The ruling Democratic Party (DP) will seek an extra state budget to provide the fourth round of a COVID-19 relief fund, party Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon said Tuesday. "(The DP) will prepare the fourth round of the disaster assistance fund. It will draw up a sufficient supplementary budget," the party chief said in his parliamentary speech marking the recent launch of a monthlong extra parliamentary session. Since May last year, the government has distributed more than 31 trillion won

US Forces Korea (USFK) said Tuesday that it has not issued advance furlough notices to its South Korean employees as the two countries are working on a "new, comprehensive" defense cost-sharing deal. The US military was expected to begin sending thousands of South Korean workers a 60-day notice that they could be put on unpaid leave in April if Seoul and Washington fail to reach an agreement on a new Special Measures Agreement (SMA) that stipulates how much Seoul will pay for the upke

South Korea said Tuesday it has teamed up with the mobile giant Kakao Corp. to provide local consumers with information on restaurants that have strictly followed sanitary guidelines to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. The service offers locations of restaurants that have employees wear protective masks at all times and provide separate utensils for communal dishes and pots, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Kakao operates South Korea's most popular mo

Over 66 percent of South Koreans used over-the-top (OTT) media, or video streaming services, last year amid the stay-at-home trend driven by the pandemic, a survey showed Tuesday. South Korea's OTT usage rate stood at 66.3 percent in 2020, compared with 52 percent the previous year, according to a survey of 6,029 people over the age of 13 by the country's media regulator, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC). YouTube was the most popular OTT service here, with its usage rate at 62.3 perce

South Korea said Tuesday it is investigating another suspected case of highly pathogenic bird flu, with the total confirmed caseload traced to poultry farms here since November reaching 83. The latest suspected case of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza came from an egg farm in Icheon, just south of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The number of confirmed infections traced to wild birds also reached 127 as of Tuesday. South Korea has so far culled nearl

Two Air Force officers and an Army soldier have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The officers, based in the southern city of Sacheon, were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 after coming into contact with a person at their base who tested positive earlier, according to the ministry. They have been in isolation following the earlier virus case and were confirmed infected in a test required to exit quarantine. The Army soldier tested positive while

President Moon Jae-in instructed his government Tuesday to redouble efforts to address the problem of growing difficulties facing the vulnerable, including micro and small merchants, amid the prolonged COVID-19 crisis. His message came as the ruling Democratic Party has proposed a fourth batch of emergency relief money handouts, which require supplementary budgets. Moon pointed out the three key policy goals of 2021 -- recovery, inclusiveness and resurgence -- speaking during a weekly Cabinet

아동학대가 사회적 문제가 된 가운데 10대 딸을 죽도 등으로 반복해서 폭행하고 4시간 동안 가혹행위를 한 40대 부부가 재판에 넘겨졌으나 법원이 비교적 적은 금액의 벌금형을 선고해 논란이 일고 있다. 인천지법 형사2단독 이연진 판사는 아동복지법상 아동학대 혐의로 기소된 A(44·여)씨와 그의 남편 B(47)씨에게 각각 벌금 700만원을 선고하고 40시간의 아동학대 치료 프로그램 이수를 명령했다고 2일 밝혔다. A씨는 2016년부터 2019년 12월까지 인천시 중구 자택에서 딸 C(15)양을 수시로 무릎 꿇게 하고 죽도로 때린 혐의 등으로 기소됐다. 그는 C양이 만 12살이던 2017년에는 야단을 치는데도 "잘못했다"는 말을 하지 않는다며 4시간 동안 머리를 바닥에 박고 엎드려서 무릎을 들어 올리는 이른바 '원산폭격'을 시키기도 했다. 또 7시간 동안 무릎을 꿇게 해 화장실도 가지 못 하게 한 적도 있으며 C양의 안경을 발로 밟아 부러뜨리면서 &q

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Won In-choul held video talks with his US counterpart Gen. Mark Milley on Tuesday and agreed to continue efforts to make "visible progress" on the envisioned transition of wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean troops from Washington to Seoul, the military said. During their first talks since the launch of the President Joe Biden administration, the two military leaders also vowed to develop their combined defense posture based on the &

