The country's rival parties were locked in a heated debate over how to treat a former president Tuesday, one day after the prosecution asked the local court to issue a warrant for the arrest of Park Geun-hye.The debate began after Rep. Kim Jin-tae, a presidential hopeful and pro-Park loyalist of the former ruling Liberty Korea Party, called the former president a lady ousted from her royal palace, apparently labeling Park a person of nobility. (Yonhap)"I simply feel miserable," he told a press c

The number of childbirths in South Korea fell for the 14th month in a row in January from a year earlier amid a late marriage trend and a rapidly aging population, a government report showed Tuesday.About 35,100 babies were born in January, down 11.1 percent, or 4,400, from 39,500 tallied a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. (Yonhap)The figure has been on a steady decline since it posted a 2.4 percent on-year drop in December last year.The latest number also marked the lo

A parliamentary committee passed a proposal Tuesday to allow the incoming president to form a de facto transition team after taking office following the early election in May.Under current transition law, the new president must begin his term immediately after the May 9 election, which was triggered by the ouster of Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal. A plenary session of the National Assembly (Yonhap)The revision bill passed by the parliamentary safety and administration committee would al

The mobile map app powered by South Korea's top portal operator Naver Corp. attracted more local Android users than the map app made by US giant Google Inc., data showed Tuesday.According to the data compiled by industry tracker Wiseapp, Naver's map app boasted 8.08 million monthly active users on the Android platform here in February, compared to 7.66 million posted by Google.  (Yonhap)The map app served by Kakao Corp., South Korea's No. 2 portal operator, followed with 3.09 million users, the

Sales of sneakers rose sharply last year from a year earlier, industry data showed Tuesday, as health-conscious people of all ages are opting to run as an easy way to exercise.Sales of sneakers posted a whopping 96 percent rise last year from the previous year, according to data by online shopping mall 11Street. The comparable figure was three percent in 2015. (Yonhap)Gmarket, another online retailer, reported a 33 percent increase in the sales of sneakers last year from the previous year.The sh

The United States will repel any kind of North Korean attack, State Department spokeswoman Anna Richey-Allen told a US broadcaster Tuesday, in response to Pyongyang's latest threat of "preemptive attack" on South Korea and the USOn Sunday, the North Korean army warned that it will "mercilessly smash the enemy's (South Korea and the US) moves with its own style of special operation and preemptive attack" in defiance of joint drills by South Korea-US special operations teams in the South. A statem

The administrative process for child registration for divorced families will be simplified thanks to the revision of the Civil Code, officials said Tuesday.The current Civil Code presumes a child born within 300 days after marriage ends by divorce to belong to the former husband.Thus, children are automatically listed on the divorced fathers' family registries.(Yonhap)Mothers wanting to avoid the automatic family registration have to start a lengthy and costly court battle to sever the family re

South Korea will focus its fiscal policy on pushing forward with the fourth industrial revolution next year, as well as improving job creation, tackling a low birthrate trend and economic polarization, the finance ministry said Tuesday.The 2018 budget guidelines, which were approved by the Cabinet, are aimed at improving fiscal efficiency and allocating government funds to pressing issues and boosting growth potential moving forward, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. (Yonhap)Bas

Local fishery prices have risen steadily in recent months, government data showed Tuesday, amid sharp increase in cost to import such goods.Prices of fishery products soared 6.4 percent in February from a year earlier, according to the data by Statistics Korea. (Yonhap)The comparable figures were 6.6 percent in January and 5.1 percent in November.The price hike is attributed partly to the climbing costs caused by declining catches abroad, a Statistics Korea official said. He cited abnormal weath

Duty-free stores and hotels in South Korea are suffering a dip in sales after China's travel agencies stopped selling trips to Korea early this month, industry sources said Tuesday, stemming from a diplomatic row over Seoul's deployment of a US anti-missile system. Lotte Duty Free, the No. 1 duty-free shop in the country, saw its sales from Chinese customers at key branches in Seoul and Jeju island tumble 40 percent between March 20-26, compared with a year earlier, heading for a cumulative 30 p

