South Korea's drug safety agency on Wednesday approved an authorization of US-based biotechnology company Novavax Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine. The protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid, marks the fifth COVID-19 vaccine to get approval for use here, following the ones by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety convened a panel of experts from both inside and outside to review the safe

JEONJU -- The founder of South Korean budget carrier Eastar Jet Co. was sentenced to six years in prison on Wednesday for embezzlement of company funds and breach of trust. A district court in Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, handed down the sentence to Eastar founder and independent lawmaker Lee Sang-jik after convicting him on several charges, including embezzlement. The Jeonju District Court also ordered Lee's immediate detention. Lee was indicted for causing about 43.9 billion won (

Safety inspections took place at major construction sites across South Korea on Wednesday, as the search continued for workers missing in Tuesday‘s collapse of a Gwangju apartment building that was under construction. The Gwangju Metropolitan Government earlier in the day ordered the temporary shutdown on all construction sites in the city run by Hyundai Development Co., the company involved in the accident. HDC, later in the day, suspended work on all of its worksites across the country

GWANGJU -- A safety inspection was under way Wednesday as authorities weighed when to resume a search for the six workers who went missing after the collapse of a facade of a high-rise apartment building under construction in the southwestern city of Gwangju a day earlier. Search efforts at the collapse site were temporarily suspended Tuesday night due to safety concerns over possible further disintegration of the building or the potential collapse of a tower crane adjoining the building. Ext

The Supreme Prosecutors Office (SPO) on Wednesday ordered the launch of a joint investigation into a construction site accident in Gwangju in which six people remain unaccounted for. Six workers were unaccounted for after a facade of a high-rise apartment building under construction in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, collapsed Tuesday, according to police. The SPO said it ordered the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office, the city's police agency and the regional labor office to form a j

South Korea's daily coronavirus cases bounced back to above 4,000 for the first time in six days Wednesday, putting health authorities on high alert over a possible resurgence amid omicron concerns. The country added 4,388 new COVID-19 infections, including 4,007 local infections, raising the total caseload to 674,868, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Wednesday's figure was up 1,291 from a day earlier and 53 down from last Wednesday. The country reported 5

A little over half of South Koreans support the abolishment of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family as proposed by the main opposition party's presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, a poll showed Wednesday. According to the Realmeter survey that asked 1,011 adults on Monday and Tuesday, 51.9 percent said they support the dissolution of the ministry in charge of women's affairs, while 38.5 percent opposed it. The remaining 9.6 percent said they were undecided on the issue. By gender, 64 p

A progressive lawyers’ group Tuesday slammed an anti-corruption investigative agency established by President Moon Jae-in administration over alleged spying on South Koreans. Lawyers for a Democratic Society, more widely known by the Korean acronym Minbyun, held a round-table talk with civic groups to address recent allegations of communications surveillance by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials and their implications on civil liberties. The investigation

How an international coffeehouse chain is being co-opted by the South Korean right

A facade of a high-rise apartment building under construction in the southwestern city of Gwangju collapsed Tuesday, injuring at least one person and burying about 10 vehicles under the rubble, police said. The exterior wall of the apartment building crumbled down at the construction site in western Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, at around 3:46 p.m., police said. Three people trapped in a container were rescued, and one of them was taken to a hospital for injuries. Rescue workers wer

Why a presidential candidate’s pledge on alopecia treatments sparked strong reactions from young voters in Korea

The National Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill that mandates a union representative be included on public institutions' boards of directors. The lawmakers approved a bill during a plenary session that dictates public firms and quasi-public institutions must appoint one nonexecutive director recommended or picked by the head of a labor union on their boards. More than 130 public institutions will be subject to the new regulation. The director, representing the labor union, will have a two-year

An Air Force pilot died after an F-5E fighter jet crashed in central South Korea on Tuesday, the military said. The aircraft crashed into a mountain in Hwaseong, some 40 kilometers south of Seoul, at 1:46 p.m. minutes after taking off from an Air Force base in the nearby city of Suwon, they said. "An engine fire warning light turned on for the plane's left and right sides after the takeoff at a Suwon base at 1:44 p.m., and the plane shortly nosedived," the Air Force said in a stateme

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision to sharply reduce the fine for Audi Volkswagen Korea (AVK) and clear the company of most of the charges in its diesel emissions scandal. The top court said it approved the Seoul High Court's order last September, calling on the South Korean unit of the German carmaker to pay a 1.1 billion-won ($921,000) fine, instead of a 26 billion-won fine ordered earlier by a district court. It also confirmed the appellate court's decision to comm

The Supreme Court has dismissed a second appeal filed by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries against an order to sell patent rights the company has in South Korea to compensate a victim of wartime forced labor, according to legal sources Tuesday. The top court dismissed Mitsubishi Heavy's appeal against the forced sale of two patents to compensate Park Hae-ok, a female victim of forced labor during Tokyo's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, on Dec. 27, the sources said. In 2018, the