Seven American service members and three family members have tested positive for the new coronavirus upon arrival in South Korea from the United States over the past few weeks, US Forces Korea (USFK) said Monday. They arrived on commercial flights at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, between Dec. 10 and 23, according to the US military. Three of them tested positive on their first mandatory COVID-19 test prior to entering quarantine, and the others were confirmed to have been infec

A parliamentary committee on Monday passed a confirmation report on Land Minister nominee Byeon Chang-heum amid fierce protests from the main opposition party. The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, where the ruling Democratic Party (DP) holds a majority, passed the report on Byeon's recent parliamentary confirmation hearing in a 17-0 vote during its plenary meeting. Lawmakers of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), who belong to the committee, however, boycotted the voting

Hanwha Solutions Corp., a South Korean energy solutions company, said Monday it has signed a deal to acquire US hydrogen tank firm Cimarron Composites LLC as part of a diversification strategy. Hanwha Solutions plans to complete the process to take over an entire stake in the US industrial tank equipment maker by April, the company said in a statement. "The company will invest $100 million, including the acquisition capital, in Cimarron by 2025," the statement said. The acquisition

Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI), South Korea's sole aircraft manufacturer, said Monday it has won a 1.05 trillion-won ($958 million) helicopter deal from the state defense procurement agency. Under the deal with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), KAI will supply the Surion (KUH-1) transport utility helicopter to the Army by 2024, the company said in a statement. On the same day, KAI also signed a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) contract worth 112 billion won wit

Investment advisory firms in South Korea swung to a profit in the first half of fiscal 2020 as the local stock market remained bullish, data showed Monday. The 215 investment advisers reported a combined net profit of 128.3 billion won ($117 million) in the April-September period, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). It marks a sharp turnaround from a total net loss of 22.7 billion won recorded during the previous six months. The financial watchdog attributed th

US Forces Korea (USFK) will start administering its initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine this week, beginning with health care workers, officials said Monday. USFK received the first shipment of Moderna's vaccine on Friday as Camp Humphreys was chosen by the US government as one of four sites outside the continental US that will receive the initial vaccination. "USFK has received its initial shipment of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and will begin inoculations tomorrow at US Army Garrison Camp

South Korea's top internet portal operator, Naver Corp., said Monday its live streaming platform, V Live, has surpassed an accumulated 100 million downloads globally. Launched in August 2015, V Live allows K-pop celebrities to broadcast live videos on the internet and chat live with fans from around the globe. Naver said the service has 85 percent of visitors from overseas and is available online, as well as on Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms.Naver said the number of live concert sh

SM Entertainment said Monday it will hold a free online concert on the first day of next year to give comfort to those fighting against the novel coronavirus pandemic across the world. The "SMTOWN Live" concert will be live streamed this Friday on social media platforms, including YouTube, Twitter and Beyond Live, an online channel run by South Korea's Naver. Under the theme of "Culture Humanity," SM's top artists like TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls' Generation's Taeyeon, SHINee

A quarter of all the new local COVID-19 patients over the past month were infected with the virus through family members, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Monday, calling for extra antivirus precautions inside homes. "Among the local (COVID-19) patients who tested positive over the past month, 25 percent were found to have been infected via their family members," the prime minister said during an interagency meeting on the COVID-19 response. He said that recent epidemiological inve

South Korea's daily coronavirus cases stayed below 1,000 for the second straight day on Monday due mainly to less testing over the weekend amid tougher virus curbs that have been extended for another week. The country added 808 more COVID-19 cases, including 787 local infections, raising the total caseload to 57,680, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The daily infections fell from 970 cases on Sunday. In the past week, the nation's daily infections hovered ar

