Lim Hyo-jun, who won South Korea's first gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in short track speed skating, has applied for Chinese citizenship, a source close to the athlete said Saturday. According to the source, the scandal-ridden skater, facing sexual harassment charges, is going through a special naturalization process after receiving an offer from the Chinese Skating Association. "He'll skate for China at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics," the source said, adding that Lim fel

Philadelphia council resolution condemns Harvard professor for defending Japan's wartime sexual slavery The Philadelphia City Council has adopted a resolution condemning a professor of Harvard University for describing victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery as prostitutes in an academic paper. "On behalf of the survivors, and for women and girls around the world, we must continue to push back on dangerous attempts to minimize historical atrocities and ensure they never happen again,&qu

HYUKOH, one of the most popular indie rock bands here, will hold its first online concert in the southeastern historical city of Gyeongju later this month, its management agency said Saturday. "HYUKOH 2021 Online World Tour: through love" will air twice for fans here and outside of Korea, according to DooRooDooRoo Artist Company. Local fans can tune in via Korean ticketing website Interpark at 7 p.m. on March 27, while fans outside of the country can watch on livestream platform Dice

The government asked the public Saturday to use their encrypted personal numbers, instead of phone numbers, to protect privacy when they have to write down entry logs at widely used places like restaurants and cafes as part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Last month, the government rolled out a new privacy protection measure allowing people to use encrypted private numbers for visits to such places. An encrypted number consists of a combination of four numbers and two letters, a

A fire tore through the main hall of Naejang Temple, one of South Korea's oldest Buddhist temples, on Friday in a suspected arson attack by a disgruntled monk, firefighters said. Firefighters received the initial report of the fire at the temple in the southwestern city of Jeongeup at around 6:30 p.m. The blaze burned down the wooden Daewungjeon building, while firefighters were trying to stop it from spreading to other structures, the authorities said. No casualties were reported. The fire

South Korean director Hong Sang-soo on Friday won best screenplay at the Berlin International Film Festival for his latest film, "Introduction." At the announcement of this year's winners streamed online, the director's 25th feature film was awarded the Silver Bear prize for best screenplay at the 71st edition of the Berlin fest, which kicked off Monday for its five-day run in an online edition due to the pandemic. "More than telling a story, or advancing a narration with effic

The ruling Democratic Party's approval rating plunged to a record low since the 2017 inauguration of the Moon Jae-in government amid conflict over prosecution reform, a poll showed Friday. The DP's approval rating was at 32 percent, down 4 percentage points from a week ago, according to a survey on 1,002 voters nationwide conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday. This marks the lowest since Moon took office in May 2017. The corresponding rate for the main opposition People Power P

Global superstar BTS said taking part in the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) campaign aimed at ending violence and sharing hope among children and young people has actually helped them love themselves more. "I thought we're doing this for people around us but I realized as time passed that many changes also happened within myself," Jimin said in a video marking the renewal of the group's support for the global initiative. Jin agreed, noting how the campaign that kicked off

A new team has landed in South Korean baseball. The SK Wyverns are no more in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), as the team's new corporate owner, Shinsegae Group's E-Mart, announced Friday they will now be called the SSG Landers. SSG comes from Shinsegae's online mall, SSG.com. The nickname Landers was inspired in part by Incheon International Airport, the country's main gateway located in the club's west coast home city of Incheon, and the fact that travelers "land" there to a

Prosecutors on Friday raided SK Group's headquarters to see if the group is involved in the alleged creation of an illicit fund by the chairman of the SK Networks Co., a global trading unit of the group. The anti-corruption unit of the Seoul Central Prosecutors Office said prosecutors and police investigators from the unit were searching the SK Group headquarters in Seoul to secure evidence for an investigation into the slush fund allegation. On the same day, prosecutors indicted chairman Choi

The state auditor said Friday it found no irregularities in the steps involved in drawing up the Moon Jae-in government's nuclear-free policy. The Board of Audit and Inspection conducted an investigation after a former opposition lawmaker and 546 others asked the agency in June 2019 to look into potential irregularities in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's policymaking process. The group alleged that the ministry bypassed due procedure by revising a power supply plan before amending

Last weekend, global K-pop fans on Spotify faced a blackout of hundreds of songs by popular artists, including Zico, Mamamoo and IU, after the Swedish audio giant's licensing agreement with South Korea's top music distributor Kakao M Corp. came to an end. While some music has since been restored under artists' separate labels, Spotify Technology SA and Kakao M, now known as Kakao Entertainment Corp., said discussions for a new deal are ongoing. The South Korean company's music has been availab

Samsung Electronics Co. was the world's third-largest smartwatch vendor last year, a report showed Friday, as its rivals Apple Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co. expanded their sales. Samsung's smartwatch shipments suffered a 1 percent on-year drop to 9.1 million units in 2020, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. Apple further extended its dominance after its smartwatch shipments jumped 19 percent on-year to 33.9 million units last year, thanks to the performance of its Apple W

Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday introduced a new smartphone with high durability designed to meet the needs of those working outdoors or in factories. "The Galaxy XCover 5, designed to withstand "tough work environments, is a device that addresses the challenges employers in the field often face, from ensuring protection of sensitive material to durable use in any environment," said Mark Notton, senior director of mobile product portfolio at Samsung Electronics Europe. "W

The rental business of LG Electronics Inc., a major home appliance maker in South Korea, experienced sharp growth last year, a report showed Friday, as the company eyes to further boost its competitiveness in the sector riding on the rise of the pandemic-induced stay-at-home economy. Sales of LG's rental business stood at 591.1 billion won ($524 million) in 2020, up 34 percent from a year earlier, its audit report showed. Compared with 2018, revenues from its rental business have more than dou

The South Korean baseball league has greenlighted the entry of the retail giant Shinsegae Group following its purchase of the SK Wyverns. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Friday its board of governors, made up of club owners, unanimously approved Shinsegae's membership. Shinsegae's E-Mart recently took over the Wyverns from SK Telecom for 135.2 billion won ($119.7 million). And in a rare development, the group will pay an entry fee of 6 billion won. This is only the second time

Online shopping in South Korea grew more than 20 percent in January from a year earlier as the protracted pandemic promoted more people to buy products via e-commerce platforms, data showed Friday. The value of online transactions stood at 15.1 trillion won ($13.3 billion) in January, up 22.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The value of online shopping in January slightly declined from a record high of 15.9 trillion won in December last year but still

The companies that are scheduled to be split from LG Group may be named under the brand LX, people familiar with the matter said Friday, as they prepare for the departure from South Korea's fourth-largest conglomerate with the group chief's uncle. LG Group filed a trademark application for the brand LX and its logo to the country's intellectual property office this week, they said, with some 90 images that may represent the corporate identity of LG's new holding company soon to be established.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun urged the National Assembly on Friday to swiftly pass the latest extra budget proposal, calling it "medicine" and a "vaccine" amid the coronavirus pandemic. The government has submitted a 15 trillion won ($13.2 billion) supplementary budget plan to finance the fourth round of COVID-19 relief for small businesses and vulnerable groups. The new package is worth 19.5 trillion won, including 4.5 trillion won from this year's budget."This suppl

Two Army soldiers and a civilian employee have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Friday. A soldier in Sejong, some 120 kilometers south of Seoul, was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 while in quarantine after a virus case was reported at his base, according to the ministry. Since the first case was reported at the base on Monday, the total number of infections has risen to seven. Another soldier based in Hongcheon, 100 km east of the capital, was found in