It was not what South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol wanted to talk about. For while the threat of new conflict with the nuclear-armed North Korea has long loomed across the armistice line, the South's domestic problems are growing—from the strains on ...

President Yoon Suk Yeol spoke to Newsweek's Chief Executive Officer Dev Pragad, Global Editor in Chief Nancy Cooper and Senior Global Affairs Editor Matthew Tostevin in Seoul. The text of the interview below has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol denied wrongdoing on Thursday in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife that is severely hurting his approval ratings and providing political munition to his rivals.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed the presence of North Korean troops in Russia during a phone conversation that comes amid growing concern about Pyongyang’s deepening military cooperation with Moscow.

During an address to the public and press conference held at the presidential office on Thursday, Yoon said that Trump brought up the topic of North Korea first, “perhaps becaus