Chinese President Xi Jinping will seek to persuade South Korea to not heavily invest in anti-China initiatives led by the US if he visits here, experts said Sunday, although his trip is unlikely to happen this year due to coronavirus concerns. Cheong Wa Dae said Saturday that the two countries agreed the Chinese leader will travel to Korea “at an early date” once the COVID-19 situation stabilizes. Beijing confirmed Seoul is a “priority” for Xi to visit, it added. Earli

South Korean doctors on Saturday refused to stop their strike over health reform bills, even after the government announced it would put on hold the most contentious part of the plan until after the current coronavirus crisis. In a public message Saturday, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo urged doctors to return to duty, saying the government is willing to discuss the contentious matter with the medical industry after the country contains a surge in virus cases in the greater capital region. Me

South Korean health authorities said Saturday that they will expand nationwide heightened social distancing rules currently in place for Seoul and the surrounding areas only. “We’re at a crossroads, in a very grave situation, for a nationwide coronavirus transmission. We’ll have to see to it if we fail to curb the spread now,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a briefing, adding the expansion would take effect Sunday. But the health minister said some municipalities w

South Korea’s daily tally of coronavirus cases rose again to 332, authorities said Saturday, surpassing 300 for the second consecutive day. The hike, recorded as of midnight Friday, brings the total tally to 17,002, of whom 14,169 have recovered, up 49 from the day before. It was the highest daily increase since March, when the country saw the deadliest cluster in the southeastern city of Daegu linked to church services there. Seoul and Gyeonggi Province again accounted for the majority

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the ruling Workers’ Party will convene a congress next year to unveil a new five-year economic plan, admitting, “unexpected challenges” this year have hampered economic growth, the Korean Central News Agency said Thursday. “To learn lessons from failed policies (from the last congress) and set a fresh strategy to power through hurdles ahead,” Kim said at the party’s plenary meeting on Wednesday, explaining its purpose

Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea from 2016-2018, was named chairman as well as president of the Korea Defense Veterans Association, the fraternity group comprising American and Korean servicemen said Wednesday. “KDVA has been essential in bringing together Americans and Koreans who care about the Alliance and how the Alliance supports both countries,” Gen. Brooks said. “My love for Korea and my appreciation for the Alliance are well-known, a

Several US bombers flew over waters between Korea and Japan on Monday in a show of force, it was revealed Wednesday. The US military’s deployment of four B-1B Lancers and two B-2 Spirit Stealth Bombers to the region came just a day before South Korea and the US kicked off their annual joint military drills Tuesday. Scheduled to run through Aug. 28 this year, the drills are held annually to deter North Korea’s aggression, but are now scaled down, without key US-based troops, due t

North Korea is estimated to have between 20 and 60 nuclear bombs, as well as the capacity to produce six new ones every year, the US Army said in its latest report, adding that the communist country pursues its nuclear weapons program to prevent a forcible regime change from outside. “External powers intervened in Libya when the domestic revolts began in 2011. The Kim family does not want something similar to happen in North Korea,” said the report, titled “North Korean Tacti

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un described his friendship with US President Donald Trump as something out of a “fantasy film” in one of 25 letters they exchanged, American publisher Simon & Schuster said Wednesday, adding that the letters will be disclosed in an upcoming book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward. The book titled “Rage,” due out next month, will reveal details of the Trump-Kim letters that have never been made public before, and offer insights into the T

North Korean leader Kim Jon-un said Thursday his country will make efforts to rebuild homes and rice fields damaged by the recent downpours but would do so on its own, without outside help due to COVID-19. “In the wake of the worsening coronavirus pandemic, outside help in carrying out those recovery efforts is not an option and stronger border lockdown is demanded,” Kim was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Korean Central News Agency. “It is imperative that we fu

About six out of ten North Koreans or the country’s 15.3 million population are estimated to suffer undernutrition this year, as the poor economy has been ravaged by the coronavirus, the US Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service said in its latest report on food security worldwide. Last year, 14.6 million North Koreans, 57 percent of the total, did not have enough food. The food crisis there showed no immediate signs of abating, as 45 percent of the population was f

A British man is facing prosecution in Korea for illegally filming sexual footage of Korean women and selling it online, local authorities said Wednesday. According to police, the man is accused of secretly filming at least 10 women he approached while visiting downtown Seoul for 10 days in early August 2018, and of selling the footage to paid members on his website for $27. He is also alleged to have sexually assaulted some of the women after taking them home. Police launched an investigati

Starting Aug. 21, all US military personnel will be required to undergo coronavirus testing before departing for South Korea, a US military newspaper reported Friday. Under the toughened rules, all US soldiers entering Korea will be quarantined for four weeks and must take two virus tests. They must be in a two-week quarantine before departure and again upon arrival here. They will be tested again before their isolated period here ends. The same rules apply to any family members traveling wit

The Unification Ministry looks set to approve an inter-Korean barter trade of South Korea’s sugar for North Korea’s liquor and food products. Before taking office late last month, then Unification Minister nominee Lee In-young said small-scale barter exchanges could pave the way for a resumption of stalled inter-Korean exchanges, as they bypass UN sanctions banning cash transfers. A South Korean farmers’ cooperative in June sealed a deal with five North Korean trading firms,

The Defense Ministry said Monday it plans to roll out enhanced submarines in the next five years that will be capable of carrying more ballistic missiles, as part of a long-term initiative to beef up South Korea’s military capabilities. It also plans to develop its own interceptor system like Israel’s Iron Dome to defend the country’s core infrastructure in the capital area against North Korea’s long-range artillery threats. “We have in mind 3,600- and 4,000-ton

North Korea is gearing up for another deluge of torrential rain this week, with its houses and rice fields already severely flooded, in another blow to the regime grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and a flailing economy under international sanctions. “Heavy rain is expected through Sunday and Monday, with mid-level flood warnings issued for the Hwanghae provinces, Kaesong City and Kangwon Province,” the official Korea Central News Agency said Saturday, just a day after reporting

Wang Jung-hong, a state auditor for 29 years, was appointed chief of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration in August 2018, amid hope for fairness, openness and greater accountability in arms procurement deals for the South Korean military, ranked the world’s sixth powerful.   Wang’s mission as the chief weapons buyer for the armed forces, however, went far beyond that. As the country looked to spend more money on buying locally built weapons, he forged a team, includi

The 24-year-old North Korean defector who recently returned to the North was detected multiple times by the South Korean military before reaching his destination, an internal investigation revealed Friday. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the defector, identified only by the surname Kim, took a cab to Ganghwado, an island west of Incheon bordering the North, crawled through a drainpipe and cut through rusty barbed-wire fences. It took Kim about two hours to complete the journey,

An expanded test site for drone pilot certification is expected to be built in Gimcheon, a city in North Gyeongsang Province, by 2023, a city official said Thursday. Ten other such sites are already in place, but the Gimcheon test ground will be the first to have a drone runaway and other facilities that will for the first time help test applicants’ ability to pilot drones under bad weather or other extreme conditions. The expansion is in response to a hike in the number of drone pilot h

With a major hurdle lifted on rocket propellants, South Korea is set to double up its efforts to build a foothold in space, eyeing, above anything else, the country’s first ship to land on the moon and its first spy satellite, experts said Wednesday.  President Moon Jae-in, addressing the revision in a Korea-US missile pact announced the previous day, signaled a push to secure “complete missile sovereignty,” while expressing hopes to see industries affected by the latest