WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday he will be able to solve "most of the problems" related to North Korea and Iran through "phone calls" and possibly in-person talks, as he commented on Pyongyang's rare disclosure of a nuclear facility and Tehran's supply of missiles to Russia. Trump highlighted his foreign policy chops during a press conference as various polls have shown the former president and his Democratic rival, Kamala

WASHINGTON -- The "only viable path" toward lasting peace is through the "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a State Department spokesperson said Friday, after North Korea made a rare disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility this week. The spokesperson made the remarks, renewing calls for Pyongyang to return to "constructive" dialogue and reaffirming America's "ironclad" security commitment to South Korea and Japan. The North'

President Yoon Suk Yeol visited hospitals in Seoul on Friday to encourage medical staff and reaffirm the government's commitment to carry out health care reform measures to enhance essential medical services. The visit to two public emergency hospitals, the Seoul Medical Center and National Medical Center, came a day before the five-day Chuseok holiday to address concerns about potential disruptions in medical services amid a prolonged walkout by trainee doctors. It marks his second hospita

North Korea made an unprecedented media disclosure of its uranium enrichment facility on Friday, with its leader Kim Jong-un inspecting rows of centrifuges in a clear display of the reclusive regime's nuclear ambitions. According to North Korea's state media outlets, Kim had inspected a control room of a uranium enrichment facility, and expressed satisfaction, after he was briefed about the technology North Korea had developed for the facility's centrifugal separators, sensors and controllers. T

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating fell to 20 percent, marking its lowest level since he took office in May 2022, a poll showed Friday. The survey, conducted by the polling agency Gallup Korea, showed that the positive assessment of Yoon's performance plunged 3 percentage points from the previous week, while his negative assessment reached an all-time high of 70 percent, up 3 percent from a week earlier. Yoon's handling of medical school quotas, the economy, and lack of com

A high-ranking official at the Presidential Security Service has been arrested on charges of illegally taking personal profits while supervising the relocation of the presidential office, sources said Friday. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office arrested a presidential security official, identified by his surname Jeong, and a construction broker, surnamed Kim, after obtaining arrest warrants the previous day, the legal sources said. In October last year, the Board of Audit and Inspectio

The Seoul Central District Court on Thursday overturned the lower court's ruling on a man surnamed Son, who in 2023 was acquitted of charges of providing scammers linked to a 63.6 billion won ($47.4 million) investment fraud in the early 2010s with a trust account, allowing them to manage assets on behalf of himself or the trust's beneficiary. The case has been drawing public attention as President Yoon Suk Yeol's opponents claim that first lady Kim Keon Hee was also suspected to

President Yoon Suk Yeol will visit the Czech Republic Thursday next week to forge the so-called "nuclear energy alliance," the presidential office said Thursday. The official visit comes ahead of next year's signing of South Korean firms' nuclear power plant construction bid valued at around 24 trillion won ($17.9 billion). It is the first visit by a South Korean leader to Central Europe's manufacturing powerhouse in nine years. Yoon will "convey the strong willingn

The first-ever memorial ceremony for laborers in the Sado mines, a site associated with the forced labor of Koreans during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, will be held by the end of the year, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said Wednesday. "The ceremony at the Sado mines will be held by the end of the year," Cho said during a parliamentary session held by the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. "We are currently negotiating

President Yoon Suk Yeol touted South Korea as an international hub for cybersecurity drill exercises, while attending the inaugural Cyber Summit Korea 2024 in Seoul on Wednesday. Yoon said in his congratulatory speech at the event held at Coex in Gangnam, southern Seoul, that South Korea's long exposure to constant cyberspace attacks by "hostile actors" including North Korea has allowed the country to hone its defense capabilities and cybersecurity system. "Totalitarian sta

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday laid out a plan to raise physicians' fees temporarily during the next two weeks, as the crisis in short-staffed emergency rooms in South Korean hospitals is expected to deepen during the Chuseok holiday in mid-September. Yoon said in a Cabinet meeting that fees for emergency room doctors -- supported by the nation's universal single-payer health care system -- will be temporarily raised 3.5 times what they currently are during the period. The hikes wi

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday the government will temporarily raise health insurance payments to hospitals for the upcoming Chuseok holiday to better reward their services and to prevent disruptions in emergency medical care. During a Cabinet meeting, Yoon addressed concerns over possible disruptions to the medical system during the extended holiday, which starts later this week, as a majority of junior doctors have stayed away from the job since February in protest of a sharp hike in the

The head of the financial watchdog on Tuesday called for banks to curb a continuing rise in household lending. Lee Bok-hyun, chief of the Financial Supervisory Service, made the call in a meeting with the heads of 18 banks. "Should we fail to keep household debts at a proper level in the future, it may lead to increased economic burden by expanding market volatility and working as an obstacle to economic growth," Lee told the meeting. Tuesday's meeting follows reports that househo

First lady Kim Keon Hee is unlikely to be indicted for alleged antigraft rule violations, as the final legal procedure concerning her acceptance of luxury gifts totaling over 5 million won ($3,730), including a Christian Dior bag, has been cleared. Outgoing Prosecutor General Lee One-seok told reporters on Monday on his way to his office in Seocho-gu in southern Seoul that he "respects" the recommendation Friday by a 15-member independent review panel of the Supreme Prosecutors' O

President Yoon Suk Yeol tapped former Deputy Police Commissioner Park Jong-joon as the new head of the Presidential Security Service in charge of the security and protection of the South Korean leader, the presidential office announced Monday. Effective Monday, the 59-year-old Park replaced Kim Yong-hyun, who was appointed minister of national defense on Friday to succeed Yoon's new national security adviser Shin Won-sik. Park told reporters Monday that he recognized the safety of a country

The main opposition party slammed President Yoon Suk Yeol of "flattering" his Japanese counterpart, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, accusing him of making consecutive concessions to Tokyo without securing a formal apology or compensation for its historical grievances. A day after the Japanese prime minister left Seoul, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Sunday pledged to revise rules to stop comfort women statues at home and abroad from being defaced or meddled with, withou

South Korea's rival political parties on Friday united in a rare display of bipartisan cooperation to form a four-party consultative body with the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the medical community, aiming to jump-start negotiations over the medical school enrollment hike, which have been at the root of health care disruptions since February. People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon proposed the formation of a four-way consultative body, bringing together the Yoon government, ruling and o

A panel under South Korea's top prosecutors office on Friday has advised not to indict first lady Kim Keon Hee over allegations that she broke the country's antigraft law by accepting a luxury Christian Dior handbag worth 3 million won ($2,248) from a Korean American pastor in 2022. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Investigation Review Committee, consisting of 15 outside experts, held the meeting from 2 p.m. to 7:10 p.m. to deliberate whether she is guilty of six different

President Yoon Suk Yeol approved the appointment of Kim Yong-hyun, former head of the Presidential Security Service, as defense minister and presented a certificate of appointment on Friday, his office said. Kim, a retired three-star Army general and close aide to Yoon, was nominated to the post last month to replace then minister Shin Won-sik, who has since served as national security adviser. Following Yoon's election in May 2022, Kim led efforts to relocate the presidential office from C

A lawmaker with the ruling People Power Party came under fire Thursday for suspicions he solicited favors from a hospital amid disruptions in health care services nationwide. At the plenary meeting of the National Assembly, Rep. Yohan Ihn was photographed by a press camera texting “thanks” on his cellphone to an unidentified recipient who appeared to be telling him about a patient that he knows. In the messages, as captured in the photograph, the person on the other side of the conve