South Korean stocks dipped nearly 3 percent Friday on the back of an overnight Wall Street plunge that was spurred by a bond yield hike. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 86.74 points, or 2.8 percent, to close at 3,012.95 points. Trading volume was high at about 1.3 billion shares worth some 21 trillion won ($18.7 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 729 to 153. Foreigners dumped a net 2.8 trillion won, institutions o

South Korea plans to sell 8 trillion won ($7.1 billion) worth of Treasury bills next month in a bid to fund its expansionary fiscal policy, the finance ministry said Friday. The bills, which have a maturity of 63 days, will be sold in five separate auctions in March, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. With the debt sale, the outstanding amount of Treasury bills is expected to rise to 15 trillion won next month. Treasury bills are usually floated to raise money to cover short-te

A total of 984 people have been approved to substitute their mandatory military service for other public service due to their religious and other personal beliefs since a related act took office in 2019, the military manpower agency said Friday. By law, all able-bodied South Korean men must carry out military service for about two years. But the National Assembly passed a bill allowing those who refuse to take up arms for religious or other personal beliefs to do other forms of service without

Kihyun, a member of K-pop boy band Monsta X, on Friday voiced regret and apologized over his "immature behavior" after he was accused of school bullying. "If there are people who were hurt by my immature attitude and behavior during school, I would now like to sincerely apologize," the singer said in a statement posted on a fan community. "I'm very sorry for disappointing (you) and I will live on deeply reflecting on it." Kihyun mentioned some episodes from back w

South Korean banks' lending rates edged down in January amid a slight decline in deposit rates, central bank data showed Friday. The average interest rate charged on new bank loans came to 2.72 percent in January, down 0.02 percentage point from the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The BOK cut the key interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in May last year after delivering an emergency rate cut of half a percentage point in March to cushion the

South Korean institutions' investment in foreign securities rose 12.8 percent on year in 2020 as global stocks rallied amid the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed Friday. The combined value of foreign securities held by institutional investors came to $369.3 billion as of end-December last year, up $41.8 billion from a year ago, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The tally rebounded from a $9.5 billion fall in the first quarter when global financial markets were hit by the fallo

South Korea's finance minister voiced hope on Friday that the start of the country's COVID-19 vaccine program will help people return to normal lives and give a boost to an economic recovery. Earlier in the day, more than 5,000 health care workers and patients aged under 65 at some 5,800 long-term care facilities across the nation began receiving the first doses of novel coronavirus vaccines. "I believe that the onset of the COVID-19 inoculation will give a precious boost to helping peopl

INCHEON -- A woman has been apprehended for distributing flyers carrying misinformation that coronavirus vaccines will kill people, police said Friday. The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency booked the 68-year-old woman after she allegedly posted 33 flyers that carried false information on COVID-19 vaccines on information boards at bus stops and utility poles in the city, about 40 kilometers west of Seoul, on Feb. 8. The posters contained messages such as "There are chips p

K-pop girl group BLACKPINK has been appointed as advocates to raise awareness for a global campaign against climate change issues, the band's agency said Friday. The four-piece act recently received a personal letter from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in which he invited them to serve as advocates for COP 26, or the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, according to YG Entertainment. "Your recent video 'Climate Action in Your Area #COP26' was a huge success, being viewed

New Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koichi Aiboshi met with First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun on Friday as he began his duty amid protracted tensions between the two countries over wartime issues. Aiboshi, who previously served as Japan's ambassador to Israel, arrived in Seoul early this month to take office and went straight into a mandatory two-week coronavirus self-isolation. Friday was the first day after the quarantine ended Thursday. Aiboshi visited the foreign ministry to pre

Sales of imported commercial vehicles in South Korea rose 15 percent in January from a year earlier on improved demand despite the coronavirus pandemic, an industry association said Friday. The number of newly registered imported commercial vehicles rose to 436 units last month from 379 a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. Robust demand for tractors, dump trucks and special-purpose trucks gave a boost to the monthly result, i

The Bank of Korea (BOK) said Friday it plans to purchase as much as 7 trillion won ($6.2 billion) worth of government bonds in the first half of this year as it seeks to stabilize bond markets. The plan is aimed at easing volatility of bond yields because the government's issuance of bonds is expected to significantly increase, the BOK said in a statement. The minimum size of the bond purchase plan will be 5 trillion won, the BOK said. South Korea has increased sales of state debts to cushi

Hyundai Motor Co.'s IONIQ 5 all-electric model is receiving strong responses in the domestic market, with its first-day preorders exceeding 23,000 units, the country's top automaker said Friday. Hyundai started receiving orders for the IONIQ 5 midsize crossover utility vehicle Thursday well ahead of the model's launch in the domestic market in the second quarter, the company said in a statement. Preorders for the IONIQ 5, the first model embedded with Hyundai Motor Group's own EV-only electri

An Air Force officer based in Osan, 55 kilometers south of Seoul, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Friday. The officer was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 in a virus test conducted before he returned from a vacation, according to the ministry. The latest case raised the total number of infections reported among the military population to 572. Of them, 559 have been fully cured, while 13 are under treatment. Nationwide, South Korea added 406 new viru

Samsung Electronics Co. was the world's fourth-largest spender on research and development (R&D) activities in 2019, a report showed Friday, trailing behind US and Chinese tech titans. Samsung, the world's largest memory chip and smartphone producer, invested 15.5 billion euros ($18.8 billion) in 2019 to rank fourth among global firms in R&D spending, according to the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology which cited data from the 2020 European Union Industrial R&D Investme

North Korea convened an extended plenary session of its Cabinet to discuss ways to give businesses greater independence as part of efforts to achieve the economic goals set forth at last month's rare party congress, state media said Friday. The Cabinet meeting took place Thursday via a "teleconference system" to discuss a series of important tasks set forth at the party congress and the following parliamentary session, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. At Thurs

South Korean stocks opened steeply lower Friday, tracking an overnight Wall Street plunge that was spurred by a bond yields hike. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 84.03 points, or 2.71 percent, to 3,015.66 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks deepened losses as investor worries grew globally over post-pandemic inflation, heralded by a bond yields hike. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 3.52 percent, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Ind

South Korea will extend its current social distancing measures for another two weeks, the prime minister said Friday, as sporadic COVID-19 cluster infections continue to pop up across the country. "The government will decide to extend the current distancing levels for another two weeks starting next week during today's meeting," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a regular COVID-19 response meeting held at the government complex in Seoul. The greater Seoul area, home to aroun

A North Korean firm filed a lawsuit against a South Korean company in 2019 to claim payment related to a business deal, sources here said Thursday, a rare legal battle between businesses from the two Koreas. The company affiliated with Pyongyang's national economic cooperation federation filed the suit with the Seoul Central District Court seeking 5.3 billion won ($4.7 million) for its alleged unpaid supply, according to the sources. Their names have not been made available. The North Korean

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday promised to offer support for a joint initiative between local governments in the southeastern region to form a communal socio-economic "megacity" sphere for long-term regional prosperity. Moon made the pledge as he attended a briefing on the so-called megacity project in the southeastern port city of Busan that was co-hosted by the city's municipal government and those of the nearby city of Ulsan and South Gyeongsang province. The project is aimed a