KOICA to establish Iraq’s first critical care hospital by 2023

The Korea International Cooperation Agency has broken ground on the first hospital specializing in critical care in Iraq slated for completion in 2023, the state-run overseas aid agency said Thursday.  The four-story Iraq-Korea Critical Care Specialty Hospital will be built on a 7,000-square-meter site in the country’s capital, Baghdad, with the KOICA injecting a total of $39.5 million for the project.  Once completed, the hospital will be equipped with eight operating ro

Foreign AffairsMarch 4, 2021

Moon replaces senior secretary for civil affairs: Cheong Wa Dae

President Moon Jae-in replaced his senior secretary for civil affairs and justice Thursday, eventually accepting a resignation offer by Shin Hyun-soo, according to Cheong Wa Dae. Kim Jin-kook, an official at the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), has been named to replace him, Chung Man-ho, senior secretary for public communication, said in a press statement. Shin tendered his resignation last month in apparent protest over a recent personnel shake-up at the prosecution that was led by new J

PoliticsMarch 4, 2021

Military offers condolences after death of discharged transgender soldier

The Ministry of National Defense offered condolences Thursday over the death of the country’s first transgender soldier, who was challenging the Army’s decision to discharge her over sex reassignment surgery. Byun Hee-soo, 23, was found dead at her home in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, the previous day. A local mental health clinic Byun frequented notified paramedics who found her with no will left behind. Byun, who tried to take her life before, had been unreachable since S

DefenseMarch 4, 2021

Top negotiator expects prompt defense cost-sharing deal with US

Jeong Eun-bo, South Korea’s chief negotiator for defense cost-sharing talks, raised expectations that a deal with the US will come soon, as he departed for Washington on Thursday for a new round of negotiations. 　 Jeong and his US counterpart, Donna Welton are set for talks in the US capital Friday to negotiate the cost-sharing deal, known as the Special Measures Agreement, the pact that governs the upkeep of the roughly 28,500-strong US Forces Korea. The two last held talks via video li

Foreign AffairsMarch 4, 2021

Moon likely to receive AstraZeneca vaccine before G-7 summit in June

President Moon Jae-in is expected to receive his COVID-19 jab before his planned trip to the UK in June to attend the G-7 summit, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday. “The president’s vaccination plan will be set up based on the disease control agency’s manual and the president’s diplomatic schedule,” presidential spokesperson Kang Min-seok said during a media briefing. “Like ordinary citizens, the president cannot choose the vaccine type. The exact dat

PoliticsMarch 4, 2021

Korea’s CO2 emissions fell 6% in 2020 from COVID-19: study

South Korea saw its carbon dioxide emissions fall 6 percent last year, while the global average declined 7 percent due to lockdowns in force because of the COVID-19 pandemic, research showed Wednesday. According to a study by the University of East Anglia, Stanford University and the Global Carbon Project, COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented fall in emissions of around 7 percent, or 2.6 billion metric tons of CO2, from a year earlier to 34 billion metric tons in 2020. While many stu

Social AffairsMarch 4, 2021

[News Focus] Number of men per 100 women slides to 99.4 in Korea

SEJONG -- South Korea’s demographic slide since December 2019 is mainly attributed to continuous decline in the male population, while the female population has recorded both positive or negative growth on-month. The situation has pulled down the nation’s sex ratio -- the number of men per 100 women -- to an all-time low of 99.41, according to the data held by the Ministry of Interior and Safety. The male population posted 25.836 million in February, down 1,951 from a month earlie

Social AffairsMarch 4, 2021

PM vows full probe into deaths following vaccine shots

The government will thoroughly investigate the deaths of five people who died after receiving COVID-19 vaccines and disclose its findings transparently, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Thursday. He requested that the public have trust in the vaccination campaign led by the government. South Korea began offering vaccine shots in late February. Two patients at long-term care hospitals in Gyeonggi Province, surrounding Seoul, died within days after being administered the AstraZeneca vaccine.

PoliticsMarch 4, 2021

KOICA to build Iraq's first intensive care hospital by 2023

South Korea's overseas aid agency said Thursday that it will construct the first intensive care hospital in Iraq by 2023, as part of efforts to help the Middle East country strengthen its medical services. The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) said that under a support project worth $39.5 million, it plans to build the four-story Iraq-Korea Critical Care Specialty Hospital on a 7,000-square-meter site in Baghdad. On Wednesday, the agency held a groundbreaking ceremony for the hosp

Foreign AffairsMarch 4, 2021

S. Korea, US to scale back combined exercise set to kick off

South Korea and the United States will launch a major combined exercise next week in a scaled-back manner due to concerns over the new coronavirus, sources said Thursday. The joint computer-simulated command post training is expected to kick off next week, but Seoul and Washington have yet to announce how they will stage the annual exercise. The South has sought, unsuccessfully, to include a Full Operational Capability (FOC) test in the upcoming exercise -- a crucial step necessary for the cou

