LG Electronics Inc., a major home appliance maker in South Korea, said Tuesday that the cumulative production of its steam closet has surpassed 1 million units. Domestic models of LG Tromm Styler, a clothing care appliance that made its debut in 2011, surpassed 1 million units in cumulative production as of end-February, the company said. All of LG's steam closet models are manufactured in the company's plant in Changwon, some 400 kilometers south of Seoul. LG currently sells the Styler in m

Mercedes-Benz Korea on Tuesday added its most luxurious SUV model to the lineup to gain a bigger share in the South Korean market. The German carmaker has launched the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 4MATIC SUV equipped with a twin-turbo, 4.0-liter V8 M177 engine at 257 million won ($230,000), the company said in a statement. "The new Mercedes-Maybach GLS is a fascinating model that will draw the attention of customers who want a high-end SUV. We will continue to provide the best products this

One person was killed and dozens were injured in traffic accidents caused by heavy snowfall in the country's northeast, officials said Tuesday. Gangwon Province received up to 90 centimeters of snow in the mountains and 5-20 cm inland between Monday and Tuesday afternoon, according to local weather authorities. The snow caused severe traffic congestion and road closures across the province, leading to 79 traffic accidents and multiple casualties, according to firefighting officials. A man in

The safety of COVID-19 vaccines is being validated, with no major cases of adverse vaccine reaction reported in the four days since the rollout of the national vaccination campaign, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Tuesday. A total of 23,086 people received COVID-19 vaccine shots in the four days since the country kicked off the inoculation campaign last Friday, with no major adverse reaction reported among the receivers, the prime minister said during a daily interagency meeting on the coro

A Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) officer in Seoul tested positive for the new coronavirus Tuesday, officials said. It marks the third COVID-19 case reported among people working at the JCS headquarters in Yongsan, central Seoul, after a civilian employee and another military officer were confirmed to have contracted the virus last month. Tracing is under way on people who had direct contact with the newly infected officer. The case came as South Korea and the United States are preparing to stag

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases remained in the 300s for the third straight day Tuesday due to fewer testing over the weekend, as the country's schools opened a new semester amid lingering concerns over potential upticks. The country reported 344 more COVID-19 cases, including 319 local infections, raising the total caseload to 90,372, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The tally was slightly lower than the 355 recorded Monday and 356 on Sunday, apparently d

A North Korean propaganda outlet Tuesday strongly criticized a US professor over his controversial claim that victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery are voluntary prostitutes, calling him a "disgusting money grubber" and "pseudo scholar." This marked the first time that a North Korean media outlet has mentioned J. Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, since he caused a stir by describing the former sex slaves as prostitutes u

"Strong, close" relationships among South Korea, the United States and Japan advance their shared goals of regional peace, the US State Department said Monday, after President Moon Jae-in renewed his desire to mend ties with Tokyo strained over wartime history. "The Biden Administration is committed to strengthening US alliance relationships, particularly with our key Northeast Asian allies Japan and the Republic of Korea," a State Department spokesperson told Yonhap News Ag

BLACKPINK member Rose, known as the main vocalist of the four-piece K-pop girl group, will be releasing her debut solo album next week, her agency said Tuesday. YG Entertainment shared two teaser images for her upcoming album, showing the date "March 12, 2021." It did not elaborate on the title and tracks of the album. The album release comes more than one month after the BLACKPINK member first performed one of the songs for the album, "Gone," in the act's first online conc

LG Innotek Co., a major electronics parts maker in South Korea, said Tuesday it has developed an automotive Wi-Fi module with advanced wireless communication technology as the company eyes to expand its presence in the future mobility market. LG Innotek claimed its latest automotive Wi-Fi module is the industry's first to be based on the next-generation Wi-Fi 6E (6th Generation Extended) technology using 6 GHz bandwidth. The company said it expects to commercialize the Wi-Fi 6E module in 2022

South Korean stocks opened steeply higher Tuesday, tracking an overnight Wall Street rally that stemmed from eased concerns about the impacts of a bond yield hike. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 81.62 points, or 2.71 percent, to 3,094.57 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks got off to a bullish start after a three-day holiday weekend on strong institutional and foreign buying. Foreigners, who net sold a record 2.8 trillion won ($2.5 billion) the p

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lee Seong-yong was to visit Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) on Tuesday to check the development of the country's first indigenous fighter jet, the military said. The visit to KAI, the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, in the southern city of Sacheon comes as the final assembly of a prototype of the KF-X warplane is under way ahead of its planned rollout event in April. South Korea has been working on the 8.8 trillion-won ($7.9 billion) fighter project since l

Two American service members stationed in South Korea recently have tested positive for the new coronavirus, US Forces Korea (USFK) has said. One soldier, stationed at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, was confirmed to have been infected on Feb. 27, after providing a screening sample as part of the command's surveillance testing program, according to the USFK. He is in isolation at a facility for COVID-19 patients, and USFK and South Korean health authorities are

North Korea has been showing signs of operating a thermal plant used to provide heat to a nuclear fuel rod reprocessing facility, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog said, an indication that Pyongyang could try to harvest plutonium for nuclear weapons. During Monday's session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi took note of the indications at the Yongbyon complex, north of Pyongyang, calling the North's continuing nuclear progr

South Korean schools opened for the new school year Tuesday amid a mix of anxiety and hopes, as the country is still fighting against the third wave of the pandemic, but much-anticipated vaccinations have finally begun. The Ministry of Education has said it would expand in-person classes this year, by giving schools more leeway and revising the government's health protocols on COVID-19 at schools. In a policy unveiled in late January for school operations for the first half of the year, the mi

South Korea's online food delivery service market spiked nearly 80 percent in 2020 from a year earlier amid the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Tuesday. The value of online food service transactions came to 17.4 trillion won ($15.5 billion) last year, up 78.6 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It was nearly 6.4 times the 2.7 trillion won recorded in 2017, when the statistical agency started tracking related data. Of the total transactions

South Korea's industrial output declined for the first time in eight months in January, data showed Tuesday, in the latest sign that the country's economic recovery momentum still remains weak amid the pandemic. The industrial output declined 0.6 percent in January from the previous month, compared with a 0.4 percent on-month gain in December last year, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. But from a year earlier, it gained 1.4 percent. It marked the first on-month decline since

CHUNCHEON -- Hundreds of cars were trapped on some parts of a highway along the east coast Monday as heavy snowfall caused a traffic gridlock, the road authority said.    Gangwon Province received about 10 centimeters of snowfall earlier in the day, which caused many cars returning from a three-day holiday to be stuck on the snow-covered Donghae Expressway, according to Korea Expressway Corp. (KEC)'s regional office.    Monday is Independence Movement Day, a South Korean n

Former Startups Minister Park Young-sun on Monday won the ruling Democratic Party‘s ticket to run in the Seoul mayoral by-election next month. 　 Park, also a former four-term lawmaker, was declared the winner of the party primary against sitting four-term lawmaker Woo Sang-ho for the April 7 mayoral election, according to the voting results. 　 Park won an overwhelming 69.56 percent of the ballots cast by voters in and outside of the party over the phone and the internet for four days to M

South Korea‘s leading internet portal Naver Corp. and Japanese telecom giant Softbank Corp. have completed a merger of their subsidiaries to tap deeper into the Japanese market with a wide range of services, their joint venture said Monday. 　 Japanese chat app operator LINE, affiliated with Naver, and Softbank’s internet business Yahoo Japan launched a new entity called Z Holdings. 　 The merger creates a $30 billion tech giant with more than 100 million users on a monthly basis acros