The Peruvian Embassy in Seoul reaffirmed the country’s commitment to Korea to continuously search for bilateral projects and consolidate on Peru-Korea friendship at Peru’s 201st Independence Day celebrations in South Korea. Peru’s Independence Day, which falls on July 28, commemorates a noteworthy day in Latin American history marking Peru’s declaration of independence from Spain in 1821. Peru was a colony of Spain from 1532-1821. Delivering welcome remarks at the annu

The B20 Business Dialogue discussed ways to vitalize Indonesia-South Korea economic cooperation and strengthen private partnerships on the sidelines of President Joko Widodo‘s visit to Korea Thursday. B20 is the official Group of 20 dialogue forum with the global business community. Co-hosted by the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the dialogue is a platform to make policy recommendations ahead of the Group of 20 summit to be held in Bali,

South Korea strongly condemned the North for “abusing” the Non-Proliferation Treaty to openly develop nuclear weapons and urged the regime to return to dialogue for complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization during international nuclear arms talks. Addressing the 10th NPT Review Conference held at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, Korean Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs of Foreign Ministry Ham Sang-wook said the nonproliferation goal is bein

A nursing staff member at Asan Medical Center, Seoul’s largest general hospital, died late last month after collapsing while on duty, local reports said Tuesday. The reports, which were based on an anonymous post on Blind, a social app for workplace-related talk amongst verified workers, said the nurse fell unconscious in the wee hours of July 24, showing symptoms of a brain hemorrhage.  But the hospital with over 2,700 beds had no neurosurgeon who could give an emergency surgery

A presidential official said Tuesday it will look into an allegation of influence peddling by a Buddhist figure, who has reportedly claimed close ties with President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee. The official made the remark after a Chosun Ilbo newspaper report that the Buddhist figure allegedly claimed he can use his connections with the first couple to help people get out of tax probes or exert influence on personnel appointments. "If deemed necessary, we will check the facts

South Korea's electricity consumption reached a record monthly high last month, as the country was gripped by a sweltering heat wave, the power operator said Tuesday. The country's average maximum power consumption came to 82,007 megawatts (MW) in July, up 1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Power Exchange (KPX). It marked the highest level since the government began compiling related data in 2005. The previous record was set in July 2021, when the figure stood at 81,

A police bureau came officially into being at the interior ministry Tuesday, marking the first time in 31 years for the ministry to have an organization overseeing the law enforcement agency. The bureau's establishment came after some front-line police officers protested strongly against the envisioned organization that they claim would put police under political influence and compromise their political neutrality. The government has stressed that the bureau is necessary to keep massive pol

South Korea's Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup is set to depart for Australia on Tuesday for talks with his Australian counterpart on arms industry cooperation and regional security, his ministry said. Lee plans to meet Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles in Canberra on Thursday to discuss two-way defense cooperation as part of follow-up measures to the summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held on the margins of a NATO summit in Madrid in

　North Korea‘s economy is estimated to have contracted for the second straight year in 2021 on global sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, according to South Korea’s central bank. 　The North’s economy, which has been hit by tightened UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs, shrank 0.1 percent last year from the previous year, the Bank of Korea said in a report. 　Still, last year’s contraction slowed from a negative growth rate of 4.5 percent recorded a ye

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases sharply rose to over 110,000 on Tuesday as a highly infectious omicron variant has fueled a surge of new infections. The country added 111,789 new COVID-19 infections, including 568 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,932,439, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Daily cases tend to increase through the mid-week before falling again on weekends and Mondays on fewer tests. Tuesday's figure jumped from the previous day

North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases remained at zero for the fourth consecutive day, according to its state media Tuesday. 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 at 74, with the fatality rate at 0.002 percent

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlighted the importance of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on Monday, citing threats posed by North Korea and Iran. The top US diplomat reiterated the world faced a "critical moment" amid fears of a potential North Korean nuclear test. "And so we come together at a critical moment. The DPRK continues to expand its unlawful nuclear program and continues its ongoing provocations against the region," Blinken said,

India is expected to grow to have the world’s greatest population, overtaking China. Its economy also has a huge role in the United States’ Silicon Valley, as India produces numerous advanced IT human resources. And its low-key but powerful influence can also bee see in Indian diplomacy. India’s biggest antagonist is China. The Indo-China border dispute is appalling. In 2018, there was a military confrontation for more than 70 days in the Doklam region of the Himalayas, in wh

Pro-Lee faction pushes back

Opposition from the education community and parents against the Ministry of Education’s elementary school entry age reorganization plan is intensifying. On Friday, at the meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol, Education Minister Park Soon-ae reported the plan to gradually lower the enrollment age at elementary schools to 5 years old starting as early as 2025. The plan was never mentioned in Yoon’s campaign pledges or in state affairs announced at the presidential transition committe