Around 98 percent of students, parents and teachers opposed government’s plan to lower the school entry age

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin were to take off for Cambodia on Wednesday to attend a series of annual meetings led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, during which he will present South Korea’s diplomatic goals and reaffirm its commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. During the multilateral meetings, which are set to take place over two days starting Thursday, Park plans to take part in several meetings -- including the Korea-ASEAN foreign ministe

N. Korea, Russia immediately denounces US House speaker’s trip to Taiwan in a move to empower China

North Korea lashed out at South Korea’s appointment of an ambassador-at-large on North Korean human rights issues on Wednesday, calling it “Seoul’s vicious political provocation to battle with Pyongyang until the end.” North Korea’s propaganda radio station Echo of Unification strongly criticized the South, as Seoul has recently appointed Lee Shin-wha, an international relations professor at Korea University, to the post that has been vacant for the past five year

Kookmin University is facing backlash from alumni, current students and the main opposition party over its decision regarding first lady Kim Keon-hee’s papers. Kookmin University, where Kim attended her Ph.D. program, announced after eight months of investigation on Monday that among Kim’s four controversial papers, doctoral dissertation and two articles published in academic journals had no sign of plagiarism, saying “they do not correspond to plagiarism or cheating to the ex

North Korea strongly denounced Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan on Wednesday, calling it an "impudent interference" by Washington into another nation's internal affairs. The speaker of the US House of Representatives arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday night despite fierce protests from China, becoming the highest-level official to make a formal trip there in decades. In a statement, she said her move "honors America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibran

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases rose further on Wednesday amid a fresh wave of infections driven by a highly infectious omicron variant. The country added 119,922 new COVID-19 infections, including 600 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 20,052,305, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The nation, with a population of 51.6 million, reached the grim milestone 2 1/2 years after its first COVID-19 case was reported on Jan. 20, 2020. Wednesday's figure wa

North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases remained at zero for the fifth consecutive day with only five fever patients under treatment, according to its state media Wednesday. No new fever cases were reported over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing data from the state emergency anti-epidemic headquarters. It did not provide information on whether additional deaths have been reported. As of July 5, the death toll stood

US President Joe Biden welcomes the ongoing trip to Asia by the speaker of the House of Representatives that will soon take her to South Korea and Japan, a White House official said Tuesday. The remarks by John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, came as Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) arrived in Taiwan on a visit protested by Beijing. "The president has already seen that Speaker Pelosi has already accomplished some important conversations on this trip with respec

President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered the education ministry to swiftly put to public debate the government's proposal to lower the elementary school starting age by one year to 5, an official said Tuesday. Yoon also instructed the ministry to play a role in facilitating bipartisan discussions about the plan in the National Assembly because the plan is subject to parliamentary approval, said senior presidential secretary for social affairs Ahn Sang-hoon. "Even if necessary reforms are ne

South Korea‘s Foreign Ministry is keeping a watchful eye on the escalating tensions between the United States and China as the US House speaker is reportedly expected to visit Taiwan, a ministry official said Tuesday. Nancy Pelosi, the US House speaker is reportedly planning to visit Taiwan as part of her Asian tour, despite warnings from China, which views the official American contact with Taiwan as a show of support for the island’s independence -- Beijing claims the self-ruled

Police commission expresses regret and set to take legal action

The ruling People Power Party, which has been embroiled in an internal power struggle over its leadership, is expected to appoint interim party leaders soon. The ruling party on Tuesday decided to convene a meeting of the party‘s national committee, in which it would discuss switching to an emergency leadership system, where they are also likely to appoint interim party runners. A national committee meeting is expected to take place as early as Friday or next week. Four out of seven

Constitutional reform will create the legal basis for further democratization of Uzbekistan and accelerate economic reforms, Sodik Safoev, the first deputy chairperson of Uzbekistan’s Senate, said in an interview with The Korea Herald Thursday. Safoev was leading a delegation to Seoul to address a roundtable conference on constitutional reforms in the Central Asian country. He emphasized the need to simplify several aspects of Uzbekistan’s current Constitution, which was adopted i

Two defense chiefs will discuss ways to conduct military exercises ‘more effectively’