Big Hit Entertainment, the management agency for K-pop super group BTS, was to start demand forecasting for domestic and overseas institutions Thursday in the runup to its initial public offering (IPO). Big Hit Entertainment will determine the initial offering price following the two-day forecasting session as one of the largest talent agencies is slated to debut on the country's main stock market next month. General subscription for its shares is scheduled for Oct. 5 and 6 amid keen interest

South Korean shares opened sharply lower Thursday, taking a cue from a plunge in tech stocks on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 33.58 points, or 1.44 percent, to 2,299.66 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Investor sentiment worsened as key US stock indexes tumbled, with tech shares leading the market slump. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite plummeted 3.02 percent to 10,632.99 on Wednesday (New York time). The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will likely visit South Korea next month, government sources said Wednesday. "I heard Pompeo will come to Korea early next month," a source said. "It will be probably a two-day visit starting Oct. 7." He will also travel to Japan to meet with new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, according to another source. Seoul and Washington are in talks to set up Pompeo's South Korean schedule, including meetings President Moon Jae-in and Foreign Minist

Several members of the main opposition party have proposed "drive-through" rallies as an alternative to the mass anti-government protests planned for next month, drawing harsh criticism from the ruling party. The government has banned rallies of 10 or more people on the Oct. 3 National Foundation Day due to fears of another resurgence of the infectious coronavirus. Proponents of the idea say a drive-through will pose no risk to anti-COVID-19 efforts, while opponents blasted it as &q

Warner Bros. will pull out of the South Korean market after years of weaker-than-expected performances, officials from its local unit said Wednesday. “We've already stopped making fresh investments in Korean films,” an official from Warner Bros Korea said. “We will also wrap up projects that are in post production or in production.” The South Korean production and distribution unit of the major US film studio is now handling three titles, including “Josee,”

"Ice Cream," K-pop girl group BLACKPINK's new single, remained on Billboard's main singles Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks since its release. Billboard said Tuesday (US time) that "Ice Cream," featuring Selena Gomez, ranked 61st on the latest Hot 100 chart. The single debuted at No. 13 in its first week, achieving a record high by a South Korean girl group, and finished at No. 49 last week. "Ice Cream" also stood at No. 13 and No. 6 on the Global 200 c

South Korean shares snapped a two-day losing streak to inch higher Wednesday on the back of retail investors' massive bargain-hunting. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. After choppy trading, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.65 point, or 0.03 percent, to close at 2,333.24. In the previous session, the index fell 2.38 percent. Trading volume was moderate at about 725 million shares worth some 13.4 trillion won ($11.5 billion), with losers outnumbering gaine

Officials and members of a Seoul church at the center of a recent surge in COVID-19 cases have been indicted on charges of violating the government's no-assembly order imposed to control the spread of the new coronavirus, the prosecution said Wednesday. The Seoul Northern District Prosecutors Office said 14 people connected to Sarang Jeil Church, including former Gyeonggi Gov. Kim Moon-soo, have been charged with violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. They attended the c

A South Korean fisheries control official went missing while on duty aboard an inspection boat off the western border island of Yeonpyeong earlier this week, and authorities are looking into intelligence that he could be alive in North Korea, officials said. The 47-year-old official affiliated with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries disappeared from the 500-ton boat before noon Monday when it was patrolling around 10 kilometers south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean

More employees of LG Electronics Inc. working at its headquarters building in Seoul have been infected with the new coronavirus, company officials said Wednesday, prompting the tech firm to expand its remote working system. So far, five employees of LG Electronics have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two days, forcing the company to partially shutter the West Building of LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, western Seoul. LG has closed floors six through nine of the building and ordered all

K-pop girl group TWICE will release a new single album in Japan in November, according to its label-management company Wednesday. The two-track Japanese single, titled "Better," will be released on Nov. 18, according to JYP Entertainment. "Better" will comprise the lead track of the same title and "Scorpion." JYP said the new single was produced with the yearning of TWICE members to be able to meet with fans around the world in person. The nine-member group, whi

SEJONG -- The number of South Koreans who moved to different parts of the country grew in August, as more people were forced to change their residences due to rising housing prices, government data showed Wednesday. The number of people who changed their residences rose 8.7 percent last month from a year earlier to 615,000, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The population mobility rate -- the number of those relocating per 100 people -- remained at 14.1 percent in August, up

