A group of US lawmakers has submitted a bill urging the US government to work toward family reunions of Korean-Americans with their loved ones in North Korea. To that end, the bill, authored by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), also calls for the appointment of a special US envoy for North Korean human rights issues, a State Department position that has been vacant since January 2017. "Many Korean Americans with family members in North Korea have not seen or communicated with those family members i

South Korea and China agreed Tuesday to set up two more military hotlines to prevent incidents and enhance trust, Seoul's defense ministry said. The defense ministries of the two neighbors signed a revised memorandum of understanding on the establishment of direct communication lines between their air forces and navies, according to the ministry. Currently, Seoul and Beijing maintain three hotlines -- one between their defense ministries, and two between their air forces and navies. While the

A civic group and a lawyers' association on Tuesday raised allegations that employees at a state housing cooperation bought plots of land in two cities in Gyeonggi Province before the government announced a massive development plan there. At a press conference, the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Minbyun, an association of progressive lawyers, accused 14 employees at the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) of speculative land buying in Gwangmyeong and Shiheung. "T

More than 80 foreigners have tested positive for COVID-19 in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, officials said Tuesday. The local government has been testing all foreign nationals living in the city 40 kilometers north of the capital after neighboring cities, such as Yangju, reported increases in the number of foreigners infected with COVID-19. A total of 509 people got tested on Sunday, including foreign residents and locals, according to the authorities. The city currently has 3,966 foreign reside

South Korean stocks rebounded from last week's sharp plunge Tuesday to end 1 percent higher on eased inflation concerns, but they pared part of earlier gains in the face of profit-taking. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 30.92 points, or 1.03 percent, to close at 3,043.87 points after rising as high as to 3,096.50. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.7 billion shares worth around 18.5 trillion won ($16.5 billion), with g

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, affiliated with the ruling Democratic Party (DP), retained his solid lead in the latest poll of potential presidential candidates. According to the survey conducted on 2,536 voters nationwide from Feb. 22-26 by Realmater, the Gyeonggi governor was the most favored candidate for the upcoming 2022 presidential election, receiving 23.6 percent of support. The number marks an increase of 0.2 percentage point from the previous Realmeter survey a month ago and t

President Moon Jae-in has tapped a journalist as his new Cheong Wa Dae secretary for digital communication, his office announced Tuesday. Ko Joo-hee, currently in charge of digital strategy at the Seoul-based Hankook Ilbo daily, has been nominated to the post, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok. The president also picked Jun Hyo-gwan, secretary-general of Arts Council Korea, as secretary for culture, and Lee Ho-joon, chief of policy planning at the Ministry of Trade, Industry a

South Korea's telecommunications regulator said Tuesday it will appeal a recent court decision to temporarily lift a suspension order against local cable TV channel MBN over accounting fraud. Last month, the Seoul Administrative Court granted an injunction sought by MBN against the six-month suspension order from the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), citing possible "irreversible" damage against the company. The KCC issued the suspension last October after it found that MBN mani

SsangYong Motor Co. said Tuesday its sales plunged 61 percent last month from a year earlier on lower demand for its vehicles amid the COVID-19 pandemic. SsangYong Motor sold 2,789 vehicles in February, down from 7,141 units a year ago due to a sharp decline in domestic sales and exports, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales fell 48 percent to 2,673 units last month from 5,100 the previous year, and exports plummeted 94 percent to 116 from 2,041, it said. SsangYong Motor's lineup c

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors had just taken a 1-0 lead over FC Seoul in the 75th minute of their K League 1 season opener Saturday. Naturally, two minutes later, Jeonbuk's starting goalkeeper Song Bum-keun was replaced. So, what happened there? Jeonbuk head coach Kim Sang-sik sent in a 19-year-old goalkeeper Kim Jeong-hoon to tend the net for the final stretch. Fortunately for Jeonbuk, nothing disastrous happened in the teenager's K League debut, and Mo Barrow scored a late insurance goal to seal a

The military will overhaul an infantry division in charge of guarding the heavily fortified border separating South and North Korea, the defense ministry said Tuesday, following a series of security failures in the eastern region. Officials from the ministry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Army will soon visit the 22nd infantry division in the eastern border town of Goseong to assess the unit "from a perspective of reorganization and operation," according to the ministry. The divi

