Defense Minister Suh Wook met with the European Union's ambassador to South Korea on Wednesday and discussed ways to boost security cooperation including in anti-piracy missions off the coast of Somalia, his office said. During the meeting in Seoul, Suh and Maria Castillo Fernandez exchanged their assessments of the security circumstances on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, and Fernandez vowed to do her best to help establish peace, according to the ministry. They also had consultations

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Wednesday instructed officials to review the authorization of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged 65 and over. "New research results have been disclosed, indicating the AstraZeneca vaccine is effective for older people as well," the prime minister said during a daily interagency meeting on the coronavirus response at the government complex in Seoul. "South Korea is withholding AstraZeneca vaccine shots for people aged 65 or older, but I ask

Two Marines and an Army soldier have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Wednesday. A Marine officer in the southeastern city of Pohang was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 in a virus test conducted after a vacation in Seoul, according to the ministry. The other Marine tested positive prior to newly joining a unit in Gimpo, west of Seoul. In Sejong, some 120 kilometers south of the capital, a soldier was found infected after a virus case was reported at hi

For fans who are looking forward to seeing more of BTS, March is expected to be an exciting month, with the global superstars scheduled to appear on two local TV programs. A 100-minute episode of the popular tvN show "You Quiz on the Block" featuring the seven-piece act is first set to air at 8:40 p.m. on March 24. The show, hosted by the comedian duo Yoo Jae-suk and Jo Se-ho, usually invites a number of guests, but the BTS episode will be solely dedicated to the band. BTS and Yoo ha

Global superstar BTS has set another record, this time by claiming No. 1 on the Billboard's Artist 100 chart for a 16th week, the most for a group act. The seven-piece act ranked No. 1, up four notches from the previous week, on the metric that measures artists' popularity across album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming as well as social media performance. It marks a record for a duo or group act. Overall, BTS has now topped the chart the most after Taylor Swift, Drake and The Weeknd

North Korea lost forest area the size of 330,000 soccer pitches in nearly two decades, data showed Wednesday, further accelerating the country's deforestation problem. From 2001 to 2019, North Korea lost a total of 233,000 hectares of tree cover, according to data by Global Forest Watch, a global monitoring service. The country's deforestation area increased sharply in 2019, recording the highest figure during the period with 27,500 hectares of tree loss. The provinces of Ryanggang, Jagang an

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has approved a deal by Emart Inc., the country's biggest discount store chain, to buy the professional baseball club owned by energy and telecom giant SK Group. Emart, a unit of retail giant Shinsegae Group, agreed in January to buy the SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) from SK Telecom Co., the top mobile carrier, for 135.2 billion won ($122 million). The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said it has given the green light t

Samsung Electronics Co. further expanded its presence in the Latin American smartphone market last year to cement its leading status amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Wednesday. The South Korean tech giant accounted for 40.5 percent of smartphone shipments in Latin America in 2020, up from 38 percent from a year earlier, to remain as the region's largest smartphone vendor, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. Samsung led all Latin American countries during

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 400 on Wednesday as the country's vaccination campaign picked up steam amid sporadic cluster infections. The country reported 444 more COVID-19 cases, including 426 local infections, raising the total caseload to 90,816, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The tally was a sharp increase from the 344 recorded previous day after health officials confirmed more than 90 cases among nearly 4,000 expatriates livi

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday as investors took a wait-and-see mode over prospects of a post-pandemic bond yield hike. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 3.88 points, or 0.13 percent, to 3,047.75 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The KOSPI got off to a muted start after the three key stock indexes on Wall Street dipped over speculation of early inflation, heralded by a bond yield hike late last week. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composit

