Under the beaming sunlight, vacationers enjoy beach time at Songjeong Beach in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, one of the country’s most popular summer travel destinations, on Saturday. Some people take a rest in the shade of pine trees to escape from the blistering heat wave. As the scorching weather continued over the weekend, holidaymakers have been flocking to beaches to frolic in the cool, clear waters. Children enjoy swimming at Dolmeori Beach Dolmeori Beach in Hampyeong, South

South Korea reported 68,551 new coronavirus cases Saturday as the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.5 continued to spread. The tally is 1.66 times the number of cases a week ago but similar to the 68,632 new infections reported the previous day. Saturday's cases, including 293 from overseas, raised the country's total caseload to 19,146,180, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. The daily caseload more than doubled to 73,582 on Tuesday from 26,299 a day earlier and rose

Unification Ministry seeks to allow S. Koreans to freely access N. Korean state media reports

The government will create a new military unit dedicated to defenses against terrorist activities, the Prime Minister’s office said Friday. The government said it expects an increase in terrorist activities down the road, largely due to increased instability and political tensions around the world. The government also expressed concerns that there is a higher chance that terrorists could make their way into the country as pandemic-related travel restrictions are being eased. The anti-t

S. Korea, US will launch new working-level group on missile defense

China, major customer for Korean chipmakers, ramps up threat that it would cut business ties if Seoul joins the US-led alliance

South Korea is slow on consuming COVID-19 pills, yet the government earlier announced that it would secure additional pills in the future, government data showed Friday. The government expects that its increased number of one-stop COVID-19 treatment centers -- where people can take virus tests, get in-person medical care services and receive antiviral drugs -- would increase accessibility to COVID-19 pills. However, the COVID-19 pill use was still low. According to government data, the count

The South Korean government on Friday strongly condemned Japan’s renewed claims over South Korea’s Dokdo islets in its latest defense white paper, and summoned Japanese diplomats in protest. “We strongly protest that Japan has renewed its unjust territorial claims to Dokdo in its defense white paper, which is clearly our inherent territory, historically, geographically and internationally, and we urge an immediate retraction of the claims,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson

The Foreign Ministry and Busan Metropolitan City launched a team of university student ambassadors, dubbed “UNs,” and held a kick-off ceremony on Friday. According to the ministry, it chose 50 Korean and 50 foreign university students as its ambassadors promoting the Busan City. The foreign students come from 22 countries, including China, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, among others. The student ambassadors will carry out activities including creating promotional content for social media,

Health authorities found another BA. 2.75 case in the country

South Korea's defense ministry vowed Friday to push for an early deployment of a counter-rocket system to fend off threats from a possible North Korean salvo mixing missiles and long-range artillery that put the greater Seoul area within range. During a policy briefing to President Yoon Suk-yeol, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup outlined the plan and other defense priorities, including resuming larger-scale South Korea-US field training and accelerating efforts to build the "three-axis" s

GEOJE -- The 51-day sit-in protest by subcontract workers at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) shipyard on the southeastern coast entered a crucial phase Friday, as labor and management were struggling to strike a last-minute deal before the shipyard's two-week summer holiday begins this weekend. If both sides fail to reach an agreement during the day, the sit-in will likely drag on for a very long period of time, dealing a fatal blow to the world's fourth-largest

The ruling and main opposition parties on Friday reached an agreement on the parliamentary committee formations, finally allowing the National Assembly to restart operations after 53 days of hiatus. The ruling People Party Party floor leader and acting chair Rep. Kweon Seong-dong and Rep. Park Hong-keun, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, agreed on the allocation of committee chiefs’ posts at a meeting presided over by National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo. A

The office of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Friday the government approved a plan for the creation of a new military unit to bolster its defenses against chemical, nuclear and biological incidents. The approval was made at a regular interagency anti-terrorism meeting presided over by Han earlier in the day, the office said in a statement. Under the approval, two battalions of the Chemical, Biological and Radiological Defense Command will be merged to become a new military unit in November, it

INCHEON -- Police referred a university freshman accused of raping a schoolmate and causing her to fall to her death to the prosecution Friday for potential indictment with an additional charge of filming the rape scene, officials said. "I am sincerely sorry," said the 20-year-old student of Inha University in Incheon, west of Seoul, as he was transferred to the prosecution, without responding to questions from reporters, including on whether and why he did not help her immediately aft