North Korea has convened a meeting of the ruling party's central military commission to discuss ways to expand operational combat drills and "more strictly perfect" its readiness posture for war, according to its state media Tuesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea on Monday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Participants "discussed in depth the major m

Prosecutors have summarily indicted a former foreign ministry employee on charges of attempting to sell BTS member Jungkook's lost hat online for 10 million won ($7,950), legal sources said Tuesday. The former government employee, whose identity has been withheld, allegedly shared a photo of the bucket hat on an online flea market, claiming the K-pop superstar had left it at the ministry building in Seoul when he visited to apply for a passport. The seller further said he had acquired the o

Prosecutors raided Seongnam City Hall on Tuesday as part of a high-profile development corruption investigation involving opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, officials said. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office sent investigators to the City Hall and Asia Developer, a private real estate developer, to seize evidence related to the investigation. The probe centers on allegations that the municipal government of Seongnam gave special administrative favors to Asia Developer in 2015, which led

President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the government on Monday to come up with active measures to provide humanitarian assistance to Iran and Turkey hit hard by recent earthquakes, his office said.    Yoon gave the instruction to the presidential National Security Office and the foreign ministry.    A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Turkey early Monday, killing at least 912 people and injuring more than 5,000, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.  &nbs

Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon said Monday Democratic Party of Korea chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung’s alleged interaction with North Korea in 2019 would be “a clear violation of the law.” “These are still allegations under investigation. But unauthorized contact with North Korea is a clear violation of the law,” said the justice minister in response to a lawmaker's question at the plenary session held on the day. Lee faces allegations that he got in touch with Nor

Seoul says suspected Chinese spy balloon did not fly over South Korea

Ahn Cheol-soo, who merged his presidential candidacy with Yoon Suk Yeol last year, has distanced himself from the president ahead of a March election that picks the new leader of the ruling People Power Party, after the presidential office blasted him for using the term "Yoon-Ahn solidarity" for the race. Yoon has warned Ahn not to use the term "solidarity," with presidential aides calling it "wrong" and "inappropriate," drawing a clear line that the two

Concerns grow over teenagers using cheap, quasi-motels; experts say proper sex education is needed instead of telling them just not to go

Military police said Monday they had launched an investigation after a report that a sergeant had abused a soldier with a motor drill. According to a military statement, a sergeant at a unit located in the greater Seoul metropolitan area was reported Sunday for using a motor drill on the arm of a soldier on Friday. The names of the perpetrator and victim have not been disclosed. The sergeant appeared at the unit's cafeteria with a motor drill in his hand and, without warning, began to drill

South Korea’s opposition parties on Monday tabled a motion to impeach Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min over the deadly crowd crush in Itaewon, a neighborhood in central Seoul, on Oct. 29 last year. The impeachment motion was submitted on the grounds that Lee failed to implement measures to prevent crowd congestion and work with concerned government agencies in the event of mass disasters. The safety minister also failed to respond in time as the crowd surge turned into a mass-c

Average age of elderly Seoulites who consider themselves “seniors” are 72.6 years old, 7.6 years older than legal standard

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell to the lowest tally in 224 days on Monday, a week after the country lifted most mandatory indoor mask-wearing rules amid a COVID-19 downtrend. The country reported 5,850 new cases, including 20 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,263,261, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. It is the lowest daily count since June 27 last year when the figure came to 3,419. The country added 18 COVID-19 deaths Monday, bringing the d

South Korea will seek to build a statue of a British journalist in his birthplace to commemorate his activism against Japanese imperialists in the early 20th century, the veterans ministry said Monday. Veterans Minister Park Min-shik unveiled the plan in Britain on Friday as he met with Thomas Owen Bethell, a grandson of Ernest Bethell (1872-1909), who helped reveal to the world Imperial Japan's misdeeds against Korea by publishing newspaper stories. The ministry plans to establish the st

YouTube is home to a myriad of creators catering to people interested in Korean language and culture, but not many have the presence of Billy Go. The 36-year-old American has nearly 544,000 followers, amassed through a decade of engagement and several hundreds of tutoring clips and posts. His YouTube channel, which started in 2012, “Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean” mostly features short-form videos of 10 minutes or less that teach the Korean alphabet, words and phrases, as well

North Korea plans to hold a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in late February to discuss issues related to agricultural development, its state media said Monday. At a politburo meeting of the WPK's Central Committee held the previous day, the North unanimously decided to convene the seventh enlarged plenary meeting of the party late this month, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The move is aimed at reviewing last year's achievements in the country&#