Two South Korean football clubs will aim to collect their first win at the 2017 Asian Football Confederation Champions League this week.FC Seoul and Suwon Samsung Bluewings will resume their AFC Champions League group stage action, hoping to end their winless drought. Seoul are the defending champions of the top flight K League Classic, while Suwon are the reigning Korea Football Association Cup winners. (Yonhap)They are two of the four South Korean clubs at this year's ACL, along with Jeju Unit

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae will establish a temporary website this week after its previous site dedicated to ousted President Park Geun-hye was shut down, a senior official said Monday.The move came after Cheong Wa Dae took flak for continuing to run the outdated website that referred to Park as the sitting president and displayed her photos and video clips despite the Constitutional Court's decision last week to dismiss her over a massive corruption scandal.  The website of Cheong Wa

A fire broke out on Monday on a hill near the birthplace of late former President Park Chung-hee, the father of ousted President Park Geun-hye, firefighters said.The fire, which started at around 4:20 p.m. some 50 meters from where the late Park was born, was put out in 15 minutes, they said.Park's house is located in Gumi, some 261 kilometers southeast of Seoul.the memorial hall for late former President Park Chung-hee destroyed in a fire in his birthplace in Gumi, some 261 kilometers southeast

South Korean construction companies' domestic orders increased 26.4 percent in January from a year earlier, aided by a boom in the local housing market, industry data showed on Monday.According to the data compiled by the Construction Association of Korea, they racked up a combined 10 trillion won ($872 million) in January. (Yonhap)Of the orders tallied, builders bagged 6.95 trillion won in the private sector and 3.02 trillion won from the public side in the first month of this year, which marks

The government is close to fixing the date of the presidential election to May 9, a senior official said Monday, in the wake of the ouster of President Park Geun-hye.Park was removed from office Friday after a court ruled to uphold her impeachment over a corruption scandal.By law, South Korea is required to hold a presidential election within 60 days. Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn delivers a national address at the government complex in Seoul on March 10, 2017, after the Cons

After making national history at virtually every stop this season, South Korean teenage figure skater Cha Jun-hwan will look to make even more in his season finale this week.Cha, 15, will take the ice at the International Skating Union World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei. The men's short program is scheduled for Wednesday, followed by free skate on Thursday. In this file photo taken on Jan. 8, 2017, South Korean figure skater Cha Jun-hwan performs his free sk

Prosecutors on Monday raided some offices of the country's food and entertainment conglomerate CJ after one of its former employees was found to have been involved in producing compromising video clips of Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Kun-hee's private life.In July 2016, Newstapa, an online news outlet run by the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, unveiled the videos and reported that the business tycoon paid money to suspected sex workers five times between December 2011 and June

The popularity of individual savings accounts has apparently withered here on lower-than-expected rates of return, a year after the much-hyped debut of the investment vehicle, data showed Monday.The number of ISAs in South Korea peaked at 2.4 million in November last year and declined to 2.39 million in the following month and 2.36 million in January of this year, according to the Financial Services Commission. An ad for an individual savings account in a file photo (Yonhap)It also decreased by

South Korean stocks rose to the highest level in almost two years on Monday on increased risky appetites following eased political chaos in Asia's fourth-largest economy and sound economic data in the US The Korean won sharply rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index advanced 20.24 points, or 0.97 percent, to close at 2,117.59. Trade volume was moderate at 378 million shares worth 4.57 trillion won ($3.99 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 458 to 366.  M

A South Korean man was recently arrested for violating immigration law by inviting about 170 Chinese to the country under the guise of medical tours in return for money, an official at the Seoul Immigration Office said Monday.The man, only identified as "A," is suspected of getting 169 Chinese people into the country between April 2014-2015 under the pretense of medical tours to help them stay in the country illegally, the official said.The fake Chinese patients testified that they had paid him

Kwanghee of K-pop boy band ZE:A and operatic pop tenor Lim Hyung-joo enlisted in the Army to fulfill their military duty on Monday. (Yonhap)Kwanghee, who is better known as one of the six emcees for popular variety show "Infinite Challenge," entered a basic training camp in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, and Lim was sent to one in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on Monday afternoon.After five weeks of basic training, Kwanghee will begin service in an Army band while Lim will join a regional Army u

The Liberty Korea Party was embroiled in a dispute over its presidential primary rules Monday as minor contenders protested what they said would give undue favors to Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn. Three fringe presidential hopefuls threatened to boycott the competition, one day after the former ruling party decided to allow prominent figures to skip preliminary races and join the final primary belatedly. (From left to right) Former Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Moon-soo; Kim Jin

Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., a mid-sized shipbuilder here, recently sold a semisubmersible rig obtained from a Norwegian shipping firm through a compromise arrangement, for $370 million, industry sources said Monday.According to the sources, Hyundai Samho sought arbitration over Seadrill's cancellation of the rig order, and both sides reached a compromise under which the South Korean shipyard will pay back the down payment worth $170 million in return for ownership. (Yonhap)Hyundai Samho

South Korea's anthracite reserves dropped to about half of the country's annual consumption last year amid weak demand for coal, government data showed Monday.The government currently has 899,000 tons of anthracite in reserves, about 52 percent of what the country uses on an annual basis. A file photo of a coal depot in Taebaek, Gangwon Province. (Yonhap)The figure is 10 percent of the 8.06 million tons stockpiled in 2003. The government began stockpiling coal in 1975 by establishing anthracite

The University Newspaper, the student press of Seoul National University, South Korea's top university, was printed with a blank front page Monday, as many SNU students increasingly challenge the school's plan to build a new campus outside of Seoul.Student reporters of the paper, called "Daehak Sinmun" in Korean, left the front page of its March 13 edition blank for the first time in its 65-year history in protest of the school faculty's demand that stories about the new campus dispute be minimi

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Monday he will never let his guard down and take firm action against any possible changes in the real economy and the financial market in the aftermath of the country's leadership vacancy."The government will keep operating in emergency mode and deal firmly with pending issues," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho told reporters in Sejong. "We have been monitoring the market around the clock for months, and nothing has been unusual." Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho

Presidential frontrunner Moon Jae-in said Monday that former President Park Geun-hye insulted the Constitution and the people by indicating her defiance of the Constitutional Court's decision to dismiss her. Upon returning to her private home on Sunday after being removed from the top elected office, the disgraced former president issued a statement saying the truth will eventually be revealed. Moon Jae-in, former head of the Democratic Party (Yonhap)"If Park does not accept the Constitutional C

A group of South Korean scientists discovered that rapid eye movement sleep has a role in memory consolidation, a state-run science laboratory said Monday, a finding that could lead to a treatment for diseases related to sleep disorder.The team led by Choi Jee-hyun found that REM sleep -- which usually occurs during nighttime -- is critical for brain development and memory consolidation, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology said. Brainwave map developed by the Korea Institute of Science

South Korean police on Monday arrested two supporters of the country's ousted leader Park Geun-hye for assaulting a cameraman and police officers at the former president's private home in southern Seoul.  The Gangnam Police Station said two pro-Park activists were separately arrested during a rally near Park's house after they attacked police officers on duty. Park returned to her private residence two days after the Constitutional Court upheld her impeachment over the corruption scandal involvi

The older half sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un appears to be leading a key organization of the North's military, an expert claimed Monday.Kim Sol-song is seen as leading the decision-making body of the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army, Lee Yun-keol, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute, said.Kim Sol-song, the older half sister of North Korea's leader (Yonhap)"The decision-making organ was said to have been created under the regime of Kim Jong-il, helping the current le