All-male K-pop act 2PM will release a new album this month, coming back from a near five-year hiatus after its members completed their military service, the group's management agency said Tuesday. The six-member group's seventh full album, titled "Must," will drop on June 28, JYP Entertainment announced on its official social media accounts. Its most recent album was its sixth studio album, "Gentlemen's Game," released in September 2016. With the exception of Thai-America

North Korea faces a serious humanitarian crisis due to food insecurity and limited health care, aggravated by global sanctions and the coronavirus, an international nongovernmental organization has said. According to the latest Inform Severity Index report compiled by the Geneva-based Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), North Korea faces a "high" level of humanitarian crisis severity. This represented the second-highest level of a six-tier crisis evaluation scale. The report also

South Korea's top internet portal operator, Naver Corp., said Tuesday that it has invested 40 billion won ($36 million) in a total of 70 startups -- mostly early-stage tech firms under its accelerator scheme that started in 2015. The investment was made over the past six years since the tech giant created D2 Startup Factory, an accelerator for tech startups under its arm. Naver has supported promising entrepreneurs with advanced technological skills since 2015. Naver said the startups were ab

Samsung Display Co., a major display panel maker in South Korea, is on track to produce its next-generation displays in the second half of the year, industry insiders said Tuesday. Samsung Display is set to release pilot products of the quantum-dot (QD) display for TVs and monitors this month and send them to its clients for further testing, according to the sources. The affiliate of Samsung Electronics Co. earlier revealed that it aims to launch its QD displays in the second half of the year

South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. said Tuesday it has struck a deal to buy a 7.5 percent stake in an Australian chemical company for 12 billion won ($10.8 million) for a stable supply of critical metals used in electric vehicle batteries. LG Energy Solution, the wholly owned subsidiary of LG Chem Ltd., said it agreed to buy new shares issued by Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM), which produces nickel and cobalt, key materials for lithium-ion batteries. QPM is the 100 percent own

South Korea's tax revenue rose 13.8 trillion won ($12.4 billion) in April from a year earlier due largely to an increase in the collection of capital gains taxes, the finance ministry said Tuesday. The country collected 44.9 trillion won in taxes in April, compared with 31.2 trillion won the previous year, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The rise in tax revenue was mainly attributable to an increase in capital gains tax income from housing transactions and fund investments.

South Korea and Britain were to hold an annual meeting on defense industry cooperation Tuesday to discuss pending issues, including their acquisition plans and joint research development, the arms procurement agency said. The meeting was to be held in the southeastern city of Busan, convened by Seo Hyeung-jin, the vice chief of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, and Mark Goldsack, the director of Britain's Department for International Trade Defence and Security Organisation, on iss

South Korea's daily new virus cases remained in the 400s for the second straight day Tuesday amid efforts to boost the country's vaccination campaign. The country reported 454 more COVID-19 cases, including 435 local infections, raising the total caseload to 145,091, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Tuesday's figure was down from 485 cases Monday. But daily cases usually go up starting Wednesday as more people get tested. Daily caseloads have been going through so

South Korean stocks opened slightly lower Tuesday on increased valuation pressure after the key stock index closed at an all-time high the previous session. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 3.08 points, or 0.09 percent, to reach 3,249.04 points as of 9:17 a.m. The Kospi got off to choppy start after it finished the previous session at a record high of 3,252.12 points. Stock prices fluctuated as investors take a wait-and-see mode, seeking more clues to fathom the ou

Tributes have been flooding in from around the football world for Yoo Sang-chul, a star of the semifinalist South Korean team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup who passed away Monday night at 49. Yoo succumbed to pancreatic cancer after a battle that began in November 2019. One of the most versatile players in South Korean football history, Yoo made the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team in 2002 as a midfielder after helping the country to the final four on home soil. Yoo scored the insurance goal in South

Duty-free sales in South Korea jumped more than 50 percent in April to nearly a three-year high, signaling the industry's steady recovery toward the pre-pandemic level, government data showed Tuesday. Combined sales at duty-free shops in Asia's fourth-largest economy increased 51.6 percent in April from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS). The figures mark the steepest monthly growth since 54.6 percent in May 2018. Sales surged 108 per

"Butter," the latest hit by boy band BTS, again ranked No. 1 on the Billboard's main singles chart in its second week after debuting. "BTS' 'Butter' adds a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, a week after it soared in at the summit, becoming the South Korean superstar group's fourth leader on the list," Billboard said Monday (US time), citing figures from MRC Data showing how the song drew 19.1 million US streams and logged 140,200 downloads in the wee

SK Telecom Co., a major South Korean wireless carrier, said Tuesday it will launch a virtual reality (VR) game for Facebook Inc.'s Oculus Quest devices in a move to bolster its presence in the VR sector. "Crazy World VR," playable on Oculus' Quest 1 and 2 devices, features a range of sports games from archery and tennis to bowling in VR and allows users to compete with other players around the world in real time. The game, slated to launch Wednesday, also incorporates characters from

WASHINGTON -- US President Joe Biden currently does not have a trilateral summit planned with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, but such a meeting could be possible as he will join a small group of global leaders in Britain, Biden's top security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Monday. The remarks came as Biden is set to head for Britain on Wednesday for the Group of 7 (G7) summit in Cornwall. South Korea is not a G7 member but is invited to this year's meeting as a guest, along with Aus

Jeju Air Co., South Korea's biggest budget carrier by sales, said Tuesday it has resumed flights to Saipan in a preemptive measure to absorb post-coronavirus travel demand. Jeju Air started to provide one flight a week on the Incheon-Saipan route on the day following permission from the transport ministry, a company spokesman said over the phone. "We expect most of the initial passengers to be businessmen, Koreans residing overseas and their family members. But pent-up demand for travel (

South Korea's current account surplus sharply narrowed in April as higher oil prices increased the country's import bill, the central bank said Tuesday. The current account surplus reached $1.91 billion in April, narrowing from a surplus of $7.82 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade. Since the country logged a deficit of $3.33 billion in April last year, the largest in almost a decade, on faltering e

The state anti-corruption watchdog said Monday it has identified 12 ruling party lawmakers suspected of having engaged in illegal real estate dealings, following a party-wide probe conducted in the wake of a public sector land speculation scandal in March. The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced that it identified 16 alleged speculation cases linked to 12 members of the Democratic Party (DP) and that it has relayed the information to a separate police-led special government in

Yang Hyun-suk, former CEO of K-pop powerhouse YG Entertainment, will face a criminal trial for allegedly attempting to cover up a drug scandal involving a singer-rapper, judicial sources said Monday. According to the sources, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office indicted Yang on May 28 on charges of having threatened and coerced an informant who testified to police about drug suspicions surrounding B.I, the former songwriting leader of YG's boy band iKON, in August 2016. At the time,

The Gyeonggi provincial government's plan to turn an inter-Korean border area into a "farmland of peace" and grow rice there for North Korea could create positive conditions for further inter-Korean cooperation, the unification ministry said Monday. The provincial government is pushing ahead with the project in cooperation with the Korean Peasants League to transform the area near the Gunnam Dam built in the South Korean border town of Yeoncheon, 62 kilometers north of Seoul, to cope

The culture ministry on Monday unveiled a plan to introduce a self-rating system for online video streaming service providers so they can shorten the time needed to circulate new releases. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said it will propose a law revision to allow video content service providers to evaluate and classify their soon-to-be-released series and shows, based on criteria set by the state-run Korea Media Rating Board (KMRB). Currently, all motion pictures and creative wor