The top prosecution office said Sunday that it has finally decided to put an end to the reexamination of allegations of false testimony in a bribery case involving former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook. The Supreme Prosecutors Office (SPO) said it reported the decision to the Ministry of Justice the previous day. It came as a group of senior prosecutors reached a conclusion to drop the false testimony case after a 13-hour marathon meeting on Friday. Han, who served as prime minister from 2006

"취업 준비하면서 한국사를 공부했어요."(유정), "막상 떠오르는 일이 없어서 일단 바리스타 자격증을 땄어요."(유나) 신드롬급 인기를 누리는 걸그룹 브레이브걸스 멤버들은 최근 한 프로그램에 출연해 얼마 전까지만 해도 가수 활동을 접고 새 직업을 찾을 계획이었다고 털어놨다. 그러나 이들은 4년 전 발표한 노래 '롤린'(Rollin')이 이달 들어 대히트하면서 데뷔 10년 만에 전성기를 맞았고, 다시 방송가를 누비며 활약하게 됐다. 걸그룹이 과거 위문공연에서 부른 노래가 이른바 '밀보드'(밀리터리와 미국 빌보드 차트를 합친 말) 곡으로 불리며 잇달아 재조명되고 있다. 브레이브걸스의 드라마틱한 성공도 유튜브에 게재된 국방TV '위문열차' 공연의 '댓글 모음 영상'에서 출발했다. 이들이 군 장병 앞에서 '롤린' 무대를 펼치는 영상과 이곳에 달린 댓글을 합쳐 만든 영상으로, 유튜브에서 1천만 뷰를 기록하며 엄청난 화제가 됐다. 최근에는 '롤린'과

No South Korean casualties have been reported in a powerful earthquake that struck off northern Japan on Saturday, the foreign ministry said. The 6.9 magnitude quake occurred shortly after 6 p.m. off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, according to news reports. Its strength was revised downward from a magnitude of 7.2. "As of now we understand that there have been no casualties among our nationals," a ministry official said. "The ministry and the consulate general in Sendai immedi

The launch of South Korea's next-generation midsized observation satellite, slated for Saturday afternoon at a space center in Kazakhstan, has been postponed, government officials here said. The 540-kilogram satellite, loaded on Russia's Soyuz 2.1a, was scheduled to take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:07 p.m. (11:07 a.m. local time). But the launch has been postponed, reportedly due to problems detected from the upper part of the carrier rocket, according to officials at

Junho, a member of K-pop boy band 2PM, has successfully completed his mandatory military service and was officially discharged Saturday. The singer, whose full name is Lee Jun-ho, was discharged after completing his alternative military service, according to JYP Entertainment. Junho, who enlisted in May 2019, is the last 2PM member to complete military service. By law, all able-bodied South Korean men must carry out military service for about two years. The multinational boy band consisting

Thirteen foreign students enrolled in a university in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, have been diagnosed with COVID-19, municipal officials said Saturday. The first coronavirus case of a foreign student occurred at the unnamed university in the city's Sujeong district on Wednesday, and two more expat students who lived together with the first patient tested positive for the virus the following day, the officials said. On Friday, eight other foreign students were confirmed to be infected with t

BLACKPINK's Rose saw her debut solo release hit No. 43 on the Official Charts, becoming the first K-pop female soloist to chart on the British music ranking. "On the Ground," the BLACKPINK member's new release, reached No. 43 on the latest version of the Official Singles Top 100 updated weekly. As a group, BLACKPINK had landed on the British music chart a number of times, peaking at No. 20 with the 2020 megahit "How You Like That." Rose released her first solo material on

President Joe Biden strongly denounced violence against Asian Americans on Friday, saying too many of them have been forced to worry about their very safety amid a rise in hate crimes targeting Asian American communities in the US. He and Vice President Kamala Harris blamed the former administration for scapegoating Asian Americans for the COVID-19 pandemic. "They've been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed. They've been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed. Documented

South Korean stocks are likely to suffer an extended choppy trading next week as concerns about the rising US Treasury yields are expected to be eclipsed by simmering hopes for quicker-than-expected economic recovery. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 3,039.53 points Friday, down 0.49 percent from a week ago. Volatility ran high globally this week, as investors were largely swayed by the news related to the bond yield movement. This week, foreigners sold a net 864 b

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Seoul next week for talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong on bilateral ties, Korean Peninsula issues and other matters, the foreign ministry said Thursday.  Lavrov will arrive here on Tuesday for a three-day visit. His talks with Chung are set to take place on Thursday after the ministers attend a ceremony on Wednesday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the two countries. 

