South Korea and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperating in the exchange of diplomatic intelligence analyses, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday. Park Jang-ho, director general for diplomatic intelligence at South Korea's foreign ministry, signed the MOU with Brett Holmgren, US assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, in Washington on Monday. The signing came as the allies have been working to establish a framework for collaborat

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Monday highlighted deterrence steps of last year's summit declaration between South Korea and the United States as tools to harness amid resurgent calls for the allies to craft stronger defense measures following last week's summit between Russia and North Korea. After Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty in a show of their deeper military ties i

Seoul shares opened higher Tuesday as investors scooped up auto and chemical shares, despite a slump in technology shares on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 6.69 points, or 0.24 percent, to 2,771.42 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the Nasdaq Composite plunged 1.09 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.67 percent. Nvidia, which briefly shot up to become the most valuable firm last week, plunged 6.68 percent, with other technology fi

The financial regulator said Tuesday that the planned implementation of stricter rules on household loans will be postponed until the start of September amid various risk factors facing the financial market. The country was originally set to implement a second phase formula for floating rate stress debt service ratio (DSR) at the start of next month. The government "has decided through consultations with related organizations to implement the second phase DSR steps from Sept. 1," the F

North Korea on Monday sent balloons presumed to be carrying trash toward South Korea again, Seoul's military said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons appeared to be travelling in a southeastern direction from the northern part of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul. It advised the public to not touch fallen balloons and report them to military or police authorities. On Friday, Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of the North's leader, hinted about launching more balloons af

President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the site of a battery plant fire that killed at least 22 people on Monday and ordered government officials to draw up measures to prevent similar accidents from occurring, his office said. Yoon decided to visit the plant run by lithium battery maker Aricell in Hwaseong, 45 kilometers south of Seoul, to carry out an emergency inspection after being briefed on the fire by Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, according to his office. Yoon earlier instructed the minister a

North Korea on Monday condemned the U.S. sending of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the Korean Peninsula, saying that the North is open to taking "overwhelming and fresh" deterrence measures against such a provocative act. North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il issued a statement slamming the arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the southeastern port city of Busan on Saturday. Kim slammed Washington and Seoul for playing "very dangerous" games in a show of f

The Kia Tigers announced Monday their All-Star closer Jung Hai-young will be sidelined for at least two weeks with a shoulder injury. The Tigers, currently in first place in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), said Jung, the 22-year-old right-hander, has been diagnosed with rotator cuff tendinitis in his right shoulder. Jung was lifted during Sunday's game against the Hanwha Eagles after facing four batters due to shoulder discomfort. He had a preliminary test done on Sunday and went thr

Seoul shares closed lower Monday as SK hynix plunged by nearly 5 percent and battery makers remained in negative terrain. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 19.53 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,764.73. Trade volume was moderate at 580.2 million shares worth 10.8 trillion won ($7.8 billion), with losers outnumbering winners 637 to 233. Foreigners and institutions sold local shares worth 386 billion won and 94.4 billion won, respectively, while retail investors purchased 464.7 bill

South Korea and the United States will hold their fourth round of negotiations on sharing the cost for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong American troops here, a foreign ministry official said Monday. The talks on the Special Measures Agreement will take place in Seoul from Tuesday through Thursday, led by Lee Tae-woo, South Korea's chief negotiator for the talks, and Linda Specht, the US lead negotiator for security agreements at the State Department, the official said. The current six-year S

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has exchanged greetings with Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, North Korea's state media reported Monday. "Over the past 50 years, our two countries have established and developed solid ties based on comradely friendship and revolutionary obligation in the struggle to accomplish the socialist cause," according to Kim's message released by th

The state arms procurement agency said Monday it has completed the operational deployment of the locally built Surion utility helicopter to the Army, more than a decade after the first unit's delivery. South Korea began delivering the KUH-1 Surion helicopter to the Army in late 2012, after a seven-year development period starting in 2006. It was designed to replace the Army's aging fleet of US-made UH-1H and 500MD helicopters. The Army now operates more than 200 Surions, which carry ou

A South Korean scholar, well known for his expertise in relations with Japan, has been tapped to be the new ambassador to the neighboring country, government sources with knowledge of the matter said Monday. Park Cheol-hee, chief of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, the think tank under the foreign ministry, has been nominated as the new ambassador, and Seoul has asked for Tokyo's consent, known as an "agrement," the sources said. Park would replace the incumbent ambassador,

Representatives of doctors and the government are expected to sit down for talks as early as this week, as both sides have hinted that they would hold negotiations to seek a breakthrough to end a monthslong standoff over the government's medical reform. The move came as Lim Hyun-taek, a hawkish head of the Korea Medical Association, has stepped back from the standoff, prompting the KMA to form a committee to cope with potential talks with the government. After holding its first meeting last

Seoul shares opened lower Monday, after a mixed close on Wall Street, as investors remained cautious ahead of key US data and corporate earnings. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 6.68 points, or 0.24 percent, to 2,777.58 in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.04 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 fell 0.16 percent and 0.18 percent, respectively, as big-cap tech shares took a breather following a rally. Inves

North Korea on Monday criticized the United States for its military support of Ukraine and supported Russia's actions as a "legitimate act of self-defense," underscoring the growing military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. "If the rulers of the US persist in recklessly pushing their war machine into Ukraine for a proxy war against Russia, it will inevitably provoke a stronger response from Russia," Pak Jong Chon, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the

Kia Tigers infielder Kim Do-yeong joined the 20-20 club in South Korean baseball Sunday with a home run off former Major League All-Star Ryu Hyun-jin. Kim swatted a solo home run off Ryu, the starter for the Hanwha Eagles, to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers south of Seoul. It was Kim's 20th home run of this Korea Baseball Organization season. Kim already had 22 steals prior to Sunday's game. At 20 years, eight mont

ROME -- A girl statue symbolizing the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, euphemistically called "comfort women," has been erected in Italy for the first time, a local activist group said Sunday. The statue, dubbed a Statue of Peace or comfort women statue, was disclosed to the public on Stintino Beach of the Sardinia island Saturday, according to the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery. The Stintino statue was the second suc

North Korea is expected to hold a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea this week to review policy performances in the first half, amid attention over whether it would discuss follow-up measures to implement a new partnership treaty signed with Russia. In May, the WPK's politburo decided to hold a plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee in late June to review progress in its economic and other projects in the first half, without disclosing other details, s

A prominent US expert has made an emphatic call for the Group of Seven to consider its membership expansion to include South Korea, touting the Asian democracy's "trustworthiness," performance and potential role to add diversity to the club of the world's leading industrialized nations. Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, made the case, stressing the need for G7 leaders to pursue "serious" reforms t