Five university students were killed in a single-vehicle accident after the car crashed and caught fire in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, on early Sunday morning. The students -- believed to be one female and four male students, all in their 20s -- were from Korea University, the school confirmed after the incident. They were also reportedly members of the Korea University Ski Team Association, a union ski club consisting of nearly 40 Korean universities. According to fire authorities and police

The number of daily novel coronavirus cases in South Korea hit 5,174, its lowest count in seven months, government data showed Monday. It marked the lowest point since June 27, 2022, when Korea counted 3,419 daily cases, according to data by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The latest figure has brought Korea's accumulated number of COVID-19 cases to 30.35 million. In general, figures announced on Mondays tend to be lower due to fewer people taking tests over the weekend. St

WASHINGTON-- South Korea and Japan are continuing to consult on ways to resolve their differences over how to resolve the issue of Japan's wartime forced labor, Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong said Sunday. Cho made the remarks after arriving in Washington for a trilateral meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori, as well as bilateral talks with his US and Japanese counterparts. "We have been consulting for quite some ti

North Korea has "expanded and reorganized" many of its military units in accordance with new security situations, assigning operational combat missions to them, state media said Monday. The report came after North Korea held a massive military parade last week to mark the 75th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Army, displaying intercontinental ballistic missiles and other advanced weaponry, as well as new military units. "Many units of services and arms of the KPA h

　The poverty rate among South Korean senior citizens has been on the mend but is still high among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a report showed. 　The relative poverty rate of South Koreans aged 65 and older stood at 37.6 percent in 2021, down 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the report on sustainable development goals by Statistics Korea. 　The figure for male senior citizens came to 31.3 percent, while that for women amounted to 4

The southwestern city of Gwangju suffered a major water outage Sunday due to a valve malfunction at a water purification plant, officials said. The valve was closed shut in the process of fixing an error in the communications system that automatically opens and closes valves, according to municipal officials. The malfunction was detected at 6 a.m. and fixed at 5:30 p.m., but water supplies were expected to return to normal around midnight after removing muddy water from pipelines. Residents comp

A North Korean state broadcaster called Sunday for thorough quarantine efforts, pointing to the "very unstable" situation marked by the spread of COVID-19, seasonal flu and other contagious illnesses. The North's official Korean Central Television said the country's entire society should continue to maintain the antivirus campaign by blocking all virus transmission routes, including border and coastal areas, until the world's public health crisis ends. "Even into th

North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, placed his young daughter, Kim Ju-ae, front and center at high-profile events last week, rekindling the debate on whether North Korea carves out a path to position Ju-ae as Kim’s heir apparent. Some experts said North Korea has signaled that Ju-ae has been internally decided as the next leader, while others point out Ju-ae has been used as a propaganda vehicle to send a message that nuclear weapons can protect the safety of the younger generations and high

Iranian Ambassador Saeed Badamchi Shabestari has called on the South Korean government and people to work toward better bilateral ties, stressing stagnant political and economic relations between the two countries in recent years. Speaking at a celebration event held for the 44th Islamic revolution on Thursday, the ambassador said he feels "regretful" over the current status of the bilateral relationship despite the countries' ties in modern history, as well as in ancient times, d

A Korean team of rescuers found three more survivors in quake-hit Turkey, raising the number of people rescued by the team to eight, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Sunday. They pulled a 65-year-old woman at 2:02 p.m. from the rubble in Antakya with her dead husband. A few hours later they also rescued a 17-year-old man and his 51-year-old mother from the same building in the city Saturday at 7:18 p.m. and 8:18 p.m., respectively, aided by use of a sound detector and a rock drill. The woman&r

The Korea International Cooperation Agency said Sunday it is participating in a project to build "peace villages" in Vietnam in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme. The project involves removing land mines and unexploded bombs from central Vietnam's Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai and Hue provinces. The project, which began last year, has a goal of establishing sustainable cities and communities, ending hunger, and achieving food security. KOICA will provide 31.7 b

High court judges in Seoul are set to resume trials on forced labor issues involving Japanese companies in May, regardless of whether Japan continues not to respond to the court's request to transmit judicial documents to defendants there. The Seoul High Court on Jan. 31 carried out "services of public notice" on two civil court trials where forced labor victims individually seek damages to companies that had mobilized them during World War II. Under the "services of public n

Nearly 85 percent of children reported from domestic violence situations were sent back to their homes without measures to protect them, a report showed Sunday. According to the report by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, of the 31,804 reported cases of child abuse at home in 2021, 84.6 percent of children were returned to their families of origin where they had suffered abuse and were likely to face mistreatment again. Only 14.5 percent of the children were separated from their families a

Go Do-won, chairman of the Morning Letter Cultural Foundation and independent lawmaker Yang Hyang-ja will hold a ceremony to inaugurate a foundation for young overseas Koreans around the world on Feb. 23, the two said Sunday in a news release. The foundation, named K-Diaspora World Solidarity, aims to provide young overseas Koreans with opportunities to strengthen their connection to the home country, they added. The organization will serve as a platform to connect 2 million overseas Korean teen

South Korea's disaster relief team operating in quake-struck Turkey has rescued two more survivors, bringing the total number of people it saved to eight, Seoul's foreign ministry said Sunday. The team pulled to safety a 17-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman from the same building in Antakya at 7:18 p.m. and 8:18 p.m. on Saturday, respectively. The man was unconscious while the woman was in good condition, according to the ministry. "The South Korean team will continue a high-