President Yoon Suk-yeol called for joint efforts to overcome the economic crisis Wednesday as cargo truckers returned to work following a weeklong strike. "I'm nervous," Yoon said as he arrived for work when a reporter asked him to comment on the strike that ended late Tuesday. "We're walking on thin ice because of the economic crisis caused by high prices and high interest rates around the world, and I think we will all need to cooperate in the interests of everyone,&qu

South Korea and the United States agreed to step up cooperation for stable supply chains of critical minerals and other economic security issues in their high-level economic talks, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday. Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Do-hoon and Jose W. Fernandez, the US undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, held their first in-person meeting in Toronto on Tuesday (local time) on the sidelines of an inaugural gathering for the Minerals

South Korea and the United States agree on the urgent need to address the challenges posed by North Korea, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said Tuesday. The South Korean diplomat said he and his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, have also agreed on the importance of maintaining and strengthening US extended deterrence to South Korea. "(We) agreed that the North Korea issue is the top policy priority for both South Korea and the US under the serious current condition where questions abo

Suicides among young people, especially women, increased during the first year of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, despite a drop overall in South Korea. The number of suicides fell by 604 to 13,195 in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s report published Tuesday. The ministry said preliminary data from 2021 indicated a continued declining trend. The suicide rate per 100,000 people was 25.7 in 2020, far below the 31.7 seen in 2011 -- the high

Survey says mothers take up 70% of child care on weekdays

Sitting on the rocky volcanic coastline of southern Jeju Island is Branksome Hall Asia, an International Baccalaureate school. The school, Jeju‘s only all International Baccalaureate school, is the first international school in Korea to be named an International School of the Year by ISC Research in 2021. Founded in 2012, Branksome Hall Asia, is a sister school to Branksome Hall, a 119-year-old independent girls school in Toronto, Canada. Like its sister school, the independent boarding

The South Korean government is expected to shorten the country’s COVID-19 quarantine mandate to five days, according to health officials on Tuesday. A government task force has reportedly been discussing the possibility of lifting the mandatory quarantine, but some experts from the group currently see lifting the mandatory quarantine as still risky. At the moment, it is more likely that the government could shorten the quarantine time or just keep the seven-day quarantine measure for a l

S. Korea to independently conduct live-fire missile drill during RIMPAC exercise

Authorities expect the rocket setup to go as planned on Wednesday when the weather at the launch site improves.

South Korea's military reported 782 additional COVID-19 cases Tuesday, raising the total caseload among its service members to 169,772, the defense ministry said. The new cases included 655 from the Army, 67 from the Air Force and 36 from the Navy. There were also 14 cases from units under the direct control of the ministry, nine from the Marine Corps and one from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Currently, 3,933 military personnel are under treatment. Meanwhile, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said 1

South Korea's top diplomat on Tuesday emphasized the importance of trilateral cooperation among his country, China and Japan, citing the regional powers' stature and potential. "Given the stature and economic and cultural potential of the three countries, should we continue our future-oriented cooperation, it would be an important driving force for peace and prosperity in the world beyond the East Asia level," Foreign Minister Park Jin said in a written message to the Interna

Seoul’s FM vows to bolster nuclear cooperation in talks with US Energy chief

Police raided the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Defense Communication Command (DCC) on Tuesday in connection with allegations that an unqualified company won a contract to supply information modules to the military. The National Police Agency sent investigators to search the DIA office in Seoul's Yongsan district and the DCC office in Gwacheon, just south of the capital, for materials related to the allegations, officials said. Police are looking into suspicions that an unqualif

Prosecutors have again acquitted veteran singer Kim Kun-mo of allegations that he sexually assaulted a female hostess at a bar, sources said Tuesday. The Seoul High Prosecutors Office dismissed the woman's appeal and acquitted the 54-year-old singer of rape charges on June 7, they said. Kim, who holds the Guinness World Records title for the bestselling album of all time in South Korea in the 1990s, visited the bar in the posh Gangnam area in southern Seoul in August 2016. The hostess claim

Lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party on Tuesday proposed a bill aimed at strengthening parliamentary oversight of the government despite objections from the ruling People Power Party. Rep. Cho Eung-chon and 13 other DP lawmakers proposed revising the National Assembly Act in a way that empowers parliamentary standing committees to request revisions to presidential decrees or enforcement ordinances if they are deemed incompatible with the law. "The National Assembly, as a consti