Unification Minister Lee In-young called Friday for North Korea to cooperate in efforts to turn the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two sides into "experimental space for coexistence." Lee made the remarks in an opening speech during an international forum held in the border town of Cherwon to discuss how to develop the world's most heavily fortified border into a peace zone. "The South and the North are a single community of life and security," Lee told the forum.

Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday launched a mobile application that allows users to easily locate their misplaced smart devices. SmartThings Find is now available on Samsung's Galaxy devices globally after the service was tested by 6 million users in South Korea, the United States and Britain for about two months, the company said. The South Korean tech giant will provide a new software update for the service on Galaxy smartphones and tablets running Android 8 or later, Galaxy Watch smartwat

Apple Inc. launched its new iPhone 12 in South Korea on Friday, joining the fierce competition for the local 5G phone market. The country's 5G phone market has so far been dominated by local tech giants, such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., but the newest iPhone models -- Apple's first smartphones to support the high-speed network -- are expected to heat up competition. South Korea commercialized the 5G network in April last year as the first in the world. Local telecom o

WASHINGTON -- US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged Friday to strengthen the alliance with South Korea, rather than "extorting Seoul with reckless threats to remove our troops," and keep pressing toward North Korea's denuclearization through "principled diplomacy." Biden made the pledge in a special article contributed exclusively to Yonhap News Agency just days ahead of the US presidential election, reciting the catch phrase of the Korea-US alliance, "

SEJONG -- South Korea and Mongolia will lower tariffs on some products starting next year, as Ulaanbaatar joined a regional trade pact known as the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), Seoul's finance ministry said Friday. Under the deal, South Korea will reduce tariffs by an average 33.4 percent on 2,797 items, while Mongolia will cut tariffs by an average 24.2 percent on 366 items, the ministry said in a statement. Mongolia's accession to the APTA is expected to help the two nations expand

South Korean shares opened lower Friday despite the overnight Wall Street rebound, as major tech giants suffered a slump. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 11.33 points, or 0.49 percent, to 2,315.34 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks came to a weak start, led by top cap tech losses. Pharmaceutical heavyweights that posted stellar gains the previous session also retreated on profit-taking. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded by 0.52 percent to 26,659

North Korea said Friday that South Korea is the first to blame for the death of a fisheries official killed at sea last month because the South failed to exercise proper control over its citizen. But the North also said such an "accidental" incident should not lead inter-Korean relations to a "catastrophe." It also said it tried its best, unsuccessfully, to search for the body of the South Korean official to return it to his family. The 47-year-old fisheries official was fa

SEJONG -- South Korea's industrial output, consumption and facility investment increased in September, in a sign that the nation's economy may be on a track toward a mild recovery from the coronavirus pandemic-caused slump, data showed Friday. The nation's overall industrial production gained 2.3 percent on-month in September, following a 0.8 percent on-month decline in August, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea. Compared with a year earlier, overall industrial production jumped 3

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction said Thursday it has won a 400 billion won ($353 million) order to build a hydropower plant in Nepal. The South Korean company signed an agreement with Nepal Water & Energy Development to build a 216-megawatt hydroelectric power station on the Trishuli River, 70 kilometers north of Kathmandu, over the next five years, the company said in a statement. NWEDC, a special purpose entity for the project, is 50 percent owned by Korea South-East Power, a

South Korea on Thursday presented medals to seven US Forces Korea members who are descendants of Korean War veterans, in an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict, the defense ministry said. Defense Minister Suh Wook hosted the ROK-US Alliance Remembrance and Appreciation Event at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea. About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to

Police said Thursday they are investigating the death of a parcel delivery worker on duty earlier this week, which could be the latest in a recent string of deaths among couriers largely blamed on their heavy workload. The man in his 50s, who worked for a subcontractor of Hanjin Express, one of the nation's major logistics firms, collapsed at a Hanjin hub terminal in Daejeon, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul, at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday. He was sent to a nearby hospital but died, according to t

Lee Seok-hee, the CEO of SK hynix, said Thursday he believes the company's 10.3 trillion won ($9 billion) acquisition of Intel's NAND memory business is not an expensive deal. South Korea's No. 2 chipmaker last week announced it agreed to buy Intel's non-volatile memory unit for $9 billion, including its solid state drive business and a NAND flash chip plant in Dalian, China. If completed, it will be the largest-ever acquisition by a South Korean firm, far exceeding Samsung Electronics's $8 b

SEJONG -- South Korea plans to sell 12.4 trillion won ($10.9 billion) in state bonds next month, the finance ministry said Thursday. The ministry will issue 2.9 trillion won in bonds with a maturity of three years and another 2.4 trillion won in five-year bonds in November, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It also intends to sell 3 trillion won in bonds with a maturity of 10 years and 1 trillion won in 20-year Treasurys, while floating 3.1 trillion won in bonds with a maturity

The Ministry of Justice has begun inspecting the prosecution's decision in 2018 to drop charges against an asset management firm that is now at the center of a snowballing financial scandal, legal sources said Thursday. The ministry's inspection team on Wednesday secured the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office's internal document regarding its 2018 probe into Optimus Asset Management, according to the sources. The move came a day after Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae ordered the ministry to

The ruling party on Thursday unveiled a plan to field candidates in the mayoral by-elections in Seoul and Busan next year. The April 7 by-elections for mayoralties in the country's two largest cities are seen as a major barometer of public opinion ahead of the presidential election in March 2022. But the Democratic Party has long remained unsure whether to take part in the elections, as its internal rule prohibits it from fielding a candidate in a by-election if the by-election is caused by a

South Korean stocks closed lower Thursday on foreign and institutional selling as new coronavirus outbreaks in major global economies continued to surge at an alarming rate. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 18.59 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 2,326.67. Trading volume was moderate at about 488 million shares worth some 10.1 trillion won ($8.9 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 641 to 221. The KOSPI started ou

Daelim Industrial Co., a major South Korean builder, said Thursday its net profit rose 28.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier due to one-off gains. Net profit for the July-September period came to 229.1 billion won ($202.4 million), compared with 178.3 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Daelim Industrial said the reversal of the allowance for bad debts boosted its bottom line. Daelim Industrial said sales rose 2.7 percent on-year to 2.22 trilli

South Korea's health authorities said Thursday they have found no direct link between flu shots and deaths, urging people to get flu vaccinations before the onset of winter amid the coronavirus pandemic. Public concerns about the safety of flu shots in South Korea remain high, as at least 72 people, mostly elderly in their 70s and 80s, have died after getting flu shots. However, health authorities have pressed ahead with the nationwide flu vaccination program, citing autopsy results that fou

Four American service members and four other US military-affiliated individuals have tested positive for the new coronavirus upon arrival in South Korea from the United States over the past week, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said Thursday. The four service members arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on US government chartered flights, and two family members and two contractors arrived on international commercial flights at Incheon International Airport, west

Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S20 Plus was the world's best-selling 5G smartphone model by revenue in the first half of the year, a report showed Thursday, although its dominance is likely to end in the second half with the release of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 12. The Galaxy S20 Plus, which was launched in February, took a revenue share of 9 percent in the global 5G smartphone market in the first half of the year, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. The revenue of the global 5G s