Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., a South Korean power plant builder, said Thursday that it will cooperate with a local power company, Korea Midland Power Co., to tap into the overseas hydropower plant market. The two companies will aggressively expand their presence in the Southeast Asian hydropower plant market that is estimated to grow by 40 gigawatts by 2040, Doosan Heavy said in an emailed statement. Korea Midland Power has been operating two hydropower plants in Indonesia

South Korea and Indonesia on Thursday agreed to cooperate in overcoming the economic fallout from the new coronavirus pandemic by maintaining trade ties and improving the business environment. Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo met his Indonesian counterpart Bahlil Lahadalia in Seoul, sharing ideas on expanding trades and investment between the two nations, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy. The two also discussed improving the business environment for South Korean steel, che

지난달 별세한 강경화 외교부 장관의 시아버지인 고(故) 이기을 연세대 명예교수가 독립유공자로 등록된다. 12일 국가보훈처에 따르면 지난 3일 이 교수의 독립유공자 포상 대상자 선정 관련 안건이 국무회의에서 의결됐다. 오는 17일 순국선열의 날에 유족에게 대통령 표창이 수여될 예정이다. 함남 북청 출신인 이 교수는 일제 말기 이른바 '중앙고보 5인 독서회' 사건에 가담했다. 5인 독서회는 이 교수 등 중앙고보 4학년생 5명이 1940년 민족정기 고취, 독립 쟁취를 목적으로 고(故) 최복현 선생의 지도 아래 만든 조직이다. 이듬해 여름방학에 한 학생의 연락 편지가 일본 경찰에 발각되면서 이 교수 역시 검거돼 함흥교도소에서 1개월 20여 일간 옥살이를 한 것으로 알려졌다. 석방 후 이 교수는 1943년 연희전문학교(연세대 전신) 상과에 입학했으나 그해 말 일본군 학병이 돼 일본에서 해방을 맞았다. 해방 후에는 1947년 연희전문, 1952년 연대 상경대를 졸업하고 1955&sim

Son Heung-min loves playing for his country as much as anyone, but he doesn't put on his South Korean kit just to feel good about himself. When South Korea take on Mexico and Qatar in friendly matches in Austria later this month, the men's national football team captain will try to settle an old score. Mexico beat South Korea 2-1 during the group stage at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and Qatar knocked out South Korea 1-0 in the quarterfinals at the 2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup

South Korea said Thursday it is investigating three suspected cases of avian influenza found from wild bird droppings, amid the growing concerns over the disease spreading to local poultry farms. Local authorities are looking into the three cases reported in Gyeonggi Province earlier this week, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It could take about five days to determine whether the virus is a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu. South Korea has raised its guard

A Canadian aid group has provided soy milk to around 80,000 children in North Korea as part of efforts to ease malnutrition among kids in the impoverished state, its website showed Thursday. First Steps Health Society said that 100 tons of soybeans have recently been shipped to "eight of our soymilk partner sites in three provinces, reaching more than 80,000 children with much needed soymilk at exactly the right time." The recently-delivered soybeans are part of 400 tons the group pr

South Korea's top national security officials on Thursday reviewed the developments of the recent US presidential election and ways to strengthen the Seoul-Washington alliance, Cheong Wa Dae said. The presidential office said the members of the National Security Council's standing committee discussed the developments of the American presidential election and means to sustain and further develop the South Korea-US relationship based on the bilateral alliance. It was their first weekly session s

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha's late father-in-law will be posthumously recognized by the state as a patriot for his contribution to Korea's independence from the Japanese colonial rule, the veterans affairs ministry said Thursday. Lee Ki-eul, emeritus professor of Seoul's Yonsei University, applied for the recognition in April, which was approved during a Cabinet meeting earlier this month, according to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA). In 1940, when he was a high school

South Korea's new coronavirus cases rose by triple digits for a fifth day Thursday, as sporadic cluster infections from private gatherings and facilities piled up across the nation, raising the possibility that the country may enhance social distancing measures. The country added 143 more COVID-19 cases, including 128 local infections, raising the total caseload to 27,942, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The daily caseload marked a slight decrease from 14

