North Korea will refuse all contact with Japan, after Tokyo took issue with the problem of Japanese abductees and the North's nuclear program, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Tuesday. Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, made the remark in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, a day after she said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had expressed a willingness to hold a summit with her brother

  South Korea is poised to quintuple its biotechnology industrial output in 15 years, to 200 trillion won ($149 billion) by 2035 from 43 trillion won as of 2020, according to President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday. The Ministry of Science and ICT defined life science industrial output as domestic outputs of all types of biopharmaceutical products including biosimilars, medical equipment, supplements, biomass and biotech-related services. Moreover, his administration will nurture an environment

Germany and Korea discussed the role of sustainable supply chains for energy transition while co-hosting the sixth edition of the Korean-German Energy Day conference in Berlin on Thursday. Korean-German Energy Day is an event held under the Korean-German Energy Partnership, jointly hosted by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The partnership, initiated in 2019 through a joint declaration of intent, signifies

The Tajikistan embassy in Seoul highlighted the core of peace, tolerance and new beginnings marking Navruz on Monday. Navruz means "New Day," symbolizing the rejuvenation of nature and the start of a new year. The festival is celebrated on the first day of spring, typically on March 21, coinciding with the astronomical vernal equinox. The festival is said to have a historic tradition of thousands of years in regions along the Silk Roads, including the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the

Nezar Patria, the Indonesian vice minister of communications and informatics, called for a bilateral partnership with South Korea to bridge the global artificial intelligence gap. The influence of Western values perpetuates an AI divide and leads to the concentration of economic and social benefits in specific regions of the Global North, he said, citing the 2023 World Economic Forum report. The report underscores the potential of AI to boost economic growth while noting the geographical concent

From operating on a Sunday to digital certifications, lenders step up services tailored to foreign nationals

Both agree on swift conclusion of free trade agreement to further expand investment, trade

President vows to address medical equipment shortage in follow-up to hike plan

Freedom Speakers International, a Seoul-based NGO that supports North Korean refugees in South Korea, will hold its 19th English speech contest at Harvard University on April 13. Held two times every year since 2015, under the theme "I am from North Korea," this year's event marks the first time the contest takes place outside of South Korea. By holding the event at Harvard University, the organization hopes to help North Korean defectors improve their English speaking skills and

The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday unveiled plans to transform a major part of the city north of the Han River into a new economic center, one that is "up to the level of Gangnam." During the briefing, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said the city government plans to redevelop areas of Seoul north of the Han River by easing regulations placed on residential and commercial areas that are more than 30 years old, turning them into high-tech industrial clusters and new residential areas w

A local barbecue joint that stirred up controversy by charging soldiers extra has been confirmed Tuesday to have closed down. The restaurant, formerly based in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, ceased business operations as of Jan. 2, according to BizNo.net, a website providing information for enterprises across the country. The all-you-can-eat barbecue joint sparked public outrage in December after it was revealed that it charges different fees to soldiers and other adult customers. The price per adult

Unionized Seoul bus drivers could go on a general strike on Thursday, raising concerns over a major public transit disruption in the city. The Seoul Bus Labor Union, which has nearly 18,000 members at 65 companies, under the Korean Automobile and Transport Workers' Federation, said on Tuesday that it will begin the strike at 4 a.m. Thursday, pending a majority vote of the members on Tuesday. The union will sit with the city government for final negotiations on Wednesday afternoon and go o

The state-run Korea Environment Corporation in Seo-gu, Incheon, became the latest site to host a Climate Clock on Monday, marking the tenth installation of the clock in South Korea. This significant event continues the journey that began in 2021, when the Herald Corp. headquarters in Seoul unveiled Asia's first digital Climate Clock, underscoring the nation’s growing commitment to environmental awareness and action. The Climate Clock is a visually compelling reminder of the urgent n

As seen on popular YouTube channels featuring happy couples as well as heartwarming drama series like "Eye Love You," Korean men and Japanese women are increasingly finding love. In 2023, there were 840 marriages registered here between Korean men and Japanese women, marking a 40.1 percent surge from the 599 recorded in 2022, according to Statistics Korea. While such marriages still only constitute a small portion of the total number of marriages of Korean nationals to a spouse of fo

More than half of South Korea's workers are choosing to do minimal work at their jobs without actually resigning, a survey showed Tuesday, indicating that the global trend of "quiet quitting" is growing more prominent among workers here. Local job search website Incruit recently conducted a survey of 1,097 employees across the country about quiet quitting, in which 51.7 percent said they have done so. The term, coined in the early 2020s, refers to an employee doing the absolute m