WASHINGTON -- Russia's military intelligence unit was found to have been behind cyber attacks against the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea's alpine town of PyeongChang, the US Department of Justice said Monday. The Justice Department, together with the FBI, charged six officers of the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate's (GRU) Military Unit for "disruptive, destructive and destabilizing activities in cyberspace. They included cyber attacks on the opening day of th

South Korea's 5G download speed is the world's second fastest, reaching an average speed of 336.1 megabits per second (Mbps), a report showed Tuesday. The country was only behind Saudi Arabia, which delivered an average 5G download speed of 377.2 Mbps, according to a report from industry tracker Opensignal, which tracked data between July 1 and Sept. 28 in 15 countries with 5G networks. South Korea's average 5G download speed over the period was also 5.6 times faster than its average 4G downlo

South Korean electronics giant LG Electronics Inc. has placed first in a recent TV consumer satisfaction survey in Australia, overtaking rival Samsung Electronics Co., industry sources said Tuesday. In the annual survey conducted by Australian consumer tracker Canstar Blue, LG topped the list of best TV brands by earning five stars in five categories -- overall satisfaction, picture quality, ease of use, sound quality and smart compatibility. LG received four stars only in the value for money

K-pop megastar BTS has ranked fifth on the Billboard's main singles chart with its latest hit "Dynamite" that had topped the list for three weeks, Billboard reported. "BTS' 'Dynamite' drops 2-5 on the Hot 100, after three nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1, as it posts an eighth week atop Digital Song Sales," the US music publisher said Monday (US time). The seven-member act made history with the English-lyric pop song by becoming the first South Korean band to top the Hot 100 c

South Korea's demand deposit turnover ratio hit an all-time low in August amid growing uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed Tuesday, The ratio, or withdrawals of demand deposits divided by the average deposit balance, came to 15.5 for August, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It was the lowest figure since January 1985, when the BOK began tracking related data. The previous record low was 15.6 posted in May this year. The turnover ratio of de

SK hynix Inc., South Korea's No. 2 chipmaker, said Tuesday that it will buy the NAND business of US semiconductor giant Intel Corp. in a deal worth 10.3 trillion won ($9 billion) to help the company vault to become the world's second-largest NAND flash chipmaker. SK hynix said it will acquire all of Intel's NAND flash business, except its Optane memory unit. The deal includes Intel's solid state drive (SSD) business and its factory in Dalian, China. SK hynix said it will pay Intel 8 trillion w

President Moon Jae-in had a phone call with Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday and asked the Southeast Asian country to back South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee's bid to become the director general of the World Trade Organization, Cheong Wa Dae said. Moon pointed out that Yoo is a leading figure in the trade field with vision and capability to protect the free trade system and restore trust in it through the reform of the WTO, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min

South Korea expressed "deep regret" Monday after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe again visited a war shrine, urging Tokyo to atone for its colonial-era atrocities through action. Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo earlier Monday was his second since he stepped down as prime minister in mid-September due to health problems. "We express deep concern and regret that responsible leaders of Japan are visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, a symbolic establishment that beaut

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae ordered the nation's top prosecutor on Monday to take his hands off the ongoing investigations into a high-profile fund scandal in a move she claims is intended to ensure a "fair" and "independent" probe into those cases. The unusual order came a day after the justice ministry raised speculation that Prosecutor-General Yoon Seok-youl failed to conduct a thorough investigation into opposition politicians and prosecutors allegedly implicated in the

Senior defense officials of South Korea and the Philippines met via video conference Monday and vowed to strengthen cooperation despite the new coronavirus situation, the defense ministry said. During the inaugural session of the Joint Defense Cooperation Committee between the two countries, Vice Defense Minister Park Jae-min and his Filipino counterpart Ricardo David discussed various security issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic and peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula, according to the m

Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Monday they plan to reflect a combined 3.4 trillion won ($3 billion) in provisions for product recall and quality control in their balance sheets for the third quarter of the year, indicating that they are set to swing to net losses in the July-September period. Hyundai and Kia, which together form the world's fifth-biggest carmaker by sales, set aside massive provisions for additional costs for the recall of a faulty engine and preempt

The average accessibility of the fifth-generation network in major subway lines in South Korea reached over 75 percent, a lawmaker said Monday, as the country races to boost nationwide coverage. The high-speed network's accessibility stood at 76.3 percent across 12 subways lines in six major cities across the country, according to Rep. Kim Sang-hee of the ruling Democratic Party, citing data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. The country's three major telecom operators -- SK Telecom Co., KT

Three American service members and a dependent have tested positive for the new coronavirus upon arrival in South Korea this month, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said Monday. While two of the service members tested positive on their first mandatory COVID-19 test upon arrival at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, the other service member and the dependent tested positive on their second test required to exit the two-week quarantine, according to the US military. They all arrived here on

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha plans to meet later this week with the elder brother of a South Korean fisheries official shot to death by North Korea at sea last month, a source said Monday. Kang's closed-door meeting with Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of the deceased official, is set for Wednesday, the source said, as he is questioning the outcome of the Seoul authorities' interim probe into the killing incident and seeking a UN probe. During a parliamentary audit session earlier this mont

The unification ministry has cut back on the number of staff at the inter-Korean liaison office and the budget for next year, after North Korea blew up the office building in June, an opposition lawmaker said Monday. The ministry has slashed its budget for the liaison office next year to 310 million Korean won ($270,000), from 6.41 billion won allocated for this year, Rep. Cho Tae-yong of the main opposition People Power Party said, citing data from the ministry. The number of staff members at

GS Engineering & Construction Co., a major South Korean builder, said Monday that its third-quarter net profit plunged 43.9 percent from a year earlier due to currency losses. GS E&C posted a net profit of 96.8 billion won ($84.7 million) in the July-September period, compared with a net profit of 172.8 billion won a year earlier, the builder said in a regulatory filing. The builder said the won's strength against the U.S. dollar drove down the value of its overseas dollar-denominated

A teenage boy died after being administered with a seasonal flu vaccine, yet the cause of his death has not yet been determined, health authorities said Monday. The 17-year-old boy in the western port city of Incheon, whose identity has been withheld, died early Friday morning after receiving the flu shot on Wednesday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The KDCA said he was administered with one of the vaccine bottles that were shipped by Shinsung Pharm Co., a

South Korean stocks ended a four-session losing streak Monday on investors' bargain hunting rush despite disappointing growth data from China. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 5.21 points, or 0.22 percent, to close at 2,346.74. Trading volume was moderate at about 911 million shares worth some 10.2 trillion won ($8.9 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 442 to 394. Institutions purchased a net 297 billion won, and fo

Shares in Big Hit Entertainment, the creative nest of K-pop superstar BTS, continued to suffer an extended slump on the third day since the company's market debut as some institutional investors dumped the stocks. Big Hit shares tumbled 5.74 percent to close at 189,000 won ($165), far underperforming the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index's (KOSPI) 0.22 percent gain. The company dipped to as low as 187,000 won at one point. The entertainment firm had a rollercoaster market debut on Th

North Koreans under pretrial detention experience extreme human rights abuses by corrupt law enforcement, from confinement in dirty and overcrowded cells to coerced confession and sexual assault, a report claimed Monday. The Human Rights Watch, the international nongovernment organization, shed further light on the rights conditions in the North with the report titled "Worth Less Than an Animal: Abuses and Due Process Violations in Pretrial Detention in North Korea." It found that t