After roughly a four-year struggle, South Korea and Japan are nearing a compromise on making amends to Koreans forced into labor by Japanese companies during World War II. The dispute -- which Seoul’s top court said in October 2018 was Tokyo’s fault -- strained bilateral ties as Japan refused to honor the ruling and pay damages to the victims. Tokyo claims a 1965 treaty that normalized relations ...

With the growing number of multicultural families in the country, the government plans to announce a multicultural family policy road map in March, which will set the direction of overall policies regarding immigrants and their children from 2023 to 2027. The five-year plan will be announced within March after consultations with related ministries and approval from the Multicultural Family Polic...

The South Korean foreign ministry said Monday that no Korean injuries or deaths have been reported from the deadly mass shooting in California that claimed 10 lives. "No Korean damage has been reported to the Korean Embassy or local Korean communities so far," the ministry said. "We will make constant efforts to keep close tabs on the incident in cooperation with the Los Angeles authorities." A...

Cold wave alerts will be issued for most parts of South Korea on Monday, the third day of the four-day Lunar New Year holiday, according to the nation’s weather agency. The Korea Meteorological Administration said the cold wave warning will take effect for Seoul as of 9 p.m. The cold wave warnings are issued when the daily low falls below minus 15 degrees Celsius for more than two consecutive da...

Traffic on major highways started to build up nationwide Monday morning, as millions of South Koreans started to return to Seoul on the third day of the four-day Lunar New Year holiday. This year's holiday, one of the country's largest, started Saturday, with the annual exodus of people from Seoul and its surrounding areas to their hometowns for Lunar New Year, which fell on Sunday. With the ex...

South Korea reported 9,227 new COVID-19 cases Monday, the lowest number in more than three months, health authorities said, amid a slowdown in infections and less testing over the Lunar New Year holiday. The new cases, including 60 from overseas, brought the total caseload to 30,008,756, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The nation, with a population of 51.6 million, ...

A South Korean court sided with the police agency's decision to punish a veteran police officer for verbally abusing a subordinate and having her run his personal errands, showed a court ruling Monday. Judges in the Seoul Administrative Court in December dismissed an officer's suit against the nation's chief of police to nullify a reprimand warning -- the lightest punishment on a six-tier scale ...

Vice Unification Minister Kim Ki-woong called on North Korea on Sunday to halt provocations and return to dialogue, saying Seoul stands by its offers for talks. Kim made the remark during a memorial service in Imjingak, Paju, just south of the inter-Korean border, held by people whose ancestors are in North Korea, to mark the Lunar New Year. "The North Korean authorities must immediately halt p...

Approximately 4.5 percent of the youth population in Seoul have been cut off from society, a recent report by the metropolitan government said Wednesday, with many of them citing difficulties in finding jobs and personal relationships as the main culprit. The report by the Seoul Metropolitan Government surveyed 5,513 people aged between 19 and 39 living in the city, and found that 4.5 percent of...

Just like people, pets also lose large amounts of blood from accidents, diseases and surgeries, and therefore require blood transfusions. But, there is currently not enough donated blood in South Korea. That’s why keen attention is being paid to a bill recently proposed at the National Assembly that aims to set up a control tower within the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ...

COVID-19 cases Sunday, the lowest number for a Sunday in 15 weeks, health authorities said, amid a slowdown in infections and less testing over the Lunar New Year holiday. The new cases, including 70 from overseas, brought the total caseload to 29,999,529, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The tally marked the lowest for any Sunday since Oct. 9, when the country repor...

Traffic on some highway sections slowed down Saturday as people hit the road to visit their hometowns or go on trips as the Lunar New Year holiday began. This year's extended Lunar New Year holiday runs from Saturday through Tuesday, with the nation celebrating its first such holiday without social distancing restrictions since the outbreak of COVID-19 three years ago. According to the Korea Ex...

One of the biggest traditions of the Korean Seollal holiday is sebae, or the act of bowing to your elders and wishing them a happy new year, after which older relatives share cash gifts. This long-held tradition has gone on in Korean households for generations. However, times are changing. The question of how much money it is appropriate to give or receive -- or whether anything should be given...

Seollal is one of Korea's two main holidays along with Chuseok. Both kick off a mass movement of people going to visit their hometowns. The race to return home involves people competing for bus, train and air tickets online, as well as at ticket booths. Just a few years ago, however, people lined up at train stations and bus terminals, with thousands queueing up for tickets. Some even camped ou...

President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee on Saturday offered Lunar New Year greetings to the people, renewing his commitment to vitalize people's livelihoods and take care of vulnerable people. In a video message, Yoon said the government "will take care of our needy neighbors more warmly and meticulously in the new year." Despite grim economic outlooks at home and abroad, Yoon said ...