President Moon Jae-in has sent a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping to express condolences over the recent crash of a Chinese airliner, Moon's office said Thursday. In the letter, Moon offered deep sympathy to victims and their bereaved families, presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said in a statement. The China Eastern flight crashed in southern China with 132 people on board earlier this week, with all of them being presumed dead. (Yonhap)

WASHINGTON -- Expanding and maintaining channels of high-level dialogue between countries, especially in times of crises, is a key to ensuring security in the Northeast Asian region, including the Korean Peninsula, a transnational group of experts and leaders said Wednesday. They also stressed the importance of promoting cooperation between the countries in areas such as disaster relief to build mutual trust. "Numerous crisis mechanisms have been established in Northeast Asia over the past

South Korea reported nearly 400,000 new cases and record high deaths Thursday as the omicron variant is tightening its grip on the country, sickening nearly 20 percent of the 52 million population. The country reported 395,598 new infections as of midnight, raising the total caseload to 10,822,836, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. While the daily tally was a sharp drop from the previous day's 490,881, which was the second-highest daily caseload, deaths hit a new rec

The number of teenage felons aged between 10 and 13, with no criminal responsibility, has been on a steady rise in recent years, a police report showed Thursday. Last year, 8,474 people in the age group committed violent crimes, marking an increase for the third consecutive year from 7,081 in 2019 and 7,535 in 2020, according to a National Police Agency report submitted to Rep. Kim Hoi-jae of the ruling Democratic Party. Currently, those aged 14 and younger cannot be held criminally responsible

North Korea plans to hold various large-scale celebratory events, both online and offline, on the occasion of the 110th birth anniversary of its late founding leader next month, according to its state media Thursday. The North will hold a major spring festival in Pyongyang with magic shows and performances by art troupes around mid-April to commemorate Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un, on April 15, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. "(The festival) w

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will hold a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week amid rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, Yoon's spokesperson said Thursday. Kim Eun-hye did not give the exact date due to diplomatic protocol but claimed it was unprecedented for Xi to speak with a foreign leader before they took office. "I understand the need for a phone call was conceived in accordance with our close cooperation with China on Asia-Pacific and Kor

The World Food Programme (WFP) has extended its aid program for North Korea by one year until the end of 2023, its website showed Thursday, with strict border restrictions against the COVID-19 pandemic in place there. Under the UN agency's revised Interim Country Strategic Plan for North Korea posted on its website, it will provide additional food aid worth $32.56 million for 803,134 North Koreans through next year. The WFP had planned to offer $182.43 million worth of aid to 3.6 million people

The South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) will likely start relocating to a key US military base south of Seoul this fall, a few months later than expected, with the completion of a related construction work apparently delayed, informed sources said Thursday. The relocation of the Seoul-based CFC headquarters to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of the capital, had been forecast to begin this summer following the construction of its new building. But the completion of th

WASHINGTON -- Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright died Wednesday at the age of 84, reports said. The former secretary of state died of cancer, according to reports. Albright was the first female secretary of state and the highest ranking US official to visit North Korea. She served as US ambassador to the United Nations under former President Bill Clinton before she was appointed the secretary of state in 1997. In October 2000, Albright traveled to Pyongyang, becoming the first US se

WASHINGTON -- The United States has no immediate plan to negotiate its import quota on South Korean steel products, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday, according to a report by Reuters. The remarks come after US Trade Representative Katherine Tai argued South Korea is already in a better position than many others in terms of steel and aluminium exports to the US "They kind of struck their own deal in the last administration, with a quota arrangement, so renegotiating that is

The presidential inauguration ceremony in May will be held in the front garden of the National Assembly compound in Seoul following the custom, the chief of the presidential inauguration ceremony preparation committee said Wednesday. While the preparation committee reviewed several options, they concluded that the National Assembly was the proper venue and received approval from President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, the committee’s chief, Park Joo-sun, said in a press briefing. “We have

South Korea added nearly 500,000 daily COVID-19 cases during the 24 hours of Tuesday, pushing the country’s accumulated figure over the 10 million mark. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country’s daily COVID-19 cases reached 490,881, the second-highest daily tally, after 621,205 cases reported Thursday last week. The country’s accumulated caseload surpassed 10,427,247, which accounts for around 20 percent of the country’s total populat

Registered as Cultural Heritage No. 428, the former Yongsan Railway Hospital has been reborn as a local history museum, representative of Yongsan’s historicity and identity. The 2,775-square-meter museum is comprised of two stories above the ground, with a viewing capacity of 100 people. The space is divided into exhibition, education, administration, preservation, landscaping and public use. The Yongsan History Museum’s building in itself is a cultural heritage. The building, buil

Pyongyang has however breached oil import cap since 2018, US intelligence says

COVID outbreak takes toll on students, parents and teachers