South Koreans are almost equally divided on the sticky issue of whether the country's policy priority should be income redistribution or economic growth, a poll said Tuesday.According to the survey of 3,443 South Koreans, 50.4 percent of the respondents said redistribution matters more than growth, with the remaining 49.6 percent replying growth is more important. (Yonhap)Nearly 54 percent of low income earners answered income redistribution is more important than economic growth, according to t

South Korea's government plans to create a new website this year to provide the private sector with tailored information on humanitarian assistance to North Korea, officials said Tuesday.The Ministry of Unification said that the 400 million-won ($360,800) project is intended to boost government-private sector cooperation and efficiency in the provision of relief supplies to North Korea through closer analysis and integration of extensive data. The Ministry of Unification (Yonhap)The bidding proc

South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday, backed by a bullish start of market behemoth Samsung Electronics Co. and chemical companies, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 6.58 points, or 0.31 percent, to trade at 2,162.24 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Shares of Samsung Electronics, a global leader in smartphones and memory chips, jumped 1.07 percent, with LG Chem, a leading chemical firm, also soaring 1.6 percent. Samsung stocks account for more than 20 per

The supply of Samsung Electronics Co.'s upcoming flagship smartphone, presumably the Galaxy S8, may fail to meet demand due to the sluggish production of Qualcomm chipsets, industry sources said Tuesday.The outlook came as the new top-of-the-line model is expected to become the first smartphone to adopt Qualcomm's latest system on a chip (SoC), the Snapdragon 835. The models that will be sold in South Korea and some other global markets will come with Samsung's own Exynos 8895 that boasts simila

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it will seek to sell refurbished Galaxy Note 7s, an ill-fated phablet whose production was suspended last year due to safety issues.The South Korean tech giant said some 3 million units of the Galaxy Note 7 will be resold or rented out.  (Yonhap)The smartphone maker launched the Galaxy Note 7 last year, but its sales were soon suspended on reports of some of the devices catching fire while being charged.The tech giant has been rolling out replacement programs

The combined net profit of six credit bureau firms in South Korea jumped 31 percent on-year in 2016, as they expanded their business portfolio into new sectors, the nation's financial regulator said Tuesday. The combined net income of the six credit bureau firms, which collects and evaluates credit data between consumers and financial firms, stood at 57.2 billion won ($51.3 million) last year, up 13.6 billion won from 2015, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said in a statement. (Yonhap)The

Banks in South Korea sharply downsized their headcounts, branches and automated instruments in 2016 to cut costs amid rapid growth in mobile and Internet banking, government data showed Tuesday.The combined workforce of lenders operating in the country stood at 114,775 as of the end of last year, down 2,248 employees from a year earlier and the largest on-year decline since 2010, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service.(Yonhap)The number of bank branches and representative off

A nuclear reactor in the southern part of the country stopped operations Tuesday, apparently due to a coolant problem, the plant's operator said.The Kori 4 reactor, located some 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul in northern Busan, was shut down at 5:11 a.m. after there was a rise in coolant levels in a collection tank, the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. aid.  The Kori 4 reactor (Yonhap file photo)No radiation leaks have been reported, the KHNP said, adding that the 950 megawatt reactor and th

North Korea is 50 percent likely to conduct a nuclear test or a missile launch in the next 30 days, a US think tank has predicted based on analysis of big data on the communist nation."Beyond Parallel," a North Korea analysis project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, made the prediction after analyzing how often the North is discussed on the Internet in an effort to predict future possibilities, with a higher frequency meaning stronger "signals." (Yonhap)"The prediction is s

The US ambassador to the United Nations said Monday that North Korea would erupt in cheers if the UN adopts a treaty banning nuclear weapons because the communist nation wouldn't be complying with such a ban while others do.Amb. Nikki Haley made the remark as she voiced opposition to a proposed nuclear weapons ban treaty as dozens of countries kick off a UN conference to discuss the issue. Amb. Nikki Haley (Yonhap)"Suddenly the General Assembly wants to have a hearing to ban nuclear weapons. As