The ruling party's presidential nominee vowed to ensure South Korea‘s yearly exports reach $1 trillion within his five-year term by fostering traditionally strong and novel sectors and diversifying trade routes. Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea said in an event Wednesday that, if elected, his government would lead a digital transition in the manufacturing sector and foster the rene...

South Korea and India have agreed to resume negotiations to upgrade their bilateral trade pact next month after more than two years of hiatus, Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday. The two nations implemented the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in January 2010 and began talks to upgrade the pact in 2015. But negotiations have been suspended since June 2019 due to the COVID-...

The Ministry of Education is again drawing fire over sharing cartoons encouraging students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 despite the court order suspending vaccine mandate measures on education facilities for young students. On Friday, the ministry posted a cartoon on its social media account, titled “Why did these friends have to take out tteokbokki (rice cakes in a red chili sauce)?” The ...

South Korea's drug safety agency on Wednesday approved an authorization of US-based biotechnology company Novavax Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine. The protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid, marks the fifth COVID-19 vaccine to get approval for use here, following the ones by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc. The Ministry of...

JEONJU -- The founder of South Korean budget carrier Eastar Jet Co. was sentenced to six years in prison on Wednesday for embezzlement of company funds and breach of trust. A district court in Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, handed down the sentence to Eastar founder and independent lawmaker Lee Sang-jik after convicting him on several charges, including embezzlement. The Jeonju District...

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday unveiled a set of measures to upgrade the country's gaming industry, including disclosing information on randomized in-game items, in his latest move to woo young male voters ahead of the upcoming election. Yoon of the People Power Party (PPP) said he would mandate game developers to disclose the odds of getting randomized items, ...

Safety inspections took place at major construction sites across South Korea on Wednesday, as the search continued for workers missing in Tuesday‘s collapse of a Gwangju apartment building that was under construction. The Gwangju Metropolitan Government earlier in the day ordered the temporary shutdown on all construction sites in the city run by Hyundai Development Co., the company involved in ...

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday ordered a thorough investigation into a construction site accident that left six people unaccounted for, his spokesperson said. Moon's order comes a day after the facade of a high-rise apartment building under construction in the southwestern city of Gwangju collapsed, leaving six workers missing. "Thoroughly investigate the fundamental cause of the recent ser...

GWANGJU -- A safety inspection was under way Wednesday as authorities weighed when to resume a search for the six workers who went missing after the collapse of a facade of a high-rise apartment building under construction in the southwestern city of Gwangju a day earlier. Search efforts at the collapse site were temporarily suspended Tuesday night due to safety concerns over possible further di...

The Supreme Prosecutors Office (SPO) on Wednesday ordered the launch of a joint investigation into a construction site accident in Gwangju in which six people remain unaccounted for. Six workers were unaccounted for after a facade of a high-rise apartment building under construction in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, collapsed Tuesday, according to police. The SPO said it ordered the Gw...

Tours to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom will be suspended starting next week due to spikes in COVID-19 infections, the UN Command (UNC) said Wednesday. The UNC will discontinue the tour program to the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, effective Tuesday, less than two months after it resumed the tours in line with the country's "living wit...

South Korea has successfully tested a counter missile system for military aircraft to help dodge enemies' portable surface-to-air missiles, a state-run defense research agency said Wednesday. The directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system enables aircraft to dodge missiles by emitting a laser beam to the ground, blinding missiles that rely on heat to track targets. The Agency for Defen...

The World Food Programme (WFP) has not provided North Korea with any food assistance for nearly a year, its monthly report showed Wednesday, amid the country's strict border controls against COVID-19. The UN food agency last delivered 891.5 tons of fortified food and 4,970 tons of raw food commodities to North Korea from January to March last year, assisting 566,886 people, according to its Dece...

South Korea's military on Wednesday reported 65 additional COVID-19 cases, including 62 breakthrough infections, raising the total caseload among its personnel to 3,526. Of the new cases, 46 are from the Army, 14 from the Air Force, four from units under the direct control of the defense ministry, and one from the Marine Corps. Currently, 226 military personnel are under treatment. Of the total...

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol overtook his ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung after gaining 38 percent public support against Lee's 35.3 percent, a survey showed Wednesday. Yoon of the conservative People Power Party added 3.1 percentage points, while Lee of the liberal Democratic Party lost 7.1 points, according to the survey of 1,014 adults conducted by Hangil Research fro...