North Korea has been hunting down its top diplomat in Italy after he went missing in early November amid news reports he applied for asylum with an unidentified Western country.Jo Song-gil (Yonhap)The department of international affairs of the North’s Workers’ Party and its Foreign Ministry were ordered to conduct a sweeping probe into its acting Ambassador to Rome Jo Song-gil, look for others who may be seeking to defect and find ways to prevent such occurences, JoongAng Ilbo reported Friday, c

Rhyu Si-min, a liberal politician-turned-writer, starts a podcast Friday, with an aim to fight “fake news” after firebrand conservative politician Hong Joon-pyo’s YouTube channel Hong-ka Cola attracted 170,000 subscribers in less than a month.Titled Alileo, the weekly podcast by the chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation attracted over 40,000 subscribers even before it began.  Rhyu Si-min (Yonhap)During a JTBC debate show on Wednesday, Rhyu said he views warnings of an economic crisis in the me

North Korea’s top diplomat in Italy sought asylum from an unidentified Western country with his family, JoongAng ilbo reported Thursday.Jo Song-gil, the acting North Korean ambassador to Rome, is currently under protection of Italian authorities upon his request, the newspaper reported, citing an unnamed diplomatic source.  (Yonhap)Jo was appointed as the acting ambassador after Italy expelled then Ambassador Mun Jong-nam in October 2017 in protest of a nuclear test by the North in violation of

A former official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance claimed that President Moon Jae-in’s office forced the issuance of deficit-covering bonds worth 4 trillion won late last year despite opposition from the ministry.Shin Jae-min, 32, alleged that the move was a political attempt to make the Park Geun-hye administration look bad by increasing government debts for the year 2017. Moon took office in May last year.  Shin Jae-min (Yonhap)Shin also claimed that Cheong Wa Dae had attempted to repla

The leader of a welfare group that offers coal briquettes for heating began a one-person protest against a briquette price hike in front of the presidential office Monday.Heo Ki-bok, chief of the Babsang Community Foundation and Briquette Bank, started what the group said would lead to a series of one-person protests by other members of the foundation. (Yonhap)In an online petition filed on the Cheong Wa Dae website on Dec. 13, the group said the price of coal briquettes, known locally as yeonta

Cho Kuk, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, is set to answer questions from lawmakers about a case involving a former investigator under his supervision, among other issues, in his first official appearance at the National Assembly on Monday. Rival parties agreed to put Cho on the stand at the meeting of the Steering Committee of the National Assembly.Cho has come under fire due to Kim Tae-woo, whom he had supervised while the latter was part of the Cheong Wa Dae special inspection

North Korean state media reported the groundbreaking for a project to reconnect inter-Korean railways and roads on Thursday, a day after the ceremony took place.“A groundbreaking ceremony for reconnecting and modernizing the railways and roads of the north and the south on the eastern and western coasts of Korea was held,” the Korean Central News Agency said in a short English article. (Yonhap)The KCNA said Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Coun

Among Korea’s 17 metropolises and provinces, Seoul showed the highest level of work-life balance, a government survey showed.The Ministry of Employment and Labor on Friday announced the results of its work-life balance index by region for 2017. The indices, developed by the Korean Women’s Development Institute, are a compilation of subindices that indicate the level of balance in time spent on work and time spent outside work, balance between the genders and attitudes toward work-life balance. (

Prosecutors on Friday searched the premises of a builder suspected of getting improper assistance from Kim Tae-woo, a former investigator with the presidential office, during the course of a bribery investigation.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office sent prosecutors and investigators to the office and residence of Choi, who runs a company that builds soundproof tunnels, and obtained hard disks and data concerning the circumstances of Choi’s selection as a contractor for the Korea Expre

A panel was launched Thursday to discuss how to expand flextime work, a key issue in labor-management talks, amid controversy over the matter. Organized under the presidential Economic, Social & Labor Council, the committee for improving the work hours system discussed various agenda items and the deadline for an outcome during its first meeting Thursday. (Yonhap)The new panel consists of two representatives of workers, two representatives of employers, a representative of the government, and fo

Police are focusing on finding out when and why a gas-fired boiler disconnected from an exhaust pipe, leading to the deaths of three students of carbon monoxide poisoning at a guesthouse in Gangneung.Police have tentatively concluded the three died of carbon monoxide poisoning as exhaust gas leaked through a gap between the boiler and the pipe. The other seven in the group have been hospitalized and are slowly recovering. (Yonhap)They are looking into when and why the boiler and pipe were disjoi

Police have discovered that a teenage girl who took her life in July had been sexually assaulted by her male peers.One of the perpetrators posted sexually disparaging remarks about the victim on social media, police say. (Yonhap)The Incheon Michuholl Police Station said on Tuesday that it had referred a 15-year-old suspect to the prosecution with a recommendation that he be indicted on charges of rape.Police also referred to the prosecution an 18-year-old high school senior on charges of indecen

Korea ranked 115th out of 149 countries in the World Economic Forum’s report on the global gender gap released Tuesday.According to the 2018 report, Korea’s gender gap index was 0.657, below China (0.673) and Japan (0.662). The closer the figure is to 1, the greater the gender parity. Korea ranked 118th in last year’s report, with a gender gap index of 0.650. (Yonhap)Since 2006, the WEF has measured the gender gap of nations in four categories: economic participation and opportunity; educational

Police are considering taking punitive measures against those responsible for lackadaisical response to violence by some union workers at an auto parts maker against an executive.Last month, some 40 union workers of Yoosung Enterprise in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, broke into the office of the company CEO, and some of them struck -- over a period of about 40 minutes -- a managing director in charge of wage talks.  National Police Agency Commissioner Min Gab-ryong (Yonhap)The executive surn

The United Nations is expected to adopt a resolution condemning human rights violations in North Korea and urging the country to immediately take action to address the matter.The UN General Assembly will hold a plenary session Monday morning in New York (early Tuesday, Seoul time), during which member nations are likely to reach a consensus on a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues.The UN has adopted resolutions