Whether the members of K-pop sensation BTS should be granted military exemptions has become the talk of the town, with the final date for the enlistment of the seven-member group’s oldest member, Jin, near the end of the year. In South Korea, nearly all able-bodied men in their 20s are obliged to serve in the military for about 18 months. There is an exemption and alternative service system where athletes and artists recognized to have promoted national prestige -- winning designated int

PoliticsApril 12, 2022

School quarantines will be relaxed starting from Monday next week, with students advised to test themselves once a week using self-testing kits, the Ministry of Education announced Tuesday. The Education Ministry has decided to reduce the frequency of recommended self-testing to once a week from twice a week for kindergarteners, elementary and middle school students. Since the semester began in March, students were advised to test themselves twice a week using rapid antigen testing kits. Ho

Social AffairsApril 12, 2022

US President Joe Biden could visit South Korea in late May and hold a summit with incoming President Yoon Suk-yeol just weeks after his inauguration, according to local media outlets Tuesday. Biden is reportedly considering a visit to South Korea shortly after the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue meeting on May 24 in Japan. The four-nation international cooperative is made up of Australia, India, Japan and the US. If confirmed, Biden is likely to be the first foreign leader to officially meet

Foreign AffairsApril 12, 2022

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said Tuesday that he would seek close cooperation with the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration on Seoul’s housing policy to increase housing supply and suppress runaway real estate prices. “I think it is important to work closely with the central government to increase the housing supply. But the city will approach the issue carefully so as not to cause any unnecessary surges of real estate prices,” Oh said during a press meeting held in line with th

PoliticsApril 12, 2022

A US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is operating in waters off the Korean Peninsula as South Korea and the US kicked off preliminary military exercises Tuesday, military sources confirmed to The Korea Herald. The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) “has entered the international waters of the East Sea” as of Tuesday, an informed military official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, said. The operation of the USS Abraham Lincoln off the Korean Peninsula

DefenseApril 12, 2022

The first case of an omicron recombinant variant, XL, was discovered in South Korea, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced Tuesday. The XL patient, who tested positive on March 23, was boosted with a third dose, had no recent travel history and showed a mild disease course, said Lee Sang-won, the head of the KDCA’s epidemiological analysis team, during a briefing Tuesday. XL is one of about 17 different combinations of omicron’s two sublineages BA.1 and BA.2 t

Social AffairsApril 12, 2022

South Korea became the 24th government to invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a livestreamed speech on Monday, as the international community continues to express support for Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy gave his first virtual speech to the European Union on March 1 and spoke before political leaders of nations including the United States, Japan and Germany before speaking to South Korean lawmakers. Hosting Zelenskyy to speak to political leaders

PoliticsApril 12, 2022

Costa Rican Ambassador Alejandro Rodríguez Zamora sees several potential projects derived from Costa Rica’s “National Decarbonization Plan 2018-2050” that will open opportunities for Korean engineering, procurement and construction companies. The Costa Rican envoy highlighted that the plan includes the development of a mobility system based on renewable energy-driven public transport, construction of low-emission buildings, and an industrial transition to green energy.

Diplomatic CircuitApril 12, 2022

Kazakhstan is ready to provide “maximum support” for large investment projects, tax exemptions, issuance of in-kind grants and solutions to infrastructure problems, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Korea said in an interview with The Korea Herald Sunday. A special working group aimed at expanding investment cooperation with Korean businesses and implementing joint projects, chaired by Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar, has been set up, Bakyt Dyussenbayev sa

Diplomatic CircuitApril 12, 2022

US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim will visit South Korea next week to coordinate policy ahead of the launch of the new administration of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, sources said Tuesday. Kim is expected to arrive in Seoul around Monday and stay for four days to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk, and other officials of the outgoing and incoming administrations. Kim's deputy, Jung Pak, is also expected to visit Seoul during the same period. Kim's visit c

PoliticsApril 12, 2022

　A total of 70 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or stronger were detected on the Korean Peninsula and its surrounding waters last year, a level similar to the yearly average over the past 20 years, the state weather agency said. 　The 2021 figure is up from 68 logged the previous year and is similar to the yearly average of 70.6 since the country began tracking related data with a digital system in 1999, according to the data by the Korea Meteorological Administration. 　Of the total, 16 cas

NationalApril 12, 2022

A US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has entered the international waters of the East Sea, informed sources said Tuesday, in an apparent show of America's military might amid concerns over possible North Korean provocations. The USS Abraham Lincoln strike group is currently in waters east of South Korea's southeastern city of Ulsan -- the first such maneuvers in the waters since late 2017, when tensions remained high due to Pyongyang's saber-rattling. The carrier group is expected to be in the

DefenseApril 12, 2022

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a ceremony to celebrate the completion of a major housing project in the country's capital, state media reported Tuesday. The event was to mark the completion of 10,000 apartments and an 80-floor skyscraper in the Songsin and Songhwa areas of Pyongyang, and a major street with "public catering facilities," according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Kim did not deliver a speech in person while warmly waving to the cheering crowd

North KoreaApril 12, 2022

South Korea and the United States kicked off preliminary military drills on Tuesday ahead of their major springtime combined training later this month, Seoul officials said. The allies began the four-day South Korea-led crisis management staff training (CMST) in the run-up to their command post training (CCPT) set to run from next Monday through April 28, according to the officials. Led by South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CMST is designed to practice a set of procedures to respond to pos

DefenseApril 12, 2022

Firefighting authorities on Tuesday mobilized all available manpower and equipment to contain the main fires in the northeastern border town of Yanggu hit by a large-scale forest fire for the third day. According to the Korea Forest Service (KFS), the fire extinguishing rate reached 95 percent as of 6:30 a.m. in Yanggu, 175 kilometers northeast of Seoul and about 20 km south of the border with North Korea. Authorities deployed 30 helicopters and 788 firefighting personnel shortly after sunrise t

Social AffairsApril 12, 2022

North Korea said Tuesday a forest fire broke out on Mount Kumgang in the eastern Kangwon Province over the weekend, damaging hundreds of hectares of forests and facilities. The fire started at about 3:20 p.m. Saturday on a hill near Kuryong Pool of Mount Kumgang and the Kosong Port Golf Course in the border county of Kosong, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). All available firefighters were immediately mobilized, and the fire was extinguished the next day at 11:

North KoreaApril 12, 2022

WASHINGTON -- Incheon International Airport, the main gateway to South Korea, became the world's second-busiest cargo airport in 2021, up one notch from the previous year, a trade body said Monday. Incheon International Airport handled 3.23 million tons of international cargo, up 18.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the Airports Council International (ACI). The airport, some 40 kilometers west of Seoul, ranked third in the world in terms of international cargo handling in 2019 and 2020

Social AffairsApril 12, 2022

Domestic news is all about President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and his plans for the next five years at South Korea’s helm. But Udaya Rai, who leads Migrants’ Trade Union in Korea, finds little clues as to how the country would be different for his fellow migrant workers who fill the “3D” jobs -- dirty, dangerous and difficult -- which are often shunned by locals. The president-elect’s image as being anti-foreigner and his apparent lack of interest in their rights doe

Social AffairsApril 12, 2022

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's recent missile tests appear to be aimed at developing capabilities to evade US missile defense systems deployed in the region, a US congressional report suggested. The Congressional Research Service (CRS), however, said the actual capabilities of North Korean missiles remain uncertain in the report released Friday. "The recent advances in North Korea's ballistic missile test program appear to be directed at developing capabilities to defeat or degrade the effecti

Foreign AffairsApril 12, 2022