A group of South Korean lawmakers on Thursday called on Google to follow Apple Inc.'s move to lower its commission for app market purchases amid concerns of local app developers over high fees. Apple announced a day earlier it will reduce the standard commission on its App Store from 30 percent to 15 percent for app developers with yearly proceeds of less than $1 million from next year. "Apple's policy to halve its commission is well-timed," said seven lawmakers of the main oppositio

South Korea's health agency said Thursday that a total of 107 people, most of whom were elderly, died after receiving seasonal flu vaccines. The deaths had stoked public anxiety over the safety of such vaccines, but the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said 106 of those deaths have very limited relation with the flu shots. The remaining case is under investigation. Of the total, 48 people were aged over 80, followed by 40 in their 70s, 10 under 60 and nine in their 60s, the

INCHEON -- The first edition of the Incheon International Ocean Forum (IIOF) kicked off in Incheon, a Northeast Asian hub of marine and air transport just west of Seoul, on Thursday, bringing together a large number of maritime industry experts and entrepreneurs from home and abroad to chart the future of the ocean industry. IIOF 2020, hosted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Incheon metropolitan government and organized by the Incheon Port Authority and South Korea's key newswire

South Korea's agriculture ministry said Thursday it has confirmed another case of highly pathogenic H5N8 strain of bird flu in wild bird droppings, raising concerns over the disease's possible spread to poultry farms. It marked the fifth outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza this year. The latest outbreak in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, came just five days after a fourth case broke out in the same area, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The governmen

More verification is necessary to determine whether North Korea has atmospheric reentry technology for its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the defense ministry said Thursday, following a US think tank report suggesting Pyongyang has already mastered the technology. In the 2021 Index of US Military Strength report, the Heritage Foundation said Pyongyang's ICBM reentry vehicles "would likely perform adequately if flown to a normal trajectory to continental US targets," citin

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Thursday that it will hold an online technical conference next month on automotive materials and other relevant technologies. The conference -- which is set to begin on Dec. 2 -- is meant to promote Steel's technological prowess as it braces for an era of future mobility. Hyundai Steel said it plans to unveil its strategy on future automotive materials to meet growing demand for all-electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles and

South Korea's largest game expo kicked off online Thursday for the first time amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, bringing together major gaming and tech firms from both home and abroad. This year's G-star, the 16th of its kind, does not operate offline booths due to concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak, and fans are to participate in the event through the online streaming platform Twitch. Major local game developers and distributors ranging from Nexon Co. to Kakao Games will showcase their la

China will work together with South Korea to pursue multilateralism, Beijing's top envoy here said Thursday, cautioning against a "zero-sum game" and "unilateralism" amid an intensifying Sino-US rivalry. Ambassador Xing Haiming made the remarks, as worries persist that multilateralism has been eroded by the great-power rivalry heightened amid US President Donald Trump's tough stance on China and Beijing's growing assertiveness. "History has proven and will continue to

South Korea's net overseas assets hit an all-time high in the third quarter, mainly due to increased stock investments, central bank data showed Thursday. The nation's external financial assets came to $1.81 trillion at the end of September, up $66 billion from a quarter earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). Net international investment position came to $553.1 billion as of the end of September, down $100 million from a year earlier, the data showed. The positio

South Korean savings banks reported 9 percent growth in their combined net profit for the first nine months of this year, supported by a modest rise in interest income, data showed Thursday. The combined net income of the 79 savings banks stood at 1.02 trillion won ($918 million) for the January-September period, compared with a profit of 935.7 billion won a year ago, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Their interest income rose 8.9 percent on-year to 4.8 trillio

South Korean households saw their income earned through wages decline for the second straight quarter in the third quarter as the new coronavirus outbreak dealt a blow to the job market, data showed Thursday. The average household earned 5.31 million won ($4,774) per month in the July-September period, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. But hit by the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, household income earned through wages declined 1.1 percen

US President Donald Trump plans to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held via video links this week, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Thursday. "As far as we know, President Trump is participating (in it)," the official told reporters on the condition of anonymity. President Moon Jae-in is also scheduled to join the session that will open on Friday night (Seoul time). APEC groups together 21 member countries in the Asia-Pacific, including China. It remai

As a tougher social distancing scheme took effect on Thursday in the greater Seoul area and some other areas where COVID-19 infections have soared recently, high-risk multiuse facilities, such as restaurants and movie theaters, face restrictions in operation. The South Korean government earlier decided to raise the five-tier social distancing scheme by one notch to Level 1.5 in the capital city; the surrounding Gyeonggi Province; Incheon; Gwangju, some 330 kilometers south of Seoul; and a regio

South Korea will wrap up this year's war remains excavation work at a former battlefield on the border with North Korea, the defense ministry said Thursday, with Pyongyang remaining unresponsive to calls to work together as agreed. Under a military tension reduction accord signed Sept. 19, 2018, South and North Korea agreed to launch a joint project to retrieve remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War from Arrowhead Ridge, one of the fiercest battlefields inside the Demilitarize

An exhibition of press photos zooming in on life during the new coronavirus is set to begin at a Seoul museum next week, offering visitors a chance to see how the world is coping with the unprecedented pandemic, organizers said Thursday. The exhibition, titled "At the Scenes of the Pandemic," features 120 photos taken by photographers at 47 news agencies around the world. It is scheduled to open at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in central Seoul on Tuesday, accordi

As past generation network frequency bands used by South Korea's major telecom operators are set to expire next year, the ICT ministry and the three carriers are locked in a fierce debate over their redistribution price. Earlier this week, the government said it wants at least 3.2 trillion won ($2.9 billion) from the carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- for the 2G, 3G, 4G frequency bands up for redistribution next year, nearly double their proposal of around 1.65 trillion

South Korean power plant builder Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Thursday that it will team up with local builder SK Engineering Construction Co. to develop floating wind farms. SK Engineering will carry out a project to develop the floating wind farm, while Doosan Heavy will provide technologies for key equipment of the farm, the power plant builder said in an emailed statement. In July, the government said it plans to start building the floating offshore wind farm to ge

The Seoul city government said Thursday its energy saving program reduced greenhouse gas emissions by over 247,000 tons from April through September. Members of Seoul's "Eco-Mileage" program reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 247,137 tons, up 70 percent from the same period last year, creating the same effect as planting 37.4 million 30-year-old pine trees each absorbing 6.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year, the city government said. The Eco-Mileage program gives miles for cutti

The UN special rapporteur on North Korea's human rights situation has sent the two Koreas letters calling for sufficient information on the North's killing of a South Korean fisheries official in September, a diplomatic source said Thursday. On Tuesday, Tomas Ojea Quintana handed the "joint communication" letters to the diplomatic missions of the two Koreas in Geneva, Switzerland, as Pyongyang has yet to respond to Seoul's call for a joint probe into the official's death, with his fam

South Korean university graduates who land white-collar jobs at large corporations are paid an average of about 33 million won ($29,700) in annual starting salary as of June this year, government data showed Thursday. According to the data released by the labor ministry, local companies with more than 500 employees pay 33.47 million won on average to a worker who holds a job in business administration or accounting for less than one year after obtaining a bachelor's degree or higher. The avera