Latest news

The North Korea crisis
Parasites and worn clothes in North Korea's junk balloons

Parasites from human feces and clothing with Hello Kitty prints have been identified among the contents of the junk balloons North Korea sent across the border, according to an analysis conducted in South Korea.

Over 1,000 balloons have been sent from North Korea in recent weeks, in retaliation for South Korean activists sending leaflets in the opposite direction. But the contents of the bags also provide information about the situation in North Korea, according to South Korea's Ministry of Unification.

Among other things, the presence of roundworms, whipworms and springworms in combination with soil indicates that human excrement is used in the soil instead of chemical fertilizer. The extremely worn condition of the clothes in the bags also gives indications of the difficult economic situation in the country, according to the ministry.

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Many dead after fire at battery factory in South Korea

About 20 bodies have been found after a large fire at a battery factory in South Korea on Monday. Several people are still missing, several media reports.

South Korean news agency Yonhap has spoken to firefighter Kim Jin-Youn who says more than 100 people were in the building when several explosions occurred.

The factory that caught fire is owned by Aricell and is located in Hwaseong, south of the country's capital, Seoul. It is still unclear what caused the fire.

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The China-Taiwan relationship
Anger in Taiwan after China's new death penalty: 'No right'

Taiwan's new president Lai Ching-Te reacts strongly to the new legal guidelines introduced in China. He strongly criticizes threats to impose the death penalty on some separatists who support independence for Taiwan.

- Democracy is not a crime. It is autocracy that is the real evil, he says according to the Reuters news agency.

He also says that China has no right to direct sanctions or threats against the people of Taiwan.

It was on Friday that new guidelines for punishing people who want to see an independent Taiwan came into effect in China. Beijing announced that the death penalty may apply to "leaders" of independence efforts who "cause serious harm to the state and the people"