Seoul City signed an agreement with Beijing Thursday to make joint efforts in tackling air pollution, including hazardous ultrafine dust that has been increasingly affecting Northeast Asia. The agreement, signed between Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and his counterpart Wang Anshun during Park's one-day visit to the Chinese capital, calls for the establishment of an environmental team within a joint ...

The Seoul municipal government issued an ultrafine dust advisory Monday, urging people to stay indoors. The measure was taken at around noon, after Seoul’s atmospheric concentration levels of “particulate matter-2.5” pollutants recorded 92 micrograms per cubic meter. The city government issues the advisory if the average pollutant levels of 85 micrograms per cubic meter persist for at least two...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry began a three-day trip to Jakarta Saturday where he plans to focus on climate change. The Indonesian capital is the last stop in his three-country Asia tour. He traveled to Seoul and Beijing. On Sunday, he is scheduled to deliver a speech on climate change at the American Center here. In the first of a series of speeches on climate change this year, the secre...

South Korea on Tuesday said it has completed the construction of its second research base in the Antarctic, becoming the 10th country to have more than one research station in the frozen continent. The completion of the Jang Bo-go Antarctic Research Station will be marked Wednesday in a ceremony at the base that will be attended by some 300 people, including the country's parliamentary speaker, ...

South Korea's inspection and quarantine of imported plants successfully prevented the inflow of over 4,000 shipments of pest-infested plants last year, the government said Tuesday. In 2013, the country inspected some 3.5 million samples of imported plants to discover 7,506 of them were infested with insects, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Some 4,400 of them, i...

The environment ministry said Wednesday it will begin nationwide forecasts of fine dust levels this week as part of efforts to cope with the continued inflow of harmful particles from China. The forecasting service, which has been tested in Seoul and its adjacent areas since August, aims to prevent health issues caused by high-density air pollution by informing the public of pollution levels bef...

Two new suspected bird flu cases have been reported this week, the government said Monday, as quarantine authorities stay on watch for any new signs after heavy traffic of people during the Lunar New Year holiday. The additional cases were reported Sunday at a duck farm in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province, and a chicken farm in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province, according to the Ministry of Ag...

South Korea continued quarantine efforts Tuesday as avian influenza was showing signs of spreading wider. As of Tuesday morning, the virulent H5N8 strain of bird flu has been identified at 25 poultry farms, up from 17 farms the previous year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Two additional suspected cases have been reported overnight at a duck farm in Jincheon, ...

The government plans to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from business-as-usual levels in 2020 to help stem global warming, the environment ministry said Tuesday. The plan, approved by the Cabinet in the morning, calls for a reduction of 233 million carbon dioxide equivalent tons in 2020, according to the ministry. The figure represents a 30 percent reduction from the ...

South Korea continued quarantine efforts to prevent a further spread of bird flu Monday, as a 12-hour lockdown went into effect at all poultry farms in three provinces. The lockdown, also known as stand-still, prohibits the movement of any animal, persons or vehicle from farms, creating conditions for simultaneously sterilizing all infection sources, including seasonal homes to migratory birds. ...

The government is considering imposing a lockdown at all poultry farms throughout the country as avian influenza was showing signs of further spreading, officials said Sunday. A nationwide lockdown, if issued, will prohibit the movement of any poultry, workers or vehicles from farms for 48 hours. Such a move can be extended once for another 48 hours. Such a move will create what health authorit...

The government on Sunday confirmed that the birds from two duck farms in Buan, North Jeolla Province were infected with avian influenza virus. There are now three duck farms with confirmed cases of avian influenza. It has yet to be determined whether the latest confirmed cases were caused by a highly pathogenic strain of the virus, however. “Only the H5 protein has been isolated, and as the N ...

SEATTLE (AP) ― China has suspended imports of shellfish from the U.S. West Coast, cutting off one of the biggest export markets for Northwest companies and prompting fears of a months-long shutdown. The Chinese government imposed the ban after discovering that recent shipments of geoduck clams from Northwest waters had high levels of arsenic and a toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning,...

Rival political parties in South Korea clashed Monday over the scope of reforming the state spy agency's operations in the wake of the execution of North Korea's No. 2 man. The ruling Saenuri Party said the National Intelligence Service (NIS)'s operations should be enhanced to effectively deal with the security uncertainties on the Korean Peninsula following the North's execution of Jang Song-th...