Jeju Air Co., South Korea's biggest budget carrier, said Friday it will resume flights to Guam later this month amid the country's accelerating vaccination campaign. Jeju Air plans to operate 38 flights on the Incheon-Guam route from Nov. 25 to Jan. 31 before it begins regular flights, depending on the country's vaccination and infection rates, the company said in a statement. The low-cost airline suspended most international routes in March last year following the outbreak of COVID-19 here in

South Korea's military reported eight additional COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing the total caseload among its personnel to 2,067, the defense ministry said. Among the new cases were five Army draftees, including a trainee at a boot camp in Nonsan, some 200 kilometers south of Seoul. An Army officer stationed in Gapyong, 60 kilometers east of Seoul, tested positive following a vacation. Another officer based in Paju, north of Seoul, contracted the virus after a family member tested positive. A

Police have dropped a defamation probe into a senior Japanese diplomat accused of making disparaging remarks against President Moon Jae-in's efforts to improve relations with Tokyo, considering his diplomatic immunity, officials said Friday. Hirohisa Soma, former deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, came under fire after he told a South Korean reporter during a lunch meeting in July that Moon's efforts to improve ties with Tokyo were tantamount to "masturbation."

South Korea plans to partly lift restrictions on arrivals of migrant workers prompted by the pandemic later this month, as the country has begun to take steps to return to normalcy, the labor ministry said Friday. The government will allow all entry of foreign workers from 16 countries that send labor force to the country under the Employment Permit System, including Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand and China, the ministry said during a regular COVID-19 response meeting held at the government compl

The top US military commander in South Korea on Friday touted the combined forces of the two allies as the "most lethal and ready" troops in the world amid lingering concerns over North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats. Gen. Paul LaCamera, the head of the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC), made the remarks during a ceremony at the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the founding of the command. His remarks came weeks after Pyongyang f

With South Korea on its way to returning to normal from COVID-19, local broadcasters are set to resume the recording of their programs with a studio audience for the first time in nearly two years. Cable channel tvN said Friday that its long-running skit show "Comedy Big League" will be filmed in front of an audience next Tuesday for the first time in about 20 months. Due to COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings, the prime nighttime program on Sundays has been forced to conduct tapings

Encounter with a boom box unlocked musical passion inside of cross-genre vulture

　More than 22 million Afghans will suffer “acute food insecurity” this winter, UN agencies said, warning the already unstable country faces one of the world‘s worst humanitarian crises. 　The crisis is already bigger in scale than that facing Yemen or Syria, and worse than any food insecurity emergency apart from the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said. 　According to the statement issued by the World Food Program and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, one in t

  언택트(untact)는 콩글리시! 제발 쓰지 맙시다!  ‘오징어 게임’ 등 한국 드라마와 K팝 등 한국 문화상품이 전 세계적으로 인기를 끌면서 영국 일간지 더타임스가 ‘콩글리시’에 대해 조명하는 기사를 게재해 눈길을 끌고 있다. The Times지가 최근에 'Konglish is not your bepu: South Korea fights corruption of its language' (콩글리시는 당신의 베프가 아니다. 한국은 한국어의 오염과 싸우고 있다) 라는 제목의 기사를 통해 콩글리시 대표 사례와 특성을 소개했다. 그 중에 축약하고 조합하는 특성의 예로 ‘베프’(best friend), ‘인싸’(insider), ‘위드코로나’(living with corona virus) 등이 있다. 그런데 한국에서 생성한 새로 만든 단어가 있다. 바로 &l

South Korea's vice foreign minister will embark on a nine-day trip to three African nations this weekend to strengthen ties and draw their support for Seoul's greater role in international organizations, his ministry said Friday. Choi Jong-moon, second vice minister of foreign affairs, will travel to Uganda, Rwanda and Cameron from Nov. 6-14, which will mark the first trip in a decade by a Korean diplomat in the rank, according to the ministry. During the trip, Choi will meet with the foreign

South Korea's new coronavirus cases stayed above 2,300 for the third consecutive day Friday, four days after the country relaxed its virus restrictions nationwide in line with its "living with COVID-19" scheme. The country reported 2,344 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 375,464, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. New cases slipped a bit from the previous day's 2,482, but a jump from 2,124 recorded last Friday, the KDCA said. Of the total,

South Korea logged a current account surplus for the 17th straight month in September thanks to solid exports amid the rebounding global economy from the coronavirus pandemic, the central bank said Friday.  The current account surplus totaled $10.07 billion in September, up from $7.51 billion a month earlier, according to data by the Bank of Korea. The amount was slightly smaller than the previous year's surplus of $10.34 billion. The September figure marked the 17th straight month that

South Korean stocks opened lower Friday, largely amid losses in the financial and bio stocks. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KospiI) fell 10.23 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,972.99 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics increased 0.57 percent to 71,000 won, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix advanced 1.42 percent to 107,500 won, and Hyundai Motor, the country's largest carmaker, moved up 0.7 percent to 215,500 won. Among losers, pharmaceutical

South Korea and Indonesia will hold what could be the final round of negotiations in the Southeast Asian country next week to address the latter's overdue payments for a joint fighter development project, informed sources said Friday. Officials from Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI), South Korea's sole aircraft maker, will meet with negotiators from Indonesia's defense ministry, the sources said, as Seoul seeks to squelch lingering concerns over Indonesia's commitment to the 8.8 trillion-wo

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) was set to pick its presidential nominee Friday as the two leading contenders appeared locked in a tight race. The nominee will be announced at a national convention at the Kim Koo Museum and Library in Seoul following a four-day poll of party members and the general public on who is best prepared to take on Lee Jae-myung, the nominee of the ruling Democratic Party. The four candidates in the PPP primary are former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl,