South Korea is looking to map out plans by 2023 to build the second presidential office in the administrative city of Sejong, the office of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announced Tuesday. This is part of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's policy road map to elevate Sejong, a city that is 120 kilometers south of Seoul, to the nation's de facto administrative capital. Currently, Yoon's office is located in Yongsan-gu, center of Seoul. The government also pledged to set up measures an

Seoul pushes to label Pyongyang as state enemy in upcoming defense white paper

Reclusive regime cashes in on anonymous, decentralized nature of virtual assets to cover astronomical costs of missile tests

Several safety hazards evident in popular nightlife district

South Korea and Japan need to step up efforts to advance their ties to better counter growing missile threats from North Korea, according to the top envoys from Seoul and Tokyo. The two Asian neighbors are still locked in longtime historical disputes, the latest of which involves compensating Koreans forced to work for Japanese companies during World War II. The unprecedented frequency of Pyongyang’s missile launches this year, however, are forcing Seoul and Tokyo to put their differences

South Korea’s Korean language foundation plans to expand its global program which is currently available at 244 institutions across 84 countries, as it looks to the next decade. “This year, we celebrated our 10th anniversary,” King Sejong Institute Foundation President Lee Hai-young at an event honoring the foundation’s scholarship recipients held in Seoul on Monday. The foundation has been assisting students worldwide seeking to learn Korean language and culture with i

Vietnam’s Planning and Investment Minister Nguyen Chi Dung on Monday renewed the Southeast Asian country's commitment to bolstering business ties with South Korea in a range of areas from construction to medical care. “Despite the struggling global economy and dim outlook for next year, Vietnam is one of the best countries for investment, mostly driven by a stable political and economic environment, rapid growth rate and resilient workforce,” said the minister during a lunche

A divorced couple accused of keeping the body of their dead infant daughter in a plastic container for three years to hide her death attended their arrest warrant hearing at a court Tuesday. A 34-year-old woman surnamed Seo and her former husband surnamed Choi, 29, were booked late last month on charges of abandoning and concealing the body of their 15-month-old daughter since her death at their home in Pyeongtaek, 80 kilometers south of Seoul, in January 2020. Seo is additionally charged with v

Business leaders of South Korea and Vietnam on Tuesday discussed efforts to deepen bilateral economic cooperation in new areas such as a transition to green energy, in a step toward carbon neutrality and sustainable growth. The business forum, hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, took place a day after the summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol and Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, during which they agreed to elevate the relations to a "comprehensive, strategic partn

South Korea's military has identified the remains of another soldier killed during the 1950-53 Korean War following an excavation two years earlier, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The ministry's excavation team and personnel of the Army's 3rd Artillery Brigade found the remains of Pfc. Kang Nong-won in the mountainous county of Inje, 165 kilometers east of Seoul, in June 2020. Although they did not discover personal items that could help identify the remains, they were able to

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases sharply rose Tuesday to reach the highest total in 83 days amid lingering concerns that the country may face a winter surge of virus infections. The country reported 77,604 new COVID-19 infections, including 84 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 27,408,854, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. The tally is sharply up from Monday's 23,160, when daily infection cases tend to slow due to fewer tests over the weekend. It is

WASHINGTON-- South Korea and Japan must work closely together bilaterally and also trilaterally with the United States to deal with the various challenges at hand such as North Korean provocations and supply chain resiliency, the countries' top envoys in the US said Monday. South Korean Ambassador to the US Cho Tae-yong said the Seoul government stands ready to strengthen its cooperation with the US and Japan. Cho highlighted the importance of trilateral cooperation between the US, Japan

Korea's gender wage gap highest among OECD members for 26 straight years

Special adviser on children’s issue to the US State Department, Michelle Bernier-Toth, is currently in South Korea to discuss the issue of cross-over child abduction, officials in Seoul told The Korea Herald. A meeting between Bernier-Toth, who arrived over the weekend, and officials from S. Korea’s Ministry of Justice is to be held Tuesday, a ministry official said, with unresolved cases involving children of Korean-American couples taken to Korea by the Korean parent without the

Amid growing calls to revise the indoor mask mandate, South Korea's top adviser to the Yoon Suk-yeol administration for the handling of the pandemic played down easing the mandate, citing lingering safety concerns. Jung Ki-suck, a medical pundit who chairs the Special Response Center of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, said Monday at a briefing in Seoul that the premature decision to ease indoor mask rules could exacerbate the chance of infection for those at higher r