US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Japan and South Korea has provided a chance to hear from the allies about their interests and approaches to North Korea, which will help boost the chance of success in denuclearizing the North, a senior US official said Thursday. Marc Knapper, deputy assistant secretary of state for Korea and Japan, said the US remains realistic but will strive for success in ridding North Korea of its nuclear ambitions. "One of our goals is to try and increa

President Joe Biden on Thursday instructed all public facilities, including the White House and military installations, to honor the victims of deadly shootings in Atlanta by flying the US flag at half-staff over the next five days. The proclamation came shortly after the US president declared the shootings "un-American." "As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on March 16, 2021, in the Atlanta Metropolitan area ... I hereby order that

South Korea is posed to speed up the rollout of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as part of its inoculation campaign as the European Union's medicines regulator assessed that there is no link to blood clots found in some recipients. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced Thursday (local time) that there is no evidence suggesting a correlation between the vaccine manufactured by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University and reports of blood clots, and that the

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Seoul next week for talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong on bilateral ties, Korean Peninsula issues and other matters, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Lavrov will arrive here on Tuesday for a three-day visit. His talks with Chung are set to take place on Thursday after the ministers attend a ceremony on Wednesday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the two countries. The anniversary

President Moon Jae-in made clear South Korea's resolve to improve strained ties with Japan in a bid to bolster trilateral security cooperation involving the United States, speaking directly to two top officials in the administration of President Joe Biden on Thursday. During a meeting here with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Moon said that the Seoul-Tokyo relationship is very important for regional peace, stability and prosperity and constitutes a "

South Korea's economy is expected to grow 3.2 percent this year as the start of vaccinations raised hopes of a solid economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, a regional macroeconomic research agency said Thursday. The forecast by the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) is slightly higher than the Bank of Korea's outlook of 3 percent growth for this year. The AMRO also expected South Korea's economy to grow 3 percent next year. But the AMRO warned that growth is uneven in some se

South Korean stocks rebounded Thursday on strong foreign buying, following the US Federal Reserve's reiteration that rates will remain at near zero through 2023. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 18.51 points, or 0.61 percent, to close at 3,066.01. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.2 billion shares worth some 14.8 trillion won ($13.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 503 to 329. Foreigners bought a net 483 b

Hanwha Group, a South Korean energy-to-defense conglomerate, plans to sell half of its stake in US electric truck maker Nikola Corp., the two companies said Thursday. Green Nikola Holdings, Hanwha's US subsidiary that holds a 5.65 percent share in Nikola, plans to sell up to 11.1 million shares over a six-month period from June, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Hanwha's stake in Nasdaq-listed Nikola is worth about $180 million as of Wednesday's closing price of $16.

South Korean fuel cell maker Doosan Fuel Cell Co. said Thursday that it will team up with Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) to develop solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), energy conversion devices that generate electricity, to be used for ships. Under a preliminary deal with KSOE, the subholding company of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. (HHIH), Doosan Fuel Cell will design and produce fuel cells, while KSOE will develop technologies to apply the fuel cells to ships, th

SEJONG -- The number of South Koreans getting married fell at a double-digit rate to an all-time low in 2020 amid young people's changing attitude toward marriage and the negative impact of the coronarvirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday The number of couples tying the knot in Asia's fourth-largest economy reached 214,000 last year, down 10.7 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The figure is the lowest since 1970, when the statistical agenc

An independent committee proposed on Thursday that legislation is needed to better handle and manage spent nuclear fuel as the issue has been a source of controversy over safety. The body under the industry ministry stressed a new law is necessary to proceed with the matter of building storage for spent fuel rods and other waste in a transparent and predictable way. The committee also said South Korea should set up an independent administrative body to monitor the management of waste, while he

Nonperforming loans at South Korean banks inched down last year, due to a slight decline in overdue corporate loans, data showed Thursday. The ratio of bad loans to total lending came to 0.64 percent at the end of last year, down 0.13 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service. Overdue corporate loans reached 13.9 trillion won ($12.8 billion) at the end of last year, down 1.4 trillion won from a year ago, the data showed. The regulator sai

SK Holdings Co., the holding firm of the South Korean energy-to-telecom conglomerate, said Thursday it will team up with China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. to launch a $300 million fund that will invest in future mobility technology firms. SK Holdings and Geely will each chip in $30 million for the proposed fund, and draw the rest of the finances from global investors, including European banks and Asian pension funds. SK said the mobility fund will invest in companies with automated, con

South Korea's money supply continued to grow in January, as loans to households and firms increased amid the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed Thursday. The country's M2 stood at 3,233.4 trillion won ($2.8 trillion) as of end-January, up 1.3 percent from a month earlier, according to preliminary data by the Bank of Korea (BOK). From a year earlier, M2 surged 10.1 percent, the BOK said. A key economic indicator closely monitored by authorities, M2 is a measure of the money supply

Hyundai Motor Co. said Thursday it has extended its business partnership with Royal Dutch Shell Group through 2026 for cooperation in future mobility solutions. Hyundai Motor has provided Shell's engine oil products to its global customers since 2005 through joint marketing activities, the company said in a statement. The South Korean carmaker has financed the global energy firm's research and development projects to improve the quality of its engine oil product, it said. On top of the existi

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Thursday once again apologized to the victim of alleged sexual harassment by late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, pledging its full support to help her return to normal life. "On behalf of the DP, I once again give my sincere apology to the victim," floor leader Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, who is acting as the party chairman, said during a party meeting. "(The DP) will take full responsibility in helping the victim return normally to her everyday

South Korea's finance ministry on Thursday said it will closely monitor market volatility, although the US Federal Reserve has hinted at no rate rise in 2023. Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom said market volatility may rise due to rising US bond yields, in spite of the US Fed's dovish stance. The remarks by Kim were made at a meeting with senior officials at the Bank of Korea (BOK). This week, the BOK cut the size of monetary stabilization bond (MSB) issuance in a move to help stabilize th

South Korea's emissions of fine dust from coal power plants moved down 22 percent on-year during the winter season, data showed Thursday, as the country reduced their operations in sync with its efforts to ease dependence on fossil fuel. The combined amount of fine dust generated by local coal plants reached 2.505 tons from December last year to February, compared with 3,225 tons from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The volume halved from the same three

Prices of memory chips, notably NAND flash and DRAM, are likely to increase significantly in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Thursday, boding well for South Korean chipmakers that dominate the sector. Contract prices of NAND flash are expected to increase by an average of 3-8 percent in the second quarter of 2021 from the previous three months, according to market researcher TrendForce, due to easing of oversupply. "Orders from PC OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) an

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases remained in the 400s for a second straight day Thursday as cluster infections and untraceable cases continued to rise, raising concerns that the country may be on the verge of another resurgence in virus cases. The country reported 445 more COVID-19 cases, including 427 local infections, raising the total caseload to 97,294, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily caseload was slightly down from 469 on Wednesday. Due to