The al-Shabab Islamic extremist group used what appears to be a North Korean mortar in an apparent attack against the United Nations compound in Somalia earlier this year, a UN panel has said, in a sign of possible arms deals between the two sides. The al-Qaida-linked group carried out six separate mortar attacks on the international airport in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu, between February and May. One of the attacks involved four 60-mm mortar rounds that were fired in the direction of th

K-pop megastar BTS will debut its highly anticipated new single, called "Life Goes On," at a US music award show next month, the band's agency said Saturday. The seven-member boy band will hold a live performance at this year's American Music Awards scheduled for Nov. 22 (local time), according to Big Hit Entertainment. The upcoming new album, "BE (Deluxe Edition)," will be released next month, following February's "Map Of The Soul: 7." Other details of the lea

He gave it a good run, but Mel Rojas Jr. of the KT Wiz has ultimately come up short of winning a South Korean baseball batting Triple Crown. The 30-year-old outfielder led the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in the regular season with 47 home runs and 135 RBIs. He built such substantial leads in those two categories down the stretch that the only suspense was whether he would also win the batting title and take home the Triple Crown. The best Rojas Jr. can hope for now is to finish second i

South Korean shares are likely to face high volatility in the coming week, with key political developments, including the US presidential election and new coronavirus outbreaks, expected to roil global financial markets, analysts said Saturday. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,267.15 points on Friday, down 3.97 percent from a week ago. Local analysts said the KOSPI could receive an upward push in the coming week from hopes for third-quarter earnings hikes a

South Korea's new coronavirus cases rose by triple digits for the fourth straight day Saturday as cluster infections across the country continued to pile up amid eased social distancing measures. The country added 127 more COVID-19 cases, including 96 domestic infections, raising the total caseload to 26,511, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). It marked a rise from 103 new cases reported Wednesday, 125 on Thursday and 114 on Friday, it said. The latest uptic

Starter Raul Alcantara tossed eight shutout innings for his league-leading 20th win, as the Doosan Bears blanked the Kiwoom Heroes 2-0 at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul to close out their Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular season on Friday. Alcantara lost his perfect game bid with two outs in the sixth inning, while allowing just two hits and striking out five to finish the season at 20-2 with a 2.54 ERA. The Bears scored a run in each of the first two innings, and Alcantara made tha

The prosecution on Friday raided two brokerage houses in connection with a snowballing financial fraud scandal involving a hedge fund, officials said. Investigators from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office raided the headquarters of Shinhan Investment Corp. and Korea Investment & Securities Co. in western Seoul to secure materials related to Lime Asset Management. Shinhan faces disciplinary action from the Financial Supervisory Service for misselling Lime funds. Lime is under

South Korea on Friday banned imports of poultry from the Netherlands after a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was found in the country. The Dutch government announced on Thursday that chickens on a farm in the central province of Gelderland were infected with a highly contagious variant of avian influenza (AI). South Korea's agriculture ministry said it imposed an import ban on all poultry and poultry products from the country. The ministry added it would enhance monitoring of fowl at

South Korea's telecommunications regulator on Friday ordered a six-month suspension of services for cable TV channel MBN for accounting fraud in an unprecedented heavy punishment of a broadcaster in the country. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said MBN manipulated its balance sheet in 2011 to conceal a portion of the capital raised under borrowed names of its employees. MBN's move was part of its plans to raise 300 billion won, the minimum requirement to acquire a license to operate

The annual Seoul Lantern Festival kicked off Friday for a 78-day run across four special tourism zones hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the city government said. The venue was moved from Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul to four neighborhoods -- Jamsil, Itaewon, Dongdaemun and Myeongdong -- that saw a sharp decline in tourism this year, the government said in a press release. "We hope that through this event, our citizens who are exhausted from COVID-19 will receive comfort and that

A North Korean propaganda outlet said Friday that the Korean War was the result of invasion by US imperialists, calling it a shameless distortion of history to claim that the North started the war. Uriminzokkiri renewed the North's long-held claim after Chinese President Xi Jinping recently caused a stir by saying that the 1950-53 conflict was the fight against US "imperialist invaders." The Korean War broke out after North Korean troops invaded the South on June 25, 1950, with backi

LG Electronics Inc. said Friday its net profit nearly doubled in the third quarter from a year earlier on the back of strong global demand for its TVs and home appliances amid the coronavirus pandemic. The South Korean tech giant said its net income reached 649.2 billion won ($573.6 million) in the July-September period, up 87.8 percent from 345.7 billion won the previous year. Its third-quarter operating income stood at 959 billion won, up 22.7 percent on-year, while sales reached 16.9 trilli

South Korean shares plunged more than 2.5 percent Friday, as major tech giants suffered a slump from massive foreign sell-offs. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plunged 59.52 points, or 2.56 percent, to close at 2,267.15. Trading volume was high at about 775 million shares worth some 11.5 trillion won ($10.1 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 753 to 123. Stocks widened losses following a weak start, led by a retreat in

Mino, the witty rapper and lyricist of K-pop boy band WINNER, said Friday his upcoming second solo album is all about showing what kind of musician he is. Mino, whose real name is Song Min-ho, is set to drop the album "Take," in the evening, two years after he released his debut solo album "XX" that featured the chart-topping main track "Fiance" in 2018. "Although I've been active in many areas, singing is my main job. Since I'm really serious about music, I

Some seasonal flu vaccines that were mishandled during storage were found to have been used for inoculation, health authorities said Friday.   The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said some of the bottles shipped by Shinsung Pharm. Co. were used in late September in neighborhood clinics as part a nationwide flu vaccination program.   The program was temporarily halted on Sept. 22 after some of the inactivated vaccines shipped by the company were exposed to

LG Chem Ltd. was the world's biggest supplier of electric vehicle (EV) batteries in the first nine months of this year thanks to robust demand from global automakers, a market research firm said Friday.  South Korea's largest chemical company accounted for a 24.6 percent share of the global EV market in the January-September period, with 19.9 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery production capacity, according to SNE Research. China's CATL came next with a 23.7 percent share, and Japan's Pana

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. said Friday that it swung to a net loss in the third quarter from a year ago due to the stronger local currency. Net losses came to 77 billion won ($68.3 million) in the July-September period, compared with a profit of 20.4 billion won a year earlier, Korea Shipbuilding said in an emailed statement. Sales fell 5 percent to 3.46 trillion won in the three-month period and operating profit rose 34 percent to 40.7 billion won. "The appreci

The South Korean men's Olympic football team will play at a friendly tournament in Egypt next month. The Korea Football Association (KFA) announced Friday that the national under-23 squad, coached by Kim Hak-bum, will face Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the tournament taking place in Cairo. South Korea will first take on Egypt at 1 a.m. on Nov. 14 (Seoul time) and then Saudi Arabia at 1 a.m. three days later. All three countries have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. These matches fall during the N

SEJONG -- Sales of cigarettes in South Korea rose 5.6 percent on-year in the first nine months of this year, data showed Friday, thanks to robust sales of traditional cigarettes. South Korean smokers purchased 2.75 billion 20-cigarette packs in the January-September period, compared with 2.6 billion packs in the same period last year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Still, the nine-month reading represented a 15.1 percent drop from the same period in 2014

South Korean bond market sentiment worsened slightly for November amid rising interest rates and concerns over a second wave of coronavirus infections, a poll showed Friday. The Korea Financial Investment Association said its bond market survey index (BMSI) inched down to 100.1 for the coming month from 104.1 in October. Yet the November figure is above par. A BMSI reading above 100 means more experts expect bond market conditions to take a turn for the better. The association's monthly survey