Jeju Province’s health authorities are on high alert ahead of the Chuseok holiday as some 200,000 tourists are expected to visit the scenic island from Sept. 30 through Oct. 4. The Jeju Tourism Association projected on Wednesday that at least 198,000 visitors will enter the island over the five-day holiday. This means a daily average of about 40,000 visitors landing on Jeju, close to the figures seen during the summer peak holiday season. Airliners are seeing booking rates of between

Senior citizens continue to account for around 40 percent of recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, raising concerns, health authorities said Tuesday. South Korea is also seeing more deaths from the coronavirus as most people who become severely ill are in their 60s or older. “The daily number of newly confirmed cases is slowly declining, but senior citizens aged 60 and up are continuing to account for around 40 percent, and most of the critically or seriously ill patients are also in that

Medical school students will keep boycotting classes in protest against the government’s plan to increase med school student quotas and open a medical school for public health. Despite a tentative agreement reached between the government and the doctors’ association that led partial strikes by working doctors, an association of medical school students nationwide decided Thursday to continue to stay away from classes. The student association has not yet decided on whether senior ye

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spoke of a “magical force” and a “special friendship” in the letters they exchanged, CNN reported Wednesday, citing transcripts of two letters that it obtained. In one of the letters sent a month after Kim’s meeting with Trump at the DMZ in June 2019, the North Korean leader wrote that he was upset that the South Korea-US military exercises had not fully stopped. “I am clearly offended and I do n

Lee Heung-gu, the 10th justice of the Supreme Court to be named by President Moon Jae-in, took office Tuesday, raising anticipation that the top court will rule more in favor of the disadvantaged. Lee‘s replacement of outgoing justice Kwon Soon-il leaves only three justices named by former conservative President Park Geun-hye on the top court’s bench of 13 judges. Lee, who emphasized the protection of minorities as an important responsibility in his parliamentary confirmation hear

Seoul City and the police banned most of the rallies planned for National Foundation Day on Oct. 3 in line with social distancing rules amid political and social controversy over the right to protest. Under the toughened social distancing rules, Seoul City has prohibited gatherings of 10 or more people until Sept. 13. Even if it decided not to extend those rules after Sept. 13, gatherings of 100 or more people would still be banned under the Level 2 social distancing rules in place nationwide.

North Korea is estimated to have collected up to $2 billion in illegal funds through hacking cryptocurrency exchanges, international financial networks and automated teller machine systems, Voice of America reported on Friday. Citing documents from US law enforcement agencies and experts, the US government-funded broadcaster said North Korean hackers abuse the incomplete regulatory system of the nascent industry, the anonymity of cryptocurrency, and use methods known as “mixer” and

Opposition politicians continued to blast President Moon Jae-in for his social media post Wednesday, in which he thanked nurses for their efforts without mentioning doctors, who are currently taking industrial action against proposed health care reforms. Thousands of medical interns and resident trainee doctors have been on strike since last month, calling on the government to scrap its plan to increase the quota of students admitted to medical schools and open a new public medical school to b

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Nak-yon said Wednesday his party will speed up discussions with the government for the nation’s fourth extra budget this year to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. “(We) will soon wrap up talks with the government and draw up a supplementary budget plan so we can get it executed as soon as possible,” Lee said at the party’s supreme council meeting Wednesday morning. “(We) must be able to ease the burden on the self-emplo

To keep stock market volatility at bay amid concerns that COVID-19 will continue to affect the market next year, South Korea has extended its temporary ban on short-selling activities of all listed Korean shares to March 2021. And the government is set to toughen penalties against illegal acts such as naked short selling. Financial authorities are also hoping to build a monitoring system that allows them to detect any irregularities in foreign investors‘ borrowing and lending of Korean st

The UN said it has secured only about 5 percent of the funds necessary to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in North Korea. In its July update for Global Humanitarian Response Plan COVID-19, published Monday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs disclosed the financial requirements to assist in responding to COVID-19 in each country and the funding status. According to the report, the UN needs $39.7 million to help tackle COVID-19 in North Korea, but has so far re

Ultra-right-wing critics of the Moon Jae-in administration who tested positive for the new coronavirus after attending a mass protest Aug. 15 continue to blast the government and complain about its policies, as well as the food provided to the people in quarantine. Jun Kwang-hun, pastor of Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul, said in an interview with ultra-right-wing YouTuber Joo Ok-soon that “President Moon and the pro-North (Korea) left-wingers are trying to get rid of the church to turn Sout

North Korea on Monday urged Japan to apologize and compensate for killing at least 524 Koreans returning home in 1945 by allegedly blowing up the ship they were on. A spokesman for the North Korean association of families of the deceased victims who were sent abroad against their will by the Japanese colonial government to work for its military during World War II said in a statement that Japan must “close the books” for its past crimes, and we will make them pay (for the crimes),

Senior officials of the North Korean Workers’ Party blamed themselves on Friday for the country’s failure to meet economic growth targets after a general meeting Wednesday. It was a rare occasion for a party that seldom admits failure. In commentaries published on the front page of the Rodong Sinmun, the party’s official newspaper that most North Koreans see, the officials said it was their fault the North Korean economy did not grow. Jang Kil-ryong, the minister in charge

The race for the ruling Democratic Party’s leadership has suffered a setback from a COVID-19 resurgence in the country, with its frontrunner, Lee Nak-yon, placed under two-week isolation. Its national convention slated for Aug. 28, where a new party chairperson was to be elected, is to be moved online, as indoor gatherings of 50 people or more are prohibited under renewed disease prevention guidelines. Party leaders were set to discuss other adjustments to the general assembly plan in a