Traffic on some highway sections began to slow Friday as people hit the road to visit their hometowns or go on trips during the Lunar New Year holiday despite the coronavirus pandemic. This year's Lunar New Year holiday runs from Monday to Wednesday and is extended by two days due to the preceding weekend. The government urged people to refrain from traveling during the holiday to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The nation reported a record 16,096 new cases Friday. As of 7:47 p.m., some se

South Korea on Friday expressed "strong regret" over Japan's push to recommend a former gold mine associated with wartime forced labor as a candidate for a UNESCO World Heritage site and called for its retraction. Seoul's Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon called in Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Aiboshi Koichi to lodge a protest after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to nominate the controversial mine on Sado Island for the 2023 UNESCO heritage list

  The already fraught ties between South Korea and Japan were dealt yet another setback Friday when Tokyo plowed ahead with the recommendation of a former mine linked to wartime forced labor as a UNESCO World Heritage candidate despite Seoul's objections.  After weeks of deliberation, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the plan to nominate the gold and silver mine on Sado Island for the 2023 heritage designation, considering its historical value.  The move furthe

NCT will kick-start “NCT Lab,” a project to release a series of new songs written by its members, the group’s label SM Entertainment announced Friday. 　 Songs by the bandmates that have not been included in the band’s official albums will be put out through SM Station, the label’s digital music channel. 　 Mark will be the first to be featured, with a solo song titled “Child” on Feb. 4. It will be his first solo song and the musician co-wrote both the ly

The ninth season of “I Can See Your Voice,” a mystery music game show from South Korean cable music network Mnet, is set to premiere Saturday at 10:40 p.m. In line with the program’s global popularity, it hopes to become a long-running music show. “I wonder how long ‘I Can See Your Voice’ can last. I wish it to become a long-running program like ‘Show Me the Money’ and ‘National Singing Contest,’” Super Junior’s Leeteuk, on

South Korea’s Kyobo Life Insurance has taken its battle with Deloitte Anjin to overseas, asking a US nonprofit audit watchdog to investigate and punish three accountants suspected of inflating the prices of a put option that one of its strategic investors exercised years earlier. One of the top life insurers here filed a complaint with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, requesting them to “take actions for a strong sanction” against the accountants, including the o

North Korea on Friday confirmed it had test-fired an upgraded long-range cruise missile and a tactical guided missile this week, as its leader Kim Jong-un inspected a munitions factory for the first time in years.  The official Korean Central News Agency said it “conducted the test-firing for updating long-range cruise missile system and the test-fire for confirming the power of conventional warhead for surface-to-surface tactical guided missile” respectively on Tuesday and T

The design of the all-new Kia Niro did it all to captivate young drivers, not to mention its fuel efficiency and comfortable driving experience. Looking very much like Kia’s concept car HabaNiro, the all-new Kia Niro infused its ‘Opposites United’ design philosophy into the environmentally friendly SUV by making the body two-toned with a bold boomerang-shaped Aero C-Pillar at the rear that completes the futuristic design of the car. During its four-day long preorder, a total

South Korea’s top financial regulator attempted to calm local investors Friday over the latest dip in the Kospi following the US Federal Reserve’s March rate hike signal. “It is true that the Kospi dip has an excessive aspect to it,” Financial Services Commission Chairman Koh Seung-beom said in a meeting on the financial market. “It would not be appropriate for investors to be overly dampened or concerned,” he added. The nation’s benchmark Kospi f

A documentary film on the Beatles featuring the group’s final performance will hit local theaters next month. “The Beatles’ Get Back: The Rooftop Concert” will be screened Feb. 11-13 at IMAX theaters, according to Walt Disney Company Korea on Friday, The one-hour movie is the edited highlights of Peter Jackson’s documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back,” which was released on Disney+ last month. Jackson completed the documentary series based on 60

Schools in Korea are to administer rapid polymerase chain reaction and antigen testing methods to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students and faculty.  “We are working on adding rapid PCR testing and rapid antigen testing methods at schools to prepare for the start of the new semester in March,” minister Yoo Eun-hye said at a meeting held at the Korea Institute of Educational Facility Safety on Thursday. For boarding schools, students are to be required to undergo rapi

SEJONG -- The nation’s growth in industrial output marked the highest in 11 years in 2021 on the back of both economic recovery and the base effect, or rapid bounce-back from sagging performance in the pandemic-hit 2020, Statistics Korea data showed Friday But indexes unveiled by the state-run agency suggest possible slowdown in the growth of production, retail sales and facilities investment for the coming months in 2022. Korea saw industrial output grow 4.8 percent on-year in 2021, the

Buyout of Biogen’s stake expected to boost Samsung’s competitiveness in global bio industry

South Korean banks' mortgage rates hit the highest level in about 7 1/2 years in December amid rising borrowing costs, central bank data showed Friday. Banks' mortgage loan rate averaged 3.63 percent a year in December, 0.12 percentage point higher from a month earlier and the highest since May 2014, according to the data by the Bank of Korea (BOK). Mortgage rates have been on the rise as the BOK has raised the policy rate in recent months as part of efforts to tighten its long accommodative p

A local environmental group is calling for justice after three roadside trees were allegedly killed by poisoning in Seoul last July near a new drive-through outlet of Starbucks. The Korea Federation for Environmental Movements’ Seoul Branch on Thursday held a press conference at the site, decrying the state prosecution’s decision not to press charges against the person who admitted to having mistakenly poured pesticides.  “The (accused) has already admitted to spilling