Salvage operators are making final preparations to transport the 6,800-ton ferry Sewol to port following improved weather conditions, the government said Thursday."We are trying to speed up the process of preparations for departure," the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said. "The captain of the semisubmersible ship will make the decision (to leave)." (Yonhap)The Sewol, which capsized in waters off the southwest coast in 2014, killing 295 with nine people still unaccounted for, was raised from t

The transit time of cruise ships docking in South Korea has decreased in recent years, a survey showed Thursday, leading to calls for the country to promote major tourist attractions near ports and get cruise operators to stay longer.The average transit time was 7.6 hours last year, according to the survey of 2,043 cruise tourists by the Korea Tourism Organization.The comparable figures were 8.9 hours in 2014 and 8.2 hours in 2015.About 34.7 percent of those questioned said they were dissatisfie

The presidential nominee of a splinter conservative party has vowed to meet with US President Donald Trump before any other foreign leader if elected in the upcoming poll.Yoo Seong-min, a four-term lawmaker and presidential nominee of the Bareun Party, made the remark in response to a question about which country he plans to visit first if he wins the election on May 9. Yoo Seong-min speaks in an interview with Yonhap News Agency at the National Assembly in Seoul on March 29, 2017. (Yonhap)"(I)

South Korea's defense ministry dismissed a news report Thursday that the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system in the country may be delayed due to a political reason."There is no change in the basic position that South Korea and the US will deploy the THAAD system of the US Forces Korea at an early date within this year as the two sides agreed," Moon Sang-kyun, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said at a regular press briefing.Moon Sang-kyun, a spokesman for the Mi

North Korea has added illegal cultivation of opium and drug production to a list of crimes subject to execution, a report by a South Korean think tank showed Thursday.North Korea has designated such acts as one of eight crimes that are subject to capital punishment through the 2013 revision of penal codes, according to the report on North Korea's human rights by the Korea Institute for National Unification.Previously, those who committed such acts were sentenced to the maximum of five years of h

South Korea's financial regulator said Thursday that it will conduct a special audit on Samsung BioLogics Co., a biopharmaceutical unit of Samsung Group, over alleged accounting irregularities.The Financial Supervisory Service made the decision on Wednesday, an FSS official said.  (Yonhap)The FSS official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the regulator found "unclear parts" in an audit report of Samsung BioLogics, which was revised by the Korean Institute of Certified Public Account

Foreign nationals perceived as prone to commit acts of terrorism and other crimes will be barred from boarding international flights bound for South Korea, starting next month, the government said Thursday.The Ministry of Justice said that an advance passenger identification system will formally take effect April 1 to prevent crime-prone foreigners from boarding South Korea-bound planes at overseas airports. (Yonhap)The system will be applied to all flights of 86 airliners that depart for South

The Hollywood sci-fi action thriller "Colossal" unveiled photos of its South Korean filming Thursday to attract more interest from local movie fans ahead of its release next month. In the new US Sundance Festival-screened film, Anne Hathaway plays an unemployed, heavy-drinking woman named Gloria who is forced to leave her life in New York and move back to her hometown.When news reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, Gloria gradually comes to the realization that she is someho

"Tunnel," a new time-slip crime series on South Korean cable channel OCN, has become the talk of the town on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, a talent agency said Thursday.The number of posts mentioning "Tunnel," which premiered last week, rose to more than 660,000 on Weibo as of early Thursday, according to G-Tree Creative, which represents the show's lead actor Choi Jin-hyuk. (OCN)"This shows the high level of interest among (Chinese) fans despite the import ban on South Korean cultura

The South Korean economy is likely to grow at a faster pace than previously expected in 2017 on the back of rising exports, a leading private think tank said Thursday.In its latest economic outlook, the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) projected Asia's fourth-largest economy to grow 2.5 percent this year, up from its earlier 2.1 percent estimate made in December. (Yonhap)The think tank forecast the South Korean economy to expand 2.3 percent in the first half of this year and 2.7 percent

