South Korea is reviewing granting special stay permits to Afghans residing in the country amid a humanitarian crisis erupting in Afghanistan following the Taliban's seizure of power, the justice minister said Tuesday. "The government is reviewing granting special residence permits to Afghans residing in the country," Justice Minister Park Beom-kye told reporters on his way to his office in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul. About 400 Afghans are currently staying in South Korea, accordi

California's legislature has passed a new resolution to celebrate kimchi, a popular Korean fermented side dish, to promote the consumption of healthier food, industry sources said Tuesday. Under the bill led by Californian Assemblyman Steven Choi, which was passed on the previous day, the US state of California plans to celebrate November 22 as "Kimchi Day," according to the World Institute of Kimchi. The latest move came as South Korea celebrated its first Kimchi Day in 2020 in line

A heated debate is brewing in South Korea over whether the country has to accept Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover amid a report the United States is considering using its military bases in the country and others to house Afghan evacuees. Since the Taliban took over Kabul earlier this month, some progressive politicians here have openly expressed support for taking in Afghan refugees. "As the first Asian country that legislated the Refugee Act, the Republic of Korea has a role to play,

Vice Unification Minister Choi Young-jun will meet with the visiting US nuclear envoy later Monday to discuss a coordinated approach to North Korea, the ministry said. Unification Minister Lee In-young will also hold a breakfast meeting with the US envoy, Amb. Sung Kim, Tuesday to discuss ways for bilateral cooperation on denuclearization and improving inter-Korean relations, according to the ministry. Kim's visit here comes amid chilled inter-Korean relations after the North has rejected call

South Korea and the United States on Monday discussed humanitarian aid to North Korea, the US nuclear envoy said after talks with his counterpart in Seoul amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's angry protest against military exercises between the South and the US Amb. Sung Kim also said the US does not have a hostile intent to the North, stressing that the ongoing South Korea-US military exercise is "purely defensive" in nature and renewing his offer to "meet with my North Kore

The top nuclear envoys from Russia and the US are in Seoul to hold talks with their South Korean counterpart on the stalled nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang amid fresh tension over ongoing US-South Korea military exercises. 　 Sung Kim, the US special representative for North Korea, arrived here Saturday for a four-day visit, days after Pyongyang warned of a “security crisis” over the joint military drills that are due to end Thursday. 　 “I’m looking forward to very clo

Pope Francis on Saturday thanked the South Korean Catholic community for sharing donations to provide COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries and prayed for the continued efforts toward the reconciliation of the Korean Peninsula. In a special papal message delivered by South Korean archbishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik, Pope Francis praised the generosity of Korean Catholics' vaccine-related donations recently delivered to the Vatican, saying, "This is a strong invitation for a greater commitment t

South Korea is in vaccine swap talks with Romania, the foreign ministry said, denying a news report that the European country plans to provide the South with coronavirus vaccines for free. Romanian national news agency Agerpres reported earlier that the country decided to give South Korea 450,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine on humanitarian grounds. Seoul's foreign ministry said the two countries are in talks about vaccines but denied that vaccines will be provided for free. "Reports about

US President Joe Biden said Thursday in the US that his country is committed to the mutual defense treaty with South Korea, noting the situation in South Korea is different from Afghanistan, where the Taliban swiftly took over the government after the withdrawal of US troops. The US, whose military still has wartime operational control of South Korea’s armed forces, has been pressed over its commitment to collective security as chaos grips Afghanistan. “We are in a situation where

The South Korean government is positively reviewing plans to allow Afghan nationals in Korea to stay beyond the expiration of their current visas until the country regains stability, according to government sources. “Although it has not been confirmed yet, we are positively reviewing extension of their stay like we did for the Burmese,” one source from the justice ministry said. In March, the government decided to implement a special stay for about 25,000 Myanmar people. The mo

The South Korean government on Thursday defended the outcome of a multilateral climate change summit it hosted in May, amid media criticism that it failed to receive endorsement from some advanced countries and international organizations.    The Chosun Ilbo reported earlier that Britain, Germany, the European Union, the United Nations and others did not sign the Seoul Declaration, adopted after the Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals (P4G) summit held in Seoul at the en

President Moon Jae-in and Colombian President Ivan Duque will hold summit talks next week in Seoul to further boost bilateral ties between the two nations, Cheong Wa Dae announced Thursday. The Colombian president will visit Seoul for three days, from Aug. 24-26. The summit talks will be held Aug. 25 and a dinner banquet will follow later in the day. The upcoming visit will be the second state visit to Seoul since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, following this week’s visit by Kazak

The UN-backed vaccine-sharing program COVAX has allocated around 3 million doses of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine to North Korea, but it remains to be seen whether the reclusive regime will accept them. 　 According to Radio Free Asia on Thursday, Edwin Salvador, head of the World Health Organization office in Pyongyang, said the program allotted 2.97 million shots of China’s Sinovac to the North during the latest round of vaccine allocation. COVAX is a multinational program that distri

The commander and two other officers of South Korea's peacekeeping unit in Lebanon have been relieved of duty and ordered to return home amid a probe over suspected embezzlement and other irregularities, military sources said Thursday.    The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) made the decision after holding a deliberation session earlier in the day on corruption allegations against the Army colonel heading the Dongmyeong Unit and three other officers.    The 300-strong Dongmye

A South Korean court has ordered the seizure of Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s assets here to provide compensation to forced wartime labor victims' families, according to judicial sources Thursday. According to Haemaru Lawfirm, the Anyang branch of Suwon District Court, just south of Seoul, recently ordered the seizure of about 850 million won ($725,000) worth of bonds the Japanese company owns in LS Mtron, Ltd, a South Korean industrial machinery manufacturer. The value is the eq