Concerns over seasonal flu shots grew further on Friday as deaths after vaccinations swelled to over 30, with health experts split over whether to go ahead with a state-led free shot program amid a potential "twindemic" of the new coronavirus and the flu. Although no connection has been confirmed between the recent fatalities and vaccines, public fears have been mounting in South Korea over flu shots. Since the first suspected death from a flu shot was reported last Friday, 36 have d

North Korea’s denuclearization would ultimately lead to the declaration of an official end to the Korean War, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday. The two Koreas are still at war, having signed no peace treaty to end the 1950-53 conflict. Pompeo was addressing questions about whether ending the war would be feasible without the North’s disarmament. President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly called for an end-of-war declaration. The top US diplomat again urged Pyongyang to c

An international health charity received UN approval for an exemption from sanctions against North Korea so it can help the country tackle COVID-19 and tuberculosis. The UN Security Council’s committee on sanctions against North Korea said Wednesday that it had approved a sanctions exemption for Doctors Without Borders, known by the French abbreviation MSF, to support North Korea with nutrition aid, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, and COVID-19 response measures.　 MSF plans to ru

Public health authorities in South Korea are investigating possible links between the death of a teenager and a flu vaccine that experienced heat fluctuations. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said in Monday’s press briefing that a 17-year-old boy without preexisting medical conditions died at his Incheon home on Oct. 16, two days after getting a flu shot. The vaccine he received was a product distributed by Shinsung pharmaceutical company, which was earlier accused of han

South Korea said Tuesday it will lift the export ban on nonwoven fabrics this week that are used to produce protective masks as the domestic supply of the materials and masks stabilized. Under the decision, the country will lift the regulation that bans firms from exporting more than 15 percent of their production of nonwoven fabrics starting Friday, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Earlier this year, the country ran out of melt-blown nonwoven fabric filters amid soarin

The amount of money expected to be spent on coronavirus patients -- from the pre-diagnosis stage through recovery -- is expected to total close to 320 billion won ($280 million), the National Health Insurance Service said Sunday. About one-third of the cost would be taken up at the pre-diagnosis stage, including coronavirus tests, it added. The total number of coronavirus patients here is projected to reach 33,995 by the end of this year, 8,796 more than Sunday’s tally of 25,199, t

North Korea said a recent Danish documentary claims to show Pyongyang bypassing international sanctions on arms trading is “fabricated” and called Denmark to find the infiltrator, according to media reports on Friday.  The North Korean Embassy in Stockholm said the documentary “is from the beginning to the end a fabricated film which aimed to cast a slur on the image of the DPRK,” Reuters reported, citing the embassy’s letter sent to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bl

The Korea Methodist Church slapped Rev. Lee Dong-hwan with a two-year suspension from work for giving a blessing to participants in a queer festival in August last year. The judicial committee of the Korea Methodist Church’s Gyeonggi Province branch made the decision Thursday, immediately suspending Lee from his position as pastor at a Methodist church in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. He is also barred from making sermons, giving blessings and holding prayers on behalf of the Methodist Church

More than 30 human rights groups from seven countries urged the United Nations to include North Korea's recent killing of a South Korean official adrift in its waters in its annual human rights resolution on the communist state. The groups said they made the request in a joint public letter to the UN after learning of the "shocking news" that North Korea killed the South Korean official and burned his body last month "in accordance with Pyongyang's shoot-to-kill order to prevent

North Korea seems to have no appetite for provocation until after the US presidential election in November, a foreign ministry official said Wednesday, citing "no explicit agitation" toward Washington during Pyongyang's recent military parade. Park Jang-ho, deputy director-general at the foreign ministry's North Korean nuclear affairs bureau, made the remarks during a webinar hosted jointly by the Sejong Institute and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It seems to us t

Rhee Keun, also known as Ken Rhee, who recently gained huge popularity playing a South Korean Navy SEAL on YouTube, has suddenly found himself fighting to safeguard his reputation and lucrative commercial deals after a groping conviction on his record was revealed to the public. “I apologize for posting another message dealing with such unfortunate matters,” said Rhee on his YouTube channel Tuesday. He admitted that he had been convicted of sexual assault in 2019, but sai

The number of illegal exemptions from mandatory military service detected by local authorities has surged nearly 60 percent over the past five years, a ruling party lawmaker said Tuesday, calling for tougher punishments for draft dodgers. Rep. Ahn Gyu-back of the Democratic Party, citing the Military Manpower Administration's data, said the number of people booked by police on charges of illegally receiving an exemption from military duty increased 59.6 percent from 47 in 2015 to 75 in 2019. T

Hit K-pop act BTS has come under fire in China for a remark about the Korean War, according to a Chinese news outlet. BTS recently received the General James A. Van Fleet Award from the Korea Society, a US-based nonprofit organization. The award, named after a US commander who fought in the Korean War (1950-1953), is given to South Korean and US nationals who have strengthened the ties between the two nations. In a video clip released by the organization on Wednesday, BTS member RM made an

The main opposition party on Monday accused North Korea of violating its military agreement with South Korea by developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile and submarine-launched ballistic missiles which it unveiled in a military parade on Saturday. “This is a clear violation of the military agreement. We can only see (the North’s threat) as increased, not diminished,” Kim Chong-in, interim leader of the People’s Power Party, said during an emergency meeting at t

Controversy has intensified over the government’s bill to allow abortion until the 14th week of pregnancy, as progressive groups say the new law would remain in violation of women’s rights and the Constitution. As a follow-up to the Constitutional Court‘s landmark ruling last year to revise the ban on abortion, the government unveiled its plan on Oct. 7 to press no criminal charges against those who have an abortion until the 14th week of pregnancy. Under the planned