Two South Korean police officers have been suspended after a civilian they had been interrogating suffered a major spinal injury, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, local police officials said Monday. The victim, in his 50s, had been undergoing questioning at Asan Police Station in South Chungcheong Province at 1:30 a.m. on May 11, when he suddenly stood up from his seat and leaned his upper body forward. One of the police officers grabbed him from behind and pulled him back, and the vic

Proposed Bill: Partial Amendment to the Act on the Management of Public Institutions Proposed by Rep. Song Ki-hun (Democratic Party of Korea) ● The current Act requires the Minister of Economy and Finance to evaluate the management performance of public enterprises and quasi-governmental institutions with evaluation criteria that include how rational management goals are, how well they are being achieved, and the adequacy of organizational and personnel management. However, despite the heightene

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon swam across the Han River on Sunday as a participant in a triathlon festival planned by the city government, praising the water quality and encouraging people to enjoy the city's beloved river through water activities. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the mayor, clad in a full-body wetsuit and swim cap emblazoned with the slogan, “Seoul My Soul,” joined around 2,000 other swimmers in the 1-kilometer swim on the second day of the 1st Sium Siu

South Korean government on Monday authorized drilling off the country's southeastern coast for oil and natural gas reserves a recent study by a foreign seismic research company indicated would be equivalent to about 14 billion barrels of oil. The resources are believed to be in the in the shores off the Yeongil Bay near Pohang, about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a briefing at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul. If confirmed, he said the reserve would

South Korea and more than 40 African nations held a foreign ministerial meeting to discuss cooperation ahead of a leaders' summit later this week, Seoul's foreign ministry has said. The rare gathering on Sunday came as South Korea is set to host the first-ever Korea-Africa summit for Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing together the leaders of 25 of the 48 participating countries. The talks were led by Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, his counterpart from Maurita

President Yoon Suk Yeol was set to have a series of meetings with leaders of 10 African nations Monday to discuss ways to expand cooperation on the eve of the first-ever Korea-Africa Summit, the presidential office said. Yoon will hold back-to-back meetings with leaders from Lesotho, Ivory Coast, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Togo, Rwanda, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde at the presidential office in Seoul. The leaders were in South Korea to attend the inaugural Korea-Afri

The average height of South Korea's elementary school students (ages 7-11) has increased by 4.3 centimeters for boys and 2.8 centimeters for girls compared to ten years ago. According to a survey by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, the peak growth period for children was identified as 14-15 years old for boys and 13-14 years old for girls, showing that the growth rate for both boys and girls has advanced by about two years compared to ten years ago. Using a 3D scanner, the

North Korea said Sunday it will temporarily stop sending trash-filled balloons across the border to South Korea, though it also threatened to resume such operations if Seoul sends more anti-Pyongyang leaflets. In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il claimed Pyongyang had sent 3,500 balloons, carrying 15 tons worth of debris, toward South Korea between Tuesday night and Sunday morning. Kim offered to temporarily halt

SINGAPORE -- The defense ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Sunday agreed to launch a trilateral exercise under the name "Freedom Edge," starting this summer. The plan for the trilateral exercise was reached at a meeting held on the last day of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore. The trilateral exercise is to build on efforts outlined at the Camp David summit last year, according to the joint statement issued after the Singapore meeting. Ac

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday held two rounds of bilateral talks with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, respectively, on the sidelines of the 2024 Korea-Africa Summit scheduled for later this week in Seoul. Seoul described the meetings as a stepping-stone for Asia's fourth-largest economy to weather the transnational crises through increased strategic cooperation with the African continent. The Korean president and Hassan held a summit-level

The Constitutional Court of Korea has dismissed a constitutional petition by the bereaved families of April 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that the South Korean government had neglected its duty to rescue passengers from the capsized vessel. A 5-4 court ruling on Thursday dismissed the claim of state negligence filed in December 2014 and January 2015 for not meeting the relevant legal requirements, ending 10 years of legal actions by the victims' bereaved families. The petition stated that South

North Korea sent another batch of balloons carrying filth and propaganda to South Korea over the weekend, prompting a stern reaction from the South Korean government, which vowed Sunday to take “unendurable” action. “Dispatching of trash balloons and jamming GPS are despicable and irrational acts of provocation that could not have been imagined by a normal country,” National Security Adviser Chang Ho-jin said after presiding over a National Security Council meeting called

A man in his 60s who was participating in a triathlon event held in Saemangeum -- reclaimed land in North Jeolla Province -- drowned to death during the swimming portion of the event, police said Sunday. The 62-year-old man surnamed Kim was spotted floating in the sea by a lifeguard at 7:45 a.m. during the Challenge Gunsan Saemangeum International Triathlon competition. He was pulled out of the water by an emergency rescue boat and taken immediately to a hospital where he received CPR before bei

A recent sighting of an Asiatic black bear on the Jirisan trail has raised safety concerns. However, the government has moved to reassure the public, noting that the possibility of bear attacks on humans is low due to their gentle and cautious nature. Currently, a total of 89 Asiatic black bears, including four cubs, reside around Jirisan, according to the Korea National Park Service under the Environment Ministry. These bears move between Jirisan and the nearby Deogyusan areas, rarely enc

The presidential National Security Council is expected to discuss a plan to resume propaganda campaigns via loudspeakers across the border with North Korea, in response to the North's launch of some 600 balloons carrying trash to the South, a source close to the matter said Sunday. The NSC meeting will be held Sunday afternoon and presided over by National Security Adviser Jang Ho-jin, according to the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol. Earlier in the day, South Korea's military said N