Briefly

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Court upholds acquittal of Yoon

An appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's acquittal of former president Yoon Suk-yeol in a perjury trial related to his testimony in the insurrection trial of former prime minister Han Ducksoo, according to Yonhap news agency. The Seoul High Court ruled in favor of Yoon, maintaining the not-guilty first-instance verdict delivered in May. The team of Cho Eun-suk, an independent counsel who led investigations into Yoon's insurrection and other charges, lowered its demand from a prison sentence to a 10 million won (about $7,300) fine on appeal. Yoon was accused of giving false testimony during the trial of the former prime minister about a cabinet meeting on his martial law declaration.

DPRK ordered to pay for demolition

A court ruled on Wednesday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea should pay 44.6 billion won ($32.5 million) to the ROK government over the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office building in 2020. The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs' compensation claim, but did not provide specific reasons for the ruling. This marked the first time the government had sued the DPRK as a plaintiff and won the case, Yonhap News Agency reported. In June 2020, the DPRK blew up the liaison office building in DPRK's border town of Kaesong. According to the Korean Central News Agency, the move was in response to public sentiment.

SUDAN

Gold mine collapse kills at least 60

A gold mine collapsed in southern Sudan, killing at least 60 small-scale miners, two survivors told AFP on Wednesday, while many more are missing and feared dead under the rubble. Shafts began collapsing in the Al-Zaraa mine near the town of El-Nahud in West Kordofan on Tuesday, and by the following morning 60 bodies had been retrieved. "We don't know how many more are still inside," one of the survivors, Khair al-Sayyed Jabara, told AFP after an all-night rescue operation with fellow miners, using the same rudimentary tools they use to mine.

XINHUA-AGENCIES