Former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik has agreed to chair a government-civilian committee aimed at nominating two Austrian nurses who spent 40 years as voluntary nurses for South Korean leprosy patients on a remote island for the Nobel Peace Prize, a Catholic priest said Thursday. Rev. Franciscus Kim Yeon-jun, who has been working to promote the awareness of the selfless service of the two nurses,...

President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that the government can afford his costly social welfare policy packages without a further tax hike, but he did not rule out the possibility of an additional increase in taxes in the future. The tax issue has been a hot potato for months in South Korea in line with Moon's slogan of "income-led growth," which calls for increasing household income and spending w...

South Korean football icon Park Ji-sung said Thursday that the national team players should overcome World Cup qualifying pressure to earn good results in upcoming matches. South Korea, led by head coach Shin Tae-yong, will host Iran on Aug. 31 and take on Uzbekistan five days later on the road in their final World Cup qualifying campaign. Both are considered must-win matches for the Taeguk Warr...

The state-run Korea Depository Insurance Corp. said Thursday it sold a 2.75 percent stake in Hanwha Life Insurance Co. as part of efforts to recoup taxpayer money injected into the insurer. The stake, or 23.9 million shares, was offloaded to domestic and foreign institutional investors through a block sale in after-hours trading for 173.9 billion won ($153 million), or 7,280 won per share. The ...

Tickets for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympics will go on sale next week to coincide with the 200-day countdown, the organizers said Thursday. The organizing committee for the Paralympic Winter Games said tickets will be available for purchase online at its website ( https://www.pyeongchang2018.com/en/paralympics/index ) starting at 2 p.m. next Monday. The Paralympics will run from March ...

The top diplomats of South Korea and Canada discussed the recent release of a Canadian detainee in North Korea and their countries' joint efforts to achieve the peaceful resolution of North Korea's nuclear problems during a phone conversation on Thursday, the foreign ministry said. Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland informed Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha of the details of t...

The South Korea women's national football team will play friendly matches against the United States in October, the sport's national governing body said Thursday. The Korea Football Association confirmed it reached an agreement with its American counterpart to have two friendly matches in the US The two sides will first meet at Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on Oct. 20 (Korean time), and...

South Korea women's football coach Yoon Duk-yeo has signed an extension that will keep him at the helm for two more years, officials here said Thursday. Yoon, 56, signed a new two-year contract with the Korea Football Association that will see him lead the women's national football team through the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, should South Korea qualify for the tournament. "I want to thank the ...

South Korean athletes competing at this year's Summer Universiade departed for Taiwan on Thursday. South Korea will be represented in 22 sports by 319 athletes and 96 officials at the Aug. 19-30 competition in Taipei. Some university athletes are already in the Taiwanese capital due to the schedule of their competition. On Thursday, the main delegation of some 110 athletes flew to Taipei. South...

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday reaffirmed his election campaign pledge to rewrite the Constitution by next year to strengthen regional autonomy and citizens' fundamental rights. His government is currently pushing for a referendum on the revision of the decades-old Constitution in tandem with the local elections slated for next June, amid parliamentary panel discussions on the highly divisive...

JEJU ISLAND -- A Chinese expert warned Thursday that the ongoing deployment of a US missile defense system to South Korea will likely spark a "vicious cycle" that could lead to a regional arms race. Jiang Yuechun, head of China Institute of International Studies, still expressed hope that there are still windows of opportunity for the two neighbors to find middle ground and restore strained rela...

Foreign currency deposits held by banks operating in South Korea rose in July from a month earlier as exporters increased their deposits of dollar-denominated earnings, central bank data showed Thursday. Outstanding foreign currency deposits held by local lenders, domestic and foreign, reached $69.11 billion in July, up $5.5 billion from a month earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a statement. B...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday ruled out the possibility of war on the Korean Peninsula, saying the United States has agreed not to take any military action against North Korea without Seoul's consent. He warned Pyongyang against crossing a "red line," by which he meant the weaponization of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles. "I say this with confidence tha...

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon ordered the government Thursday to conduct an all-out inspection to make sure that chickens and processed foods are safe from insecticide-contaminated eggs even after all tainted eggs are removed from the market. Lee also said that the egg scandal can be brought under control before the end of this week, even as eggs from dozens of more farms were found to have been co...

South Korean shares traded higher late Thursday morning on the back of gains in technology firms and steelmakers. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 11.69 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,359.95 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech shares continued to trade higher, with Samsung Electronics moving up 1.82 percent and LG Display advancing 2.2 percent. Chipmaker SK hynix climbed 1.36 percent.Steelma...