As political changes loom, South Korea’s leadership crisis could affect ties with China, Japan and the US, observers say.

Seoul and Beijing have resumed their negotiations to expand their existing free trade agreement (FTA) to include the service and investment sectors, Seoul's trade ministry said Thursday. The talks, the 10th of their kind,

Seoul shares opened lower Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street, as investors awaited a swath of Chinese data set to be released later in the day. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 5.

China's newly appointed ambassador to Korea, Dai Bing, has engaged in a new form of public diplomacy with the Korean public through his active use of social media, in contrast to his predecessors.

Seoul shares ended slightly lower Friday on foreign selling, with China's better-than-expected economic growth falling short of boosting investor sentiment. The Korean won fell against the US dollar.

As Seoul continues to deal with its current leadership crisis, Beijing could be an unexpected beneficiary from the chaos.

In spite of a bilateral agreement banning development, China has placed a large structure in an area of the West Sea that South Korea says is its territory.

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Tuesday, South Korea's military said, marking Pyongyang's latest show of force just days ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to office.

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’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 trade authorities of South Korea and China will hold the 10th follow-up negotiations on the FTA services and investment in Seoul, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 16th.

Start-ups with Chinese ties have found it increasingly difficult to do business and list shares in the United States.