South Korea and the US are still discussing the joint military exercises set for later this month, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday, amid growing speculation they could skip the drills to make room for South and North Korea to rebuild strained ties. On Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, issued a statement warning Seoul against the exercises, a week after the two Koreas reopened communications lines. A year ago, Pyongyang cut them and demolished

South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong will attend a series of virtual talks led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this week, with all eyes on whether North Korea will attend one of the meetings. 　 Chung plans to take part in four virtual meetings from Tuesday through Friday, including the South Korea-ASEAN meeting, the ASEAN Plus Three meeting that also involves China and Japan, the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Forum, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy to shed an annual 1.1% or $7 billion in exports if carbon border tariff imposed, central bank says

Police in the coming days will summon the head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions as they investigate the umbrella labor group’s rally last month for violating COVID-19 rules. Yang Kyung-soo, head of the KCTU, is scheduled to appear at Seoul Jongno Police Station by 2 p.m. on Wednesday for questioning, according to police on Monday. The timing of the meeting was reportedly at the request of Yang. Police asked Yang to appear for the investigation three times last month, but Yang

Seoul’s Unification Ministry has resumed approving requests from civilian organizations to allow them to ship materials to North Korea by endorsing two such applications Friday. The shipment of materials by civilian groups to the communist state was banned in September following the North’s killing of a South Korean fisheries official near the inter-Korean maritime border in the West Sea. The measure to lift the ban came just three days after cross-border communication lines were re

The statement to the nation announced by Deputy Prime Minster for Economic Affairs Hong Nam-ki Wednesday had no new measures to speak of to curb soaring housing prices. To sum up, housing supply is sufficient but popular expectation for housing prices to keep soaring, speculative demand and illegal transactions have instigated price hikes. So the government is going to keep suppressing those market-disrupting factors. Hong said that not only the government but also all of the people should ma