Interpark Commerce seeks debt restructuring following TMON, WeMakePrice

Interpark Commerce filed for a debt restructuring program with the Seoul Bankruptcy Court on Friday, following in the footsteps of two sister e-commerce giants amid a liquidity crisis. The company's request for an autonomous restructuring support (ARS) program came 18 days after TMON and WeMakePrice filed for the same program to negotiate with creditors for rescheduling overdue payments. With Friday's decision, all three Korean e-commerce companies under Qoo10 are now subject to the co

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

Health authorities to supply treatments for 260,000 COVID-19 patients

Health authorities said Friday they plan to supply treatments for 260,000 COVID-19 patients, as the nation saw a surge in cases due to a summer wave. "We have started contacting global pharmaceutical companies after recognizing that treatments are being used more widely than before, and the supply will start this week," Park Ji-young, a senior official from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), said. The KDCA added that it will have treatments available nationwide by

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

NSC discusses ways to beef up cybersecurity for defense contractors

The presidential National Security Council (NSC) held a meeting Friday to discuss measures to enhance cybersecurity for defense contractors to address concerns about hacking attacks targeting military technology. Shin Yong-seok, the presidential secretary for cybersecurity, led the meeting with officials from the state-run arms procurement agency, the spy agency, the police and the Defense Counterintelligence Command, following recent reports of alleged hacking attempts on local defense companie

PoliticsAug. 16, 2024

Badminton star An Se-young urges for more flexibility in support practices

Olympic badminton champion An Se-young broke her long silence Friday, clarifying her recent criticism of the national badminton federation. The 22-year-old gold medalist sparked controversy when she lashed out at her national team and the Badminton Korea Association (BKA) for their poor handling of her knee injury, and for outdated and inefficient operations, among other things, soon after winning the women's singles event at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 5. But she had not commented further o

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

Pension reform plan to benefit military, mothers

South Korea's pension reform plan will include a proposal to increase benefits for those who served in the military and women who give birth. Aiming to ease the pension burden on young adults, as most military service members and women who give birth are in their 20s and 30s, the presidential office and the government have ramped up measures to credit those who contribute to the community. The government also has decided to apply the “maternity credit,” which is granted from the

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

South Korea anticipates North Korea’s response to Yoon’s ‘Unification Doctrine’: minister

South Korean Minister of Unification Kim Yung-ho on Friday said he believes North Korea will be responsive to the doctrine on the Korean Peninsula unification announced by President Yoon Suk Yeol the day before. “I believe that North Korea will carefully consider our proposal,” the minister told a news briefing held at the Government Complex in Seoul. The “Aug. 15 Unification Doctrine,” unveiled by the president during his Liberation Day remarks, entails reunifying Korea

PoliticsAug. 16, 2024

Ex-President Moon's bank accounts probed over son-in-law's hiring

  Prosecutors are reportedly investigating the bank accounts of former President Moon Jae-in and his wife in connection with allegations that his son-in-law received an unfair advantage in being hired by an airline company. According to legal sources Friday, the Jeonju District Prosecutor's Criminal Division 3 recently executed a search warrant to trace the financial accounts of former President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook. This comes about four years after a complaint was filed

PoliticsAug. 16, 2024

Defense minister nominee says ‘options open’ on Seoul getting nukes

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s defense minister nominee Kim Yong-hyun on Friday said “all options are open” on the possibility of arming South Korea with its own nuclear weapons to keep North Korea in check. He was responding to a press question asking his personal views on South Korea acquiring nuclear weapons on the first day of his work at the Army Club in Seoul’s central Yongsan as nominee. “Under the Yoon administration, our alliance with the US has been elevated to

DefenseAug. 16, 2024

Yoon vetoes prolabor, universal cash payment bills

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday vetoed two controversial bills designed to strengthen workers' rights and distribute cash payments to the entire population. One of the bills, known as the "Yellow Envelope Bill," aims to restrict companies from seeking damages against workers involved in legitimate labor disputes, as well as requires contracting employers to respond to requests for collective bargaining by subcontractor labor unions. The other bill proposes distributing cash pa

PoliticsAug. 16, 2024

More patients transferred amid unresolved medical standoff

Government data showed Friday that patient transfers at major hospitals from February to May increased 17.2 percent on-year, amid the mass walkout of trainee doctors across the country since February due the government's announcement of its plan to raise the medical school admissions quota. During this period, there were 289,952 cases in which the patient was sent to a tertiary hospital and then transferred to another medical facility, up from 247,465 in the same period the year before, a

