Youn Yuh-jung was nominated for best supporting actress at this year's Academy Awards for her role in "Minari," becoming the first South Korean actress to achieve the feat. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled its final list of nominations for the 2021 Oscars Awards. The awards ceremony will take place next month. Youn, who plays an eccentric grandmother in "Minari," will vie for the prize of best actress in a supporting role with Maria Bakalova for &quo

The South Korean unit of Google Inc. has decided to lower its planned commission rate for app developers, parliamentary and industry sources said Monday, amid complaints from software makers over steep fees. Google Korea reported to parliament's committee on science and technology that it will cut the 30 percent rate on in-app purchases to 15 percent for app developers whose annual sales generated from its Play store are less than US$1 million, according to the sources. The new policy will take

The family of Byun Hee-soo, a transgender former soldier who was forcibly discharged from the Army last year, will press ahead with an administrative lawsuit she had filed against the Army before her death, an advocacy group said Monday. Byun's attorneys and family decided on Wednesday to apply for succession of the suit to "fulfill her dream (of serving the country as a transgender soldier) by winning the legal battle at all costs," the group working for Byun's reinstatement and res

South Korean stocks retreated Monday after choppy trading as rising bond yields continued to stoke concerns of earlier-than-expected post-pandemic inflation. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 8.68 points, or 0.28 percent, to close at 3,045.71 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 12.4 trillion won ($10.9 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 564 to 293. Foreigners sold a net 210 bil

South Korea on Monday reported 31 more new cases of major COVID-19 variants, including 12 local infections, prompting health authorities to stay on guard against the spread of the more transmissible strains here. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said 24 people were confirmed to have been infected with the British variant, and seven tested positive for the South African strain, raising the total to 213. Among them, 12 were Korean nationals infected with the British varian

South Korea will host an annual forum on bilateral cooperation with Latin American countries in Seoul later this week with a focus on digital technologies, the foreign ministry said Monday. The Korea-LAC Digital Cooperation Forum is set to take place on Wednesday and Thursday, both online and offline, to discuss cooperation on 5G networks, digital governance, cybersecurity and other issues, the ministry said. LAC stands for Latin American and Caribbean countries. Through this forum, Seoul seek

Active users of video streaming apps by Netflix Inc. on their mobile devices topped 10 million in South Korea last month, more than doubling from the start of last year, data showed Monday. The video streaming platform recorded 10.01 million Android and iOS users in the country in February, compared with 4.7 million in January last year, according to mobile data tracker IGAWorks. Monthly active users refer to unique users who interacted with a service at least once a month. Netflix was the mo

The United States consulted with South Korea in advance before attempting to reach out to North Korea recently, the unification ministry said Monday. Citing a senior official in the Biden administration, Reuters earlier reported that the new US administration has made several behind-the-scenes attempts to reach out to the North, although unsuccessfully so far. "South Korea and the United States have maintained close consultations and cooperation throughout the overall process of the US po

Police on Monday raided the homes and offices of local public servants and a council member in a widening investigation into land speculation nationwide. Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency sent investigators to the home and office of a ruling Democratic Party council member of Siheung and the home and office of a Gwangmyeong municipal government employee. Siheung and Gwangmyeong, both south of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, are at the center of a massive scandal sparked by allegations of land speculati

Nearly 90 percent of experts view the level of social division and conflicts in South Korea as serious, a survey by a parliamentary advisory committee showed Monday. In its survey conducted from March 2-6 on 1,801 experts in social, political or economic affairs who are registered in the National Assembly Library's database, 89 percent of the respondents said social division and conflicts within the country are at serious levels, according to a subunit of the Committee for National Cohesion tha

South Korea on Monday expressed hope for North Korea to take part in an inter-Korean World Cup qualifier scheduled for June as it is preparing to host the soccer match amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The second round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifying tournament began in September 2019 and was supposed to resume in March 2020, but the schedule has been postponed multiple times due to the coronavirus pandemic. The two Koreas belong to the same Group H, and they played to a scoreless d

South Korean brokerage firms saw their combined net profit jump 20.8 percent last year, thanks to a stock rally that helped them earn higher commission fees, data showed Monday. The combined net profit of 57 brokerages stood at 5.91 trillion won ($5.2 billion) in 2020, compared with a profit of 4.89 trillion won in 2019, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The combined brokerage fees stood at 13.6 trillion won in 2020, up 43.8 percent from a year ago. The brokerages

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Monday it has bagged orders worth a combined 823 billion won ($725 million) to build 10 vessels. Under a deal with an African company, three 91,000-cubic meter liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers to be built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., a unit of KSOE, will start being delivered in the second half of 2022, KSOE said. In a separate deal with an Oceanian company, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., another unit of KSOE, will const

South Korea's exports of automobiles advanced 35 percent on-year in February, data showed Monday, as major trading partners gradually normalized their economic activities amid the virus pandemic. The country's outbound shipments of automobiles reached 161,886 units in February, compared with 123,022 units posted a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In terms of value, exports also soared 47 percent to reach $3.5 billion. Over the first two months of 2020, th

South Korea's exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products jumped 11.5 percent on-year in February, rising for the ninth consecutive month on the back of strong overseas demand for chips and displays, data showed Monday. Outbound shipments of ICT goods stood at $15.28 billion last month, the second-highest amount ever for February on record, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT. The country reached a record $15.68 billion in ICT exports for th

An Air Force officer, two Army draftees and two civilian workers for the military have tested positive for the new coronavirus over the weekend, the defense ministry said Monday. The officer stationed in the southeastern city of Daegu was confirmed to have been infected in a test required to exit quarantine, as he has been in isolation after one of his family members tested positive earlier, according to the ministry. One Army draftee in the border town of Goseong and the other one in Yeonche

With the award-winning drama "Minari" topping the South Korean box office for about 10 days, two animated films from Japan and the United States have set milestones in the virus-hit film industry, data showed Monday. "Minari," a story about a Korean immigrant family who settles in rural Arkansas to pursue its American dream, garnered 130,000 people over the Friday-Sunday period, according to the data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). The semiautobiographical film of Kor

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases fell back to below 400 for the first time in a week on Monday as the number of people taking virus tests decreased over the weekend, but health authorities warned that the virus curve is set to follow an upward cycle amid warm weather and an increase in nontraceable cases. The country reported 382 more COVID-19 cases, including 370 local infections, raising the total caseload to 96,107, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The f

South Korea said Monday it will pump up efforts to smooth out volatility of the foreign exchange market and flows of foreign capital as rising US bond yields could increase market fluctuations. The country also saw the limited possibility of an acute outflow of foreign capital as its government bonds still offer higher returns than those of US Treasurys, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The finance ministry said the country's FX market and foreign currency liquidity conditions

South Korean stocks opened slightly lower Monday as rising bond yields continued to stoke concerns of earlier-than-expected post-pandemic inflation. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 4.24 points, or 0.14 percent, to 3,050.15 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Auto and financial stocks got off to a strong start, while techs slumped. Top cap Samsung Electronics lost 0.48 percent, but No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix gained 0.71 percent. Giant internet portal operator Naver t