South Korea has allowed a major aid group to visit North Korea this week to discuss ways to expand humanitarian aid to the impoverished country, the organization said Tuesday. The unification ministry gave the green light to the Seoul-based Korean Sharing Movement for 14 of its officials to visit North Korea for four days starting Wednesday, it said. They plan to meet with North Korean official...

A coalition of progressive civic groups plans to hold a major demonstration on Saturday over what they called the Moon Jae-in administration's anti-labor policies and failure to bring justice to corrupt elites. The organizer said Tuesday that about 45,000 protesters will join the largest anti-government rally since Moon's inauguration in May 2017, which will be held in front of the National Asse...

South Korea's overseas aid agency plans to place more emphasis on Asia for its future projects, in line with the government's regional strategy as highlighted by the New Southern Policy, the head of the organization said Tuesday. Lee Mi-kyung, president of the Korea International Cooperation Agency, pointed out that what's most important is to find effective official development assistance progr...

South Korea voiced strong regret Tuesday about the Japanese foreign minister's reported comments on soured bilateral relations in another sign of a deepening rift over history issues. South Korea's top diplomat, Kang Kyung-wha, earlier said she's considering a visit to Japan, although no schedule has been set, in a bid to mend fences. Her counterpart, Taro Kono, however, said in a meeting with ...

South Korea's Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said Tuesday that its alliance with the United States will serve to buttress ongoing efforts to denuclearize North Korea and build a lasting peace regime on the divided peninsula. Speaking at a forum on the two countries' security partnership, Jeong also said that the envisioned transfer of wartime operational control will offer an opportunity for ...

The government has put together a five-year blueprint for improving relations with North Korea and will report it to the National Assembly later this week, unification ministry officials said Tuesday. The Third Basic Plan for Developing Inter-Korean Relations lays out the objectives and directions of the government's policy on inter-Korean relations for 2018-2022. It will replace the second basi...

South Korean baseball club Samsung Lions on Tuesday announced their acquisition of former big league pitcher Justin Haley. The Korea Baseball Organization team said Haley has agreed to a one-year deal worth US$550,000. He got a $100,000 signing bonus and can make an additional $250,000 in incentives. Starting this offseason, the KBO put in a salary cap of $1 million on first-year foreign player...

JEJU -- A group of 46 Yemenis staying on the southern island of Jeju have appealed the government's recent decision to deny them refugee status, officials said Tuesday. A total of 481 Yemenis have applied for asylum after arriving on Jeju early this year. The immigration office here has so far granted 362 people one-year humanitarian stay permits and rejected 34 applications, granting no permits...

South Korea's retail-to-chemical conglomerate, Lotte Group, will sell its two financial units, the group's holding company said Tuesday, in a move that speeds up its transition into a holding company structure. Lotte Corp., the group's holding firm, said it has decided to sell the two financial units -- Lotte Insurance Co. and Lotte Card Co. Under a South Korean law, an industrial holding compa...

The number of mobile phone subscribers at KT Corp., the nation's second-largest mobile carrier, fell after a fire at one of its building in western Seoul led to major Internet and phone disruptions around the area, data showed Tuesday. The fire broke out at the building in western Seoul on Saturday, paralyzing the fixed-line, mobile and Internet networks for individuals and businesses using KT i...

TOKYO -- North Korea's sports minister arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday to attend a meeting on the Olympics, local media reported. Kim Il-guk, who also serves as the president of the communist nation's Olympic Committee, plans to join the two-day session of the Association of National Olympic Committees to open in the Japanese capital on Wednesday. The Japanese government allowed him to enter the co...

South Korea is scheduled to launch its small satellite from an Air Force base in the United States later this week, Seoul's science ministry said Tuesday. The Ministry of Science and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology said the Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 3:32 a.m. (local time) on Thursday with the aim of putting the satellit...

South Korea's chief economic policymaker on Tuesday urged parliament to approve a record budget proposal for 2019, stressing that passing it is necessary to help resolve chronic problems, such as the low birthrate and dismal job conditions. The National Assembly's review of the government's 2019 budget proposal hit a snag as rival parties sparred over an estimated shortfall in tax revenue at a m...

Local governments of South Korea and China on Tuesday agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation to tackle the deteriorating air quality of the two countries. Mayors and governors of seven South Korean local governments -- Seoul, Daegu, Sejong, South Chungcheong Province, South Jeolla Province, North Gyeongsang Province and Jeju Province -- met with heads of 10 Chinese provinces and metropolitan cit...

Business sentiment in South Korea sank to a 22-month low for December amid flaccid domestic demand and worsening export conditions, a poll showed Tuesday. The business survey index of the nation's top 600 firms by sales came to 88.7 for next month, down from 90.4 in November and the lowest level since 87.7 in February 2017, according to the Korea Economic Research Institute. A reading below 100...