South Korea's health authorities on Tuesday confirmed two more cases of a more transmissible variant from arrivals from Britain, bringing the total caseload here to 12. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the two people, who entered the country on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 from Britain, respectively, were confirmed to have the new COVID-19 strain. The two tested positive for COVID-19 after landing and were immediately quarantined, meaning others in the community had no contac

The national bar examination began across South Korea on Tuesday, one day after the Ministry of Justice reversed its earlier decision to ban anybody infected with the new coronavirus from sitting for the annual exam. The ministry initially planned to prohibit anybody diagnosed with COVID-19 from taking the bar exam scheduled to continue through Saturday. It had only planned to offer separate test sites for those put under self-quarantine or with suspected coronavirus symptoms. But the ministry

Home prices in South Korea rose at the fastest pace in nine years in 2020 despite a set of government measures to rein them in, data showed Tuesday. Housing prices in Asia's fourth-largest economy gained 5.36 percent last year from a year earlier amid low interest rates and ample market liquidity, according to the data from the Korea Real Estate Board. It represents the steepest on-year increase since the 6.14 percent hike recorded in 2011. Home prices in the South Korean capital of Seoul exp

South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Tuesday that it has signed a 199 billion-won ($183 million) deal to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier for a local shipper. The vessel will be delivered to Pan Ocean Co. by April 2023, Samsung Heavy said in an emailed statement. With the latest order, Samsung Heavy has won orders to build 20 LNG carriers since November. The shipbuilder has yet to announce its order target for 2021. (Yonhap)

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to remain the world's top smartphone producer this year, a report showed Tuesday, though its market share is likely to go down as other brands will ramp up production with the recovery of mobile demand. Global smartphone production was projected to increase 9 percent on-year to 1.36 billion units in 2021, according to market researcher TrendForce, which predicted that device replacement demand and growth in emerging markets will lead to gradual recovery of th

President Moon Jae-in stressed the urgency Tuesday of containing COVID-19, stabilizing the housing market and recovering the economy in the new year. "(We) start the new year with a heavy sense of responsibility," he said at the outset of the first Cabinet meeting of 2021. South Korea's top priority this year is "to get out of the long tunnel of the coronavirus as soon as possible," he emphasized. He described the country as standing at another watershed in its antivirus f

A UN Security Council panel approved sanctions exemptions on a total of 30 cases last year to aid agencies providing humanitarian assistance to North Korea, a recent report showed. According to the annual report by the North Korea sanctions committee released on its website, 30 aid exemption requests from member states, UN entities and other international organizations were approved by the panel from Jan. 1-Dec. 31 in 2020. The report did not identify which countries and organizations received

LG Display Co., the world's leading large size OLED panel maker, said Tuesday its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV panel has received an eye protection certification for low blue light emission. Its OLED display became the industry's first TV panel to win an accreditation from Eyesafe, a US-based eye protection certification agency, according to LG Display. Eyesafe developed standards for eye protection in cooperation with TUV Rheinland AG, a German technical test service and certificati

The new head of South Korean professional baseball said Tuesday he will prioritize running a safe 2021 season during the coronavirus pandemic while also putting together an improved product on the field. Chung Ji-taik, a 70-year-old executive with the business conglomerate Doosan Group, was introduced as the 23rd commissioner of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) that day. In his inauguration ceremony held at the KBO headquarters in Seoul, Chung said the KBO faces "a series of tasks&qu

Online shopping in South Korea hit a record high in November as more people bought products via e-commerce platforms amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The value of online transactions stood at 15.1 trillion won ($13.8 billion) in November, up 17.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The use of online shopping increased amid the protracted pandemic as people refrained from visiting offline stores on concerns about infection risks.

A growing number of gym owners have reopened their businesses this week in defiance of the government's coronavirus restrictions, claiming the rules are unfair and putting their livelihoods at stake. Indoor gyms in the capital area are subject to an assembly ban under Level 2.5 social distancing measures, which were recently extended by two weeks until Jan. 17. In announcing the extension, however, the government allowed ballet and taekwondo schools to hold classes of up to nine people, sparkin

Major shipbuilder Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Tuesday it has obtained a 900 billion-won ($823 million) order from an Asian shipper to build six container ships. The vessels will start being delivered in the first half of 2023, Korea Shipbuilding said in an emailed statement. Of the six 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carriers, four will be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a unit of Korea Shipbuilding, and the other two will be construc

South Korea's two electronics giants, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., will highlight products with enhanced customized features at the world's largest tech expo next week, industry insiders said Tuesday, signaling they will have a fierce competition in the home appliance market this year. Samsung announced Tuesday it will showcase its upgraded BESPOKE refrigerator and artificial intelligence-supported washers and dryers at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, which is set

South Korea's exports of agriculture products reached an all-time high of $7.57 billion last year on the back of strong demand for kimchi and processed foods, data showed Tuesday. The record amount represents a 7.7 percent rise from the previous year, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. By category, outbound shipments of fresh products rose 3.4 percent on-year to $1.43 billion. Those of processed goods also increased 8.8 percent to hit $6.14 billi

A soldier based on the southwestern Jin Island has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The enlistee was confirmed to have contracted the virus in a test conducted before his return from holiday, according to the ministry. The latest case brought the total number of COVID-19 patients among the military members to 509. Nationwide, South Korea added 715 additional coronavirus cases Tuesday, raising the total caseload to 64,979. (Yonhap)

The chart-topping BTS hit "Dynamite" has rebounded to the fifth spot on the chart, the Billboard reported Monday (US time). The US music magazine, which compiles the 100 most popular tracks of the week in the United States for the Hot 100, said the BTS track jumped 39 notches from 44th to fifth in the weekly chart dated Jan. 9. The chart-topper this week for the Hot 100 was 24kGoldn's "Mood," which jumped from No. 7 to No. 1, followed by Ariana Grande's "Positions,&quo

South Korea is pushing to move up the schedule in bringing in new coronavirus vaccines in a bid to get over half of the population inoculated before fall, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun has said. "The government's program is to complete the formation of herd immunity by inoculating 60-70 percent of the population (with vaccines) before autumn comes," Chung said Monday on a debate program on MBC TV. "Should the plan come through, South Korea will be one of the fastest countries to

South Korea's top economic policymaker and the chief of the central bank said Tuesday that more prudent risk management is necessary as much of the idle money is flowing into assets, such as property and stocks. "The financial market showed stability in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are growing concerns over the growing gap between the real economy and the financial sector," Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said in a message for the new year to financial firms. "More

The number of deaths from the new coronavirus surpassed the 1,000 mark in South Korea, with the third wave of the pandemic having accelerated the growth of new fatalities in the past month. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the country reported 28 additional deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total fatalities to 1,007. Of the accumulated deaths, 295 were reported in Gyeonggi Province surrounding Seoul, followed by 204 in Seoul and 203 in the central city of Daejeon, t

Hyundai Motor, South Korea's biggest carmaker, will build its first overseas hydrogen fuel cell systems plant in China as it seeks to enter the local hydrogen market, industry sources said Tuesday. Hyundai Motor aims to build the hydrogen fuel cell systems plant in Guangzhou within this year as it has recently obtained government approval for the investment plan, a person familiar with the matter said over the phone. "Hyundai Motor is in talks with a Chinese company to form a joint compan