South Korea's top national security officials expressed their deep condolences Tuesday over a government official killed by North Korean troops' gunfire at sea and agreed to continue efforts to figure out exactly what happened, Cheong Wa Dae said. During a weekly meeting of the National Security Council (NSC), they also decided to keep up intelligence cooperation with neighboring countries on the case. The meeting was presided over by Suh Hoon, director of national security at the presidential

In a retrial of a power abuse case that sparked the #MeToo movement in 2018, a former senior prosecutor was acquitted of disadvantaging a junior colleague from work to cover up his sexual harassment of her. The Seoul Central District Court's Appellate Division on Tuesday acquitted Ahn Tae-geun of the charges of abuse of power, overturning a two-year prison sentence delivered by the same court for him in July 2019. The retrial came after the Supreme Court ordered the lower court in January to r

Dressed in the traditional Korean attire of "hanbok," K-pop superstars BTS on Tuesday (Korean time) opened the "BTS Week" special on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" with its hit song "IDOL." 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. In a prerecorded live stage perfo

South Korean shares extended their winning streak to a third session Tuesday, as progress in negotiations for a new US fiscal stimulus plan boosted investor appetite for risky assets. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 19.81 points, or 0.86 percent, to close at 2,327.89. Trading volume was moderate at about 626 million shares worth some 8.9 trillion won ($7.6 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 667 to 192. Foreigners

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha asked her Peruvian counterpart to support South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee's bid for the top post of the World Trade Organization (WTO) during phone talks Tuesday, the foreign ministry said. Peruvian Foreign Minister Mario Lopez Chavarri took note of Yoo's professionalism and leadership as Seoul's sitting trade minister, pledging to closely cooperate with South Korea on the issue, the ministry said in a press release. During the talks, Kang and Lopez al

LG Electronics Inc. is likely to report its largest third-quarter earnings in 11 years on the back of increased demand of its premium home appliance and TV products amid the pandemic-driven stay-at-home trend, analysts said Tuesday. LG was expected to log 16.12 trillion won ($13.7 billion) in sales in the July-September period, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier, while its operating profit was estimated to increase 5.9 percent on-year to 828 billion won over the period, according to Yonhap Inf

Samsung Electronics Co. was the world's top smartphone vendor in August, a report showed Tuesday, as it widens the gap with China's Huawei Technologies Co. amid the pandemic. The South Korean tech giant accounted for a 22 percent share of the global smartphone market last month, beating Huawei with a 16 percent share, according to industry tracker Counterpoint Research. The gap of 6 percentage points between the two sides is the largest since February, when China's smartphone market was se

K-pop sensation BTS will catch the eyes of its long-waiting fans with fresh up-to-date viewing experiences at its upcoming live online concert next month, its management agency said Tuesday. The online concert titled "BTS Map of the Soul ON:E" will be livestreamed at 7 p.m. on Oct. 10 and at 4 p.m. on Oct. 11, according to Big Hit Entertainment. During the two-hour event, the septet will perform on a scale equivalent to an offline concert, featuring augmented reality and extended re

Air Busan Co., the budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., said Tuesday it will resume flights to the Chinese city of Qingdao in mid-October to meet travel demand from businessmen. Air Busan plans to offer one flight a week on the Busan-Qingdao route from Oct. 15 after suspending the route for more than seven months due to the coronavirus impact on the airline industry, the company said in a statement. In July, the carrier resumed the Incheon-Shenzhen route, but other Chinese routes to N

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it has joined forces with Microsoft Corp. to provide cloud-based private 5G network solutions as the South Korean tech giant tries to expand its presence in the next-generation communications sector. Samsung will deploy its virtualized radio access network (RAN), virtualized core, and multi-access edge computing technologies on Microsoft‘s cloud platform Azure, which will better support private 5G networks in enterprises. “The collaboration hig

LG Electronics Inc., a major home appliance maker in South Korea, is expected to release the industry‘s first rollable TV next month, sources here said Tuesday, as the company tries to expand its presence in the high-end TV market. LG recently opened a website dedicated to the Signature OLED R to receive preorders from its VVIP customers, according to the sources. After holding an event for its customers in Seoul, LG is expected to launch the rollable TV in the market in late October,

