In the early stage of the pandemic, government COVID-19 briefings were a daily affair. Kim, who was then the vice health minister, was the face and voice that delivered day-to-day developments to Koreans. When experts were still grappling with unknowns and public anxiety ran high, he was the communicator in the fast-evolving situation. Unlike other high-level health officials who were more reser...

Small island countries were on the front lines of climate change but the clock is now ticking for the developed world, former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, said at the H.eco Forum in Seoul on Thursday. “Hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern US in 2005, at a time when many parts of the country were still in denial of climate change,” Tong said. “The scale of destruction caused by that hurri...

The family of Lee Dae-jun, the man killed by North Korean soldiers at sea about a year and a half ago, filed for the release of information now archived as presidential records on Wednesday. “The court sided with the family last November, and ordered Cheong Wa Dae to release the information on the case,” the attorney representing the family, Kim Ki-yun, told reporters outside the Presidential Ar...

“尹 정부 성공에 필요한 사람은 나” “한·미 정상회담, 중국과 긴장 유발” 남북관계 풀 별도 채널 가동 언급도 박지현에 “이준석처럼 성숙해질 것” [코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 더불어민주당 서울시장 후보로 나선 송영길 민주당 전 대표는 24일 코리아헤럴드와 인터뷰에서 이번 6·1 지방선거는 ‘심판이 아니라 해결사’를 선택하는 선거가 돼야 한다고 강조했다. 그는 자신이 서울시장이 되면, 남북 간 별도 채널을 만들어 정부의 대북 정책에 기여할 수도 있다고 내세우며, 코로나19 재유행에 대비해 의료진 번아웃 문제도 해결하겠다고 밝혔다. 또한 윤석열 정부와 협력할 것은 협력하되, 대통령 집무실의 용산 이전 등 시민에게 불편을 끼칠 수 있는 사안에 대해서는 적극적으로 견제하겠다고 했다. 민주당의 ‘20대...

In the aftermath of a divisive race that put a conservative back into presidency, the Democratic Party of Korea’s candidate for mayor of Seoul, Song Young-gil, said he would serve as “a voice for the other half.” On June 1, Koreans head to polls for elections to pick municipal heads and fill vacant parliament seats. “0.73 percent. That’s how thin the margin was,” he said as he sat down for an in...

The national health protection agency on Tuesday advised against visiting destinations with known monkeypox cases, just as travel restrictions over COVID-19 are slowly fading. Lee Sang-won, heading the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s epidemiological analysis division, said at a news briefing that while traveling carries risks, bringing back mandatory quarantines for all passengers ...

When President Yoon Suk-yeol was questioned Saturday about his male-dominated Cabinet, he said that women lacked opportunities to rise to top government posts, and promised more opportunities for women. While his comments were generic and often repeated by many before him, they appear out of line with his earlier statements on the matter –- that his nominations were made based strictly on merit....

If the pace of omicron spread keeps up in North Korea, nearly the entire population could end up becoming infected, experts in South Korea say. North Korea’s cumulative number of “fever” cases stands at 2,251,610 as of 6 p.m. Thursday, according to Workers’ Party of Korea newspaper Rodong Sinmun -- which means roughly 8 percent of its 26 million population have likely been infected. The true fi...

South Korea said Friday the seven-day isolation requirement for people with COVID-19 will remain in place for the next four weeks, until June 20. Expiring on Sunday is the four-week “probation period” for downgrading COVID-19’s threat status. Last month, the Moon Jae-in administration changed the classification of COVID-19 so that it would no longer be considered an infectious disease with the “...

Unconventional remedies North Korean authorities are promoting unproven approaches for people to treat themselves at home. Willow tea leaf, honey and other home remedies were advertised by the state media outlets as ways to soothe symptoms. Paracetamol, ibuprofen, injections of penicillin were recommended as treatments for people with fever. “Fever reducers and antibiotics like penicillin cann...

Patients in South Korea may soon lose government coverage for medical bills, with the “trial period” for a Moon Jae-in-era change in COVID-19’s legal status due to expire at the end of this week. On April 25, the Moon administration downgraded COVID-19’s level of public health hazard within Korea’s classification of infectious diseases, thereby removing the legal framework for the government to ...

The ongoing wave of omicron infections in North Korea could cause tens of thousands of deaths in the unvaccinated country, according to Dr. Oh Myoung-don, who heads the National Medical Center’s committee for clinical management of emerging infectious diseases. Speaking at a virtual forum organized by Seoul National University’s Institute for Health and Unification Studies on Monday, Oh estimate...

GWACHEON, Gyeonggi Province -- The chief of the state agency dedicated to investigating political elites and high-level bureaucrats denied targeting journalists in a phone spying scandal that surfaced in December last year. Kim Jin-wook, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, said in a press conference Monday that the controversial surveillance occurred “in the p...

After holding down the fort for over two years, North Korea finally let COVID-19 slip through the cracks in its tightly sealed doors. Just days since the first cases were announced, North Korea’s total number of related deaths rose to 42, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Sunday. The count of people with fever accumulated since late April reached 820,620, which is about 3 ...

At Yoon admin’s 1st COVID-19 meeting, second thoughts about lifting isolation order At the first COVID-19 meeting after Yoon Suk-yeol administration was inaugurated, senior health officials said the preceding administration’s promise of scrapping isolation orders were being reconsidered. The meeting was led by Yoon’s first Vice Health Minister Lee Ki-il, appointed to the post Tuesday, as Health...