South Korean shares opened lower Thursday on profit-taking, after the benchmark index hit an over 2-year high the previous session over vaccine hopes. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 8.48 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,477.39 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Chip, auto and bio heavyweights retreated after a big advance the previous session amid toughened COVID-19 quarantine measures in major economies. Overnight, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.01 percent to 11,

The delinquency rate for South Korean banks' won-denominated loans inched down in September from the previous month and remained stable, the financial watchdog said Thursday. The rate for bank loans more than 30 days overdue stood at 0.3 percent at the end of September, down 0.07 percentage point from August, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Compared with a year earlier, the bank loan delinquency rate was down 0.14 percentage point. The delinquency rate for corporate loan

The chief of the state auditor said Wednesday that the agency determined there was a "possibility of a crime" in the government's evaluation of the economic viability of a now-decommissioned nuclear reactor. The prosecution recently launched a probe into the industry ministry and two state-run energy firms after the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) announced late last month that they manipulated the profitability projections of the Wolsong-1 nuclear reactor to determine its early c

South Korea's export prices fell for the third straight month in October as oil costs declined and the local currency gained against the US dollar, central bank data showed Thursday. The country's export price index, in terms of the local currency, dropped 2.6 percent in October from the previous month, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reading marked the third consecutive month of on-month decline after the index rose for a third month in a row in July. Fro

Online credit card spending in South Korea spiked more than 35 percent in September as consumers avoided going out due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, data showed Thursday. Online and telemarketing credit card purchases came to 10.29 trillion won ($9.2 billion) in September, up 35.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. It marks the first time for the monthly tally to surpass the 10 trillion won mark since December 2009 when the central bank began t

Violators of South Korea's face mask mandate may face fines starting Friday as the country seeks to better combat the new coronavirus. The move follows an end to a 30-day grace period for the implementation of the country's revised infectious disease control and prevention act, which requires people to wear face masks on mass transportation and in public places. People will face a fine of up to 100,000 won (about $90) if they do not wear masks on public transportation and at demonstrations, as

Four more workers at a defense ministry agency handling welfare for service members have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the ministry said Thursday. The latest cases brought the total number of COVID-19 cases at the Welfare Agency to 11 -- five service members and six civilian officials -- after one member of its personnel was confirmed to have been infected earlier this week, according to the ministry. Three family members of the patients were also found to have been infected, the C

South Korea will open a two-hour online course for reserve forces next week, the defense ministry said Thursday, after their annual field training was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic. The training sessions for the country's 2.75 million-strong forces were supposed to kick off in September, but the government decided not to conduct the field programs as part of nationwide efforts to stem the spread of the virus. From Monday to Feb. 21, volunteers for the distance learning can take c

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his incoming US counterpart, Joe Biden, agreed to work closely together to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, as they had a 14-minute phone conversation Thursday, Cheong Wa Dae said. Biden described South Korea as a "linchpin" of security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, according to Moon's spokesman Kang Min-seok. Moon asked Biden to "communicate closely" for the forward-looking development of the Seoul-Washington allia

WASHINGTON -- US President-elect Joe Biden made a brief trip to a Korean War veterans' memorial in his home state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday as the United States observed its national Veterans Day. "Biden, holding the hand of his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and accompanied by the Mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney, arrived at the black marble memorial that stands in a square. US and Korean flags flew overhead," a pool report said. The visit lasted 15 minutes, during which the president-el

  A Seoul court on Wednesday approved pre-trial detention of a mother suspected of abusing her adopted 16-month-old baby to death. The Seoul Southern District Court issued the warrant to detain the woman, whose identity has been withheld, on charges of child abuse resulting in death, citing the risk that she may try to flee or tamper with evidence. The baby died at a Seoul hospital on Oct. 13, police said. She reportedly had serious injuries on her abdomen and brain, prompting doctors to