First lady makes 1st public appearance in 169 days, is thanked for her role in relics' return

The Supreme Court recently ruled that files from a “spy app” for illegally recording voice files cannot be used as evidence of adultery as it violates a communications-related law. In 2022, a woman sought compensation from her ex-husband’s mistress based on calls recorded between her ex-husband and his mistress as evidence. The woman collected the evidence using a spy app she had secretly installed on her husband’s phone. Two lower courts admitted the evidence, ruling t

Pet food products, suspected of causing the deaths of over 180 cats, are cleared in state-led investigations, yet owners remain unconvinced

Gen. John Adams Wickham Jr., the US military commander in South Korea during the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju, has passed away at age 95. Legacy.com, a US website providing obituaries and memorials, noted on Friday that Wickham had died on May 11 in Oro Valley, Arizona. Wickham was the commander of the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command from 1979 to 1983, a particularly tumultuous period in South Korea. During Wickham's time here, a military coup led by future President Chun D

A North Korean delegation from the country's border city of Rason has returned home after a weeklong visit to Russia's Far East, state media reported Sunday. The Korean Central News Agency said the delegation led by the chief of the Rason Municipal People's Committee arrived back home on Saturday. The delegation had left for the trip on May 12. The one-sentence dispatch did not provide further details, but the delegation is believed to have discussed resuming passenger train servi

Seoulites continue their search for winners of quality rest. Following last weekend's zoning out contest, a best sleeper competition was held on Saturday afternoon at Yeouido Hangang Park. Starting at 2 p.m., participants napped for an hour and a half, during which their heart rates were measured every half hour. The winner was determined by the greatest difference between their baseline heart rate, measured before the nap, and their lowest heart rate during the nap. This contest was part o

North Korea denounced the United States on Saturday over its recent redesignation as a country not cooperating fully with US counterterrorism efforts, insisting that no area in which the two countries can cooperate exists. Kwon Jong-gun, director-general of the department of US affairs at the North's foreign ministry, issued the criticism after the United States kept the North on its list of countries not fully cooperating with its counterterrorism efforts earlier this week. "The DPRK

North Korea has test-fired a tactical ballistic missile equipped with a "new autonomous navigation system," state media said Saturday, with leader Kim Jong-un vowing to boost the country's nuclear force. Kim oversaw the Friday test-launch into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on a mission to evaluate the "accuracy and reliability of the autonomous navigation system," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said. The launch was the latest in a st

President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Saturday to advance the freedom and welfare of the people as a way to uphold the spirit of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju. Yoon made the remark during a ceremony marking the 44th anniversary of the Gwangju Democratization Movement in the city located 267 kilometers south of Seoul. The ceremony was attended by some 2,500 people, including lawmakers from the rival parties and families of the victims. "The entire people of Sout

WASHINGTON -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may not be "eager" to engage with former US President Donald Trump if he wins the White House in the Nov. 5 election, a US expert has said, noting Pyongyang has already been "burnt" by Trump. Ralph Cossa, president emeritus at the Pacific Forum, made the forecast in a recent piece for The National Interest, an international affairs magazine, suspecting Pyongyang will be more interested in "what kind of damage a second Trump a

WASHINGTON -- South Korean and US officials have stressed the need to address an "inextricable" link between North Korea's human rights and security issues, claiming Pyongyang's repressive political climate has led it to divert its scarce resources to its weapons programs without public pushback. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a US-based nongovernmental institute, issued a report Friday to further substantiate the claim as it sheds light on how the reclusive r

  North Korea said Saturday it has test-fired a tactical ballistic missile equipped with a new "autonomous" navigation system in a bid to advance its weapons capabilities. The North's leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the weapons test on Friday, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The report did not reveal further details such as how many missiles were fired. "The accuracy and reliability of the autonomous navigation system were verified through the test fire," the rep

A US F-16 fighter jet crash incident in South Korea in May of last year occurred due to a partial power loss experienced by the aircraft and weather conditions at the time, a US Air Force unit stationed in the country said Friday. On May 6, 2023, the single-engine fighter jet assigned to the 8th Fighter Wing (FW) of the US 7th Air Force crashed into farmland near Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, shortly after take-off. The pilot ejected safely, with no serious injuries

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had voiced frustration over global skepticism on his will for denuclearization, stressing he had no intention to use nuclear weapons, a memoir written by former President Moon Jae-in showed Friday. The details of exchanges between Moon and Kim during their first summit held in April 2018 were shared in the book, of which the title translates into "From the Periphery to the Center." It recounts significant diplomatic events, such as Moon's summit mee

President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the government Friday to scrap all preliminary feasibility studies for research and development projects to speed up their implementation and support economic growth. Yoon made the remark during a national financial strategy meeting held to discuss fiscal policy issues ahead of the government's formulation of next year's budget. "I ask you to abolish preliminary feasibility studies and sharply increase the scale of investment in order to nurture