Most Popular
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Allies face test with return of Trump’s transactional diplomacy
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Korea on alert over reshaped global economy during Trump's 2nd term
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‘Trump may seek surprise NK deal at expense of Seoul’
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Yoon apologizes but denies wife's role in state affairs
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Poster of Kim Jong-un behind bars launches S. Korean groups' anti-NK campaign in Geneva
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Korean auto, battery firms buckle up for second Trump term
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Police clear Jessi of charges in fan assault case
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Yoon, Trump, in phone call, agree to hold meeting at early date
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Koreans still do not prefer Trump as US president: survey
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Sought by prosecutors: Key man in Yoon presidential couple’s political drama
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Sought by prosecutors: Key man in Yoon presidential couple’s political drama
Myeong Tae-kyun, the self-proclaimed power broker that many South Koreans had never heard of until two months ago, made a public appearance Friday as he arrived for questioning by prosecutors. He is the man driving the spiraling election drama surrounding the presidential couple and some of the most influential power players of the ruling People Power Party. The little-known man in mainstream Seoul circles apparently blew the whistle on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s wife Kim Keon Hee, claiming
PoliticsNov. 8, 2024
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First lady to keep low profile as Yoon’s ratings hit new low
First Lady Kim Keon Hee will not accompany President Yoon Suk Yeol on his planned state trips this month, a senior Yoon official told reporters Friday. The official said whether she would travel with the president in the future would be decided on a “case-by-case basis.” The decision follows the press conference by Yoon on Thursday where he said that the scope of his wife’s public role and appearances would depend on how South Koreans feel about it. “If the people like it
PoliticsNov. 8, 2024
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South Korean opposition head hails Trump for Korean Peninsula peace efforts
Democratic Party of Korea leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung on Friday praised US President-elect Donald Trump’s summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his first term as a “historic contribution to peace in the Korean Peninsula.” “The first Trump administration made a historic move of holding the first-ever summit with North Korea and contributed to peace in the Korean Peninsula,” he told a meeting of the party leadership. He said that as Trump won a seco
PoliticsNov. 8, 2024
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Sunken fishing boat's location confirmed; fishing net hinders search
South Korean officials have confirmed the location of the sunken fishing boat off the coast of Jeju Island, but a tangled fishing net is making the search for the vessel difficult, Jeju Coast Guard said Friday. Officials from the Coast Guard held a briefing at 2 p.m. on the search and rescue operations for the crew of the 129-ton Geumseong which sank early Friday morning, leaving two of the 27 crew dead and 12 unaccounted for. Sixteen of the crew were Korean and 11 were of foreign nationality. U
Social AffairsNov. 8, 2024
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Top court upholds 8-year sentence for mother who killed newborns, stored bodies in freezer
South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld an eight-year prison term for a woman who killed her two newborn babies and hid their bodies in her refrigerator. The top court confirmed a lower court’s verdict that sentenced the mother, in her 30s, on charges of murder and concealing of a corpse on Oct. 8, according to media reports Friday. She was convicted of strangling a daughter and a son to death shortly after their birth in November 2018 and November 2019, respectively. Prosecutors said
Social AffairsNov. 8, 2024
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Murder charge sought over death of mentally disabled student who was pushed into sea
South Korean prosecutors on Thursday requested an appellate court to hand a 25-year prison term to a 20-year-old over the death of a mentally disabled 18-year-old, who died after the accused pushed him into the sea for losing a game. Prosecutors want the defendant convicted of murder, after a lower court found him guilty only of a lesser offence. He pushed the victim into the sea in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, on Feb.1. The defendant lured the victim to the port by suggesting to go fishing,
Social AffairsNov. 8, 2024
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Police nab 20 suspects connected to ‘international sender’ phishing texts
Seoul police have uncovered six companies accused of mass-sending phishing messages beginning with “international sender” under the direction of criminal organizations, authorities said Thursday. After investigating the six firms from May to October this year, police sent 20 individuals -- among them a key operator named Kim, his employees and system developers – to the prosecution on charges of violating the Telecommunications Business Act and the Information and Communicati
Social AffairsNov. 8, 2024
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Woman jailed for hiding her baby's body for 4 years
A woman accused of causing her newborn's death and then hiding the baby's body was sentenced to a four-year prison term by a local court, officials said Thursday. Daejeon District Court on Oct. 26 found the defendant guilty of violating Article 4 of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes, death resulting from child abuse. The defendant in her 30s was held responsible for the death of her child, who died a week after being born in September 2019. The de
