Cheong Wa Dae on Friday demanded an apology from President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition team for accusing the outgoing administration of interfering with the appointment of a new CEO of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME). Park Soo-hyun, senior secretary for public communication, told TBS radio the Moon Jae-in government "has never been involved in personnel appointments of private companies." On Thursday, transition committee deputy spokesperson Won Il-hee said the

South Korea's Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Park In-ho will visit the United States next week for talks on security cooperation following North Korea's long-range missile launch last week, his office said Friday. During his seven-day stay there starting Sunday, Park plans to meet key US military officials in Washington and Colorado to reinforce the bilateral alliance and space security cooperation, according to the Air Force. In Washington on Wednesday, Park is set to meet his US counterpart, Ge

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), an international organization on fighting climate change, has approved $190 million in funding for two new green energy projects, South Korea's finance ministry said Friday. The board of the GCF, headquartered in Songdo of Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, endorsed the funding plan for projects to help 14 emerging countries fight climate change, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It said $73 million will be spent to support a climate-smart agricul

South Korea's new daily COVID-19 cases dipped below 300,000 on Friday as the omicron wave that gripped the country for months appears to be topping out with one in every four people having had the virus. The country reported 280,273 new COVID-19 infections, including 48 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 13,375,818, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. South Korea has seen a downward trend in daily COVID-19 infections for the first time in about three mon

Senior diplomats of South Korea and Bangladesh held policy consultations on strengthening cooperation in technology, infrastructure and other fields, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday. First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun met with his Bangladesh counterpart, Masud Bin Momen, in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka on Thursday (local time) to discuss ways to expand substantive economic cooperation between the two nations, according to the ministry. The two sides agreed to broaden their economi

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took a commemorative photo in person with the participants of a workshop of the ruling party's propaganda officials and called for accelerated "revolution through a powerful ideological offensive," according to the country's state media Friday. Apparently, Kim paid keen attention to the workshop, which opened in Pyongyang on Monday and brought together officials in the "information field" of the Workers' Party of Korea. He sent a letter to the

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will meet with the ambassadors from six Arab nations Friday, his spokesperson said. The six countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- are the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council and supply 68 percent of South Korea's crude oil imports. Yoon and the ambassadors will discuss cooperation in energy, construction and infrastructure at a time of increasing volatility in the energy market, Kim Eun-hye said during a pr

　The number of South Koreans getting married tumbled to a new all-time low in 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic and young people’s changing attitude toward marriage, government data showed.  　The number of couples tying the knot in Asia’s fourth-largest economy came to 193,000 last year, down 9.8 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea.  　The number is the lowest since 1970, when the statistical agency began compiling related data, an

   The average monthly salary of wage earners rose 3.6 percent on-year in 2020 from a year earlier despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a government report showed.  South Korean wage workers earned a monthly average of 3.2 million won ($2,669) in December 2020, up from 3.09 million won a year earlier, according to the report from Statistics Korea.  The figure for workers with large companies stood at 5.29 million won, with those in smaller firms earning 2.59 million won.  &n

South Korea retreated from its pandemic response strategy known as “test, trace, treat” on the premise that with omicron, COVID-19 had transformed into a more flu-like disease. Omicron’s emergence called for a new strategy “attuned to the changes in the characteristics of the virus” and a departure from the earlier ways of handling the pandemic, health officials have said. The touted promise of a milder virus is fading by the day so far into Korea’s omicron

S.Korean, US, Japanese JCS chiefs discuss security issues including multilateral military training

China’s top nuclear envoy meets ambassadors from UNSC’s permanent members in New York

Health authorities begin vaccination program for children aged 5-11

Environment Ministry brings back ban on single-use plastic products at restaurants, cafes

Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, armed with years of experience in trade and public affairs, is touted as a strong pick for prime minister of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s coalition government. The 72-year-old trade expert had served as a prime minister during the Roh Moo-hyun administration from April 2007 to February 2008, being praised by many as a highly skilled talent in terms of administration from his 44-year-long career in the public sector. Born in Jeonju, North Jeolla Prov