South Korea's exports jumped 25.2 percent on-year in the first 10 days of March despite the new coronavirus pandemic on strong shipments of chips, customs data showed Thursday. The country's outbound shipments stood at $16.3 billion in the March 1-10 period, compared with $13 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Imports climbed 31.4 percent over the period to reach $17.4 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $1.1 billion. By segment, exports of ch

South Korean households' spending on restaurants and hotels dropped in the fourth quarter of last year amid a resurge of coronavirus infections, central bank data showed Thursday. Household spending on eating out and hospitality services came to 18.9 trillion won ($16.6 billion) in the October-December period, dropping below the 20 trillion-won mark for the first time in five years, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. The corresponding figure amounted to 19.9 trillion won in the firs

South Korea will expand the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people aged 65 and older to ramp up the vaccine rollout as new overseas studies showed its effectiveness, health authorities said Thursday. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) initially excluded administering vaccines developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University to the elderly, citing insufficient clinical data. The inoculation campaign -- launched in late February --

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Seoul next week for a "two-plus-two" meeting with their South Korean counterparts, the foreign and defense ministries said Wednesday, as the allies seek coordination on North Korea's denuclearization and other issues. Blinken and Austin are set to arrive on Wednesday after a trip to Japan as part of their first Asia swing since the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden. A day later, they will atte

South Korea's imports of Japanese beer climbed for the fifth straight month in January, data showed Thursday, amid signs of a weaker local boycott of goods from the neighboring country. Asia's fourth-largest economy brought in 1,072 tons of Japanese beer in January, up a whopping 670.3 percent from the same month last year, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service and the liquor industry. Industry watchers said the consecutive increase is due to weakening anti-Japan sentiment in So

North Korea continues to pose a serious threat to the United States and its ally South Korea as Pyongyang pursues a nuclear arsenal and other weapons of mass destruction, the commander of US Forces Korea (USFK) has said. Gen. Robert Abrams also said Wednesday that the US troops in Korea stand ready to defend South Korea from any threat, noting that the US will deploy two additional "specific" anti-ballistic missile capabilities in South Korea this year. "There have been no inter

The United States will not ease any of its sanctions on Iran, including the release of Iranian funds blocked in South Korea, until Iran first complies with its obligations under its nuclear deal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday. "As we've said, if Iran comes back into compliance, with its obligations under the nuclear agreement, we would do the same thing that would involve, if it came to that, if Iran made good on its obligations, sanctions relief pursuant to the agree

Kumho Tire Co., South Korea's second-largest tiremaker by sales, said Wednesday it will invest some 340 billion won ($298 million) to expand its production facilities in Vietnam. In a regulatory filing, Kumho Tire said that the investment will raise its tire production by about 3.8 million units, including 3 million for sedans and some 800,000 for trucks and buses. The investment will begin in the third quarter of this year, and is set to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2023

South Korea's agricultural ministry said Wednesday it has identified another suspected case of avian influenza for the first time in more than a week, raising concerns over another uptick in the animal disease. The latest suspected cases of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza was reported at an egg farm in Naju, 355 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The farm was raising 214,000 chickens. The test results are expected to come out within

Thirteen more public servants were confirmed to have bought land for possible property speculation, two local governments said Wednesday, as a snowballing land speculation scandal involving employees of a state housing corporation sparks public outrage. The municipal government of Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, said it confirmed land purchases by five more employees in the area of Gwangmyeong and nearby Siheung that has been designated by the central government as the site of a major housing d

South Korea has agreed to raise its payment for stationing US troops here by 13.9 percent this year from 2019, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, in a six-year deal with the United States that cleared the way for the countries to cement their alliance. Under the deal that will last until 2025, Seoul is to pay 1.183 trillion won ($1.03 billion) this year, up from 1.038 trillion won in 2019 -- the first double-digit rise since 2002 -- for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea (USFK).

South Korean stocks fell for the fifth consecutive session Wednesday, led by a decline in techs and autos, as foreigners and institutions attempted to lock in profits amid lingering concerns of inflation. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. After choppy trading, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 18.00 points, or 0.60 percent, to close at 2,958.12, after rising as high as 3,013.95 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 887.07 million shares worth around 1

A fossil assumed to be a toe bone of a dinosaur dating back to 120 million years ago has been discovered on a western island, a local government said Wednesday. The city government of Ansan, southwest of Seoul, said the 4.5-centimeter-long fossil was found by a citizen on Daebu Island last month. It is believed to have belonged to a plant-eating basal ceratopsian dinosaur known as Koreaceratops, which existed on the Korean Peninsula about 120 million years ago during the Albian age. The phala

South Korea said Wednesday it plans to achieve annual exports of $700 billion by 2025 by expanding financial support for exporters while fostering new growth engines, particularly in the health care segment. To meet the goal, the country plans to spend 20 trillion won ($17.4 billion) on trade financing for exporters through 2025, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "The global trade environment has been facing changes due to the rising awareness of carbon neutrality,

The US Forces Korea (USFK) said Wednesday that it has received the first shipment of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine to administer to its members in addition to Moderna's, a move expected to speed up its inoculation program. In December, the USFK began its vaccination campaign with the Moderna vaccine in line with its government's guidance, with the first group of recipients including health care workers, first responders and mission critical service members. The United St

In today's world where social media is omnipresent, random things that fascinate people -- think viral cat videos, TikTok dance challenges, political conspiracies -- tend to go viral with the smallest triggers. For one K-pop girl group, this happened in an unexpected yet dramatic way. Brave Girls, a once-forgotten name in the competitive industry where so many acts come and go quickly, saw its 2017 song "Rollin'" soar to No. 1 on domestic music streaming charts -- four years after its

Stepping into his interim role as the acting chairman of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon pledged Wednesday to lead the party with an acute sense of urgency. "I will be serving in the (new) party seat with the acute determination to spend the two months as if they are two years," Kim said during a meeting of the top party council, which he presided over for the first time as the acting DP chairman. "With about a month to go before the April 7 by-elections (fo

Kia Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, said Wednesday it will recall nearly 380,000 Sportage SUVs and K7 sedans in the United States due to the risks of an engine compartment fire. In documents sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Kia said it will recall 372,251 Sportage SUVs for the 2017 through 2021 model years and 7,680 K7s from 2017-2019 to fix a potential short circuit problem in the vehicles' hydraulic electronic brake control unit. The K7 is sol

Seoul attracted a record 10.2 billion in foreign direct investment last year despite the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic, the city government said Wednesday. Last year was also the second consecutive year FDI in the capital city topped $10 billion, continuing an upward trend since 2017, according to the local government. The increase comes at a time when total FDI in the world dropped sharply by 42 percent last year from 2019 to $850 billion amid the pandemic, the lowest level in 15

South Korea and the United States' recent agreement on a new defense cost-sharing deal reflects the two countries' commitment to strengthening their alliance and a desire to focus on issues like North Korea, a US diplomat said Wednesday. Marc Knapper, deputy assistant secretary of state for Korea and Japan, made the remark in a webinar days after Seoul and Washington reached a six-year deal, called the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), on how to share the cost for stationing the 28,500-strong U