South Korea's foreign ministry said Sunday it will closely cooperate with Morocco and the international community to provide necessary support for the North African country over a massive earthquake. Late Friday, the 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco and killed more than 2,000 people, according to foreign media reports. The ministry issued a statement and expressed condolences to the people of Morocco affected by the earthquake. It vowed to have close consultations with the government

President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to continue working on making a three-way summit with China happen within the year, at a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in India on Sunday. Yoon asked Kishida to help reopen the meeting after a four-year hiatus prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Yoon’s office said, quoting Kishida as saying that he “will fully cooperate.” The trilateral summit, which mainly discusses economic ties, could play

The prosecution's interrogation of Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Rep. Lee Jae-myung as a suspect behind private sector money transfers to North Korea was paused Saturday after eight hours, owing to Lee’s health issues following nearly two weeks of an ongoing hunger strike. "The interrogation began at 10:30 a.m., but we stopped at 6:40 p.m. upon Lee's request, citing his health condition," the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office said in a statement. The main opp

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung appeared before prosecutors Saturday for questioning over allegations that he was involved in a company's alleged illegal money transfers to North Korea. Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, showed up at the Suwon District Prosecutors Office in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul, at 10:18 a.m., marking his fifth appearance for prosecution questioning. He was last questioned on Aug. 17 over a separate case. Lee has been under investigation o

President Yoon Suk Yeol approved a motion for the dismissal of a left-leaning commissioner of the state media regulation agency Friday for violating conflict-of-interest rules, the presidential office said. Earlier in the day, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced that Choung Min-young, one of the nine commissioners of the Korea Communications Standards Commission recommended by the opposition bloc, had breached the law prohibiting commissioners from engaging in personal acti

North Korea defectors blast Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker remarks as derogatory

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol highlighted the serious breaches of United Nations Security Council sanctions by North Korea at the East Asia Summit on Thursday, apparently emphasizing the responsibility of permanent members -- including Russia and China -- who approved the sanctions resolution. The East Asia Summit, a forum addressing major security issues in the region, is comprised of 10 Association of Southeast Asian member nations as well as representatives from South Korea, the US, Ja

South Korea’s ruling People Power Party on Thursday reported six current and former members of the press to the police for defamation over “fake news” on then-presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol. Among those reported to the police is Kim Man-bae, a longtime reporter known as an ally of Yoon’s onetime presidential rival and the Democratic Party of Korea leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung. He is a major stakeholder of an asset management company that invested in an urban developmen

The chief of the South Korean intelligence agency Kim Kyou-hyun believes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s possible summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin could be carried out in a manner that counters earlier media speculations. Speaking at a closed-door briefing Thursday, the executive secretary for the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, said he was briefed by the National Intelligence Service director that the two leaders “could make a surprise move

South Korea's first lady Kim Keon Hee on Wednesday visited a cultural theme park and a biotechnology company dedicated to vaccine development on the sidelines of President Yoon Suk Yeol's visit to Indonesia. These were part of the official Spouse Program of the ASEAN Summit hosted by Indonesian first lady Iriana Widodo, and was attended by Kim and her counterparts from Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Japan, according to a presidential spokesperson in a written state

Police on Thursday began an investigation into independent lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang accused of attending a pro-North Korea group's event in Japan without notifying the government in a possible violation of the National Security Law. According to police officials, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency plans to bring in a Seoul city councilor Friday, who filed a complaint against Youn participating in the controversial event organized by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan in T

A former reporter has become the center of a media bias debate in South Korean politics after accusations emerged that he paid a journalist working for an independent news outlet last year to carry a damaging story against then-presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol. The ex-reporter, Kim Man-bae, is described by political insiders as being close to Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the current leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea who rivaled Yoon in the 2022 presidential election. He is also a key

LS Marine Solution, a South Korean firm specializing in the installation and maintenance of submarine power and communication cables, reported Wednesday a record increase in sales and profit for the first half of the year. The company credited the increase to the synergy with its affiliate LS Cable & System. This partnership yielded significant contracts, including the Bigeumdo-Anjwa Undersea Cable Project. In the first six months of this year, LS Marine Solution recorded sales of 26.5 billi

Yoon vows stronger economic, security ties with ASEAN member states

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met Tuesday with a group of Korean residents in Indonesia before attending a series of regional summits, saying the government will provide the assistance they need to do business and put down roots in their new country. Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee met with some 180 Korean businesspeople and community leaders over dinner at a hotel in Jakarta shortly after arriving in the country for a series of summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nation