SINAN -- 5 of crew members missing from fishing boat capsizing found dead Rescuers searching a 24-ton fishing boat that capsized off the southwestern coast found five missing crew members dead inside the shipwreck Monday, Coast Guard officials said. Seawater started to flood the ship's engine room, causing the vessel, the Cheongbo, to overturn at 11:19 p.m. Saturday in waters 16.6 kilometers west of the uninhabited island of Daebichi that lies some 20 km from the southwestern county of

South Korea’s population shrank last year, continuing its downward trend for three years in a row with the number of single-person households close to 10 million, government data showed. The Ministry of Interior and Safety said the country’s registered population stood at 51,439,038 as of Dec. 31 of last year, down 0.39 percent from a year earlier. Single-person households continued to rise to 9,724,256, accounting for 41 percent of the total of 23,705,814 households. Combined with t

In Seoul’s central Gwanghwamun, a memorial event was held over the weekend to mark 100 days since the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon on Oct. 29 last year. Saturday’s event, meant to be a time for remembering victims of the disaster, was quickly marred by altercations with police and politicians using the occasion to push their own agenda. At least one family member of a victim was rushed to the hospital at around 2 p.m. after collapsing during a standoff with police. Squads of poli

Former journalist Lee Do-woon was appointed as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s new spokesperson after the position had been left empty for five months, the presidential office said Sunday. The position has been vacant since early September after former spokesperson Kang In-sun moved to the role of public relations secretary for the foreign press. Lee graduated from Yonsei University’s political science and diplomacy department and began his career as a reporter at the daily newspaper Seoul

WASHINGTON -- The US military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America. China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions. President Joe Biden issued the order but had wanted the balloon downed even earlier, on Wednesday. He was advised that the best time for the operation would be when it was over water, US officials said. Military officials de

South Korea and the United States, its biggest ally, have reaffirmed their commitment to using their full range of firepower, including US nuclear weapons, to contain North Korea, while also expanding economic and space exchanges in the latest joint push to mark 70 years of relations this year. At a Friday meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, Foreign Minister Park Jin highlighted “watertight coordination” in dealing with threats from North Korea, which fir

Three crew were rescued from a fishing boat after it capsized off the southwestern coast late Saturday, and a search is underway for the other nine missing crew, South Korea’s Coast Guard said Sunday. The Mokpo Coast Guard received a report at 11:19 p.m. Saturday that the 24-ton fishing boat had overturned 16.6 kilometers west of Daebichido, an inhabited island in Sinan, South Jeolla Province. Two Koreans and one Indonesian were rescued by the Coast Guard and taken to the hospital. Nine ot

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases stayed below 15,000 on Sunday amid the view that the winter wave of infections has probably peaked. The country reported 14,018 new cases, including 34 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,257,411, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The daily caseload fell to the lowest Sunday tally in 31 weeks. The country added 22 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the death toll to 33,596. The number of critically ill patients came to 313, do

Bereaved families of the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush on Saturday took to the streets of downtown Seoul and installed a memorial altar in a public square without approval from authorities, one day before the 100th day of the tragedy. About 5,000 people, including about 150 family members, marched from a memorial altar at Noksapyeong Station, near the site of the Oct. 29 accident that killed 159 people during Halloween festivities, to Sejongno Street, where they held a memorial rally for th

More than 90 people evacuated Saturday morning as a fire broke out at a public bathhouse in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, according to local media reports. The fire started at 8:07 a.m. from the bathhouse, which uses the second, third and the fourth floor of a six-story building. The fire was put out in around an hour, but smoke billowed into other facilities of the building. Of 92 people who evacuated the scene, three people who inhaled smoke were taken to nearby hospital, including a

An appellate court on Thursday upheld a prison term for a hunter who shot and killed a taxi driver, mistaking the victim for a boar. The 73-year-old professional hunter was sentenced to one year and four months in prison for murder by occupational negligence at an appellate trial in the second criminal appellate division of Seoul Western District Court on Thursday, reducing the sentence by four months from the lower court’s ruling. The shooting took place around 8 p.m. on April 29 during a

South Korea and the US on Friday staged another military air exercise over the west coast of South Korea by mobilizing their stealth fighters, just two days after US strategic bombers flew to the Korean Peninsula for combined aerial drills. The air combat exercise involved F-22 and F-35B advanced stealth fighters and F-16CM fighting aircraft of the US Air Force and South Korean Air Force’s F-35A stealth fighter jets, according to South Korea’s Air Force. “The combined exercise

The presidential office said Friday it has filed a complaint against a former spokesperson for the Defense Ministry for libel, accusing him of making a false claim that its decision to relocate President Yoon Suk Yeol's residence to Yongsan, central Seoul, was linked to a fortune teller whom the opposition party suspects the president of having ties with. The office also sued for libel two other reporters -- from News Tomato and Hankook Ilbo -- for writing about the ex-spokesman's clai

Former minister says he will appeal and continue fight against politically motivated prosecution

South Korea and the United States are in talks over a possible state visit to Washington by President Yoon Suk Yeol in the first half of the year, a diplomatic source said Friday. If it materializes, it would be the first state visit to the United States by a South Korean president in 12 years. President Lee Myung-bak was the last president to pay such a visit to Washington in 2011. The source said the allies are keeping other options open, such as an official visit or a working visit. April is