It may seem that the wild predawn scenes in Seoul, with hundreds of armed troops and frantic lawmakers storming South Korea's parliament building after the president suddenly declared martial law, came out of nowhere.

There are two Koreas, North and South.

South Korea’s new defense minister says he would push to suspend a 2018 military agreement with North Korea on reducing tensions between the rivals, insisting that it hampers the South’s surveillance activities along their heavily armed border when the North’s nuclear threats are increasing.

Blue-roofed huts, a raised slab of concrete and some raked gravel are all that separate the rival Koreas at Panmunjom, a rare point of close contact along the most heavily armed border in the world.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol says the spike in North Korean missile tests, growing nuclear ambitions and other provocative acts pose a “serious threat” that could spark a wider conflict.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made insult-laden threats against South Korea for considering unliteral sanctions on the North.

A pair of dogs gifted by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 are now mired in a South Korean political row, with the country’s former president blaming his conservative successor for a lack of support as he gave the animals up.

South Korea’s former defense minister and coast guard chief have been arrested over their alleged involvement in covering up facts and distorting the circumstances surrounding North Korea’s killing of a South Korean fisheries official in 2020 near the rivals’ tense sea border.

Vice President Kamala Harris has said her trip to Asia is intended to shore up American alliances with Japan and South Korea.

The governments of South Korea and Japan say their leaders have agreed to accelerate efforts to mend ties frayed over Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Samsung Electronics says it’s shifting away from fossil fuels and aiming to entirely power its global operations with clean electricity by 2050.

South Koreans shared congratulations on social media for the multiple wins by “Squid Game” at the Emmy Awards, but the overall reaction was subdued as the country grows accustomed to its increasingly prominent role in global entertainment.

Samsung’s de-facto leader has secured a pardon of his conviction for bribing a former president in a corruption scandal that toppled a previous South Korean government.

North Korea has warned that the United States and South Korea will face “unprecedented” security challenges if they don’t drop their hostile military pressure campaign against the North, including joint military drills.

President Joe Biden tended to both business and security interests as he wrapped up a three-day visit to South Korea on Sunday.

U.S. President Joe Biden will meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol this week as the allies face a growing threat from North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

For many South Koreans, the former presidential palace in Seoul was a little-visited, heavily secured mountainside landmark.

South Korea’s new president says he’ll present “an audacious plan” to improve North Korea’s economy if it denuclearizes.

The leaders of the rival Koreas have exchanged letters expressing hope for improved bilateral relations, which have plummeted amid a freeze in nuclear negotiations and North Korea’s accelerating weapons development.

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called the South Korean defense minister a “scum-like guy” for talking about preemptive strikes on the North and warned the South may face “a serious threat.”.

Former President Park Geun-hye went home three months after being pardoned for one of South Korea’s worst government-corruption scandals.

South Korea says North Korea has fired suspected artillery pieces into the sea.

South Korea’s president-elect says he will abandon the current mountainside presidential palace of Blue House and establish his office in central Seoul as part of efforts to better communicate with the public.

After winning last week's presidential election, South Korean conservative Yoon Suk Yeol will enter office facing a quickly growing North Korean nuclear threat — and with few easy choices to deal with it.

South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol says he will solidify an alliance with the United States, build a powerful military and sternly cope with North Korean provocations.

A conservative former prosecutor declared victory in South Korea’s presidential election after his liberal ruling party rival conceded defeat amid a bitter battle in the politically divided nation.

South Koreans are voting Wednesday to choose their next president.

An unusually bitter election season in South Korea culminates on Wednesday when tens of millions of voters pick their next president.

The rivalry, mudslinging and negative campaigning between the two leading presidential candidates in South Korea are so bad that the loser faces a prospect of going to jail.

Ahead of the March 9 presidential election in South Korea, major candidates are embroiled in a heated debate over how to address a foreign policy challenges that include the U.S.-China rivalry, North Korea's nuclear threats and badly strained ties with Japan.

The United States and European allies are stepping up sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by adding measures directly targeting President Vladimir Putin and his top diplomat.

The U.S. and all 27 European Union member nations are ordering initial penalties targeting Russian officials over their actions in Ukraine.

South Korea will extend restaurant dining hours but maintain a six-person limit on private social gatherings as it wrestles with a massive coronavirus wave driven by the highly infectious omicron variant.

South Korea will distribute free coronavirus rapid test kits at schools and senior care facilities starting next week as it weathers an unprecedented wave of infections driven by the fast-moving omicron variant.

Candidates for South Korea’s presidential election began their formal, 22-day campaigns Tuesday in a race tainted by intense political strife over allegations involving the main candidates and their families.

South Korea’s parliament has approved plans to provide a special time for COVID-19 patients to vote during the March 9 presidential election as the country grapples with a record-breaking omicron surge.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Hawaii to discuss the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea after Pyongyang began the year with a series of missile tests.

