The presidential transition team’s vice spokesperson on Wednesday denied a report that President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, might lead an art exhibition at Cheong Wa Dae. It refuted a Yonhap report on Wednesday which quoted an aide to Kim saying that the incoming first lady could categorize artworks owned by Cheong Wa Dae and introduce them to the public. “It’s only a natural ide...

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday new versions of omicron’s BA.2 subvariant were making up increasingly larger proportions of circulating variants in the country. According to the KDCA’s weekly analysis posted Tuesday, BA.2, which was first spotted here in late January, showed up in 94.2 percent of cases in the third week of April. In a further breakdown of variants, ...

PARIS -- Young, pro-European and unfailingly ambitious, Emmanuel Macron is the first French president to serve a second term in 20 years, giving him a historic opportunity to leave his mark. The 44-year-old, who came to power as France's youngest ever president, secured victory promising more pro-business and welfare reforms but with a "new method" that is expected to be less top-down. He had b...

With climate change, plastic pollution and a potential sixth mass extinction, humanity has made some incredible messes in the world. But when people, political factions and nations have pulled together, they have also cleaned up some of those human-caused environmental problems, including healing the ozone hole, clearing perpetually smoggy air and saving many species from the brink of extinction...

Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo, his deputy and the chiefs of all six high prosecutors' offices across the nation offered to resign en masse Friday after the ruling and opposition parties agreed on legislation that would reduce and eventually scrap the prosecution's investigative powers. The unprecedented move came after the ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition People Power Party reache...

For the first time, YouTube has openly expressed concerns over the South Korean parliament’s push for global content providers to foot the bill for creating excessive network traffic. Gautam Anand, Vice President and Managing Director at Google’s YouTube Asia Pacific, wrote on Wednesday on the official YouTube Korea blog that if the revisions are enacted, it could “undermine YouTube’s opportunit...

SEJONG -- Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki spent his five-year term dealing with major economic tasks, from the pandemic-triggered market crisis to controversial real estate measures. However, assessments of Hong -- South Korea’s longest serving fiscal chief -- appear divided. Proponents say that the minister has been faithful to principles to boost the economy and weather ...

Large retailers including Hanwha and Shinsegae are keen to jump into the e-commerce market for designer brands as existing online platforms are struggling to beat off a counterfeit luxury goods scandal. Online shopping malls for designer brands such as Mustit, Balaan and Trenbe have enjoyed a boom in Korea by offering convenience and prices lower than department stores or duty-free shops to the ...

With the government lifting nearly all social distancing measures, retailers in South Korea are now pinning high hopes on a business recovery after enduring two years of strict pandemic restrictions that limited operating hours, private gatherings and even food tasting at the grocery store. Supermarkets, which have been hit hard due to pandemic restrictions, are in talks with the government to r...

MYKULYCHI, Ukraine (AP) -- This was not where Nadiya Trubchaninova thought she would find herself at 70 years old, hitchhiking daily from her village to the shattered Ukrainian town of Bucha, trying to bring her son's body home for burial. The questions wore her down, heavy like the winter coat and boots she still wears against the chill. Why had the 48-year-old Vadym gone to Bucha, where the Ru...

South Korean lawmakers passed a bill Friday to open a special inspection into a sexual assault case linked to the suicide of an Air Force master sergeant, after a monthslong investigation into the case failed to satisfy the victim’s family. The bill, passed during a National Assembly plenary session on Friday afternoon, will allow the National Court Administration and the Korean Bar Association ...

A rift may be forming between President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and transition committee chief Ahn Cheol-soo, raising concerns over the conservative bloc’s party merger and plans for a coalition government. On Thursday, Ahn canceled his scheduled visit to the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters in the morning, after dropping out of a dinner meeting with Yoon and other officials the pre...

Omicron appears to be losing its grip in South Korea, raising hopes for a return to pre-pandemic life. For many Koreans, this would entail a farewell to face masks, a daily nuisance that they had to get used to for the past two years. But not all are happy to ditch their masks. Some say masks are one of the good things that came out of the pandemic in a society obsessed with looks. “After two ...

Men in 20s are not happy Opponents, however, claim that they are against fairness to grant special treatment to K-pop artists. Men in their 20s, the main demographic group subject to the mandatory military service, are ardent opponents. Park Min-young, a man in his 20s who served as a youth assistant for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol during the presidential campaign period, said “granting exemp...

PARIS (AP) -- Incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in a winner-takes-all runoff for the French presidency, after they both advanced Sunday in the first round of voting in the country's election to set up another head-to-head clash of their sharply opposing visions for France. But while Macron won t heir last contest in 2017 by a landslide to become France's you...