Most Popular
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Signs point to N. Korean troops in Russia-Ukraine combat zone
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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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4 in 10 young South Koreans take up 'irregular' jobs: data
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[Photo News] Rallying against LGBTQ+
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Seoul aims to halve current suicide rate by 2030
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'1 million' Christians join anti-LGBTQ+ marriage rally
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Prosecutor general returns to work
Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl returned to work Tuesday afternoon, almost immediately after the Seoul Administrative Court approved his suit asking for an injunction against the Ministry of Justice’s decision to suspend him from work. On Tuesday, the Seoul Administrative Court accepted Yoon’s suit, hours after the Justice Ministry’s inspection committee concluded that it was unjust to suspend Yoon from duty and call for him to be penalized. Returning to work, Yoon thank
PoliticsDec. 1, 2020
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[Newsmaker] Safety concerns revived at campuses as finals approach
As the second semester nears its end, a debate is being rekindled on campuses – should final exams be held in-person or online? While most universities leave the matter up to lecturers to decide, who appear to favor physical attendance to prevent cheating, students fear the risk of infection, as young people have been pointed to as potential silent spreaders of the virus. As the nation undergoes a third wave of coronavirus infections, the number of college students diagnosed with COVID
Social AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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Seoul, Washington hold first defense cost-sharing talks since US election
South Korea and the US held defense cost-sharing talks for the first time since the US presidential election, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. During the talks, held via a videoconference Monday evening here, Korea’s chief negotiator Jeong Eun-bo and US counterpart Donna Welton agreed to “closely work together to swiftly reach an agreement that is fair and mutually acceptable,” the ministry said. The meeting was attended by officials from Seoul’
Foreign AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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[Herald Interview] From former epicenter to zero cases, Daegu vows lessons won’t go unlearned
Daegu, once the epicenter of South Korea’s coronavirus epidemic, is faring better than most parts of the country in the midst of a coronavirus resurgence. For the whole month of November, as a third big wave of the coronavirus began to sweep across the country, Daegu managed to maintain a single-digit rise in daily new infections. No new cases were found for six November days. When the nationwide tally shot up to 569 cases Friday, Daegu was the only region in Korea to report zero cases.
Social AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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FM to visit Bahrain, UAE this week
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will travel to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this week for a security conference and meetings with senior officials of the two countries, her office said Tuesday. Kang will make a two-day trip to Bahrain starting Friday, during which she will attend the Manama Dialogue, a multilateral security meeting involving countries in the Middle East and Europe, the United States and others, the ministry said in a release. She is scheduled to give a spee
Foreign AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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National Assembly passes bill on allowing recognized pop stars to defer enlistment
The National Assembly passed a bill Tuesday that would allow globally recognized male pop culture artists to postpone their mandatory military duties. The assembly's plenary session gave the nod to the bill on revising the Military Service Act to grant an exceptional right to defer national defense duties to acclaimed pop artists, such as K-pop megastars BTS, who helped elevate the country's global reputation. The revision was proposed in September after BTS became the first-ever South Korean
PoliticsDec. 1, 2020
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Special street project celebrating BTS singer Jin's birthday opens in Seoul
A China-based fan community of Jin, a member of K-pop megastar BTS, opened a street project in western Seoul on Tuesday to celebrate the singer's 28th birthday, officials said. The community named China Jin Bar opened the BTS Jin Theme Street on the main commercial festival avenue of the bustling entertainment district near Hongik University, located in Seoul's western ward of Mapo, ward officials said. Jin, a sub vocalist of BTS, was born on Dec. 4, 1992, in South Korea. China Jin Bar organi
Social AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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Hospital bed shortage looms amid surge in critical COVID-19 patients
Concerns are mounting over a possible shortage of hospital beds for novel coronavirus patients in critical condition, as daily new cases in the country continue to pile up. South Korea reported 451 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, raising the total caseload to 34,652, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Tuesday's daily tally stayed in the 400 range for the third day in a row. Noticeably, the number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients came to 97 as of
Social AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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Parties agree on W558tr budget for 2021, plan to pass it this week
Rival parties on Tuesday agreed on a 558 trillion-won ($504 billion) state budget bill for next year that includes nearly 4 trillion won earmarked for additional COVID-19 relief funds and coronavirus vaccine purchases. The agreement was made during a meeting of floor leaders and two other senior lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition People Power Party held earlier in the day. The agreed amount represents an increase of 2 trillion won from what the government initia
PoliticsDec. 1, 2020
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US has no plan to establish NATO-like security headquarters in Asia Pacific: Knapper