지난달 30일 두 자녀의 아버지이자 맞벌이 가장인 A(58)씨는 아침 일찍부터 서울 집을 나섰다. 회사 업무차 경기도 김포까지 가야 했기에 더욱 서두른 길이었다. A씨가 자신의 산타페 차량을 몰고 김포 양촌읍 한 교차로에 다다른 건 오전 9시 30분께였다. 사고는 한순간에 났다. 신호를 기다리던 A씨의 차량을 뒤에서 오던 렉스턴 차량이 그대로 들이받았다. 앞서가던 차량 2대까지 포함한 3중 추돌 사고에 A씨가 탄 차체는 종잇장처럼 구겨졌고, 그를 포함한 운전자 4명이 병원으로 이송됐다. 이 중 부상 정도가 가장 심했던 A씨는 치료를 받으며 의식을 겨우 되찾았지만 사고 23일 만에 하반신 마비 판정을 받았다. 뼈에는 별다른 이상이 없으나 척추 신경에 큰 문제가 생겨 앞으로 다리를 쓰기가 어렵다고 했다. 이후 경찰 조사에서는 추돌 사고를 처음 낸 렉스턴 차량 운전자 60대 남성 B씨가 음주 운전을 한 사실도 드러났다. 채혈 검사 결과 B씨의 사고 당시 혈중알코올농도는 면허

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday, backed by strong advances by major tech firms. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 16.87 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,823.73 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks traded bullish after finishing at an all-time high the previous session, led by chip and bio advances. The gain came amid investors' optimism over whether the United States, one of South Korea's largest trading partners, would finalize a coronavirus stimulus pac

President Moon Jae-in's approval rating has tied its all-time low, while public disapproval of his job performance has surged to the highest point so far, a poll showed Monday. In the four-day Realmeter survey conducted on 2,008 people, aged 18 or older, nationwide till last Thursday, 36.7 percent of respondents supported the president, down 2.8 percentage points from the previous week. Moon's rating had fallen to 36.7 percent, the lowest since he took office in May 2017, in the second week of

South Korean companies have suffered the most credit rating downgrades in 2020 in four years in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. Three major credit appraisers here -- NICE Investors Service Inc., Korea Ratings Corp. and Korea Investors Service Inc. (KIS) -- have downgraded credit ratings of 41 firms in separate evaluations, according to the data from Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News. It represents the highest number of rating cuts since 2016, when

South Korean retail investors have loaded up on shares in top-cap Samsung Electronics Co. this year, reaping a huge return on their investments, data showed Monday. Local individual investors had bought a net 14.7 trillion won ($13.3 billion) worth of common and preferred shares in the global tech giant as of Thursday, according to the data from the Korea Exchange. Retail investors' massive purchase has made Samsung, the world's leading smartphone and memory chip maker, the most-bought stock a

South Korea's agricultural ministry said Monday it has identified a new suspected case of highly pathogenic bird flu, amid the growing concerns over the disease further straining the local poultry industry. The new suspected case was reported from a duck farm in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The country has so far reported 29 farm-related avian influenza cases since late November, including an infection from a guest ranch. S

Thousands of people in North Korea were seen at a square in central Pyongyang apparently practicing for an event believed to be related to a Workers' Party congress expected to be held next month, a US monitoring website has said. Satellite imagery taken Saturday showed thousands of people gathering in Kim Il-sung Square "apparently practicing for an upcoming event" by making a formation and spelling out "kyeolsaongwi" in Korean, which means to "defend with one's life,&

South Korea will begin administering coronavirus vaccines to medical workers and the elderly from February, presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min said Sunday. Noh made the remark during a high-level policy discussion between officials from Cheong Wa Dae, the government and the ruling party at the National Assembly. "In terms of volume, we've already secured enough (vaccines) to protect our people. Vaccinations of medical workers and the elderly will begin in February of next year,&quo

SEOUL/SUWON -- An elderly South Korean man, who recently returned from Britain, has posthumously tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Sunday, prompting authorities to look into whether he contracted a new variant fast spreading in the European nation. The man in his 80s had remained in self-quarantine at home in Goyang, northwest of Seoul, after arriving from Britain on Dec. 13. He passed away Saturday morning at a hospital after experiencing cardiac arrest. Samples from the man's body

South Korea's antitrust watchdog said Sunday 42 large business groups earned a combined 1.42 trillion won ($1.29 billion) by selling brand licenses to their affiliates last year amid concerns conglomerate owners could glean profits from such transactions. The 2019 tally marked a 7.6 percent rise from the previous year's 1.32 trillion won, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). Of 64 business groups that are required to disclose such data, 42 conglomerates, or 65.6 percent, raised