GWANGJU -- Police investigating last week's fatal building collapse during demolition in a housing redevelopment district of the southwestern city Gwangju raided HDC Hyundai Development Co., the main contractor of the project, on Wednesday, officials said. The Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency sent a dozen investigators to the leading real estate developer's Seoul headquarters to execute a search and seizure warrant and ascertain whether the company is responsible for the disaster, they said.

Defense ministry investigators raided the offices of the Air Force's legal affairs department Wednesday over the suicide of a sexually harassed noncommissioned officer as part of a sprawling investigation into what led the victim to take her own life. The raid took place one day after the prosecutors grilled a military public defender accused of failing to provide adequate help to the master sergeant, surnamed Lee, who allegedly suffered groping and other abuse by her colleague during a car rid

BUSAN -- A landlord who reported a tenant for abandoning 14 cats in the apartment before moving out has bizarrely turned out to be the animals' owner, police said Wednesday. Last week, a local ward office in this southeastern port city received a complaint from a person in their 20s who claimed a tenant had moved out of their apartment leaving 14 cats behind in a pile of garbage and abandoned household goods. The ward office failed to reach the tenant and reported the case to the police on sus

Over half of the service members aged under 30 have been administered with their first doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine since the vaccination campaign for younger soldiers began last week, the defense ministry said Wednesday. A total of 223,614 troops in their 20s, or 54 percent of the age group, had received their first doses as of Tuesday, according to the ministry. Soldiers aged 30 and older were given AstraZeneca's vaccine, with about 88 percent, or 116,900 members agreeing to take th

US media giant Netflix has promoted two Korean content experts to its senior creative leadership team as part of a strategy to strengthen its foothold in South Korea and the rest of the populous Asian region. According to Netflix, in a latest leadership reshuffle, Kim Min-young, formerly vice president of content for Korea, was appointed to take charge of content-related operations across Asia, excluding India. Kim has played a major role in helping the streamer pull off bullish growth in the

More than a decade after helping South Korea to an improbable Olympic baseball gold medal, former major league outfielder Kim Hyun-soo will try to do it again. Kim was named to the 24-player roster Wednesday, joined by another former major leaguer, KT Wiz infielder Hwang Jae-gyun, on an otherwise youthful roster of Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) stars. Baseball will return to the Olympics for the July 23-Aug. 8 competition in the Japanese capital, after being left off in the past two compet

The head of South Korea's ruling party on Wednesday proposed the installation of small modular reactors (SMRs) in North Korea, calling it a useful way to supply energy to the country when it is free from nuclear weapons. "Under the precondition of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, SMRs could be a useful way to supply energy to North Korea that has many mountainous regions and a shortage of power transmission and distribution networks," Rep. Song Young-gil, chairman of the ruli

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) said Wednesday it will develop cybersecurity technologies for remote autonomous ships and smart ships. To that end, the shipbuilder will team up with local cybersecurity companies, including maritime cybersecurity startup DSLAP Company, and Korea University by 2022, it said. The project was also helped by the ocean ministry amid growing demand for cybersecurity for remote autonomous ships, smart ships and smart battleships that have been

BamBam, the versatile Thai rapper-singer from disbanded K-pop boy band GOT7, has taken his first step as a solo artist with his new album "riBBon," which he wrote. The six-track album, released late Tuesday, is his first album as a solo musician after members of the septet left their label JYP Entertainment in January following a seven-year stint. BamBam has since signed with Abyss Company, which manages other Korean acts like Sunmi and Urban Zakapa. In an online media event late Tue

South Korea on Wednesday announced a new set of measures for pet-related businesses to better protect animal rights in line with the growing number of pets in the country. Under the measures, puppy farms are obligated to make the width and length of cages at least 2.5 times the size of caged animals, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Starting in 2023, the farms should also have at least one staff member for every 50 dogs or cats, compared with the previous 75.

South Korea will work toward advancing its relationship with Japan frayed by common history issues, a key presidential official said Wednesday, amid news that Japan canceled agreed-upon talks between the leaders of the two nations during the recent Group of Seven (G-7) summit. According to a Seoul foreign ministry official, Japan canceled a tentative agreement to hold a "pull-aside" meeting between their leaders on the sidelines of the recent G-7 summit held in Cornwall, Britain, taki

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun has visited an autonomous vehicle joint venture in the United States and tested a vehicle under development as the South Korean automaking giant explores new business opportunities in future mobility solutions, the automaker said Wednesday. Chung tested a self-driving Ioniq 5 electric vehicle during his visit to Motional's Boston headquarters and discussed ways to expand the partnership with its senior executives, Hyundai Motor said. The chairman made

Disney's live action film "Cruella" has become the fifth movie to attract over 1 million viewers in South Korea this year, box office data showed Wednesday. The crime comedy flick, released on May 26, drew more than 24,000 people Tuesday, bringing its combined total to over 1.01 million, according to the data from the Korean Film Council. The movie topped the daily box office for five consecutive days from Friday. Among the movies released here in 2021, "Cruella" is the

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 500 on Wednesday as health authorities ramp up the country's vaccination drive with a quarter of the population receiving one jab. The country reported 545 more virus cases, including 522 local infections, raising the total caseload to 149,191, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The latest tally is sharply up from 399 on Monday and 374 cases on Tuesday. The country added one more death, raising the death t

Kia Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, said Wednesday it has partnered with US ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. to supply its electric vehicles in Europe. The strategic partnership is aimed at promoting the adoption of EVs and the expansion of the EV charging infrastructure in major European cities, Kia said in a statement. Kia will provide the Niro and other electrified models to Uber drivers at discounted prices in 20 European countries, the statement said. The partner

Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon has stressed the importance of a human rights-based approach to new digital technologies, citing privacy concerns and other side effects, during an international human rights meeting, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. Choi made the remarks during Tuesday's virtual panel discussion that South Korea, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Morocco, Singapore and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) co-organized ahead of the 47th regular

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday after closing at a record-high level for two consecutive days through the previous session on the back of gains from technology and automobile shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) increased 8.52 points, or 0.26 percent, to 3,267.15 in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Wednesday, the index reached an intraday-record of 3,269.42. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved down 0.27 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq

South Korean and Japanese businesspeople urged their governments Wednesday to issue special entry permits for fully vaccinated entrepreneurs in an effort to promote bilateral economic cooperation. The call was made at a meeting between Japanese Ambassador Koichi Aiboshi and South Korean and Japanese businessmen, which was hosted by the Federation of Korean Industries, the lobby for South Korea's family-controlled conglomerates. Citing bilateral travel restrictions as the biggest hurdle, busine

MADRID -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in received a "golden key" from Spain on Tuesday, as he expressed hope that it would bring big luck to the Korean Peninsula. He also said that he would open the door of overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic with the key. The president was given the gift by the mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Mart?nez-Almeida, during a visit to City Hall in accordance with a longtime tradition for a foreign state guest in Spain. The mayor said the key means that the do

Sales of South Korean large firms' Chinese units have tumbled nearly 28 percent over the past four years due to a bilateral row over the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system here and other reasons, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. According to CEO Score, 320 Chinese production units of 113 large corporations posted 103.98 trillion won ($93 billion) in combined sales in 2020, down 27.5 percent from four years earlier. The plunge resulted from the spat between Seoul and Beijing