SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) -Sharmaine Lee from Singapore became the 18.5 millionth foreign visitor to South Korea this year on Tuesday, greeted with fanfare at Incheon International Airport as the country’s inbound arrivals surpassed the pre-pandemic peak of 17.5 million recorded in 2019. Buoyed by the milestone, the government has moved up its long-term tourism ambition, setting a target of attracting 30 million foreign visitors by 2030. According to the Korea Tourism Orga

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - South Korea's ambassador to Romania Rim Kap-soo has been named as the country's chief negotiator for nuclear energy-related talks with the U.S. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday that Rim, appointed the previous day, will lead a task force to revise a decades-old agreement with Washington that bans South Korea from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and enriching uranium. Rim, who worked at the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - Infielder Song Sung-mun will play in Major League Baseball after signing a deal with the San Diego Padres. In a post on X, formerly Twitter on Monday, the Padres said Monday they signed the 29-year-old to a "four-year contract through the 2029 season." Details of the deal have not been disclosed, but it is reportedly worth $15 million, including a $1 million signing bonus in two installments along with a gradual increase in salaries. Raisin

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - The first hearing for a retrial of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won's divorce lawsuit will be held next month, after the Supreme Court of Korea sent back the high-profile case to a lower court in October. The hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9 at the Seoul High Court, where it will recalculate the marital assets of Chey and his estranged wife Roh Soh-yeong, to assess the amount of property to be divided. The top court earlier found flaws in the lower cou

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) -South Korean space startup Innospace said Tuesday that its Hanbit-Nano rocket lifted off normally from Brazil but crashed about 30 seconds later after an in-flight anomaly, ending the country’s first attempt by a private firm to place customer satellites into orbit. The two-stage Hanbit-Nano vehicle launched at 10:13 p.m. Monday local time (10:13 a.m. Tuesday in Korea) from Alcantara Space Center, the company said. The first-stage engine ignited a

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - The USS Greenville arrived on Tuesday in South Korea's southern port city of Busan to replenish supplies and provide rest for crew members. The Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine Greeneville, named after Greeneville, Tennessee, will engage in activities to strengthen cooperation between the two allies, according to the South Korean Navy. The submarine, which is 110 meters long and 10 meters wide, is equipped with Tomahawk cruise mi

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - About eight in 10 North Korean defectors say they are satisfied with their new life in South Korea, a survey reveals. The Korea Hana Foundation on Tuesday released its survey of around 2,500 North Korean defectors who arrived in Seoul between January 1997 and December last year. This year's survey, conducted through face-to-face interviews by about 76 specialized counselors, with a response rate of 86.4 percent or around 2,160 respondents, found tha

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - Starting Tuesday, anyone activating a new mobile phone in South Korea must undergo face verification in addition to presenting an ID. The Ministry of Science and ICT said it launched a pilot program for stricter identity checks to prevent phones from being illegally activated for crimes such as voice phishing and smishing. Under the program, face verification will be mandatory for new activations at in-person sign-up counters run by major telecom oper

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - Unionized railway workers called off their planned all-out strike after receiving a new offer on bonus payments overnight. State-run rail operator KORAIL's workers, who had planned to go on strike starting with the first train on Tuesday unless the agreements are fulfilled, said they would discuss further on performance-based bonuses, as management proposed gradually restoring them from 80 percent of base pay to 90 percent next year and to full pay in