The United States may consider waiving the intellectual property (IP) rights of its COVID-19 vaccines to help expedite global production, the White House said Tuesday, amid a global shortage of what many countries consider to be safer and more effective vaccines produced here in the US. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, however, said no decision has been made. "We have to evaluate whether it's more effective to manufacture here and provide, supply to the world, or the IP waiver is an opt

The upcoming summit between President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, will mark another diplomatic milestone for the US president, a senior US official said Tuesday, highlighting the emphasis the Biden administration places on US alliances. "We have a few upcoming milestones that are worth noting. We have the visit, next bilateral in-person visit with the Republic of Korea," the US administration official said in a telephonic press conference, requesting anony

A court issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for the founder of cash-strapped budget carrier Eastar Jet on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust. Lee Sang-jik, an independent lawmaker, is suspected of colluding with a senior company official who was indicted in February for causing about 43 billion won ($38.47 million) in financial damage to the airline by paying off long-term loans early and underselling company shares to a specific subsidiary. Judge Kim Seung-gon of the Jeonju Distric

A new South Korea-US alliance must begin with increased understanding and mutual respect, a close ally of South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday, insisting the United States must understand why Seoul has no choice but to be patient and seek to peacefully denuclearize North Korea. "One of the key things the 'returned America' should be different in is that an alliance must begin faithfully from values that both sides must respect as allies," Yang Jung-chul said in a paper post

Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, former Catholic archbishop of Seoul, died Tuesday, Catholic officials said. He was 89. Cheong passed away at 10:15 p.m. while at a hospital for treatment, according to the officials. Born in 1931, he entered the priesthood in 1961 after his graduation from the Catholic University of Korea. He served as the archbishop of Seoul for 14 years starting in May 1998, when he was appointed to the post after Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan stepped down. Cheong was ordained a

South Korea will levy taxes on capital gains from cryptocurrencies next year as scheduled despite growing calls by investors to postpone the taxation, the finance minister said Tuesday. The government plans to impose a 20 percent tax on capital gains from transactions of virtual assets starting next year. Amid a bull run, investors of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have cried foul over the plan, claiming that authorities should apply the same taxation standards as those imposed on stock

Athletes set to participate in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will receive COVID-19 vaccines starting this week, the national sporting committee said Tuesday. Around 100 athletes and coaches will get Pfizer's vaccines as the first recipient group on Thursday, and around 500 others will be inoculated by May 4, according to the Korea Sport and Olympic Committee. About 330 officials and training partners, who are also to take part in the summer games, will be vaccinated in May and

The government held a meeting Tuesday to discuss preparations for an international summit on climate change and sustainable development, which South Korea will host late next month. Officials from the foreign, environment, finance and trade ministries and other agencies attended the sixth preparatory session for the Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals summit to be held virtually from May 30-31, the foreign ministry said. In the meeting, Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong underscored

South Korean stocks edged down Tuesday amid increased valuation pressure, with investors taking to the sidelines ahead of a meeting of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slipped 2.11 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 3,215.42 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.5 billion shares worth some 16.8 trillion won ($15.1 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 437 to 417. Fore

South Korea's Lotte Duty Free retained its second spot among global travel retailers in 2020, with China Duty Free Group (CDFG) leaping to the No. 1 position, an industry report showed Tuesday. Lotte Duty Free ranked second worldwide with 4.82 billion euros ($5.82 billion) in sales last year, the same standing as that a year earlier, according to the Moodie Davitt report. Lotte Duty Free benefited from Chinese resellers who buy products in large quantities and sell them back home, government s

Trilateral cooperation among South Korea, China and Japan is at a "crossroads between a leap or stagnation," Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon said Tuesday, hoping that the neighboring countries will work together to move their relationships forward. Choi made the remark during an event to mark the founding of the Seoul-based Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat set up by the three countries to facilitate cooperation in a region long plagued by tensions over history and other

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Tuesday it swung to the black in the first quarter from a year earlier on strong sales amid the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. For the three months that ended March 31, Hyundai Steel posted a net profit of 219.9 billion won ($197.8 million), shifting from a loss of 115.4 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company said price hikes of its products gave a boost to the quarterly bott

South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI Co. said Tuesday its first-quarter earnings jumped on a low base effect and solid demand for electric vehicle (EV) battery products. Its net profit reached 150 billion won ($135 million) in the January-March period, up from 729 million won a year earlier, as it basked in a sharp rise in gains from equity ties with a display affiliate, Samsung SDI said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit soared 146.7 percent on-year to 133.2 billion won, and sales inc

Samsung Electronics Co. expanded its presence in the Indian smartphone market in the first quarter of the year on the back of multiple new handsets, a report showed Tuesday, as the South Korean tech giant aims to fend off challenges from Chinese players. Samsung represented 20 percent of the smartphone shipments in India in the first quarter, up from 16 percent a year earlier, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. The company remained in the runner-up spot in the Indian smartph

Naver Corp., South Korea's dominant internet portal and search engine, said Tuesday it aims to lead the local web browser market with its own product named Whale in three years. Whale -- a Chromium-based web browser released in October 2017 -- is the fourth mostly used web browsing tool in terms of the market share. Google Inc.'s Chrome topped the list with more than a whopping 60 percent. "Naver aims to top the local web browser market in three years," Kim Hyo, a Naver official, sai

SEOUL/PAJU -- Unification Minister Lee In-young urged North Korea on Tuesday to implement inter-Korean summit agreements and come out for talks as he marked the third anniversary of a historic 2018 summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Lee made the remarks during an event organized by civic groups to celebrate the anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration adopted after the summit talks on April 27, 2018, stressing that South Korea is willing to resume talks wi

The number of South Koreans in the agro-fishery sector declined 9.5 percent last year from five years earlier amid rapid aging and younger people's movements to cities, data showed Tuesday. The number of people engaged in the farming and fishery segments totaled 2.64 million last year, compared with 2.92 million in 2015, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The number of households in the agro-fishery sector came to 1.18 million last year, down 4.5 percent from five years earlier. The

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's leading memory chip producer, on Tuesday released a high performing enterprise solid state drive (SSD) that supports the latest serial attached SCSI (SAS) interface. The PM1653 is the industry's first 24G SAS SSD made with sixth-generation V-NAND memory chips, according to Samsung, with its storage capacity ranging from 800 gigabytes to 30.72 terabytes for enterprise server systems. SAS is a high-speed data transfer interface used for servers or storage dev

S-Oil Corp., South Korea's No. 3 refiner, said Tuesday it turned to the black in the first quarter from a year earlier on rising prices of petrochemical products and inventory-related gains. S-Oil's net income reached 344.7 billion won ($310.1 million) in the January-March period, turning from a loss of 880.6 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Its logged a higher-than-expected operating profit of 629.2 billion won in the first quarter, the highest in five year

South Korea's investment in startups spiked nearly 61 percent in the first quarter of the year amid hopes of high returns, government data showed Tuesday. A total of 1.25 trillion won ($1.12 billion) was invested in promising venture firms and startups in the January-March period, up 61.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. It was the highest amount for the first quarter and the second-largest quarterly figure after the 1.41 trillion won f