North Korea's official media claimed Thursday its nuclear deterrent has reached its highest level, one day ahead of the fourth anniversary of the declaration of leader Kim Jong-un's signature policy guideline. On March 31, 2013, the North's ruling Workers' Party adopted the policy of simultaneously pursuing economic and nuclear development at its plenary meeting amid tough UN sanctions against the North's nuclear test the previous month.      North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends the test of a

South Korea has set up 100 hundred super charging stations for electric vehicles in the firs three months of the year as part of the government-led efforts to expand overall infrastructure for green cars, the energy ministry said Thursday.The total numbers built this year alone is equal to all super charging stations in the country at present, and up from zero in the first quarter of last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. This photo, provided by Hyundai Motor Co., sh

Hall of Famer George Brett will throw out the ceremonial first pitch for a South Korean baseball club this weekend.The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization said Brett, who spent his entire 21-year career with the Kansas City Royals, will do the honors on Sunday in the third game of their season-opening series against the Lotte Giants at Masan Stadium in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, some 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul. In this Associated Press photo taken on March 15, 2017, Geor

Host South Korea will eye a record medal haul at the 2018 Winter Olympics, a senior sports official said Thursday.Lee Jae-kun, head of the National Training Center in Seoul, said South Korea's goal at the PyeongChang Winter Games is to grab at least eight gold medals to finish inside the top four in the medal race next February.At a press conference, Lee added the country will also chase four silver medals and eight bronze medals. Soohorang (R) and Bandabi, the official mascots of the 2018 Pyeon

South Korea is considering conferring an order of merit on a former American congressman who fought for Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, an official said Wednesday.Mike Honda, who served in Congress from 2001 to early this year, was at the forefront of efforts to get Japan to admit to its past wrongdoing and apologize to women who were forced to work in front-line Japanese brothels during World War II. Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945.Mike Honda (Yonhap)The Ministry

Ousted President Park Geun-hye's late mentor Choi Tae-min faced military investigation in late 1970s over his alleged misdeeds based on his ties with Park, then a presidential daughter, according to a former leader's memoir obtained Thursday by Yonhap News Agency.In the soon-to-be-published book, former President Chun Doo-hwan said Choi was confined in a frontline military unit for a "considerable period of time" after her father Park Chung-hee was assassinated in 1979.Choi is the father of Choi

South Korea's central bank said Thursday it increased the portion of US dollar-denominated assets in its foreign exchange reserves in 2016 from a year earlier amid the greenback's strength.The Bank of Korea said that its dollar-denominated holdings accounted for 70.3 percent of its overall foreign reserves at the end of 2016, up from 66.6 percent a year earlier. (Yonhap)"The BOK expanded the portion of US dollar holdings in its portfolio of foreign assets in expectation of a strong US dollar," t

Bank lending rates on new household loans edged down in February and interest rates paid by banks on new deposits also fell, central bank data showed Thursday.The average interest rates on fresh household loans extended by local banks came to 3.38 percent in February, down 0.01 percentage point from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea.(Yonhap)The BOK data came amid South Korea's efforts to tackle rising household debt. South Korea's outstanding household credit -- which is compose

South Korea's output from fisheries farms fell slightly last year from a year earlier due mainly to a drop in demand for seafood, government data showed Thursday.Local fishing farms produced 80,151 tons of fishery products in 2016, down 6.2 percent from the previous year's 85,448 tons, according to the data by Statistics Korea.(Yonhap)But the total value edged up 0.9 percent on-year to 904.6 billion won last year on the back of a gain in flatfish prices.The statistics office said seafood consump

South Korea will invest a combined 260 billion won ($233.1 million) in the system semiconductor sector to develop core technologies and foster experts in the coming four to six years as part of a broader effort to keep up with the fourth industrial revolution, the government said Thursday.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy unveiled the investment plan at a meeting with a group of system semiconductor businesses in Seoul.  (Yonhap)The fourth revolution is characterized by many technologie