The head of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics said Tuesday that preparation for the games has been "clean," even with the sports community mired in a nation-rocking influence-peddling scandal.At his first press conference of 2017, Lee Hee-beom, head of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games, addressed the impact of the scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidante Choi Soon-sil on the build-up to the country's first Winter Games. Lee

Moon Jae-in, a leading presidential candidate from the opposition bloc, on Tuesday published a book on his campaign pledges, taking further steps to generate support ahead of this year's election.The publisher said the book, titled "The Republic of Korea asks," is about the blueprint of Moon's vision for South Korea, providing ways to tackle various challenges facing the country.The 360-page essay also delivers Moon's stance on controversial policies promoted by impeached President Park Geun-hye

A former North Korean embassy minister in London who defected to Seoul last year said Tuesday a large number of his fellow diplomats have recently fled to South Korea, even though such flights have not been made public. "A significant number of diplomats came to South Korea," Thae Yong-ho told a conference hosted by the conservative Bareun Party which will be launched this month. "Even now, there are a number of (North Koreans) waiting to head to the South." A former North Korean embassy ministe

There should be a policy review of South Korea's nuclear armament option in response to North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats, according to a professor at a Ministry of Foreign Affairs-run think tank on Tuesday."(South Korea) is required to carry out an in-depth review of military countermeasures along with tougher diplomacy aimed at denuclearizing North Korea, given the North's absolute supremacy in military power that comes with its completion of nuclear armament," said Jun Bong-g

South Korea is exploring the "possibility" of resolving the ongoing trade and economic feud with China over Seoul and Washington's joint decision to deploy an advanced missile defense system through the World Trade Organization, a government source said Tuesday.In July, South Korea and the US announced a plan to station the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system on the Korean Peninsula within this year to counter the growing threats from North Korea. China has voiced strong opposition, argui

A senior executive of German carmaker Volkswagen will visit South Korean investigators this week to discuss issues related to its emissions scandal, the prosecution said Tuesday.Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz, member of Volkswagen AG's Board of Management, will visit the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' This file photo, taken on June 1, 2016, shows Audi Volkswagen Korea's pre-delivery inspection center in Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Of

The South Korean government said Tuesday it will provide small and medium-sized enterprises here with a record level of financial support this year via policy lenders to help them weather difficult business conditions.The lenders will increase their lending to 186.7 trillion won ($156 billion) for the year from 178.7 trillion won last year, according to the Financial Services Commission. A file photo showing the Korea Development Bank's support for tech startups. (Yonhap)The move comes as concer

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Tuesday called for enhanced ties with the United States ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who expressed skepticism of Washington's alliances and trade deals with South Korea and other partners while campaigning. During a Cabinet meeting, Hwang highlighted the role of the Korea-US military alliance in ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula and beyond, and instructed the government to further develop econom

North Korea threatened Tuesday to wipe out a planned South Korean special forces unit tasked with incapacitating its leadership in the event of conflict. South Korea's defense ministry said in its 2017 policy plan that it will launch the special brigade two years ahead of schedule in an effort to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.The unit will eliminate the North leadership or at the very least make it ineffective.The Rodong Sinmun, the main organ of the North's ruling party, war

GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of US automaker General Motors Co., will again see domestic sales grow this year, its CEO James Kim said Tuesday, adding he was confident the company's market share will breach the 10-percent mark for the first time in a decade."I believe we will do better in 2017 than we did last year," Kim said at a media event held here to introduce the all new Cruze compact car. James Kim, CEO of GM Korea, poses for a picture at a media event held in Seoul, South Korea on

The number of registered vehicles in South Korea continued to grow, nearing 22 million in 2016, the government said Tuesday.Car registrations came to 21,803,351 units as of end-2016, up3.9 percent or some 813,000 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.The gain marks a slight slowdown from a 4.3 percent on-year increase in 2015.(Yonhap)"The steady increase in vehicle registration in 2016 was helped by the launch of various new cars, as well as the tem

South Korean retailers' business sentiment plunged to the lowest in four years in the first quarter of the year, affected by a protracted slump in domestic demand and the implementation of an anti-graft law, data showed Tuesday.The retailers' business sentiment index stood at 89 in the January-March period, the lowest since a reading of 81 was posted in the first quarter of 2013, according to the data compiled by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry .The data were based on a survey of 1,00

The amount of banknotes currently in circulation in South Korea has reached nearly 100 trillion won ($84.4 billion), the central bank said Tuesday, due to the bank's easing stance to bolster growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy.Outstanding banknotes came to 97.4 trillion won as of end-December, compared with 86.8 trillion won as of the end of 2015, according to the Bank of Korea .Outstanding banknotes refer to actual bills in circulation and are different from cash in circulation, which partl

A South Korean man who was kidnapped for ransom in the Philippines last year was recently found to have been killed by three local police officers and a former policeman, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.The law enforcement officers and ex-policeman were behind the abduction of the 50-something businessman, surnamed Ji, on Oct. 18 in Angeles City, a ministry official said, quoting probe results conducted by Filipino authorities and provided to Seoul on Monday.According to the local investigatio

North Korea on Tuesday condemned the outgoing Obama administration for blacklisting seven North Korean officials, including the younger sister of leader Kim Jong-un, and two agencies for their roles in human right violations, claiming it is the "last-ditch efforts of those whose days are numbered" to maintain a hostile policy.On Wednesday, the US State Department imposed human rights sanctions on the personnel and entities, including the Labor Ministry, by prohibiting their entry into the US, fr

South Korea's culture minister and a former presidential chief of staff were questioned by a team of special investigators on Tuesday over allegations the Park Geun-hye administration blacklisted cultural figures deemed critical of the government.Minister Cho Yoon-sun and former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon appeared at the office of the special prosecutor looking into an influence-peddling scandal that led to the president's impeachment last month."I will fully cooperate with the spe

The Korean units of BMW and Mercedes Benz are expected to compete for this year's bestseller title, with the former hoping to reclaim the crown, industry officials said Tuesday.BMW has gotten off to a good start, receiving more than 1,000 pre-orders in a week for the 7th generation 5 series due out in South Korea in mid-February. The latest model is semi-autonomous, is about 100 kilograms lighter and has better stated fuel efficiency, the company has said. The local unit is offering a promotiona

The head of cash-strapped Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. was questioned by prosecutors Tuesday over allegations the company cooked the books to cover up its losses. Jung Sung-leep, 66, appeared before the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office as a suspect on charges of violating the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies. Jung, who took office in May 2015, is suspected of ordering the company to underreport some 120 billion won ($101 million) in business losses that year, de

The South Korean government on Tuesday endorsed a plan to spend an additional 168.7 billion won ($142.2 million) to support local farmers who have been suffering from massive losses stemming from the worst outbreak of avian influenza in the country, the finance ministry here said.The government earlier came up with a program to give 237.3 billion won in subsidies to poultry farms since the first avian influenza case was reported in the country on Nov. 17, 2016. So far, more than 30 million chick

The poverty rate for working low-income elderly people reached close to 62 percent in 2015, according to government statistics on Tuesday, showing that some of the aged population cannot sustain themselves even when they have jobs.Records collected from Statistics Korea, Bank of Korea and the Financial Supervisory Service showed that 61.7 percent of people aged 65 or over were in poverty, up 1.5 percentage point from the previous year. The number started at 60.7 percent in 2011, the first year w