Polling is underway in South Korea to elect a new Parliament. About 44 million people are eligible to vote for its 300-member National Assembly. The outcome of today’s polls will also set the tone for the remaining years of Yoon Suk-yeol’s presidency. The election comes nearly two years after conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol won the 2022 presidential election defeating Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party by just 0.73 per cent – the slimmest margin in South Korean history. South Korea has a powerful presidential system, checked and balanced by the assembly which can pass or stop bills. The parliament is currently dominated by the Democratic Party which holds 142 out of 297 seats.Polling underway in South Korea to elect new Parliament
Polling underway in South Korea to elect new Parliament
Polling is underway in South Korea to elect a new Parliament. About 44 million people are eligible to vote for its 300-member National Assembly. The outcome of today’s polls will also set the tone for the remaining years of Yoon Suk-yeol’s presidency. The election comes nearly two years after conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol won the 2022 presidential election defeating Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party by just 0.73 per cent – the slimmest margin in South Korean history. South Korea has a powerful presidential system, checked and balanced by the assembly which can pass or stop bills. The parliament is currently dominated by the Democratic Party which holds 142 out of 297 seats.Polling underway in South Korea to elect new Parliament
Twitch to shut down in SKorea over 'seriously' high fees
WASHINGTON - US-based streaming platform Twitch said Wednesday it would stop its service in South Korea in February because of "seriously high" network costs, dealing a blow to millions of users in one of the heartlands of e-sports.
The Amazon-owned company said in a statement signed by CEO Dan Clancy that costs were 10 times higher than most other countries, making it impossible to continue operating.
South Korea allows internet service providers to charge data-heavy companies like Twitch extra fees, which has already led to a long dispute with Netflix.
Big telecom firms in Europe have pushed for a similar deal, which they call "fair share", but an EU consultation concluded in October that the idea was not popular.
Twitch said it had tried to lower its costs by reducing the maximum video quality but it was still losing money and would pull out of the country on February 27.
"The cost of running Twitch in South Korea is currently seriously high," said the statement.
- 'Stellar player' -
Twitch, acquired by Amazon in 2014 for close to $1 billion, gained significant traction among gamers in South Korea.
The firm does not publish user numbers but it was widely reported in 2021 to have six million users in South Korea, more than four percent of its global total.
The country is known for its passionate, competitive, and dedicated gaming community, as well as its megastar Faker -- a gamer hailed as the Michael Jordan of e-sports.
"We would like to reiterate that this was a very difficult decision, and one that all of us at Twitch are deeply saddened by," the company's Wednesday statement said.
"South Korea has always been a stellar player in the global e-sports community and will continue to do so."
Shares in South Korean video streaming service Afreeca TV, Twitch's competitor, soared almost 30 percent in afternoon trading in Seoul.
Some of the country's Twitch users were devastated by the news.
One streamer, yummy_2 said: "It feels like losing my job right now."
- Biden vs Trump -
Netflix was the first major international firm to cry foul over South Korea's rules on network fees, getting entangled in lawsuits with SK Broadband, one of South Korea's biggest internet service providers.
However, the two firms announced in September they would drop the legal cases and would now instead "collaborate as partners for the future".
While the usage fees are a boon to telecom companies, they are bitterly opposed by tech platforms around the world.
European lawmakers and digital rights activists also argue such an arrangement could break rules on net neutrality, whereby telecoms firms are barred from selling faster internet speeds to particular companies.The issue has been at the heart of a years-long dispute in the United States with former President Donald Trump rolling back net neutrality rules and his successor Joe Biden struggling to restore them. Twitch to shut down in SKorea over 'seriously' high fees
N Korea stole $300m in crypto to fund nukes: UN report
A confidential UN report claimed that North Korea has stolen more than $300 million worth of cryptocurrencies through cyberattacks in recent months to support its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. -Reports AFP
Compiled by a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang, the report said the country’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $316.4 million”, citing a UN member state.
Financial institutions and exchanges were hacked to generate revenue for Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development, said the report, which was seen by AFP.
The vast majority of the proceeds came from two thefts late last year.
The North is known to operate an army of thousands of well-trained hackers who have attacked firms, institutions and researchers in South Korea and elsewhere.
It has also been accused of exploiting its cyber capabilities for financial gain.
The North is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, which have made rapid progress under leader Kim Jong Un.
A summit between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February 2019 broke down over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.
Nuclear talks have been stalled ever since, while the North showed off several new missiles at military parades in October and last month when Kim pledged to strengthen his nuclear arsenal.
The UN panel said it was investigating a September 2020 hack against a cryptocurrency exchange that resulted in $281 million worth of cryptocurrencies being stolen.
A second cyberattack siphoned off $23 million a month later.
“Preliminary analysis, based on the attack vectors and subsequent efforts to launder the illicit proceeds strongly suggests links to the DPRK,” the report said, using the initials for the North’s official name.
Pyongyang’s cyberwarfare abilities first came to global prominence in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures Entertainment as revenge for “The Interview”, a satirical film that mocked leader Kim.
The attack resulted in the posting of several unreleased movies as well as a vast trove of confidential documents online.
The North is also blamed for a huge, $81 million cyber-heist from the Bangladesh Central Bank, as well as the theft of $60 million from Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank.
The North’s hackers have allegedly stepped up campaigns to raise funds by attacking cryptocurrency exchanges as the value of bitcoin and other cybercurrencies soared.
They were blamed for the 2017 WannaCry global ransomware cyberattack, which infected some 300,000 computers in 150 nations encrypting user files and demanding hundreds of dollars from their owners for the keys to get them back.Pyongyang has denied the accusations, saying it has “nothing to do with cyber-attacks”. - AFP Source:https://www.daily-bangladesh.com
