A man has been sentenced to six months in prison for reacting violently to a bus driver demanding the wearing of face masks on board to prevent coronavirus infections, judicial sources said Thursday. The Seoul Central District Court handed out the prison term to the man, aged 57, saying he committed the crime of obstructing the bus driver on duty during a probationary period related to a separate crime, the sources said. The man was recently indicted for cursing at the 39-year-old driver, who

The United States and South Korea are in consultation over the possible release of Iranian assets locked in South Korea, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday. Ned Price, however, noted no Iranian funds have been released. "The government of South Korea, the ROK, has made clear it has not released the $1 billion in funds to Iran," the department spokesman told a daily press briefing. His remarks came shortly after Tehran claimed Seoul will first release $1 billion out of about

The United States will unlikely ease or remove its sanctions on North Korea unless Pyongyang first makes a move to show its good faith, a US lawmaker said Wednesday. Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) argued North Korean leader Kim Jong-un cannot be trusted and therefore the new Biden administration must become "more strategic" in dealing with the North. "I don't think that there's going to be sanction relief in the short term. I think there will have to be some sort of action by the Nor

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong told his Iranian counterpart Wednesday that South Korea is making sincere efforts to release Tehran’s assets frozen in Seoul, the foreign ministry said.  The phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif came a day after Tehran claimed that it had reached an agreement with Seoul on the transfer and use of $7 billion of its funds frozen in South Korean banks due to US sanctions. South Korea later said that the two sides agreed in pr

A Seoul court has granted an injunction to temporarily lift the suspension order given to MBN, a local cable TV channel last year over accounting fraud, judicial sources said Wednesday. According to the sources, the Seoul Administrative Court has recently ruled in favor of MBN, halting a six-month suspension order issued by the country's telecommunications regulator. In October, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) ordered the broadcaster to suspend its service after concluding that MBN m

Samsung Electronics Co.'s market share in the global foundry industry is expected to increase in the first quarter of the year from the previous three months, a report showed Wednesday, though its growth was projected to be lower than the industry average amid high demand for chips. Samsung's foundry business was estimated to log a market share of 18 percent with revenue of $4.05 billion in the January-March period, up 11 percent from a year earlier, according to a report from industry tracker

South Korean stocks tumbled by more than 2 percent to dip below the 3,000-point threshold Wednesday on massive foreign selling, largely due to concerns over a US bond yield hike that drove the key stock index down for the past few sessions. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dipped 75.11 points, or 2.45 percent, to close at 2,994.98 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.5 billion shares worth some 16.7 trillion won ($17.7

North Korea failed to meet its previous five-year economic goals due to its dependence on heavy industries amid crippling sanctions, a researcher at a state-run think tank said Wednesday. Kim Seok-jin, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), cited the North's investment strategies in rebuilding the heavy industries and the following chronic power shortage as the main reasons for its failure in achieving the five-year economic goal. In 2016, North Korea pu

The number of newly established companies in South Korea climbed more than 15 percent to a new high in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Wednesday. A total of 1.48 million new businesses were set up last year, up 15.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Startups. The ministry attributed the surge to a sharp increase in the number of real estate firms in the wake of a requirement for the registrat

The average monthly income of South Korean wage earners rose 4.1 percent in 2019 from a year earlier amid a hike in the minimum wage, data showed Wednesday. Salaried workers earned 3.09 million won ($2,800) per month on average in 2019, compared with 2.97 million won in 2018, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. Median income of wage earners amounted to 2.34 million won in 2019, up 6.3 percent from the previous year. Median income is a measure of a mid-point income that divides

A former South Korean national football team player is facing accusations of sexually and physically assaulting teammates while in elementary school more than 20 years ago. Park Ji-hun, attorney for the Seoul-based firm Hyun Law, put out a press release on Wednesday detailing allegations put forward by two clients. Both of them are one year younger than the accused player, who, according to Park, is "a star player who recently joined a club in the greater Seoul area." The players att

Hyundai Motor Co. said Wednesday it will replace batteries in some 82,000 Kona EV and two other electric vehicles sold globally due to potential fire risks, which could cost about 1 trillion won ($899.7 million). Hyundai will begin the replacement of the battery management system (BMS) in 75,680 Kona EVs, 5,716 IONIQ EV and 305 Elec City buses from March 29 in the domestic market and from April in overseas markets, the company said in a statement. The battery system subject to the replacement

"Map of the Soul: 7," an album by global superstar BTS, has stayed on the Billboard main albums chart for almost one straight year this week, recording another piece of history for K-pop. According to the latest Billboard chart results updated Tuesday (US time), the mega-hit album released in February 2020, came in at 108th on the Billboard 200 chart. This marks the album's 52nd consecutive week on the highly competitive chart since it debuted atop the list in the first week of March

The number of South Koreans who moved to different parts of the country declined in January amid a decrease in housing transactions, data showed Wednesday. The number of people who changed their residences fell 2.2 percent on-year to 633,000 in January, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The tally declined last month after rising for the seventh straight month in December 2020 amid skyrocketing home prices. The population mobility rate -- the number of those relocating per 10

The management agency of K-pop stars Jennie of BLACKPINK and G-Dragon of BIGBANG on Wednesday refused to confirm a report that they are secretly dating. Dispatch, an entertainment news outlet, reported on the same day that the two popular singer-rappers have been in a relationship for about a year. YG Entertainment immediately issued a statement, saying it cannot confirm anything about its artists' private lives. G-Dragon, 32, whose real name is Kwon Ji-yong, debuted in 2006 as the leader of

Spring is just around the corner, but almost all spring blossom and cultural festivals across the country are likely to be called off for the second consecutive year amid little signs of a letup in coronavirus outbreaks, officials said Wednesday. Many local governments have already decided to cancel their annual spring flower festivals again this year due to fears of COVID-19 transmission, though some others are considering holding festivals on a sharply reduced scale or in a non-face-to-face m

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has decided to fine top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. and its internet protocol TV subsidiary a combined 6.4 billion won ($5.7 million) for hampering market competition. SKT unfairly supported SK Broadband Co. between 2016-2019 when its subsidiary sold the IPTV service program through the top carrier's distribution channels, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). SKT paid part of sales fees totaling about 19.9 billion won to ret

South Korea's terms of trade gained for the 10th consecutive month in January, as export prices rose at a faster pace, central bank data showed Wednesday. The nation's net terms-of-trade index for goods -- a gauge of trade terms -- increased 7 percent last month from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the 10th straight month of an on-year rise since April last year, when the trade terms logged the first on-year hike in over two years on low oi

South Korea's ICT ministry said Wednesday it made over 15,000 new public Wi-Fi service zones available across the country and in buses last year, bringing the total locations with free public Wi-Fi to over 57,000. The Ministry of Science and ICT said the public can access free Wi-Fi in 28,132 public locations, such as bus stations, public facilities and parks, and also in 29,100 buses. By region, there are 2,529 public Wi-Fi locations in Seoul, with 4,358 locations in the surrounding Gyeonggi

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. said Wednesday that it has secured a 570 billion won ($514 million) order from a European company. Under the deal to build six 45,700-ton ConRo vessels, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. will deliver the ships starting in the first half of 2023, Korea Shipbuilding said. The ConRo vessel refers to a hybrid of a car carrier and a container carrier. Hyundai Mipo Dockyard has been leading the global ConRo ship market, building 19 ConRo ships, or 40 percen