SEOUL, March 19 (AJP) - Police are ramping up security measures with plans to mobilize nearly all available resources in central Seoul as the Constitutional Court of Korea is shortly expected to deliver its final verdict on President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial over his botched martial law debacle late last year. According to police sources on Wednesday, the highest-level security alert will be issued on the day of the court's ruling, which will decide Yoon's fate

SEOUL, March 19 (AJP) - Human rights groups called for North Korea to be held accountable for human rights violations and other alleged crimes against humanity at a forum in Geneva earlier this week. Hosted by Seoul-based non-profit organization People for Successful Corean Reunification (PSCORE) and other advocacy groups, the event as part of this year's regular session of the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday shed light on the North Korean regime's heinous and brutal crim

SEOUL, March 18 (AJP) - The foreign ministers of Korea, China, and Japan will hold talks in Tokyo this weekend, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Minister Cho Tae-yul will leave for the island country on Friday to sit for a trilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, slated for Saturday. The upcoming meeting comes more than a year after the last one, which took place in the southern port city of Busan in November 2023.

SEOUL, March 18 (AJP) - The recent revelation that South Korea has been classified as a "sensitive country" by the U.S. appears to have been triggered by an attempted leak of nuclear reactor design technology. A semiannual report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) disclosed that an employee at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was caught attempting to board a flight to South Korea with software related to nuclear reactors, resulting in the termination of

SEOUL, March 18 (AJP) - South Korea ranked 41st overall in an index gauging the level of democracy worldwide, according to an annual report compiled by a Sweden-based research institute and released on Monday. The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden surveyed some 179 countries to assess their levels of democracy for last year and South Korea was among five countries "in a substantial decline" along with Hong Kong, Indonesia, M

SEOUL, March 18 (AJP) - Spring is just around the corner, but a snow advisory was issued as a heavy snowfall blanketed Seoul and other metropolitan areas overnight. It was the latest-ever snow advisory issued for late March in the capital since accurate observations began in 1999. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), an unseasonal cold snap brought about up to 11.9 cm of snow to Seoul as of early Tuesday, 13.8 cm to Uijeongbu, and 12 cm to Pocheon in Gyeong

SEOUL, March 17 (AJP) - Last week's abrupt revelation of South Korea being classified as a "sensitive country" has sent shockwaves through political circles and government agencies here, with key diplomatic figures and senior officials scrambling to assess its implications and potential fallout. Such a classification by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which could restrict cooperation in advanced technologies, may reflect a shift in U.S. policy toward South Korea,

SEOUL, March 16 (AJP) - The number of unemployed young people in South Korea, including those who lost their jobs, are job-seeking, or are simply staying at home without employment, reached 1.2 million last month, government data showed Saturday. Even among those who managed to find jobs, one in four were classified as short-term workers with limited working hours. According to data from Statistics Korea's National Statistics Portal (KOSIS), 269,000 people aged 15 to 29 w

SEOUL, March 16 (AJP) - More than three out of four South Korean office workers believe that working hours should be reduced within the year and that a cap on overtime work should be established, survey data showed Sunday. Gapjil119, a South Korean online-based labor rights advocacy group, commissioned polling firm Global Research to conduct a survey from Dec. 2 to 11 last year, targeting 1,000 office workers aged 19 and older nationwide. The survey found that 77.9 percent of respon