South Korea's new coronavirus cases fell below 100 on Saturday for the first time in four days as health authorities introduced a revised social distancing scheme. South Korea confirmed 89 COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 27,284, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). One more patient died, raising the death toll to 477. The number of daily virus cases had stayed in the triple digits from Wednesday through Friday. Of the 89 new cases Saturday, loca

South Korea opened a consulate general in Da Nang on Friday as part of efforts to meet the growing needs of its people traveling the eastern city of Vietnam. The Consulate General of South Korea in Da Nang held a ceremony to mark the launch of the diplomatic mission at the Hilton Hotel in the Vietnamese city and went into operation. The ceremony was attended by Park Noh-wan, the South Korean ambassador to Vietnam, and other diplomats from the two countries. The opening has been needed to meet

Suga, a member of K-pop megastar BTS, will take a break from official activities, including promotion for an upcoming album, to fully recover from a recent shoulder surgery, the band's agency said Friday. "Suga underwent surgery to repair his torn shoulder labrum on November 3," Big Hit Entertainment said in an announcement posted on fan community Weverse, adding that the BTS member is resting well following the successful surgery. The agency said Suga has suffered from shoulder-rela

President Moon Jae-in on Friday expressed gratitude to the Combined Forces Command (CFC) between South Korea and the United States for helping Seoul tackle the coronavirus pandemic as he congratulated the command on its 42nd founding anniversary. In a message sent to a ceremony held in Yongsan to mark the anniversary, Moon said that South Korea's anti-COVID-19 measures could become a role model for the world as all members of the command endured inconveniences to prevent the spread of the virus

Lotte Shopping Co. said Friday it swung to a net profit in the third quarter on robust performance in its non-department store business amid the new coronavirus outbreak.   Net income reached 3 billion won ($2.7 million) in the July-September period, a turnaround from a net loss of 23.3 billion won a year earlier, the key unit of retail giant Lotte Group said in a regulatory filing. From three months earlier, it swung to the black from a net loss of 199 billion won. Operating prof

South Korean stocks extended their winning streak to a fifth day Friday, helped by massive foreign buying amid eased uncertainties over US election results. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 2.71 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 2,416.5. Trading volume was moderate at about 812 million shares worth around 12.4 trillion won ($11.1 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 533 to 294. The KOSPI traded choppy amid profit

Diplomats of South Korea and the United States held talks in Seoul on Friday to discuss pending bilateral and regional issues, the foreign ministry said, ahead of Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha's trip to Washington next week. The meeting between Koh Yun-ju, the ministry's director general for North American affairs, and Marc Knapper, deputy US assistant secretary of state for Korea and Japan, came just days after the US presidential election. Kang plans to visit the US from Sunday through Wed

An appeals court on Friday sentenced South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo, a close confidant of President Moon Jae-in, to two years in prison for conspiring to manipulate online opinions in favor of Moon ahead of the 2017 presidential election. The Seoul High Court found Kim guilty of participating in the online opinion rigging scheme, affirming the guilty verdict handed down to him by a district court in January last year. "Forming public opinion in a fair manner is crucial in a

Ten American service members have tested positive for the new coronavirus upon arrival in South Korea from the United States in the past week, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said Friday. Nine of them arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on US government-chartered flights, while the other member arrived here on a commercial flight via Incheon International Airport, west of the capital, according to the US military. Eight of them tested positive on their first mandatory COVID-19 t

South Korea and Uzbekistan agreed Friday to announce the launch of trade talks at an opportune time in an effort to expand bilateral trade, the government said. The agreement was made between South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo and Sardor Umurzakov, Uzbekistan's deputy prime minister for investment and foreign economic relations, during a videoconference of a bilateral trade and economic committee, the trade ministry said. The meeting of the committee, the official

President Moon Jae-in on Friday reiterated his promise to upgrade the nation's disaster response system and improve the safety and welfare of firefighters during a ceremony to mark the 58th Firefighters' Day. About 200 people, including government officials, firefighters and bereaved families of those who died in the line of duty, attended the event at the National Fire Service Academy in Gongju, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul. It was the first Firefighters' Day since the government upgrad

JEONJU -- A man has been sentenced to a life imprisonment for brutally murdering two women and abandoning their bodies, a local court said Friday. The Jeonju District Court delivered the life sentence to Choi Shin-jong, 31, convicting him of murder and robbery, as well as rape and abandonment of dead bodies, according to court officials. The court also issued an order, banning Choi from working at institutions for the underage and the disabled for 10 years. Under the order, Choi's identity an

South Korean manufacturers' domestic supply declined for the second straight quarter in the third quarter, as production remained sluggish amid the new coronavirus outbreak, data showed Friday. The manufacturing domestic supply index stood at 102.7 in the July-September period, down 0.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The third-quarter tally compared with a 4.5 percent on-year drop in the second quarter, when the index fell at the sharpest pace since t

An anti-corruption law equating a promise of bribery by financial services company employees with actual bribery does not run counter to the nation's Constitution, the Constitutional Court ruled Friday. Under the aggravated punishment of specific economic crimes act, executives and employees of local financial services companies caught receiving or requesting 30 million won ($26,650) or more in job-related bribes are subject to increased punishments according to the amount. Notably, the standi

President Moon Jae-in said Friday that South Korea will never give up efforts for the denuclearization of the peninsula and establishment of permanent peace in the region, as he underlined the need to revitalize the Korea peace process. "Even though the Armistice Agreement was signed, without a peace treaty in place, the Korean War has not ended yet, and neither has the pain and sorrow of the war," Moon said in a prerecorded speech delivered at the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity,

A top South Korean national security official stressed the need Friday for the resumption of dialogue between North Korea and the United States, pointing out that the US presidential election has come to an end. Suh Hoon, director of national security at the presidential office, made the call during a virtual consultation session with his American and Japanese counterparts, Robert O'Brien and Shigeru Kitamura, Cheong Wa Dae said. They had discussions on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, e

SEOUL/JEJU -- Jeju Gov. Won Hee-ryong called Friday for Japan to deal with the contaminated radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant as a "human, environmental security issue." The governor made the remarks during the opening ceremony of the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, amid public concerns over Tokyo's possible discharge of the tritium-laced water in the ocean. "On Japan's decision to release radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, I urge Japa

Defense minister Suh Wook on Friday met with the elder brother of a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea near the western sea border as the bereaved family raised doubts about the government's finding that the slain official attempted to defect to the North. On Sept. 22, North Korea fatally shot the 47-year-old official, who was adrift on its side of the Yellow Sea, and burned his body, according to the South Korean military. He went missing the previous day while on duty near

South Korea said Friday that it is looking into four suspected cases of avian influenza found from wild bird droppings. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it could take about five days to determine whether the virus is a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu. In October, South Korea reported two outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian flu in Yongin, just south of Seoul, and the neighboring city of Cheonan, marking the first outbreak in 32 months. South Korea later found

South Korean movie theaters are rolling up their sleeves to receive more film buffs as the 2-meter distancing rule in theaters is set to be lifted under the new five-tier scheme next week. Last week, the South Korean government announced a detailed set of social distancing and stay-in-place mandates to improve antivirus measures and clarify business restrictions in a tailored fashion. It came as the country has reported around 100 cases of COVID-19 per day for more than a month, having success