Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Tuesday that it has obtained a 794 billion-won ($695 million) order from an Asian company. Under the deal to build five 15,000-twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carriers, Samsung Heavy Industries will deliver the vessels by January 2024, the shipbuilder said. The company said the five vessels will be propelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG). With the latest deal, Samsung Heavy Industries has won orders worth $2.4 billion to build 19 ships in tota

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. said Tuesday that it has signed a combined 835 billion won ($731 million) worth of orders from Liberia, Oceania and Europe to build eight ships. The orders include four container carriers and three liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, Korea Shipbuilding said. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a unit of Korea Shipbuilding, will build four 15,900-twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carriers and deliver them to buyers from the second half

Police said Tuesday they have arrested about 40 members of a drug trafficking ring including its key figure. They were found to have smuggled methamphetamine from Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries and distributed the illegal drugs to individuals, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. Among them is a man in his 50s who is suspected to have played a leading role in the organization. Police apprehended him at a studio flat in southwestern Seoul in mid-February after a six-month m

The Haemi Martyrdom Holy Ground, a Catholic sacred place in Seosan, central South Korea, has been proclaimed as an official international pilgrimage site by the Vatican, the city government said Tuesday. The Holy See designated and proclaimed the Seosan martyrdom holy ground, also known as the Shrine of Haemi, as an official international pilgrimage site on March 1, according to the municipality of Seosan, a South Chungcheong Province city about 280 kilometers south of Seoul. On Nov. 29 last y

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- There were royal victims and villains in Harry and Meghan's tell-all - or tell enough - interview with Oprah Winfrey. But there was only one immediate and clear winner: the American media queen. While the couple drew both strong support and rebukes for detailing why they fled Britain and their royal roles, Winfrey burnished her stature as a master interviewer with Sunday's special that rivaled "The Crown" for drama and heartache. She was in her element, breaking new

South Korea said Tuesday it plans to establish new test facilities designed to verify the safety of antivirus home products to cope with their soaring demand amid the new coronavirus pandemic. The country plans to allocate a 4.8 billion won ($4.23 million) budget to establish infrastructure to test products, such as hand sanitizers and protective masks, under cooperation with the Korea Testing & Research Institute, according to the state-run Korean Agency for Technology and Standards. The

영국의 해리 왕자와 그 배우자인 메건 마클이 왕실에서 인종차별을 당했다고 폭로하자 그동안 영국에서 크게 부각되지 않았던 유색인종 차별의 문제를 이번 기회에 제대로 짚어야 한다는 목소리가 높아지고 있다. 영국의 여론조사기업 클리어뷰리서치의 케니 이마피든 국장은 7일(현지시간) 미국 일간 월스트리트저널(WSJ)에 "미국에서는 (인종문제에 관한) 역사가 있고, 사회적 논의의 전통이 영국보다 길다"면서 영국에서 인종차별 문제가 겉으로 크게 부각되지 않은 것이 사람들로 하여금 그런 문제가 없는 것처럼 믿게 할 수 있다고 지적했다. 제대로 된 논의가 없다고 해서 문제가 없는 것이 아니라는 것이다. WSJ에 따르면 작년 영국의 한 여론조사에서는 응답자의 89%가 영국이 인종차별적이라고 느끼지 않는다고 조사됐다. 그러나 이 조사에서는 영국 흑인들의 75%가 백인과 비교해 자신들의 권리가 동등하게 보호받지 못한다고 생각한다고 답했다. 영국 전체 인구의 3%가 흑인이지만 이들이 기업

Two Army officers have tested positive for the new coronavirus after infections were reported at their bases, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The officers serving in the southwestern county of Jangseong and the northeastern county of Inje, respectively, were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 after they came into contact with soldiers at their units who tested positive earlier, according to the ministry. The latest cases raised the total number of infections reported among military peopl

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday said it will expand its lineup of customizable home appliances that allow consumers to better reflect their lifestyles as the South Korean tech giant aims to boost sales amid the pandemic-driven stay-at-home trend. Samsung said its concept of BESPOKE will be applied to all of its home appliance products as it introduced BESPOKE HOME solutions designed to help consumers decorate their entire home space with various customizable products. BESPOKE is a concept

South Korea's tax revenue rose 2.4 trillion won ($2.1 billion) in January from a year earlier due largely to an increase in the collection of capital gains taxes, the finance ministry said Tuesday. The country collected 38.8 trillion won in taxes in January, compared with 36.5 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.

