Airline traffic in South Korea and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region will remain well below 2019 levels next year due to the coronavirus's impact on the airline industry, according to a global ratings agency Saturday. The pace of the recovery will depend on each market's relative success in bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control to help improve passenger confidence and reduce the risk of further travel restrictions, Fitch Ratings said. "Airline passenger volume could impro

South Korea's chipmakers are expected to benefit from the United States' export restrictions against China's leading foundry firm, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), analysts here said Saturday, as the ban could give them more opportunities to secure orders. The US Commerce Department recently added SMIC to its blacklist, saying that exports to the Chinese firm pose an "unacceptable risk" of being used for Beijing's military activities. The move prevents US

Although child care leave was introduced by the country more than 30 years ago, the rate of workers who use such leave at private companies is still significantly lower than that of civil servants, a lawmaker said on Saturday, citing recent official data. A total of 4.5 percent, or more than 54,800, of about 1.22 million government employee pension holders, were on child care leave as of June this year, Rep. Kang Byung-won of the ruling Democratic Party said. He cited data from the Korea Worke

US President Donald Trump's infection with the new coronavirus is expected to strengthen the dollar due to investors' chasing after safe assets, but financial markets are not likely to undergo high volatility, market experts here said Saturday. Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, sending Wall Street's main stock indexes lower. The dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's value against a basket of six foreign currencies, rose 0.14 percent. Analysts said Tr

South Korean pharmaceutical companies have joined the global race to develop vaccines and treatments for the novel coronavirus, and several of them have received approval for clinical trials from the country's drug safety agency. Among the front-runners is Celltrion Inc.'s antiviral antibody treatment candidate called CT-P59 that is currently undergoing phase two and three trials both at home and abroad. Celltrion said it has completed phase one clinical trials on 32 healthy adults in the coun

Police stepped up their guards Saturday to prevent conservative activists from holding abrupt and illegal rallies in central Seoul amid concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus. Several conservative groups are planning rallies to protest the liberal government's policies on National Foundation Day despite the government's strong warnings amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Police said they set up inspection points in 90 locations connecting to central Seoul and are checking entering vehicles.

Controversy has been heating up over the South Korean Navy's next-generation destroyers as a series of legal issues in the bidding process continued to pop up, industry sources said Saturday. In mid-July, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. submitted their bids for the design of the 6,000-ton class destroyers, called the Korea Destroyer Next Generation (KDDX). Before the announcement of the prime bidder for the project in October, the country's ar

South Korea has extended incentive programs for primary dealers in state bond auctions until the end of this year, as part of its efforts to stabilize the bond market, according to the finance ministry Saturday. The ministry launched the incentive programs for primary dealers, who buy state bonds directly from the government and sell them to the market, in April this year as it sought to stabilize the bond market in the face of a hike in sales of state bonds to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a message to US President Donald Trump on Saturday, wishing him and first lady Melania Trump a quick recovery from COVID-19, state media reported. The message came a day after Trump tweeted that he and his wife tested positive for the virus. In the message, Kim said he "heard the sudden news" that Trump and his wife tested positive for the virus, the official Korean Central News Agency said. "He offered his sympathy to the president and the

Retail sales of Hyundai Motor Co. in the United States rose 7 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier on rising demand for its sport utility vehicles (SUVs), the carmaker's US unit said Friday (Korean time). Hyundai sold a total of 170,838 units stateside in the July-September period, down 1 percent, or 2,200, from a year earlier, according to a release by Hyundai Motor America on its website. But its retail sales reached 161,254 units over the three months, up 7 percent from the same

K-pop group BLACKPINK said Friday it wanted to show its growth as an artist and send out a message of hope and positive energy with its first-ever full-length album. Earlier in the day, the quartet unveiled the album "The Album," which includes main track "Lovesick Girls" as well as hits that have topped music charts such as "How You Like That" and "Ice Cream" featuring Selena Gomez. "We wanted to not only express various emotions on love but also s

Three out of the eight South Koreans who have shown abnormal reactions to potentially defective flu vaccines are children, the public health agency said Friday. A total of 1,910 people were injected with the vaccines that were suspected to have been exposed to room temperature, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Out of the eight people who have complained of symptoms that include headaches, chills and nausea, one is under the age of 10, two are teenagers, thre

South Korean analysts offer a wide range of target prices for Big Hit Entertainment, an agency of K-pop superstar BTS, ahead of the company's market debut slated for this month. Big Hit Entertainment's listing, set for Oct. 15, is one of this year's mega IPO deals, thanks to the K-pop septet's global fame. The initial public offering (IPO) price was set at 135,000 won ($115), but analysts' target prices range from 160,000 won to 380,000 won. Brokerage houses' forecasts vary over how the comp

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a flood-hit border village to check recovery efforts, state media said Friday, along with his sister, Kim Yo-jong, who made her first public appearance in two months. Kim inspected the reconstruction site in the central border county of Kimhwa and learned in detail about damage to dwellings, farms, transportation, the power grid and telecommunications, and heard about progress in the recovery efforts, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Preorders for K-pop girl band BLACKPINK's upcoming studio album have topped 1 million, its management agency said Friday. "The Album," set for official release later in the day, posted 670,000 preorders from South Korea and 340,000 from overseas, YG Entertainment said. It said if the album records 1 million copies in actual sales in its first week, it will be the most by a K-pop girl group in history. Eight tracks of the quartet's first full-length album will be available to the pub

On chilly fall nights, monsters, ghosts and zombies are poised to thrill or even scare South Korean TV viewers and binge-watchers. The horror show "Sweet Home," based on a famous web cartoon with the same title, will be released on Netflix later this year. The series is about a student who faces scary experiences after moving into a new apartment, where its residents turn into monsters. It has drawn wide attention from viewers as the Netflix debut by renowned South Korean director L

US President Donald Trump has instructed his government to withhold any nonhumanitarian assistance to North Korea and eight other countries until the countries meet minimum standards on human trafficking, the White House said Thursday. In a memorandum to his top diplomat Mike Pompeo, Trump said he has determined the US "will not provide nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related assistance" to the countries "until such governments comply with the Act's minimum standards or make significan

South Korea saw over 500 reported cases of COVID-19 among students in the past four months, according to a lawmaker on Friday. The total number of reported COVID-19 cases among kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school students between May 20 and last Friday stood at 561, Rep. Jung Chan-min of the main opposition People Power Party said, citing data provided by the education ministry. The number of elementary school patients amounted to 220, followed by high school and kindergarten pati

Bilateral trade between North Korea and China nosedived nearly 70 percent in the first eight months of this year from a year ago, possibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed Friday. The volume of trade between the two allies came to $510 million during the January-August period, sharply down from $1.71 billion recorded in the same period in 2019, according to the data from the Ministry of Unification. North Korea exported $41.9 million worth of goods to China while importing

K-pop superstar BTS teased its upcoming new album "BE" on Thursday (Korean time), appearing on the "BTS Week" special on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." The show's weeklong series running for five days through Friday is designed to showcase different music performances of the seven-member band each night, including live performances, comedy bits and virtual interviews. "The album mainly carries the grief, happiness and other feelings we have n