The national health protection agency on Tuesday advised against visiting destinations with known monkeypox cases, just as travel restrictions over COVID-19 are slowly fading. Lee Sang-won, heading the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s epidemiological analysis division, said at a news briefing that while traveling carries risks, bringing back mandatory quarantines for all passengers ...

When President Yoon Suk-yeol was questioned Saturday about his male-dominated Cabinet, he said that women lacked opportunities to rise to top government posts, and promised more opportunities for women. While his comments were generic and often repeated by many before him, they appear out of line with his earlier statements on the matter –- that his nominations were made based strictly on merit....

If the pace of omicron spread keeps up in North Korea, nearly the entire population could end up becoming infected, experts in South Korea say. North Korea’s cumulative number of “fever” cases stands at 2,251,610 as of 6 p.m. Thursday, according to Workers’ Party of Korea newspaper Rodong Sinmun -- which means roughly 8 percent of its 26 million population have likely been infected. The true fi...

South Korea said Friday the seven-day isolation requirement for people with COVID-19 will remain in place for the next four weeks, until June 20. Expiring on Sunday is the four-week “probation period” for downgrading COVID-19’s threat status. Last month, the Moon Jae-in administration changed the classification of COVID-19 so that it would no longer be considered an infectious disease with the “...

Unconventional remedies North Korean authorities are promoting unproven approaches for people to treat themselves at home. Willow tea leaf, honey and other home remedies were advertised by the state media outlets as ways to soothe symptoms. Paracetamol, ibuprofen, injections of penicillin were recommended as treatments for people with fever. “Fever reducers and antibiotics like penicillin cann...

Patients in South Korea may soon lose government coverage for medical bills, with the “trial period” for a Moon Jae-in-era change in COVID-19’s legal status due to expire at the end of this week. On April 25, the Moon administration downgraded COVID-19’s level of public health hazard within Korea’s classification of infectious diseases, thereby removing the legal framework for the government to ...

The ongoing wave of omicron infections in North Korea could cause tens of thousands of deaths in the unvaccinated country, according to Dr. Oh Myoung-don, who heads the National Medical Center’s committee for clinical management of emerging infectious diseases. Speaking at a virtual forum organized by Seoul National University’s Institute for Health and Unification Studies on Monday, Oh estimate...

GWACHEON, Gyeonggi Province -- The chief of the state agency dedicated to investigating political elites and high-level bureaucrats denied targeting journalists in a phone spying scandal that surfaced in December last year. Kim Jin-wook, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, said in a press conference Monday that the controversial surveillance occurred “in the p...

After holding down the fort for over two years, North Korea finally let COVID-19 slip through the cracks in its tightly sealed doors. Just days since the first cases were announced, North Korea’s total number of related deaths rose to 42, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Sunday. The count of people with fever accumulated since late April reached 820,620, which is about 3 ...

At Yoon admin’s 1st COVID-19 meeting, second thoughts about lifting isolation order At the first COVID-19 meeting after Yoon Suk-yeol administration was inaugurated, senior health officials said the preceding administration’s promise of scrapping isolation orders were being reconsidered. The meeting was led by Yoon’s first Vice Health Minister Lee Ki-il, appointed to the post Tuesday, as Health...

The confirmation hearing for President Yoon Suk-yeol’s arguably most contested Cabinet pick, Justice Minister nominee Han Dong-hoon, was gripped by partisan tensions. During the hearing held on the eve of Yoon’s inauguration, Han argued that the Democratic Party of Korea-led prosecutorial reforms -- which entail expanding police powers while curtailing those of the prosecution -- would end up hu...

At the last meeting of Moon Jae-in administration’s COVID-19 headquarters top officials applauded South Korea’s handling of the pandemic over the years. Presiding over the meeting Friday, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum warned against “disparaging the country’s success in combatting COVID-19 without any evidence” in a message to critics. “There have some criticisms that compared to other countries,...

GWACHEON, Gyeonggi Province -- A senior prosecutor, Son Jun-seong, was indicted Wednesday for using his then-position as an intelligence official at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to help file criminal complaints against ruling Democratic Party of Korea figures ahead of the April 2020 general election. At the end of an eight-month investigation, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-rank...

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition committee on Monday met with family of a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official who was shot dead by North Korean troops near the western sea border on Sept. 21, 2020. Ahn Cheol-soo, the chief of the presidential transition committee, spoke with the official’s older brother Lee Rae-jin and an attorney representing his family at around 12: p.m. at the...

Victim services and attorneys say victims of sexual violence would be among those most hurt by the controversial prosecution reform bills that were partly passed by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea-majority parliament Saturday. One way the reforms hurt the underprivileged is the “massive reduction in the role of third-party reporting,” said Kim Ye-won, president and chief attorney of Disabil...