WeWork, a global shared office space provider, said Monday it will invest a combined $500 million in South Korea and Southeast Asia as it attempts to expand its presence in the Asian market. Under the expansion plan, the New York-based company has appointed Matt Shampine, currently head of Marketing and Revenue for Asia, as the General Manager of Korea.  "Today's announcement reaffirms WeWork's commitment to scaling our business across Asia," Miguel McKelvey, co-founder of WeWork,

JEJU -- A highly invasive macroalgae species which has impacted the waters off South Korea's largest island of Jeju comes from an east Chinese archipelago, a local think tank said Monday.The South Korean resort island is plagued in spring and summer by inflows of the alien seaweed, known as Sargassum horneri, which smells bad and ruins the landscape.In a report, the Jeju Research Institute confirmed that the algae drifts into Jeju waters from the Zhoushan Islands, an archipelago in the east Chin

Korea Electric Power Corp., a major public utility firm in South Korea, said Monday that its net profit dropped almost 80 percent in the second quarter of the year from a year earlier due to increased fuel costs.Net profit reached 359 billion won ($318 million) on a consolidated basis in the April-June period, compared to a profit of 1.77 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.Operating income also sank 69 percent on-year to 847 billion won, with sales also down 2.6

Ahn Cheol-soo, the former presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, rejected growing calls to retract his leadership bid Monday, renewing his vow to salvage the party beset by internal division and dismal public support.Since Ahn expressed his intention to run in the Aug. 27 leadership election Thursday, opponents have pressured him to stay low-key at least for the time being to take responsibility for the defeat in the presidential election in May and a crippling fake tip-o

SEOUL/MANILA -- The top diplomats of South Korea and Russia agreed on Monday to step up bilateral cooperation for the implementation of a new United Nations Security Council resolution against North Korea during their talks in Manila, the Philippines, the South Korean foreign ministry said.During their meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov hailed Resolution 2371, which they said would be a landmark achievem

A South Korean court is scheduled to deliver its verdicts this week in two separate suits that elderly Korean victims filed against Japanese firm Mitsubishi for compensation for their forced labor during World War II.On Tuesday, the Gwangju District Court plans to rule on a suit that forced labor victim Kim Young-ok, 85, and a family member of late victim Choe Jeong-rye, filed to demand that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries pay them 150 million won ($133,084) and 30 million won, respectively, for the

North Korea on Monday condemned the United Nations Security Council's fresh sanctions over its long-range missile tests, vowing to retaliate against the US with bigger actions.North Korea warned in a statement that it is ready to use any ultimate means if the US does not give up its moves to stifle Pyongyang, according to the Korean Central News Agency."We are ready to respond with far bigger actions to make the US pay a price for its violent crime against our country and people," it said, vowin

South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged North Korea on Monday to halt provocations and come to the dialogue table, noting the allied forces of South Korea and the United States stand ready to counter any provocation."Yesterday, a new UN Security Council resolution was adopted with an unprecedented speed and an unanimous vote with the support of all major countries, including China and Russia," the president said while meeting with his top presidential aides at the presidential office Cheong Wa

South Korea's unification ministry plans to begin reviewing financial support for local firms that invested in projects with North Korea and suffered from losses due to Seoul's punitive actions against the North, officials said Monday.About 400 local firms that were hit by either Seoul's 2010 sanctions or South Korea's 2008 suspension of a joint tour project on Mount Kumgang are likely to be subject to the government's new financial assistance, they added."Government agencies are expected to beg

The government invoked an emergency power cutback for some companies last month, a report claimed Monday, a measure opponents of a nuclear-free policy say proves the country could run dangerously low on electricity if reactor operations are halted.The report submitted by the Korea Power Exchange to Rep. Kim Moo-sung of the minor opposition Bareun Party said the companies were instructed to reduce their power usage for three hours on July 12 and for four hours on July 21.  The government had adop