Social AffairsNov. 8, 2024
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Yoon’s approval rating drops to new low
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating has fallen to a new low in the latest Gallup Korea poll released Friday, coming in at a record 17 percent. The results, however, do not reflect reactions to Thursday’s press conference, which was met with mixed reactions. The poll, conducted between Nov. 5 and 7, indicated that public sentiment has further deteriorated, with only 17 percent rating Yoon’s performance positively -- 2 percentage points lower than two weeks ago. Over the sa
PoliticsNov. 8, 2024
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Self-proclaimed power broker appears before prosecutors
Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed power broker at the center of a growing political scandal, appeared before prosecutors Friday for questioning over allegations of receiving illicit funds from a former ruling party lawmaker in exchange for his assistance with her candidacy in the 2022 parliamentary by-elections in violation of political funding laws. Myung, who runs a public polling agency, arrived at the Changwon District Prosecutors Office in the city about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul at
PoliticsNov. 8, 2024
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S. Korea holds live-fire ballistic missile drills after N. Korean missile launches
South Korea fired a Hyunmoo-II surface-to-surface ballistic missile into the Yellow Sea this week in a show of force after North Korea's recent series of missile launches, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday. The live-fire exercise took place Thursday in the western coastal county of Taean, 108 kilometers southwest of Seoul, days after North Korea fired short-range ballistic missiles Tuesday and a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) last week. Under a scenario of a North Korean
DefenseNov. 8, 2024
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2 dead, 12 missing after fishing boat sinks near Jeju Island
A fishing boat carrying 27 people sank off the coast of Jeju Island on Friday, leaving two dead and 12 missing as authorities set up an emergency task force for rescue operations. As of Friday morning, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province is commanding rescue operations at the emergency headquarters in Jeju City. Dozens of vessels and multiple aircraft from the Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force and the civilian sector are conducting search and rescue operations in the waters off Biyangdo Island. Pr
Social AffairsNov. 8, 2024
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[Contribution] APEC, passing the baton to Korea
On Nov. 16, President Yoon Suk Yeol will participate in the APEC Leaders' Summit in Lima, coinciding with his official visit to Peru. This is a significant occasion as Korea will assume the presidency of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation for 2025, a forum which serves as the primary platform for economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. Over the past 35 years, APEC has effectively promoted trade and investment integration in the world's most dynamic economic region, which curren
Diplomatic CircuitNov. 8, 2024
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Tourist doing yoga in front of Gyeongbokgung stirs debate
Photos of a woman practicing yoga in green leggings in front of Gyeongbokgung in Seoul have stirred up debate online. The incident occurred when a woman, 37, from Hanoi, Vietnam shared photos on TikTok showing herself doing a yoga handstand pose in front of the stone wall surrounding Gyeongbokgung, the main royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), during a visit to Seoul, Sunday. The photos went viral on social media, drawing criticism for being "rude," "disgraceful" a
Social AffairsNov. 8, 2024
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South Korean courts suffer website outages in suspected cyber attacks
The websites of South Korean courts temporarily went down Thursday afternoon, a day after South Korean military websites suffered similar outages. The court websites, including that of the country’s largest Seoul central district court, were inaccessible due to suspected cyberattacks. The court administration office told reporters it suspects a distributed denial of service attack, in which servers are overwhelmed with large amounts of traffic to block access, by a potential foreign source
PoliticsNov. 7, 2024
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Political sphere divided over Yoon’s public address
South Korea’s political sphere expressed divided opinions on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s public address delivered Thursday, with the main opposition party criticizing it as a speech “full of excuses” and the ruling party praising it as “honest.” In the televised address and press conference marking the second half of his term, Yoon did not directly mention his wife, but offered an apology amid the public discontent due to the multiple controversies surrounding f
PoliticsNov. 7, 2024
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Poster of Kim Jong-un behind bars launches S. Korean groups' anti-NK campaign in Geneva
A group of South Koreans held a campaign denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in front of the North’s permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva on Wednesday, one of its organizers said Thursday. The campaign, organized jointly by the South Korean civic group People for Successful Corean Reunification and the Seoul-based advertising agency Jeski Social Campaign, was initiated at the plaza in front of the United Nations Office building where a session of the UN Human Rights Cou
North KoreaNov. 7, 2024