S Korea

"Relations between South Korea and Japan went through the most difficult and deepest ordeal for the past few years, but they are showing a clear trend of improvement recently," Yoon said in the message, read by First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong, at a joint Seoul conference of the two countries' private panels

In the poll, 39.3 per cent positively assessed Yoon's performance, down 1.6 percentage points from the previous week, reports Yonhap News Agency. Yoon's disapproval rating was 58.4 per cent, up 2.5 percentage points over the same period. This marks the first time in five weeks Yoon's approval rating has sunk below the 40 per cent mark since the second week of December 2022.

In the poll of 2,511 voters conducted by Realmeter from December 26-30, 2022, 40 per cent positively assessed Yoon's job performance, down 1.2 percentage points from the previous week, reports Yonhap News Agency. Yoon's disapproval rating was 57.2 per cent, up 0.6 percentage point.

A total of 1,045 cyberattacks were reported to the authorities in the first 11 months of this year, up from 640 cases tallied last year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT. Out of the total, 303 cases, or 29 per cent, were ransomware-related attacks, a type of malware that encrypts the victim's files and demands a ransom payment.

The country reported 58,862 new Covid infections, including 85 from overseas, bringing the total to 28,188,293, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily caseload jumped to over 86,830 on Tuesday, the highest in three months, from 25,657 a day ago but it had been on the decline to 66,930 on Saturday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The co-hosts of the virtual event will also include three more representatives of each continent -- the Netherlands (Europe), Zambia (Africa) and Costa Rica (Latin America) -- Yoon's office was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. The presidential office said the upcoming summit is expected to offer an opportunity to continuously expand the nation's horizon of value diplomacy by sharing its democratisation experience and anti-corruption efforts with the international community.

Five officials of Citizen Press The Tamsa TV, a YouTube channel, went to Han Dong-hoon's apartment in the southern Seoul ward of Gangnam on Sunday afternoon without an appointment or permission from the minister. They tried to open the door and looked at parcels placed there before leaving the scene one minute and 30 seconds later as there appeared to be no one home.

The additional victim is a South Korean woman in her 20s, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. A total of 132 South Koreans and 26 foreigners were killed during the crowd surge in the popular nightlife district of Itaewon on October 29.

President Yoon Suk-yeol and US President Joe Biden reached the agreement during a one-on-one summit held in Phnom Penh on the sidelines of regional gatherings amid heightened tensions in the wake of North Korea's unprecedented provocations and concerns the regime could conduct its seventh nuclear test, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Yoon Suk-yeol is set to leave on Friday on a six-day trip that will take him first to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for regional summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and then to Bali, Indonesia, for the G20 summit, reports Yonhap News Agency.