Yonhap News Summary

The following is the first summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency on Friday.

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S. Korea's vice defense minister briefed on key U.S. strategic assets during visit to local base

SEOUL -- South Korea's Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul has received a briefing on key U.S. nuclear assets, including a strategic bomber and "low-yield" weapons mountable on it, during a visit to a military base in the United States, his ministry said Friday.

His tour of Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C., on Thursday (local time) followed North Korea's recent codification of an assertive nuclear policy that leaves open the possibility of a preemptive strike in case of a regime security threat.

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S. Korea's vice foreign minister asks U.S. to address ' discriminatory' part in new law on inflation

SEOUL/WASHINGTON -- A senior South Korean diplomat had meetings with U.S. government and congressional officials in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, during which he delivered Seoul's concerns about the impact from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that excludes Korean-made electric vehicles from tax credits, according to his ministry.

Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong was on a visit to the U.S. capital, along with Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul, for the allies' Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consltation Group (EDSCG) session slated for Friday (local time).

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Yoon orders improvement to anti-stalking law after subway station murder

SEOUL -- President Yoon Suk-yeol said Friday he instructed the justice ministry to come up with improvements to the anti-stalking law following the shocking murder of a subway worker by a colleague inside a subway station restroom.

The 20-something victim was killed inside a ladies' restroom at Sindang Station on Line 2 on Wednesday after being stalked by the suspect for years.

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Prosecutors raid 20 entities over opposition leader's third-party bribery allegations

SEOUL -- Prosecutors raided Doosan Engineering & Construction Co. and 20 other institutions Friday in connection with allegations of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung's third-party bribery surrounding a corporate donation to a football club years ago.

The case centers on the allegations that the city government of Seongnam, just south of Seoul, had attracted hefty donations from Doosan Engineering and other entities to a municipal football club in return for administrative favors in the mid-2010s, when the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party was serving as its mayor.

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Yoon appoints new prosecutor general, chief antitrust regulator

SEOUL -- President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday appointed the new prosecutor general and chief antitrust regulator.

The appointments of Lee One-seok as prosecutor general and Han Ki-jeong as chief of the Fair Trade Commission came after the National Assembly missed two deadlines to adopt confirmation hearing reports for the nominees amid objections from the main opposition Democratic Party.

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(2nd LD) Unemployment rate hits all-time low in August; job growth slows

SEOUL -- South Korea's unemployment rate hit an all-time low last month, but the pace of job growth slowed down for the third month in a row amid economic uncertainties, data showed Friday.

The number of employed people stood at 28.41 million in August, up 807,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

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S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases below 60,000; KDCA issues influenza warning

SEOUL -- South Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell below 60,000 on Friday, continuing the modest decline as the omicron spread has been slowing.

The country reported 51,874 new COVID-19 infections, including 348 from overseas, bringing the total to 24,316,302, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
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