Following North Korea’s latest missile launch on Thursday, the top nuclear envoys of South Korea, Japan and the United States again held bilateral talks over the phone to reaffirm their united efforts to counter Pyongyang’s military threats, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Friday. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from the western inland town of Sunchon in South Pyongan Province toward the East Sea on Thursday, marking the third launch in less than a week. Imm

PCR tests for those arriving in Korea and the current indoor mask mandate could go under review following calls from the ruling People Power Party for disease control measures that “minimize inconvenience and restrictions.” Speaking at a ruling party-government meeting on Thursday, top People Power Party officials called for ending PCR tests for overseas arrivals, and to review the negative impact that wearing face masks may have on young children. “Currently, Korea and China

South Korea will raise natural gas prices for civilian use next month amid high international gas prices, the industry ministry said Friday. Starting in October, natural gas prices for households and commercial use will be hiked by 2.7 won ($0.002) per megajoule, the ministry said in a press release. Natural gas prices for households will climb 15.9 percent, with the growth rate for commercial use ranging from 16.4 percent and 17.4 percent. "The hike reflects soaring global natural gas pric

GENEVA -- Switzerland's glaciers are melting like never before, an academic study released Wednesday found, with their ice volume declining by 6% this year amid rising concerns about global warming and a summer heat wave that swept across Europe. The Swiss Academy of Sciences reported that the shrinkage of ice in the country's glaciers topped a previous record retreat nearly a generation ago. "2022 was a disastrous year for Swiss glaciers: all ice melt records were smashed by the great dear

The South Korean government is now running a pilot program of the delivery unit price indexation system -- an interlocking price adjustment system for the cost of goods delivered, chiefly designed to help protect small businesses when they handle orders from big companies. But there is a dispute over whether it undermines free market principles, especially concerning artificial price control by the government. Under the system when there is, for instance, a big change in the price of raw materia

In response to the controversy that broke out over the use of foul language during his recent visit to New York, President Yoon Suk-yeol said that untrue news reports undermining the US alliance are endangering South Koreans. He maintains that the news reports on his remarks are not true, so a probe is needed to uncover the truth. MBC is the only media outlet to have recorded the video of Yoon speaking to his entourage while exiting the Global Fund conference in New York on Sept. 22. At that tim