A cauldron-shaped sundial made during the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty has returned home from the United States, South Korea's state heritage foundation said Tuesday. The Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation said it bought the sundial, one of the Angbuilgu public clocks, at a US auction in June and brought it back to South Korea two months later. Anbuilgu was first invented during the reign of King Sejong in the 15th century in order to tell the 24 solar seasonal terms as well as the hours

South Korean pharmaceutical firm Samsung Biologics Co. said Tuesday it has signed a long-term agreement with US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company to manufacture a novel coronavirus-neutralizing antibody. Under the contract manufacturing organization (CMO) agreement, Samsung Biologics will provide Eli Lilly's investigational neutralizing antibody for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for the in

South Korean shares opened flat Tuesday after hitting a nearly three-year high the previous session, as valuation pressure offset optimism over Moderna's experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 0.1 point to 2,542.93 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks traded choppy after a 1.97 percent gain the previous session. Valuation pressure, along with the unrelenting coronavirus toll, increased investor caution. Market bellwether Samsung Elec

South Korea is set to raise the social distancing scheme in the greater Seoul area by one notch to rein in the upward trend of coronavirus infections as the number of new cases hovered above 200 for the fourth consecutive day Tuesday. The country added 230 more COVID-19 cases, including 202 local infections, raising the total caseload to 28,999, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Daily infections stayed in the triple digits for the 10th consecutive day, with t

WASHINGTON -- US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday underlined the need for his country to push for a multilateral free trade agreement (FTA), partly to keep China and others from having their way when it comes to global trade. His remarks came as South Korea and 14 other countries in the Asia-Pacific signed a new FTA, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), that, if enacted, would become the world's single-largest free trade pact. The deal was signed by Australia, Ch

A 2.6 magnitude natural earthquake struck North Korea's northeastern region early Tuesday, South Korea's state weather agency said. The quake was detected around 3:10 a.m., 38 kilometers northwest of Kilju, North Hamgyong Province, and 8 km away from the site of North Korea's sixth nuclear test in 2017, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration. "This area used to be solid terrain without the occurrence of earthquakes, but there have been frequent natural earthquakes since the

The stock value of Lee Kun-hee, the late chief of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, has surpassed the 20 trillion won mark for the first time thanks largely to a surge in shares of tech giant Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Tuesday. The value of stocks held by Lee, who died on Oct. 25 after being bedridden following a heart attack in 2014, totaled 20.08 trillion won ($18.1 billion) as of Monday, according to the data from market researcher Chaebol.com. It was up about 14 perce

South Korea's lantern lighting festival, an event held to celebrate Buddha's birthday, is expected to be inscribed as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, the government said Tuesday. The festival of lights, also called the Lotus Lantern Festival or "Yeon Deung Hoe" in Korean, was among the 25 successful applicants that were recommended by an intergovernmental assessment panel to be listed, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration. The annual event, held in line with B

  Unionized workers at GM Korea Co. decided to go on a partial strike this week as they failed to narrow differences with management in ongoing wage negotiations, the union said Monday. They vowed to stage a four-hour walkout on Tuesday through Friday, and to continue to reject overtime work that began last month, according to the union. The workers have staged partial strikes on and off since late last month, as they failed to reach an agreement with management on this year's wages and co

Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday its research and development (R&D) spending for the first nine months of the year hit a record high of 15.89 trillion won ($14.3 billion) amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The figure represented a 600 billion-won increase from a year earlier, and is a more than 5 trillion won increase from its R&D investment tally in the first half of the year, according to the company's third-quarter business report. Samsung's R&D investment was equivalent to

South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. said Monday that its net losses narrowed in the third quarter from a year earlier on the back of its strong operating profit. Net losses shrank to 29.2 billion won ($26.3 million) in the July-September period from a loss of 296.4 billion won a year earlier, the company said in an emailed statement. Operating profit came to 33.6 billion won in the period, a turnaround from an operating loss of 256.3 billion won, while sales fell 2

Eight members of a voice phishing ring have been arrested in South Korea and China and investigators are looking into suspected links to a North Korean hacker, officials said Monday. Police and the National Intelligence Service worked together to arrest the members for allegedly stealing around 2 billion won ($1.8 million) from about 200 South Koreans by operating a phishing scam from China. All of them are South Koreans in their 20s and 30s. Four of them were arrested between January and June

K-pop superstars BTS has swept prizes from the People's Choice Awards 2020, the event's organizers said. The septet won the categories of the Group of 2020, Song of 2020, Music Video of 2020 and Album of 2020 at the annual ceremony, held online on Sunday (US time). Its Billboard-winning hit "Dynamite" helped the group earn No. 1 prizes in the best song and the best music video sections, while its fourth full-length album, "Map of the Soul: 7," released in February, was name

South Korean stocks surged to a nearly three-year high Monday despite the spreading coronavirus woes, buoyed by a rally in chipmakers and vaccine hopes that fueled investor appetite for risky assets. The Korean won rose to the highest in nearly two years against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 49.16 points, or 1.97 percent, to close at 2,543.03. The reading marks the highest closing since 2,568.54 points on Feb. 1, 2018. Trading volume was high at a

SEJONG -- South Korea's antitrust regulator is likely to give conditional approval to a $4 billion deal by Germany's Delivery Hero to acquire the nation's top food delivery app operator, Woowa Brothers, Delivery Hero officials said Monday. Delivery Hero officials in South Korea said the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) informed them that it would grant permission for the deal on the condition that the German firm sells its food delivery affiliate here, Yogiyo. Officials at the KFTC were not

Ultrafine dust levels remained "bad" in Seoul and other western parts of the country on Monday amid an influx of particles from China, environmental authorities said. As of noon, the PM 2.5 reading in Sejong, 120 kilometers south of Seoul, was 58 micrograms per cubic meter, followed by 55 micrograms per cubic meter in North Chungcheong Province, 50 micrograms per cubic meter in the northern Gyeonggi and Gangwon Provinces and 44 micrograms per cubic meter in Seoul, according to the Nat

AKMU, the ever-evolving sibling duo acclaimed for its witty and profound takes on love and life, is back with the new single "Happening." The single, set for release at 6 p.m. on Monday, is brother and songwriter Lee Chan-hyuk and sister Su-hyun's first song together since their landmark studio album "Sailing" that signaled a major step into adulthood. In a press release distributed by YG Entertainment, Chan-hyuk said the single is for "people who were hurt or have fea

Two right-handers will renew their regular season rivalry to open the South Korean baseball championship series on Tuesday. The NC Dinos and the Doosan Bears, two contestants of the Korean Series, each announced their Game 1 starters at Monday's media day. Right-hander Drew Rucinski will take the mound for the Dinos, the regular season champions who earned a bye to the Korean Series. The Bears will counter with right-hander Raul Alcantara. They finished third in the regular season and had to

The government decided Monday to spend 1.95 billion won ($1.76 million) to transform a guard post on the border with North Korea into a museum underscoring inter-Korean reconciliation efforts and honoring soldiers killed during the Korean War. The guard post at Arrowhead Ridge inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has since been used as a place to display items unearthed from the former battlefield under a project to uncover remains of soldiers killed in the 1950-53 war. On Monday, a civilian-go

The foreign ministry dismissed as "groundless" a media report Monday that it has been "bypassed" in the country's recent diplomatic efforts to improve ties with Japan strained over wartime history and trade. The local newspaper report came after National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Park Jie-won met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Tokyo last week, raising speculation that the spy chief had started to undertake a key role to restore relations between the