phones and everything else to flow just as they did before the beginning of April, and we don't want any technical details slowing that down. And that's clear to them.' Yet what Xi has in common with Ishiba and Lee is a belief that time is on his side. The longer Trump's tariffs fan US inflation and cause economic disruption at home, the more he needs big splashy trade deals to justify the pain households are enduring in the name of making America great again. It follows, then, that Trump will become more willing to sign trade deals in name only to save face. That's the strategy China and Japan employed during the Trump 1.0 era to great effect. And it might well work again under Trump 2.0. The best hope for the global economy and financial system is Trump throttling back on tariffs in the months ahead. 'If this problem goes away, I think that the second half of this year will actually be one of growth,' says Indermit Gill, the World Bank's chief economist. The World Bank has a rather bleak view of the rest of 2025. It expects the slowest growth in 17 years, outside of recessionary periods. It sees global growth weakening to 2.3% this year, 0.4 percentage points less than it expected a few months back. Trouble in bigger economies is sure to spill over into smaller, less developed ones, given today's 'tight trade and investment linkages' with the US, Europe and China, the World Bank said in a report. The good news is that 'capital flows to emerging markets stabilized in May, breaking a two-month pattern of volatility and retrenchment,' says Jonathan Fortun, an economist at the Institute of International Finance. Non-resident flows rose to US$19.2 billion, marking a decisive shift from the $3.7 billion net outflow recorded in April. 'The rebound,' Fortun says, 'was broad-based, with both equity and debt components contributing positively. However, the recovery masks significant asymmetries across regions and asset classes, and the underlying investor tone remains cautious in light of ongoing global uncertainty.' Fortun adds that emerging Asia was the main beneficiary in May, attracting $11.4 billion across asset classes. 'The bulk of the inflows came through local debt and equity channels, as investors responded to stabilizing inflation prints and more predictable policy stances,' he says. In contrast, Fortun adds, Latin America recorded a modest 1.1 billion in net inflows, with strong equity demand partially offset by a sharp decline in debt flows. Emerging Europe attracted $5.1 billion, 'supported by resilient demand for domestic bonds in countries with improved fiscal outlooks,' he notes. In Japan's case, says economist Takeshi Yamaguchi at Morgan Stanley MUFG, markets are waiting with bated breath for the Bank of Japan's views on downside risks. BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, after all, is grappling with the impact of Trump's 25% automobile tariff by the US on small and midsize enterprises and spring wage negotiations amid prolonged US-Japan trade discussions. Yamaguchi says BOJ officials are also watching the impact of China's rare-earth export regulations on manufacturing activity, including automobile production. Other factors include the impact of US lawmakers giving Trump latitude to tax foreign investors, including potentially for punitive purposes on US Treasury holders. 'All underlying inflation measures of the BOJ have risen further' in the central bank's latest update, Yamaguchi says. Stefan Angrick, head of Japan at Moody's Analytics, notes that 'tariffs and tariff threats are damaging [Japan's] exports and industrial production. Household spending is weak as inflation outpaces wage growth, and pay gains may slow further if tariff pain derails the economy.' At the same time, Angrick says, slowing inflation will 'help home-made demand find better traction, but reduced government support for energy bills and a surge in food prices mean inflation will decelerate very gradually.' This will push real pay gains further into the distance, raising the stakes ahead of the upper house election in July, Angrick adds. Opposition parties have called for consumption tax cuts to ease the cost-of-living crisis. 'We're not convinced that's the best way forward,' Angrick says. But Prime Minister Shigeru's blanket rejection of all forms of fiscal support was already looking shaky before the trade war ramped up. All told, the outlook for 2025 looks extremely challenging.' In Seoul, the arrival of President Lee's new administration 'will reduce political tensions and improve the country's economic outlook,' following the six-month vacuum caused by Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment, says Jeremy Chan, a Eurasia Group analyst. 'Lee will immediately confront two major challenges: reviving economic growth and striking a trade deal with the US to reduce crippling US tariffs on Korean exports,' Chan says. China's trajectory is complicated by a serious property crisis that's helping to drive deflation. The danger is that the trade war precipitates 'a race deeper into deflation,' says Tom Orlik, chief economist for Bloomberg Economics. Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, adds that 'we still think persistent overcapacity will keep China in deflation both this year and next.' There's still hope Trump might pivot away from tariffs. Headlines about several trillions of dollars of stock market losses, talk of a 'Trumpcession' and chatter that the so-called 'bond vigilantes' were displeased had Trump backing off. The same with China's stance going into the weekend trade talks in Geneva in mid-May, where Team Xi demanded a goodwill gesture on tariffs; Trump ultimately obliged by throttling back on import taxes from 145% to 30%. Asian 'economies now face the secondary shock of an influx of cheap Chinese imports, as China exports excess capacity amid subdued domestic demand and elevated trade tensions with the US and other developed markets,' says Alex Wolf, head of Asia investment strategy at JP Morgan Private Bank. 'This phenomenon is already negatively impacting local emerging market manufacturing and employment.' Wolf adds that 'as the Trump administration targets not just China but almost every trading partner with trade imbalances – whether due to trade deficits or tariff rate differentials – many EM [emerging market] economies could end up in the crosshairs. With both the direct impact of US tariffs and the indirect impact of a slowing China and weaker global trade, EM economies may face tougher challenges ahead.' Yet the detour in Trump's phraseology thickens the plot. Around 'Liberation Day' on April 2, Trump World argued the US is being 'looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far.' Since then, Trump's White House has also talked of the 'importance of a sustainable, long-term and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship.' All officials in Tokyo and Seoul can do is hope real progress was made behind closed doors in London this week. In the interim, though, Asia's 2025 is turning out monumentally different from what Asia expected. Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek


RTHK
2 days ago
- RTHK
Xi urges strategic linkup in call to S Korea's Lee
Xi urges strategic linkup in call to S Korea's Lee Xi Jinping told Lee Jae-myung that their two countries should inject more certainty into the regional and international situations. File photos: Reuters President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China and South Korea should promote their strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level. He made the call over the phone with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. China and South Korea should inject more certainty into the regional and international landscapes, Xi said, adding that the two countries should jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade and ensure stable global and regional industrial and supply chains. "A healthy, stable and continuously deepening China-South Korea relationship aligns with the trend of the times," the president said. Xi added Beijing and Seoul should respect each other's core interests and concerns, and the two countries should deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges. The call came after South Korea's new centre-left leader was elected in a landslide last week after winning a snap election triggered by his predecessor's disastrous martial law declaration. Seoul has long trod a fine line between top trading partner China and defence guarantor the United States. Relations with Beijing suffered under Lee's predecessor Yoon Suk-yeol, who cleaved close to the United States and sought to improve ties with former colonial master Japan. But both countries' export-driven economies have now found themselves in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump's tariff blitz. (Xinhua/AFP)