Yonhap News Summary

The following is the second summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency on Thursday.

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Yoon to meet with U.S., Japanese leaders at U.N.

SEOUL -- President Yoon Suk-yeol will hold one-on-one summits with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, his office said Thursday.

The meeting with Kishida, in particular, will mark the first summit between the two countries in nearly three years since the last meeting in December 2019 and raises hope for improving relations frayed badly over wartime forced labor and other issues related to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

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(2nd LD) Inflation expected to peak around October despite weak Korean won: finance chief

SEOUL -- South Korea's inflation is forecast to peak around next month despite the recent fall in the Korean won, Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho said Thursday.

"Consumer prices will stabilize, albeit slowly, after reaching a peak around October at the latest, though the won-dollar exchange rate has surged at a fast pace recently," Choo told a parliamentary session.

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S. Korea still waiting for N. Korea to accept offer of talks on separated families: official

SEOUL -- South Korea will continue to wait for a response from North Korea to its recent proposal to hold talks on the issue of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, an official at Seoul's unification ministry said Thursday.

Last Thursday, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se publicly made the offer, stressing the urgency of resolving the matter, as many of those with family members across the border are in their 80s and 90s. The North has so far remained silent on the proposal.

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China's top legislator to visit LG's research hub in Seoul

SEOUL -- China's top legislator, Li Zhanshu, will visit LG Group's massive research and development (R&D) complex in western Seoul this week, sources said Thursday, as part of his visit to South Korea for meetings with Seoul's top officials.

Li, China's third-highest-ranking official and chief of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, is set to arrive in Seoul on Thursday afternoon to meet with President Yoon Suk-yeol and National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo.

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Participants in Jeju forum urge global cooperation in tackling pending challenges

JEJU -- Government officials, former U.N. chief and other world leaders joining an annual forum here Thursday called for the strengthening of multilateral cooperation in tackling geopolitical instability and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic in an "unprecedented era of overlapping crises."

During the opening ceremony of the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, the participants took note of growing geopolitical tensions from the Russia-Ukraine war and escalating U.S.-China rivalry while the international community struggles to rein in other challenges, including the continued spread of the coronavirus.

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Director of 'Narco-Saints' tries to strike balance between true, fictional stories

SEOUL -- Yoon Jong-bin is one of the most bankable filmmakers in South Korea with several box-office hits under his belt like the crime drama "Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time" (2012), the period action thriller "Kundo: Age of Rampant" (2014) and the spy thriller "The Spy Gone North" (2018).

His works are well-known for the director-writer's skills to narrate formulaic and corny stories in a more thrilling and enthralling way by creating three-dimensional characters.

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Typhoon Nanmadol predicted to affect Jeju, south coast from Sunday

SEOUL -- Typhoon Nanmadol, currently moving north from waters off Japan's Okinawa, is expected to affect South Korea's southern island of Jeju and part of the country's south coast beginning this weekend, the weather agency said Thursday.

With a central atmospheric pressure of 980 hectopascals and a maximum wind speed of 29 meters per second, this year's 14th typhoon was passing over waters 1,190 kilometers east-southeast of Okinawa at 9 a.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KAM).

sshluck@yna.co.kr
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