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 400s for a fourth day on Saturday, with continued sporadic clusters in the greater Seoul area adding to concerns over a resurgence in cases as more people go out during the weekend. The country reported 452 more COVID-19 cases, including 440 local infections, raising the total caseload to 98,209, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The country added three more deaths from COVID-19, increasing the total to 1,693.

South Korea and the United States launched a new regular working-level dialogue Friday, aiming to deal with bilateral diplomatic and security issues in a "systematic and speedy" manner, the foreign ministry said. Koh Yun-ju, the ministry's director general for North American affairs, and Marc Knapper, deputy US assistant secretary of state for Korea and Japan, held the inaugural session of the Bilateral Policy Dialogue in Seoul. The launch came just a day after the allies held their

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong held separate talks with his Costa Rican and Guatemalan counterparts in Seoul on Friday to discuss bilateral relations and cooperation, the foreign ministry said. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Rodolfo Solano Quiros and Guatemalan Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo Vila were in Seoul to attend the Korea-LAC Digital Cooperation Forum held earlier this week. LAC stands for Latin American and Caribbean countries. In the talks with the Costa Rican minister, Chung voiced hop

South Korean stocks retreated Friday amid inflation uncertainties, as investor sentiment weakened from an overnight hike in long-term US Treasury yields. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 26.48 points, or 0.86 percent, to close at 3,039.53 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 15.9 trillion won ($14.1 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 447 to 378. Foreigners sold a net 584 billio

Samsung Electronics Co. was the world's fifth-largest smartphone application processor (AP) vendor last year, a report showed Friday, as the South Korean tech giant eyes to expand its presence in the mobile microprocessor sector with more sales of its Galaxy devices. Samsung, which makes the Exynos chipsets, represented 9 percent of the global smartphone AP market in terms of revenue in 2020, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. "The company's in-house customer's underperfo

The government has identified 28 more public sector employees who bought land at "new town" development sites, including 23 suspected of engaging in speculative transactions, an official said Friday. Choi Chang-won, vice minister of government policy coordination at the Prime Minister's Office, said the 28 public servants and public corporation employees were uncovered during the second stage of an inquiry into a massive land speculation scandal centered on the state housing developer

Ahn Cheol-soo, the Seoul mayoral candidate of the minor conservative People's Party (PP), said Friday he will accept the terms proposed by the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) in conducting public opinion surveys to determine a unified single opposition candidate in the April by-election. "I am accepting the (candidacy) unification methods demanded by interim PPP chairman Kim Chong-in and candidate Oh Se-hoon," Ahn said in a press conference held at the National Assembly. Ahn

Rob Rapson, charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in Seoul, said Friday that his embassy has flown the US flag at half-staff to honor the victims of this week's deadly shootings in Atlanta, including several women of Korean descent. The move came after US President Joe Biden on Thursday instructed all public facilities, including the White House and military installations, to honor the victims of deadly shootings by flying the flag at half-staff over the next five days. "The @USEmbassySeoul

South Korea will launch its next-generation midsized observation satellite this week, the latest in the country's efforts to boost its space industry and develop its own space technologies. The 540-kilogram satellite loaded on Russia's Soyuz 2.1a will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday morning (local time) and contact the Svalbard Satellite Station in Norway after reaching its target orbit, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT. Equipped with an imaging sens

Big Hit Entertainment, the K-pop powerhouse behind global sensation BTS, on Friday unveiled a plan to change its name to Hybe and ambitions to become what it called an "entertainment lifestyle platform." "What we think of as variation of music is that of the indefinite realm and I think the name Big Hit Entertainment cannot fully capture this concept," Big Hit founder and chief executive Bang Si-hyuk said in an online session explaining the transition. "I thought we ne