SEJONG -- The number of babies born in South Korea dropped 8.5 percent in July from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday, in the latest sign underscoring the low birthrate that has plagued the nation for more than a decade. The data compiled by Statistics Korea showed that 23,067 babies were born in July, compared with 25,222 tallied in the same month of 2019. It marks the lowest number of newborns for any July since the statistics agency started compiling monthly data on newborns in 1981. In

 Two South Korean figures -- Jeong Eun-kyeong and Bong Joon-ho -- have been included on the TIME 100 list of the world's most influential people of 2020, the magazine announced Wednesday. Jeong, commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), made the list in the leaders category, with Bong Joon-ho, director of the Oscar-winning Korean film "Parasite," chosen in the artists sector.  Jeong has been serving as the "field commander" of the c

South Korea and the United States held a video-linked session of their Nuclear Security Working Group on Wednesday to discuss cooperation on the minimization of the use of highly enriched uranium and other issues, the foreign ministry said. The group is among the four working groups under the High-Level Bilateral Commission, which was launched in 2016 following the 2015 revision of the two countries' nuclear energy cooperation agreement. Park Il, the ministry's director-general for nonprolif

Moody's Investors Service said Wednesday that South Korean nonfinancial firms' credit ratings will remain vulnerable to shocks caused by the prolonged coronavirus crisis. More than half of the rated Korean nonfinancial companies posted weak results in the January-June period compared to a year earlier. With the wide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic weakening business activity, negative rating actions will likely outnumber positive ones over the next 12 months, Moody's said in a statement. &quo

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it has successfully verified an advanced 5G technology with Japanese telecom operator KDDI Corp. as the South Korean tech titan tries to expand its presence in next-generation wireless solutions. Samsung and KDDI joined hands to demonstrate 5G network slicing technology in Tokyo with the Radio Access Network Intelligent Controller (RIC) platform that efficiently controls network resources. Network slicing is considered a key technology for the 5G network

K-pop band Monsta X will star in an online video series aimed at promoting treasured Korean cultural heritage overseas, according to cultural heritage authorities Wednesday. The YouTube series, titled "Korean Heritage Travelog," will premiere next Tuesday and will feature the six-member K-pop group alongside Seo Kyoung-duk, a liberal arts professor at Sungshin Women's University and a well-known Korea promoter, according to the state-run Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA). The se

The global TV market is expected to expand in the third quarter of the year due to pent-up demand amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, a report said Tuesday, boding well for South Korean electronics firms. Global TV shipments in the July-September period were estimated to reach 56.88 million units, up 2.08 million units, or 3.8 percent from a year ago, according to market researcher Omdia. With the rising stay-at-home trend, countries' stimulus measures and TV makers' aggressive promotions a

손흥민(28)의 소속팀 토트넘 홋스퍼가 카라바오컵(리그컵) 3라운드 경기 취소로 '살인 일정'이 더 꼬였다. 23일(한국시간) 이른 오전 열릴 예정이던 잉글랜드 프로축구 토트넘과 4부 리그 레이턴 오리엔트의 2020-2021시즌 리그컵 3라운드 경기는 오리엔트에서 다수의 신종 코로나바이러스 감염증(코로나19) 확진 선수가 발생해 전격 취소됐다. 경기 일정이 다시 잡힐지, 아니면 토트넘이 몰수승으로 4라운드에 진출할지 아직 결정되지 않은 가운데 현지 언론은 '연기' 가능성에 무게를 싣고 있다. TV 중계권료 등이 걸려있는 데다 토트넘 몰수승으로 처리한다면 오리엔트 같은 중소규모 클럽이 앞으로 코로나19 진단검사를 꺼리는 결과를 낳을 수 있다는 이유 때문이다. 나이절 트래비스 오리엔트 구단주는 스카이스포츠와 인터뷰에서 "지침에 따라 코로나19 진단검사를 받는, 올바른 일을 한 결과가 몰수패라면 앞으로 축구계는 물론이고 영국 전체에 더 나쁜 상황이 만들어질 것"이