South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday directed the immediate dispatch of military aircraft to evacuate nationals from the Middle East as tensions escalated rapidly with intensified clashes between Israel and Iran as well as its backed militias Hezbollah and Hamas. "The president emphasized that protecting South Korean nationals in Israel and the Middle East is of utmost importance and instructed that all necessary measures be taken," his office said in a statement issued fo

A South Korean rapper who pretended that his mental illness had worsened in order to shorten his mandatory national service will be subject to a suspended prison term, the country's top court confirmed Wednesday. Announcing the ruling, which it said was made last month, the Supreme Court upheld a 14-month sentence, suspended for two years, for the rapper Nafla, who was convicted last year of violating the Military Service Act and the Criminal Act, specifically for obstructing the performanc

Georgy Zinoviev, the Russian ambassador in Seoul, told South Korean lawmakers on Wednesday that although the relations between the two countries were going through a difficult time, he believed they would improve in the future. “I would like to take this opportunity to say that even though South Korea and Russia are going through a rough patch at this moment, I believe there is still a lot of potential for expanding cooperation and resuming dialogue in the future,” he said, speaking

South Korean police have caught scalpers in their 20s and 30s for using macro tools to illegally buy performance tickets for popular stars like Lim Young-woong and Byeon Woo-seok, then reselling them at premium prices. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said on Tuesday that they had apprehended seven individuals, identified as college students, job seekers and soldiers, who used automated macro programs from 2021 until August of this year to snatch highly sought-after tickets and resell them o

Pyongyang expected to advance ratification of new treaty with Moscow at upcoming meeting

Rain focused on southeastern region to fall until Friday

World watches as S. Korea pioneers AI textbooks, but schools need better environment, not revolution, says Australian scholar

A handful of South Korean gamers were treated to an unintended limited-time offer for the popular computer game Diablo 4 on Wednesday, when its publisher inexplicably put it on sale for 1,575 won ($1.20) for less than an hour in the wee hours of the morning. The short-term price for the standard edition of the action role-playing game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment was posted at the company's Battle.net website some time before 3 a.m. It reverted to its initial price of 6

North Korea once again sent another wave of balloons carrying trash toward the South on Wednesday, the day after a massive military parade was held in Seoul to commemorate the Armed Forces Day. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said at around 5:19 a.m. that North Korea was flying objects believed to be trash balloons, which may move toward Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province given the wind direction. The JCS advised residents of the affected areas to be wary of falling objects an

The 10th edition of India’s Sarang Festival in Korea, an annual cultural exchange event hosted by the Indian Embassy in Korea, kicked off Tuesday, featuring an hour long dance performances. The festival's title, "sarang," means "love" in Korean and "diversity" in Hindi, reflecting cultural significance for both nations. This year's Sarang Festival began with a Kuchipudi performance by renowned artist Sreelakshmy Govardhanan, with the group set to per

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday endorsed Cabinet motions demanding parliamentary reconsideration of three opposition-led bills, including one calling for a special counsel probe into first lady Kim Keon Hee's allegations. It marked the 11th time that Yoon has exercised his veto power since taking office in May 2022, and a total of 24 bills have been rejected amid ongoing tensions between the opposition-controlled National Assembly and Yoon. The most disputed bill calls for an independe

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said Wednesday the South Korean government will stay vigilant against heightened tensions in the Middle East following Iran's massive missile attack on Israel, vowing to enhance market monitoring and devise responses. Iran fired a barrage of around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday (local time), in what Tehran said was retaliation for the recent killings of top Hezbollah and Hamas officials, according to foreign media reports. Israeli Prime Minister

North Korea sent what appeared to be trash-filled balloons toward South Korea on Wednesday, the South's military said, in the first such launch in 10 days. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North launched the balloons, warning they may float toward Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province. Since late May, the North has launched more than 5,000 balloons carrying trash on over 22 occasions in retaliation against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent to the North by North Korean defectors and activ

Mobile phone spam in South Korea reached a record high through August, despite ongoing government efforts to curb unwanted messages and advertisements, parliamentary data showed. From January to August, 280.4 million spam messages and calls were reported or detected by the Korea Internet & Security Agency, up 68 percent from the same period last year, according to the data submitted to the National Assembly by KISA. This year’s figure through August already represent 95 percent of

BRUSSELS (Yonhap) -- South Korea and three other Indo-Pacific partners of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will attend the upcoming defense ministerial meeting for the first time later this month, NATO's chief said Tuesday. New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the defense ministers of South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, collectively known as IP4, were invited to the meeting scheduled for Oct. 16-17 in Brussels. "I look forward to welcoming them and forging a sh