The South Korean unit of US tech giant Google Inc. is considering lowering its planned commission rate for in-app purchases, lawmakers said Tuesday, amid complaints from local software developers over steep commission costs. According to lawmakers from the parliamentary committee on science and technology, Google Korea representatives have told committee members that they were persuading the company headquarters to lower its planned 30 percent commission on in-app purchases. Google has announ

An American service member stationed at an air base in Seongnam, south of Seoul, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the US Forces Korea said Tuesday. The soldier at K-16 Air Base was confirmed on Monday as having contracted COVID-19 following direct contact with a person who tested positive earlier, according to the US military. “KDCA and USFK health professionals are actively conducting contact tracing to determine whether anyone else may have been exposed to these individual

South Korean stocks slumped Tuesday for a second day amid lingering inflation concerns, with major tech and bio stocks coming under heavy selling pressure. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. After veering in and out negative terrain, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 9.66 points, or 0.31 percent, to close at 3,070.09 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 2.2 billion shares worth some 17.3 trillion won ($15.6 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers

South Koreans felt less happy last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, with women, young adults, the elderly and low-income citizens affected the most, a state-run think tank's survey showed Tuesday. According to an annual survey on 8,336 adults by the Korea Institute of Public Administration (KIPA) from September to October of last year, people rated their happiness at an average of 6.4 points on a 10-point scale, down 0.1 point from the previous year. In particular, the percentage of those

Unification Minister Lee In-young renewed calls Tuesday for building a joint response system with North Korea against infectious diseases to better cope with growing threats from global pandemics. Lee made the remarks during a seminar on inter-Korean cooperation in public health, noting that creating a joint system does not necessarily mean providing unilateral help to Pyongyang but is also a way of protecting "oneself and one's family." "South and North Korea must resume buildi

Big Hit Entertainment Co., the management agency behind global superstars BTS, said Tuesday its net profit rose 19 percent last year from the previous year amid the growing popularity of its flagship K-pop group. Net profit stood at 86.2 billion won ($77.6 million) in 2020 on a consolidated basis, compared with 72.4 billion won the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Annual operating profit jumped 44.2 percent on-year to 142.4 billion won, while sales rose 35.6 percent to 7

The Seoul city government vowed Tuesday to respond strictly to all illegal rallies held in downtown squares on March 1 Independence Movement Day. Conservative groups have again announced plans to stage rallies denouncing President Moon Jae-in, a liberal, at Gwanghwamun Square in the city center on the national holiday. Last year, the activists drew flak for holding a mass rally on Aug. 15 Liberation Day, which set off the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. "We are in

Clubhouse, an audio social media app that has generated buzz worldwide, has been gaining popularity in South Korea as popular celebrity users, from K-pop artists to politicians, join the invitation-only platform. The iPhone social media app, in which users enter rooms to chat with one another by voice, reached 195,000 downloads in South Korea as of Feb. 16, according to mobile analytics company App Annie on Tuesday. While the app, developed by US-based startup Alpha Exploration Co., ranked at

A conflict between doctors on one side and the government and the ruling party on the other has become heated over a bill that would disqualify medical doctors convicted of felonies. An association of doctors threatened to carry out "a general strike" of angry doctors across the country if the bill is put to a full-floor vote at the National Assembly, while the government warned of stern actions if the strike is launched, especially as national COVID-19 vaccinations are set to begin l

The World Food Programme (WFP) could suspend its operations in North Korea this year as restrictions on imports remain in place due the coronavirus pandemic, a report on its website showed Tuesday. According to the report, the UN aid agency has continued to be faced with difficulties in deploying its staff in the North, with its physical monitoring activities being curtailed for a prolonged period of time. "Pandemic-related restrictions do not ease and food imports, international staff de

Former major league All-Star outfielder Choo Shin-soo is coming home. Choo has signed with the new Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club to be owned by Shinsegae Group, the retail giant announced Tuesday. Shinsegae will take over the SK Wyverns from the mobile carrier SK Telecom, with the new club name and uniform to be unveiled sometime next month. Shinegae said Choo agreed to a 2.7 billion-won ($2.4 million) contract and that he has offered to donate 1 billion won of that to charity. Choo'

South Koreans' overseas card spending plummeted 46.1 percent on-year in 2020, hit by a sharp decline in the number of outbound travelers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Tuesday. The amount of money spent overseas by South Koreans with cards, including credit and debit cards, totaled $10.31 billion last year, compared with $19.12 billion in 2019, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The number of outbound South Koreans plunged 85.1 percent on-year to 4.28 mi

The employment rates for minor cities and counties in South Korea fell in the six-month period ending in October last year as the job market was hit by the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The employment rate for smaller cities in nine provinces came to 59.5 percent in the May-October period, down 1 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The corresponding rate for counties across the nation declined 0.3 percentage point on-year to 67 percent. T

South Korea's household credit grew at a slightly slower pace in the fourth quarter of last year, as banks tightened rules on unsecured loans, central bank data showed Tuesday. Household credit reached a record high of 1,726.1 trillion won ($1.55 trillion) as of December last year, up 44.2 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). Household credit refers to credit purchases and loans for households that have been extended by financial institut

South Koreans are estimated to have spent an hour on average on the mobile YouTube app a day last month, data showed Tuesday. The average time a local mobile user spent on the video streaming app in January stood at 30 hours and 34 minutes, or 59 minutes a day, according to mobile app tracker WiseApp, based on data of Android and iOS users over the age of 10 in the country. WiseApp said there were 40.41 million mobile users who used the YouTube app at least once last month, with those aged 50

South Korea on Tuesday finalized a five-year plan for the eco-friendly auto industry, which includes expanding exports of such automobiles by threefold by 2025. The country's exports of eco-friendly cars, which includes electric and hydrogen fuel cell models, will reach 830,000 units in 2025, significantly rising from 280,000 units tallied in 2020, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. South Korea shipped $37.4 billion worth of automobiles in 2020, down 13.1 percent on-year

South Korea's imports of onions grew more than fourfold in the first two months of 2021 from a year earlier, as the long rainy season and a series of typhoons have dealt a harsh blow on the production. Imports of onions came to 13,715 tons this year through Wednesday last week, rising sharply from 3,027 tons posted over the January-February period of 2020, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Of the import volume, those from China accounted for 63 percent, trailed

Those who violate social distancing restrictions will not be eligible for an upcoming batch of emergency cash handouts, South Korea's prime minister said Tuesday. Chung Sye-kyun was warning of stern measures, including the so-called "one-strike, you're out" punishment, amid continued reports of some shops, restaurants and other businesses nationwide breaching a set of rules aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. "At invisible places, there are frequent cases of social commitme

Workers at a major steel plant in North Korea held a rally to firm up their commitment to meet their production target and call for nationwide efforts to achieve the first-year goal of the country's five-year economic development scheme, state media reported Tuesday. The rally held Monday at the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex came after leader Kim Jong-un criticized officials at a recent party meeting for showing "passive and self-protecting tendencies" in setting this year's goals a

South Korea's economy is expected to stage a modest recovery, supported by exports and investment, but its job markets would recover at a slow pace as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit the service sector, the head of the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday. In a report to the National Assembly, BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol repeated that the central bank will continue its easing of the monetary policy to prop up the pandemic-hit economy. "The domestic economy continues to show a trend of mo