The United States has no plan as of yet to establish a NATO-like regional security headquarters in the Asia Pacific, a State Department official said in an interview video released Tuesday. Marc Knapper, deputy assistant secretary for Korea and Japan at the East Asian and Pacific affairs bureau, made the remark in a pre-recorded interview with the US Embassy in Seoul, referring to the Quad, a US-led security forum involving Australia, India and Japan. "At this point, there is no plan to c
Foreign AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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Employment insurance to be expanded to artists
The Cabinet approved a revised regulation Tuesday to expand the coverage of the state employment insurance program to artists. The labor ministry said artists who are in a work contract and earn at least 500,000 won ($450) per month will be eligible under the amended executive ordinance of the Employment Insurance Act, which will go into effect on Dec. 10. It is the first step in the government's long-term plan to expand employment insurance to all forms of workers by 2025. The labor ministry
Social AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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Mother under arrest after 2-month-old found dead in freezer
Police are investigating the death of an infant found inside a freezer at an apartment unit in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. The mother, 43, has been arrested on charges including child abuse and abandonment of a corpse, investigators in Yeosu said Tuesday. It is suspected that the dead baby, a boy, was about 2 months old when he died and had been kept in the freezer since. He appeared to be the twin brother of the woman’s daughter, who is now 2 years old. Police say they were seeking
Social AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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N. Korea might seek to improve cross-border ties to strengthen leverage over Washington: think tank
North Korea could try to improve its currently chilled relations with South Korea next year so as to strengthen its leverage in future nuclear negotiations with the United States, a state-run think tank said Tuesday. The Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification also said that the May-September period will be a "golden time" to make progress in stalled nuclear talks and inter-Korean ties as the Tokyo Summer Olympics could serve as a platform for resuming talks. The North i
North KoreaDec. 1, 2020
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Military becomes more tolerant of tattoos, obesity
Heavily tattooed South Korean men will no longer be able to avoid active-duty military service. Under the current rules, those bearing many tattoos or who upset other people by having tattoos on certain body parts can get grade four, for non-active duty, or supplemental service, on their physical exams. This has led some to get tattoos to avoid active duty, which is for men who get grades one through three on the physical exams. Instead of serving in the military, non-active-duty personnel wo
DefenseDec. 1, 2020
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[Newsmaker] Ex-CIA official suggests Biden administration propose working-level talks with N. Korea
A proposal by the incoming US administration of President-elect Joe Biden to hold working-level talks with North Korea can be a "good starting point" to resume the long-stalled nuclear negotiations, a former US intelligence official said Tuesday. Andrew Kim, who retired as the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Korea Mission Center in 2018, made the remark during a webinar on the South Korea-US alliance, saying the North appears to be waiting to see what the Biden camp will sa
North KoreaDec. 1, 2020
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4 more military members test positive for new coronavirus
The military reported four new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, the latest in a series of infections at barracks across the country. An Army officer stationed in the city of Chuncheon, northeast of Seoul, tested positive for COVID-19 after coming into contact with a civilian patient, prompting the authorities to carry out tests for around 180 members of his unit, according to the ministry. A civilian worker for the Navy in the southern city of Jinhae was confirmed to have been infected upo
Social AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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S. Korea, US are not just allies but family: Ambassador Harris
South Korea and the United States are not just mere friends or allies but "family," and their alliance will remain ironclad based on their deeply shared values, US Ambassador Harry Harris said Tuesday. Harris made the remarks during a peace conference held in Seoul and via video link to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War, saying the alliance between the two countries has only grown stronger since the war. "The US and other sending states came to
Foreign AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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IHO finalizes agreement on marking global sea areas in numbers amid East Sea naming row
The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) has officially adopted new guidelines to identify seas by numbers instead of names, officials said Tuesday, a decision expected to help ease a long-running row over what to call the body of water between South Korea and Japan. IHO member states had reached a consensus during last month's General Assembly on the proposal to adopt a new digital dataset, known as S-130, as a standard for a world map of oceans. Under the proposal, the current standa
Foreign AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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New infection cases in 400s for 3rd day, next few days 'critical' in virus fight
The daily number of new coronavirus cases in South Korea stayed in the 400 range for the third day in a row Tuesday, but health authorities say the next few days may be critical in the virus fight amid concerns over a third infection wave coming with the winter season. The country added 451 more COVID-19 cases, including 420 local infections, raising the total caseload to 34,652, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). It reported no additional coronavirus fatalitie
Social AffairsDec. 1, 2020
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S. Korea, US hold first defense cost talks since US election
South Korea and the United States held defense cost talks for the first time since the US presidential election and reaffirmed their principle to seek a fair and mutually acceptable deal, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. During the video talks held Monday night (Korea time), South Korea's chief negotiator Jeong Eun-bo and his US counterpart Donna Welton agreed to "closely work together to swiftly reach an agreement that is fair and mutually acceptable," the ministry said. The nego
Foreign AffairsDec. 1, 2020