North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases stayed below 500 for the second consecutive day, according to its state media Sunday. More than 430 people showed symptoms of fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters. It did not provide information on whether additional deaths have been reported. The total number of fever cases since late April came to over 4.77 mil

The state human rights watchdog is expected to announce its opposition next month to the government's proposal to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility below 14, officials said Sunday. Currently, children aged between 10 and 14 cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions and are instead sent to juvenile detention facilities, not prisons, or made to do community service, in accordance with the Juvenile Act. Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon has ordered an amendment loweri

Thousands of people gathered in front of City Hall in Seoul to attend the Seoul Queer Culture Festival on Saturday, marking the event’s return after two years of a pandemic-induced hiatus. With rainbow flags, colorful outfits, face paint and glitter, participants celebrated their identities and diverse sexual orientations, and joined the march for LGBT rights.  This year’s event took place with the slogan “Let’s live, unite and go forward.” In the early eveni

The annual Seoul Queer Culture Festival returned to the streets of Seoul on Saturday after a two-year pandemic hiatus. This year’s event took place but not without controversy as it took more than two months for the city government to grant it’s approval, drawing criticism from activists and event organizers. Though the main event, including a march through central Seoul, took place Saturday, the festival, which also includes an LGBT film event, runs until the end of July.

Chief of city-run broadcaster TBS cries foul over city council’s move to gut funding

South Korea's new coronavirus cases reached a 66-day high at over 41,000 on Saturday amid the spread of a highly contagious new omicron subvariant. The country reported 41,310 new COVID-19 infections, including 287 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,721,415, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Saturday's figure more than doubled from 20,286 new cases recorded a week earlier, as the country has seen a marked increase in infections from end-June due to the

　Seven out of 10 South Koreans believe the government should only provide nonmilitary aid to Ukraine, a survey showed.  　In the survey of 1,000 people aged 18 or above conducted by Gallup Korea from June 21-23, 72 percent said the government of President Yoon Suk-yeol should only send medical, food and other nonlethal aid.  　Only 15 percent said the government should also provide weapons. 　Eighty-four percent said they are interested in the Ukraine-Russia war while 13 percent said

Prosecutors banned former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won from traveling overseas while putting Park's predecessor, Suh Hoon, on an entry alert list as part of investigations into the previous administration's handling of two incidents involving North Korea, officials said Friday. Prosecutors have been looking into allegations that Park and Suh mishandled the killing of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korea in September 2020 and the repatriation of two North Kore

South Korea's defense authorities approved a 3.94 trillion-won ($2.97 billion) plan Friday to deploy some 20 additional F-35A radar-evading fighters by 2028 as part of efforts to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, according to the state arms procurement agency. The Defense Project Promotion Committee endorsed the "basic" procurement plan, which is subject to adjustments following a feasibility study and other procedures, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Ad

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin will embark on a three-day trip to Japan next week to discuss areas of bilateral relations and North Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday. Park's trip from Monday to Wednesday will be the first by a foreign minister to the neighboring country under the new South Korean administration led by President Yoon Suk-yeol. The ministry said Park will "hold a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and discuss issues of mutual interes

A North Korean defector told a forum Friday that he was “appalled” by the newly released photographs of two North Koreans being forcibly handed over to North Korea through the border village of Panmunjom in November 2019. The photographs, made public by South Korea’s Ministry of Unification on Tuesday, showed the two men struggling as they were dragged toward North Korean soldiers waiting on the North Korean side of the demarcation line. One of them collapsed. Their faces we

Instances of workplace harassment have modestly decreased for the past three years after the implementation of a workplace anti-bullying law in 2019, a poll showed Friday, though the degree of abuse felt by the victims is still serious. According to the recent poll of 1,000 salaried workers by pollster Embrain Public, 29.6 percent said they experienced workplace bullying this year, marking a decline of 14.9 percentage points from 44.5 percent in a similar poll conducted in 2019. In a similar out

A lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) claimed Friday the previous administration's repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in 2019 is not an unusual case, citing a unification ministry report that shows there were dozens of similar cases since 2010. Rep. Yoon Kun-young made the case amid growing criticism that the previous administration of President Moon Jae-in sent the fishermen back to the North in what critics said was an effort to curry favor with Pyongyang, even though

North Korea said Friday that Ukraine has no right to take issue with its recognition of two breakaway regions in the war-torn country earlier this week, calling the measure a "legitimate exercise of sovereignty." On Wednesday, Ukraine announced its decision to sever diplomatic relations with North Korea for formally backing the independence of the pro-Moscow republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. In response to a question by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) over t

The Interior Ministry finalized its plan to launch a “police bureau” to supervise the police, which has recently seen its powers increased. The National Police Agency expressed their intention to accept the plan, despite criticism from police officers. 　 On Friday, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min announced the details of the launch of the new police bureau. The new bureau will have 16 members, of which 13 would be police officials, a decision made in response to the criticism t