North Korean soldiers working in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas briefly crossed into the South again Tuesday before returning to their side after the South fired warning shots, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. It marked the North's second border violation in less than two weeks after a similar incident on June 9. Around 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers carrying work tools crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) within the DMZ in the central section of the border at

South Korea, the United States, and Japan plan to hold a trilateral industry ministerial meeting in Washington next week, a government official said Tuesday, with possible agenda items including ways to maintain a stable supply chain and address China's trade policies. The meeting, scheduled to be held on Wednesday, comes as the three countries' leaders agreed to hold industrial ministerial meetings regularly during a summit at Camp David in Maryland in August. "A meeting among In

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said Tuesday the government ordered community doctors who joined a one-day walkout to return to work, warning that they would face legal punishment unless they comply with the order. The order came as about 4 percent of the nation's 36,371 community hospitals, excluding dental and Oriental medicine clinics, have been expected to take a day off in protest of the government's medical reform. The one-day walkout took place a day after about 55 percent of medi

South Korean stocks opened sharply higher Tuesday following overnight gains on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 25.01 points, or 0.91 percent, to 2,769.11 in the first 15 minutes of trading. In the United States, Wall Street's main indices finished bullish, led by tech shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.49 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.95 percent. In Seoul, large caps led the strong opening. Samsung Electronics added

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea this week, Pyongyang's state media reported Monday, amid deepening military cooperation with North Korea following his summit with the North's leader Kim Jong-un in September. Putin will "pay a state visit" to North Korea for a two-day trip starting Tuesday at the invitation of the North's leader Kim, the Korean Central News Agency said in a one-sentence dispatch. The Kremlin also confirmed Putin's North Korean

A civic group filed a complaint Monday against the chief of the state anti-corruption watchdog on charges of dereliction of duty after the agency dropped an inquiry into a luxury bag scandal involving first lady Kim Keon Hee. Last week, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission closed its inquiry into the allegations that Kim accepted a luxury handbag as a gift in 2022, citing the absence of rules on punishing a public official's spouse under the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. T

Seoul shares ended lower Monday to snap a four-session winning streak, amid speculations over a possible delay in long-awaited interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 14.32 points, or 0.52 percent, to close at 2,744.10. Trade volume was moderate at 545 million shares worth 12.2 trillion won ($8.8 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 522 to 359. Individuals bought a net 313 billion won wort

The industry ministry and the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. plan to hold a meeting with experts this week to discuss strategies for developing potential oil and gas reserves off the East Sea, industry sources said Monday. The meeting scheduled for Friday comes as the government and KNOC plan to choose the site for the first drilling operation in July, under the project that could potentially uncover between 3.5 billion and 14 billion barrels of gas and oil in the East Sea, according to the

The finance ministry said Monday it will ease regulations on real estate investment trusts as part of efforts to help normalize the real estate project financing sector. The government will create "project REITs" after drastically lifting regulations so as to allow a greater number of small investors to join the projects and will expand REIT investment targets to health care, data centers and other promising fields, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. REITs are a type of

Prosecutors have begun an investigation into allegations that former President Moon Jae-in's wife, Kim Jung-sook, spent a large sum of taxpayer money to fund her solo trip to India in 2018, prosecution officials said Monday. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office plans to call in Lee Jong-bae, a Seoul city councilor affiliated with the ruling People Power Party, as an accuser on Wednesday, as he filed a complaint against Kim last December. The councilor accused the former first lady

A Korean American pastor at the center of a luxury bag scandal involving first lady Kim Keon Hee has been under a police investigation on charges of defaming a ruling party lawmaker and engaging in illegal electioneering ahead of April's general elections, officials said Monday. The pastor, named Choi Jae-young, has been booked for investigation for allegedly defaming Rep. Lee Chul-gyu of the ruling People Power Party by mentioning Lee and the first lady together during a lecture in March,

Seoul shares opened lower Monday, after a mixed close on Wall Street, as investors remain concerned over a possible delay in long-awaited interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 6.15 points, or 0.22 percent, to 2,752.27 in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 percent to 38,589.16 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1 percent to 17,688.88. The Fed has recently pared back projections for rate cu

South Korea expressed its commitment to continuing aid to war-torn Ukraine at an international peace summit in Switzerland last weekend, the Office for Government Policy Coordination said. Government Policy Coordination Minister Bang Ki-seon attended the Summit on Peace in Ukraine in Burgenstock, Switzerland, on Saturday and Sunday, as South Korea's chief representative, according to his office. Bang told a meeting Sunday that as a global pivotal state, South Korea has continued to express

The ruling People Power Party and government officials on Sunday agreed to provide energy vouchers to 1.3 million vulnerable households as the country braces for a hotter-than-average summer. The support scheme was announced during a meeting of senior officials of the government, the presidential office and the ruling party, according to Rep. Jang Dong-hyuk, the party's chief spokesperson. The decision to provide support of up to 53,000 won ($38), up 10,000 won from last year, comes as Sout

A memorial altar set up for victims of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush was moved to a new site Sunday from its original location outside Seoul City Hall. The altar, which commemorates the 159 people killed in a crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood during Halloween weekend in 2022, was relocated to Burim Building near Seoul Plaza after operating on the plaza for 16 months. The relocation agreement was reached between families of the victims and the Seoul metropolitan government following

South Korea's exports of information and communication technology products soared more than 30 percent for the second consecutive month in May on robust global demand, data showed Sunday. Outbound shipments of ICT products came to $19.05 billion last month, up 31.8 percent from $14.45 billion a year earlier, logging the seventh straight month of increase, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT. The country's ICT imports increased 2.4 percent on-year to $11.48 bil

Household loans extended by five major lenders in South Korea have risen more than 2.1 trillion won ($1.5 billion) so far this month, industry data showed Sunday. Outstanding household loans extended by the five top lenders reached 705.4 trillion won as of June 13, compared with 703.2 trillion won at the end of last month, according to the data compiled by Yonhap News Agency. The monthly tally is expected to grow for the third consecutive month in June, following an on-month increase of 5.2 tril

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Saturday said the two Koreas should sit together and communicate to ease the escalating tensions over Pyongyang's trash-carrying balloon campaign and Seoul's response. On social media, Lee said the peace built up on the Korean Peninsula is at risk as the two Koreas have been engaged in tit-for-tat measures. Referring to the North's sending of balloons carrying trash across the border, South Korean civic group's sending of anti-Pyongyang leaf

North Korea's military has been carrying out unexplained construction activities inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, according to a military source Saturday. "Recently, the North Korean military has been erecting walls, digging the ground and constructing roads in some areas between the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and the Northern Limit Line in the DMZ," the source said. The source added it was unclear whether these activities indicate an intention t

South Korea's top envoy to the UN on Friday criticized as "bizarre" and "deplorable" North Korea's claim that its sending of trash-filled balloons to the South was an exercise of freedom of expression. Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook made the remarks during a UN Security Council meeting as the North has sent waste-loaded balloons to the South in a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists' sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border. In a sarcastic state