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1. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol departed on Monday for Lithuania to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit. He will go to Poland for an official visit later this week after the summit. 2. The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, arrived in South Korea on Friday and met with head of South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission,...

1. The South Korean government said Friday that the release of contaminated water from its crippled Fukushima plant would meet international standards if carried out as planned as it announced the country’s own scientific analysis of the discharge plan. 2. According to the Bank of Korea, South Korea’s current account surplus in May returned to the black by reaching 1.93 billion USD in May, up from...

1. According to first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination Park Ku-yeon on Thursday, the South Korean government will announce its own analysis of Japan's plan to discharge contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Friday. 2. President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday named Yoo In-chon, an actor who served as culture minister during the former Lee Myung-...

1. South Korea's Office for Government Policy Coordination on Wednesday morning said that it respects the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report, but as for its content, South Korea is conducting an independent review. 2. The Korea Communications Commission on Wednesday approved an amendment to an enforcement ordinance to collect license fees for state broadcasters separately from electri...

1. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, on Tuesday met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to deliver the agency's comprehensive report on Tokyo's plan to release wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean which contains information about the discharge complying with global standards. 2. According to Statistics Korea, the Consumer Price...

1. The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation announced that the annual College Scholastic Ability Test, often called "suneung" in Korean, will take place on November 16. 2. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s new vice ministers and anti-corruption commissioner took office on Monday with an inauguration ceremony at the Yongsan Presidential Office. The presidential office announ...

1. Days of torrential rain killed a 14 month old baby when her home was hit by a landslide in Yeongju City, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province early Friday morning. The city saw more than 230 millimeters of rain through Thursday night and Friday morning 2. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 6 to 3 that U.S colleges and universities can no longer apply affirmative action as a specific basis for granti...

1. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday named Kim Yung-ho as the new unification minister and Olympic weightlifting gold medalist, Jang Mi-ran, for vice culture minister in a reshuffle, also affecting one other ministerial post and 11 other vice ministers. 2. South Korea’s Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho and his Japanese counterpart Shunichi Suzuki held a bilateral meeting in Tokyo on T...

1. Starting Wednesday, South Korea is scrapping its unique way of counting age as the country adopts the global standard system. However, South Koreans can buy cigarettes and alcohol from the year and not the day they turn 19. 2. South Korea’s foreign ministry announced on Wednesday that the government slapped sanctions on a Russian national of Korean descent, Choi Chon Gon, for helping North Kore...

1. The South Korean government decided on Tuesday to provide all elementary, middle and high schools with 24 million won or 18,474 USD each to alleviate the burden of air-conditioning bills. 2. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said that he had let the mutiny caused by Wagner’s mercenary group on Saturday proceed as long as it did to avoid bloodshed while Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin sai...

1. South Korea’s Education Minister Lee Ju-ho on Monday announced that the government will cut the vicious cycle of killer questions in exams which leads to the country’s excessive spending on private education. 2. The forces from the Wagner Group, a private army led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, advanced within 200 km to the capital Moscow but turned back on Saturday, de-escalating a major threat to Pres...

1. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his Vietnamese counterpart Vo Van Thuong agreed Friday to strengthen cooperation against North Korea's nuclear threat while expanding economic ties. Yoon also agreed to provide Vietnam with 4 billion dollars in soft loans by 2030 as part of official development assistance. 2. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs this Friday announced to hold...

1. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol kicked off his state visit in Vietnam this Thursday. He is accompanied by a 205-member business delegation–the largest ever for an overseas presidential trip, since Yoon took office. 2. The education ministry on Wednesday revealed a plan to adopt a credit system in high schools from 2025 to improve the competitiveness of public education. The ministry, howev...

1. President Yoon Suk-yeol gave a 30-minute presentation to boost South Korea's bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan at the BIE general assembly in Paris on Tuesday. He ended the presentation with the bid slogan, “Busan is ready.” 2. An international tribunal ordered South Korea to pay tens of millions of dollars to U.S. hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, marking an end to a legal b...

1. President Yoon Suk Yeol is scheduled to hold a summit with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and boost South Korea's bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan at the BIE General Assembly this Tuesday. 2. Failed crypto entrepreneur, Do Kwon, on Monday has been sentenced to 4 months in prison in Montenegro for passport forgery. 3. Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. Secretary of State A...

1. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday embarked on a diplomatic trip to France and Vietnam. One of the highlights will be a 30-minute speech by the President in Paris, in hopes to boost Busan's bid for the 2030 World Expo. 2. South Korea's ruling People Power Party and the Yoon Suk Yeol administration decided to exclude the so-called “killer” test questions from the nation's...

1. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday. In response, the national security advisors of South Korea, the U.S., and Japan issued a joint statement condemning North Korea's missile launches. 2. According to the latest economic trends report released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Fri...

1. After 10 straight rate hikes, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it would freeze its rate hike campaign at between 5.0% and 5.25%., however, most officials estimate that there might be as many as two more quarter-point hikes this year. 2. The South Korean government began daily briefings on Japan's planned release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday in a bid to a...

1. Data from Statistics Korea released on Wednesday shows that there were 28.83 million people in employment last month, up more than 351 thousand compared to the previous year, bringing the employment rate for those aged 15 to 64 to its highest ever. 2. A director at the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, Song Han-na, on Tuesday said that satellite imagery has been released, showing t...

1. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will visit France and Vietnam next week to participate in the General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions in Paris to rally international support for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid and hold a bilateral summit with his Vietnamese counterpart. 2. According to the Ukraine's deputy defense minister on Monday, Ukraine's military forces suc...

1. The officials from the Yoon Suk Yeol administration are questioned by lawmakers at the National Assembly starting Monday for three days. The session runs through Wednesday with the focus on political and diplomatic issues gripping the country. 2. Starting Monday, Japan is carrying out a two-week test run on the process for discharging contaminated water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclea...

1. South Korea’s ruling and main opposition parties have agreed on Thursday to establish a special committee on Japan’s Fukushima wastewater release. The committee will be holding parliamentary hearings that could involve the 21-member team of Korean experts who returned from the inspections of the plant’s water treatment facilities. 2. According to the Bank of Korea on Friday, South Korea’s curre...

1. The Yoon Suk-Yeol administration on Wednesday revealed a National Security Strategy highlighting the threat of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. 2. The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, one of South Korea's two main umbrella labor unions, decided Wednesday to boycott the presidential advisory board for labor policies. 3. As of Wednesday, some 400 wildfires are burning in Cana...

1. South Korea was elected to the UN Security Council on Tuesday as a non-permanent member, winning the support of more than two-thirds of the UN General Assembly. The two-year term kicks off at the start of next year. This marks the country's return to the UNSC after 11 years. 2. Japan has started releasing seawater into an underwater tunnel built to release the contaminated water from the cr...

1. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that the South Korea-U.S. alliance has now been elevated to a 'nuclear-based' alliance during his Memorial Day speech delivered at Seoul National Cemetery. 2. The International Maritime Organization said on Monday that it will respond to North Korea if the country does not offer the organization any advanced notices for future satellite...