South Korea's finance minister said Thursday the country will make efforts to take advantage of the latest decision by Beijing to allow group tours to the country. "In response to the resumption of group tours to South Korea by China, we plan to promptly come up with measures to attract Chinese tourists by offering conveniences in terms of visas and transportation, as well as by developing various tourism programs," Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho said. The remark came after China&

The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Controls on Wednesday imposed sanctions on three entities involved in illicit arms deals between North Korea and Russia, amid speculation that the countries may be seeking to bolster their illegal arms trade. OFAC imposed sanctions on Verus LLC, Defense Engineering LLP and Versor SRO, all of which are owned or led by Slovakian national Ashot Mkrtychev. Mkrtychev was designated on March 30 for "attempting to facilitate arms de

South Korea's finance ministry unveiled a set of measures Thursday to pave the way for the growth of the country's artificial intelligence chip and urban air mobility industries in line with efforts to foster new growth engines. Under the plan, the country will speed up the establishment of data centers powered by homegrown AI chips and expand financial support for the development of such semiconductor products by fabless firms, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The mov

President Yoon Suk Yeol is set to depart for the United States on Thursday to attend a trilateral summit with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on ways to enhance security cooperation in the face of North Korea's nuclear threat. The summit will be held at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland on Friday, marking the first time the three countries' leaders will meet for a stand-alone trilateral summit that's not on the sidelines of a multilat

The United States is seeking and will continue to seek the safe return of a US service member who crossed into North Korea last month, a White House official said Wednesday, dismissing the North's claim that the American soldier is seeking asylum in the reclusive country. John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, insisted that North Korean claims cannot be trusted. "I think anything that comes out of Pyongyang, you got to look at skeptically,"

South Korea's import prices rose in July largely due to the higher price of crude oil, central bank data showed Thursday. The import price index rose 0.4 percent last month from a month earlier, following a 3.9 percent fall tallied in June, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. The rise came as the cost of crude oil rose. Import prices are a major factor that determines the path of the country's overall rate of inflation. The Dubai crude price, South Korea's be

The upcoming trilateral summit between the leaders of South Korea, Japan and the United States will take their countries' three-way cooperation to a new level, a White House official said Wednesday. John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said the leaders will also focus on ways to institutionalize such cooperation among their countries. "This trilateral summit is all about taking affirmative steps towards improving our cooperation with each othe

The Board of Audit and Inspection said Wednesday it has launched preparations to look into what went wrong in the hosting of the World Scout Jamboree, vowing to conduct a thorough inspection from the winning of the right to host the event to its closure. The quadrennial event concluded Saturday after overcoming significant challenges, including poor preparations, a heat wave and a powerful typhoon, which forced the relocation of around 40,000 participants from a campsite in Saemangeum, a reclaim

South Korea and the United States have held an in-person meeting on cooperation in excavating the remains of troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, following a four-year hiatus caused by COVID-19, Seoul's defense ministry said Wednesday. Officials from the ministry's Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification and the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency met at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday. KIA stands for killed in action, while POW and MIA are short for pr

South Korea and the United Arab Emirates were staging combined high-tech military drills, Seoul's Army said Wednesday, amid efforts to bolster bilateral military cooperation. The exercise is underway at the Korea Combat Training Center, a facility employing cutting-edge technologies for realistic ground drills, in Inje, 165 kilometers east of Seoul, from Aug. 7-18, according to the armed service. The drills mobilized some 2,500 troops to the facility, including a platoon of the UAE's a

A Thai man caught entering the women's shower room at the campground of the 2023 World Scout Jamboree in the southwestern reclaimed land area of Saemangeum has been sent to the prosecution for further investigation, police said Wednesday. The man, who participated in the jamboree event as an adult supervisor, is accused of entering the women's shower room and taking a shower on Aug. 2, according to the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency. A female participant who heard the man singing in

The European Chamber of Commerce in Korea said Wednesday it has appointed Stefan Ernst, a former executive of global skin care company Beiersdorf A.G., as its next president. Ernst will succeed Christoph Heider, who has led the chamber for the last 10 years, the ECCK said. Ernst will officially take office on Oct. 1. Ernst, a German, is known for his decadeslong experience in marketing and general management at global companies, including Beiersdorf and Accenture Song. Ernst spent a considerable

Outbound container shipping costs for major destinations, including the United States and the European Union, fell in July from a month earlier, data showed Wednesday. The average rate for a 40-foot container from South Korea to the US west coast came to 4.37 million won ($3,265) in July, down 5 percent from the previous month, the data from the Korea Customs Service showed. Rates for the US east coast fell 1.9 percent to 4.65 million won on-month in July, with those for the EU routes moving dow

The South Korean Navy will participate in an annual multinational humanitarian assistance exercise in the Indo-Pacific later this month to sharpen combined operational capabilities, the armed service said Wednesday. It plans to send its Cheonjabong landing ship as well as 180 personnel, including Marines, to the Pacific Partnership exercise, which began on Aug. 9 and will run through Nov. 21. Its contingent is set to join parts of the exercise in the Philippines and Malaysia from Aug. 21-Sept. 1

Samsung Electronics Co. will supply next-generation artificial intelligence semiconductors to US AI solutions firm Groq, the US company has said. The California-based fabless said Sunday it contracted with Samsung Foundry to "solidify Groq's product roadmap with a US-based foundry services provider." Groq's new chips will "be designed in partnership with Samsung's Foundry Design Service team and manufactured by Samsung on its SF4X process (4nm)," referring to S

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Wednesday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, on concerns about the Federal Reserve's monetary tightening and China's economy. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 23.96 points, or 0.92 percent, to 2,547.24 in the first 15 minutes of trading. US stocks fell on Tuesday after retail sales grew at a faster-than-expected rate of 0.7 percent in July, which could prod the Fed to continue its aggressive monetary tightening pol

The United States remains committed to the defense of South Korea and will work with its allies to address threats posed by North Korea, a US Department of Defense spokesperson said Friday. The spokesperson also reiterated that the US holds no "hostile" intention toward Pyongyang. "We have been very clear about the threat posed by North Korea, and we have been very clear in our defense to South Korea and Japan and our commitment to the region in order to ensure stability," de

The upcoming trilateral summit between South Korea, Japan and the United States will help strengthen their joint efforts to promote peace and stability not only in the region but around the world, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday. The top US diplomat also noted that the countries will likely hold regular meetings down the road. "This summit comes at a moment when our region and the world are being tested by geopolitical competition, by climate crisis, by Russia's war o

Pyongyang on Tuesday opposed the United States' request for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting to address human rights abuses in North Korea, calling the move "a violent infringement upon its dignity and sovereignty." The US, which holds the 15-nation UNSC's rotating presidency this month, requested a formal meeting on human rights abuses in North Korea along with Japan and Albania. If held on Thursday, it will be the first such meeting since December 2017. &quo

The government is considering extending a tax cut scheme on fuel consumption, which is set to expire this month, through December, sources said Tuesday, amid soaring energy costs and high inflation. According to the sources, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has been mulling extending the measure and plans to announce its decision later this week. Currently, a 25 percent discount is provided for the consumption of gasoline, and a 37 percent discount is given for the consumption of diesel and l