South Korea to dispatch multipurpose aircraft for rescue efforts in flood-hit Nepal SEOUL, August 28 (AJP) - South Korea will dispatch a KC-330 Cygnus multipurpose aerial refueling aircraft to Nepal to support search and rescue operations following devastating floods and landslides that have left hundreds of people missing including nine South Korean workers. The Ministry of National Defense said in a statement late Thursday that it was discussing details with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for deploying the KC-330 to transport rescue personnel, relief equipment a August 28, 2026

Court rules foreign children have right to register births in South Korea SEOUL, August 27 (AJP) - The Constitutional Court of Korea ruled on Thursday that the lack of legal provisions for foreign nationals born in South Korea to register their births is unconstitutional. The ruling came in a case filed by a Vietnamese man, his spouse and their child, in which the court unanimously found the government's failure to establish a system for registering the births of foreign children born in here unconstitutional. The man entered South Korea in 2008 on August 27, 2026

S. Korea finds no formaldehyde in Chinese cabbage kimchi SEOUL, August 27 (AJP) - South Korea's food safety regulator found no formaldehyde in any of 82 cabbage kimchi and cabbage samples pulled from the market, easing concerns that Chinese farms had used the carcinogen on their crops. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Thursday it tested 50 samples of cabbage kimchi, 29 of napa cabbage and three of salted cabbage after reports that formaldehyde, a Group 1 carcinogen, had been applied to cabbage cultivation in China. The min August 27, 2026

Military brass rebel against academy merger at hearing SEOUL, August 26 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung and Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back remain committed to merging South Korea's Army, Navy and Air Force academies into a single institution, but a raucous public hearing Wednesday exposed the depth of resistance among academy alumni, retired officers and military experts. What was supposed to be a forum for public debate quickly descended into angry shouting, profanity and heckling at the Defense Convention Center in Yongsan, central August 26, 2026

South Korean firms support Uzbek schools with 35 smartboards SEOUL, August 26 (AJP) - Eleven South Korean companies have funded 35 smartboards for schools and vocational institutions across Uzbekistan, as part of an initiative marking the 35th anniversary of the country’s independence. The Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the Republic of Korea held an appreciation ceremony Wednesday afternoon for 11 Korean companies that helped finance the project, organized ahead of the 35th anniversary of Uzbekistan's independence on Sept. August 26, 2026

Jeju deaths cast shadow over Korea police power shift SEOUL, August 26 (AJP) - Jeju, long known as South Korea's favorite resort island, has lately been making headlines for grimmer reasons: missing-person cases ending in death, abandoned searches and allegations of police misconduct. The string of cases has turned a local policing scandal into a broader reckoning over whether South Korea's already powerful police force is ready to take on even greater investigative authority. With the country set to abolish its current p August 26, 2026

Migrant-background students rise as Korea's classrooms empty SEOUL, August 26 (AJP) -South Korea's school-age population is shrinking at its fastest pace in years even as the number of students from immigrant backgrounds continues to rise, government data showed Wednesday. Students from immigrant backgrounds — a category covering children born in South Korea to one Korean and one foreign-born parent, as well as children of two foreign-born parents — reached 210,838 in elementary, middle and high schools as of April 1. The August 26, 2026

More than half of South Koreans view US unfavorably: Pew Research SEOUL, August 26 (AJP) - More than half of South Koreans now regard the U.S. unfavorably, hitting an all-time high, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center indicates. In a survey of more than 1,000 South Korean adults conducted from March to April this year and released on Monday by the Washington-based think tank, 55 percent expressed an unfavorable view of the U.S., up 16 percentage points from a year earlier. This marked the first time the figure had exceeded 50 percent since August 26, 2026

Extreme-heat days nearly double the average this summer in Korea SEOUL, August 25 (AJP) -South Korea has endured nearly twice the usual number of heat-wave days so far this year, with record-breaking temperatures and unusually persistent tropical nights pointing to a summer stretching well into September. The nationwide average number of heat-wave days reached 20.1 from the start of the year through Monday, almost double the seasonal average of 10.4 days, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) Tuesday. A heat-wave day August 25, 2026

More than half of pensioners get less than 500,000 won per month SEOUL, August 25 (AJP) - Pensioners received an average of 737,000 won (US$534) per month in 2024, up 6 percent from a year earlier, but more than half or 53 percent received less than 500,000 won per month, according to data released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Tuesday. The ministry said some 9.12 million people aged 65 and older received at least one of about a dozen types of public and private pensions. But despite more than 90 percent of the elderly population bein August 25, 2026