During the last Winter Games, North Korea basked in the global limelight in South Korea.

North Korea has confirmed it test-launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam in its most significant launch in almost five years.

A delegation led by South Korea’s president visiting Saudi Arabia has inked a preliminary deal to explore a project to develop a potentially cleaner form of energy.

The president of South Korea has reached a preliminary multibillion-dollar deal to sell Seoul’s surface-to-air missiles to Abu Dhabi and pledged deeper cooperation with the United Arab Emirates during a visit to the Gulf Arab state.

South Korea will prohibit private social gatherings of five or more people nationwide and force restaurants to close at 9 p.m. as the country grapples with the deadliest month of the pandemic.

Halting its steps toward normalcy, South Korea will clamp down on social gatherings and cut the hours of some businesses to fight a record-breaking surge of the coronavirus that has led to a spike hospitalizations and deaths.

South Korea has marked its deadliest day of the pandemic as an unrelenting, delta-driven spread stretched thin hospitals and left people dying while waiting for beds.

Australia and South Korea have signed a $720 million defense deal as South Korean President Moon Jae-in became the first foreign leader to visit Australia since the pandemic began.

New coronavirus infections in South Korea have exceeded 7,000 for the third consecutive day in a record-breaking surge that has crushed hospitals and threatens the country’s goals to weather the pandemic without lockdowns.

New coronavirus infections in South Korea exceeded 7,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic as hours-long lines snaked around testing stations in the capital Seoul amid a worsening virus crisis.

South Korea has confirmed its first five cases of the new omicron coronavirus variant in people linked to arrivals from Nigeria.

South Korea has reported 3,187 new cases of the coronavirus, nearly matching a one-day record set in September, a worrisome development in a country that eased social distancing rules in recent weeks to lessen the pandemic’s economic impact.

South Korea’s conservative former top prosecutor, who has called for a stronger U.S. security guarantee to neutralize North Korean nuclear threats, has won the main opposition party’s hotly contested nomination for next March’s presidential election.

The leaders of four Central European nations have met in Hungary’s capital where they urged visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in to consider investing in a rapid train line connecting Budapest and Polish capital Warsaw.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed to boost ties in the Indo-Pacific region during a meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit.

The Vatican has abruptly canceled the planned live broadcast of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Pope Francis.

South Korea’s president says he’ll keep striving to promote peace with North Korea through dialogue until the end of his term next May, after Pyongyang raised animosities with a resumption of provocative weapons tests.

South Korea’s first domestically produced space rocket reached its desired altitude but failed to deliver a dummy payload into orbit in its first test launch on Thursday.

As North Korea goes back to its pattern of pressuring South Korea to get what it wants from the United States, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un has emerged as the face of its campaign of mixing weapons demonstrations and peace offers.

North Korea has accused the United States of hostility and demanded the Biden administration permanently end joint military exercises with South Korea.

South Korea is urging North Korea to restore dormant communication hotlines, a day after the North repeated an offer to open conditional talks.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says her country will take steps to repair ties with South Korea, and may even discuss another summit between their leaders, if the South drops what she described as hostility and double standards.

Days after outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in made possibly his last ambitious push to diplomatically resolve the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program, the North has rejected his call for a declaration ending the Korean War, making it clear it has no interest in political statements unless they bring badly needed relief from crippling economic sanctions.

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says her country is willing to resume talks with South Korea if conditions are met, indicating it wants Seoul to persuade Washington to relax crippling economic sanctions.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in again pushed for peace and reconciliation with North Korea, amid recent missile testing on both ends of the peninsula.

It was a United Nations speech that got attention like few others — a plug for vaccines, young people and the earth’s well being from superstar K-pop band BTS.

In an unusual North Korean parade that showcased military animals and virus workers in hazmat suits instead of ballistic missiles, leader Kim Jong Un still managed to seize the spotlight by looking thinner and more energetic than he has in years.

Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong walked out of prison a year early in a parole decision demonstrating the conglomerate’s outsized influence in South Korea as well as the country's continuing leniency for bosses who commit corporate corruption.

A day before he is released on parole, Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong has appeared in a South Korean court for another trial.

South Korea says it will release billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong on parole this week after he spent 18 months in prison for his role in a massive corruption scandal that triggered nationwide protests and led to the ouster of the country’s previous president.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has warned that next month’s annual military drills between South Korean and U.S. troops will undermine prospects for better ties between the Koreas, just days after the rivals reopened their long-dormant communication channels.

North Korea isn't at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

North and South Korea exchanged messages in communication channels that have been dormant for more than a year and agreed to improve ties.

Japan’s “rising sun” flag is a focus of anger at the Olympics, with some in the Koreas, China and other Asian nations calling for it to be banned during the Tokyo Games.

