S Korea

In the three-day survey by Gallup Korea of 1,002 voters nationwide through Thursday, 38 percent gave a positive assessment of Moon's leadership, up 2 percentage points from a week earlier, reports Yonhap News Agency. The proportion of those who disapprove dropped 3 percentage points to 54 percent, Gallup said.

A total of 745 government ministries and agencies will be subject to this year's parliamentary investigation to be simultaneously conducted by the assembly's 17 standing committees, Yonhap News Agency quoted legislative officials as saying.

Noh's talks with Liu Xiaoming, Beijing's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, came a day after the North test-fired a hypersonic missile into the East Sea, Yonhap news agency reported.

"North Korea did not answer our opening call through the South-North joint liaison office at 9 a.m.," Yonhap News Agency quoted a Unification Ministry official said.

A day earlier, Kim Yo-jong said the North could declare a formal end to the Korean War as suggested by the South and even discuss holding an inter-Korean summit if Seoul treats Pyongyang with "impartiality" and mutual respect. The statement, carried by Pyongyang's official Korean News Agency, came a day after Kim said South Korean President Moon Jae-in's recent proposal to declare a formal end to the Korean War.

The former party chairman garnered 47.1 per cent of the 71,835 votes cast by registered party members in the Gwangju-South Jeolla Province region, defeating Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung by a razor-thin margin of 0.2 percentage point, according to the election results released on Saturday.

In a statement, Kim Yo-jong however said that Pyongyang is willing to discuss improving inter-Korean relations if Seoul ceases to be hostile towards it, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The joint military drills are "an undesirable prelude which seriously undermines the will of the top leaders of the North and the South wishing to see a step taken toward restoring mutual trust and which beclouds the way ahead of the north-south relations", Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un.

Over the past year, multiple lawmakers have proposed bills to curb app market operators from imposing their proprietary billing systems on in-app purchases amid growing complaints from local app developers and content creators over high fees. Last September, Google said it would impose its billing system on all app developers on its mobile Android operating system's Play store from October this year.

The new rules will be applied only for those who have been fully inoculated in South Korea two weeks after receiving Covid-19 jabs, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). They will still need to receive Covid-19 tests and have no related symptoms to be exempted from the mandatory self-isolation, the authorities added.