South and North Korea will officially launch their joint liaison office this week aimed at fostering cross-border exchange and contacts, the unification ministry here said Wednesday.The liaison office will be launched in the North's border town of Kaesong on Friday, with around 50-60 people each
U.S. President Donald Trump has received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un calling for a second meeting between the two, and planning is already under way, the White House said Monday.Trump said last week that he is expecting a letter from Kim amid stalled negotiations to dismantle the r
The government held an emergency meeting of Cabinet ministers Sunday to discuss measures to stem the spread of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) following the country's first MERS case in three years.Health authorities said Saturday that a 61-year-old man was confirmed to be inf
South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday ordered his top security officials to visit China and Japan to explain the outcome of their visit to North Korea this week, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.Chung Eui-yong, Moon's top security adviser, will travel to China this week to perso
A patient in Seoul was diagnosed on Saturday with the first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in South Korea since 2015.The 61-year-old man, whose personal information was withheld for privacy reasons, was diagnosed with the disease at about 4 p.m. Saturday, the Korea Centers for Disea
The South Korean government will seek to secure the National Assembly's support for the inter-Korean agreement on rapprochement and cooperation reached at the countries' leaders' summit in April, an official from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.The government plans to s
Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said Friday that the ongoing peace process with North Korea must be kept alive so as to turn the tension-filled waters around the western sea border into a "sea of peace and prosperity."Lee made the remark during a ceremony marking Coast Guard Day, noting that there has
South Korea's top monetary policymaker will attend a meeting of the world's central bank governors in Switzerland next week, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Friday.BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol is scheduled to leave for the northwestern Swiss city of Basel on Saturday for the meetings of the Bank of Int
South and North Korea are expected to open their liaison office at the North's Kaesong Industrial Complex next week, a government official said Friday.Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman of the Ministry of Unification, said that discussions are under way to fix the opening date for the inter-Korean liaison
Former National Police Agency Commissioner-General Cho Hyun-oh appeared for police questioning Wednesday over his alleged involvement in massive cyber operations by the police force for the conservative Lee Myung-bak government in the early 2010s.Cho arrived at the central police headquarters in wes
South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoy headed to North Korea on Wednesday for talks on a proposed summit between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as well as ways to move forward stalled talks on ridding the North of its nuclear weapons.Chung Eui-yong, head of the presidentia
The South Korean government and the nation's ruling party agreed Saturday to maintain the policy of boosting economic growth with a focus on expanding the income of ordinary people.The decision was made in spite of growing criticism of the signature policy of the left-leaning Moon Jae-in adminis
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will send a special envoy to North Korea next week to arrange his scheduled summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and also discuss ways to move forward the stalled denuclearization of the communist state, Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Fri
Defense Minister nominee Jeong Kyeong-doo, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), is seen as an expert in joint military operations and fit to lead defense reform long marred by inter-service rivalries.Following a parliamentary hearing process, the 58-year-old Air Force general wil
President Moon Jae-in on Thursday urged local governments to step up their own efforts to create more jobs while promising increased support from the central government."The people's concerns are growing due to a drop in recent job indicators. Many regions are also facing difficulties from the
South Korea scrambled Air Force jets Wednesday to counter a Chinese military plane flying in the country's air defense domain without notice, defense authorities in Seoul said.It entered the Korea air defense identification zone (KADIZ) at around 7:37 a.m. and moved over southern and eastern wat
South Korea is seeking to increase its defense budget 8.2 percent on-year in 2019, the largest expansion since 2008, as the country strives to build a slimmer yet smarter military and cope with the uncertain security environment.The defense ministry said Tuesday it has proposed a budget of 46.7 tril
The suspected massive opinion rigging led by a political blogger was ultimately aimed at influencing public sentiment in favor of the now-ruling Democratic Party in the run-up to last year's presidential election, special prosecutors said Monday.Special counsel Huh Ik-bum announced the result of
President Moon Jae-in on Monday stressed the need to expand national pension payments, a move that would inevitably lead to a rise in premiums, but said any change must be based on a national consensus."The national pension, fundamentally, is an official welfare system operated by the government in
South Korea's corporate watchdog said Sunday the number of conglomerate subsidiaries subject to inter-affiliate trading regulations is expected to triple under a new tighter asset standard.The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it will revise the antitrust law to ban inter-affiliate trading within