South Korea’s Olympic committee says it has removed banners at the Olympic athletes’ village in Tokyo which referred to a 16th-century war between Korea and Japan.

Leaders of Asian Pacific nations have agreed to step up coronavirus vaccination sharing efforts.

South Korea has reported 1,212 new cases, a steep rise in coronavirus infections unseen since the winter outbreak as it slips into another surge while most of its people are still unvaccinated.

A South Korean court has rejected a claim by dozens of wartime Korean factory workers and their relatives who sought compensation from Japanese companies for their slave labor before the end of World War II.

North Korea says the U.S. allowing South Korea to build more powerful missiles was an example of the U.S.’s hostile policy against the North and could lead to instability.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed an “uncompromising struggle” against anti-socialist elements at home as he tries to fortify his power amid pandemic-related difficulties and U.S.-led economic sanctions.

There's a new vibe at the White House of late: Hugs are in.

President Joe Biden is awarding his first Medal of Honor to a 94-year-old retired Army colonel for bravery more than a half-century ago in the Korean War.

President Joe Biden says he and South Korean President Moon Jae-in remain “deeply concerned” about the situation with North Korea.

Pressure is mounting on South Korean President Moon Jae-in to pardon Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong now that he has spent nearly four months in prison after his conviction in a massive corruption scandal.

A South Korean activist says he launched 500,000 propaganda leaflets by balloon into North Korea in defiance of a new law that criminalizes such actions.

Samsung Electronics says its operating profit for the last quarter jumped 46% from a year earlier driven by increased sales of smartphones and televisions as its business continues to flourish amid the pandemic.

The White House says President Joe Biden will embark on his first overseas trip in office in June.

The mayors of a dozen major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, New York City and San Diego, are asking President Joe Biden to consult them as the administration studies how to identify and resettle people displaced by drought, rising seas and other effects of climate change.

President Joe Biden is being forced to go virtual for many of his leader-to-leader talks during the coronavirus pandemic, and the resulting Zoom meetings just aren't a natural fit for the back-slapping politician.

The White House says President Joe Biden will host South Korean President Moon Jae-in for meetings in the second half of May.

Two months after President Joe Biden took office, North Korea is again turning to weapons tests to wrest outside concessions. That indicates Washington has a window of engagement before North Korea pursues bigger provocations. Later in 2017, four days after current South Korean President Moon Jae-in was inaugurated, North Korea fired what it called a newly developed, nuclear-capable intermediate-range missile. North Korea could turn to long-range missile and even nuclear tests, which Kim Jong Un suspended when he began engaging diplomatically with Washington. Given its current tensions with Washington, China may not easily agree to more sanctions even if North Korea engages in long-range missile or nuclear tests, analyst Cha said.

The state health department said nearly 17,000 people had filled up four days of appointments for the speedway clinic being held Friday through Monday. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California state prisons will soon resume limited in-person visits with inmates more than a year after they were halted because of the coronavirus pandemic. Museums, aquariums, retail businesses and shops, hair salons and personal care businesses can operate at 100% capacity indoors and outdoors. The three joined neighboring Santa Mateo County on Tuesday as the latest Bay Area counties to move into California’s “moderate” tier for coronavirus restrictions. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady says the biggest driver behind the increase is young adults.

FILE - In this March 2, 2019, file photo, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam. Her statement was issued on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Asia to talk to U.S. allies Japan and South Korea about North Korea and other regional issues. Kim Yo Jong’s statement was issued as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Asia to talk with U.S. allies Japan and South Korea about North Korea and other regional issues. AdShe said the North would also consider scrapping an office that handled South Korean tours to the North’s scenic Diamond Mountain, which Seoul suspended in 2008 after a North Korean guard fatally shot a South Korean tourist. In the past, the North has often responded with U.S.-South Korea drills with missile tests.

South Korean army K-9 self-propelled howitzers take positions during the annual exercise in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Tuesday, June 23, 2020. A South Korean activist said Tuesday hundreds of thousands of leaflets had been launched by balloon across the border with North Korea overnight, after the North repeatedly warned it would retaliate against such actions. AdU.S.-South Korea drills have been a major source of animosities on the peninsula, with North Korea viewing them as invasion rehearsals and responding with its own weapons tests. In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the U.S. to withdraw its hostile policy and South Korea to end drills with the U.S., warning the fate of their relations with North Korea depends on how they behave. The government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which facilitated the early part of the U.S.-North Korea talks, has been calling for the diplomacy’s restart and greater inter-Korean ties.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during a ceremony to mark the March First Independence Movement Day, the anniversary of the 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 1, 2021. “There have been times where issues of the past weren’t separated from those of the future and became intermingled with each other. Those rulings led to further tensions over trade when Japan put export controls on chemicals vital to South Korea’s semiconductor industry. Japan has insisted that all wartime compensation issues were settled under a 1965 treaty normalizing relations with South Korea and it has reacted angrily to South Korean court rulings saying otherwise. There is a risk for further deterioration of the relationship if South Korean courts eventually order the liquidation of local assets of Japanese companies that have refused to compensate forced laborers.