Foreign nationals employed by farms and fisheries will be eligible for health insurance upon arrival in the country, the labor ministry said Tuesday. The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced a set of measures aimed at improving working conditions of foreigners, jointly with the ministries of health, agriculture, and oceans and fisheries. The measures come after a foreign national was found dead inside a greenhouse used as makeshift housing in December. The revision allows foreign nation

South Korea said Tuesday it plans to expand its exports of fishery products by 30 percent through 2025 in line with its new vision to foster the industry as a new growth engine. Under the five-year blueprint, outbound shipments of fishery products are expected to each $3 billion in 2025, compared with $2.3 billion tallied last year, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The combined size of the local fishery industry is also expected to reach 13.8 trillion won ($12.3 billion) by t

South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. was the No. 2 supplier of electric vehicle (EV) batteries in the world in January after China's CATL, a market research firm said Tuesday. LG Energy Solution, which spun off from LG Chem Ltd. in December last year, shipped 2.5 gigawatt-hour (GWh) equivalents of EV batteries in January, up 50.6 percent from a year earlier, according to SNE Research. But its global market share shrank to 18.5 percent from 23.9 percent in the same month last ye

An Israeli law school professor, noted for his effort to rectify a Harvard professor's disputed paper on the 1923 massacre of Koreans in Japan, has said that he visited a statue symbolizing Korean victims of Tokyo's wartime sexual slavery earlier this week. In an email to Yonhap News Agency, Alon Harel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem attached a photo of himself posing next to the statue in Berlin on Sunday -- in what appears to be a show of his sympathy toward the victims of Japan's warti

The homegrown action comedy "Mission: Possible" thrived at the South Korean box office last month amid a monthlong drought of new releases, data showed Tuesday. Released on Feb. 17, the comedy film starring Lee Sun-bin and Kim Young-kwang garnered a total of 331,000 attendees in February alone, according to the data by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). It ranked third at the monthly box office, following the Disney-Pixar drama "Soul" with more than 1.8 million attendees and

Financially troubled carmaker SsangYong Motor Co. said Tuesday it has resumed the operation of its local plant after a weekslong suspension due to a glitch in its parts supply. SsangYong Motor halted its plant in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, for two days in December and 16 days last month as its subcontractors refused to supply parts due to outstanding payments. The SUV-focused carmaker filed for court receivership on Dec. 21 after it failed to obtain approval for the rollover of

이른바 '기성용(FC서울) 초등생 시절 성폭력 의혹' 사건 피해자 측이 '증거'를 일반에 공개하지 않기로 입장을 바꿨다. 이미 법적으로 강력하게 대응하겠다는 방침을 밝힌 기성용은 명예 회복을 위해서는 사건을 법정으로 가져갈 수밖에 없게 됐다. 사건 피해자를 자처하는 C씨와 D씨 측 대리인인 박지훈 변호사는 1일 밤늦게 보도자료를 내고 기성용이 조속하게 자신들을 상대로 민·형사 소송을 제기하기를 바란다는 입장을 밝혔다. 그러면서 "증거 자료는 기성용 선수 및 그의 변호사만 볼 수 있도록 수사기관 및 법원에 제출토록 하겠다"고 덧붙였다. '증거'를 공개하겠다는 선언을 이틀 만에 번복하고 여론재판이 아닌 법정에서 진실을 가리겠다는 뜻을 밝힌 셈이다. 박 변호사는 "증거자료에는 기성용 선수나 피해자들 이외에도 다른 많은 사람이 등장한다"면서 "그분들의 인격권 보호를 위한 측면에서라도 증거자료를 일반에 공개하기 어려운 점을 이

A bitter court battle is potentially on the horizon for the South Korean football star Ki Sung-yueng against his two former teammates accusing him of sexual and physical assault, following an about-face by the lawyer representing the two on Tuesday. Ki, midfielder for FC Seoul in the K League 1, has repeatedly denied those assault charges, first levied against him by two elementary school teammates last Wednesday. They claimed that Ki ordered them to perform sexual acts on him and beat them up

North Korea's official newspaper on Tuesday stressed the importance of planting trees to make the country less vulnerable to natural disasters as Pyongyang marked its arbor day. "Forestry is a valuable resource for our country and important asset for our country's prosperity and people's happiness," the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, said in an editorial. "Planting and taking care of trees is important work that cannot be delayed or suspended