The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is holding a virtual forum on Nov. 2-3 to address the rise of discrimination and hate speech on the internet during the pandemic. The ministry said the forum would discuss the challenges brought upon by the digital transformation by the pandemic in sectors across the society, especially with regards to the increase in online abuse against minorities and women. Gender Minister Chung Young-ai said the pandemic has forced people, young people in part

The US Central Intelligence Agency ran a previously undisclosed office in Seoul until last year, legal sources said Sunday. The existence of the office, which was used to collect open-source intelligence on South Korea as part of the CIA's Open Source Enterprise, became known after three former employees sued the US government for firing them, according to the sources. The plaintiffs, all South Koreans, were hired between 2005 and 2009 and laid off around February and March of last year. They

Unification Minister Lee In-young held meetings with the chief of the World Food Program (WFP) and a senior Vatican official during a trip to Rome and discussed issues related to North Korea, the ministry said Sunday. The meetings with David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. food agency, and Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the first Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, took place Saturday as Lee was in Rome to accompany President Moon Jae-in. Dur

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party, has said that, if elected, he will launch a real estate supervisory service in an effort to root out corruption in the property market. Lee made the remark during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday, saying he would give the service powers to conduct investigations into any irregularities that arise in the real estate market. The pledge comes as Lee has been accused of involvement in a massive corruption scandal

Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the minor opposition People's Party, will declare his third presidential run this week, the party said Sunday, shaping next March's election as a four-way race. Ahn will hold a ceremony at the National Assembly on Monday to declare his bid, the party said. It will be the third time for the former medical doctor and software entrepreneur to run for president. In November 2012, Ahn withdrew from the race less than a month before the election, giving his support for Moon

Jamie Romak, one of the most successful foreign hitters in South Korean baseball history, has announced his retirement after spending his final five seasons here. The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said Sunday the Canadian slugger decided to call it a career following the end of the 2021 season the previous evening. Romak, 36, batted .273 with 155 home runs and 409 RBIs in 626 games for the Landers, formerly known as the SK Wyverns under the previous ownership during Roma

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases surpassed 2,000 for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday, deepening health authorities' worries over a possible resurgence of virus infections ahead of the implementation of measures to get back to normalcy. The country added 2,061 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,052 local infections, raising the total caseload to 364,700, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily cases dropped to 1,190 on Monday, but resurged from Wednesday and re

Two Seoul-based rivals will square off on Monday in the first postseason game in South Korean baseball this year. The Doosan Bears will host the Kiwoom Heroes for the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) wild card game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, with the first pitch at 6:30 p.m. Monday. The Bears finished fourth in the regular season at 71-65-8 (wins-losses-ties), and the Heroes ended 1.5 games back in fifth place at 70-67-7. As the higher seed, the Bears will advance to the next stage

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed Saturday to step up efforts to boost the supply of COVID-19 vaccines to developing nations, the presidential office said. Moon met with the European Union leader on the sidelines of this year's summit of the Group of 20 major economies that opened in the Italian capital on Saturday for a two-day run. The two leaders agreed to jointly take steps to increase the supply of vaccines to developing natio

US President Joe Biden on Saturday welcomed as good news Pope Francis' expression of a willingness to visit North Korea when he met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Rome, an aide to Moon said. Biden made the remarks as Moon told him that he asked the pope to visit North Korea to bring peace on the Korean Peninsula and Pope Francis positively reacted to the offer by saying he is willing to go to the North if he receives an invitation, presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said. Bid

Jaraseom is a well-known place for music lovers, drawing more than 100,000 visitors every October for its annual Jazz Festival.  But Jaraseom, which consists of four islands, has recently become a beautiful park for visitors to enjoy various flowers from spring to autumn.  Since 2019, Gapyeong County has transformed Jaraseom into a “flower island” by establishing flower fields, landscape lighting installations and tourist facilities on 100,000 square meters of the souther

TAEAN, South Chungcheong Province -- Just before sunup, Lee Young-ho, a seasoned fisherman with over 30 years of experience, silently waits for boats carrying blue crabs as the season for the seafood reaches its height. Soon afterward, small and big boats sail into Sinjin Port in Taean County, South Chungcheong Province, the second-largest source of blue crab after Incheon, accounting for 29 percent of total production of the country. A crane lifts 28 boxes filled with blue crabs weighing 40

Educating intellectuals with knowledge, wisdom and character has long been the goal of Korean education throughout history. Korean culture and history have been profoundly shaped by various religions and philosophies, but none has had as much lasting impact as Confucianism. Confucianism before the Common Era and Neo-Confucianism after the 12th century have largely shaped the ruling class landscape of Korean kingdoms. During the Goryeo Empire, scholars who were well learned possessing good ch

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission is set to lift off this weekend, carrying an international crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station. According to NASA, it will send SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance to space from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday. The mission will be the third operational NASA commercial crew flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The team members consists of three astronauts from the US and one astronaut from Germany. The commander