Most Popular
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Signs point to N. Korean troops in Russia-Ukraine combat zone
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[Exclusive] Korean adoptee sisters meet for the first time in 39 years
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Rose's 'Apt.' redefines K-pop's global appeal
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Two years on, thousands mourn Itaewon tragedy, calling for accountability
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[Herald Interview] Love for K-drama, food defines 'Secret Ingredient'
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Hanwha, HD Hyundai vie for Poland’s $2.7b submarine program
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First lady’s controversies to top agenda at meeting of party leaders
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[Photo News] Rallying against LGBTQ+
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4 in 10 young South Koreans take up 'irregular' jobs: data
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SM founder Lee Soo-man is back with A2O Entertainment
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S. Korea, US conduct combined air exercise amid coronavirus
South Korea and the United States conducted their wintertime combined exercise last month amid concerns over the new coronavirus pandemic, a military source said Wednesday. The allies held a scaled-back version of their original wintertime drills, codenamed Vigilant Ace, from Dec. 7-11, involving fighters, such as F-15K and KF-16 jets from South Korea and F-16s from the US, according to the source. The annual Vigilant Ace exercise was replaced with a smaller training starting in 2018 to suppor
DefenseJan. 6, 2021
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US should not lose sight of progress made with N. Korea: DeTrani
The incoming US administration of Joe Biden should recognize the progress made with North Korea so far and reengage the North in denuclearization talks to build on such progress, a former US nuclear negotiator said Tuesday. Joseph DeTrani also argued North Korea would be willing to come back to the negotiating table. "President Donald Trump and his two summits had success, certainly in Singapore, with that joint statement, that declaration coming out of Singapore that spoke about a transf
North KoreaJan. 6, 2021
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NK leader admits economic failure as he opens party congress
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has admitted the failure to meet the country's economic development goals as he opened the ruling party's first congress in nearly five years, state media said Wednesday. Kim made the acknowledgement in his opening speech for the eighth congress of the Workers' Party, which took place in Pyongyang on Tuesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The party congress, the North's biggest political event, was launched amid expectations the North will unveil
North KoreaJan. 6, 2021
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54 violations of quarantine measures identified
The government’s joint inspection team for checking social distancing measures caught a karaoke bar in Gyeonggi Province that received customers through an online prebooking system on Dec. 22. The bar had turned off its outside signboards and closed the doors. The inspection team went undercover near the bar and spotted customers walking out at around 11 p.m. This was one of 54 cases of violation of quarantine measures identified so far. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety on Tuesd
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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Namsan Park’s noise-free, pollution-free operation kicks off
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Tuesday that it will replace all 27 buses on four of the green circuit bus lines that travel along the Namsan Park area with electric, low-floor buses. The bus routes go to Namsan Park, Myeong-dong, Seoul Station, Insa-dong, and the main palace Gyeongbokgung. The city will ban diesel tour buses that used to pick up and carry group tourists from entering Namsan Park. Namsan Park was designated a “clean-air district” in 2015, showing off i
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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S. Korea passes 1,000 COVID-19 deaths
More than 1,000 people in South Korea had lost their lives to COVID-19 as of Monday at midnight. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Tuesday announced 26 more deaths from the previous day, bringing the death toll to 1,007. The country reported its first death from the virus on Feb. 20 last year. The third surge of the pandemic in Korea is proving to be the deadliest yet. About half of all deaths in the country had taken place between the first day of December and Tuesday. The
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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N. Korea requests vaccine from global group despite zero COVID claims
North Korea has sent an application to secure a coronavirus vaccine supply from a global group that helps low-income countries with inoculations, the Wall Street Journal said Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter, adding it has reached out to several European embassies asking about vaccines. Gavi, an international vaccine alliance that helps impoverished countries vaccinate their people, declined to comment on North Korea’s application. The group is assessing the demand in diffe
North KoreaJan. 5, 2021
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Ex-presidents' pardon debate continues within DP despite strong objection from base supporters
The political debate over the idea of offering pardons to two convicted former presidents continued to reverberate within the ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Tuesday, despite an earlier backlash from the party's base supporters. DP Chairman Lee Nak-yon stated Friday that he would ask President Moon Jae-in to grant pardons to Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak -- two former conservative presidents in jail on corruption and influence-peddling charges -- at an appropriate time in order to transcend p
PoliticsJan. 5, 2021
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S. Korea confirms three more highly pathogenic bird flu cases
South Korea said Tuesday it has identified three more highly pathogenic bird flu cases from local poultry farms to raise the total caseload to 46. Authorities said they have found the highly contagious H5N8 strain of avian influenza in Buan, 280 kilometers south of Seoul, and the central city of Sejong, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. Earlier in the day, South Korea also found another case from a duck farm in Cheonan, 92 kilometers south of Seoul. The minist
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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Season's coldest weather to grip S. Korea this week
