South Korea's health authorities on Monday issued a nationwide warning against the spread of encephalitis, advising the public to pay attention to personal hygiene and to get vaccinated if necessary. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it confirmed more than 500 mosquitoes of the Culex tritaeniorhynchus species nationwide that act as a carrier for the disease.The virus of Japanese encephalitis can cause an acute inflammation of the brain in humans. The center cautioned that

A group of South Korean businessmen on Monday called on the government to further compensate their losses over the investments made in the now-halted inter-Korean tour program ahead of the eighth anniversary of the project's suspension.The local businessmen who poured money into the joint tour program at Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast should get financial compensation following Seoul's decision on July 12, 2008.The government took such a step after a North Korean soldier shot and killed

The recent decision by South Korea and the United States to deploy an advanced missile defense system on the peninsula is part of "self-defense" efforts against evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, Seoul's top diplomat said Monday.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se also said in his speech at the National Assembly that the country will take every possible measure in the face of the North's continued pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. "At a time when the North is upgrading its nu

Both the volume and face value of damaged banknotes found in the first half of the year dropped from six months earlier, the central bank said Monday.In the January-June period, the face value of damaged banknotes exchanged at local banks, including the Bank of Korea, came to 1.51 trillion won ($1.31 billion), down 8.8 percent from the second half of 2015, according to the BOK.They will still cost tens of billions of won to be replaced, one of the reasons for the central bank's ongoing feasibili

South Korea will resume the process of selling its majority stake in Woori Bank in the third quarter to help recover public funds after four failed attempts to privatize the state bank since 2010, people familiar with the matter said Monday. In a meeting held last week, the public funds management committee under the Financial Services Commission reconfirmed the government's stance to privatize Woori Bank and retrieve public money injected into the bank during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, a

South Korea has approved CHA University's embryonic stem cell research seven years after it submitted the plan, on condition that it abides by high ethical standards, the government said Monday. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it allowed the research team led by Prof. Lee Dong-ryul to use 600 egg cells in the next five years for the purpose of developing rare disease treatments. The ministry said the conditional approval requires the research team to abide by regulations on collection of

A U.N. panel monitoring the implementation of sanctions on North Korea will visit South Korea this week to discuss nuclear and missile threats from the communist country, government sources said Monday. The panel will be in the country from Monday until Friday and hold meetings with key policymakers on a wide range of issues related to the North, according to the sources familiar with diplomatic matters.It is tasked with monitoring implementation of sanctions imposed on the North by the U.N. to

 South Korea said Monday that it will strengthen punishment against illegal fishing by Chinese boats as part of the nationwide crackdown efforts on the issue during the busy crab season.Chinese fishing boats trespassing into Korean waters and sweeping fisheries have been an outstanding problem during the mid-year season, causing serious damage to the South Korean fishermen's operations around the northern sea border area, called Northern Limit Line, where the Chinese fishermen use hit-and-run ta

President Park Geun-hye on Monday mounted a strong defense of the recent decision by South Korea and the U.S. to station an advanced antimissile system here, stressing it won't undermine the security interests of any third-party countries.Park also underscored that the decision to station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea is a "purely defense measure" to cope with growing nuclear and missile threats from a provocative North Korea.After some five months of consultations,

Police on Monday said they concluded Park Yu-chun, the scandal-ridden member of K-pop boy band JYJ, is clear of sexual assault allegations, saying it is hard to acknowledge that there was coercion involved.The 30-year-old actor-singer has been mired in a scandal as four different women, all working at local bars, lodged complaints against him last month, claiming they were raped by him. One of the cases dates back to 2014, while the latest allegedly occurred in June."Based on what we have found

A 72-year-old women had her leg amputated after it was crushed under the wheels of a bus, Sunday, in a southeastern city of Daegu. The passenger was trying to retrieve her bag after it got caught between the automated doors when the bus departed. The women was immediately transported to hospital. This is a stock image. (123RF)The incident took place around 11:40 a.m. at a bus stop near Banyawol station, Dongho-dong, Dong-gu on Sunday. The police are questioning the bus driver for negligence. By

South Korea's government on Monday said it will ban sales and revoke certifications of dozens of Volkswagen models that are suspected to have passed the local authentication process with doctored reports. The Ministry of Environment said it has received an official request for cooperation from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office with a list of over 70 models of the German carmaker that are suspected of obtaining approval from the local authorities with faked reports on noise level, fu

Renault Samsung Motors Co., the local unit of French automaker Renault S.A., has boosted its sales in the first six months of this year by taking advantage of a consumption tax cut program.Renault Samsung said it sold a cumulative 46,916 units at home during the January-June period, up 25.9 percent from a year earlier.It marked the highest rate of sales growth among carmakers in South Korea.GM Korea Co., the local unit of U.S. carmaker General Motors Co., said its cumulative sales at home during

A growing number of salaried workers are making extra money from means other than their main jobs, subjecting them to higher state health insurance payments, statistics from health authorities showed Monday.According to the statistics, 39,143 workers were ordered to pay more insurance money in 2015 because of the income they gained from business operations, dividends, leases and other non-job sources, numbers provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Servic

South Korea's central bank is forecast to keep its key rate frozen in July, one month after sending it to a record low level to bolster growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy, a poll showed Monday.In a survey conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, all 12 economists polled predicted the Bank of Korea to assume a wait-and-see mode, partly to gauge the effect of its latest rate cut but also because of growing household debt."The central bank will likely wait to

People living in rural parts of the country have a higher stress level than those in cities, and the level rises as the size of the neighborhood becomes smaller, study results indicated Monday.The rate of obesity and illnesses were also higher in rural regions, according to the study published in the latest academic journal by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.The results are based on an analysis of 196,995 people who were surveyed in 2010. Obesity was measured according to the b

The parliament agrees with the government that the current income tax exemptions need to be overhauled to create a stronger tax base, a report said Monday.The report by the National Assembly's committee on budget and accounts assessing the 2015 fiscal year noted how the proportion of non-taxpayers was increasing from broadened exemptions over the past years. According to the report, 48 percent of income earners did not pay taxes in 2015, about the same as the previous year.The non-tax paying pop

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Monday reiterated the recent decision by South Korea and the United States to station an advanced antimissile system here is a "self-defense" measure to counter growing military threats from North Korea."The (planned) deployment of (the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense) is a self-defense step to safeguard the well-being of the country, the lives of the people and their properties," presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk told reporters.The statement is a

Former U.S. Forces Korea Commander Curtis Scaparrotti has expressed serious concern about North Korea's missile capabilities after the communist nation carried out the latest test of its submarine-launched ballistic missile."Kim Jong-un and his regime continues to test and work on their ballistic missile capability, and with every launch, they're getting better and they're working out their problems," Scaparrotti, now NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, told reporters at the NATO Summit i

North Korea is expected to conduct submarine-launched ballistic missile tests more frequently, but the communist nation still faces significant technical challenges and needs at least several more years to deliver an operational system, a U.S. expert said.The North conducted its latest SLBM test on Saturday, a day after the South and the U.S. announced a decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile defense system in South Korea to better defend against the North's nuclear a