Yonhap News Summary

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

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(LEAD) S. Korea to push for tailor-made strategies to boost exports

SEOUL -- South Korea's industry ministry said Wednesday it will seek to enhance cooperation with partner nations in infrastructure, defense and other strategic fields with tailor-made approaches and to diversify its export structure in an effort to prop up sluggish exports.

A set of supportive measures were discussed during an inaugural meeting of export strategies presided over by President Yoon Suk-yeol, as the country has been struggling with dwindling global demand amid aggressive monetary tightening by major economies and an economic slowdown, as well as high energy prices.

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PPP agrees to participate in parliamentary probe into Itaewon tragedy after passing national budget

SEOUL -- The ruling People Power Party (PPP) decided Wednesday to take part in a parliamentary probe into the Itaewon crowd crush after the National Assembly first passes the national budget for next year.

The decision, reached in a general meeting of the party lawmakers, represents a reversal of the party's earlier position that it can agree to a parliamentary investigation only if the ongoing police investigation falls short.

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(LEAD) 9 police officers, gov't officials booked over Itaewon crowd crush

SEOUL -- A total of nine police officers and government officials were additionally booked Wednesday for an investigation into the bungled response to the crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood, police said.

Among those on the list are Park Sung-min, a superintendent general, and Song Byung-joo, a former emergency monitoring officer at Yongsan Police Station, as well as four other intelligence officers, they said.

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Naver expresses intention to participate in Saudi's Neom project

SEOUL -- South Korean internet portal giant Naver Corp. on Wednesday expressed its intention to participate in Saudi Arabia's lucrative Neom smart city project with its up-to-date digital twin technology.

"Neom city is a future project to create a fully smart city based on many high-end technologies," said Kang Sang-chul of Naver Labs, the research and development subsidiary of Naver. "Naver's technologies can cover a variety of areas to be featured in the smart city."

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(LEAD) Court begins reviewing detention of opposition leader's 'right-hand man'

SEOUL -- A court on Wednesday began a legal review of the detention of a ranking Democratic Party (DP) official, nicknamed the "right-hand man" of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, four days after the official was put under pretrial detention on bribery and other charges.

The Seoul Central District Court conducted the review of the detention of Jeong Jin-sang, a vice chief of staff to DP Chairman Lee, and is expected to release the results Thursday afternoon at the latest.

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New Netflix show features familiar but new sides of traditional Korean culture

SEOUL -- "Korea No. 1," Netflix's new Korean-language variety show, follows three South Korean television stars as they travel all over Korea and experience hard labor, and struggle to learn from various masters of traditional Korean culture.

In the eight-episode series, the three -- Yoo Jae-suk, Lee Kwang-soo and Kim Yeon-koung -- get a hands-on experience in eight different fields ranging from making traditional Korean roof tiles and fermented Korean sauces to catching long-legged octopus on a mud flat and to weaving fine ramie.

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