South Korea

North Korea on Saturday morning fired what are believed to be three short-range ballistic missiles, one of which exploded shortly after launch, the U.S. Pacific Command said.

The missiles were launched near Kittaeryong between 6:49 a.m. Seoul time (5:49 pm. Friday ET) and 12:19 p.m. The second missile “appears to have blown up almost immediately,” Pacific Command said.

American President Donald Trump has spoken of raining "fire and fury" on North Korea after Pyongyang, having tested missiles that could potentially hit US interests, announced that it was looking at a strike at the US Pacific territory of Guam. Sabre rattling is a part of the fraught ties between the two countries.

The billionaire head of South Korea's Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was jailed for five years for bribery on Aug. 25 in a watershed for the country's decades-long economic order dominated by powerful, family-run conglomerates.

Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers have flown a rare mission around the Korean Peninsula at the same time as the United States and South Korea conduct joint military exercises that have infuriated Pyongyang.

The billionaire head of South Korea's Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was jailed for five years for bribery on Friday after a six-month trial over a scandal that brought down the president, reported Reuters. 

Iran has secured an eight-billion euro credit line from South Korea's Eximbank, the Islamic republic's biggest loan deal since its 2015 nuclear accord, the Iranian central bank announced on Aug. 24.

The bodies of three climbers suspected to have died more than two decades ago have been discovered on the Italian side of western Europe's highest peak Mont Blanc, local police have said.

"The glacier is constantly shifting and we can say that the deaths occurred around 1995," said a spokesman for the Alpine rescue police service in Italy's northwestern Val d'Aoste region.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the production of more solid-fuel rocket engines, state media said on Aug. 23, as he pursues nuclear and missile programs amid a standoff with Washington, but there were signs of tension easing.

The US has imposed sanctions on a dozen Russian and Chinese companies and individuals it accuses of helping North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, reported BBC.

It comes after the UN Security Council, including Russia and China, voted for further sanctions against Pyongyang.

As part of the visit of a Bulgarian parliamentary delegation in South Korea, the President of the Bulgarian Parliament Dimitar Glavchev has met with the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Chung Sye-kyun.