South Korea’s two main political parties on Friday joined in criticism of North Korea for keeping up with its missile barrage while the country is grieving the 156 lives lost to the Halloween stampede in Seoul over the previous weekend. In a resolution adopted by its committee for national defense, the National Assembly said that North Korea firing missiles was a clear violation of both the Sept...

Olena Tregub, the international assistance coordination director at the Ukrainian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, said perhaps because of its tricky security situation, South Korea has been “careful not to provide Ukraine with military assistance, as other democracies have.” She pointed out that South Korea has not introduced sanctions on its own either. “You joined the ones that wer...

South Korea’s political parties quickly turned to finger-pointing over the Halloween crowd surge that killed at least 156 people, according to the latest official count, with the opposition claiming that the disaster was not an accident. “What happened in Itaewon is no doubt a man-made disaster, and it was caued by the incompetence of the administration in office,” the main opposition Democratic...

The crowd surge in Itaewon on Saturday quickly swamped hospitals in the vicinity, with victims filling their emergency rooms and morgues. Around Saturday midnight, fire department authorities said that there were more than 50 suspected cardiac arrest patients. Soon the number jumped to hundreds. Saturday night is typically busiest for ERs, according to ER doctors, especially for hospitals near ...

Halloween festivities in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood became a deadly disaster late Saturday, as crowds surged into a narrow, sloping alley, killing and injuring hundreds. At least 154 people have died -- of whom 26 were foreign nationals -- and 132 were injured as of Sunday evening, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Seoul fire and disaster headquarters. Included in the fore...

Parents, their faces wet from flowing tears, watched ambulances carry the bodies away in succession. “Maybe he died,” said one mother, breaking into sobs, as the death count rose to 140 at around 4 a.m. She said she had last spoken to her son at around 7:40 p.m. He told her he might be coming home late. When she saw in the news later that night that there had been a fatal crush where her son sa...

The ex-directors of the National Intelligence Service, Park Jie-won and Suh Hoon, claimed on Thursday that they were being “wrongfully accused” in the investigations of North Korea controversies from the Moon Jae-in era. In July, the spy agency filed charges against its two former chiefs in a rare move, alleging that Park destroyed the intelligence reports on North Korea’s killing of the fisheri...

The spike in deaths that South Korea witnessed following the retreat from previous measures highlighted the importance of policy guidance. “Your bars (of the omicron death graph) would not have been that high, if everyone was tested early and got Paxlovid or therapeutics,” she said. “You can see the people of South Korea kept the spread extraordinarily contained a long time for nearly two years...

President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday addressed the National Assembly amid escalating partisan conflict that led to an unprecedented complete boycott by the main opposition party. Doubling down on defense In the address, Yoon stressed the need to strengthen deterrence against North Korea, saying that another nuclear weapons test by Pyongyang is imminent. “It is judged that North Korea has already...

South Korean lawyers said Thursday the human rights situation in North Korea under Kim Jong-un remains dire, and called for more action from the South Korean government. Speaking at a seminar hosted by the Korean Bar Association, Joo Sung-ha, who left North Korea in 2002, said attempts to flee the country have been more severely punished over the past five years there. “During the Kim Jong-il e...

A Seoul court summoned former chiefs of national defense and maritime police for questioning on Friday, after prosecutors filed for a warrant to arrest them in an investigation into North Korea’s killing of South Korean fisheries official Lee Dae-jun two years ago. Appearing at the Seoul central district court at around 9:40 a.m., Seo Wook, who was minister of national defense at the time, decli...

The International Vaccine Institute, which marked 25 years since its founding on Thursday, launched an advisory group of outside experts to complement its scientific advisory group and help advise on diplomatic matters. The IVI said the Global Advisory Group of Experts, will be chaired by Dr. Deborah Birx, who was formerly the US special representative for global health diplomacy and the White H...

The family of Lee Dae-jun, a South Korean fisheries official slain at sea two years ago, talked Thursday about meeting with Seoul’s new North Korea human rights envoy, Lee Shin-wha. Lee Rae-jin, the late official’s brother, said he and the family’s lawyer Kim Ki-yun spoke with the ambassador-at-large on North Korean human rights issues for about an hour on Wednesday. “She said that bickering am...

The COVID-19 pandemic has marked a turning point in the history of vaccine development, two top experts told The Korea Herald Biz Forum held in Seoul on Wednesday. Speaking at a special session titled “Technology for cure,” Moderna co-founder Robert Langer and International Vaccine Institute Director-General Dr. Jerome Kim shared their thoughts on how the global health crisis led to major advanc...

Human rights lawyers gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Seoul on Tuesday in a show of support for women in Iran. “We stand with the women of Iran who are courageously fighting against appalling repression, and urge the Iranian government to stop the violent crackdown of protesters and respect the freedom of women and girls,” the lawyers said in a joint statement. “Today we join people arou...