Rival parties on Thursday argued over a body search on the People Power Party Floor Leader Joo Ho-young by a member of the Presidential Security Service against his will, Wednesday. When Joo arrived at the office of the National Assembly speaker on Wednesday morning to meet with President Moon Jae-in before his parliamentary speech on the state budget, a PSS official told Joo that he had to be searched. “I told him I am the opposition PPP’s floor leader, but (the PSS official) said

With the US presidential election just days ahead, Democratic candidate Joe Biden has not said much about his policy on the Korean Peninsula. All he has said so far is that the leader of the North Korean regime is a thug, and he will meet with Kim Jong-un only if Pyongyang agrees to draw down its nuclear capacity as a precondition. During the final presidential debate last week, Biden said that when the Chinese asked why the US was moving its missile defense up so close and continuing its mili

The family of the South Korean official killed by North Korean soldiers in North Korean waters continued to accuse the government of “dishonoring” the deceased man by saying he defected to the North due to financial difficulties. The Coast Guard said Thursday that the official, whose job was guiding fishing boats near the inter-Korean maritime border, had been heavily involved in online gambling and had wired gambling money shortly before he went missing. The bereaved family’

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the graves of Chinese soldiers who joined the Korean War 70 years ago, Pyongyang’s state media said on Thursday in an apparent show of reverence for the historical ties between the two communist allies. “Comrade Kim Jong-un visited the cemetery of Chinese soldiers in Hoechang County of South Pyongyan Province around the 70th anniversary of their participation in the war and paid tribute to the patriots,” the North’s Korean Central

North Korean state media said Wednesday that the country’s leader Kim Jong-un expressed his intent to improve ties with China in his reply to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s congratulatory message for the North’s Workers’ Party anniversary. “Together with Comrade General Secretary (Xi), I will further develop the traditional friendly relations between Choson (North Korea) and China, which have entered a new phase of vitality, in line with the demands of the times an

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

A massive wave crashing into the sides of what looks like a giant glass tank, but is actually a wrap-around LED display, grabbed the attention of not just passers-by but international media in May. D’strict, the company that created the public media art titled “WAVE” at Coex K-pop Square in Seoul, used a technology called anamorphic illusion to realistically express the force of nature with superb three-dimensional effects. In August, D’strict unveiled “Starry Bea

Most first graders nationwide will go to school everyday starting Monday as schools can now take in up to two thirds of their students under eased social distancing rules. The government lowered the level of social distancing measures to Phase 1 on Oct. 12, allowing kindergartens through high schools to take in up to two thirds of their students, up from a third of their enrollment. A weeklong grace period was given by the Education Ministry before the eased quota limit was applied from Monday

North Korea said on Friday it has embarked on an "80-day battle" to see progress in recovery from COVID-19, floods and typhoons, as well as better economy. The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean Workers’ Party, said in an editorial that the country "cannot successfully seize the extensive and pressing goals ahead of us by the year-end with the usual level of supervision and working attitude." "(We) must robustly fight on to achieve a glorio

North Korea had the fifth-highest incidence of tuberculosis per 100,000 people among the 198 countries studied by the World Health Organization last year. The estimated epidemiological burden of tuberculosis per population of 100,000 in 2019 was 513 for North Korea, according to the WHO’s annual tuberculosis report published on Wednesday. Only Lesotho (645), South Africa (615), Philippines (554) and the Central African Republic (540) had higher incidences of the disease. The average fig

Some 6,544 cases of side effects from silicone gel breast implants have been reported over the past four years in South Korea, according to government data released by a ruling party lawmaker on Tuesday. That was the highest number of side effects reported among the 34 major medical implants from 2017 through September this year, Rep. Nam In-soon of the Democratic Party said, citing data she received from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. In terms of the number of side effects, breast impl

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

When museums closed for months due to COVID, many offered virtual exhibitions which some say made art more accessible to the wider public, albeit with limitations. Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, is optimistic about the role of art at this time of crisis. “At a time in which we feel doubt and fear about being together, I am optimistic when I remember that art is a form of expression and information-sharing that can open us up to new ways of th

Famous for commercials and web dramas that tell witty and visually intriguing stories with a comic twist in the end, Dolphiners Films is one of the hottest production studios in the Korean advertising business. The creative studio rose to fame with Canon commercials released on YouTube in which celebrity chef Choi Hyun-seok (2015) and former soccer player Ahn Jung-hwan (2016) get killed by a bear while trying to take photos of it. Then it made funnier commercials for ssg.com in 2016, E-mart an

Disease prevention authorities and the police are on high alert once again as mass rallies are scheduled to be held in downtown Seoul over the long weekend starting from Hangeul Day on Friday. While the authorities maintain that outdoor rallies are still inappropriate due to COVID-19, organizers of protests against the Moon Jae-in administration are seeking to get court approval like they did for the Aug. 15 Liberation Day rallies. The Seoul Administrative Court is set to review on Thursday a