A petition by a South Korean nongovernmental organization calling for a ban on the use of Japan’s imperial-era flag during the upcoming Tokyo Olympics has drawn over 56,000 signatures.The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a Seoul-based group that promotes South Korean history and culture, posted the petition in September as part of its key campaign to address Japanese aggression during the 1910-45 occupation of the peninsula.As of Thursday morning, some 56,800 people signed the pet

North Korea placed last in a world democracy index in 2019 as it scored zero in electoral process and civil liberties, a report showed Saturday.The communist state ranked at the bottom among the 167 countries surveyed with the lowest score of 1.08 out of 10.00, according to the Democracy Index 2019 published this week by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research arm of the British weekly The Economist.The North‘s ranking in the EIU index has not changed since the London-based age

Ahead of the April 15 general elections, Im Jong-seok, former chief of staff to President Moon Jae-in, is back in the media spotlight amid rampant speculation over his next career move.He left politics effectively in November last year with an abrupt announcement that he would not run in the elections. He said he plans to focus on campaigning “outside the politics of the establishment” for the reunification of the two Koreas.Im is a highly symbolic figure in South Korea‘s pro-d

South Koreans felt traditional holidays, which some criticize for putting too much pressure on women, are becoming fairer for both genders, a poll showed Saturday.Asked what they thought about gender equality within families during the Chuseok holiday last year, 43.2 percent said they felt circumstances have improved in terms of gender equality, according to the poll by the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family.A total of 39.3 percent said they did not sense a change, while 12.3 percent said situ

The Korea Foundation, a state-run public diplomacy organization, is eyeing a project to establish an office in Sweden to assist South Korea in efforts toward winning Nobel Prizes in science, the agency‘s chief has said.In a recent New Year interview, Lee Geun said the Tokyo University of Technology, which is one of the schools with the most Nobel Prize winners, operated an office in the European country to promote theses and achievements in sciences by its scholars to the Nobel Prize commi

South Korea will host the second summit of a global public-private initiative this year to speed up efforts to tackle climate change, according to Seoul's finance ministry on Friday. The first summit of Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) was held in Denmark in 2018 with the aim of addressing challenges in the five areas of food and agriculture, water, energy, cities and circular economy.P4G is a global network of governments, businesses and civil society organizations se

The Global Fund, an organization set up to fight epidemic diseases, will provide $42 million to help North Korea fight tuberculosis and malaria, according to the Voice of America on Friday. In an email sent to the VOA on Thursday (US time), the Global Fund said it has agreed with Pyongyang over the financial support, and it began to make the payment of the fund to the North. The Switzerland-headquartered Global Fund has provided more than $100 million to North Korea to help cure those diagnosed

South Korea said Friday it will put utmost efforts to contain the Wuhan coronavirus by enhancing preventive quarantine and screening measures at airports and other areas as the country reported the second confirmed case of the deadly virus."It will take lots of time and efforts to terminate the virus, and what's important now is to take quick and through preventive measures, thus minimizing potential fallout," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during an emergency meeting hastily arran

An annual mass migration started in South Korea on Friday as people headed to their hometowns for one of the country's key traditional holidays.Seol, or Lunar New Year's Day, falls on Saturday this year, with the holiday period running from Friday to Monday.Along with Chuseok, the equivalent of Thanksgiving in the United States, Seol marks South Korea's traditional holiday in which many South Koreans head back to their hometowns to pay homage to their ancestors and spend time with family and fri

The decision last year to renew the cost-sharing pact between Seoul and Washington each year for the upkeep of 28,500 American troops here will cause structural instability, a former US Forces Korea commander has said. In an interview with the Voice of America on Thursday (US time), former USFK Commander Vincent Brooks said the annual renewal deal does not guarantee its stability as it always takes more than a year when it comes to local hires and the construction of military facilities. He said

Buses and subways in Seoul will run on extended operating hours over the weekend to meet demand for late-hour travel during the Lunar New Year holiday, the city government said Friday.Subway lines No. 1 to 9, as well as the Ui-Sinseol Light Rail Transit, will run until 2 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.Bus routes passing through five major train stations and four express and intercity bus terminals will also run until 2 a.m. for users who are returning

South Korea on Friday reported its second confirmed case of the China coronavirus amid mounting fears the pneumonia-like illness that is spreading throughout China and other parts of the world during the Lunar New Year holiday.According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), a South Korean who arrived at Gimpo International Airport, western Seoul, late Wednesday, tested positive for the new type of virus. The 55-year-old man, who has been working in Wuhan, visited a Chin