A building in Namdaemun market in central Seoul caught fire on Wednesday evening. The fire authority estimates that a temporary building near exit three of the large market caught fire at around 7:52 p.m. Emergency responders are working to contain the blaze, and a total of 77 firefighters arrived on the scene in 21 fire engines. There are no reports of injury or deaths as of 10 p.m.

Experts say no radical change expected, but more intelligence can be gathered on NK missile launches via satellites

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will discuss North Korea, among other issues, during his three-day trip to South Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. The trip, which started Wednesday after a five-year hiatus, comes as South Korea looks for a more coordinated international response to North Korea’s provocations. This year, Pyongyang has conducted a record number of missile launches, prompting not only Seoul, but the international community to step up efforts to rein in the i

List includes Korean-born US soldier who inspired ‘Mr. Sunshine’

Seoul city will officially provide shelters specifically for stalking victims, both for female and male victims, starting this Thursday. Three shelters will open, two for female victims and one for male victims. Shelters for women can house up to 10 people and four people can be housed in the male shelter. Most stalking crimes occur near the victim's residence, so shelters offer victims immediate protection. According to a survey by Seoul city and Namurights, a non-profit organization for

Activists defy public resentment, chain themselves to train doors. Here’s why.

Drug ministry orders pharmaceutical companies to produce more cold drugs

Former President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday was sued by the family of South Korea government official Lee Dae-jun, who was killed by North Korean soldiers near the sea border over two years ago. The lawsuit comes as onetime officials at Moon’s Cheong Wa Dae and Cabinet are being summoned by prosecutors one by one for questioning. Lee Rae-jin, the late official’s older brother, accused Moon of failing to perform his duties as the president and lying about the circumstances surrounding t

President Yoon Suk-yeol has canceled his attendance at the opening ceremony of a nuclear power reactor in southern South Korea on Wednesday due to extreme weather conditions, his office said. Yoon had been scheduled to visit Uljin, 223 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to mark the beginning of commercial operations at the Shin Hanul No. 1 nuclear reactor, which took 10 years to build and was completed in 2020. "The local government is working in emergency mode due to the cold wave," the p

A subway train skipped a station in Seoul on Wednesday due to subway-riding protests by a disabled advocacy group. Seoul Metro said a Subway Line 4 train passed through Samgakji Station without stopping at 8:50 a.m. after a brawl erupted as subway officials tried to block disability rights activists from bringing a ladder into the station. The Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination has been staging a four-day rush-hour subway protest at the station near the presidential office since Monday

TBS is cancelling three shows hosted by left-leaning figures, including its most-listened-to program, as the Seoul city-funded ratio station seeks to shake off accusations of political bias in the face of a severe funding cut. The shows’ hosts shared the news on their programs which aired Monday. Kim Eo-joon, host of the top-ranked “News Factory,” said that he will host the show for three more weeks before the program closes at the end of this year. Later in the day, two othe

South Korea came under the grip of the season's coldest weather on Wednesday, with the morning lows dipping to minus 15 C in some inland areas, the state weather agency said. The Korea Meteorological Administrationsaid the freezing temperatures were accompanied by strong wind, with the wind velocity reaching up to 16 meters per second in some coastal areas. In Seoul, morning lows plummeted to minus 11 C and an apparent temperature of nearly minus 20 C as of 7 a.m., the KMA said. The weather agen

A teenage survivor of the deadly crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood has been found dead in an apparent suicide, police said Thursday. Police found the high schooler dead at an accommodation in western Seoul at 11:40 p.m. on Monday while searching the area following a report from his mother 30 minutes earlier that her son was missing, officials said. No suicide note was found at the scene while police said there were also no signs of foul play. "He is assumed to have taken his

Former South Gyeongsang Province Govt. Kim Kyoung-soo has said he does not want to be released from prison on parole amid speculation he will be granted a special pardon by President Yoon Suk-yeol later this month. Kim, who has been serving a two-year sentence on opinion rigging charges, stated his case in a handwritten note posted by his wife on his Facebook page Tuesday, saying he rejects the conditions for parole, which include "clear indications of regret." "As someone who has

WASHINGTON-- The United States remains fully committed to completely denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and that goal will not change, a state department spokesperson said Tuesday. The department spokesperson, Ned Price, also stressed the importance of holding North Korea accountable for its recent missile provocations. "We have conveyed our policy position by noting that we undertook a comprehensive review of our policy towards the DPRK in the early part of this administration," Pr