North Korea on Friday claimed its latest ballistic missile launch was a countermeasure to the South Korean military's "provocative action" in the frontline area, issuing a warning against what it calls a "reckless" move. Earlier in the day, South Korea's military said the North fired one short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) toward the East Sea from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 1:49 a.m. "Taking a serious note of this provocative action by the South Korean military in t

A group of some 10 North Korean military aircraft were flying south of a special reconnaissance line set by South Korea, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Friday. Seoul scrambled military aircraft, including F-35A fighter jets, in response, according to the JCS. The JCS said the North Korean aircraft were detected flying about 25 kilometers north of the Military Demarcation Line in the central region and about 12 kilometers north of the Northern Limit Line, a de facto inter-Korean border

North Korea on Friday fired a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) into the East Sea and about 170 artillery shots into maritime "buffer zones" set under a 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction accord, the South Korean military said. The provocative move came after more than 10 North Korean warplanes staged a menacing flight close to the inter-Korean border, prompting the South Korean Air Force to scramble its F-35A stealth fighters and other assets to the scene, according to t

While North Korean threats intensify, concerns are growing as the nation’s grave security issues could become political strife. Although President Yoon Suk-yeol and his office did not publicly admit to reviewing the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons amid constant threats from North Korea, the information about their moves is constantly being leaked from the government and the ruling party. When asked about Yoon’s position on related reports, Yoon told reporters Thursday mo

The 2022 Gathering for Overseas Korean Adoptees kicked off Wednesday, and will continue until Monday. Organized by the Overseas Koreans Foundation, an organization affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gathering for Overseas Korean Adoptees is an annual homecoming program. The event is designed to invite Koreans who were adopted overseas to their home country and help them better understand the country and mingle with other Korean adoptees. The latest edition of Gathering for Oversea

Xi's third term in office would intensify US-China dispute, rise as destabilizing factor for Korean Peninsula

Couples outside legal boundaries are still facing various disadvantages, data showed Thursday. According to a report from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 28.3 percent of partners who are in a nontraditional form of family, such as common-law partners, said they have faced disadvantages in government policy. The survey asked 159 men and 177 women between the ages of 19 and 49 in 291 households with unmarried couples whether they have experienced any kind of discrimination or in

Hanshin University is to open a graduate school for interdisciplinary convergence of esports, in response to the growing online gaming market. In November, the university will recruit students to enroll in the Esports Convergence master course, which covers a wide range of subjects from video game, sports, to new media and IT. This will be the first graduate school for esports-related studies, the university said. The curriculum will include esports ethics and laws, esports global marketing, es

N.Korean leader says missile launches are another clear warning to enemies, urges to focus on nuclear buildup

Visa regulations for foreign workers in the agricultural and fisheries sectors will be eased as part of efforts to address labor shortages in rural areas. According to the advance notice of legislation the Ministry of Justice announced Thursday, visa issuance regulations will be eased for workers in those sectors. Foreigners who have stayed in South Korea for longer than five years on E-9 non-professional employment visas or E-10 maritime crew visas cannot apply for visa issuance certificates, b

While the rest of South Korea is moving on from the pandemic, returning to normal may still be far off for hospitals as they continue to treat COVID-19 patients and heed the strictest precautions. Dr. Song Young-goo, the general director of Severance Hospital in Gangnam, southern Seoul, said during a press conference Wednesday that he didn’t think hospitals would be able to “go back to the pre-pandemic status quo any time soon.” According to government statistics, more than

To expand the Hangeul Party as a global event that promotes the beauty of Korean script, The Korea Herald, Hangul Planet, Art Token and Witty sealed an agreement on Oct. 7. Hangeul Party is an event that aims to convey the beauty of Hangeul to the world. It originally kicked off as a simple event hosted by the Korean Consulate General in May 2015. From Sept. 27-30 this year, the fifth Hangeul Party was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A total of 370 students majoring in Korean language at six

South Korea will hold a major air show in a southern city next week to showcase an array of its military aircraft, including the homegrown KF-21 fighter under development, Seoul officials said Thursday. The four-day Sacheon Airshow is set to begin at an air base in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, next Thursday after a yearslong hiatus caused by COVID-19. Launched in 2004, the annual air show is co-hosted by the Air Force, the Sacheon municipality and Korea Aerospace Industries. It will featu

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell below 30,000 on Thursday amid a gradual downward trend in new infections after peaking at over 180,000 in mid-August. The country reported 26,957 new COVID-19 infections, including 71 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 25,052,677, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily caseload fell below 10,000 for the first time in 14 weeks at 8,981 on Monday due to fewer tests over the extended weekend that ended on Monday.

South Korea lost track of a missile fired during last week's live-fire drills held in response to a North Korean intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) launch, Seoul officials said Thursday, in a failure that raised questions over the missile's performance. The missile was one of the two Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles that the South Korean military fired into the East Sea following the North's IRBM launch on Oct. 4. The US Forces Korea also fired two ATACMS mi