ULSAN -- A worker was killed Saturday in an explosion at a shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in the southeastern port city of Ulsan, police said. The employee in his 50s, hired by a subcontractor, was cutting steel plates with oxy-fuel gas when the blast occurred at 7:48 a.m. at a plant of the world's largest shipbuilder in the city, 415 kilometers southeast of Seoul. He fell unconscious and was sent to a hospital, but he was declared dead, according to police. Other workers at the sce

South Korea's new daily COVID-19 cases remained below 300,000 for the second consecutive day Saturday as the omicron variant was spreading at a slower pace after peaking out last month. The country reported 264,171 new COVID-19 infections, including 68 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 13,639,915, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. South Korea has seen a downward trend in new cases in recent weeks, with an all-time high of over 620,000 on March 17 dippin

  　More than half of South Koreans are against President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s plan to move the presidential office out of Cheong Wa Dae, while some 44 percent support the idea, a poll showed Wednesday. 　According to the poll of 500 adults, conducted by pollster Realmeter on Tuesday, 53.7 percent said the presidential office should remain at Cheong Wa Dae, and 44.6 percent said they back the relocation plan. 　On Sunday, Yoon announced his decision to move the presidential office from

S. Korea should seek ways to integrate diaspora contributions into national development, professionals say

Lee Soon-ja to take up civil case against Chun as inheritor of late husband’s assets, but excused from an unpaid W95.6b forfeiture

A presidential petition against the president-elect’s plan to relocate the presidential office had garnered over 500,000 signatures of support Friday. The petition on the presidential website operated by the Moon Jae-in government claims that President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s election pledge to relocate the presidential office from Cheong Wa Dae in Jongno, Seoul about 6 kilometers south to the Defense Ministry compound in Yongsan poses a threat to national security and is a waste of

SACHEON, South Korea -- Two Air Force KT-1 trainer jets collided in midair and crashed in southern South Korea on Friday, killing all four pilots aboard the planes, the Air Force and local disaster response officials said. The jets went down in a rice paddy in Sacheon, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul, after colliding with each other in midair at around 1:37 p.m. during training, just minutes after their takeoffs from a nearby base, they said. Over 62 firefighters and emergency responders wer

The government hints that it can scrap all social distancing rules and antivirus measures next time -- except indoor mask mandate

A delegation for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol led by Rep. Park Jin will depart for the United States on Sunday, before the US Congress breaks for recess. “The delegation team is to depart on April 3, and it will be a five-night, seven-day trip,” Yoon’s spokesperson Kim Eun-hye said in a press briefing Friday. The delegation is expected to meet with leading officials of the US administration, members of the US Congress and think tanks to discuss a wide range of topics, inc

A veterinary clinic employee allegedly dumped the remains of dozens of animals at a mountain in Eumseong County in North Chungcheong Province, police said Thursday. Police summoned a veterinary hospital employee to investigate the charges of dumping about 70 dead dogs, including newborn puppies and skeletal remains, on a mountain in Geumwang-eup. An animal registration chip was found in one of the carcasses that contained medical records of the dog for the clinic where the suspect is emplo

Fifty-five percent of South Koreans expect President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to do a good job after taking office, a survey showed Friday. The Gallup Korea survey of 1,001 adults conducted between Tuesday and Thursday also showed that 41 percent do not expect Yoon to do well on state affairs. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. Compared with a week ago, positive responses on expectations of Yoon's job performance were unchanged, w

North Korea no longer has COVID-19 vaccines allocated for its people under the COVAX Facility initiative, an international group co-leading the vaccine-sharing program confirmed Friday. The announcement came amid a protracted setback in shipment-related efforts apparently attributable to lack of cooperation from the country's reclusive regime. "COVAX has no concrete allocations for DPRK currently," a spokesperson for the Gavi vaccine alliance told Yonhap News Agency, using the acronym

The nominee for South Korea's central bank chief said Friday that he will determine the direction of monetary policy after analyzing how existing risks, including the Ukraine crisis and the pandemic, will affect economic growth and inflation. Rhee Chang-yong, picked for the next governor of the Bank of Korea (BOK) last week, made the remarks in a brief interview with reporters in Seoul as he prepares for a parliamentary confirmation hearing. The remarks came amid speculation that he might adjust

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will visit the southern island of Jeju this weekend to attend a memorial for victims of a 1948 civilian massacre, his spokesperson said Friday. Yoon plans to attend the memorial ceremony Sunday, keeping a promise he made during the campaign, Kim Eun-hye said during a press briefing. "Whatever the reason, regarding the fact that civilians were innocently sacrificed, President-elect Yoon has stressed it is the obligation and duty of a liberal democracy to honor t

The first reported patient of the COVID-19 omicron variant in South Korea has been indicted for lying to health authorities during an epidemiological survey following her infection in November, according to legal sources Friday. The 40-something woman living in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, was charged without detention for allegedly violating the Infectious Disease Control Act by lying about her transportation use when questioned by local authorities after testing positive for omicron o