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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday vowed to strengthen deterrence against North Korea's threats by establishing a nuclear planning and implementation system with the United States.

Speaking at a commissioning ceremony for Naval academy graduates, the president also said South Korea will step up joint military drills with the United States. (Reuters)

Home prices in several major markets will extend their decline this year, according to a global Reuters poll of property analysts who either predicted slightly steeper drops or kept their view steady from a survey three months ago.

Even greater drops may be in the offing, since the forecasts were collected before the Federal Reserve this week indicated that U.S. interest rates would likely climb higher and stay elevated for longer than previously thought.

Rising mortgage rates as central banks lift benchmark borrowing costs to curb inflation, and a historic house price boom during the COVID pandemic have pushed home ownership closer to impossible for many prospective first-time buyers.

That in turn has pushed up rents sharply in most markets, leaving the overall cost of housing much more expensive in just the past few years.

Predicted drops in house prices in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Germany, Australia and New Zealand will come off price surges of as much as 50% since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

Indeed, 50 of the 96 analysts in the polls, taken from Feb. 15 to March 8, said affordability would worsen in the coming year. They included nine who said it would do so significantly.

"Those markets that saw the strongest growth during the pandemic, so places like New Zealand, Canada, the Nordic markets, are probably likely to be most heavily affected," said Kate Everett-Allen, head of international global residential research at Knight Frank.

House prices in Canada and New Zealand, which began to fall last year, were forecast to register a peak-to-trough drop of at least 20%, the poll showed.

Both countries have a considerably high household debt-to-income ratios.

Double-digit falls from recent peaks were also predicted for Australia (16.0%), Germany (11.5%) and the U.S. (10.0%). British home prices were expected to fall 8.0%.

Among the most commonly cited reasons for house prices to remain elevated were crimped supply, made worse during the pandemic, when construction activity came to a near-halt, and ever-rising demand.

"A slowdown in new housing construction and (a) drop in building permits are expected to deepen housing shortages in many countries across the world, with population growth continuing to outpace growth in new housing supply," said analysts at JLL.

"A divergence in construction output is anticipated in 2023 with most markets seeing a fall in supply."

However, activity in the crisis-hit China property market, which has seen mounting debt defaults over the past year, was forecast to recover this year as stimulus policies and the scrapping of COVID-19 curbs improve sentiment.

While India's housing market will remain resilient despite rising interest rates, home prices in Dubai were also predicted to rise steadily. (Reuters)

Japan has become the latest country to join an alternative mechanism for resolving disputes to the World Trade Organization, it said in a statement on Friday, in a move that observers say could urge others to follow suit.

The top appeals bench of the global trade watchdog which rules on trade disputes has been idle for more than two years because of holds on appointments during the administration of former President Donald Trump. The United States, which continues to resist regular calls to approve appointments, is instead leading private discussions on how to reboot the dispute system.

"As an interim measure until the dispute settlement function is restored, the Japanese government decided to join the MPIA," Japan's economy ministry said in a statement, referring to the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement.

Japan, a regular user of the WTO dispute system including in a recent case with South Korea, is the 26th member to join the alternative arrangement, according to the MPIA website. Parties include the European Union, Canada and Brazil.

"Japan's membership may increase pressure on wavering potential members, like the United Kingdom and South Korea," Dmitry Grozoubinksi, Executive Director of the Geneva Trade Platform told Reuters. He added that its adhesion would offer a legal path forward for any future disputes between Japan and China, since they are both members.

The paralysis of the WTO's top dispute bench means that the losing side can appeal the outcome from the lower court into a legal void, as has happened to Japan twice. This has led to fewer cases being brought to the WTO. (Reuters)

The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation board of governors on Friday backed the reappointment of Argentina's Rafael Grossi to a second four-year term as director general, diplomats at the closed-door meeting said.

The decision was a formality since there was no challenger.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's board approved his reappointment by acclamation, meaning that no vote was held and no country expressed opposition, diplomats said. The decision is subject to approval by the IAEA's General Conference, an annual meeting of all member states held in the autumn.

The General Conference is expected to approve it. Grossi's current term ends in December.

"I think it's a sign of trust. We have lots to do, with Iran, with Ukraine, with nuclear energy," he told Reuters outside the meeting room after the decision.

"One thing that was very heart-warming, I would say, is that there were great expressions of support from the entire ... arc of representation and political vision and that is of course for the head of an international organisation the best sign of trust. I need trust to be effective."

Grossi has overseen a turbulent period in relations with Iran, since the Islamic Republic started breaching restrictions imposed on its nuclear activities by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with major powers the year he took office.

Iran's steps, which have now gone well beyond those curbs, followed the United States' withdrawal from the deal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, which re-imposed U.S. sanctions against Iran.

The IAEA is policing that deal although it is not a party to it, and it is also locked in a years-long standoff with Iran over the separate issue of uranium particles found at three undeclared sites, which Iran has yet to explain credibly.

After Grossi visited Iran this weekend, both sides issued a joint statement saying Iran was prepared to hand over more information on the traces and allow more monitoring related to the 2015 nuclear deal, but the statement went into few details and is subject to further talks.

Grossi, a more vocal IAEA chief than his Japanese predecessor Yukiya Amano, who died in office, has also been trying to broker a protection zone around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine,

Shelling near Zaporizhzhia, which Russia and Ukraine have blamed on each other, has repeatedly cut external power lines needed to cool reactor fuel and avoid a potentially catastrophic meltdown at Europe's biggest nuclear power plant. (Reuters)