Kenya supports Seoul's bid for nonpermanent membership of UNSC, says foreign minister

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday it would kick off the construction of the Wirye Line Tram at the end of this month as the project was approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The construction is an eco-friendly new transportation project that connects 12 stations, including two transfer stations: Bokjeong Station on Line 8 and the Suin-bundang Line, and Namwirye Station on Line 8. Trams were first introduced in Seoul in 1899 and operated for nearly 70 years u

Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon turned over five reporters from Citizen Press the Tamsa TV on suspicions of housebreaking and retaliation, Seoul Suseo Police Station said Sunday. On Sunday at around 1:30 p.m., five reporters from the online media outlet allegedly broke through Han’s apartment building doors in Dogok-dong, southern Seoul. According to footage from the Tamsa TV’s official YouTube channel, the journalists tried to enter the minister’s residence by pressing keys on

Forecasting the heavy rain followed by strong cold wave to hit the country from Monday, the Korea Meteorological Administration predicted that this winter will be colder than usual, although it will not break records. "Strong low pressure will pass through Korea from Monday to Tuesday, bringing heavy downpour across the country. After the rain stops, cold continental high atmospheric pressure will expand from Wednesday, causing sub-zero temperature until Friday,” the weather agency sa

Police brought in a Yongsan Ward chief and a former high-ranking intelligence officer for questioning on Monday for the second time as part of their ongoing investigation into the bungled response to the crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood. Yongsan Ward office chief Park Hee-young, who oversees the Itaewon district, and Park Sung-min, a superintendent general, appeared before a special investigation team at a building in western Seoul separately as suspects. The Yongsan Ward chief h

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell below 30,000 on Monday due to fewer tests over the weekend, but the government remains on alert over the virus's possible resurgence during the winter. The country reported 22,327 new COVID-19 infections, including 53 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 26,959,843, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Daily infections jumped to 72,860 cases on Tuesday last week but have since been on the decline fr

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo departed for Paris on Monday to rally international support for South Korea's bid to host the 2030 World Expo in its southern port city of Busan. Han is set to attend the 171st General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions, an intergovernmental body in charge of overseeing the Expo, on Tuesday. During the assembly, Han is scheduled to give a presentation, outlining the government's vision to host the Expo in Busan and help produce solutions to

President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating rose to 36.4 percent, surpassing the mid-30 percent range for the first time in four weeks, a poll showed Monday. Yoon's approval rating climbed 3 percentage points from the previous week, posting the biggest on-week jump since he took office in May in a Realmeter poll, while his disapproval rating fell by 3 percentage points to 60.8 percent. The poll was conducted on 2,514 voters nationwide from Monday to Friday last week. This is the first ti

Tens of thousands of fans are expected to hold street cheering events in central Seoul to root for South Korea's second World Cup match in Qatar, although the state weather agency has predicted a cold wave and rain later in the day. "The heads of local governments and the heads of police and fire departments should inspect crowd management measures in advance in preparation for rain," Han said, according to the Office for Government Policy Coordination. Han also ordered the interi

An oil tanker in West Africa with two South Koreans and 17 Indonesians aboard, which was freed after being hijacked by pirates earlier this week, is expected to be towed to its destination due to damage caused to the engine by the kidnappers, according to Seoul's foreign ministry officials Sunday. The 4,000-ton tanker owned by a South Korean shipping company was hijacked by pirates in international waters off of West Africa on Thursday then released a day later. The pirates reportedly sto

The plan to include launching Korean NASA

Economic hardships of young people become increasingly detrimental to society, evident particularly through crash in fertility rate

The Democratic Party of Korea on Sunday gave President Yoon Suk-yeol a one-day ultimatum to fire Lee Sang-min, the minister of interior and safety, over the deadly crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon last month. “The president needs to stand by his words that there will be accountability. The first step to do that is to remove the interior and safety minister from his post,” Democratic Party spokesperson Rep. Lee Soo-jin said in a briefing. If Yoon fails to respond to do so by Monda

Changed diet suggests why Koreans' rice consumption has decreased

YANGYANG -- Five people were killed in a helicopter crash near a Buddhist temple in the eastern coastal county of Yangyang on Sunday, fire officials said. Identification of the victims was under way, as officials had initially presumed only the two people on board -- a 71-year-old pilot and a 54-year-old mechanic -- had been killed. The chopper, an S-58T on lease by the local governments of Yangyang, Sokcho and Goseong, crashed on a hill around 10:50 a.m. while surveying the area against forest