United States Forces Korea congratulated South Koreans for “Parasite,” directed by Bong Joon-ho, which picked up four Oscars at Sunday’s Academy Awards, including best picture and best director. “What a historic moment! We are so proud to be serving in a country with such great culture and creative people,” USFK wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. On Monday, US Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris congr...

The US is concerned about the well-being of the North Korean people, but will not provide direct humanitarian assistance, the US State Department said Wednesday. “The US government has no plans at this time to provide direct humanitarian assistance to the DPRK,” the State Department told Voice of America, using the North’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in response to a UN...

Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of the United States Forces Korea in South Korea, “strongly recommended” that American service members here watch “Mr. Sunshine,” a 2018 South Korean hit television series available on Netflix. The general was retweeting an earlier post by Major Gen. Patrick J. Donahoe, the second in command at the USFK 8th Army, who joked on Twitter that visitors to Korea were “leg...

South Korea’s military searched a construction site Tuesday after a number of artillery shells were found there Monday. Construction workers at the site in Seoul’s southwestern Guro district first reported the discovery of objects underground, because they thought they had found explosives. Authorities identified them as blind artillery shells, presumably from the 1950-53 Korean War, noting they...

The United Nations is seeking to raise $107 million in humanitarian aid for North Korea, where nearly half of the 25 million population are in need, the UN’s resident coordinator for Pyongyang said in a report released Monday. According to the report titled “Provisional 2020 DPR Korea Needs and Priorities Overview,” the funding target for this year is lower than the previous year’s $120 million....

The chief of the state-run National Medical Center found himself in hot water on Monday over a cough-like gesture he made a day earlier on a TV program that discussed the new coronavirus, which has infected 27 people here. President Chung Ki-hyun allegedly made a fist and coughed into his left hand, against the advice of the country’s health protection agency. The Korea Center for Disease Contro...

Home to the presidential office and Seoul Government Complex comprising key government offices, the Jongno District in central Seoul has been a symbolic seat in the political landscape. The election results there have proven to be a yardstick on where rival parties stand for the next president. In the upcoming parliamentary elections in April, the district will once again serve as a key battlefi...

The US has not given up on the nuclear talks with North Korea, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Wednesday, referring to his meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a day earlier. During his two-day visit to the US for the first time since taking office two months ago, the UN nuclear watchdog chief said his agency will undertake a reli...

A cybercriminal syndicate believed to be linked to the North Korean government breached the Singapore-based DragonEx exchange and stole $7 million worth of cryptocurrencies in March 2019, Radio Free Asia said Wednesday. Hackers of the Lazarus Group withdrew cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ripple and Litecoin, RFA said, citing findings released by US-based blockchain firm Chainalysis. The gr...

North Korea has temporary halted the repatriation of defectors from China, days after it suspended all train and air travel from and to the neighboring country, whose central city of Wuhan is the epicenter of a new coronavirus outbreak that has claimed more than 360 lives so far, Voice of America said Monday. “From what I hear, Pyongyang isn’t accepting defectors. It asked Beijing not to (send t...

The Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that its anti-piracy Cheonghae Unit salvaged an Iranian boat drifting near Oman’s Muscat Port on Saturday. The 50-ton small oil vessel named Alsohail departed from Iran two weeks ago on Jan. 18. It was low on fuel and had been drifting, when the Cheonghae Unit spotted six crew members signaling for rescue on the deck. The unit, which has recently see...

The South Korean government should make public the records involving three soldiers’ alleged role in a civilian massacre during the Vietnam War, Seoul’s Administrative Court ruled Friday. In a second trial ruling on the matter instigated by a local civic group against Seoul’s spy agency, which holds the records, the court ordered their release after redacting the soldiers’ dates of birth. Korean...

North Korea has suspended all travel from and to China starting Jan. 31, UK’s Foreign Ministry said Friday citing Pyongyang’s latest travel advisories issued a day earlier. “They (the North) have also announced that all air and train routes between North Korea and China are temporarily suspended as of Jan. 31,” the ministry said. The UK Embassy in the North confirmed the news, while the Indian E...

Seoul officials said that demand goes beyond the existing agreement’s framework, but US President Donald Trump criticized Korea for not bearing a greater burden of the entire defense costs to maintain US troops. About 70 percent of Korea’s contribution covers salaries of the Korean workers for their noncombat services. “Without the Republic of Korea’s continued commitment to share the cost of em...

North Korea was holding foreign exchange reserves of between $3 billion and $6.6 billion in 2014, but that dipped heavily after the country came under strict US-led sanctions in 2017, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday in its latest report. The report, which was largely based on estimations and assumptions because analysts lacked data from the isolated country, said the North’s holdings of US dollar...