South Korea and the United States will kick off a major summertime combined exercise in a scaled-back manner on Monday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced, after North Korea vowed to punish the two countries when they started a preliminary training last week. The nine-day computer-simulated Combined Command Post Training will not include outdoor drills, and the size of troops involved will be minimized in consideration of the virus situation, the JCS said in a statement. The decision to

Defense Aug. 15, 2021

NEW YORK/SEOUL -- A Harvard professor has claimed that Japan did not force Korean and other women into sexual slavery during World War II, renewing his much-denounced claims that the victims were actually prostitutes. J. Mark Ramseyer of the Harvard Law School made the claim in the preface to a recently published book on the victims, saying Japan's military did not need to forcibly mobilize what he characterized as prostitutes and had little room to do so. Authored by Tetsuo Arima, a social sc

Foreign Affairs Aug. 15, 2021

Giant chipmaker Samsung Electronics Co. saw its presence on the main bourse drop to the lowest in 23 months in terms of market capitalization amid a sharp drop, data showed Sunday. The tech behemoth's value stood at some 444 trillion won ($400 billion) as of Friday, or 19.43 percent of the KOSPI's total market value of 2,285 trillion won. It is the first time that the bellwether's weighting against the total market cap fell below the 20-percent mark since September, 2019. The figure marks a s

Industry Aug. 15, 2021

The second batch of 400,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine that the United States promised to offer to South Korea arrived here on Sunday, officials said. The shipment departed from Tennessee on Saturday (US time) and landed in Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, at around 12:47 p.m., according to the officials. The newly arrived vaccines will be administered first to prisoners and sailors from Aug. 23 after undergoing a safety assessment. They do not requ

Social Affairs Aug. 15, 2021

South Korea on Sunday expressed deep regret over Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's sending of offerings and other leader's visits to Yasukuni Shrine on the occasion of the anniversary of the end of World War II. "The government voices its deep disappointment and regret over Japanese leaders repeating the sending of offerings and visits to Yasukuni Shrine that beautifies Japan's past war of aggression and enshrines war criminals," Choi Young-sam, foreign ministry spokesperson, s

Foreign Affairs Aug. 15, 2021

South Korea's antitrust regulator will soon decide on punitive actions against the country's leading shipper, HMM Co., and other shipping lines over suspected price fixing, government sources said Sunday. Since 2018, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has been looking into allegations that HMM and others colluded to fix higher freight rates for a Southeast Asian sea route. After expanding its investigation into foreign firms, the regulator informed 23 shippers at home and abroad in May tha

Economy Aug. 15, 2021

South Korea is seeking to draw up a national budget of around 600 trillion won ($513.3 billion) for next year in a bid to maintain expansionary fiscal spending amid the pandemic, government sources said Sunday. If confirmed, this would mark a 7.5 percent on-year increase from this year's national budget of 558 trillion won, according to sources at the finance ministry and the National Assembly. The government is seeking to keep the on-year growth pace of the 2022 budget in the 7-percent range,

Economy Aug. 15, 2021

President Moon Jae-in proposed Sunday that South and North Korea "institutionalize" peace on the peninsula and create a Germany-style trust-building system toward the longer-term goal of unification. "Firmly institutionalizing peace on the Korean Peninsula will definitely benefit both Koreas greatly," Moon said during his Liberation Day speech to commemorate the 76th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's colonial rule.He described division as the biggest obstacle bl

Politics Aug. 15, 2021

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the friendly ties of their countries and vowed further bilateral cooperation as they exchanged messages to mark the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japan's colonial rule, Pyongyang's state media reported Sunday. In a message sent to Putin on Sunday, Kim emphasized that the friendly ties "forged in blood in the struggle against the common enemy" have been carried forward for ge

North Korea Aug. 15, 2021

A North Korean propaganda outlet on Saturday urged South Korea and the United States to stop their joint military exercise and pull American troops out of the South if the South wants peace on the peninsula.  Tongil Sinbo, a North Korean weekly, renewed the call in a commentary, denouncing the military drill as "an exercise taking place under the collusion with foreign forces."  "It's an operation aimed at preemptively striking our republic and a preliminary training

North Korea Aug. 14, 2021

 Former President Chun Doo-hwan has been hospitalized for medical treatment, informed officials said Saturday, days after he made a 660-kilometer round trip to the southwestern city Gwangju to attend an appellate court hearing on a defamation case. The 90-year-old Chun, who served as president from 1980-1988, was admitted to Severance Hospital in western Seoul on Friday to receive medical treatment and undergo a checkup, the officials told Yonhap News Agency. He is expected to be discharg

Politics Aug. 14, 2021

A Navy court on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for a senior chief petty officer suspected of having sexually harassed a female subordinate who was found dead in an apparent suicide earlier this week. The issuance of the arrest warrant for the officer, whose identity was withheld, came after a pre-trial detention hearing held at the Navy's general military court in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. The suspect was immediately imprisoned at a detention facility of the Navy 2nd Fleet.

National Aug. 14, 2021

The 400,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine the United States has agreed to provide are due to arrive in South Korea on Sunday, the US Embassy in Seoul said Saturday. The doses will depart from Tennessee on Saturday (US time) and land in Incheon International Airport the following day, the embassy said in a press release. The vaccines are "for use in the general population as part of the international partnership for fighting the pandemic," the embassy said

Diplomatic Circuit Aug. 14, 2021

A South Korean military plane carrying a special delegation departed for Kazakhstan on Saturday to bring home the remains of a legendary Korean independence fighter, Hong Beom-do, 78 years after his death in the Central Asian country, officials said. The KC-330 multirole aerial tanker departed from Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, south of the capital, with officials tasked with the repatriation aboard. Led by Hwang Ki-chul, minister of patriot and veterans affairs, the team included Rep. Woo Won-

National Aug. 14, 2021

A group of conservative activists pushed ahead with its anti-government street rallies planned in downtown Seoul on Saturday, the eve of Liberation Day, but ran into a watertight blockade by riot police amid authorities' warning about the further spread of COVID-19. The conservatives, led by Jun Kwang-hoon, a politically controversial pastor, began a three-day street walking event at Seoul Station at 6 a.m. in defiance of warnings by the government and police, which have said the gatherings are

Politics Aug. 14, 2021