The Korea Coast Guard said Friday the South Korean fisheries official shot to death by the North Korean military at sea last week was trying to defect to the North. The Coast Guard reached the conclusion based on the intelligence retrieved from the military, the analysis of the tidal current on the day of the incident and other circumstantial evidence. "The official was wearing a life jacket and hanging onto a floating object when he was spotted by the North," said Yoon Seong-hyun,

Hyundai Mobis Co., South Korea's biggest auto parts maker, said Tuesday it will buy back 221 billion won ($189 million) worth of its stocks in the fourth quarter to enhance shareholder value. Hyundai Mobis plans to buy back 983,000 stocks from Oct. 5 through Dec. 28 to stabilize the stock prices and improve shareholder value, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company said it will cancel 62.5 billion worth of stocks out of the 983,000 shares to be bought and ho

South Korean girl group BLACKPINK became the second most-subscribed musician on YouTube on Tuesday, its management agency said. The official YouTube channel of BLACKPINK saw the number of its subscribers surpass 48.8 million, pushing down the American DJ Marshmello to No. 3, according to YG Entertainment. Justin Bieber topped the list with 57.2 million subscribers. The group's popularity on the global video-sharing platform hiked after it dropped its hit song "How You Like That" in

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. said Tuesday that its shipbuilding unit Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. secured a 420 billion won ($359 million) deal to build four crude carriers. Under the deal with companies from Europe and Oceania, Hyundai Heavy will complete the construction of the 300,000-ton very large crude carriers by the first half of 2022, Korea Shipbuilding said. The names of the buyers were not revealed. With the latest orders, Korea Shipbuilding has so far won ord

An Air Force officer working at the arms procurement agency has tested positive for the new coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. The officer at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is believed to have been infected with COVID-19 after his wife tested positive for the virus, according to officials. He was among 22 agency officials who went through the virus test and quarantined after his wife, who also works at the agency, tested positive for the virus last week in the first virus cas

South Korean baseball fans will have a lot to thank for this week. On the morning of Thursday, which also happens to be Chuseok, or the Korean Thanksgiving, two South Korean pitchers will start postseason games for their respective clubs. Ryu Hyun-jin of the Toronto Blue Jays will be on the hill for Game 2 of the American League (AL) Wild Card Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, starting at 5 a.m. Korean time at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. One hour later, Kim Kwang-hyun of the

Google Inc. faced strong backlash from South Korean developers after it announced Monday (US time) it will enforce its app market's billing system, which charges a 30 percent fee to all app developers. While Google has taken a 30 percent cut for all in-app purchases on the Play store through its billing system, some apps have circumvented the rule by using other systems, such as direct credit card payments. "We have clarified the language in our payments policy to be more explicit that al

The defense ministry has confirmed with the help of its special intelligence that North Korea ordered the burning of the body of a South Korean fisheries official after he was shot dead by its soldiers last week, the main opposition floor leader said Tuesday. "The Ministry of National Defense has verified through special intelligence that (North Korea) told (its officials) to apply fuel oil and burn (the body)," People Power Party (PPP) floor leader Joo Ho-young said in an interview w

미국 노스캐롤라이나주에 사는 한 부부가 이틀 연속으로 로또에 당첨돼 10만100달러(약 1억1천711만원)의 상금을 받았다고 UPI통신과 현지 언론이 28일(현지시간) 보도했다. 딘과 낸시 켈리 부부의 행운은 지난 21일부터 시작됐다. 아내인 중학교 체육교사 낸시가 복권을 샀다가 상금 100달러(약 11만원)에 당첨된 것이다. 낸시는 "어느 때건 느낌이 오면, 복권을 산다"고 말했다. 다음날 남편 딘은 인근 마을에 생필품을 사러 나섰다가 총상금 1천500만달러(약 175억원)짜리 긁는 복권을 샀다. 집으로 돌아와 그가 무려 10만달러(약 1억1천700만원)의 상금에 당첨된 것을 확인하자 아내는 환호성을 질렀다. 24시간 만에 행운이 연이어 온 것이다. 낸시는 "복권을 확인하는 데에는 우리 부부만의 규칙이 있다"면서 "남편이 복권을 고르고 내가 긁는다"고 설명했다. 딘은 "아내는 항상 운이 좋았다"면서 &