South Korea has vowed to play a role in achieving the global goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the world's population against COVID-19 by the middle of next year in a move to ensure a sustainable economic recovery, the trade and foreign ministries said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong made the pledge during the ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation via videoconferencing, which took place Monday and Tuesday, and brought together foreign and trade ministers of 21

China has confirmed it will go ahead with the export process of 18,700 tons of urea for South Korea in accordance with existing contracts with local firms, Seoul's foreign ministry announced Wednesday. Beijing gave Seoul the assurance as a result of "communication through various channels" for speedy procedures to import the material used for the production of urea solution, an addictive used in diesel cars and factories to help cut emissions, according to the ministry. South Korea's

Seoul received the first snowfall of the season Wednesday morning, about a month earlier than last year, the state weather agency said. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said light snow was observed at the Songwol-dong weather observation station in central Seoul at 6:10 a.m. The KMA records the first snow seen at the Songwol-dong observatory as Seoul's first snow of the season every year. This year's first snow came in Seoul 30 days earlier than last year, when it fell on Dec. 10,

South Korea was set to host an annual ceremony to commemorate the sacrifices of fallen troops who fought under the UN flag during the 1950-53 Korean War this week, the veterans affairs ministry said Wednesday. The "Turn Toward Busan" ceremony will take place at the UN Memorial Cemetery in the southeastern port city of Busan on Thursday, with the attendance of some 300 people, including the bereaved families, war veterans and diplomatic delegates, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans

Entry-level employees at beauty salons say they’re in the minimum wage law’s blind spot

Considering the current trajectory, South Korea will be able to enter the second phase of its reopening, otherwise known as the pandemic exit plan, slated for mid-December, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Yoo Geun-heag told reporters Tuesday. As Korea seeks to coexist with COVID-19, deaths and hospitalizations, rather than case counts, will be the two main metrics that measure the country’s performance in handling the pandemic, the government previously said. Based on the changes in

Number of men working part-time has surged since 2017

South Korea plans to bring oral antivirals against COVID-19 to the country “no later than February,” Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Yoo Geun-heag told reporters Tuesday, in addition to the 90 million doses of vaccines that will be purchased for the third year of the pandemic. While refraining from calling oral antivirals a pandemic “game changer,” he said the government was working to make them available here possibly by January, a month earlier than previously p

Nearly half of new COVID-19 cases in South Korea over the past two weeks were breakthrough infections, health authorities said Tuesday. There were 8,336 breakthrough cases out of 17,325 new COVID-19 patients, or 48.1 percent, between Oct. 17 and Oct. 30, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Breakthrough infections are those who test positive even after receiving the full-dose vaccine regimen. The rate of breakthrough cases occurring in people aged in their 70s was the h

Unionized construction workers on Tuesday called upon the government to come up with measures to resolve the urea water solution crisis, claiming the shortage of the material essential to diesel vehicles threatens their livelihoods. The Korean Construction Workers' Union urged the government to promptly resolve the lack of urea water supply, punish hoarding of the material and aid construction workers facing difficulties operating their equipment due to the crisis. "My urea water reserves

The labor ministry has recognized that a workplace bullying incident occurred within e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. early this year, refuting a finding reached by the company through an internal probe, the company's union said Tuesday. In response to a petition filed by a Coupang logistics center worker, the ministry's branch office in northern Incheon, west of Seoul, concluded a supervisor's reprimanding of a worker's job performance in connection with union activities constitutes workplace bul

Some sleet was witnessed on the mountains on the outskirts of Seoul on Tuesday due to a sudden drop in temperatures but fell short of being recorded as the first snow of the season, the state weather agency said. The weather became as cold as winter amid light rainfall in the morning, raising expectations for the first snow of the season in the capital. Indeed, some sleet fell on suburban Seoul mountains, such as Dobong, Bukhan and Gwanak, where temperatures were lower than in the downtown and

Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, on Tuesday was hit by a power outage that left a large part of the region without electricity for more than an hour, the state-owned utility said. Korea Electric Power Corp. confirmed that the widespread blackout started at 10:26 a.m. and power was restored at 11:59 a.m. after damaged power equipment was replaced. Around 52,800 households were estimated to have experienced about 1 1/2 hours without power, and nine out of the 12 districts in the city were affected. K

The agricultural ministry said Tuesday it is investigating suspected cases of highly pathogenic bird flu from a local farm as it issued a nationwide standstill order to help contain its spread. The suspected cases of the avian influenza were reported from a quail farm in the central county of Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It is the first time in about seven months that suspected bird flu cases were reported from a farm,

A total of 14 African nationals have been apprehended for allegedly defrauding more than a million dollars from South Koreans after building relationships with them online while posing as diplomats, doctors and soldiers, police said Tuesday. The suspects, most of them from Liberia and other African countries, allegedly used such fake identities to befriend 24 victims and swindled a total of 1.67 billion won ($1.4 million) from them in what is known as a "romance scam," according to th