South Korea

| KOREA – RUSSIA

This is the estimate by the government-funded Korea Institute for Defense Analysis for North Korea’s shipment of weapons, men and technology to Russia. The supplies include 21,000 containers of weapons sent by sea. Between late 2024 and the start of 2025, North Korea sent almost 127,000 phishing emails to South Korean officials, journalists and researchers.


The 30th anniversary of the Committee set up by Card Stephen Kim, who celebrates a weekly Mass for peace and the reunification of the Korean peninsula, was celebrated in Myeongdong Cathedral. Archbishop Chung said: ‘It is disheartening to see that today hatred prevails over suspicion, over exclusion and hatred. Let us continue to walk together on the path of conversion of hearts’.

| 12/03/2025
| NORTH KOREA - SOUTH KOREA

As South Korea awaits the Constitutional Court's decision on impeaching the president, the leaders of the country's main religious groups call for unity and respect for the court’s decision. Tensions have risen after Yoon's recent release from prison, putting security forces on alert. Meanwhile, support for the ruling party is also up.

| 10/03/2025
| SOUTH KOREA

This trend reflects the country’s overall economic situation with unemployment on the rise. Among those with a doctorate, young people under 30 report the worst figure (47.7 per cent), while the number of those who voluntarily leave the job market is also increasing.

 

| 03/03/2025
| SOUTH KOREA

A Mass in Seoul Cathedral marked the anniversary of the foundation of the Society established by the Korean Catholic Church in 1975 for the missio ad gentes. Today it counts 87 missionaries in 9 different countries. Pope Francis' wish: “Your zeal in proclaiming the Gospel overcomes every barrier”.

| 27/02/2025
| SOUTH KOREA

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) and the Saudi Film Commission (SFC) are set to work together to develop cooperation in the film industry. The two sides inked an agreement, based on a 2019 memorandum of understanding, to encourage cultural exchange, film co-production and technological innovation, with training and networking initiatives between industry professionals.

| 21/02/2025
| SOUTH KOREA – SAUDI ARABIA

The Seoul authorities denounce the ‘inhuman’ destruction of a place with a strong symbolic value. A gesture that continues the policy of shelving any prospect of reunification between North and South. Over the years, the facility on Mount Kumgang had hosted reunions between relatives separated by the conflict for decades: the last meeting was in 2018.

| 13/02/2025
| KOREA
Editor's choices
 
by Gianni Criveller
The College of Cardinals Francis created reflects the world more than the Catholic Church, or rather, it reflects her missionary vocation. Numbers count far less than bearing evangelical witness, which Christians are expected to live in the community ...
| 27/04/2025
| EDITORIAL
 
by Sumon Corraya
The meeting in 2017 in Bangladesh with a delegation of one million exiles from Myanmar was one of the most touching moments in the pontiff's trip. He often remembered that embrace in the following years. “Pope Francis was a beacon of hope for ...
| 26/04/2025
| BANGLADESH - VATICAN
 
A source talked to AsiaNews about how Chinese Catholics are coping with Francis’s death. Remarks and pictures abound on local social media. “Amid the sorrow and mourning, the joy of announcing love prevailed,” as “a spontaneous ...
| 24/04/2025
| RED LANTERNS
 
The 12 years of Francis’s pontificate were marked by 13 trips in Asia, from the first visit to South Korea to the long journey last September to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore. During this time, his message of peace and ...
| 23/04/2025
| VATICAN – ASIA
 
by sr. Mary Joseph *
From Calcutta, the superior of Mother Teresa's sisters remembers Pope Francis. ‘He made the Church refocus its attention on the marginalised’. Bergoglio wanted the Missionaries of Charity to open a new home in Bajo Flores, a slum ...
| 23/04/2025
| INDIA - VATICAN
 
by Gianni Criveller
Proclaiming the Gospel was his top priority: he reminded us that mission is about joy, that its territories are not defined by geography or people's religious affiliation. Through his life and teaching, he taught us that Jesus' missionaries ...
| 22/04/2025
| EDITORIAL
 
by Card Anthony Poola*
One of the great signs of the pontificate that ended this morning with the death of Pope Francis is his care for the peripheries of the world. The archbishop of Hyderabad, the first Dalit called to join the College of Cardinals in 2022, pays tribute ...
| 21/04/2025
| VATICAN - INDIA
 
by Gianni Criveller
From Myanmar to the Middle East, countless women, children and men in Asia, victims of pain and injustice, weep like Mary Magdalene who lost her Lord and friend. But with her, they believe that the Risen One changes the course of history and allows ...
| 19/04/2025
| EDITORIAL
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”