North Korea's official newspaper on Tuesday carried contribution pieces by officials in the Cabinet and economic sectors holding themselves accountable for the lack of progress in economic development. The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, carried a contribution piece in a newly added section written by Jo Yong-dok, department director of the Cabinet, criticizing the lack of cooperation between industries. "Production was hindered by the lack of cooperati

Police on Tuesday launched a raid on the headquarters of the state housing corporation over allegations of land speculation by more than a dozen of its employees. The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency sent investigators to the Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) headquarters in Jinju, 434 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to seize material on the transactions based allegedly on insider information. The police agency also dispatched investigators to LH offices in Gwacheon and Incheon, both located near S

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to above 400 on Tuesday as continued cluster infections and increased outdoor activity are feared to ignite another surge in virus infections. The country reported 446 more COVID-19 cases, including 427 local infections, raising the total caseload to 93,263, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Daily infections stayed below 400 on Monday apparently due to less testing over the weekend after exceeding the threshold f

Kia Corp. on Tuesday released a teaser for the EV6, its first dedicated all-electric model built on Hyundai Motor Group's EV platform, ahead of its global unveiling later this month. Kia plans to launch seven all-electric models by 2027, and the EV6 is the first model of the planned EV-only lineup, the company said in a statement. The EV6 is based on the group's own Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) and developed under Kia's new design philosophy that embodies its shifting focus towar

South Korean vaccine maker SK Bioscience Co. on Tuesday kicked off a two-day public subscription for its initial public offering (IPO), seen as a high-profile share sale during the first half. SK Bioscience, a unit of South Korea's No. 2 family-controlled conglomerate SK Group, has allowed individual investors to subscribe to up to 2.29 million new common shares to be sold under the planned IPO. SK Bioscience has set the IPO price at 65,000 won ($57) per share, which puts its corporate value a

South Korea's financial markets are likely to undergo further volatility as bond yields and inflation risks are rising amid hopes for an economic recovery, a vice finance minister said Tuesday. First Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom warned that if US bond rates continue to rise, asset prices may suffer a decline, after their bull run caused by ample liquidity. "If US bond yields continue to rise, investors could turn risk-averse, which could spark a fall in asset prices and capital out

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday, tracking overnight tech losses on Wall Street that stemmed from concerns over post-pandemic inflation. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 3.7 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,992.41 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 2.41 percent, as yields of the US benchmark 10-year Treasury rebounded and finished just shy of 1.6 percent. In Seoul, top cap Samsung Electronics lost 0.61 percent,

A recent jump in international oil prices and recovering refining margins are raising expectations for a rebound in South Korean oil refiners' earnings down the road, industry sources said Tuesday. Industry leader SK Innovation Co. and three other players registered their worst performances ever last year, stung by slumping crude prices, weak refining margins and tumbling demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a boon to local refiners, however, international oil prices have been rising rap

WASHINGTON -- South Korea may be considering joining a US-led regional forum that it had previously shunned, in an effort to influence US policy toward North Korea, a member of South Korea's presidential policy advisory group said. Hwang Ji-hwan, a member of the president's commission on policy planning, said the Seoul government, just like the US government, does not aim for a sudden or complete removal of sanctions on North Korea but to do so gradually through a process of diplomacy and negot

Major global investment banks (IBs) have revised up their forecasts for South Korea's 2021 economic growth for the third consecutive month amid growing expectations for a recovery, a report showed Tuesday. As of end-February, nine major global IBs, including Barclays, BoA-Merrill Lynch and Citi, forecast Asia's fourth-largest economy to grow 3.6 percent this year, up 0.1 percentage point from their median outlook a month earlier, according to the report by the Korea Center for International Fin