DefenseMarch 4, 2021

Three more die after receiving AstraZeneca vaccine

Three more people died Thursday after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, officials said, raising the number of post-vaccination deaths in the country to five. A 52-year-old patient at a long-term care hospital in Jeonju, 243 kilometers south of Seoul, died early Thursday morning, nearly two days after being vaccinated, according to North Jeolla Province officials. The patient had a cardio-cerebrovascular disease and suffered a brain hemorrhage in June. The second patient, age

Social AffairsMarch 4, 2021

Top prosecutor resigns in defiance of weakening prosecution’s power

Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl announced his resignation Thursday in protest against the government’s push to weaken the power of the prosecution. An hour later, President Moon Jae-in accepted the resignation. At 2 p.m. in front of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul, Yoon said in front of reporters, “I am going to resign as the prosecutor general today. It is difficult to watch common sense and justice collapse any more. (My role) in the prosecution ends here.”

PoliticsMarch 4, 2021

4 service members, 1 military civilian employee test positive for virus

Two Marines, two Army soldiers and a civilian employee working for the military have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Thursday. The Marine officers were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 before newly joining a unit in the western city of Gimpo, according to the ministry. The Army soldiers in Yangpyeong, 55 kilometers east of Seoul, and Hongcheon, 100 km east of the capital, respectively, tested positive after a vacation in Seoul. In Jinhae, some 400 kilom

DefenseMarch 4, 2021

S. Korea, US closely monitoring NK nuclear facilities: defense ministry

South Korea and the United States are closely following movements at North Korea's nuclear facilities, the defense ministry said Thursday, amid a report of new structures at one of the sites. On Tuesday, CNN reported that the North may have taken steps to hide a facility at the Yongdoktong site that the US believes is used to store nuclear weapons, citing recent satellite images that show new structures. "The intelligence authorities of South Korea and the US are closely monitoring activi

DefenseMarch 4, 2021

S. Korea to provide food aid to 6 pandemic-hit countries

South Korea said Thursday it has decided to donate 50,000 tons of rice to six countries suffering from deepening poverty amid the prolonged new coronavirus pandemic. The rice will be sent to refugees and other vulnerable people in Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Syria and Laos under cooperation with the World Food Programme (WFP) this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Seoul kicked off the rice aid program following its 2018 accession to the Food Assistance

Foreign AffairsMarch 4, 2021

S. Korea's COVID-19 vaccinations ramp up amid safety woes

South Korea is accelerating its COVID-19 vaccination campaign one week after its first vaccine rollout, and more people are expected to receive their first shots despite controversies over recent reports of deaths. On Friday, the country began its long-awaited inoculation program, with health care workers and patients aged under 65 at long-term care facilities, as well as front-line medical workers, among the first in line to receive their first shots. An accumulated 154,421 people were admini

Social AffairsMarch 4, 2021

NK's largest youth group vows support for state-led fight against anti-socialist practices

North Korea's largest youth group held a meeting and discussed ways to help the state-led campaign to eradicate anti-socialist practices in their country, state media reported on Thursday. The Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League, governed by the Workers' Party, held an enlarged meeting on Wednesday via video conference and urged its members to intensify efforts to execute a "stout and vigorous ideological offensive," according to the Korean Central News Agency. "The meeting d

North KoreaMarch 4, 2021

NK adopts social insurance, disinfection laws at Supreme People's Assembly meeting

North Korea adopted laws on social insurance and disinfection at a meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, state media said Thursday, amid a nationwide campaign against the coronavirus. The North also approved a "master plan" for land development in the east coastal area, possibly including the Mount Kumgang resort area that the country used to run jointly with South Korea. These laws were adopted at a SPA meeting held Wednesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The soc

North KoreaMarch 4, 2021

Two-star Army general relieved of command over NK man's border crossing

The defense ministry said Thursday it has stripped a two-star Army general of his command to hold him accountable for a security failure in connection with a recent border crossing by a North Korean man. The 22nd Infantry Division guarding the east coast border with the North garnered criticism following revelations that soldiers initially failed to notice the North Korean man even though he was repeatedly caught on surveillance cameras after coming ashore by swimming across the sea border las

DefenseMarch 4, 2021

Govt. launches probe into LH officials' alleged land speculation, vows speedy process

The South Korean government launched a task force Thursday to look into allegations that employees of a state housing corporation used secret information on a residential area development project for land speculation. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said the interagency team would examine all recent land transactions by officials at the land ministry and Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) in areas chosen by the government for the latest massive land redevelopment project. At a press briefing, he

PoliticsMarch 4, 2021