President Yoon Suk-yeol said South Korea seeks to develop the relationship with the US into a comprehensive strategic alliance at the global level and to expand its role based on their strong alliance, in talks with US academic figures on Friday. His remarks reaffirm the agreement made in a summit with US President Joe Biden last month to upgrade the Korea-US alliance. At the meeting with former and current members of US academia groups in the presidential office, Yoon said, “We pl

Philip Goldberg has been formally sworn in as US ambassador to South Korea, the US Embassy in Seoul said Friday, as he plans to arrive here "later this summer." "Ambassador Goldberg brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to strengthen our growing global partnership," the embassy tweeted with a photo of Goldberg taking an oath at the State Department in Washington D.C. The department said in a media note Wednesday (US time) that Goldberg will arrive in South Korea later t

President Yoon Suk-yeol said Friday the economic situation is too grave to be talking about the election victory of his party. The ruling People Power Party won 12 of the 17 key mayoral and gubernatorial races in Wednesday's local elections, strengthening Yoon's mandate less than a month after he took office on May 10. "Don't you feel the windows shaking and the branches swaying in the lawn?" Yoon told reporters as he arrived for work at the presidential office when aske

The main blaze in a wildfire in the southeastern city of Miryang is expected to be brought under control on its fourth day Friday, officials said. The fire broke out on a hill in Miryang, around 280 kilometers southeast of Seoul, early Tuesday and has so far burned nearly 752 hectares of woodland. About 110 residents have evacuated their homes, but no casualties or property damage have been reported yet. Overnight, 1,300 personnel battled the blaze and the containment rate was raised to 92 perce

North Korea reported more than 80,000 new fever cases Friday, with the daily count remaining under 100,000 for the fourth consecutive day. Over 82,160 more people showed symptoms of fever 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 epidemic prevention headquarters. It provided no further information regarding additional deaths. The total number of fever cases since late April came to over 3.91 mill

Police are investigating an online post threatening a terror attack at the home of President Yoon Suk-yeol in southern Seoul, officials said Friday. The post was uploaded on the online community FM Korea at around 8:40 p.m. Thursday, threatening to launch a terror attack at Yoon's house at 6 p.m. Friday, according to the police officials. After an unidentified person reported the post to the National Intelligence Service, the Seocho Police Station beefed up security around Yoon's home,

　The number of newly adopted South Korean children fell for the third consecutive year in 2021 amid the pandemic, government data showed. 　According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of new child adoptees reached 415 last year, down from 704 in 2019 and 492 in 2020. Officials attributed the decrease in adoption to the effects of COVID-19. 　Among the new adoptees, 189, or 45.5 percent, were adopted by overseas families. Of those, 66.7 percent were sent to the United States. Oth

The top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan are set to hold a meeting in Seoul on Friday to discuss the security situation on the Korean Peninsula amid reports that North Korea has completed preparations for another nuclear test. Kim Gunn, Seoul's new special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will have bilateral and trilateral meetings with his US counterpart, Sung Kim, and Japan's Takehiro Funakoshi at the foreign ministry headquart

South Korea and China held high-level phone talks Thursday, during which the two sides discussed bilateral ties and the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, the presidential office said. South Korea's National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han and Yang Jiechi, China's top diplomat, exchanged opinions on the bilateral relations under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which took office last month. They positively reviewed the brisk consultations at the high-level and agreed to expand "

No more loud music, street banners and canvassing trucks. Local elections are over in South Korea now. The usual post-election scenes here include winners making a visit to symbolic sites such as a war memorial as a show of their commitment to serving the people, while losers take time to reflect on the results. Similar scenes took place on Thursday. Here are some photos that show what went down a day after the nationwide local elections, which came just three months after a nail-biting presi

UNDP policy bureau chief says COVID-19 pandemic reverses development for developing countries, warns of widening gap

The main opposition Democratic Party took a major loss in the local elections, but Kim Dong-yeon’s narrow victory for Gyeonggi Province governor came as a partial relief and possible sign that all may not be lost for the party. Although the party lost 12 of the 17 seats in the elections of metropolitan government to the ruling People Power Party, it won in the biggest battleground Gyeonggi Province. According to the National Election Commission on Thursday, Kim got 2,827,593 votes, de

Even by the standards of South Korea’s convoluted politics, Hong Joon-pyo has had a rather unusual career trajectory. He was a five-time lawmaker, twice elected governor of South Gyeongsang Province and head of the main conservative party for two separate stints. He was the party’s presidential candidate five years ago and recently was a runner-up in its presidential primary, losing to Yoon Suk-yeol who went on to take the top state office. In Wednesday’s election, Hong

Rare defense-ministerial talks will be held in around 2.5 years as Seoul seeks to align regional policy to the US Indo-Pacific strategy

Democratic Party has no option but to reform and overhaul, experts say