Payments made with cards in South Korea grew more than 5 percent in October amid the new coronavirus outbreak, industry data showed Wednesday. Spending made with credit, debit and prepaid cards came to 77.3 trillion won ($69.7 billion) in October, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Credit Finance Association. Credit card spending stood at 60.1 trillion won, with payments made with debit cards reaching 17.1 trillion won. The association attributed the October in

South Korea on Wednesday confirmed another highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) case from local poultry farms, sparking further concerns over possible nationwide transmission of the disease. A suspected case from an egg farm in Sangju, 270 kilometers southeast of Seoul, earlier this week tested to be a highly pathogenic H5N8 strain of bird flu, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. Local authorities said they are currently culling 188,000 chickens being raised at

Large South Korean companies' social contributions fell nearly 10 percent in the first nine months of the year amid a coronavirus-caused economic downturn, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. Out of the country's top 500 firms by sales, 247 business concerns contributed a combined 1.13 trillion won ($1.02 billion) to social activities during the January-September period, down 9 percent from a year ago, according to CEO Score, which tracks corporate management. The decrease was ascribed to grea

South Korea's stock prices rose at the 10th-fastest pace among the Group of 20 (G-20) nations with major economies posting double-digit surges, data showed Wednesday. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) climbed 14.30 percent in November from the prior month, outpacing the previous record monthly increase of 13.52 percent recorded in April 2009. It was the 10th highest hike among the G-20 economies and outperformed their average 14.1 percent expansion. All G-20 members saw

South Korea's consumer prices grew at a faster pace in November than a month earlier as prices of agricultural products and service charges went up, data showed Wednesday. The consumer price index rose 0.6 percent on-year last month, compared with a 0.1 percent on-year gain in the previous month, according to the data by Statistics Korea. In October, the country's inflation rate grew at the slowest pace in four months due to state subsidies for mobile phone bills. Compared with a month earlie

WASHINGTON -- The United States is not asking its allies, including South Korea and Japan, to sever their ties with China but to call out bad behavior, a senior US diplomat said Tuesday. Marc Knapper, deputy assistant secretary of state for Korea and Japan, also said his country understands its two Asian allies have a very unique relationship with China. "First of all, we recognize both Japan and South Korea have very complex, very nuanced relations with the People's Republic of China, in

WASHINGTON -- China's failure, if not refusal, to implement UN sanctions aimed at denuclearizing North Korea may be delaying the process, a senior US diplomat said Tuesday. Alex Wong, deputy assistant secretary of state for North Korea, insisted China often "chooses" not to implement the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, of which it is a permanent member. "It (China) has the resources to implement its UN sanctions obligations. But again, it chooses not to," Wong

President Moon Jae-in reaffirmed South Korea's commitment Tuesday to cooperating with the international community in the fight against corruption, speaking during a virtual session of a major global conference on the issue. "South Korea supports all the global cooperation to combat corruption, including the work of the Transparency International, and will work with the rest of the world towards sustainable development of humanity," he said. The president was delivering an address at

Four people were killed and seven others injured in a fire at a 25-story apartment building in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, on Tuesday afternoon, fire authorities said. Among the victims, two fell to their deaths, while two were found dead in the stairwell leading to the rooftop, authorities said, adding one of them is in a critical condition. The blaze started on the 12th floor of the building located in the city about 32 kilometers south of Seoul, at around 4:37 p.m. Firefighters brought th

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday forecast a sharper-than-expected contraction for the South Korean economy this year, citing the fallout of the new coronavirus outbreak. The OECD expected Asia's fourth-largest economy to retreat 1.1 percent this year, steeper than its September forecast of a 1 percent contraction. The Paris-based club of major economies predicted the Korean economy to grow 2.8 percent next year and 3.4 percent in 2022. Despite the dow

South Korean carmakers' sales fell 5 percent last month from a year earlier as the coronavirus outbreak continued to sap demand around the globe, industry data showed Tuesday. The five carmakers in South Korea -- Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp., GM Korea Co., Renault Samsung Motors Corp. and SsangYong Motor Co. -- sold a combined 674,040 vehicles in November, down from 710,466 units a year ago, according to data from the companies. Weak overseas demand and a series of strikes weighed on th

South Korea and the UN disarmament office will hold a joint conference on disarmament and nonproliferation this week, with a focus on emerging weapons, such as killer robots and hypersonic missiles, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. The 19th Joint Conference on Disarmament and Nonproliferation Issues will take place via video links Wednesday for a two-day run, with government officials and think tank experts from more than 20 countries, as well as those from international organizations, expect

A UN Security Council panel has approved a proposal to extend the exemption period for sanctions on humanitarian assistance to North Korea and streamline procedures to allow easier delivery of aid to the impoverished country, its website showed Tuesday. The North Korea sanctions committee on Monday (US time) adopted a revision to its "Implementation Assistance Notice No. 7" with regard to sanctions on Pyongyang, extending the exemption period from the current six months to nine months

Unionized workers at GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., voted down a tentative wage deal for the year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said Tuesday. In a vote held from Monday to Tuesday, 54 percent of 7,364 union workers rejected the tentative deal, GM Korea and its union said. Union leaders will meet Wednesday to "decide what (additional or revised) demands it will make to the company and whether to hold an industrial action to get their voice heard,&quo

South Korean stocks rebounded from a sharp decline the previous session to hit a new all-time high Tuesday on the back of upbeat economic data, lifting hopes for a faster-than-expected recovery amid the pandemic. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 42.91 points, or 1.66 percent, to close at 2,634.25. Trading volume was high at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 15.7 trillion won ($14.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering los

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will travel to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this week for a security conference and meetings with senior officials of the two countries, her office said Tuesday. Kang will make a two-day trip to Bahrain starting Friday, during which she will attend the Manama Dialogue, a multilateral security meeting involving countries in the Middle East and Europe, the United States and others, the ministry said in a release. She is scheduled to give a spee

The current South Korean football chief Chung Mong-gyu will seek his third term at the helm. An official with the Korea Football Association (KFA) said Tuesday that Chung, its current president, submitted his letter of intent to run for another term earlier in the day, and it will be officially processed Wednesday. Under KFA rules, Chung will be suspended from duty during his campaigning period. Cho Byung-deuk, the most senior among seven vice presidents, will serve as the interim president.

SsangYong Motor Co. said Tuesday its sales jumped 10 percent last month from a year earlier, helped by increased exports. SsangYong Motor sold 11,859 vehicles in November, up from 10,754 units a year ago due to strong overseas demand for its SUV models despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales rose 0.3 percent to 9,270 units from 9,240 during the same period, and exports surged 71 percent to 2,589 from 1,514, it said. The SUV-focused carmaker said it wil

Mobile carriers consolidate tech biz for new growth driversSouth Korean mobile carriers are merging their tech subsidiaries and consolidating new businesses to boost synergy as they search for new growth drivers beyond their telecommunication operations. Telecom giant KT Corp. announced it will merge its digital content distribution and television commerce subsidiary KT Hitel Co. and its mobile coupon and advertisement unit KT mhows Co. by July next year. KT said the consolidation of KT Hitel'

Samsung Electronics Co. is planning to use a double-stack technology to develop its next-generation V-NAND flash memory, industry officials said Tuesday, as the world's largest memory chip producer tries to further cement its leading position in the sector. At its investors' forum held Monday, Samsung revealed that it will apply "extreme two-stack" technology for its future NAND flash chip and that it is possible to develop a 256-layer device. "Our sixth-generation V-NAND feat