FILE - In this June 16, 2017, file photo, North Korean men and women use computer terminals at the Sci-Tech Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kwon Bo-young, a public relations manager at Pfizer’s South Korean office, said in text message that it was checking Ha’s claim with its global headquarters. AdAcquiring coronavirus vaccines is crucial for North Korea, whose public health care system is in shambles. The current South Korean government of President Moon Jae-in espouses rapprochement with North Korea and a negotiated settlement of the global standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program. Moon was a driving force behind now-dormant nuclear diplomacy between North Korea and the United States.

Lee Yong-soo, a South Korean woman who was sexually enslaved by Japan's World War II military, weeps during a press conference at the Press Center in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021. Lee called for the leaders of both countries to settle an impasse over the issue by seeking judgment from the International Court of Justice. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)SEOUL – A South Korean woman who was sexually enslaved by Japan’s World War II military called for the leaders of both countries to settle an impasse over the issue by seeking judgment from the International Court of Justice. Bilateral tensions over sexual slavery flared again last month when a South Korean court ruled that the Japanese government must give 100 million won ($90,000) to each of 12 victims who filed lawsuits in 2013 over their wartime sufferings. While a lawsuit at the U.N. court could only happen if both countries agree to take their dispute there, it would be illogical for Japan to object when it has already accused South Korean court rulings of violating international law, he said.

In this photo provided by South Korea Presidential Blue House, South Korean President Moon Jae-in talks on the phone with U.S. President Joe Biden at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, in South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. During their first phone talks since President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed the allies make joint efforts for lasting peace and denuclearization. The two leaders agreed on the need to soon map out a “comprehensive strategy on North Korea if possible,” Moon’s spokesman, Kang Min-seok, said. AdThe U.S., which has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, regularly stages military drills with South Korea. North Korea views such military training and U.S.-led sanctions as proof of American hostility.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-Joon, File)TOKYO – Japan's foreign minister accused South Korea on Monday of worsening already strained ties by making “illegal” demands for compensation for the sexual abuse of Korean women and use of forced laborers during World War II. Japan, under a 1995 semi-governmental Asian Women’s Fund, offered payments and apology letters to certified victims of its wartime sexual abuse from five countries, settling disputes with all but South Korea. Japan is still calling for appropriate steps by South Korea, while considering all possible options, he said. “We will be watching what actions will be taken by the South Korean side,” Sakai said. ___Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong arrives at the Seoul High Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. South Korean court sentences Lee to 2 and a half years in prison over corruption case. Samsung didn’t issue a statement over the ruling. Lee Jae-yong helms the Samsung group in his capacity as vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s largest makers of computer chips and smartphones. It isn’t immediately clear what his prison term would mean for Samsung.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during an on-line New Year press conference with local and foreign journalists at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)SEOUL – South Korea’s president on Monday urged the incoming Biden administration to build upon the achievements and learn from the failures of President Donald Trump’s diplomatic engagement with North Korea. Biden has accused Trump of chasing the spectacle of summits rather than meaningful curbs on the North’s nuclear capabilities. And while Moon acknowledged that Biden is likely to try a different approach than Trump, he stressed that Biden could still learn from Trump’s successes and failures in dealing with North Korea. “The start of the Biden administration provides a new opportunity to start over talks between North Korea and the United States and also between South and North Korea,” which have stalled amid the stalemate in nuclear negotiations, Moon said.

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2017, file photo, former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, left, arrives to attend a hearing on the extension of her detention at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea. South Koreas top court upheld 20-year prison term for Park over corruption on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. But the finalizing of her prison term also makes her eligible for a special presidential pardon, a looming possibility as the country’s deeply split electorate approaches the next presidential election in March 2022. Park originally faced a prison term of more than 30 years before the Supreme Court sent her cases back to a lower court in 2019. Prosecutors appealed after the Seoul High Court handed Park a 20-year term in July last year after merging the two cases.

(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand will soon require that travelers from most countries show negative coronavirus tests before they leave for New Zealand. Public health officials announced plans Monday to replace the state’s distribution plan and direct providers to concurrently vaccinate high-risk groups. State health officials report more than 13,000 coronavirus patients currently in hospitals statewide, and nearly 30,000 deaths since the pandemic started. ___ATLANTA — Georgia’s plan to expand access to the coronavirus vaccine for people over 65 is off to a rocky start. ___AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan has received its first shipment of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine before its vaccination drive kicks off this week.