South Korea is forecast to come under the grip of the season's coldest weather later this week, with the morning lows dipping to minus 17 C in the greater Seoul area and minus 23 C in Chuncheon, 85 kilometers east of Seoul, the state-run weather agency said Tuesday. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) has issued a cold wave alert or advisory for Seoul and the central regions, warning that temperatures will be as low as around minus 20 C there between Thursday and Saturday. The KMA ex
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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[News Focus] 3 in 7 women from North choose South Korean husbands
SEJONG -- South Korea is home to about 35,000 defectors from North Korea. Recent government agency data revealed sharp gender disparities in their spouses’ countries of origin. The analysis concerns country of origin only, regardless of whether the defectors’ spouses have acquired South Korean citizenship. According to Statistics Korea and the Korea Hana Foundation, at least 3 out of every 7 female married defectors -- 43.3 percent -- had South Korean-born spouses as of 2019. The
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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Seoul demands release of S. Korean tanker seized by Iran, sends military
Seoul is scrambling to respond to the seizure of a South Korea-flagged tanker by Iran, sending a Navy unit to the Strait of Hormuz and summoning Tehran’s envoy to Seoul demanding the immediate release of the vessel and its crew. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry is to dispatch a delegation to Iran soon for talks to free the tanker and its sailors, while First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun is planning to visit Tehran early next week. Cheong Wa Dae’s Nati
Foreign AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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S. Korea reports 2 more British COVID-19 variant cases
South Korea's health authorities on Tuesday confirmed two more cases of a more transmissible variant from arrivals from Britain, bringing the total caseload here to 12. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the two people, who entered the country on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 from Britain, respectively, were confirmed to have the new COVID-19 strain. The two tested positive for COVID-19 after landing and were immediately quarantined, meaning others in the community had no contac
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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Annual bar exam starts after govt. lifts ban on COVID-19 patients
The national bar examination began across South Korea on Tuesday, one day after the Ministry of Justice reversed its earlier decision to ban anybody infected with the new coronavirus from sitting for the annual exam. The ministry initially planned to prohibit anybody diagnosed with COVID-19 from taking the bar exam scheduled to continue through Saturday. It had only planned to offer separate test sites for those put under self-quarantine or with suspected coronavirus symptoms. But the ministry
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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Seoul to invest W1.1tr in digital initiatives
Seoul‘s acting Mayor Seo Jung-hyup on Tuesday vowed to prepare for the future of the city in the post-coronavirus era by investing in Digital New Deal initiatives, responding to climate change and stabilizing the housing market. “We will spend 1.1 trillion won ($1 billion) by 2025 on the Seoul-style Digital New Deal policy, which focuses on fostering big data, networks and artificial intelligence, which will lead the era of the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ and the con
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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Moon’s approval rating hinges on vaccine success
President Moon Jae-in is not a “lame duck” yet, but in the final stretch of his term he will need COVID-19 vaccines to win back public support, which has plummeted to record lows. Moon has to confront a number of hot-button issues this year, ranging from the coronavirus to the controversy over whether he should grant pardons to two former presidents. It is also likely that he will seek a breakthrough in the stalled denuclearization talks with North Korea and the upcoming Biden adm
PoliticsJan. 5, 2021
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[Newsmaker] Toddler’s death thrusts child abuse back into spotlight
Another high-profile child abuse case has once again spurred a nationwide political movement in South Korea. The public is calling for legislative change to protect children’s rights, including heightened punishment for child abusers and an improved system to investigate potential cases. But the movement could end up as just another short-lived hype, experts warn, saying that earlier such endeavors fell short of yielding meaningful results. The 16-month-old girl at the center of the lat
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021
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Moon prioritizes virus control, housing market stabilization in 2021 policy tasks
President Moon Jae-in stressed the urgency Tuesday of containing COVID-19, stabilizing the housing market and recovering the economy in the new year. "(We) start the new year with a heavy sense of responsibility," he said at the outset of the first Cabinet meeting of 2021. South Korea's top priority this year is "to get out of the long tunnel of the coronavirus as soon as possible," he emphasized. He described the country as standing at another watershed in its antivirus f
PoliticsJan. 5, 2021
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UN panel approved 30 cases of sanctions exemptions to aid programs in NK last year
A UN Security Council panel approved sanctions exemptions on a total of 30 cases last year to aid agencies providing humanitarian assistance to North Korea, a recent report showed. According to the annual report by the North Korea sanctions committee released on its website, 30 aid exemption requests from member states, UN entities and other international organizations were approved by the panel from Jan. 1-Dec. 31 in 2020. The report did not identify which countries and organizations received
North KoreaJan. 5, 2021
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NK mum on party congress slated for early Jan
North Korea remains silent about its much anticipated eighth party congress which it said would be held in early January. For the sixth Workers’ Party congress held in October 1980 and the seventh in May 2016, North Korea announced the opening dates 20 days and 10 days prior to the dayslong event. This time, North’s state media is merely continuing to emphasize the importance of party leadership. The Rodong Sinmun, a mouthpiece of the North Korean Workers’ Party, said in its
North KoreaJan. 5, 2021