A thick green tide spreading across Korea’s major rivers due to low water flow and warm temperatures is stoking concerns over the ecosystem and public health. Since mid-May, algal blooms have been seen in the Nakdonggang River in the south of the peninsula. In June, the algal blooms spread in the Hangang River in Seoul as well, and Seoul Metropolitan Government issued an algal bloom warning on June 30 in the downstream section of the river, spanning from Jamsil Bridge to Haengju Bridge. It was t

South Koreans tend to perceive the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome as a political issue, not a health issue, illustrating a different attitude from what they showed during the flu pandemic that hit the country in 2009, a study revealed Sunday.According to research led by a public health professor at Seoul National University, Koreans appeared to be more concerned about politics than the deadly virus itself, with the popular words used on Twitter in relation to the outbreak being one

WASHINGTON ― After more than a half century of hostility, the United States and Cuba declared Wednesday they will reopen embassies in each other’s capitals this month, marking a historic full restoration of diplomatic relations between the Cold War foes. For President Barack Obama, the opening of the U.S. Embassy in the heart of Havana is one of the most tangible demonstrations of his long-standing pledge to engage directly with U.S. adversaries. Heralding the embassy agreement, Obama declared:

Since Ban Ki-moon was first named new secretary-general of the United Nations in 2006, South Korea has waited for another Korean global leader to be named. Nine years later, the president of Busan Port Authority, Lim Ki-tack, has been elected to head the United Nations maritime body. Lim Ki-tack (Yonhap)The 58-year-old veteran is the first South Korean to take the secretary-general position of the International Maritime Organization, the U.N. agency responsible for the safety and security of shi

For Lee Hee-ho, widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, cross-border tensions are a source of deep frustration as the deadlocked relationship has eclipsed the inter-Korean rapprochement Kim laboriously fostered under his signature “Sunshine Policy.” With a plan to visit the North soon, the 93-year-old former first lady hopes to restore Kim’s legacy of bilateral engagement and cooperation, which has faded amid Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear arms and provocative actions, and Seoul’s hard-line resp

A scene from "Northern Limit Line" (Next Entertainment World)“Northern Limit Line” is a film with a very clear purpose. It seeks to assuage the pain of bereaved families who lost their sons during a North Korean naval attack, reveal the systematic failures of the South Korean Navy that facilitated this loss, and draw attention to the society’s misplaced priorities. Every minute is dripping with this sense of mission and self-consciousness.The film revolves around the story of three young soldier

At the center of S. Korea’s latest political power game

WASHINGTON -- Walmart and Amazon will no longer stock merchandise bearing the Confederate flag after the Charleston church massacre, in a growing movement against what critics say is a symbol of racism in the American South.The retail giants were joined by eBay, Sears and Kmart and follows calls from South Carolina state governor Nikki Haley to remove the controversial flag from the grounds of the state capital following protests at the weekend.Civil rights activists have long pushed for the fla

The National Pension Service, the nation’s largest institutional investor, is facing growing pressure to raise their voice in merger plans being pushed by conglomerates.On Monday, Solidarity for Economic Reform, a civic group pushing for reforms of family-controlled South Korean conglomerates, or chaebol, urged the fund to review the merger plan between SK Holdings and SK C&C and to decide whether to back or veto the deal before a shareholders meeting Friday. The merger plan between the two SK a

Financial authorities plan to unveil a revised method for the sale of state-funded Woori Bank next month in their move to recoup taxpayers’ money, regulatory officials said Monday.Market attention is again focused on the coming announcement of the Public Fund Oversight Committee, after the agency successfully completed the sale of the now-defunct Woori Financial Group’s stock brokerage unit and two provincial bank units over the past year.Officials said the committee, as an arm of the Financial

With the hot stock debut of Fitbit, a maker of popular wearable fitness-tracking devices, the spotlight shone on its CEO and cofounder James Park, a 38-year-old Korean-American.In its first day of trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, the company’s stock surged more than 50 percent to $30.40 a share from its initial price of $20 during regular trading hours. More than 40 million shares of Fitbit were traded, putting the company on track to rank among the top five stock market debuts o

In Korea’s moribund literary scene, novelist Shin Kyung-sook has been almost the only source of excitement. With a growing international profile, the author of 2011 New York Times bestseller “Please Look After Mom” seemed to be Korea’s best shot at producing a world star, like what Murakami Haruki is for Japan. Shin’s seemingly unassailable reputation here, and perhaps her fledgling global career, now faces a grave challenge after allegations of plagiarism surfaced. On Tuesday, fellow writer Lee

NEW YORK ― Property tycoon Donald Trump, one of America’s most flamboyant and outspoken billionaires, threw his hat into the 2016 race Tuesday for the White House, promising to make America great again.The 69-year-old long-shot candidate ridiculed the country’s current crop of politicians as “stupid” and vowed to take on the growing might of China in a speech launching his run for the presidency.“I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country grea

KT, the nation’s No. 2 telecom carrier, has shown renewed vigor recently under the leadership of chairman and CEO Hwang Chang-gyu, who took office in January last year.For more than a decade, KT has been a fast follower behind SK Telecom, which played a leading role in creating key consumer and technological trends in the telecom industry. Although the state-run KT was privatized in 2002, a deep-rooted sense of complacency had been holding back the company and its employees.But the new CEO, form

Widely considered one of the top hospitals in South Korea, Samsung Medical Center is now being blamed for spreading Middle East respiratory syndrome in the country.As of Monday, 72 cases occurred within its premises in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul, accounting for nearly half of the 150 Korean cases of the disease. The outbreak in the hospital alone is enough to rival United Arab Emirates, the world’s No. 3 country in terms of MERS cases with 76.An even bigger issue than the rising number of patien