Satellite imagery shows potential indication of preparations for reprocessing

Sister of controversial right-wing YouTuber quits presidential office

’97 Generation’ challenges Lee Jae-myung

The Seoul city government on Wednesday announced it would propose a record-breaking extra budget of 6.37 trillion won ($4.88 billion). The city government will submit the proposal on the same day to the Seoul Metropolitan Council, which would start its review on Friday this week. The budget is the first supplementary budget proposal since Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon began his new term earlier this month. It is also the largest extra budget ever, following the previous record-high extra budget of 4.

With Korea’s consumer prices jumping at an unprecedented rate, the Seoul Education Office is planning to raise an extra budget for school meals. All kindergarteners and elementary, middle and high school students are subject to free school lunch in the city of Seoul. The city launched its free lunch program for students in 2011 and has since expanded it. However, with hiking consumer prices, the Seoul Education Office is planning to raise an extra budget to continue its support for f

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's embattled president flew out of his country to the Maldives early Wednesday, in a likely prelude to his resignation after months of widespread protests against his island nation's worst-ever economic crisis. Gotabaya Rajapaksa had promised at the weekend to resign on Wednesday and clear the way for a "peaceful transition of power" after fleeing his official residence in Colombo just before tens of thousands of protesters overran it. As president, Rajap

North Korea fired an artillery shot into the Yellow Sea earlier this week, presumably from a multiple rocket launcher, a defense source here said Wednesday, as the US has deployed six F-35A stealth fighters on the peninsula for combined drills. The South Korean military had detected a single trajectory believed to be an artillery shot on Monday morning, the source said without providing additional details including where it was fired. On Sunday, North Korea fired two suspected artillery shots fr

With the whole nation in the middle of the annual monsoon season, heavy downpours of up to 150 millimeters are forecast to pound the central region between Wednesday and Thursday morning, the state weather agency said. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said up to 100 mm of monsoon rains are expected to soak the Seoul metropolitan area and almost all parts of the central region, including Gangwon Province, until early Thursday. The precipitation may reach up to 150 mm in some mountain

An autopsy on the family of three that were found dead last month in a submerged car found that they had taken sleeping pills, police said Wednesday. Officials at the Gwangju Nambu Police Station said they were recently notified of this from the National Forensic Service, although the NFS is currently conducting additional analysis to determine the amounts that the family took. Ten-year-old Cho Yu-na and her parents went missing in Wando-gun, South Jeolla Province, in May and were found dead

North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases remained below 1,000 for the second consecutive day, according to its state media Wednesday. More than 770 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. As of July 5, the death toll had stood at 74, with the fatality

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Wednesday that the government will expand eligibility for the fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot to people aged 50 and older as well as people aged 18 and older who have underlying health conditions. The move comes as the nation is facing another wave of virus resurgence, driven by the fast spread of the highly contagious mutation of the omicron strains, BA.5, which is known to be more contagious and better able to escape immunity compared with earlier versions. "

South Korea's unification ministry on Tuesday publicly released rare photos showing the controversial repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in 2019. The ten photos revealed by the ministry showed the two fishermen refusing to cross the Military Demarcation Line at the truce village of Panmunjom, as they were taken to be handed over to North Korean authorities. One of them apparently dragged his feet and then flopped down on the ground, being forced to approach the MDL. On Nov. 7, 2019,

President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday visited the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to pay his respects to late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. President Yoon arrived at the Japanese Embassy‘s public information and cultural center at 4 p.m. and entered the memorial altar under the guidance of Japanese Ambassador to Korea Koichi Aiboshi, according to the presidential office. President Yoon wrote in the guest book, “I pray for the repose of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Ab

N.Korean workers appear to have been manufacturing products at S.Korean factories

Yongbyon nuclear complex not at risk of being flooded, satellite imagery shows