The UN special rapporteur on North Korea's human rights situation will travel here next week to hold relevant discussions, a UN office said Thursday. Tomas Ojea Quintana will visit the country on Tuesday for a nine-day trip, according to the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul. He is expected to meet with officials from the South Korean government and civic groups on North Korean human rights, as well as North Korean defectors, in preparation for an annual report on the North to be submitted to the

The chief of South Korea’s KB Financial Group said Thursday that the adoption of environmental, social and governance values is gaining traction, and asked for cooperation between the Korean public and the private sector to make headway in the global race. “ESG values are growing around the world with irreversible speed,” KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo said in a special luncheon talk hosted by the National Assembly. “The manufacturing sector accounts for a

Defense chiefs agree to hold first in-person trilateral talks under Biden administration

South Korea said Thursday it will boost policy efforts to tackle the low birth trends that have been aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic as the country will likely suffer a severe fall in the working-age population in the coming years. The government plans to launch the fourth pan-government task force this month to deal with demographic challenges, including a fall in the population and preparation for a super-aged society, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The government ha

Bill proposes COVID-19 patients vote separately from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

The South Korean government is mulling over whether to provide free self-testing kits for COVID-19 and who to give them to, amid growing supply shortage fears induced by recent changes in pandemic treatment measures. Demand for self-test kits has surged since the government began to prioritize high-risk groups on Feb. 3, including those aged 60 and over, for access to immediate polymerase chain reaction tests. Under the new system aimed at dealing with the omicron-fueled COVID-19 wave, the re

BEIJING -- The 2018 Olympic men's skeleton champion Yun Sung-bin ranked outside the top 10 halfway through his gold medal defense at Beijing 2022 on Thursday. The South Korean had a combined time of 2:02.43 to rank 12th after the first two of four runs at Yanqing National Sliding Centre in Yanqing District, northwest of Beijing. Yun sits 2.10 seconds back of the leader, Christopher Grotheer of Germany. The one other South Korean in action, Jung Seung-gi, is in 10th place at 2:02.22. At PyeongCha

The top Chinese envoy in Seoul issued a congratulatory message Thursday for South Korean short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon who won gold in the men's 1,500m at the Beijing Winter Olympics the previous night. Ambassador Xing Haiming delivered the message through his spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy. "With regard to the athlete Hwang Dae-heon's performance, Chinese people are also positively evaluating it in show of the true friendship of the two countries' people," the embassy o

Loans extended by banks to households declined for the second straight month in January due to a hike in lending rates and tightened rules, central bank data showed Thursday. Outstanding bank loans to households came to 1,060.2 trillion won ($887.6 billion) as of the end of January, down 400 billion won from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korean (BOK). This marked the second straight month that the banks' household loans have declined following a 200 billion won fall

The COVAX Facility, a global vaccine distribution platform, has reduced the total number of COVID-19 vaccines set for North Korea, a UN website showed Thursday, as deliveries have yet to be made. A total of 1.54 million vaccines have been allocated to the North, according to the UN Children's Fund's COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard, compared with the previously known 8.11 million doses as of last year. COVAX is shifting to "needs-based" vaccine distribution this year and previously al

BEIJING -- South Korean figure skater You Young is so locked in on her own pursuit of a medal in China -- to a degree that she had a decidedly nonchalant reaction to one of the most shocking stories to come out of Beijing 2022 so far. Kamila Valieva, a Russian teen sensation and the prohibitive gold medal favorite in the women's singles, has tested positive for a banned substance, Russian media reported Thursday. If Valieva, who helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to gold in the team comp

Service output rose in all 16 provinces and major cities for the third straight quarter in the fourth quarter of last year amid the vaccine rollout and the economic recovery, data showed Thursday. Service output grew 5.4 percent in the October-December period from a year earlier, accelerating from a 3.9 percent on-year gain in the third quarter, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the third consecutive quarter of gains since the second quarter of 2021, when service output incr

Foreign investors continued to purchase more shares than they sold in South Korea's stock markets for the third straight month in January, central bank data showed Thursday. Foreigners picked up a net $1.81 billion worth of local stocks last month, according to the data provided by the Bank of Korea. The amount, however, was halved from their net purchases in December of $3.69 billion, the data showed. Foreigners' net stock purchases here came despite the increased risk-averse tendency amid expe