A growing number of South Koreans support replacing the current military draft with a volunteer system, a survey showed Sunday. According to the Gallup Korea poll, 43 percent of respondents were in favor of switching to the volunteer military system, while 42 percent were in favor of maintaining the status quo. The remaining 15 percent declined to answer. The law requires all able-bodied South Korean men to serve about two years in the military. Women are exempted from mandatory service and al

Lee Jun-seok, a 36-year-old politician with no experience as a lawmaker, swept to victory Friday in the primary for the upcoming election to pick the new chairman of the main opposition party. Lee was among the final five candidates selected through opinion polls to compete in the People Power Party's (PPP) chairman election on June 11, according to the party's election management committee. The former member of the party's supreme council was followed by former four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won

SEJONG -- The topic of food and agriculture will likely come under the spotlight as one of the core items on the agenda for the 2021 P4G Seoul Summit, set for May 30-31. P4G -- Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 -- is a global initiative launched in 2017 to accelerate the response to climate change and the implementation of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. Twelve countries, including South Korea, are taking part in the gathering. While the internatio

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl is leading the race among prospective presidential hopefuls, while runner-up Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung has managed to narrow the gap in approval with Yoon, according to a new poll released Thursday. According to the survey conducted on 2,004 voters nationwide from Monday-Tuesday by Realmeter, Yoon was the most favored candidate for the upcoming 2022 presidential election, receiving 30.5 percent of support. Lee came second, chalking up 25.3 per

With government planning to announce details by mid- June, cities clamor to host new museum

Coronavirus vaccines left over after people do not show up for inoculations will be available for anyone who wants to get vaccinated via online reservations starting later this week, health authorities said Wednesday. Starting on Thursday, people will be able to sign up to get the leftover doses through the country's major internet portal Naver and top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. People can search for the number of available COVID-19

Seoul plans to spend 3.8 billion won ($3.4 million) to install more security cameras in 155 locations throughout its riverside parks in response to the death of a 21-year-old medical student late last month. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Tuesday that it was proposing a 4.24 trillion won supplementary budget on top of its 40.16 trillion won budget for this year to further assist those whose lives were damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and to improve the city’s infrastructure f

WASHINGTON -- The United States on Monday raised its travel warning for Japan to the highest level, advising Americans not to travel to the Asian nation. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Japan due to COVID-19, indicating a very high level of COVID-19 in the country. There are restrictions in place affecting US citizen entry into Japan," said the latest US travel advisory on the country. The move comes ahead of the Tok

US Vice President Kamala Harris is under fire in the US for an “insulting” gesture: She wiped her hand after shaking hands with President Moon Jae-in at the White House last week. Footage of Harris wiping her right hand on her jacket immediately after shaking hands with Moon at the end of a joint press conference last Friday went viral. Conservative US broadcaster Fox News said many Americans had become more germ-conscious since COVID-19 started, but that Harris may have made her

Samsung Biologics is working to expedite preparations to start churning out “hundreds of millions” of doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in early second half, the company said Sunday. At its sterile drug manufacturing facility in Songdo, Incheon, which is one of the largest in the world, the South Korean pharmaceutical will handle the fill and finish process of the production of mRNA-1273, Moderna’s messenger-RNA based COVID-19 jab. The firm signed a contract with Mo

South Korea held a ceremony Sunday to commemorate former President Roh Moo-hyun, marking the 12th year of his death. It took place at Bongha Village in Gimhae, Roh's hometown located 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, bringing together a number of key government and political figures. They included Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum; Song Young-gil, head of the ruling Democratic Party (DP); Kim Gi-hyeon, acting chief and floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP); and Lee Cheol-hee,

South Korean President Moon Jae-in's summit meetings with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday presented contrasting appearances from those held about a month ago between the leaders of the United States and Japan, officials said. The most noteworthy differences were the length of the summit meetings and the lunch menu. Moon and Biden held 171 minutes of one-on-one, small group and expanded summit meetings, about 20 minutes longer than the April 16 meetings between the US president a

Seo Min-jeong, the eldest daughter of Amorepacific Chairman Seo Kyung-bae, and Hong Jeong-hwan, the eldest son of Bokwang Investment Chairman Hong Seok-joon, have agreed to divorce after eight months of marriage, industry sources said Friday. The news followed Amorepacific’s regulatory filing on Friday, in which the company made a change to Hong’s holdings in the firm. Previously, Suh Kyung-bae, chairman of Amorepacific Group, gifted 100,000 shares in South Korea’s major b

The South Korean government has been reviewing whether to turn Korea Land and Housing Corp. into a holding company and spin-off key businesses to prevent further information leaks from the company, sources close to the matter said Friday. The reports come amid a nationwide crackdown on a massive land speculation scandal centered on LH employees who abused insider information concerning large-scale state funded land development projects. According to the sources, the Ministry of Economy and Fi

Both the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and President Moon Jae-in saw their approval ratings rebound this week, an opinion poll showed Friday. According to the poll by Gallup Korea, conducted from Tuesday-Thursday on 1,001 people age 18 or over, the approval rating for the DP stood at 32 percent, up 4 percentage points from a week earlier. The main opposition People Power Party, meanwhile, saw its approval rating edge down by 1 percentage point to 26 percent, while 30 percent of the total respon