Five-day event returns after two years in a bid to jump-start tourism with K-pop, Formula E and more

Civic groups on Wednesday called for overhaul of government housing policies, claiming that related policies are the root cause of deaths in semi-basement homes in Monday night’s downpour. According to the authorities, four of the 11 confirmed deaths caused by the rain occurred in semi-basement properties. “We condemn the government’s negligence on those marginalized in housing for this tragedy. As rainfall becomes stronger and more frequent under the influence of clim

The authority has elevated landslide warnings for North Jeolla Province and North Gyeongsang Province as of 11 a.m. Thursday as rain cloud move south. In Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Sejong, Gyeonggi Province, Gangwon Province, North Chungcheong and South Chungcheong Province, a lower alert level will be maintained. According to the Korea Forest Service, torrential rains of up to 200 mm are expected in Chungcheong Province, North Jeolla Province, and North Gyeongsang Province between Wednesday an

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo held a meeting with relevant authorities to review how the recovery from this week's heavy rain damage has progressed, Han's office said Thursday. Two days of the heaviest rainfall in 80 years battered Seoul and its surrounding areas, killing 11 people, with eight people still remained missing. About 1,000 pieces of heavy equipment have been mobilized for recovery work and some 2,200 soldiers are set to assist cleanup efforts, the office said. Of 4,047 tasks

South Korea's unification ministry on Thursday voiced strong regret over North Korea's claim that its COVID-19 outbreak had originated from the South and its threats of an unspecified retaliatory step. Earlier in the day, Pyongyang's state media reported that leader Kim Jong-un held a national meeting the previous day and declared victory in the campaign against COVID-19. During the session, his younger sister Kim Yo-jong, who serves as vice department director of the Central Comm

One of the two trailing candidates in the race for chairmanship of the main opposition Democratic Party said Thursday he is willing to merge candidacies with the other in any way in order to defeat front-runner and former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. Reps. Park Yong-jin and Kang Hoon-sik have been trailing Lee by wide margins in the DP leadership race. After four out of 15 primaries, Lee has won 74.5 percent of the vote so far, reinforcing the widespread belief that he will be elected l

President Yoon Suk-yeol hosted a dinner for new US Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg and US Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera earlier this week, a presidential official said Thursday. Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han also attended the meeting, which took place Tuesday at the presidential office, according to the official. "It was a meeting to welcome the new (US) ambassado

The chief of South Korea's housing developer has offered to resign, becoming the first previous-government appointed head of a major state-run company who has expressed intent to step down since the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took office in May. Last week, Chief Executive Officer Kim Hyun-jun of Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) expressed his intention to step down to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, an official of the company said. Kim reportedly said it is time for th

The Seoul city government has disclosed medium- and long-term flood prevention measures centered on the construction of deep underground rainwater storage facilities in six flood-prone areas. According to the measures announced by Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Wednesday, the city government will spend 1.5 trillion won ($1.15 billion) over the next decade to build six large-scale rainwater storage and drainage facilities, also called deep underground tunnels. The underground tunnel project calls for buildi

　A total of 294 people were arrested between March and June for crimes related to child sexual exploitation, and more than half of the offenders were teenagers, police said. 　Of 786 arrests made in the four months for cybersex crimes, 294 people, or 37.4 percent, were either using, producing or distributing child sexual abuse materials, the National Police Agency said. 　Noticeably, 54.5 percent of the offenders were aged in their 10s, followed by 36 percent in their 20s and 7.1 percent in the

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases in South Korea fell Thursday after reaching a four-month record high the previous day, but new deaths climbed to a three-month high amid the fast spread of a highly contagious omicron subvariant. The country added 137,241 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total caseload to 20,983,169, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Of the new cases, 522 were from overseas. Thursday's tally fell from 151,792 the previous day but surged

South Korea has identified the remains of a South Korean soldier killed during the 1950-53 Korean War after their excavation from a battle site more than a decade ago, the defense ministry said Thursday. The ministry's excavation team and personnel from the Army's 27th Infantry Division found the remains of Pfc. Yoon Eui-saeng in Hwacheon, 88 kilometers northeast of Seoul, in May 2010. The remains were identified as his thanks to a DNA sample his younger brother had registered with the

Casualties from this week's heavy rains have risen to 11 people dead and eight others missing, officials said Thursday. Of the dead, six were in Seoul, three in Gyeonggi Province and two in Gangwon Province while three of the eight unaccounted for were from Seoul, according to data from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters. A total of 3,775 homes and buildings were inundated, most of them in Seoul. Over 980 people from 548 households, mostly from the wider Seoul area, ha

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has declared victory in his country's emergency campaign against COVID-19, state media reported Thursday. Kim made the announcement during a national meeting on anti-epidemic measures he presided over the previous day, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). He "solemnly declared the victory in the maximum emergency anti-epidemic campaign for exterminating the novel coronavirus that had made inroads into our territory and protecting the l

Top diplomats of neighboring countries stress ‘win-win’ approach in bilateral ties, but THAAD issue stands in way