Special prosecutors were expected to demand a prison term for Samsung Group scion Lee Jae-yong in his final trial later Monday over bribery and other charges, wrapping up part of a massive corruption scandal that toppled former President Park Geun-hye from power in March. The prosecution indicted Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., in February on charges of providing or promising to give 43.3 billion won ($38 million) to Park and her friend Choi Soon-sil. In return, he asked for g

South Korea's provincial government is moving to launch a committee to recommend two Austrian nuns who worked for local leprosy patients for 40 years for the Nobel Peace Prize, officials said Monday.The envisioned committee will campaign for Marianne Stoeger, 82, and Margareta Pissar, 81, who devoted their life to the treatment of leprosy patients on South Korea's most famous leper colony of Sorok Island off the country's southern coast.The campaign has been led by the government of South Jeolla

Foreign investment banks predict the South Korean economy to lose momentum slightly in 2018 after posting solid growth this year, a report showed Monday.According to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance, Barclays, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Nomura and five other foreign IBs forecast the economy to grow at an average rate of 2.8 percent in 2017 on robust exports and facility investment as of end-July.But Asia's fourth-largest economy will likely lose growth momentum slightly ne

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., South Korea's top power equipment maker, said Monday that its British affiliate has clinched a 30 billion-won ($26.6 million) deal to build a plant that transforms waste into energy.Doosan Enpure has signed the deal with Severn Trent Water, a British water supplier, Doosan Heavy said. (Yonhap)The plant is capable of producing some 1 megawatt worth electricity and heat, according to Doosan Heavy.In June, the Doosan Heavy unit also won a 87.5 billion-won

Samsung Engineering Co., a South Korean plant builder, said Monday that it has secured a $1 billion deal to build refining plant-related facilities in Oman. (Yonhap)Under the deal with Duqm Refinery Petrochemical Industries Co., a 50-50 joint venture between Samsung Engineering and Petrofac of Britain, the companies will construct utilities and offsite facilities for a refinery project at Duqm, located in the southern part of Oman, by 2021.Located in the Duqm Special Economic Zone, the refinery

Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., a major South Korean builder, said Monday that it has clinched a $963 million deal to build process units of refinery facilities in Oman.Under the deal with Duqm Refinery Petrochemical Industries Co., a joint venture between Daewoo Engineering and Tecnicas Reunidas of Spain will carry out the $2.75 billion project to construct the facilities at Duqm, located in the southern part of Oman. (Yonhap)Daewoo Engineering & Construction holds a 35 percent stake in

Hanssem, an interior and lifestyle company, said Monday it will open its first Chinese branch in Shanghai this week to compete in the 740 trillion-won ($656 billion) market.The two-story Hanssem Shanghai Flagship Store will open Tuesday in the Changning District. The store will cover some 13,000 square meters, twice as big as the company's flagship in South Korea, and aims to offer one-stop shopping for products ranging from interior renovations to furniture and home accessories, the company sai

United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday that he can sit and have dialogue with North Korea when conditions are right, foreign news reports said. Tillerson said the North must stop missile tests if it wants to have talks with the US, according to the reports by Reuters and the Associated Press. US Secretary of State Rex TillersonSpecifying US preconditions for possible talks, Tillerson said on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Manila that stopping missile launches w

South Korea is mulling over measures to handle activists' move to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets as the move could spark tensions along the inter-Korean border, officials said Monday.North Korea is sensitive to North Korean defector-activists' move to send leaflets via balloons on concerns that ordinary North Koreans can get information about the repressive regime. The leaflet campaign is one of the main sources of tension between the two Koreas.South Korea's unification ministry said t

The leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party on Monday renewed calls for South Korea to open talks with the United States over the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons to counter North Korea's growing nuclear threats.Hong Joon-pyo reiterated that peace on the Korean Peninsula can be achieved through a "balance of power," dismissing President Moon Jae-in's pursuit of dialogue and rapprochement with the North as "unrealistic.""Peace will come when we achieve a balance of power, not wh