A fire erupted early Sunday morning at a Posco factory in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, and was brought under control within hours. Yet, a series of incidents, including multiple fires at Posco’s steel plant, has heightened anxiety among local residents this year. According to fire authorities, a fire erupted with multiple explosions at the Posco plant’s third Finex factory at around 4:20 a.m. Sunday. After initiating an emergency response at around 4:50 a.m., deploying 43 fire

Hopes for a decisive breakthrough in the monthslong medical stalemate are rising as the consultation body intended to join the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, rival parties and the medical circle for talks is set to launch Monday morning, a day after a major leadership change in the Korean Medical Association. The body's launch comes after ruling People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon proposed in September the formation of a four-way consultative body in an attempt to resolve the ongoing medi

Dongduk Women's University, one of South Korea’s seven remaining women’s colleges, is weighing a possible shift to coeducation, a move igniting opposition among students who warn it could erode the institution’s mission of championing women’s empowerment and diminish women’s representation in society. According to the student council Naran of Dongduk Women's University on Sunday, the university will soon initiate discussions on becoming a coeducational ins

Residents south of Seoul are watching their step as another deer incident has put local authorities on high alert, just days after attacks left two people injured. A deer was spotted late Saturday on a roadway in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, prompting an immediate response from fire officials. The emergency call came in around 11:55 p.m. from a resident fearing possible vehicle collisions with the animal, local authorities said. Two emergency vehicles carrying eight personnel responded to the scen

Government officials and renowned scholars from South Korea and member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations convened at an international conference to chart pathways for further developing cooperation, building on the October milestone that elevated Korea-ASEAN relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The International Conference on ASEAN-Korea Partnership 2024 was held Thursday under the theme "Towards a Sustainable and Resilient Future" at the Lotte Hotel i

Police said Sunday they have identified over 4,700 minors involved in online gambling activities over the past year. The National Police Agency said 4,715 individuals under the age of 19 were discovered during a special crackdown on illegal online gambling conducted from September 2023 to October this year. No arrests of minors have been made. The figure accounts for 47.2 percent of all age groups involved in the crackdown. Initially, police focused on targeting illegal gambling operators and ha

A fire broke at a Posco factory in the southeastern city of Pohang early Sunday, leaving one worker injured, fire authorities said. The fire started with multiple explosions at the steel company's third Finex furnace of the plant, located about 270 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at around 4:20 a.m. The blaze was initially contained by around 6:30 a.m. and completely extinguished at around 9:20 a.m. Witnesses reported hearing explosions that felt like an earthquake, and some said they felt the gr

The number of estimated drug users in South Korea has surged to over 400,000 this year, but several of the state-designated hospitals for drug addiction treatment have not treated a single patient this year. According to local DongA Ilbo newspaper, a Ministry of Health and Welfare report estimated that 400,530 people in South Korea are thought to have used illegal drugs this year. This figure is derived from the ministry's formula of multiplying by 30 the actual number of those investigated

Police have cracked down on an illegal gambling house disguised as a regular business office in Gangnam, southern Seoul, which reportedly wagered hundreds of billions of won in bets. Seoul Metropolitan Police’s International Crime Investigation Unit said Thursday that it has apprehended the 54-year-old ringleader, who allegedly ran gambling establishments across the Nonhyeon, Sinsa and Yeoksam neighborhoods from June 2023 to August 2024. The man has been charged with violating the Tourism

North Korea staged GPS jamming attacks for the second consecutive day Saturday, affecting several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft, South Korea's military said. The jamming attacks were conducted in the North's Haeju and Kaesong areas, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, warning vessels and civilian aircraft operating in the Yellow Sea to beware of the attacks. Military operations and equipment were not affected, according to the JCS. "North Korea should immediately halt the GPS provocatio

More than 3,700 North Koreans visited Russia during the third quarter this year for "study" purposes, marking the highest quarterly figure since 2010, a United States news outlet reported Saturday. US broadcaster Radio Free Asia said a total of 5,263 North Korean nationals visited Russia during the July-September period, citing data from Russia's Federal State Statistics Service. The number is comparable to the 5,591 recorded during the same period in 2019, after which it dropped

President Yoon Suk Yeol will convene an emergency economic and security meeting Sunday to discuss the possible impact of former US President Donald Trump's return to office, Yoon's office said Friday. The meeting will focus on monitoring potential policy shifts under the Trump administration and preparing proactive response measures, the office said. Ministers of economy, foreign affairs, defense and trade along with senior presidential aides will attend the meeting. A second Donald Tr

President Yoon Suk Yeol said a nuclear-based alliance between South Korea and the United States will immediately strike if North Korea attempts a nuclear attack against the South, according to an interview published Friday. Yoon made the remark during an interview with US magazine Newsweek to address growing concerns over North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats. "I believe that it would be irrational for them to decide to wage a nuclear attack against the Republic of Korea a

The presidential office said Friday cyber attacks by pro-Russian hacking groups against South Korea have increased following North Korea's troop deployment to Russia in support of its war in Ukraine. The National Security Council (NSC) held an emergency intra-agency meeting on Thursday after several government websites, including those of the defense ministry and courts, suffered distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks earlier this week. The NSC said the cyber attacks, mostly DDoS, by

Myeong Tae-kyun, the self-proclaimed power broker that many South Koreans had never heard of until two months ago, made a public appearance Friday as he arrived for questioning by prosecutors. He is the man driving the spiraling election drama surrounding the presidential couple and some of the most influential power players of the ruling People Power Party. The little-known man in mainstream Seoul circles apparently blew the whistle on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s wife Kim Keon Hee, claiming

First Lady Kim Keon Hee will not accompany President Yoon Suk Yeol on his planned state trips this month, a senior Yoon official told reporters Friday. The official said whether she would travel with the president in the future would be decided on a “case-by-case basis.” The decision follows the press conference by Yoon on Thursday where he said that the scope of his wife’s public role and appearances would depend on how South Koreans feel about it. “If the people like it

Democratic Party of Korea leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung on Friday praised US President-elect Donald Trump’s summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his first term as a “historic contribution to peace in the Korean Peninsula.” “The first Trump administration made a historic move of holding the first-ever summit with North Korea and contributed to peace in the Korean Peninsula,” he told a meeting of the party leadership. He said that as Trump won a seco

South Korean officials have confirmed the location of the sunken fishing boat off the coast of Jeju Island, but a tangled fishing net is making the search for the vessel difficult, Jeju Coast Guard said Friday. Officials from the Coast Guard held a briefing at 2 p.m. on the search and rescue operations for the crew of the 129-ton Geumseong which sank early Friday morning, leaving two of the 27 crew dead and 12 unaccounted for. Sixteen of the crew were Korean and 11 were of foreign nationality. U

South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld an eight-year prison term for a woman who killed her two newborn babies and hid their bodies in her refrigerator. The top court confirmed a lower court’s verdict that sentenced the mother, in her 30s, on charges of murder and concealing of a corpse on Oct. 8, according to media reports Friday. She was convicted of strangling a daughter and a son to death shortly after their birth in November 2018 and November 2019, respectively. Prosecutors said

South Korean prosecutors on Thursday requested an appellate court to hand a 25-year prison term to a 20-year-old over the death of a mentally disabled 18-year-old, who died after the accused pushed him into the sea for losing a game. Prosecutors want the defendant convicted of murder, after a lower court found him guilty only of a lesser offence. He pushed the victim into the sea in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, on Feb.1. The defendant lured the victim to the port by suggesting to go fishing,