Lee Chul-sungDebate flared Friday over the National Police Agency’s Commissioner General Lee Chul-sung as he refused to resign and give way to an incoming successor under the new Moon Jae-in administration.“I do not yet intend to offer my resignation,” the police chief told reporters late Thursday, dismissing the burgeoning speculations that he would step down as did Prosecutor General Kim Soo-nam earlier in the day.The nation’s police chief is appointed for a two-year term but it has been conv

Hong Joon-pyo, the runner-up conservative candidate who lost to Moon Jae-in in the May 9 presidential election, will not bid for his party’s chairmanship, according to in-party officials.“Former South Gyeongsang Gov. Hong Joon-pyo will not go for the party chairmanship,” Rep. Chung Woo-taik, floor leader of the conservative Liberty Korea Party, said Thursday in a radio interview with MBC. Former South Gyeongsang Gov. Hong Joon-pyo (Yonhap)It wouldn’t make Hong look so good in the eye of the publ

President Moon Jae-in is expected to pick a celebrity law professor as new senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, the announcement likely to be made as early as within Thursday, according to local media reports.Cho Kuk, criminal law professor at Seoul National University’s Law School, was listed as top potential to assume the key post, which involves arranging the president‘s legal affairs and communicating with investigation bodies.Reputed not only for his academic status as SNU profe

President Moon Jae-in exchanged a phone call with US President Donald Trump late on Wednesday, marking his first official interaction with a foreign head of state since taking office as South Korea’s 19th president earlier the same day.Both state chiefs underlined the importance of their bilateral ties amid the recently escalating turbulence in the Korean Peninsula and in the surrounding states. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in (right) receives a call from US counterpart Donald Trump late Wed

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Thursday called on foreign envoys from the 15 member states of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to play an "active" role in coping with North Korea's evolving military threats.During a meeting with the diplomats stationed in Seoul, Hwang also stressed that last month's first ministerial-level UNSC meeting on Pyongyang's denuclearization underscored the "gravity and urgency" of the nuclear conundrum and the international community's

North Korea argued Saturday that South Korean navy warships have increasingly violated their disputed western sea border, heightening tension on the Korean Peninsula."The South Korean puppet navy warships' intrusion into the territorial waters of the DPRK side in the West Sea of Korea has recently been on explosive increase," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said in an English-language report monitored in Seoul. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Kor

The duty-free units of Lotte Group and Hotel Shilla Co. have won licenses for the new duty-free stores at the new Incheon airport terminal due to open later in the year, the customs authority said Saturday. Lotte Duty Free and Shilla Duty Free tendered their preliminary bids late last month for two sections of Incheon International Airport terminal (T2), slated to start operation in October, and they were shortlisted by the Incheon International Airport Corp. last week.  (Yonhap)Due to an amendm

South Korea's top presidential candidates denounced North Korea Saturday after the communist state launched a ballistic missile and apparently failed.The missile flew to a maximum altitude of 71 kilometers before exploding midair, according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, just 10 days ahead of the presidential election on May 9. South Korea's leading presidential candidates hold up cards with the Korean letters for "Let's vote." From left are Moon Jae-in, Sim Sang-jeung, Yoo Seong-min, Ahn

Samsung Electronics Co. regained the top status in the global smartphone market in the first quarter of the year, even before the release of its latest Galaxy S8, data showed Saturday.The South Korean tech giant sold about 7.9 million smartphones during the January-March period to account for a market share of 22.8 percent, the data compiled by industry tracker IDC showed. Its US archrival Apple Inc. came in second with a 14.9 percent share. (Yonhap)The latest figure marks a turnaround from the

South Korea's airports and expressways are experiencing extreme congestion Saturday, as many people take advantage of extended holidays from late April to early May to visit popular tourist destinations at home and abroad.Incheon International Airport, the gateway to Seoul, said that approximately 174,000 departure and arrival passengers, including 89,300 bound for foreign countries, are expected to use the airport on Saturday alone. (Yonhap)The Korea Expressway Corp. said that major expressways

South Korea's top diplomat warned the international community against rushing to resume talks with North Korea without confirming its intentions, his ministry said Saturday.Speaking at the UN Security Council's special meeting on North Korea in New York Friday (local time), Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se pointed out the communist nation is not interested in any dialogue on its own denuclearization.What it wants is to be recognized as a nuclear power for "disarmament talks," he said. South Korean

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump will spend his 100th day in office talking tough on trade in one of the states that delivered his unlikely win.The president is expected to sign an executive order Saturday that will direct his Commerce Department and the US Trade Representative to perform a comprehensive study of the nation's trade agreements to determine whether America is being treated fairly by its trading partners and the 164-nation World Trade Organization.It's one of two executive

Presidential candidates on Friday argued over Washington’s pressure on Seoul to pay for a US missile defense system to be stationed on the peninsula.The top five candidates sat in a televised debated hosted by the National Election Broadcasting Debate Commission, the last debate to be held prior to the election on May 9. The top five presidential candidates on Friday sit in the last televised debate hosted by the National Election Broadcasting Debate Commission. (From left) Moon Jae-in of the De

North Korea has urged the United Nations to draw attention to what it views as the danger of joint US-South Korea military drills, saying that they pose a threat to global peace and security, its state media said Thursday.Ja Song-nam, the North Korean representative to the UN, made the appeal in a letter he sent to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). South Korea and the US kicked off the two-month Foal Eagle combat training exer

South Korea and Kuwait held a policy consultation meeting on Thursday to discuss cooperation in energy and other areas, the foreign ministry said.The meeting, the second of its kind, was held in Seoul between Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Jeong-kyu and his Kuwait counterpart Ali Suliman Al-Saied, according to the ministry.Lee assessed solid cooperation with Kuwait in the energy sector, while proposing to expand their tie-up into diverse areas including health, culture and education.The Kuwaiti off

Responding to the Constitutional Court’s decision to remove Park Geun-hye from power, 86 percent of people here approve of the decision, a local poll showed Friday.According to a survey conducted jointly by Realmeter upon the request of the daily Maeil Business and broadcaster MBN, 86 percent of 1,008 respondents said that the court’s decision was “right” while 12 percent viewed it as “wrong.”The nation’s top court made an unanimous decision by all of its eight justices that the suspended presid

The Malaysian police verified Friday the identity of the North Korean killed in the country last month as Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, officially confirming his assassination, Malaysian news reports said.Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said every possible action has been taken to verify his identity as he confirmed the victim as Kim Jong-nam, Malaysian news outlets including the Star reported. Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar (Yonhap)The polic

Cheong Wa Dae will push to start the construction of new office buildings for all 80 public corporations within the year, officials said Sunday.The move is meant to spur sluggish local development by moving Seoul-based public organizations to provinces. “Though the construction schedule of the office buildings has so far been delayed due to the merger of some organizations and doldrums in real est

The ruling Grand National Party, in response to the debate over university tuition cuts, has decided to offer the benefits to those who score an average grade of B or higher, officials said Sunday.It also pledged to reduce the university entrance quota from 2015 by filtering out underperforming schools.“Our plan is to offer financial support to tuition-burdened students, depending on their economi