The worst winter seasonal yellow dust in five years blanketed the Korean Peninsula on Monday, prompting the authorities to issue health warnings against the sandy, chemical-laden wind from China.  According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, yellow dust warnings were issued at 10 a.m. in Incheon, Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and part of Gangwon Province with dust advisories in place for most other parts of the peninsula except some southeastern cities, including Busan and Ulsan.  The dust w

The year's worst yellow dust hit much of the nation Sunday, prompting the authorities to issue health warnings against the sandy, chemical-laden wind from China.  The Korea Meteorological Administration issued yellow dust advisories in Seoul and 16 cities and counties in its surrounding Gyeonggi Province at 5 p.m. for the first time this year.  The advisories were heightened to dust warnings as of 8:10 p.m. as an hourly average dust concentration of more than 700 to 1,100 micrograms per cubic me

A total of 51 earthquakes struck the Korean Peninsula last year, with the strongest temblor measuring 5.1 in magnitude, the government said Sunday.Last year's tally is slightly under the annual average of 52.9 quakes for the 10 years since 2005, according to the Ministry of Public Safety and Security.The 5.1-magnitude earthquake, which was reported in waters about 100 kilometers northwest of the West Gyeongnyeolbi Archipelago off Taean on the central west coast on April 1, marked the fourth-stro

South Korea's carbon emission market was quiet on the first day of trading on Monday, with the initial price for allowances rising to a level similar to that of the European carbon exchange.The Korea Exchange began the national cap-and-trade system to join the government's efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below business-as-usual (BAU) levels over the next five years.A total of 525 local companies are subject to trade an emission quota of 15.98 billion Korean Allowance Units

A total of 49 earthquakes with a magnitude 2.0 or greater struck the Korean Peninsula last year, with the strongest temblor measuring 5.1 in magnitude, the state weather agency said Thursday.Last year's tally is slightly higher than the annual average of 47.7 quakes between 1999 and 2013, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said.Eight of the quakes recorded last year had a magnitude of 3.0 or higher with 11 of them strong enough to be felt by humans, it said.The strongest 5.1-magnitude

Korea aims to boost its use of electric vehicles to 200,000 units by 2020 as part of its bid to promote next-generation cars that are more affordable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. The Environment Ministry on Friday unveiled a package of comprehensive measures to speed up the commercialization of electric cars, which includes a renewal of tax breaks, investment in new technologies, quotas for public agencies, plans to expand charging stations and other incentives for buyers. It

Countries in Northeast Asia should beef up energy cooperation in a bid to bring peace and security to the region where a lack of trust has intensified geopolitical conflicts, a ranking Seoul diplomat said Friday.Speaking at a forum on energy security in Seoul, Ahn Chong-ghee, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, said Northeast Asia, highly dependent on overseas energy imports, faces growing challenges for regional energy cooperation due to geopolitical tension."The current geopolitical

Greenpeace International claimed Wednesday that a defective nickel-based alloy has been in use in core parts of South Korean nuclear power plants, exposing the country to the risk of massive leaks of radioactive water from the plants."Inconel-600" is currently in use at 14 local nuclear reactors throughout the United States, but various other countries stopped using it four decades ago due to the material's serious problem with durability.Manufactured by an American company, the nickel-chromium

South Korea seeks to reduce its use of energy by 4.1 percent from its business-as-usual (BAU) level in 2017 that will also help cut its greenhouse gas emissions, the government said Tuesday.Under a new five-year plan affecting the 2013-2017 period, the government will seek to keep the annual growth of the country's total energy use under 1 percent, which will help reduce the country's overall use of energy to 218.2 billion tons of oil equivalents (TOEs) from the anticipated BAU level of 227.5 bi

South Korea and 20 other countries promised Thursday to contribute a combined US$9.4 billion to a U.N. climate fund over the next four years, the finance ministry said.The United States and Japan promised to provide $3 billion and $1.5 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), while Britain pledged to grant $1.2 billion. France and Germany will offer about $1 billion, according to the ministry.South Korea earlier said that it will contribute $100 million to the fund, whose secretariat office was

State-run environmental research institutes of South Korea, China and Japan have agreed to conduct joint research on ways to tackle fine dust pollution and strengthen cooperation over the issue, Seoul researchers said Friday.   The agreement was reached during the 11th meeting of chiefs of national environmental research institutes from the three countries being held in the Japanese city of Kawasaki, South Korea's National Institute of Environmental Research said.   It comes amid growing health

The environment ministers of South Korea and China will meet in Beijing this week to discuss concrete plans to reduce fine dust emissions, Seoul’s Environment Ministry said Wednesday.The meeting between South Korean Environment Minister Yoon Seong-kyu and his Chinese counterpart, Zhou Shengxian, is a follow-up to the memorandum of understanding on South Korea-China environmental cooperation signed during a bilateral summit in July.Fine dust is defined as particles smaller than 10 micrometers, an

South Korea and Vietnam agreed Monday to expand their cooperation in environmental fields such as biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of biological resources, officials here said.The agreement was reached during a meeting between South Korea’s Environment Minister Yoon Seong-kyu and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Quang in Vietnam’s capital, Ho Chi Minh City, they said.During the talks, the 11th of its kind, the two ministers agreed to further mutual cooperation for biodiversity

An environmental group on Thursday called for a thorough probe into soil pollution and the health of residents near a smelter in a southeastern county, claiming that the surrounding soil has been seriously polluted by metals from the smelter."After conducting an environmental survey together with the Institute for Environmental Survey and Health, we found that the concentrations of cadmium and zinc in soils near the Seokpo Smelter were 4.3-fold and 2.9-fold higher than those near the former Jang

South Korea will this week host an international ocean forum partly aimed at discussing ways to fight climate change and deal with changing ocean environments, the government said Wednesday.The Yeosu International Ocean Forum 2014 will be held on Thursday and Friday in the southwestern city of Yeosu, also the host city of the 2012 international exposition, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.The two-day forum is expected to draw some 600 officials and experts from around the world,