Backed by an explosive offense, Toronto Blue Jays' Ryu Hyun-jin has matched his career high in wins in a must-win regular season finale, though it wasn't enough to get the club into the postseason. Ryu held the Baltimore Orioles to two runs over five innings in a 12-4 victory at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Sunday (local time). Ryu, who gave up six hits and struck out seven, finished the season at 14-10 with a 4.37 ERA. He has now won 14 games in a season for the fourth time in his career, tho

Communication channels between South Korea and the North were restored Monday about two months after the North unilaterally cut off the hotlines in August in protest over the joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.  The Unification Ministry confirmed that liaison officials from the two Koreas held a phone call via a cross-border channel at 9 a.m. on Monday -- a call that had gone unanswered previously. The two sides also had contact via a military hotline, according to the Defe

North Korea blasted the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Sunday for convening a meeting on its recent missile launches, calling it "a manifestation of double-dealing standard." Jo Chol-su, director of the international organization department at the North's foreign ministry, made the remark in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), stressing that the missile tests were for "self-defense" purposes. The statement came after the Security Council convened a

Amid the rising tension between the two Koreas due to NK’s hypersonic missile test earlier this week, the Defense Ministry held the 73rd Armed Forces Day Ceremony on Friday in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Pohang was the location where the United Nations forces made their first landing operation during the Korean War.  The photo above shows President Moon Jae-in on board the Marado, a high-tech landing platform helicopter ship. In his speech, President Moon emphasized the signif

President Moon Jae-in said South Koreans should be proud of the latest missiles the country has recently revealed, Moon’s communications secretary said Saturday in a post on Facebook. The post quoted Moon during a closed-door meeting with his senior secretaries a day after the launch. On Sept. 15, South Korea test-fired its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from a homegrown submarine, along with an air-to-surface missile and a cruise missile. The Sout

The US State Department said allies should continue enforcing UN sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, in response to the South Korean foreign minister’s suggestion to ease sanctions for nuclear talks amid North Korea’s latest weapons tests. “It is important for the international community to send a strong, unified message that the DPRK must halt provocations,” the State Department told Voice of America on Friday, referring to the North’s

President Moon Jae-in‘s aggressive push for renewable energy has incentivized increasingly more farmers to repurpose their land as solar farms, drawing concerns over South Korea’s food security. According to Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy data obtained by Rep. Yoon Young-seok of the main opposition People Power Party, farmland amounting to the size of Gangnam -- the third largest district in Seoul – has been transformed into solar farms over the past five years. I

Ministries contradict each other’s energy policies causing industry confusion

Calls are growing for Rep. Chang Je-won of the main opposition People Power Party to step down from his lawmaker post after critics accuse him responsible for his son driving without a license and assaulting a police officer. An open petition to the Blue House asked Rep. Chang to be stripped of his lawmaker post as his son Chang Yong-jun, better known by his stage name NO:EL is under police investigation on charges of unlicensed driving and assaulting a police officer on Sept. 18 in Seoul. Acc

After the National Assembly passed a bill last week to open a regional branch of the legislature in Sejong, eyes are watching to see how the plan will unfold and whether the long-debated capital relocation plan will finally get a boost. Lawmakers on Tuesday passed a revision to the National Assembly Act approving the establishment of a regional branch of the parliament in Sejong, the special self-governing city that serves as a second administrative capital for South Korea. Its passage comes n

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung scored a landslide victory in the ruling Democratic Party (DP)'s presidential primary in the southeast region Saturday, further consolidating his lead in the race to pick the party's flag bearer for the 2022 election. Lee won 55.3 percent of all 35,832 ballots cast by registered party members in the Busan-Ulsan-South Gyeongsang Province region, the eighth round of the party's 11-leg primary race, the party announced. Lee Nak-yon, formerly a prime minister a

Forty-six soldiers at an Army unit located just south of the inter-Korean border have tested positive for COVID-19, the defense ministry said Saturday. Of the cases, 41, or 89 percent, were vaccine breakthrough infections. The report of the cluster infections in the border county of Yeoncheon came a day after one noncommissioned officer there tested positive upon returning from a vacation, according to the ministry. Subsequent tests on 184 other members of the unit confirmed 45 additional cas

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 2,000s for the eighth straight day Sunday, with health authorities remaining on alert over the spread of the virus after an extended weekend. The country added 2,086 more COVID-19 cases, including 2,058 local infections, raising the total caseload to 318,105, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Sunday's tally was down from 2,248 on Saturday and 2,486 on Friday. The decline was largely attributable to less

To say that Korea wouldn’t be here today without Korean Gakgung Bow would be an understatement! Since ancient times, Gakgung, which means “bow made with animal horn,” was the weapon of choice for hunting and for protection of Koreans from invaders. The fact that the majority of Korean land is mountainous makes the bow and arrow a perfect weapon to defend fortresses from invaders. Koreans have always been known to be excellent archers. Neighboring kingdoms were even afraid to