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A year after nearly 400 Afghan refugees fled the Taliban takeover of their homeland to settle in South Korea, many have swapped white-collar pursuits for factory jobs in a struggle with language and cultural challenges as they build new lives.

They were among the 79 Afghan families South Korea evacuated as Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, permitting them long-term stays in return for having worked on its projects in the war-ravaged mountainous nation. 

"It's so hard to lose everything, especially your homeland," Shahpoor Ahmad Azimi, 38, tearfully told Reuters just hours before he was due to begin his 12-hour overnight shift at a plastic factory in Yongin, south of Seoul, the capital.

A graduate of the elite Kabul University, with a bachelor's degree in journalism who formerly worked with a Korean provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan, Azimi now packs plastic products.

Despite the career change, the job feeds his family, Azimi said, expressing gratitude to South Korea for helping them escape the Taliban which curbed the rights of women and girls, in particular, after it toppled the Western-backed government.

"My daughters can't go outside alone in Afghanistan, can't go to school alone," Azimi added in an interview. "But here, we never think about (that) when they go out alone."

Still, every day is a challenge, he said, with language shaping as the single biggest hurdle on the way to resettlement.

"Sometimes I can't tell the exact reasons to my boss, or to my colleagues," he added, describing the struggle to find the right words to explain himself in his new language.

"They ask, 'Why couldn't you do (something) like this?' But I cannot say why."

While the government offers language classes for the refugees, few of those working shifts can find the time to attend.

"You see our schedule, there is no time to learn," said Rahmatullah Rahmat, a former translator who now works with Azimi, pointing to a duty roster at the factory. "That's the most difficult."

Many of the evacuated Afghans in South Korea were office workers like Azimi, but most had to switch professions to find employment, government data show.

Of the 78 families still in South Korea by February, 72 individuals had found jobs in manufacturing and shipbuilding, with 15 having quit, the data show.

"They cited difficulty in adapting due to problems in communication, health and work environment," said Song So-young, an official of a support group the government set up for the new arrivals.

Of 27 with backgrounds in medical services, just two were able to find jobs in the same sector. Now, the government is reviewing the matter of acknowledging the licences from, and the experience amassed, in their home country, Song said.

Cultural differences are sometimes evident in a country where many still believe in ethnic homogeneity. Some Korean parents held a protest against the entry of Afghan children in local schools when they first arrived last year.

Despite the host of concerns, Azimi said he had no plan to return to Afghanistan in the near future, for the well-being of his children, among other reasons.

Now, he added, he "never" thinks about the past and the life he had in Afghanistan, preferring to focus on a new start.

"If I think about my past, I will lose everything here. My family and my children. I start my life first from here." (Reuters)

 Japan will spend $1.83 million on a state funeral for slain former leader Shinzo Abe, the government said on Friday, despite growing opposition from a public angered by revelations of the ruling party's ties to the Unification Church.

Abe, Japan's longest-serving but divisive premier, was shot and killed at an election rally on July 8, and although funeral services were held soon after, Japan has decided to hold a state funeral at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan arena on Sept. 27.

The government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, an Abe protege, decided the state funeral would be paid for solely with state funds.

But opinion polls show persistent opposition to the idea. In the latest, published on Sunday, 53% of respondents were against a state funeral.

The public has been angered by revelations of ties between the ruling party and the Unification Church, which a vast majority of respondents in opinion polls feel have not been fully explained and have become a major headache for Kishida, dragging down his support. 

The church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s and famous for its mass weddings, has over the years faced questions over how its solicits donations.

Abe's suspected assassin, arrested at the scene moments after the shooting, bore a grudge against the church, alleging it bankrupted his mother, and he blamed Abe for promoting it, according to his social media posts and news reports.

The man is undergoing psychiatric evaluation, media has reported.

"Abe was highly regarded both within Japan and internationally, and there have been many messages of condolence (since his death)," chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference.

"We believe it is necessary for Japan as a country to respond to that as international etiquette, and so we decided that it is best to conduct this funeral as an official event hosted by the government and have international visitors attend," he said.

Japan's last fully state-funded funeral for a prime minister was for Shigeru Yoshida in 1967. Subsequent ones have been paid for by both the state and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which Abe was an influential member.

Several current and former world leaders are expected to attend, with news reports saying arrangements were being made for former U.S. President Barack Obama to take part.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend, the Kremlin said in July. (Reuters)

Suspended Thai leader Prayuth Chan-ocha said on social media he will continue in his role as defence minister, in his first direct address to the public since a court ordered him to cease his duties as prime minister while it reviews his term limit.

"I will continue to do my duty and responsibility as defence minister for the people and Thailand every day," Prayuth said on the Twitter account of the prime minister's office on Thursday.

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday decided to hear a petition brought by the main opposition party arguing that Prayuth's years spent as the chief of a military junta after he took power in a 2014 coup, should count toward his overall time in office. The constitution stipulates a term limit of eight years for the prime minister. 

It remains unclear when the court will deliver a decision on the review.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan is serving as acting premier of Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy. He declined to answer journalists' questions on his first day in the prime minister's office on Friday.

The controversy over Prayuth's term limit is the latest eposide in nearly two decades of intermittent political turmoil, including two coups and violent protests, stemming from opposition to military involvement in politics and demands for greater representation as political awareness grows.

A government spokesperson, Anucha Burapachaisri, said on Friday the cabinet continues to function as normal. (Reuters)

Officials from Turkey, Finland and Sweden were expected to meet at an undisclosed location in Finland on Friday to discuss security concerns which Turkey raised as a precondition for allowing the two Nordic countries to join the NATO military alliance.

Finland's Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said earlier the first meeting between officials would aim to establish contacts and set goals for cooperation that the three countries agreed to by signing a memorandum of understanding at NATO's Madrid summit at the end of June.

The two Nordic countries applied for NATO membership in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but were faced with opposition from Turkey which accused them of imposing arms embargoes on Ankara and supporting groups it deems terrorists.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has demanded Sweden and Finland extradite suspects Turkey seeks over terrorism-related charges while the Nordic countries argue they did not agree to any specific extraditions by signing the memorandum.

Finland's foreign ministry remained tight-lipped about Friday's meeting, refusing to reveal its location or even timing.

"This is a matter of security. If we would tell where Turkey's high officials are at which time, it would give quite a careless picture of us," Haavisto's state secretary Jukka Salovaara told Finland's public broadcaster YLE. (Reuters)