Kilagramz, a rapper who appeared on a popular hip-hop audition television show, has been indicted for marijuana use, prosecutors said Wednesday. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office referred the case of the 29-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Lee Jun-hui, to a court on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act last month. In March, the Korean American rapper was arrested at his home in southern Seoul for allegedly possessing and smoking marijuana, which is classified as an i

Loans extended to companies in South Korea grew by the largest amount in three quarters in the first quarter of the year as loan demand by the service sector increased amid the pandemic, central bank data showed Wednesday. The outstanding amount of corporate loans came to 1,435.8 trillion won ($1.3 trillion) at the end of March, up 42.1 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reading also marked the largest on-quarter gain since a 69.1 tr

The chairman of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) apologized Wednesday over an investment and academic fraud scandal involving the family of a former justice minister, blamed as a major reason for the party's recent landslide by-election defeats. The apology by Rep. Song Young-gil came as the DP is struggling to reclaim voters' confidence following its crushing defeats in the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections in April, blamed largely on the party and its members' "hypocritical" cond

The nonperforming loan ratio at South Korean banks declined to a record low in the first quarter due to a drop in overdue corporate loans, data showed Wednesday. The ratio of bad loans to total lending came to 0.62 percent at the end of the first quarter, down 0.02 percentage point from three months earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service. From a year earlier, the ratio fell 0.16 percentage point. In the first quarter, fresh overdue lending to companies reached 1.8

Samsung Electronics Co. was the top smartphone vendor in Chile in the first quarter of the year, a report showed Wednesday, although its market share declined after its rivals grew sharply in the South American nation. The South Korean tech titan represented 42.1 percent of the Chilean smartphone market in the January-March period after its shipments jumped 63 percent on-year to a record 1.2 million units, according to the latest report from market researcher Strategy Analytics. "Samsung'

Many South Korean students were found to have fallen behind in Korean, math and English, research showed Wednesday, confirming pandemic learning loss amid yearlong remote learning. The Ministry of Education unveiled the results of the educational achievement research, conducted together with the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation in November for around 3 percent of the country's high school second graders and middle school seniors. The results were the first official confirmation th

South Korea said Wednesday it will offer a set of marine equipment to Indonesia in the form of official development assistance (ODA). The equipment, valued at 1.1 billion won ($990,000), includes a 12-ton research boat, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Other supplies include a multibeam echosounder, which is used to map the seafloor. The two countries have been making different efforts to cooperate in the marine sector. In 2019, South Korea launched a four-year project worth

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip supplier, on Wednesday unveiled its new enterprise solid state drive (SSD) leveraging advanced data management technology that offers a longer lifespan. The South Korean tech giant said its new enterprise SSD, the PM1731a, features a Zoned Namespace (ZNS) solution that maximizes available user capacity and bolsters the lifetime of a server system. "These improvements will enable enterprise customers to handle big data and artificial

Five service members and a civilian worker for the military tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Wednesday. A soldier and an Air Force officer were confirmed to have been infected after coming into contact with members of their respective bases who tested positive earlier, according to the ministry. A Marine and the civilian worker tested positive following infections of their family members, the ministry said, adding that contact tracing is under way on the remai

South Korea said Wednesday it plans to raise its guard against the new coronavirus at beaches here as more people are expected to travel locally during the summer season. Starting July, the country will operate a three-level alert system -- green, yellow and red -- to warn visitors of congestion at beaches, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The system will be applied to all 277 local beaches, compared to just 50 the previous year. The information will be available on popular p

Military prosecutors sought an arrest warrant Wednesday for an Air Force noncommissioned officer on charges of sexually harassing a female colleague, the defense ministry said, amid mounting criticism that the military's mishandling of the case led to the victim taking her own life. Investigators also took the suspect, identified as master sergeant Jang, into custody. He is suspected of sexually harassing the victim of the same rank inside a car on their way back to the base in the western city

South Korean movie theaters said Wednesday that they have started a program to give price discounts to vaccinated people for this month as part of marketing strategies to fill virus-hit empty cinemas. Under the one-month campaign starting Tuesday, those who have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccines can buy two tickets at 5,000 won ($4.50) or 6,000 won each at three major multiplex chains, CJ CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox. A ticket for a weekday movie screening costs around 12,000 wo

South Korean female golfers will try to crash the party at the American national championship for the third straight year this week. The US Women's Open, the second major tournament of the LPGA season, will tee off in San Francisco on Thursday, with 20 South Koreans in action. The country has produced the past two champions and three of the last four: Park Sung-hyun (2017), Lee Jeong-eun (2019) and Kim A-lim (2020). The Lake Course at the Olympic Club, the par-71 layout at 6,547 yards, will p

The Supreme Court said Wednesday it has confirmed the not-guilty verdict for South Korean-born short track speed skater Lim Hyo-jun in a sexual harassment case. The top court has upheld the appellate court's decision to acquit Lim of sexually harassing a male teammate at South Korea's national skating team in June 2019. The 2018 Olympic gold medalist was accused of pulling down his male teammate's pants and exposing a body part, with female skaters present, during practice at a national train

Financially troubled SsangYong Motor Co. has offered unpaid leave and a wage cut to its employees in its efforts to stay afloat, industry sources said Wednesday. SsangYong Motor, under court receivership, offered a two-year unpaid leave to half of its 4,732 employees, while demanding them to accept an extension of lower wages and suspended welfare benefits until June 2023, a person familiar with the matter told Yonhap News Agency over the phone. The company also offered an additional 20 percen

KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, said Wednesday it has teamed up with local virtual reality (VR) content and visual effects companies to develop "metaverse" services in a move to boost its efforts in virtual platforms. The metaverse refers to virtual environments, in which users interact with one another often through virtual or augmented reality technology, and is found in the form of online games or social networking services. KT said in a statement it has formed the "M

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 600 for the first time in six days Wednesday due to continued cluster infections, while health authorities are ramping up efforts to speed up the nationwide vaccination campaign to slow down the spread of the virus. The country reported 677 more COVID-19 cases, including 654 local infections, raising the total caseload to 141,476, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily caseload stayed in the 400s for

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday as strong economic data fueled expectations of an increase in corporate earnings and quick economic rebound from the pandemic. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 6.23 points, or 0.19 percent, to 3,228.1 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks were lifted by the announcement that South Korea's consumer price index rose 2.6 percent on-year in May, marking the fastest on-year increase since April 2012. Top cap Samsun

President Moon Jae-in talked about whether to grant Lee Jae-yong, the de-facto head of Samsung Group, a special pardon, during a meeting with a group of business leaders, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday. Moon had a luncheon meeting with the leaders of South Korea's four major conglomerates -- SK, Hyundai, LG and Samsung -- at Cheong Wa Dae earlier in the day. The attendees were SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo. Samsung E

Former US Forces Korea Commander (USFK) Vincent Brooks has not been given any offer from the administration of US President Joe Biden to serve as the new ambassador to South Korea, an aide said Wednesday. A local TV station reported earlier this week that Brooks is likely to be nominated for ambassador to South Korea. The post has been vacant since former Ambassador Harry Harris left it in January following Biden's inauguration. "General Brooks has not been contacted by anyone from the U