Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Tuesday South Korea might lift short-term visa restrictions on entrants from China earlier than a new deadline set by the end of February if convincing evidence of declining COVID-19 spread is given. The decision could be made depending on the virus situation here as Korea has just eased indoor mask mandate and both China and Korea had family gatherings to celebr...

A greater stream of foreigners to South Korea could be a breakthrough from the aggravating population structure caused by a sharp increase in senior citizens coupled with a record-low fertility rate, Prime Minster Han Duck-soo said Tuesday, urging an action plan to attract foreign workers. "Now is the time to start discussing (creating) an independent government body to seek collaboration with f...

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Monday reiterated a zero-tolerance stance against subway protesters in wheelchairs affiliated with Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination, who are demanding residences that allow for independent living. The mayor stressed the negative impact of the protests on ordinary commuters, and noted that funding for disability housing was a matter under the central, not mun...

The case concerns a state-sponsored land redevelopment plan to build a residential complex in Daejang-dong in southwestern Seongnam. The city-approved plan had allowed an inexperienced asset management company, Hwacheon Daeyu, to take larger total dividends than a public-sector company, even though Hwacheon Daeyu and its related parties held only a combined 7 percent stake in the consortium, whi...

The number of arrests in South Korea in connection with online drug trades reached 3,092 in 2022, a more than 20 percent increase from the previous year, data showed Friday. The number of packages seized, however, declined from 957 to 657 over the same period, according to data revealed during a vice ministerial pangovernmental meeting held in Government Complex Seoul. Since the total weight of...

Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, was given a 1 1/2-year prison sentence suspended for two years for abusing his power in the teacher hiring process. The conviction will remove Seoul's top education policy decisionmaker from his seat, unless a higher court overturns the decision. In the ruling, Cho's aide was given a 10-month prison term, suspended for t...

A final projection, showing a range of outcomes depending on various scenarios, will be announced in March. This will lay the basis for a five-year pension initiative, which could involve a pension reform plan, and would need to be approved by President Yoon Suk Yeol in September and proposed to the National Assembly in October. The current national fund requires an employee and the employer to ...

Shin told a press briefing that investigators have seized no more than 1 kilogram of cannabis powder and cannabis vape liquids combined so far. He did not disclose the value of the confiscated products, nor the level of penalty charge to be imposed on the indicted. What enabled the indictment, he added, was a law revision which went into effect in September 2022 allowing prosecutors to retain th...

Such a phenomenon, combined with barriers from regulations, could eventually lead Korea to a worsening drug environment. Korea has long been considered an attractive drug transit point for drug smugglers looking to exploit Korea's reputation as a "drug-free" country. In March 2022, Korea was recognized by the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs as "a global logistic...

Na Kyung-won, a former four-term conservative lawmaker, said Wednesday that she would not run for the party leadership for the sake of unity in the ruling party, ending weeks of friction with President Yoon Suk Yeol's office that put pressure on her to withdraw. "I won't take part in the race for the People Power Party leadership at the upcoming national convention (in March)," Na told reporters...

Fourteen crew members from a capsized cargo ship off southeastern Jeju Island were rescued in a joint search operation involving multiple coast guards as of early afternoon on Wednesday. Of the rescued people, nine remained unconscious as of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Korea Coast Guard Region-Jeju, or the Jeju Coast Guard. Those rescued there were sent to Japan to get hospitalized, an...

Jeju Island's Hallasan peak saw snowfall of up to 18 cm during the first 12 hours of Tuesday. The island was also buffeted by winds of 21 meters per second -- over 75 kilometers per hour -- the strongest in seven years. Road closures followed the extreme weather warnings in parts of Jeju Island. Dozens of people have suffered minor injuries due to icy road conditions, according to the fire depar...

A South Korean court sided with the police agency's decision to punish a veteran police officer for verbally abusing a subordinate and having her run his personal errands, showed a court ruling Monday. Judges in the Seoul Administrative Court in December dismissed an officer's suit against the nation's chief of police to nullify a reprimand warning -- the lightest punishment on a six-tier scale ...

Prosecutors in South Korea demanded an arrest warrant on Thursday at around 12:40 a.m. for Kim Seong-tae, the former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool who was returned home after fleeing for eight months, to look into links between Kim and President Yook Suk Yeol's political opponent. Kim went through 13 hours of interrogation by prosecutors in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, beginning Tuesday...

A man rammed his car into a convenience store in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, after his request to buy a plastic bag a few months before was rejected by the store owner, police said Monday. The unnamed driver was arrested by police at the scene in the southern region of South Korea. Police are seeking charges of special destruction of private property and retaliatory crime. At around 10:30...