'멤버 간 괴롭힘' 논란이 벌어진 걸그룹 에이프릴의 소속사가 괴롭힘 피해를 주장한 전 멤버 이현주 측을 상대로 법적 대응에 나섰다. 에이프릴과 이현주가 소속된 DSP미디어는 3일 "일말의 대화조차 이어갈 수 없는 상황"이라며 "이현주뿐만 아니라 이현주의 가족 및 지인임을 주장하며 인터넷 커뮤니티에 글을 게재한 모든 이들에 대해 민·형사상의 강력한 법적 대응에 나서겠다"고 밝혔다. DSP미디어는 "소속 아티스트에 대한 의무를 다하기 위해 두 차례에 걸쳐 이현주 및 그의 모친과 만남을 가졌다"며 이 자리에서 이현주가 본인만 피해를 봤다고 주장하며 일방적이고 사실과 다른 입장문을 요구했다고 밝혔다. 그런데도 논의를 이어가고자 했지만, 이현주의 동생이라는 인물이 3일 또다시 일방적인 글을 올려 대화를 계속할 수 없는 상황이 됐다고 DSP미디어는 주장했다. 그러면서 "당사는 두 아티스트 이현주와 에이프릴 모두를

North Korea is expected to be supplied with around 1.7 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 by May through a global vaccine distribution program. According to a vaccine allocation plan unveiled by the COVAX Facility, a total of 1.704 million doses of the AZ-Oxford vaccines manufactured by AstraZeneca will be provided to North Korea from February to May. The amount will be enough to inoculate around 852,000 people given that a person should be shot twice. The COVAX Facility earlier said

Recent satellite images show that North Korea may haven taken steps to hide a facility that the US believes is used to store nuclear weapons, CNN reported Tuesday. The images, captured by a US space technology company, Maxar, on Feb. 11, show new structures at the North's Yongdoktong site to conceal entrances to two underground tunnels, the report said. "Yongdoktong has been previously identified by US intelligence as a suspected North Korean nuclear weapons storage facility and is still

Major South Korean telecom operators KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. said Wednesday they invested a total of 26 billion won ($23.1 million) for a minority stake in the homegrown app market ONE store, bolstering the smaller local rival to Google's Play store. KT has invested 21 billion won for a 3.1 percent stake, while LG Uplus has clinched a 0.7 percent stake with 5 billion won, according to a joint statement from the mobile carriers. The two telecom operators join the existing majority sharehold

LOS ANGELES -- South Korea's leading automaker Hyundai Motor Co. saw its US sales drop nearly 9 percent in February from a year earlier due to bad weather, company data showed Tuesday. Hyundai Motor sold 48,333 vehicles last month, down 8.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Hyundai Motor America, the firm's US subsidiary. Sales to general consumers fell 2 percent on-year, and those to companies and rental car providers plunged 47 percent. Hyundai Motor said this year's F

Working under the assumption that the postponed Tokyo Olympics will take place this summer, South Korean sports officials said Wednesday they are in talks with national health authorities on vaccinating athletes for the novel coronavirus. According to officials, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) believes about 1,000 athletes, coaches, officials and even training partners would be in line to receive COVID-19 vaccines. The Summer Games in Tokyo, postponed by a year from 2020 due to

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) on Tuesday voted to launch an investigation into allegations that mobile communication devices from global firms, including South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., may have infringed on patents held by a US firm. According to a notice of investigation, a complaint was filed by Evolved Wireless LLC of Austin, Texas, on Feb. 2 that certain "LTE-compliant cellular communication devices" infringed on certain US patents. It said the scope of the

The United States would be willing to discuss with Iran the issue of unlocking its frozen funds in South Korea to achieve the overarching objective of a denuclearized Iran, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday. Ned Price said the US is insistent in achieving its goal, but not on how or where it will discuss the issue with Iran. "I would put that in the context of things we would want to discuss, in the context of prospective talks with the Iranians," the spokesman said when aske

Samsung Electronics Co. on Wednesday introduced its 2021 TV lineup, which includes new Mini LED and Micro LED TVs in various sizes, as the South Korean tech giant eyes to cement its leadership in the global TV market. The world's largest TV maker said at its Unbox & Discover online event that its new Neo QLED TV, which was first unveiled at the all-digital Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021 in January, will be launched globally starting in South Korea. The Neo QLED TV, which uses Quantum

The United States and its allies must maintain maximum pressure on North Korea to make the country realize that it is safer without nuclear weapons than it is with them, a former US national security adviser said Tuesday. H.R. McMaster also said the US must make it clear to the North that its goal is not to remove leader Kim Jong-un. "Multiple diplomatic efforts to ensure that the North Korean regime did not pose a grave threat to the world have resulted in failure and disappointment,&quo