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

Seoul Metro to increase clinics, pharmacies in subway stations

Seoul Metro, the operator of most of the city's subway lines, said Friday it would increase the number of its Metro Medical Zones in the stations from current eight to 12 within this year. The Metro Medical Zones are sections of the subway that provide medical services between 9:30 a.m. and 8 p.m., 365 days a year, housing both the fully-operational medical clinic and the pharmacy. The service first launched with two medical zones in 2022, and have since expanded to have eight zones in oper

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

Unification minister calls on N. Korea to accept S. Korea's offer for dialogue channel

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho on Friday called on North Korea to respond to South Korea's offer for an official dialogue platform and resume suspended inter-Korean communication channels. Kim made the call a day after President Yoon Suk Yeol proposed to North Korea the establishment of a working-level dialogue channel that can "take up any issue" in an address marking Liberation Day. Yoon unveiled a vision for freedom-based unification with North Korea and pledged to expand the

PoliticsAug. 16, 2024

Seoul records 26 consecutive tropical nights, most on record

  Seoul has endured the longest streak of tropical nights on record, running for 26 consecutive days, and the hot weather is expected to continue. The current streak, from July 21 to Aug. 15, ties the previous record set in 2018 for the most tropical nights observed since modern weather monitoring began in 1907. With the lowest temperature predicted to be 29 degrees Celsius on Saturday, the capital city is expected to surpass this record. Tropical nights are those when the nighttime tempera

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

Vietnamese women who divorced Koreans suffer financially after returning home: report

Vietnamese divorcees of international marriage with South Koreans face financial difficulties after returning to their home country, a recent report by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family showed. The ministry conducted a study between September of last year and January of this year, on 161 Vietnamese women who had previously been married to South Korean men, along with their 130 children. The average age of the women was 37. The study showed that 36 women had no regular income while 18 ma

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

Yoon's new foreign policy adviser visits US to discuss alliance, US election

Chang Ho-jin, new foreign policy adviser to President Yoon Suk Yeol, arrived in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to meet with officials and discuss the countries' alliance, the upcoming US election and other bilateral issues. Chang's trip came days after he was replaced as South Korea's top national security adviser and assigned to the newly created position of Yoon's special adviser for foreign and security affairs in a surprise reshuffle. "It has been nearly a year since

PoliticsAug. 16, 2024

US official hints at trilateral summit among leaders of S. Korea, US, Japan by end of this year

A White House official on Thursday suggested the possibility of holding a trilateral summit among the leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan by the end of this year, following the historic Camp David summit last year. Mira Rapp-Hooper, the senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council, made the remarks, emphasizing that the three countries will continue to build the partnership and put it on strategic footing for the long term, including by holding "

Foreign AffairsAug. 16, 2024

Defense minister nominee says open to all means to respond to NK threats

Defense Minister nominee Kim Yong-hyun said Friday he was open to all means to respond to North Korea's nuclear threats, while reaffirming that the alliance with the United States remains the basis in dealing with such threats. Kim made the remarks after being questioned on the possibility of South Korea developing nuclear weapons of its own amid persistent domestic calls for such arms to deter North Korea. "Responding to North Korean nuclear threats based on extended deterrence and th

PoliticsAug. 16, 2024

Hospitals set to wrap up hiring of more trainee doctors

Hospitals were set to wrap up the hiring of more junior doctors Friday, but there are expected to be few applicants as many trainee doctors have defied the government's medical reform for nearly seven months, officials said. Hospitals issued new recruitment notices for trainee doctors last week after the medical community was lukewarm to the initial round that ended last month. Some medical professors have even warned of a potential boycott of training new applicants. During the previous ro

Social AffairsAug. 16, 2024

N. Korea finally reopening to international tourists: operator

North Korea will reopen to foreign tourism in December after nearly five years of Covid-triggered closure, two specialized tour operators said Wednesday. "We have received confirmation from our local partner that tourism to Samjiyon and potentially the rest of the country will officially resume in December 2024," Beijing-based Koryo Tours said on its website. Samjiyon, near North Korea's mountainous northern border with China, is a gateway city to Mount Paektu, where official na

North KoreaAug. 15, 2024

Over 1,500 reports of N. Korea's trash balloons submitted this year

South Korean authorities have received 1,567 reports of trash-carrying balloons sent by North Korea this year, according to National Fire Agency data revealed Thursday. Over 10,000 firefighters and 2,400 fire engines have been dispatched to deal with the totalitarian communist state's balloons from Jan. 1 to Aug. 13, according to the NFA data submitted to Rep. Yang Bu-nam of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. Amid the currently icy inter-Korean relations, North Korea has been fl

Social AffairsAug. 15, 2024