North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a ceremony to celebrate the completion of a major housing project in the country's capital, state media reported Tuesday. The event was to mark the completion of 10,000 apartments and an 80-floor skyscraper in the Songsin and Songhwa areas of Pyongyang, and a major street with "public catering facilities," according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Kim did not deliver a speech in person while warmly waving to the cheering crowd

South Korea and the United States kicked off preliminary military drills on Tuesday ahead of their major springtime combined training later this month, Seoul officials said. The allies began the four-day South Korea-led crisis management staff training (CMST) in the run-up to their command post training (CCPT) set to run from next Monday through April 28, according to the officials. Led by South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CMST is designed to practice a set of procedures to respond to pos

Firefighting authorities on Tuesday mobilized all available manpower and equipment to contain the main fires in the northeastern border town of Yanggu hit by a large-scale forest fire for the third day. According to the Korea Forest Service (KFS), the fire extinguishing rate reached 95 percent as of 6:30 a.m. in Yanggu, 175 kilometers northeast of Seoul and about 20 km south of the border with North Korea. Authorities deployed 30 helicopters and 788 firefighting personnel shortly after sunrise t

North Korea said Tuesday a forest fire broke out on Mount Kumgang in the eastern Kangwon Province over the weekend, damaging hundreds of hectares of forests and facilities. The fire started at about 3:20 p.m. Saturday on a hill near Kuryong Pool of Mount Kumgang and the Kosong Port Golf Course in the border county of Kosong, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). All available firefighters were immediately mobilized, and the fire was extinguished the next day at 11:

WASHINGTON -- Incheon International Airport, the main gateway to South Korea, became the world's second-busiest cargo airport in 2021, up one notch from the previous year, a trade body said Monday. Incheon International Airport handled 3.23 million tons of international cargo, up 18.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the Airports Council International (ACI). The airport, some 40 kilometers west of Seoul, ranked third in the world in terms of international cargo handling in 2019 and 2020

Group leader calls out incoming president’s lack of interest in plight of foreign laborers

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's recent missile tests appear to be aimed at developing capabilities to evade US missile defense systems deployed in the region, a US congressional report suggested. The Congressional Research Service (CRS), however, said the actual capabilities of North Korean missiles remain uncertain in the report released Friday. "The recent advances in North Korea's ballistic missile test program appear to be directed at developing capabilities to defeat or degrade the effecti

National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug held talks with the speaker of Sweden's parliament, Andreas Norlen, on Monday, during which Park asked Sweden to help North Korea return to dialogue. Park told the visiting Norlen that Sweden "plays a role" for North Korea to return to dialogue, according to Park's office. In response, Norlen said Sweden will continue to support the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has ratcheted up tensions by conducting an intercont

Ukrainian president asks Seoul to reconsider stance against arms support

The transition committee for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that it would amend laws to use international age instead of “Korean age” to reduce social and economic costs associated with allowing more than one way to count age. Under the Korean age system, Koreans are 1 year old at birth, and they get a year older on New Year’s Day regardless of their birth date. The system is widely used, though official records usually follow the international norm that starts at

One in three students in Korea have contracted COVID-19 since 2020

The slogan of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s inauguration ceremony on May 10 is “Again, Korea! A new nation of people,” the presidential inauguration preparation committee said Monday. It also confirmed that boy band BTS will not perform at the ceremony. “The ceremony was planned considering the nation, which is taking a leap forward and where the people are the owners,” said Park Joo-sun, chairman of the presidential preparation committee. Regarding reports th

Daily COVID-19 cases continue to drop, below 100,000 for first time in 7 weeks

Chair of NATO Military Committee’s visit to S.Korea marks only second time

On the streets of Seoul’s central Gwanghwamun Square on Friday, Koreans gathered in remembrance of the pandemic’s victims. People grieving lost loved ones opened up and shared their stories in one of the capital city’s busiest districts during the afternoon rush hour, and the crowd grew larger as more people passing by stopped to listen. It was one of the first such events to take place in public. COVID-19 has kept patients cut off from visits at hospitals up to their final