The Seoul metropolitan government said Tuesday it will ban drinking at Han River parks every night between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. starting the next day. The ban was announced Sunday as part of the central government's toughened social distancing guidelines for the capital area, which has recently seen a spike in COVID-19 cases. The city government said it will begin enforcing an administrative order on the ban at midnight Tuesday, with no predetermined end date. Violations will be punishable with

South Korea confirmed over 1,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday for the first time in six months amid a resurgence in the Seoul metropolitan area, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The country reported 1,006 more COVID-19 cases from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the number is expected to further rise when the daily total is announced Wednesday morning. The figure shot up to over 1,000 for the first time since Jan. 3 when the nation was undergoing a third wave of the pandemic,

SEJONG -- South Korea and the European Union on Tuesday agreed to work together against climate change in line with their shared target to achieve zero net emissions of carbon by 2050. Industry Minister Moon Sung-wook met Frans Timmermans, who serves as the executive vice president for the European Green Deal, in Seoul to share ideas on ways to cooperate in coping with climate change, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It was the first time for a high-ranking European cli

South Korea's main opposition party leader on Tuesday thanked the acting US ambassador to South Korea for his country's COVID-19 vaccine provision. Lee Jun-seok, head of the People Power Party (PPP), noted that he was one of the beneficiaries, during his meeting with Robert Rapson, the acting US ambassador to Seoul, at the National Assembly. "I was among those who benefited from the US' recent provision of 1 million doses of the Janssen vaccine," Lee said. "It is something that

The leaders of South Korea and Fiji have exchanged letters on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the two sides establishing diplomatic ties, Cheong Wa Dae said. In a letter to his Fijian counterpart, Jioji Konousi Konrote, President Moon Jae-in pointed out that bilateral relations have constantly developed since 1971, according to Moon's spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. Moon expressed hope that the two countries will expand cooperation in various fields, including politics, business and cultu

South Korea said Tuesday it plans to consider normalizing eased rules on banks' foreign exchange (FX) derivative positions as FX liquidity conditions have improved amid the global economic recovery. In March 2020, the country relaxed rules on banks' FX forward positions after the country's FX and swap markets suffered a severe dollar crunch caused by market routs over the pandemic. Last year, the country raised the cap on the holding of local banks' FX forward positions to 50 percent of their

South Korean stocks advanced for the second consecutive day to close at a fresh record high Tuesday as hopes for strong second-quarter corporate earnings drove up tech stocks. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) increased 12 points, or 0.36 percent, to close at 3,305.21 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1 billion shares worth some 14.5 trillion won ($12.8 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 476 to 344. Foreigners

The Seoul metropolitan government said Tuesday it will ban drinking at Han River parks every night between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. starting the next day. The ban was announced Sunday as part of the central government's toughened social distancing guidelines for the capital area, which has recently seen a spike in COVID-19 cases. The city government said it will begin enforcing an administrative order on the ban at midnight Tuesday, with no predetermined end date. Violations will be punishable with

Hyundai Rotem Co., a South Korean railway system and plant equipment maker, said Tuesday it has received a 335.4 billion-won ($297 million) order for electric locomotives and electric multiple units in Tanzania. Hyundai Rotem will supply 80 electric locomotives and 17 electric multiple units to the Tanzanian railway corporation by 2024, the company said in a statement. It is the first time for the company to win an order in Tanzania. Hyundai Rotem expects to win further deals as the local gove

South Korea's top economic policymaker and the head of the central bank will attend a Group of 20 (G-20) meeting of finance ministers and top central bankers this week, the finance ministry and the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol will head to Venice, Italy, on Wednesday to attend the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting set for Friday and Saturday, according to the ministry and the BOK. The meeting will center on eco

Imported carmakers are planning to introduce 53 all-electric models in South Korea by 2023 as they quickly move toward future vehicle technologies amid toughened regulations, the chief of a trade association of foreign automakers here said Tuesday. They also plan to launch 46 mild hybrid electric vehicles, as well as 32 hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, for the next three years, Rene Koneberg, chairman of the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA), said in a

South Korean shipbuilders saw their new orders rise over sevenfold in the first half of the year from a year ago, and they have achieved more than half of their annual order targets for the year, industrial data showed Tuesday. During the January-June period, Korean shipbuilders bagged new orders totaling a combined 10.47 million compensated gross tons (CGTs), up more than seven times compared with 1.35 million CGTs the previous year, according to data provided by global market researcher Clark

South Korea's ICT ministry said Tuesday the country reported 78 ransomware attacks in the first half of the year in the latest sign of growing cyberattacks. Ransomware is a type of malware that holds a target's data hostage or locks up its systems until a ransom is paid. It is not immediately clear whether the targeted companies paid ransoms to hackers in return for restoring access to their data. The latest figure represents a rising trend, compared with 22 in 2018, 39 in 2019 and 127 cases

As he finished a gratifying day of work on the mound, St. Louis Cardinals' starter Kim Kwang-hyun flashed his signature smile. The South Korean left-hander is an expressive one on the field, with his aw-shucks grins often accompanying his performances. Against the major league-leading San Francisco Giants on the road on Monday (local time), Kim had plenty to smile about. He twirled seven shutout innings, giving up only three singles on just 89 pitches in a 5-3 victory at Oracle Park in San Fra

South Korea will lower the maximum interest rate this week as part of efforts to ease financial burdens on low-income people, the financial regulator said Tuesday. The maximum legal interest rate that private lenders can charge will be cut to 20 percent from the current 24 percent Wednesday, according to the Financial Services Commission. It will mark the second cut in the maximum legal interest rate in three years. In 2018, the government cut the lending rate ceiling to 24 percent from 27.9 p

JYP Entertainment, the K-pop agency-label that represents acts like TWICE, Itzy and Stray Kids, said Tuesday it has opened a pop-up store in Tokyo for fans there. The venue set up in the Ginza neighborhood of the Japanese capital opened Saturday and is set to run until Aug. 31, the company said. In addition to selling merchandise related to the agency's artists, an exhibition marking boy band 2PM's 10th debut anniversary in Japan is also taking place. The company said costumes that girl groups

The number of counterfeit South Korean banknotes dropped to a new record low in the first half as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the decline of cash use, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday. In the January-June period, the number of fake banknotes found here came to 38, down from 161 a year earlier and marking the lowest since the BOK began releasing such data in 2000. By denomination, 5,000-won counterfeit bills accounted for more than half of all counterfeit bills found here, with 22 bil

Online shopping in South Korea hit a record high in May as more people used e-commerce shopping platforms amid the pandemic-induced contactless trend, data showed Tuesday. The value of online shopping transactions stood at 16.1 trillion won ($14 billion) in May, up 26 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The May reading marked the largest since November 2001, when the statistics agency began compiling related data. Amid an economic recovery and a non-conta

A total of 80 listed companies in South Korea changed names in the first half of the year largely as part of efforts to burnish their corporate image, data showed Tuesday. Twenty-seven companies listed on the main Kospi market renamed themselves in the January-June period, with 53 firms registered with the tech-laden Kosdaq market changing names, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository. The total number was up 45.5 percent, or 25 corporations, from the same period a year ear

The Seoul metropolitan government said Tuesday it is developing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platforms to enable the public to virtually experience a government office and historical palace rituals from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The city government will develop the platforms in partnership with the Cultural Heritage Administration, Woomi Construction Corp. and Cheil Worldwide Inc. under an agreement signed Tuesday, and unveil them to the public next year. The project w