Three more people died Thursday after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, officials said, raising the number of post-vaccination deaths in the country to five. A 52-year-old patient at a long-term care hospital in Jeonju, 243 kilometers south of Seoul, died early Thursday morning, nearly two days after being vaccinated, according to North Jeolla Province officials. The patient had a cardio-cerebrovascular disease and suffered a brain hemorrhage in June. The second patient, age

Kyobo Life Insurance, one of South Korea's leading life insurers, said Thursday its earnings plunged nearly 30 percent in 2020 due to increased costs. Net profit came to 382.9 billion won ($340 million) last year, down 29.9 percent from a year earlier, Kyobo Life Insurance said in a filing to the Korea Life Insurance Association. Kyobo Life Insurance said its net income fell due to a temporary rise in costs to prevent insurance planners from leaving the company amid the coronavirus impact and

Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea jumped 33 percent in February from a year earlier on robust sales of German cars, an industry association said Thursday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles climbed to 22,290 units last month from 16,725 a year ago despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. The three bestselling models last month were the Mercedes-Benz E 250 sedan, Volkswagen Jetta 1.4 TSI sedan,

Two Marines, two Army soldiers and a civilian employee working for the military have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Thursday. The Marine officers were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 before newly joining a unit in the western city of Gimpo, according to the ministry. The Army soldiers in Yangpyeong, 55 kilometers east of Seoul, and Hongcheon, 100 km east of the capital, respectively, tested positive after a vacation in Seoul. In Jinhae, some 400 kilom

The number of franchise brands in South Korea rose 11.7 percent on-year last year as efforts to open new businesses remained solid despite the pandemic, data showed Thursday. The number of franchise brands reached 7,094 as of end-December, compared with 6,353 the previous year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KTFC). Dining-out brands accounted for the biggest portion of 76.2 percent of all franchise brands last year, the data showed. The number of franchise

South Korea announced Thursday it plans to invest 300 billion won ($267 million) over the next three years to speed up the growth of the digital retail segment, which has recently enjoyed an unprecedented boom amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the plan, the country will not only pave the way for online retailers to tap deeper into the overseas markets but help them adopt state-of-the-art technologies, including drones, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Around 4,000 logis

The recent school bullying scandal that continues to roil the South Korean entertainment scene is now snowballing to affect several TV series projects starring some of the actors embroiled in the scandal. The scheduled airing of the college romance series "Dear. M" was postponed indefinitely after the emergence of accusations that its lead actress Park Hye-soo was allegedly involved in violence during her school days. The show was originally set to premiere on Feb. 26 on KBS, a public

Lee Jae-yong, the imprisoned de facto leader of Samsung Group, is focusing on preparing for his next legal battle related to his succession, industry insiders said Thursday, accepting only visits from his legal advisers so far. Lee, the heir of South Korea's top conglomerate, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison by the Seoul High Court on Jan. 18 in a retrial of a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye and was put behind bars again. Separate from the bribery case, Lee is deali

South Korea's share of the global car market remained unchanged in 2020 from a year earlier due mainly to sluggish performance in China, industry data showed Thursday. Sales by South Korean automakers accounted for 7.5 percent of the total in the United States, China, Europe and four other major overseas markets, the same as the previous year, according to the data from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA). The unchanged portion came due to a drop of more than 30 percent in sa

South Korea and the United States are closely following movements at North Korea's nuclear facilities, the defense ministry said Thursday, amid a report of new structures at one of the sites. On Tuesday, CNN reported that the North may have taken steps to hide a facility at the Yongdoktong site that the US believes is used to store nuclear weapons, citing recent satellite images that show new structures. "The intelligence authorities of South Korea and the US are closely monitoring activi

South Korea said Thursday it has decided to donate 50,000 tons of rice to six countries suffering from deepening poverty amid the prolonged new coronavirus pandemic. The rice will be sent to refugees and other vulnerable people in Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Syria and Laos under cooperation with the World Food Programme (WFP) this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Seoul kicked off the rice aid program following its 2018 accession to the Food Assistance

Samsung Electronics Co. on Thursday announced it has signed a partnership with local artificial intelligence (AI) solutions provider Kakao Enterprise Corp. to boost its smart home business. Under the deal, Samsung's smart devices and home appliances will be compatible with the Kakao i AI platform from Kakao Enterprise, an affiliate of Kakao Corp. that runs South Korea's most-used mobile messenger, Kakao Talk. Consumers can now operate Samsung's products connected to its Internet of Things (IoT

South Korea on Thursday launched a new advisory body to promote its exports of nuclear power plants, which were boosted by its successful penetration into the Middle East market. The advisory body, composed of professors and industrial experts, will help South Korea set strategies in fostering nuclear energy as a new export engine, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The country also launched a new website (www.k-next.kr), in which overseas partners can access information

South Korea is accelerating its COVID-19 vaccination campaign one week after its first vaccine rollout, and more people are expected to receive their first shots despite controversies over recent reports of deaths. On Friday, the country began its long-awaited inoculation program, with health care workers and patients aged under 65 at long-term care facilities, as well as front-line medical workers, among the first in line to receive their first shots. An accumulated 154,421 people were admini

North Korea's largest youth group held a meeting and discussed ways to help the state-led campaign to eradicate anti-socialist practices in their country, state media reported on Thursday. The Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League, governed by the Workers' Party, held an enlarged meeting on Wednesday via video conference and urged its members to intensify efforts to execute a "stout and vigorous ideological offensive," according to the Korean Central News Agency. "The meeting d

Samsung Electronics Co. was the top vendor in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) smartphone market last year, a report showed Thursday, despite its market share declining. Samsung shipped 99.7 million smartphones in the EMEA market in 2020 for a 28.9 percent market share, according to industry researcher International Data Corp. (IDC). The figures were down from 2019 when the company shipped 118.5 million smartphones for a 32.9 percent market share. However, the South Korean tech giant

North Korea adopted laws on social insurance and disinfection at a meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, state media said Thursday, amid a nationwide campaign against the coronavirus. The North also approved a "master plan" for land development in the east coastal area, possibly including the Mount Kumgang resort area that the country used to run jointly with South Korea. These laws were adopted at a SPA meeting held Wednesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The soc

The defense ministry said Thursday it has stripped a two-star Army general of his command to hold him accountable for a security failure in connection with a recent border crossing by a North Korean man. The 22nd Infantry Division guarding the east coast border with the North garnered criticism following revelations that soldiers initially failed to notice the North Korean man even though he was repeatedly caught on surveillance cameras after coming ashore by swimming across the sea border las

The South Korean government launched a task force Thursday to look into allegations that employees of a state housing corporation used secret information on a residential area development project for land speculation. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said the interagency team would examine all recent land transactions by officials at the land ministry and Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) in areas chosen by the government for the latest massive land redevelopment project. At a press briefing, he

Former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Thursday won the main opposition party's ticket to run in the upcoming Seoul mayoral election seen as a barometer of public opinion ahead of the 2022 presidential election.  Oh, who served as Seoul mayor from 2006-2011, won the People Power Party's primary for the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election, solely based on a two-day public opinion poll, according to the polling results. He beat former four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won, former two-term lawmaker Oh Sh