(Reuters) - Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

On January 15, law enforcement officials finally arrested Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s impeached far-right president, for plotting an insurrection in the form of an attempt to impose martial law late last year.

A growing number of countries are confronting the dual challenges of population decline and aging. China said Friday that its population fell for a third straight year in 2024.

South Korea may consider a plan to increase US food imports to help reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries should it emerge as a point of tension with Donald Trump’s incoming administration,

The loose arrangement of hostile powers could pose a series of conundrums for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state.

A month after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's astonishing decision to impose martial law, the country is still deep in political turmoil. But if the opposition Minjoo (Democratic) Party ends up taking power,

John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, said of Hegseth's remarks on North Korea's status as a nuclear power: "We've not made such a recognition. I can't speak to what the incoming team will—how they'll characterize it. We've not gone so far as to make that recognition."

The area in question lies within the Provisional Measures Zone, established in 2001 to manage disputes over overlapping exclusive economic zones (EEZs) between the two countries. The agreement prohibits constructing facilities or exploiting resources other than fishing, pending a permanent boundary resolution.

Yoon supporters have accused China without evidence of driving the anti-Yoon protests. They have also embraced Yoon’s false claims of election fraud, as well as Trump’s. “South Korea, like the United States, is being destroyed by electoral fraud.

Yoon’s detention, after a tense standoff outside the presidential residence, marks the latest chapter in a bewildering series of events since his martial law decree.

The uneasy truce between nuclear-armed North Korea and US-allied South Korea remains one of the most vexing security concerns for the world