South Korea's sovereign wealth fund said Tuesday it earned $21.8 billion from investment, boosted by stock rallies, as the coronavirus pandemic prompted central banks to cut rates and pump liquidity into markets. Choi Hee-nam, chief executive of Korea Investment Corp. (KIC), told reporters that its return on investment was 13.7 percent last year, compared with 15.39 percent in 2019. It marked the second straight year that the KIC posted a double-digit return on investment. Over the past two y

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 300s for the third straight day on Tuesday as health authorities extended tough virus curbs amid a continued rise in cluster infections. The country added 336 more COVID-19 cases, including 295 local infections, raising the total caseload to 78,844, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The daily caseload stood at 305 cases on Monday and 355 on Sunday, when the tally fell back to the 300s for the first time

South Korea's drug safety agency has stepped up efforts to speed up the approval process for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments amid a third wave of coronavirus outbreaks. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Tuesday, it will hold a meeting on Friday to give final approval for Celltrion Inc.'s COVID-19 treatment. Celltrion has submitted an application for conditional marketing authorization of CT-P59, an anti-COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment candidate, to the ministry. If

South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday, taking a cue from US stock rallies. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 18.12 points, or 0.59 percent, to 3,074.65 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.55 percent, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 0.76 percent, and the S&P 500 gaining 1.61 percent. Market kingpin Samsung Electronics rose 0.33 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix hiked 2.4 percent. Intern

South Korea's imports of whisky plunged to a 21-year low in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and a change in alcohol consumption here, government data showed Tuesday. The value of whisky imports amounted to $132.5 million last year, down 13.9 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. It was the lowest level since the $115.9 million recorded in 1999 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. An industry official said whisky consumption fell furth

South Korea's public sector employment tumbled nearly 18 percent in 2020 from a year ago due to a one-off factor, government data showed Tuesday. Public institutions in Asia's fourth-largest economy hired 27,490 new employees last year, down 17.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the state portal All Public Information in One (ALIO). State-run companies cut their employment by about 32 percent, and hiring by quasi-governmental institutions sank about 20 percent. Yet last year's tally

South Korea's consumer prices grew by less than 1 percent for the fourth straight month in January, data showed Tuesday, indicating that the country's inflationary pressure remains low amid the pandemic. The consumer price index rose 0.6 percent on-year in January, compared with a 0.5 percent on-year gain the previous month, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the fourth consecutive month that the on-year growth rate of the consumer inflation stayed in the 1 percent r

The United States is looking for optimal ways to advance the denuclearization process in North Korea and also deal with "growing problems" from the North's nuclear weapons, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Blinken said such measures may include additional sanctions but also diplomatic incentives. "This is a problem, a bad problem that has gotten worse over time, and I would be the first to acknowledge that it's a problem that has gotten worse across administrations,&qu

South Korea's energy ministry on Monday made public an internal document about the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in North Korea to defuse "unnecessary" political turmoil sparked by a report on the paper's existence. A TV station reported earlier that documents on a nuclear power project in the North were among hundreds of computer files that industry and energy ministry officials deleted ahead of the state audit agency's inspection of atomic energy policies. The repo

All participants in spring training for South Korean baseball have tested negative for the novel coronavirus, the league office announced Monday. Spring training for the 10 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) clubs began across the nation on Monday. And the league announced in the evening that 776 players, 255 coaches and managers, and 692 team officials -- 1,723 in total -- all tested negative. The KBO mandated pre-camp testing for all players, coaches, trainers and front office staffers, plus

South Korea expressed concerns Monday after Myanmar's military seized power in an apparent coup and declared a state of emergency following the detention of top civilian leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi. "(The government) is paying keen attention to the recent political situation in Myanmar with concerns," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "In consideration of the fluid situation in Myanmar, the government will make all-out efforts to ensure the safety and rights of o