Mount Everest blizzard: nearly 1,000 trapped on Tibetan side amid rescue efforts
Rescue operations are underway on Mount Everest's eastern Tibetan slope after a powerful blizzard trapped nearly 1,000 trekkers in high-altitude camps...
South Korea's top trade envoy, Yeo Han-koo, is heading to the United States on Monday for follow-up tariff negotiations, the trade ministry said, as the countries struggle to overcome obstacles to finalise a trade deal agreed in July.
Details of the broad trade agreement still need to be hammered out, especially around a $350 billion investment fund.
Officials in Seoul have said talks are being delayed because the terms outlined in a similar trade deal Japan struck with the U.S. are unacceptable for South Korea due to foreign exchange market implications.
Kim Yong-beom, South Korea's top presidential policy adviser, said last week talks were "deadlocked" over foreign exchange issues, flagging concerns over the repercussions to foreign currency reserves from implementing the $350 billion investment package.
The finance ministry said on Sunday that it was discussing various measures with the U.S. to minimise any impact on the onshore currency market from the investment package but declined to confirm if these included a foreign exchange swap line.
Yeo's trip comes after Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan recently returned from Washington after talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
"We're working hard to achieve an outcome that is reasonable and meets our national interests," Yeo told reporters at the airport before leaving for the United States. He also reiterated that South Korea did not intend to further open up the agricultural market.
The apparent inability of Industry Minister Kim to make progress in trade talks during his U.S. trip has raised concerns that negotiations have reached an impasse, local media reported.
Kim did not elaborate on the trade negotiations other than saying they were still underway when asked by reporters about his latest U.S. trip.
The trade ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Asked about whether the talks were being prolonged, Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said on Monday that the government would negotiate with Washington until it reached an outcome that maximised South Korea's national interests, including on foreign currency reserves and the protection of companies.
President Lee Jae Myung said last week that he would not sign any agreement with the U.S. if it put at risk South Korea's national interests.
"If it doesn't benefit us, there's no point in signing it," Lee told a press conference.
Strained relationship
The tariff negotiations are underway at a time when the countries are trying to repair strained ties after a recent U.S. immigration raid where hundreds of Korean workers were arrested at a Hyundai Motor battery plant in the state of Georgia, one of South Korea's biggest U.S. investment projects.
Images of the raid where workers were taken into custody in handcuffs and shackles by U.S. immigration authorities have left many shocked in South Korea, a key U.S. ally.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on social media that he wanted foreign companies to bring their professionals to teach and train Americans to learn how to make complex products such as chips and ships.
"I want them (foreign companies) to bring their people of expertise for a period of time to teach and train our people how to make these very unique and complex products," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
"I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize Investment into America by outside Countries or Companies," he said.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
Typhoon Matmo intensified as it approached southern China, prompting authorities to evacuate approximately 347,000 residents across Guangdong and Hainan provinces.
A devastating building collapse at the Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, has resulted in at least 40 confirmed deaths, with 23 students still missing under the rubble.
A tragic hunting accident in Iowa resulted in the death of 17-year-old Carson Ryan, who was mistakenly identified as a squirrel by a member of his hunting party and fatally shot in the back of the head.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the death toll in Gaza has now reached 67,139 amid continuing Israeli airstrikes and military operations. In the past 24 hours alone, officials said 65 bodies were brought to hospitals and 153 people were wounded.
Rescue operations are underway on Mount Everest's eastern Tibetan slope after a powerful blizzard trapped nearly 1,000 trekkers in high-altitude camps.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment