Loans extended by South Korean insurance companies rose 1 percent in the second quarter from a quarter earlier, the financial regulator said Monday. Insurers' outstanding loans totaled 240.9 trillion won ($205 billion) as of the end of June, up 2.5 trillion won from the end of March, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said in a statement. Their loans to households fell 0.9 percent to 120.1 trillion won in the second quarter from a quarter earlier, while lending to companies rose 3 perce

Consumer financing firms in South Korea saw their combined net profit rise 22.2 percent on-year in the first half of the year due to a sharp decline in loan-loss provisions, data showed Monday. The combined net profit of 110 credit-specialized financial firms stood at 1.33 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in the January-June period, compared with a profit of 1.08 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Their interest income rose 3.1 percent on

South Korea's internet banking services continued to grow in the first half, with the number of users and daily transactions rising to new highs, central bank data showed Monday. The number of internet banking, including mobile banking, came to 164.8 million as of end-June, up 3.5 percent from six months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure is the simple sum of all registered users at 18 internet and mobile banking service providers in the country, meaning t

South Korea's population is rapidly aging as people aged 65 or older account for nearly 16 percent of its population, government data showed Monday. South Koreans in the age group stood at 8.13 million this year, or 15.7 percent of the country's population, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The number of people aged 65 or older is expected to keep rising down the road to reach 10.51 million in 2025, or 20.3 percent of the total population, putting the country on the threshold of a s

Cash-squeezed Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Monday its main creditor Korea Development Bank (KDB) has invited preliminary bidders in order to sell its controlling stake in the shipyard. KDB plans to finalize the preliminary bidding by Oct. 26 to sell all or part of the 83.45 percent stake in Hanjin Heavy Industries, the shipbuilder said in a regulatory filing. The 83.45 percent stake is owned by seven local financial institutions including KDB and three Filipino financi

The number of subscribers of the local video streaming service giant Wavve has topped 10 million on rising demand for a wide variety of content, the company said Monday. Wavve was launched last year by South Korea's top mobile carrier, SK Telecom Co., and terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS. "Despite a slight slowdown in the first half of this year, our memberships have been on a strong rise since July thanks to new releases of Wavve original series and exclusive foreign titles,&quo

An inter-Korean military communication line remained inoperative as of Monday morning, the defense ministry said, a day after South Korea called for reopening the line for communication related to a proposed joint probe into North Korea's killing of a South Korean fisheries official. On Sunday, South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae urged the North to restore the military hotline for communication about Seoul's proposal to conduct a joint investigation into the North's killing of the f

Nearly 1 million people are expected to travel by air during the Chuseok fall harvest holiday despite the government's advisory asking people to remain at home to help contain the spread of COVID-19, transportation authorities said Monday. The Korea Airports Corp. (KAC) estimated that some 963,000 people will use domestic airports, excluding Incheon International Airport, during this year's extended Chuseok holiday, which starts Wednesday and ends Sunday. The figure represents a 25 percent dro

Business sentiment in South Korea remains weak for October due mainly to the new coronavirus' impact on major industries, a local think tank said Monday. The business survey index of the country's top 600 companies by sales came to 84.6 for October, slightly up from the 83.5 for September, the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) said in a statement.  A reading below 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists, while a figure above the benchmark means the opposite. The BSI has stayed b

The operation time of public transport in the capital will be extended to 2 a.m. later this week, the Seoul city government said Monday, a measure to enhance the safety of its citizens returning from their hometowns in other parts of the country during the upcoming Chuseok holiday. The measure comes as South Korea will soon enter the extended three-day Chuseok holiday, one of the biggest traditional holidays here, Wednesday. The demand for late-night public transport services is high during th

Kia Motors Corp. said Monday most of its domestic plants are in operation as three new coronavirus cases reported Sunday were not related to assembly line workers.   Kia said Sunday three assembly line workers in the Sohari plant in Gwangmyeong, south of Seoul, were infected with the coronavirus but corrected the information the following day.  "The three confirmed cases turned out to be related to relatives of the plant's assembly line workers. So the plant's operation wa

If indeed this was his final at-bat for the Texas Rangers, South Korean veteran Choo Shin-soo has gone out in the only way he knows how: playing hard. With his family watching from the stands, Choo came off the injured list and put a bunt down for a single against the Houston Astros at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday (local time). Choo was lifted for a pinch runner after spraining his left ankle on that play. The 38-year-old outfielder/designated hitter had been out since Sept

President Moon Jae-in has picked his new secretary for personnel affairs, Cheong Wa Dae said Monday, amid media reports that he is expected to carry out another Cabinet reshuffle within this year. Yoon Ji-hoon, deputy secretary for personnel affairs, has been promoted to the position, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok. Yoon earlier worked at Cheong Wa Dae's state affairs monitoring office. Many predict that the president will change some of his Cabinet members before the end

LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's major home appliance maker, on Monday unveiled a new massage chair with a voice control feature as it aims to boost health care products amid the pandemic-driven stay-at-home trend. The new model of LG's HealingMe massage chair, MH60G, comes with a voice-activated system with which users can set massage courses and strength control, the company said. It also automatically detects users' shoulder width and leg length to set a comfortable position for massage

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to report strong third-quarter earnings, analysts here said Monday, as its mainstay semiconductor business remained solid despite a decline in memory prices, while its mobile and home appliance sales soared on pent-up demand amid the pandemic. Samsung was projected to log 63.95 trillion won ($54.5 billion) in sales in the July-September period, up 3.1 percent from a year earlier, while operating profit was estimated to surge 33.7 percent on-year to 10.4 tril

South Korean stocks opened sharply higher Monday, taking a cue from US stock rallies during the weekend. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 19.48 points, or 0.85 percent, to 2,298.27 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Local stocks got off to a strong start, tracking strong advances by US tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft and Tesla. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.26 percent to 10,913.56 the previous session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1

The South Korean economy is expected to rebound in the third quarter from a trough three months earlier, but the pace of recovery may be sharply curbed by a flare-up in virus cases, the finance minister said Monday. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the government will make all-out efforts to boost the economic growth in the fourth quarter with massive fiscal spending. "A rebound in the economic growth is tipped to be considerably limited by the resurgence of COVID-19," Hong said in

K-pop superstars BTS will drop their new album "BE (Deluxe Edition)" next month, the band's agency announced Monday. "BTS's new album 'BE (Deluxe Edition)' will be released on Nov. 20," Big Hit Entertainment, the band's label-agency, announced on the group's online fan community BTS Weverse. It said the upcoming album will be a special album "carefully crafted" by BTS, but did not elaborate on details. "This album is made more special by direct involvement f

WASHINGTON -- South Korea's top nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon said Sunday he will discuss joint efforts with the United States to deal with the recent killing of a South Korean official by North Korea. Lee also said upon arriving in Washington that his talks with his US counterpart, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, will also include President Moon Jae-in's recent call for efforts to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War. "The reason I came this time is to discuss all related

Cheong Wa Dae called Sunday on North Korea to conduct a joint investigation with South Korea into the recent killing of a South Korean fisheries official and to reopen the bilateral military communication line for related work. Cheong Wa Dae made the statement shortly after President Moon Jae-in had an emergency security-related ministers' meeting on the incident. Briefing media on the results of the 90-minute session, Suh Choo-suk, deputy director of the national security office, said the gov