South Korea

SEOUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Negotiators from South Korea and the United States will hold talks in Washington later this week to discuss how to share the upkeep cost for the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The ninth round of negotiations for the 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA), a South Korea-U.S. deal to share the defense cost for about 28,500 U.S. troops stationed here, will be held in the U.S. capital on Friday.

The latest negotiation was virtually held on Feb. 5 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday that his government is eager for talks with Japan to improve relations following years of bitter feuding over historical grievances, adding that those unresolved issues should not stand in the way of developing “future-oriented” ties.

SEOUL, Feb 26 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea’s quarantine authorities said today, it will extend the country’s five-tier social-distancing rules, at the third-highest level in the Seoul metropolitan area for two weeks.

The Level 2 social-distancing guidelines will be kept in place for two more weeks, till Mar 14, in the greater Seoul area, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.

Crowded facilities, such as cafes, restaurants and fitness centres, will be allowed to open until 10:00 p.m. in Seoul, and its Gyeonggi province.

SEOUL, Feb 25 (NNN-YONHAP) – Twelve more U.S. soldiers and two civilians in South Korea tested positive for COVID-19, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said today.

The USFK, said that, 14 USFK-affiliated individuals were confirmed with the COVID-19, after arriving in South Korea between Feb 3 and 22.

Five service members arrived at Osan Air Base, on U.S. government-chartered flights from the United States, on Feb 3, 20 and 22. The Osan Air Base is located in Pyeongtaek, 70 km south of Seoul.

SEOUL, Feb. 21 (APP): South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Choi Jong Kun held a meeting with Pakistan Ambassador to Korea, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch and had a broad exchange of views on relations between South Korea and Pakistan and cooperation on multilateral issues.

The two sides agreed to work together to hold a bilateral policy consultation within this year, thereby creating an opportunity to explore ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, official sources informed.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s prime minister assured there were no safety issues with AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine on Friday, as the government held final drills ahead of next week’s scheduled rollout of the first vaccines.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed with Britain’s Oxford University, was the first to win approval in South Korea, but it has been dogged by questions over its efficacy among older people and concerns over side effects.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ripped into the performance of his Cabinet and fired a senior economic official he appointed a month ago, saying they’d failed to come up with new ideas to salvage an economy in decay.

The report by state media on Friday comes during the toughest period of Kim’s nine-year rule. The diplomacy he had hoped would lift U.S.-led sanctions over his nuclear program is stalemated, and pandemic border closures and crop-killing natural disasters last year deepened the damage to an economy broken by decades of policy failures.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered tougher legal supervision to support his development plans and eradicate various economy-related unlawful acts, state media said Thursday, as he works to salvage an economy battered by the pandemic and other challenges.

Kim spoke Wednesday during a Workers’ Party meeting convened to follow up on decisions made at the ruling party’s congress in January, where he admitted previous economic plans had failed and announced a new five-year development plan.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A growing number of governments are curbing diplomatic ties with Myanmar and increasing economic pressure on its military over the coup last week that erased the fragile democratic progress in the long-oppressed Southeast Asian nation.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday he was issuing an executive order that will prevent Myanmar’s generals from accessing $1 billion in assets in the United States, and promised more measures.

SEOUL, Feb 10 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea’s employment dropped 982,000 in Jan, from a year earlier, marking the highest fall in over 22 years, since Dec, 1998, statistical office data showed today.

The number of those employed totaled 25,818,000 in Jan, according to Statistics Korea. The year-on-year employment continued to slide for 11 straight months since Mar, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic resurged here since Nov. In the latest tally, the country reported 444 more cases for the past 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 81,930.